Hi everyone, Recently, I came across the need to utilize an external clock source for my ATMega microcontroller. I was initially under the impression that it would be a relatively daunting task after reading about the mounds of bricked AVRs which had fallen into the unforgiving grip of incorrectly set fuse bytes. I didn’t find any tutorials geared specifically towards addressing this subject, suitable for beginners. Fortunately my experience wasn’t bad at all, and the main reason for that (I suspect) is that I did a lot of research and…

Hi everyone, I’ve got a quick, easy, and fun tutorial for you! I’ll show you how to make your very own solar charger for your mobile devices to charge them wherever you find a bright light source and no power outlet. Yep, it’ll work everywhere; from the beach, all the way to the Moon (not the dark side unfortunately). Needless to say, harnessing the power of the sun/photons is not a new concept. Even used to power Vanguard 1 way back in 1958, the sun provides enough energy every hour…

Hi everyone, Just the word ultrasonic sounds cool to me! It makes me think of something fast, hi-tech, and hard to understand. Fact is, I think I’m right about everything but the hard to understand part, which I realized after purchasing the HC-SR04 ultrasonic distance sensor and hooking it up for a test run. The uncanny resemblance to Wall-E just makes it even better. I can think of a whole list of applications of this technology for my future projects; particularly for autonomous robots and UAVs (Unmanned Air Vehicles). Hopefully…