LCD 4 x 16

Week no: week 4 (23/8/2012)

Objective: Investigate LCD 4 x 16

Content:

 This LCD has 4 rows and each row has 16 columns for symbols, characters and number display. It has built in HD 44780 controllers to interface with microcontroller for display purpose. This LCD can display A-Z, a-z, 0-9 and types of symbols in ASCII code. Communication between LCD and PIC is quite complicated. However the C compiler already comes with LCD driver, this file will automatically solve the interface between LCD and PIC. Thus, we can easily clear the screen, shift cursor and display message which is the parameter of solar panel voltage, current and time. This LCD has 16 pins and it is operating at 5V DC for LCD operation and its background light. RB0 to RB7 except RB3 of PIC reserved for LCD application, this is because lcd.c already set RB0 to RB7 for LCD application.

The figure above show the circuit that we use for this project. the connection from RD1 to RD7 is connected to the PIC microcontroller.

Conclusion:
As a conclusion we choose to use the LCD 4x16 it is because the LCD is suitable to used for my project to show the data which is voltage current and time.

Current Transducer LTS 6 NP

Week no: week 3 (16/8/2012)

Objective: To testing current transducer LTS 6NP

Content:

This current transducer can measure the current to 6 amp, current input base on recommended connection of in and output pin (refer datasheet). The output this current transducer is in voltage. This sensor features is closed loop (compensated)  multi range current transducer using half effect and it uni-polar voltage supply. it insulated plastic case recognized according to UL 94-VO. However it compact design for PCB mounting. It incorporated measuring resistance and extended measuring range. Another application is AC variable speed drives and servo motor drives. It also static converters DC motor speed drives. Furthermore, it also can implement with battery as back up supply. it also uninterruptable power supplies (UPS) and switch mode power supplies (SMPS). Lastly it also can be used for power supplies welding appications.

 The figure above show the circuit that i should use to connect from solar panel current sensor LTS 6 NP. The positive of solar panel will connected to the current sensor at pin number one and the negative terminal will connected to the ground. For this circuit it use IRF540 which is as known as power mosfet.The Mosfet act like a voltage controlled current source. It also handle significant power level.The power mosfet is most widely used low voltage switch. It can be found in most power supplies, DC to DC converters, and low voltage motor controllers. For this circuit this application is used because the voltage from solar is very tiny.

Conclusion:
From this circuit it will be used to design my project.

DS1307 I2C RTC (Real Time Clock)

Week no: week 2(9/8/2012)

Objective: Using DS1307 I2C RTC (Real Time Clock)
                To testing the circuit

Content:

RTC (Real Time Clock) is very useful feature that can be applied to many of electronic products, Although we can use timer that’s built in microcontroller for timing, but microcontroller can’t operate without power supply. For this reason using timer in microcontroller for real time clock is not suitable for some application

DS1307 is Dallas Semiconductor’s serial RTC IC, that can provide full binary-coded decimal (BCD) clock/calendar plus 56 bytes of NV SRAM. Address and data are transferred serially via a 2-wire, bi-directional bus. Clock/calendar provides second, minutes, hours, day, date month, and year information, Clock operates in either 24-hours or 12-hours format with AM/PM indicator. DS1307 has built-in power sense circuit that detects power failures and automatically switches to battery supply mode. Pin assignment of DS1307 is shown in Figure 1

VCC: Primary Power Supply GND: Ground                                                                           VBAT: +3V Battery Input SDA:  I2C Serial Data SCL: I2C Serial Clock SQW/OUT: Square Wave/Output Driver X1, X2: 32.768 kHz Crystal Connection

From this circuit, we should modify the connected form pin number 6 and 8. the connected can connect to the PIC .

Conclusion: 

My partner and I agreed to use this circuit as a clock for our project.

Digital Clock circuit

week no: week 1 (2/8/2012)

Objective: Testing Clock circuit
                 To find the suitable clock circuit

Content:

PIC 16F84  12 or 24 hour digital clock circuit diagram

From get this crcuit from the internet. By used PIC 16F84A is very difficult. It is because we should do some programming to set up the clock. From this circuit we should use the uJDM PIC programmer which suitable to do simple pic16f84, pic16f84A, 16c84, 16f628 group programmer. By using this method I should by the new module for burn the PIC. Additionally my partner did not know to use this software and it use high cost to do this project.

Conclusion:

As a conclusion we reject to use this project as clock.