Spring 2009 Projects

The last half of Microcontroller Systems, five weeks, is devoted to an individual project of the student's choosing and design. The only requirements are that it be stand-alone (code in EEPROM), have both an input and output device, and involve hardware beyond that which is on the Dragon12-Plus board used in the class.

Other year's projects for Winter 2014 are here, Winter 2013 are here, Winter 2012 are here, Winter 2011 are here, Winter 2010 are here, Spring 2008 are here, Spring 2007 are here, Spring 2006 are here, Spring 2005 are here, and those for Spring 2004 are here.

Here are the projects in the (arbitrary) order they were presented. Click on any image for an enlarged view.


LED Volume Level by Jonathan Dahlin.

Measures the volume level of an audio source (here an iPod) and indicates the level on a row of LEDs.


Bed Buddy by Ryan Fitch.

The Bed Buddy is a digital clock with a motion detected night light, a temperature controlled fan, and an alarm buzzer. The project uses two Dragon-12 boards, the second is inside the fan box.


I/V Curve Tracer by Gamachu Woticha.

The microcontroller steps the base current and collector voltage of a BJT under test and measures the collector current allowing the plotting of characteristic IC versus VCE curves at different IB values.


Automatic Skittle Sorter by Daniel Dubach.

A homemade mechanism takes Skittles one at a time, determines their color via an optical sensor, then drops the Skittle in the correct tube for the color. Daniel is showing that it works even with his eyes closed. (OK, I just slipped up as the photographer here!)


Implementation of a Motion Light by Trevor Albertus.

A motion detector is interfaced to the Dragon-12 and lights up a lamp when motion is detected. A second light is turned on and off via a pushbutton.


DC Motor Interface by Farhad Sabet.

Push buttons turn on and off and select the direction of a DC motor. The motor circuit is opto-isolated from the microcontroller.


Servo Operated Airsoft Mount by Michael Saltzman.

A two axis servo mount is controlled from the Dragon-12 using an Atari 2600 joystick. Michael aims it right at the camera!


Time Lapse Camera Controller by Alan Canida.

Alan also had to build a solenoid activator for his camera's shutter. The push buttons set the interval, which is displayed on the LCD display (which unfortunately cannot be read in the photo).


RFID Access Control by Gene Frye.

The microcontroller receives RFID tag numbers from the receiver and displays them on the LCD. In this photo, the LCD display can be seen.

Garage Parking Assistant by Michael Zaiser.

A sensor measures the distance between the car and the end of the parking spot and signals via red/yellow/green lights and sounds how close the car is.



Laser Tag Team Project by (from left to right) Emanuel Azgur, Alan Muench, and James Eastham.

This is the first time I've had a team project in the class, so the project had to be appropriately ambitious. The used "gutted" laser tag guns interfaced to Dragon-12s in the boxes. The microcontrollers were coded in C language. Multiple state machines were implemented in code to handle firing, reloading, and hits. The DAC on the Dragon12 connects to an audio amplifer for sound effects which they stored as wave files or encoded as timer channel tone patterns. This represents not only the first project in C but also the first to be stored in the flash memory instead of the EEPROM.

Velocity Controlled VCA by Douglas McCaig.

A motor's speed (considered proportional to ambient sound level) is used to control a voltage controlled amplifier to adjust the sound level of an audio system.


Instrument Validator by A. Raydt Vaz.

Raydt project uses the Dragon-12 to validate a manufacturing process on his job. He provided the pictures shown here.