Recent content by ssmith579

Go to DigiKey and look up LM7805. It's a linear regulator that will drop the 12V battery to 5V. Put a 0.1uF ceramic cap between the 5V and ground and it should power your device just fine. I'm assuming the device draws less than 500mA.

There are many good cheap microcontrollers you can use. TI, Freescale, Atmel, Microchip, etc. The Atmel AVR 8 bit micros are a good place to start. AVRFreaks.net has all the information you'll need. Call your local distributor, Avnet, Arrow, etc and see if you can talk them into loaning you...

I'm looking for a way to detect water flow through a pipe. For example, I want to detect when a toilet flushes or leaks. I'm looking for a way to detect this that doesn't require anything submerged in the tank or inserted into the water line. I really just want to know that water is flowing...