Myanmar Astrological Calendar Days

A typical Myanmar calendar usually describes astrological days such as auspicious days and ill fated days. In this post, we will present about the following days and javascript code for them.

CAN bus

CAN bus (controller area network) is a vehicle bus standard designed to allow microcontrollers and devices to communicate with each other. CAN bus is a message-based protocol, designed specifically for automotive applications but now also used in other areas such as aerospace, industrial automation and medical equipment. The advantages of CAN bus compared to RS232 communication are as follows.

Personal Release Form for Interviewer

Useful Web Resources for Academic Writing

Using Analog to Digital Converter of AT89C51CC01 Microcontroller

Using AT89STK-06 starter kit, I have written a few C code to read an analog to digital converter (ADC) input of AT89C51CC01 which is an 8051 microcontroller. It has 8 multiplexed ADC inputs with 10 bit resolution. As an example, ADC input pin 7 which is connected to a variable resister is read.

GNU Octave as an Alternative to MatLab

GNU Octave, FreeMat and Scilab are free open source software for numerical calculations alternative to MATLAB. After reading reviews in the Internet, I chose GNU Octave to try. Installing GNU Octave on a Windows system is easy. Download the files from its Download page and extract them to a folder. Then, you can put the shortcut at a desired location and change the path and the icon in its properties. When you open GNU Octave by clicking the shortcut, a window will appear as shown in the following figure. You can key in MATLAB commands there directly.

Chord-changer Javascript

I have written a Javascript program to transpose the guitar chords for a song into a different key. In the lyrics of the song, the guitar chords are supposed to be between ^and. You can try it at Myanmar Lyrics by clicking the Key Up and Key Down buttons. The codes are shown below.

Algorithm, Program and Calculation of Myanmar Calendar

မြန်မာဘာသာ ဖြင့်ဖတ်ရန်

An easier and faster modern method to calculate a past, present or future date in the Myanmar calendar (the Burmese calendar) is presented. The constants, formulas and steps are clearly defined to derive all the essential elements of the Myanmar calendar such as Myanmar year, Myanmar month, waxing or waning moon and day. Unlike the existing methods, this method is easy even for a person who is not familiar with the Myanmar calendar and its terms.

Non-inverting Amplifier Using op-amp

When PiezoDrive PDX 150 amplifier that I used to drive a piezoelectric actuator was damaged, I need to find a way to use an existing spare amplifier. The spare amplifier shown in the following figure has input voltage -2 V to 12 V and output voltage -20 V to 120 V. Its gain is only 10 while the damaged one is 20. Therefore, I decided to design and use an additional preamplifier with gain 2.


The input to that amplifier is -1 V to 6 V and its output shold be -2 V to 12 V. Since I need non-inverted output, I have used an op-amp with non-inverting configuration. I have also used a trimmer so that it is possible to fine tune the gain. Readily available LM358N op-amp IC is arbitrarily picked up. The schematic circuit diagram and resulting amplifier using available components in our lab is shown below. Since the non-inverting amplifier has very high input impedance, I have used additional 56k resister to prevent it from floating.


When tuning the amplifier to get exact gain of 2, it looked unreliable to use peak to peak readings from oscilloscope. That was why, I had to think of an alternative way to achieve it. I set channel 1 which was connected to output of the amplifier to 10 V per division and I set channel 2 which was connected to input of the implifier to 5 V per division. After that, I calibrated the trimmer to get identical waves at the screen :P

TRIAC Power Control Circuit

My vacuum cleaner was faulty. I thought the reason might be blown fuse and I tried to fix it. Unfortunately, I could not find any fuse either in machine or connector. I then thought that the reason might be the faulty power control circuit. Therefore, I tried to bypass the control circuit by directly connecting power and motor. But it did not work. Finally, I successfully solved the problem by throwing the old one and buying a new vacuum cleaner :P I kept the power control circuit and tried to trace it when I was free. It uses a simple RC circuit and a DIAC to make a phase lag in firing the TRIAC. The circuit is quite simple and it is shown below.