Microcontrollers

I frequently work with various microcontrollers including Arduino and PICAXE based systems.

Projects and posts

• Tractor watchdog

  

  We use an early 1960s Fordson Dexta tractor to run the irrigation pump. During a day when we are irrigating, the tractor can often be left running for extended periods of time between checks. If something were to go wrong such as a loss of oil or the engine overheating, then the system should be shut down as quickly as possible to minimise damage. I have designed and built an engine watchdog for this tractor that monitors various engine parameters and shuts it down if something is wrong. I snuck this project in as part of FIT3146 (Makerlab) in semester 2 2023.

• Farm sensor network

  

  On our family farm I have set up a network of remote sensors to assist with the monitoring of various pieces of equipment and to be on the lookout for any potential issues or ways to improve productivity. This sensor network uses the PJON protocol over LoRa radio to communicate. Back at the house, a base station receives messages from the sensors and passes them on to a Thingsboard dashboard where the data is displayed and managed. The base station can also transmit commands back to the sensors as required.

• TunePlayer Arduino library

  An Arduino library to decode and play simple tunes. This library was written for use in the musical bicycle siren and has since been used in other projects as well. It is inspired by the tune command from PICAXE microcontrollers, however has more functionality and uses a different encoding scheme.

• LCDGraph Arduino Library

  

  An Arduino library for drawing line graphs on alphanumeric displays using custom characters

• Solar MPPT Battery charger

  

  This project was to build a battery charger to stop my Grandparent’s tractor’s battery from going flat over the winter when it was not in use. The charger’s main claim to fame is that it is designed to charge batteries from solar panels that provide a lower voltage output than the battery requires. The charger currently provides power for a solar powered electric fence.

• Musical bicycle siren

  

  A “musical” siren for bicycles. This design was published in the Circuit Notebook section of the Februrary 2022 issue of the Silicon Chip magazine.

• Cosmic watch muon detectors

  

  In year 11, my physics teacher asked if I could build a Cosmic Watch muon detector to assist with proving the effects of special relativity.

• Model solar car racing

  

  For five years I designed, built and raced model solar cars. This was part of the Victorian Model Solar Vehicle Challenge (VMSVC) held at Scienceworks and the Australian-International Model Solar Vehicle Challenge (AIMSVC).