For the past five years, element14 has been my playground to experiment, learn and share. This blog highlights some of the most rewarding and helpful to others projects I have created during that time, including AI projects, embedded systems based on Arduino, Raspberry Pi and even FPGAs, delving into digital electronics with some dabbling in analog electronics.
The projects are shown in chronological order from most recent to oldest:
Table of Contents
- UrbanRest Guardian: A Smart Monitor for Classifying Nighttime City Sounds
- From Software to Power Electronics: Building the "Magic Lightbox" with a Flyback Converter
- Building a Digital Synthesizer with FPGAs: The Minized Synth I Project
- Building Sounds with Hardware: An FPGA-Based Music Instrument Synthesizer
- Firefighter Guardian: A Multi-Sensor Heads-Up Display with FPGA Technology
- Learning by Doing: Practical Applications of SystemVerilog and FPGAs
- The Quantenkompassinator: An FPGA-Powered Pointlessly Complex Compass
- Thermal Vision: An FPGA-based VGA Thermal Camera Project
- Emubot: The Playful FPGA Robot for Young Learners
- Building an Op-Amp Line Follower: A Showcase of Hardware Proportional Control
- Arduino TFT Chess Clock: Programmable Timekeeping for Chess Enthusiasts
- Analyzing the Feasibility of a Smart Coin Sorter using Inductive Sensing
- Raspberry Pi HQ View Camera
- Smart Window Tracker: Real-Time Monitoring with Raspberry Pi
- VenTTracker: Promoting Healthy & Sustainable Classrooms
- Rewarding Responsibility: My Smart Recycling Project with Azure Sphere
UrbanRest Guardian: A Smart Monitor for Classifying Nighttime City Sounds
The "UrbanRest Guardian" project tackles nighttime noise pollution in cities. This smart street noise monitor, part of the "Experimenting with Extreme Environments" challenge, uses custom software to classify and report various urban sounds in real-time.
See more: Final Blog - UrbanRest Guardian - Smart Street Noise Monitor
From Software to Power Electronics: Building the "Magic Lightbox" with a Flyback Converter
This project, part of the "Experimenting with Flyback Transformers" challenge, designed a specialized lighting setup for photographing small electronic components. The Magic Lightbox utilizes two opposing LED panels powered by a flyback converter controlled by an Arduino Uno.
See more: Final - Magic Lightbox: Project Summary
Building a Digital Synthesizer with FPGAs: The Minized Synth I Project
Inspired by classic analog synths, the Minized Synth I project builds a digital version using the AVNET MiniZed board. This board, featuring an AMD Zynq chip with reprogrammable FPGAs, allows for crafting custom sounds. Several extension boards were designed and built, including control panels, filters, and even a planned MIDI interface.
See more: AMD Zynq SoC MIDI Vintage Sound Synthesizer - Final
Building Sounds with Hardware: An FPGA-Based Music Instrument Synthesizer
This project involves creating a test bench for music instrument synthesis using an FPGA. The system can generate various sound waves (sine, square, sawtooth, triangle, and noise) and shape them using an ADSR (Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release) envelope generator.
See more: Building FPGA-Based Music Instrument Synthesis: A Simple Test Bench Solution
Firefighter Guardian: A Multi-Sensor Heads-Up Display with FPGA Technology
The “Sensor Fusion for Firefighters” project aims to develop a heads-up display (HUD) that integrates thermal imaging, a hardware-accelerated compass, and environmental sensors (humidity, temperature, air quality, and barometric pressure) using the AMD Xilinx Spartan-7 FPGA. This device provides firefighters with critical real-time information to navigate through smoke and darkness, maintain orientation, and monitor environmental conditions, enhancing their safety and efficiency in hazardous environments.
Learning by Doing: Practical Applications of SystemVerilog and FPGAs
Series of learning notes on using SystemVerilog for designing digital circuits implemented on Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs).
- Gate-Level Combinational Circuit
- RTL Combinational Circuit Operators
- RTL Combinational Circuit - Concurrent and Control Constructs
- Hex-Digit to Seven-Segment LED Decoder RTL Combinational Circuit
- Barrel Shifter RTL Combinational Circuit
- Simplified Floating Point Arithmetic. RTL Combinational Circuit
- BCD Number Format. RTL Combinational Circuit
- DDFS. Direct Digital Frequency Synthesis for Sound
- FPGA ADSR envelope generator for sound synthesis
- AMD Xilinx 7 series FPGAs XADC
- Building FPGA-Based Music Instrument Synthesis: A Simple Test Bench Solution
The Quantenkompassinator: An FPGA-Powered Pointlessly Complex Compass
The Quantenkompassinator is a whimsical and over-engineered motorized compass, designed as a Rube Goldberg device. Built around a Digilent Arty S7 50 board with an AMD Xilinx Spartan-7 FPGA, this project features a differential drive mobile robot with PID control that always points in the same direction using Memsic’s MMC34160PJ magnetometer.
