Versatronics Products

• IoT (Internet of things) Projects

Just about anything can be measured and monitored, and the results uploaded to a remote web page, where it can be seen from anywhere in the world. Typical applications might be monitoring a rainwater tank level at your holiday home at the coast, while you are working abroad. The ESP8266 Wi Fi module makes this easy, and we have implemented such systems using Arduino processors. Modules can also talk to each other or even act as web servers in the local network The module to the bottom right is a arduino Atmega328 with a built in plug-in ESP8266 module. The Arduino board has an additional 5 analogue and 3 digital I/O for connections to sensors. It only requires an external 12V PSU. This module can upload data to a remote web server, or to another similar module, or even act as a web server itself. The possibilities for monitoring and uploading data are endless. See the flow meter below for an application. I also have a similar module that uses a plug-in Sim800 GSM module, so it can also send and receive SMS's



• Water flow/temp monitor

The clients requirement was to measure and monitor the temperature and flow in hotel water supply systems. This is a requirement for modern hotels to prevent the growth of legionaries bacteria in pipes where the water has not moved sufficiently and the temperature remains at a favorable temp for the bacteria to grow. By being able to log this data, the hotel can show that such conditions have not occurred in the pipes.



• Fall alarm for old persons

Conventional available fall alarms either just activate the existing burglar alarm panic button, or connect only to a paid response service. My unit is very versatile: when the writ worn button is pressed a custom programmable set of 5 to 10 cell phone numbers will be sent an SMS saying the person (name and address) needs assistance. If they can respond they send her a return SMS code and she now knows help is on the way. When they arrive at the house if they have no keys the don't have to break in if a strike lock is fitted, the person responding can send a pin the unit which will open the door.



• Treadmill Controller

A versatile Arduino Mega based controller for treadmills. It reads a pre-set profile from an SD card and controls the motor speed. It has a auto and a manual mode. In the manual mode speed and duration can be set, whereas in auto mode the speed and duration change according to the saved file on the SD card. The SD card profile program can be written on any text editor. The patients ID is entered and after the exercise is completed it sends an SMS with all the details to a franchisee. The unit is able to be generically used in many other applications. Many SMS based functions are available to read the available call time and change address book numbers etc. The LCD displays the current speed and time left to run.



• Pre-paid Electricity meter and Tank level monitor

Pre paid electricity meters have a way of running out of credit when you least expect it, leaving you in the dark late on Sunday night! Likewise, coastal town sewerage conservancy tanks get full and overflow unexpectedly with nasty results. Our dual monitor keeps an eye on both the tank level and the electricity meter credits and conveniently sends you a SMS when you need to take action. They are also controllable remotely via SMS. As an added bonus it can open your door remotely via a PIN encoded SMS to admit guests, and you can turn your geyser (HWC) on and off remotely as well. Of course the unit can also monitor saved rainwater tanks. Detailed features: Read the manual



• Arduino Projects

Versatronics specializes in Arduino based projects. We have used Uno, Mega, Teensy, and Leonardo. We also make our own versions of the Uno for special applications where greater output currents or relay interfaces are required. Complex Arduino software projects have required over 2000 lines of code. Some of the interface applications have included GSM, WiFi, Internet, Cell phone, Mains power, Sound to light, Infra red controllers, Servo motors, Stepper motors, Robotics, Quadrature sine-wave generators, SD card loggers, SPI LED animations etc.



• DMX lighting controller transmitter and receiver

This unit is a Arduino controlled DMX500 transmitter and receiver. The transmitter can address 32 addresses. Each one is able to drive up to 15 on the output. Not only can it do the standard RGB output, but can also do SPI and PWM on each of the output addresses. Using an array of receivers each driving their own string of SPI LED's (egg DS1307) amazing effects such as graphics, ceiling displays as in night clubs or wall patters can be achieved.



• Bass Compressor

A Bass Compressor is a guitar effects unit designed to compress the peaks in the attack produced by a bass guitar without distortion. This gives a "thicker" sound at the same volume level, enabling the bass to keep a steady level without being lost in the clutter or being over loud.



• 50 Audio Amps

These are Hi Fi quality 50W RMS Audio amps originally designed to be used in bridge mode to produce 100W for a guitar amplifier, but they can be used anywhere a robust clean amplifier is needed.



• Generic Controller

This product was developed to control the temperature and relative humidity inside a chicken egg incubator. In addition to doing this, it periodically rotates the egg tray as well. It has 2 triac mains controlled outputs and 2 relay outputs and analog and digital inputs, making it suitable for many other controller applications as well. It uses a Atmega 328 (Arduino) chip and has it's own on-board PSU making it very useful indeed.



