Work

has begun on my mains powered switching system, the first of the transformers have arrived and been tested. They are exactly what I hoped for so next I will be checking out the bridge rectifier and voltage control electronics. The next job then will be to build a strip board version of the breadboard circuit and make it all work as one unit. You may be wondering why I am so keen on using mains for this particular job. In fact, not just mains but a home brew mains unit. The answer is very simple, this unit is intended to be built into the supply chain for my soldering irons, Piranha lights and screwdriver chargers. To do this and remain green, I want to have something that, when switched off, is completely isolated from it's power supply and doesn't need to be charged or new batteries added every so often. As I have more than one project in mind here, it would seem to be a good idea to manufacture my own system and build it into the various boxes instead of running it from a wall wart. There is also the fact that it should work out cheaper, I will be learning and it will be a lot more fun this way. 

A useful weekend

I have moved my PC workstation to it's new home and almost all of the electronics materials as well. Next will be the Raspberry Pi kit and the satellite PVR to their new homes and then I can start the great tidy up. I hope to reach a point where I can empty the big green recliner and move it to it's new position by next weekend. Once I've managed that, it should be downhill to a tidy and very orderly attic.

Finally,

I did some long overdue tidying up in the attic yesterday. I found several items that had mysteriously disappeared, including the FM tuner, and managed to collect half a bag of rubbish. If I keep this up, I should soon be looking at a tidy worktop with all the room I need for my experimenting. This week I took delivery of three soldering iron stations for my three different irons and my new portable multi-meter for a more accurate approach to setting up projects. I am waiting for a delivery from China now to complete my kit of ready made units, tiny stereo amps etc. This weekend would seem the ideal opportunity to get down and really sort it all out. I have, at last, begin to work on the totally integrated micro-controller system I want to build for my own use and have sourced the switches and major components already. The software system I outlined previously is likely to be the basis for what I build but I am progressing with my C. skills and hope to be using function calls to make life simpler. As always, any achievements will be flagged here and documented on the code site. The build will be fairly simple but might involve, I hope anyway, a custom PCB. 

Slowing down slightly,

I have played with the circuits and code today. The code all seems to work but the very basic breadboard circuit is not working for everything. I am fairly certain that the problem lies with having no regulation on the power. Feeding it from a USB source is all very well but there are serious limitations to the current available and I think I am simply overloading the circuit.

O M G !

I have just built, in less than ten minutes, a working Arduino on a breadboard. Now I know that a large number of clever people are doing this all the time but...............................I just did it too. I really will have to document this over the weekend. I also have some code already written for the super-duper deluxe mains switch I postulated yesterday. I may even build the thing! I may even build it on my own circuit board O M G !