Love for engineering projects and the process that facilitates them is a core attribute of Broadwell Consulting Inc. This page is a showcase of things done for the love of the discipline.
Coming Soon
Fortnite Chest 8: Capacitive Touch Addition and Tutorial
This video demonstrates how to implement a capacitive touch button using only software and the on-chip CTMU and A/D converter on the PIC24FJ256GA702, and also talks about the theory behind it in order to educate on how to tune the circuit. This circuit and software will be used to add two touch-buttons to control our Fortnite chest display.
The MPLAB X project is here.
Fortnite Chest 7: RGB Array Creation C# tool
Now that the circular RGB LED array for the Fortnite Chest has arrived and passed the blink test, I need a way to create the patterns I want to display. This video shows a quick and dirty C# utility that I created to generate 93 element c language arrays that contain RGB values in the proper order for this display.
Get the Visual Studio Solution here, and the MPLAB X project here.
Fortnite Chest 6: Driving the WS2812B Driver with DMA and Measuring its current
In this video we'll implement a driver for a strip of WS2812B LEDs on the PIC24FJ256GA702 microcontroller. We'll use the SPI module and the DMA module to generate the 800kHz signal needed to drive the LEDs. Then we will answer a question from earlier in the project. How much current does the WS2812B draw? Spoiler: The WS2812B pulls about 2/3 mA per LED even when turned off, plus 12mA per color per LED at 100% power (36mA for full on white).
You can download the MPLAB X project here.
Fortnite Chest 5: Design for Driving Cascaded WS2812B LEDs with a PIC24FJ256GA702
In this video we’ll examine the SPI module of the PIC24FJ256GA702 and design a way to use that module to drive the 800kHz serial protocol needed to control a series of cascaded WS2812B RGB LEDs.
Fortnite Chest 4: Audio Circuit and Firmware
In this video we'll use a PIC24JF256GA702 to play our Fortnite audio sample from the prior video using the PIC's Comparator Reference Voltage as an analog output, along with a LM386 Audio amplifier. We'll build the firmware project from scratch using Microchip's MPLab X and the Microchip Code Configurator tool.
You can download the MPLAB X project here.
Fortnite Chest 3: Audio Sample Preparation
In this video we'll show how to separate the sound in our Xbox Fortnite capture into a .wav file, use Audacity to resample that file down to a lower sampling rate, and reduce the bit depth to 5 bits so we can use the onboard Comparator Reference Voltage of the PIC24FJ256GA702 to output sound. Grab the C# file I created to reduce to 5 bits here.
Fortnite Chest 2: Feasibility and Risk Analysis
In this video we examine our requirements to determine risks to the project, and to the user. We evaluate some possible parts for the LED matrix, the human sensor, and a lens.
Fortnite Chest 1: Requirements
This is the first in a series of videos to document the progress of a personal project I'm doing. In this series, I'll be building an ornamental panel for a plastic Plano sportsman's box that will make it approximate a locked box like those in the game Fortnite. In this series of videos we'll follow the classic V model of development, starting with requirements at the top left side of the V, implementation at the bottom, and validation (seeing how the chest performs when the kids take it to summer camp) on the upper right side of the V. This video is about the project requirements. Even when I'm doing a personal project, I try to start with a set of requirements to help clear my head. I've also taken a page from medical device development, and I come up with an intended use. This helps me a lot to help avoid the feature creep that often happens with personal projects. If a new feature doesn't fit in the intended use, don't add it!