• LUX Meter

Most LUX meters measure only visible light. This LUX meter has an Infra Red channel and can also measure IR levels usually only found in very expensive lab instruments. Very suitable for security camera lighting installations comparisons and inspections. The unit is powered with a standard 9V battery and has a non locking read button to prevent leaving it on and flattening the battery,



• I2C LCD driver

When you have a project that uses a lot of micro controller ports, for example when using a 4X4 keypad you will have lost 8 ports, there is not many port pins left to drive a LCD - normally requiring a further 8 pins other than power and ground. This board uses only 2 lines and power lines, and interfaces to a standard Hitachi 2x16 LCD display.



• Inductance meter for low value RF coils

Over the years I have bought/built many Inductance meters, none of which gave me the accuracy I needed for inductances less than 1uH. This meter is based on the Carver design (See original article) which gives superb accuracy and repeatability but requires lots of fiddling and some tricky maths for each measurement. Adding an Arduino to idea with a built in frequency counter and some maths crunching, turns it into a very decent LC-meter. As a bonus it also measures capacitance. The design idea is to use an oscillator running at 1MHz with a calibrated fixed capacitor. When an inductor or capacitor is introduced into the tank circuit the oscillator shifts frequency. This shift is used to calculate the inductor added.



• Driver amplifiers

In LED signage applications a need is for a high power driver to drive large lines or PWM RGB or SPI modules. This unit is 5V logic driven so is suitable for being driven from a micro controller port. The amp has 2 channels, so for a RGB installation you would require 2 of them. If the output is 5V each channel can drive up to 2A or 4A if only 1 channel is used. For a 12V supply these currents will be halved. (The heat sink is designed for 20W but with fan cooling each amp can drive up to 8A). We also provide a 10A, 10 channel flasher unit and driver amp where you might want to flash alternate sections of a LED animated sign or display.



• 4 Channel Data logger

This is a 4 channel Arduino based data logger. It has a DS1307 based RTC (Real time Clock) and a standard SD card for storing the data. The SD card is easily removable for easy download into a PC or it can be downloaded via an Arduino serial interface socket. The amount of data that can be stored is of course a function of the card size , but with a large enough card this could be several days at a 1 minute sampling rate. The input is limited to 25V DC but 2 of the channels can be selected as 230V AC direct input or connected to a LM35 temperature sensor. The logger requires only a 12V DC supply. All samples are saved as a time-stamped CSV file for instant import into MS Excel.



• Bat detector/receiver

The bat phone allows you to listen to bat sounds which are above our hearing range. It is tunable from 20kHz to 150kHz and is a full heterodyne type receiver.



• SPI Level Shifter

My client had a need for a unit to convert 12V SPI signals to 5V SPI, in addition the reference had to be inverted (some SPI is referenced to +ve not to ground). There are 3 channels so it accomodates RGB nicely. A maximum of 300mA per channel or 1A for one channel.



• Temperature controlled oven

To do accelerated aging tests on LED's or semiconductors you require an accurate oven to keep temperatures within 1 degree. This oven does that, it has a LM35 sensor feeding an Arduino controller with a cut-off timer. Inside the oven is a circulating fan. The temperature can be set between 20 and 100°C (any hotter and the polystyrene insulation will deform). The heating element is simply a standard 60W globe and the response loop time is pretty fast. It gets to 100°C from 20°C within a minute.



• Frequency counter pre scaler

This unit has 2 divide by 10 outputs and a RF preamplifier. Arduino based frequency counters only work up to about 4MHz. Using this unit you can go up to 40 or 400MHz.



• 10 X Channel 1A Sealed Lead Acid battery Charger

	10 Channel Sealed Lead Acid (SLA) battery charger for the Cape Gliding Club. Each bank provides intelligent 2 rate charging for a 10Ah battery, and switches automatically to a standby trickle when the battery on that channel is charged, and can then be left on trickle charge indefinitely. Current limit, short circuit protection and reverse charging protection are included.



• Arduino Applications

Versatronics specializes in Arduino and PIC projects where custom solutions are needed to interface or connect together any electronic products. Some recent products have been a geyser controller via the Internet and/or GSM SMS. Also experienced in GSM Commander, and interfaces to any device that needs to be controlled via SMS or Internet. We consult to the LED signage industry to provide complex solutions using embedded controllers for animated LED signs and bill-boards. We also provide training in best practices and basic wiring.



