PIC16F628A Programmable Timer

I was looking for a programmable timer and fortunaitly I could find a great project. First I was trying to build a simple timer circuit using NE555 or 4060 ICs. Then I wanted to move to a rich project with a LCD screen and ability to program for short and long duration times. Then I found this excellent project which exactly meets my requirements.

Then I built this project on a simple vero board and it is working very well. Here are two images of the built project.

You can set the maximum time to 99 Hours and 99 Minutes. The circuit has two options. First you can set the time which your device keep off and then the time you want to keep your device on. The display will show you the (count down) remaining time.

I am using this circuit to turn off and on lights of my house to a predefined time. I also added a battery backup to avoid resetting the timer on power breaks.

You can find more information from the below link. This is the link of the original source of this nice timer circuit.

Link to the original post with schematic and source code download

I should also thank the author Raj Bhatt for posting this great project.

Ultrasonic Distance Measurement with Arduino

We can use ultrasonic sensors to measure distance with Arduino. There are several types of ultrasonic sensors available in the electronic market. In this example, I am using the famous HC-SR04 type ultrasonic sensor. This sensor is cheap, easy to connect to Arduino and highly used in robotic projects to identify obstacles. I will also use a LCD screen to display the distance in both Inches and Centimeters.

Arduino and DS1307 LCD Digital Clock Project

1) Introduction and Images

Hello friends, today I am going to build a Digital Clock using Arduino UNO and famous DS1307 Real Time Clock IC.