Monday 3 December 2012

Bare arduino board works

Finally got my bare Arduino board up and running, Its was supposed to have a ZIF socket on it as its primary purpose is as an ATMEGA328P programmer, but I screwed up and accidentally bought a 24pin socket instead of a 28pin socket.

But it works, and I can upload sketches via the FTDI socket.


Im working on a Function generator using a DDS chipset, learning how to drive a 1602 LCD and a keypad using a  74HC595 shift register, and a hacked version of the "new LiquidCrystal" and the "Keypad" libs, Im trying to use the same 74HC595 to provide not only a 3wire interface to the LCD panel, but to provide the column strobes for the keypad, hopefully I will be able to get the whole UI interface to work using 6 i/O pins, leaving 7 left over to manage the DDS chip, and provide output for a programmable output stage and variable gain control. 

Im also looking at using the setup to provide a "wobbulator" capability, but Im not certain if I can sweep the DDS through its frequency range fast enough to make that useful enough for anything more than audio work. It will also need to provide a very stable linear DC coupled output to provide the Y sweep voltage output for the oscilloscope. 

But anyway it will make a nice compliment to my shiny new RIGOL DS1102E Scope, which is fantastic. and makes building stuff like this a doddle, you cant underestimate the value of being able to directly visualize what is going on inside your circuitry.