ChaserDesigner - A professional approach for fancy light design

This project is published in July 2011 th issue of Electronics For You (EFY) magazine (Page no: 94 to 98) titled:"Microcontroller-Based Light Chaser". Thanks to EFY for publishing this. You can read full article from EFYmagonline or purchase one.

ChaserDesigner is a useful project for fancy light designer professionals  as well as enthusiast who want to make their own LED patterns while decorating home during festivals. It's hardware part is simple one which uses 8051(or any variants of 8051) and a handy software part based on Qt. In the GUI, you need to specify how the pattern appear on LEDs(or connected higher loads) and it will automatically generate the source code for 8051(in assembly language). Only you need to do is that, burn the program in to the micro and put it on the circuit. Then the LEDs start to glow in the designed pattern. This is very handy and there are some tools provided to easily make your own patterns. The software works in Linux, Windows, or MAC and hardware components chosen are almost ubiquitous. In case, if any component found unavailable, please comment, I will try to recommend any alternative if any. I have put source code,circuit diagram and all other associated diagrams free for download.

1. contents.zip - Article before published, circuit diagram, images etc.
http://www.4shared.com/file/MolWxWP_/content.html

2. chaserdesigner_src.zip - Software source code.http://www.4shared.com/file/zY9fz6LF/chaserDesigner_src.html


3.chaserdesigner1.0.zip - Windows XP executable file
http://www.4shared.com/file/3WmVxoaF/ChaserDesiner10.html


4.videos.zip - videos describing, how to operate the software and hardware.
http://www.4shared.com/file/EagoltHS/videos.html

Note: Since it is published by EFY,  it is better to read this article in EFY to get more pretty article with PCB layout also.

mcu8051 IDE for Windows

mcu8051IDE can now be used in Microsoft Windows also. If you are not aware of mcu8051IDE, read my previous post: Introduction to mcu8051IDE

Download the following:

• mcu8051ide.exe
• Active Tcl
• SDCC (optional)

First install ActiveTcl and SDCC and then mcu8051IDE.
Then you have just completed mcu8051IDE installation in windows.
If you want to report bug, go here.

FEL: Introduction to MCU8051IDE

There is a lot of free and propitiatory IDEs for micro controllers. Here I like to write about MCU 8051 IDE - An open source project packaged under FEL (Fedora Electronic Lab). Intel 8051 is a standard micro controller and that's why it is essential in engineering syllabus even though some good stuffs are there in newer micro controllers from Microchip, Atmel etc. Simulating 8051 is pretty easy if you own a good 8051 IDE. There is a lot of IDEs available for 8051 simulation and emulation. But it is not a good idea to spent your valuable money for that, if such good free and open source IDEs are available. I am just coming to my point. It is about MCU 8051 IDE. It is packaged with fedora electronic lab. If you intend to stick with other OS, you need to compile the source code. Currently it supports more than 79 MCUs. Know more and how much powerful it is. I have uploaded a screencast of MCU 8051 IDE and I think it is enough to start with for a beginner who knows assembly level programming in 8051. Of course, one can write and simulate the program in C also.
Download video tutorial mcu8051.ogv.

You can view the screencast with VLC media player or any other ogv supported media player.

mcu8051IDE for Windows