Do More

For controlling the load of appliances such as cooling fans, low-wattage heaters, thermostats, low-wattage light sources, small electrical toys and test benches for loudspeakers, we need a power source whose voltage can be controlled in small steps and is capable of providing current of more than 1A. For that, we require low-resolution digital-to-analogue converters (DACs) with three to seven bits. Here is the circuit capable of setting output voltage between 1.25V and 15V in 64 steps. The circuit can be adapted for a lot of applications.  Low-Cost 6-Bit DAC Circuit Diagram Circuit and working The circuit of the low-cost 6-bit DAC is shown in Fig. 1. The DAC is built around IC 7406, hex inverter (IC3). We may also use IC 7407 with six followers without changing the PCB. Steps are generated with the help of 6-bit digital input code D0 (LSB) through D5 (MSB) at CON2. Consequently, 64 combinations are possible starting from 000000 to 111111. At each combination, you will have a pre-de...

LCD Module in 4-bit Mode Circuit diagram. In many projects use is made of alphanumeric LCDs that are driven internally by Hitachi’s industry-standard HD44780 controller. These displays can be driven either in 4-bit or 8-bit mode. In the first case only the high nibble (D4 to D7) of the display’s data bus is used. The four unused connections still deserve some closer attention. The data lines can be used as either inputs or outputs for the display. It is well known that an unloaded output is fine, but that a floating high-impedance input can cause problems. So what should you do with the four unused data lines when the display is used in 4-bit mode? This question arose when a circuit was submitted to us where D0-D3 where tied directly to GND (the same applies if it was to +5 V) to stop the problem of floating inputs. The LCD module was driven directly by a microcontroller, which was on a development board for testing various programs and I/O functions. There was a switch present for turnin...