Getting (professional) help for circuit design

[douglasgoodwin]

Hello everyone,

I am an artist and educator with limited circuit design experience. viz: I can read a circuit diagram, I'm handy with solder, I can get around in Fritzing and I have a shoebox full of stuffed breadboards & Arduinos. I have been trying to DIY the project but I really want to finish the project in my lifetime.

The project calls for two intersecting analog circuits: one that measures and averages the brightness of nearby LEDs, the other that modulates the brightness of an LED. The two circuits are loosley coupled: local conditions of the network can vary the influence of that linkage (this is a feature).

I have a vague plan based on two designs from my Forrest Mims collection. Both utilize 555 timers: one to modulate the other to measure and send a control signal to the modulator. It's a reasonable approach but I need help from an experienced engineer. So I'm looking for a reasonably priced service that could design a circuit that I could prototype on a breadboard. Do you have any recommendations?

Thanks,
-Doug

[Zener]

I would do it with an Arduino. Forget the 555's. Can you write any code? You could get help here without paying anyone.

[douglasgoodwin]

Hi Zener,

Tempting, yes! But I'm looking for an analog design because the voltage in the circuits needs to be continuous. I don't want any states to fall into aliased or stepped voltages.

-Doug

[Zener]

You need high precision? Or do I not understand? I am not sure what you mean by states falling into aliased or stepped voltages. The Arduino has a 10 bit A/D you know. Thats pretty good resolution.

[douglasgoodwin]

So you would do something like this?
http://provideyourown.com/2011/analogwr ... o-voltage/

That's nice and easy even though circuit it's an order of magnitude more complex than using a handful of components. It's not practical to build 50 of Arduino circuits, but it would make a good prototype.

Thanks,
-Doug

[mwilson]

Maybe these guys
http://upverter.com/

[Zener]

So you would do something like this?
http://provideyourown.com/2011/analogwr ... o-voltage/

That's the basic idea.

it's an order of magnitude more complex than using a handful of components. It's not practical to build 50 of Arduino circuits

Actually the circuit would be simpler than using 555's, I can guarantee that. And simpler means easier to build. You don't need to duplicate the entire Arduino circuit. You just need a CPU.

Anyway, your original post was looking for a reasonably priced design service. I don't know any cheap ones but I am sure you can find someone. However, any experienced engineer will steer you away from using 555's for this, although for the record I don't really know what you are trying to do. Good Luck.