PIC Power Project Notes

The PIC Power Meter started out as an article in QEX in the May/June 2005 edition.  A companion piece was presented in QST.  In conjunction with the article, KangaUS offered full kits for sale.

Since 2005, over 100 full kits were sold, and another 100+ sets of PC boards.  The firmware was updated in 2007 to include some minor feature enhancements, including RS-232 interface support.  The project appeared in the 2008 - 2009 handbooks as well (give or take).  Bill @ Kanga has just a couple of kits remaining in his stock.

General:

Corrections:

Get the Lead Out!

Component Designator Part Type Old Digikey Part Number New Digikey Part Number Comments
R102 10K Variable Resistor 3329H-103-ND Work-In-Progress Bourns 3309W? Lead / Older part was too expensive!
U101, U201, U205 78L05 Voltage Regulator DK-NJM78L05UA-ND DK-497-1183-1-ND Or equiv.  Lead Free.
U202 AD8307 Log Amp DK-8307AR-ND AD8307ARZ-ND Or direct from Analog Devices
         
         

RS-232:

    Parts chosen:

The V2.0 code supports serial port output of all of the pertinent data.  Note a ugly sprintf bug within the present CCS compiler, which explains the even-uglier formatting within the source code.  If you don't like the format of the output, I would encourage you to modify it yourself (I'll probably be doing so as well!)

Presently, the serial output is hard-coded for 9600 bps.

Other Projects to Investigate:

More to follow. 

ka7exm at gmail dot com