Home Projects

Home Improvement and Garage DIY Ideas.

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Bill Bowden’s Circuits is one of the oldest Web Reference, it was hosted by CompuServe homepages and later moved to his own domain website.

A small collection of electronic circuits for the hobbyist or student. Site includes over 100 circuit diagrams, links to related sites, commercial kits and projects, newsgroups and educational areas.

Hobby Circuits - Bill Bowden

Most of the circuits can be built with common components available from Radio Shack or salvaged from scrap electronic equipment…….

Hobby Circuits – Bill Bowden

Some of the Highlights in this website

  • 32.768 KHz Oscillator Using A Common Watch Crystal
  • 40 LED Bicycle Light (555 Timer – 6 volt)
  • Descrete LED fading circuit using 5 transistors
  • Mechanical Wall Clock Quartz Synchronizer
  • Neodymium Magnet Single Pole Motor
  • Variable Voltage and Current Power Supply
  • Micro Power AM Broadcast Transmitter

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I saw some photos of products, some images were good, some focus lost, few of them dim. Even i had lot of trouble with photographing objects. So here is a collection of resources to improve this skill of Indoor Macro photography.

Macro photography  is extreme close-up photography, usually of very small subjects and living organisms like insects. Electronic Product Photography is a Branch of commercial photography and similar in most respects to food photography.

food and product photography

Macro photography

Apart from technical photography and film-based processes, where the size of the image on the negative or image sensor is the subject of discussion, the finished print or on-screen image more commonly lends a photograph its macro status.

“Macro” lenses specifically designed for close-up work, with a long barrel for close focusing and optimized for high reproduction ratios, are one of the most common tools for macro photography. (Unlike most other lens makers,

Plonsky – Macrophotography Article

“….see the bug in more detail than we could in real life. That is what got me started and what I enjoy so much about macros. They let you see what you ordinarily cannot. As a scientist, I am quite curious by nature…”

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Here is a small list of photography related circuit and projects including High Speed Photography or HSP that uses Electronic Circuits to operate the Trigger or Lens Shutter.

High Speed Photography

“Many physical processes evolve on timescales shorter than the human eye can resolve. Effectively, this means the details of how the process changes with time are lost in a blur. High speed photography, or HSP, is simply photography with extremely short exposure times,….

High Speed Photography - HSP

….All control systems can be classified into one of two broad types – Open Loop and Closed Loop. The difference between them is the use of feedback via input signal. For the DIY high speed photographer, the difference equates to reliability, expense and simple electronics. ”

Lightning Activated Camera Shutter Trigger

This circuit is used to trigger a camera’s electronic shutter circuit when a flash of lightning is present. This circuit would also work for photographing fireworks displays or other events involving flashes of light.

Darkroom Camera Shutter Timer

This circuit was designed to control a film exposure shutter for a darkroom. It has 8 time steps ranging from 0.35 seconds to 4 seconds

Motorized Video Camera Mount

This article describes a motorized, waterproof mount for a miniature video camera. If a suitable waterproof camera is used, this unit can be used outdoors.

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“This page is the result of a lot of effort over the past couple years to develop a quality, inexpensive device to test shutters on the classic film cameras that I have been using…” .. Mike

Mikes Optical Timer Counter

Once built, this counter timer/device is easily adapted to a wide variety of applications, simply by construction of a new sensor. Although designed to be used with photo-transistors, this device can also use relays, transistors and many other kinds of electrical switches as a sensor.

Mikes Optical Timer Counter

Other Projects

Model Railroading, 3 Transistor Audio Preamp for a Dynamic Microphone

Configuration and control of this counter/timer is through a RS232 port. Cable configuration for a usual PC compatible would consist of a null modem cable, with a female connector on the timer/counter end of the cable. The correct cable for a PC or usb to serial adapter with a DB-9 interface is listed in the bill of materials.

delabs Page Digital Timers Counters and Clocks 

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The true Christmas Spirit is in giving, You can only give if you have something, right. You can Have when you Acquire Skills, Imagination and a Cheerful Attitude.This will help you Create Things! – dapj

Christmas Tree - CircuitStew

Develop a Skill this Christmas, Build these small LED Trees and give it to people who need a little bit of cheering up.

Christmas Tree – CircuitStew “This was the first and last complete prototype that I made on proto board. This style of prototyping produces circuits that are very difficult to understand, debug, and modify. Because of all the extra work involved they also take forever to assemble. Suddenly I became very interested in designing and fabricating custom pcbs….”

The name CircuitStew refers both to the jumble of electronics presented here and to circuit boards suspended in neon green copper etching solution. – Derek Wolfe

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“This Christmas, Make and Give to someone that needs it most. That is the real spirit.” – dapj

micro-readerboard Christmas tree ornament displays a short message, one letter at a time, on a bright single-character alphanumeric LED display. In the animation here, the ornament is displaying the word ornament.”

Each ornament is pre-programmed with a list of 36 different short phrases. Every time that an ornament is switched off and back on, it picks a new message from its memory to repeat.

Holiday Projects –

Holiday (Fun Circuits)
25 Light Sequencer using Xmas Lamps – drive 25 small Xmas lights. The lights operate at about 200mA and 3 volts, Anti-Flicker Circuit for LED Christmas Lights. Bells ring Generator –  Three circuit options; Can be synchronized to Christmas tree flashing lights.

