https://stream.echo6.co/videos/watch/f3950163-575f-46e2-9d60-f50321b7879c This control module was built for a local production company that were attempting to get funding for a sci-fi short way back in 2003. It was designed to be part of the wrist console of a space suit and apart from the onboard display and LEDs it also controlled various other functions and lighting on the spacesuit too. It has several "cues" that represent different stages in the filming. The first is a display of the astronauts remaining air time. It starts at 4 hours and 59 minutes and decrements every minute. The next cue starts from the time displayed and counts down at high speed to indicate sudden pressure loss until it reaches 12 minutes, which is the air capacity of the reserve tanks. At that point the controller is manually decremented one minute at a time as a significant part of the storyline occurs in his dying minutes. Finally the display shows a row of flashing bars to indicate oxygen is depleted. Two of these controllers were built, the other having criminally expensive blue seven segment LED displays in it. (They were the first commercially available blue LED 7-segment displays.) The main control is done by a PIC16F627 microcontroller programmed in assembly code (machine code). It controls a ULN2803 Darlington driver for external loads, some LEDs directly via resistors and an M5450B serial to parallel LED driver with current control. The LED displays are directly driven and not multiplexed to avoid camera flicker issues. A fun project that didn't really leave the ground, but did lead into other similar projects like the BBC series Intergalactic Kitchen. Mon, 13 Apr 2026 20:42:22 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://stream.echo6.co https://stream.echo6.co/client/assets/images/icons/icon-512x512.png https://stream.echo6.co/videos/watch/f3950163-575f-46e2-9d60-f50321b7879c All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://stream.echo6.co/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder.