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Home › Magazines › 2010 › January › USB Magic Eye

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USB Magic Eye

Valve indicates CPU load

Published in issue 397, January 2010

USB Magic Eye

Herwe use a green glowing valve as a CPU activity meter. Power and control are both provided by the USB port. A simpler variant on the circuit, using a moving-coil meter, is also described. For the CPU meter we chose the USB stack described in application note AVR309 by Igor Cesko.

Extra info, Updates

Components

Relevant websites

Free downloads

Features
- display of CPU load as a percentage (0 to 100)
- power and control over USB
- ATtiny microcontroller with software USB interface
- two variants with the same firmware
- display using moving-coil meter or EM84 ‘magic eye’ valve
- very low component count
- low-cost, readily-available indicator valve
- current consumption (moving-coil version): less than 100 mA
- current consumption (magic eye version): less than 500 mA
- freely downloadable PC software and microcontroller firmware, with source code

Click below to download a PDF copy of this article from Elektor magazine.

 

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Article PDF
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Order this magazine 
Magazine January 2010
UK397 (US $ 7.50)
 

Order from Elektor 
ATtiny2313-20PU, programmed
090788-41 (US $ 16.00)
PCB, bare
090788-1 (US $ 16.00)
 

Free downloads 

Software

Free download
Please note. In view of the complexity of international markets, Elektor cannot guarantee the availability of components for this project.

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