The Ivmech crew was recently in need of a small, inexpensive device capable of sensing analog values and toggling a few digital pins – all while logging everything to a PC.
Ultimately, the team decided to build the IViny DAQ, a mini data acquisition device powered by Atmel’s ATtiny85 microcontroller (MCU).
Aside from Atmel’s versatile ATtiny85 MCU, key project components include:
- 2 channels 0 – 5V ve 0 – 3V digital input/output
- 2 channels 0 – 5V 10 bit analog input
- Channel maximum current 20 mA
- USB power supply
- V-USB based comms
- PC user interface (UI)
- 150 S/s (set to increase with future firmware upgrades)
- 50 mm x 33 mm x 17 mm
“The IViny features two digital channels and two 10 bit analog channels, just like you’d find in any ATtiny85 project,” writes HackADay’s Brian Benchoff.
“Power is supplied over USB, and a connection to a computer is provided by V-USB. There’s also a pretty cool Python app that goes along with the project able to plot the analog inputs and control the digital I/O on the device.”
As Benchoff notes, the device doesn’t exactly run at light speed, with the firmware currently supporting 100 samples per second.
“[However], an upcoming firmware upgrade will improve that. Still, if you ever need to read some analog values or toggle a few pins on the cheap, it’s a nice little USB Swiss army knife to have,” he adds.
Interested in learning more about IViny, the ATtiny85-powered DAQ? You can check out the project’s GitHub page here.
Atmel | Bits & Pieces 