• Code Operated Doorbell

People ring my doorbell at any hour of the day or night asking/demanding money, food, or work Removing the battery from the doorbell unit is not a solution as there are many bona fide callers (Electricity reader, deliveries, friends, neighbors etc), who you still want to hear from. The answer was to develop a code operated doorbell which has the following features:

• A day/night sensor
• A 12 digit keypad
• A 4 digit code that only works in the day - suitable to giving to delivery people
• A 4 digit code that works anytime - suitable for friends and family
• A 4 digit code that operates a strike-lock and actually opens the gate, no need for kids to carry keys to school.
The unit is controlled by an Arduino and each code can be set and changed by the user as often as required - eg on dismissing a gardener etc.
• Arduino Bubble curtain

We used an Arduino to provide 12 different bubble pattern programs and lighting programs for this wall mounted or room divider bubble curtain. The video clip only shows a small fraction of the variety of programs. The curtain is installed in the Visions Gallery in Hout Bay and the idea was conceived by Jacques meyer (www.visionsgallery.co.za) See the YouTube Demo here.

• Cell phone access with guaranteed presence
There are several Cell-Phone controlled access systems available, but they suffer from a major weakness:
Even if they have a limited list of 'members' If someone dials a wrong number or makes a 'pocket call' the gate will open The Versatronics system overcomes this weakness by:
• You need to actually be at the gate
• Dial the gate number and if you are a legal caller the controller displays a OTP (One Time Pin)
• You enter the pin on the keypad and the gate opens
• It's easy to add/remove people from the allowed list without having to chang the access code for everyone if the security got compromised
• Interfaces
Using Arduino micro controllers we can almost connect anything to anything. We can do this using cell phones, Internet, wires and radio.
If you can imagine it we can try do it! Some of the examples below are to give you the general idea:
• Turn your lights/pool whatever on/off via your cell phone or Internet
• Read/control anything eg geyser remotely
• Convert protocols eg RS232 to Wieland or PLC etc

 

• LED Flasher for till points

Developed for Shoprite Checkers, it is a gated flasher for supermarket till display units. The requirement was to light the LEDs above the assistant and then flash and beep for a supervisor's attention when a button is pressed. It can be gated with a switch or 5V logic signal. The speed is adjustable and there is a driver for a 100dB beeper. The input is 12V and the LED load can be up to 15W.



• LED lighting controllers

These are PIC or Arduino based controllers to drive FastSPI LED strips, where each LED in the strip is uniquely addressable in terms of it's brightness and RGB levels. Click on the picture for a YouTube demo. The possibilities are as limited as your imagination. As each 'pixel' is individually addressable, any kind of motion and direction can be achieved. We design the hardware to specification as well as all custom software to achieve the effect you desire. See the YouTube FastSPI Demo here.

• RC servo switch

The RC (Radio control) switch is a unit that can be connected to a radio control remote receiver servo output, to provide simple on/off switching eg for landing lights or small motors. The unit includes a 5V regulator so it can be driven from 5 to 15v.



• Glider Winch Launch Controller

The Cape Gliding Club required a signaling unit between the winch driver and the glider about to be launched. The controller signals with 3 different flashing rates driving 30A lights. The states have logic interlocks to prevent ambiguous signals and the unit is housed in a rugged box with heavy duty wires.



• Robots

We design and build Arduino based robots for any desired need. This robot is a self thinking (autonomous) person who navigates himself around obstacles using ultrasonic echo location and some clever artificial intelligence.



• ZR to ZS upgrade 1 hour TX project

This project was developed to meet the criteria for upgrading from a ZR to ZS call sign, ie a 1W CW only transmitter. It was designed to be as simple and with as few components as possible, and yet still actually function with reasonable performance. Its called the 1 hour TX because that's how long it takes to build the kit. Put another way, all that stands between a new radio ammeteur (ZR) and a ZS call sign is 1 hour of real amateur radio stuff. This is a low tech project suitable for novice constructors and can be made with a minimum of equipment.

Click here to go to the project page......



• Low TID Hi Fi Amplifier

Click here to go to the TID Amp

This is a high quality, precision audio hi-fi amplifier designed to minimize THD. As most naive hi-fi buyers compare harmonic distortion specs between amplifiers and influence their choice on little else, manufacturers compete by using large amounts of negative feedback to reduce their total harmonic distortion (THD) to low levels, while, sacrificing transient response. The ear can not hear harmonic distortion below about 5%. Even excellent loudspeakers produce 1 to 5% THD at low frequencies! TID is seldom specified in commercial hi-fi amplifiers, as it is difficult to measure. Some designers now hold the view that in current amplifier designs, harmonic and inter modulation distortion levels are so low that transient effects are the main cause of audible differences between designs.



• RF transceivers

For 30 years I have been designing and building custom HF and VHF band radio transceivers. These are mostly for the Amateur Radio bands and have been aimed at low power and light weight.

Click here to go to the Transceiver page......