Random miniLOG Update #2

Yes, I finally got my prototype PCBs. As I mentioned, they were provided by electronics-lab.com. You can see an entry about my project on their website here

The PCBs were made by Seeed Studio. They are 1mm thick and look quite nice.

This is what the assembled prototype looks like:

I'm currently testing all the hardware on the board. So far I got the MCU running, managed to talk to the 74HC595. Also the DC-DC converter works quite well, so does the voltage reference.

The board currently uses way too much power, that's why I need to consider underclocking the microcontroller to 4MHz.

I still need to get the ADC and SD card working, I haven't had much luck with that so far.

I already have a few ideas on changes I want to make on the board, a blog post about them coming up soon.

Random miniLOG Update #1

It's been a while since the last post. I just wanted to mention some of the news.

First of all, miniLOG has a new PCB design. It grew from the initial 50x50mm size to 50x80mm. The SD card is now on top, which should add to the usability.

Next, I should have the first prototype in about a month. The REV.2 PCB is basically finished and I'm going to cooperate with electronics-lab.com. They will provide me with 5 PCBs in exchange for publishing my project on their website. Frankly, it's a double benefit.

Now, I am on an INCREDIBLY tight budget. I will probably have to rely on something like a predorder on Tindie. I'm not really sure how much succes others had with those preorders, but I am willing to give it a try.

As soon as I build the prototype I will give you a closer look on the mechanical side of things. Peace.

miniLOG Series Part 2 - The Circuit

In this part of the miniLOG series I'm going to introduce you to the first version of the schematic. Let's jump right into it!

Download the REV2 miniLOG schematic (.pdf)

Keep in mind that it's not the finished schematic. However it probably won't be much different. I'm going to talk you through separate parts of the miniLOG circuit.

AVR microcontroller

The miniLOG is based on ATmega328P-AU microcontroller in the TQFP32 package. It's Arduino compatible so you can easily modify the code. It's accompanied by a 16MHz crystal oscillator to reproduce the Arduino UNO circuit. You probably could get by without the crystal but since the entire Arduino bootloader operates based on that 16MHz crystal it's a good idea to keep it. Also the miniLOG uses SPI interface to communicate with the ADC and the SD card so a little bit more clock accuracy is a good thing to have.

You can probably notice the 5 pin header. Its purpose is to connect to an external UART module like for instance a USB-UART or bluetooth-UART module. With a bit of extra code you can communicate with the miniLOG using USB or bluetooth. These modules are really cheap (~5 USD on eBay).

Analog to digital converter

After a lot of research I decided to use the MCP3201 ADC. It's a precise, low-power 12 bit ADC. The miniLOG has a total of four ADC channels - one precise 12 bit, two 10 bit channels of the internal ATmega328 ADC and one 10 bit current measuring channel. The current measuring channel is basically the same as the others, it just uses a 1% 1ohm 500mW current shunt resistor. The miniLOG measures voltage across the 1ohm resistor. The safe maximum current is 500mA, although technically you could put up to 700mA through it. All voltage channels have voltage dividers dividing the input voltage by 10. Since the reference voltage in the circuit is 2.5V the maximum voltage across these channels is 25V. The 12 bit channel requires something more precise, that's why I used 0.1% resistors on that one.

Analog circuitry

The miniLOG is powered by an AA battery. It's connected with the main power switch to an MCP1624 DC-DC boost converter, which outputs 3.6V required by the rest of the circuit. The V-SER net is the voltage from the serial connector. If for example you want to power the miniLOG from a USB-UART module, two SS22 Schottky diodes and a P-channel MOSFET take care of it so the AA battery can't burst into flames. I have to admit, at first I was going to use a CR2032 battery but I decided to sacrifice the 5cm x 5cm form factor in order to quadruple the battery life.

The voltage reference is an MCP1525, a 2.5V reference with 27 ppm/°C typical voltage drift. I decided to go for a convenient SOT-23 package for this one.

User interface

The UI on the miniLOG comes down to choosing the interval time of measurements, displaying this time and switching between different modes. The user controls the miniLOG with two humble  microswitches. The interval time and chosen mode is displayed using 16 0603 LEDs controlled by the 74HC595 8 bit shift register. It may seem silly to use 16 LEDs, but I have actually given it a lot of thought, took into account DIP switches, 7 segment displays, but this was by far the best solution.

So, this is the basic miniLOG circuit. In the next part of the series I'm going to talk about the mechanical side of the design.

miniLOG - precision standalone voltage logger

I'd like to introduce my latest project. It's a precise standalone voltage logger that saves the logged data to an SD card. I call it the miniLOG, because it's small and well, it logs stuff...

The idea first came to me when I was thinking about some small product that I could sell. Either as a kit or as a ready product. The idea of having a small, portable voltage logger seemed pretty cool. However, I like to think that for a product to sell, it should have some unique little aspect to it. It's hard for a better unique aspect than precision.

I didn't want to put any complicated analog circuitry on the board because from the very idea it was supposed to be small. I thought that a simple 12bit ADC would be enough. I added 3 more microcontroller ADC channels just for the hell of it. All input voltages are divided by 10 with precision 0.1% voltage divider resistors. So the miniLOG has 4 voltage logging inputs, one of which is a high resolution 12bit input.

This is the first part in the miniLOG series. I hope to be updating it every now and then.

Here's a little sneak peek of the PCB

Peace.

Umm...I guess, let's go?

Looks like this is the first post I'm doing on this blog. Who am I?

I'm a young electronics and tech nerd. Also, I'm a huge car bore. 

This blog is mainly going to be about my passion for electronics. Since I'm only a hobbyist it's not likely that you will see some industrial equipment. I'll basically try and post as much as I can, which is still not much. I'm always busy, either with school or some other stuff.

Occasionally you could see some random stuff about my life.

Soo, yep...here we go...