Dilshan R Jayakody’s Web Log

For some time, hobbyists have relied on dedicated sound generator ICs, such as the UM3561 , UM3562 to build compact alarm and siren circuits. Unfortunately, this device is becoming increasingly difficult to find in the market. The manufacturer of the chip, United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), is still around. However, they are no longer producing the UM3561 or UM3562. As part of a fun experiment, I decided to design a replacement circuit using only discrete transistors and passive components. This avoids the need for specialized ICs altogether. The result is a simple yet effective transistor-based siren. It can reproduce the familiar rising and falling alarm effects typically associated with police cars, fire trucks, or ambulances. Finished prototype of the electronic siren. The design philosophy behind this project was straightforward: recreate the functionality of the classic two-timer based siren circuit ( NE556 / NE555 pair), but instead of timers or sound generator ICs, u...

These days good quality oscilloscope is not an expensive instrument and, we can see it in most workbenches. With the advancement of oscilloscopes, simple testing tools such as logic probes are not as popular these days. However, if the oscilloscope or logic analyzer was out of reach, the logic probe is a handy instrument to check digital circuits.  Also, in some cases, a logic probe is an easy option to check the functionality of low-speed logic circuits because it provides a real-time visual indication of the logic state without adjustments or calibrations. Prototype version of the logic probe. The logic probe design described in this post uses common and inexpensive ICs, including the popular NE555 timer and LM393 low voltage comparator IC. At the time of this writing, both ICs were prevalent in the market and cost less than LKR50 (US$ 0.25). This circuit design using SMD components to minimize the board size. The dimensions of the soldered PCB are around 70mm × 14mm × 6.6mm, ...

This is simple Colpitts oscillator to test commonly available passive crystals which range between 2MHz to 27MHz. This unit must connect to an oscilloscope and/or frequency counter to get the frequency of the crystal. This circuit is designed to work around 9V to 12V DC power source. Both 2SC930 transistors can replace with any high-speed NPN transistor such as 2SC829, 2SC933, etc. Testing 5030kHz FT-243 crystal using a prototype version of crystal tester. In our lab, we use Manhattan-style layout to prototype this crystal tester and it produces highly accurate results with an above-specified frequency range. According to our observations, after 27MHz, the amplitude of the waveform starts to decrease steeply. Schematic and Stripboard wiring layout for this crystal tester is available to download in here .

This post is about beat frequency oscillator (BFO) module which is used to receive SSB and CW signals from the ordinary shortwave receiver. The original circuit which is related to this post is obtained through the internet and we modify it to get more precise output with commonly available electronic components. ( Unfortunately at the time of writing this original link is no longer accessible due to a dead link. ) This module consists of two general purpose NPN transistors and we select 2SC828 because of its availability in the local marketplace. For the crystal, we use commonly available 455 kHz ceramic resonator. Assembled 455 kHz BFO module. This BFO unit is easy to construct and may not need any test instrument for calibration. To receive the SSB signals, power this unit with regulated 5V or 6V DC power source and place BFO module near to the shortwave radio receiver. To get good results to place output wire of BFO near to the IF amplifier section of the target receiver....

This is oscillator controller for 8bit PIC microcontrollers which is specifically design to debug MCUs and related circuits by without using ICD unit. This unit consists with low speed oscillator and cycle counter with automatic hold. In current version, oscillator is capable to run in 2 frequency modes and it can count up to 4096 cycles in each run. The number of frequency modes can be extend by adding more capacitors and the upper limit of cycle counter can be increase by adding more 12bit counters (and related circuitries) to the system. Oscillator waveform in low frequency mode In current version oscillator can be run in either 66 Hz ~ 70 Hz or 666 Hz ~ 670 Hz ( aprox. ). This frequency can be adjusted by changing the value of C1 or C2 capacitors (e.g: 0.1MFD can generate 6.39 kHz output signal) OR by replacing R1 with some suitable variable resistor. In project package we include sample PIC16F84A based project to test with this system. The recommended test attachment i...