Thursday, June 19, 2014

Attiny85 CAT5 Cable Tester

Project Idea: Use Attiny85 to drive 5 leds to test 4 wires and 1 shield as a CAT5 tester.  Use code from "proton pack" project to drive leds.  Use transistors if needed to drive LEDs.  Put together a circuit and used 1 k resistors for the LEDs.  The ON time of the LEDs is 75ms, the OFF time is 25 ms.  Need to be able to program the unit, so an ICSP connector is needed.  The circuit is 5V but the power supply is 9V, so a 5V regulator will be used.  There will be a power supply LED and a  5V power LED.  Switch type is undetermined at this time.  The circuit will be installed in an Altoid tin.  Might go with a multi pcb setup to make the best use of space.  Several mini perf boards seems to work.  The rj-45 jack is attached to a mini perf board.

Best size of perfboard that fits in Altoids tin

Trimmed to fit

Board dimension/info

Added mounting holes, slot for rj-45 jack and connectors to mount rj-45 mini board

RJ-45 board with jack and connectors installed, mounting holes setup

Another view, still need to clean up board edges

Another view
 
Side view of both boards, ready for test fitting

Front view of both boards

Ready for test fitting in Altoids tin.  RJ-45 board still needs tweaking

Top view

View of RJ-45 board with 5v regulator in place

Side view of 5v regulator in place

Test fitting board and battery


Here is the schematic for the project.  Its a start, some things will be added, removed as needed.

Vers 1.0

Idea for component layout.  Still undecided on a switch and location.

Mounting holes drilled and board installed.

Cutout RJ-45 port for case and lid

Cutout for switch and 2 LEDs on box, lid only has switch cutout done.

Lid work completed for switch, LEDs WIP

Found a website that has perfboard paper in PDF format.  It has worked out well using it to layout components.






Component layout ideas


Thinking about using card connectors to allow easy component replacement.



Schematic with a few notes

















Heres the code used for the Attiny85 CAT5 tester
================================================================
/*
  Sketch for Attiny85 chip
 
  LED sequencer for testing 4 wire + 1 ground continuity

 */

int led1 = 0;
int led2 = 1;
int led3 = 2;
int led4 = 3;
int led5 = 4;

void setup() {               

  pinMode(led1, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(led2, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(led3, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(led4, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(led5, OUTPUT); 
}

void loop() {

digitalWrite(led1, HIGH);
delay(250);
digitalWrite(led1, LOW);
delay(10);
digitalWrite(led2, HIGH);
delay(250);
digitalWrite(led2, LOW);
delay(10);
digitalWrite(led3, HIGH);
delay(250);
digitalWrite(led3, LOW);
delay(10);
digitalWrite(led4, HIGH);
delay(250);
digitalWrite(led4, LOW);
delay(10);
digitalWrite(led5, HIGH);
delay(250);
digitalWrite(led5, LOW);
delay(10);
}
================================================================


Screenshots of the setup/configuration of the Arduino IDE

This is the board option I used


I used a USBTiny programmer to upload the code





Completed the project on 17 July 2014.

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Attiny85 CAT5 Cable Tester

Project Idea:  Use Attiny85 to drive 5 leds to test 4 wires and 1 shield as a CAT5 tester.  Use code from "proton pack" project to drive leds.  Use transistors if needed to drive LEDs.