Christmas related Circuits – Christmas Flashing-LEDs Badge –  Two-LEDs follow the rhythm of music or speech. Suitable for pins, badges, Christmas decorations. Programmable LED Flashers LED goes to steady state after a preset number of flashes Two simple, wide supply range operating circuits

Christmas Decoration Project
This project flashes 18 LEDs at three different rates and you can use these to create an eye-catching Christmas Decoration. The circuit is kept simple (and low cost) by using the 4060B IC which is a counter and oscillator (clock) in one package.

Ready Kits –

ApogeeKits flashing Christmas tree

Christmas Season Electronic Animated Display Kits
ApogeeKits flashing Christmas tree electronic kit makes a beautiful lighted holiday display. 12 multi-colored LEDs flash randomly. May be powered by a 9 volt battery or a DC power adapter for long term continuous use. User assembly of components and soldering is required.

Grantronics Christmas Tree
“Last November, we published the very popular Christmas Star. This year, our “just for fun” project is in the shape of a tree but we have gone one step further by using bi-coloured LEDs. There are many different light patterns and each LED can produce 16 different colours.”

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Letter from Chris of PyroElectro.com in 2013 – Happy Holidays!

Here’s a project I know your readers will love! It’s an all-digital-hardware LED Christmas tree we’re calling the Christmas Tree O’Digital Logic.

The tree itself is composed of 64 LEDs built into a spiral sitting on a piece of protoboard. Underneath, the controller uses shift registers and a 555 timer to create two modes of display: a predictable pattern and a random pattern. This should light up any desk or shelf and bring merriment to your readers!

LED Christmas tree - Learning Electronics

We’re also running a Kickstarter campaign to fund our second free online electronics course, “An Introduction To Digital Electronics.” We have just 4 days left to raise $2,124. If you would be so kind as to spread the word about our efforts, we’d be extremely grateful!

To build the tree, we’ll use 63 green LEDs and 1 red LED. Lots of wire will be needed to make the spiral + cone shape of LEDs from top to bottom. To build a random pulse generator, we’ll use some digital logic trickery with a 7404 hex inverter. A 555 timer will be used to drive 8 shift registers, which will control all 64 of the LEDs. Finally, a 4 bit timer should be thrown into the circuit in case we want to slow things down with a divider.

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Windows and Ventilators can have a Dust Frame or Solid Curtain. This can be fixed to windows like the Venetian Blinds but have to be leak proof on on the four sides. Mainly for Tropical and Equatorial Climates or Dusty areas near Roads etc.

SmartWindow with Economy Dust Frame

Theory Points of Study

Layer-1 – Blocks most reptiles and Insects. Mosquitos to Fruit Flies. Aperture of Grid 1 sq mm. Material Aluminum.

Layer-2 – Another Layer similar to above, but facing the Outside Garden/Road. Aluminum Mesh 5 sq mm holes, resist Big Rats and others. It is thick and strong. Prevent Small Animals, Birds too.

The layers are as large as windows and are separated by 5-10mm by 12 nylon spacers. These may have small pins fixed in the gap in many places for “Action of Points” .

Electronics –

Layer-1 is anode, Layer-2 is cathode. Very High Voltage of Very Low Current, ionize air and coagulate dust, smells, pollen and other floating colloids. The plates when touched by Humans cannot cause any harm. Current less that 100 microamps. This ionizer powered by an isolated 24V adapter, draws very low power so it can be kept on all the times

Gaurd Layers –

Finger Gaurd layers on either side made of a decorative design with apertures smaller than fingers made of Environment Resistant Plastic or Epoxy. The layers are as large as the windows and can be the aesthetic part.

Solar Air Cleaner and Humidifier ACH Option

This is a Solar energy based Air Cleaner and Humidifier that covers 1/4 of the window like a Box-Slab at the Top of Window. It is optional and an addon internal module to the DustFrame.

The Solar Panel is as wide as window and fitted on top of windows at an angle outside. The length can be around 6 inches or less. The ACH fitted inside is 1/4th or less the height of window. The rest of window 3/4 is open for fresh air but the air is cleaned by ionizer frame like in explanation above.

The 1/4 ACH is a Box 6 inches deep on the inside, it is sealed but with a place to pour or guide water thru a mini water pipe, like the tubes used in Intravenous Systems used in hospitals.

The water collects at bottom of the box and drawn upward by a capillary action by an array of cotton wicks in matrix formation. The wicks grow from the floor of box to top.

Tiny row of low power fans powered by solar and rechargeable battery, draw air thru the ionizer layer and blows on the wicks array. The air exiting from this box is cool, clean and recharged with some humidity. it could also be one fan with long vertical geared turbine barrel plastic fin too, this sucks the air and blows on the wet wicks.

This system reduces dust, toxic colloids and allergy causants. It also prevents mosquito, flies, rodents and other small pests. It recharges the air with some humidity that keeps the room healthy and fresh. It consumes very low power and can be run on solar energy. The wet wicks also add a bit of cooling if the air is too warm.

San – 2012