See more: The Quantenkompassinator
Thermal Vision: An FPGA-based VGA Thermal Camera Project
The Arty S7 50 VGA Thermal Imaging Camera project involves creating a low-resolution thermal imaging camera with VGA output. This project uses the Melexis MLX90640 IR Array, the Digilent PmodVGA module, and the AMD-Xilinx Spartan-7 FPGA on the Digilent Arty S7 50 board.
See more: Arty S7 50 VGA Thermal Imaging Camera
Emubot: The Playful FPGA Robot for Young Learners
The Emubot is an educational robot designed for young children, developed using the AMD-Xilinx Spartan-7 FPGA on the Digilent Arty S7 board. This project transforms the ArtyBot into a simplified Logo turtle, aimed at teaching children and adults various skills through interactive play.
See more: Arty S7 50 ArtyBot becomes Emubot, an educational robot for young children
Building an Op-Amp Line Follower: A Showcase of Hardware Proportional Control
The Op-Amp Line Follower is a project that involves building a line-following vehicle using operational amplifiers (op-amps). The project implements a hardware proportional control.
See more: Op-Amp Line Follower - Blog 3 The Line Follower
Arduino TFT Chess Clock: Programmable Timekeeping for Chess Enthusiasts
The Arduino UNO TFT LCD Touch Digital Chess Clock is a custom-built digital chess clock created using an Arduino UNO microcontroller and a TFT LCD touch screen. This project was designed to enhance the experience of playing face-to-face chess games by providing a programmable and interactive timekeeping device.
See more: Arduino UNO Digital Chess Clock
Analyzing the Feasibility of a Smart Coin Sorter using Inductive Sensing
My involvement in this experiment with magnetic components was to analyze the feasibility of a smart coin sorter. I focused on assessing the effectiveness of inductive sensing in classifying coins based on their magnetic properties.
Smart Coin Sorter by Inductive Sensing. #04 Inductive Sensor Device
Raspberry Pi HQ View Camera
This project involves using a Raspberry Pi High Quality Camera module and a Raspberry Pi 4B attached to an old large-format mono-rail view camera. I repurposed a Sinar Norma camera for this project. The camera setup allows for great control over the image through various adjustments like swings, tilts, and shifts.
See more: Raspberry Pi HQ View Camera - From the roof to the Moon.
Smart Window Tracker: Real-Time Monitoring with Raspberry Pi
The Window Opening Monitor is a device that uses a Raspberry Pi, a camera, and ArUco markers to track the opening status of windows. It displays the status on a 4-digit 7-segment display and sends the data to the Ubidots cloud for remote monitoring. The device updates the window status every 5 seconds, allowing users to see how open each window is in real-time.
See more: Window Opening Monitor with ArUco - Final device
VenTTracker: Promoting Healthy & Sustainable Classrooms
The VenTTracker is an innovative anomaly detection system designed for windows to ensure proper ventilation. It uses an Arduino Nano 33 IoT and machine learning to detect anomalies, such as obstacles or breakdowns, in the operation of windows or vents. When an anomaly is detected, it displays and sends an alert.
See more: VenTTracker #12 - Window Anomaly Detection. Edge Impulse & Arduino Nano 33 IoT
Additionally, the VenTTracker can monitor environmental conditions like CO2 levels, temperature, and humidity, providing data to a cloud dashboard to help users decide when to open the window
See more: VenTTracker #11 - Wireless Environmental Monitor on Arduino Nano 33 IoT
Rewarding Responsibility: My Smart Recycling Project with Azure Sphere
The project focuses on using an Azure Sphere Starter Kit to create a smart recycling container that rewards citizens for recycling. The container is equipped with various sensors, including a reed switch to detect door openings and closings, and a VCNL4040 proximity sensor to monitor the container’s fill level and detect misuse. The system generates secure QR tokens (JSON Web Tokens) signed by the Azure Sphere device, which can be scanned by users to receive rewards. The device also sends data to the Azure cloud for monitoring and analysis.
See more: I was there! ... sensing citizens recycling.
In addition to these projects, I've also published 99 blogs on element14 during this five-year period. It's been an incredible journey of learning, sharing my knowledge, and collaborating with this fantastic community.
I look forward to continuing my exploration of electronics and sharing my future endeavors on element14!
