Electronics project ideas
100 projects, from a first build to a final-year capstone. Each lists the skills it teaches and the tools it needs; times and costs are estimates.
Beginner projects
- Op-Amp Signal Conditioner — Amplify and offset a small sensor voltage into a microcontroller's ADC range, then verify gain and offset against a meter. Skills: op-amp gain, offset scaling, ADC input range. Tools: breadboard, op-amp, multimeter. Hardware build, Up to 15 h, Under $30.
- 555 Timer Light Flasher — Build an astable 555 oscillator, change R and C to hit target frequencies and compare measured period with the formula. Skills: RC timing, astable operation, oscilloscope basics. Tools: 555 timer, breadboard, oscilloscope. Hardware build, Up to 15 h, Under $30.
- Digital Logic Trainer — Wire switches, gates and LEDs into a bench trainer that shows truth tables for AND, OR, XOR and a 2-bit adder. Skills: Boolean logic, truth tables, TTL/CMOS levels. Tools: 74HC logic ICs, switches, LEDs. Hardware build, Up to 15 h, Under $30.
- Temperature Alarm Circuit — Trigger a buzzer when a thermistor divider crosses a set temperature, with a comparator and adjustable hysteresis. Skills: voltage divider, comparator, hysteresis. Tools: thermistor, LM393, buzzer. Hardware build, Up to 15 h, Under $30.
- Photodiode Light Meter — Convert photodiode current to voltage with a transimpedance amplifier and calibrate the reading against a phone lux app. Skills: transimpedance amplifier, calibration, photodetection. Tools: photodiode, op-amp, multimeter. Hardware build, Up to 15 h, Under $30.
- LED Driver With Constant Current — Drive a high-brightness LED from a transistor current sink and show that brightness stays steady as supply voltage changes. Skills: current sink, transistor biasing, thermal limits. Tools: BJT/MOSFET, LED, bench supply. Hardware build, Up to 15 h, Under $30.
- Resistor Colour Code Trainer — Build a quiz app that shows random resistor bands, asks for the value and checks answers including tolerance bands. Skills: E-series values, tolerance, colour codes. Tools: web app, JavaScript. Visualizer, Up to 15 h, Software only (free tools).
- Battery Voltage Indicator — Show remaining battery level on a five-LED bar using a comparator ladder and a precision reference. Skills: comparator ladder, voltage reference, thresholds. Tools: LM339, zener/reference, LEDs. Hardware build, Up to 15 h, Under $30.
- Audio Amplifier Kit Build — Assemble a small class-AB audio amplifier, measure gain and clipping point, and record distortion by ear and scope. Skills: amplifier classes, gain, clipping. Tools: LM386, speaker, oscilloscope. Hardware build, Up to 15 h, Under $30.
- Touchless Switch — Toggle a relay with a hand wave using an IR reflective sensor, debounce logic and a status LED. Skills: IR sensing, debouncing, relay driving. Tools: IR sensor, transistor, relay. Hardware build, Up to 15 h, Under $30.
- Capacitive Liquid-Level Detector — Detect water level through a plastic tank wall with a capacitive sensing pad and calibrate trip points. Skills: capacitive sensing, calibration, thresholds. Tools: copper pad, microcontroller, LEDs. Hardware build, Up to 15 h, Under $30.
- RC Filter Frequency Explorer — Sweep a signal generator through RC low-pass and high-pass filters and plot measured versus predicted -3 dB points. Skills: cutoff frequency, Bode plot, phase shift. Tools: signal generator, scope, spreadsheet. Data lab, Up to 15 h, Software only (free tools).
- Zener Voltage Regulator Study — Build a zener shunt regulator, vary load current and input voltage, and chart line and load regulation. Skills: zener diodes, line/load regulation, power dissipation. Tools: zener diode, resistors, bench supply. Hardware build, Up to 15 h, Under $30.
- Transistor Switch Calculator — Calculate base resistor and saturation margin for driving relays, LEDs and motors from a GPIO pin, with warnings. Skills: BJT saturation, base current, flyback diodes. Tools: web calculator. Visualizer, Up to 15 h, Software only (free tools).
- Ohm's Law Breadboard Lab — Measure voltage and current through resistor networks and compare series/parallel results with hand calculations. Skills: Ohm's law, series/parallel, measurement error. Tools: breadboard, resistors, multimeter. Hardware build, Up to 15 h, Under $30.
- Half-Wave and Full-Wave Rectifier Comparison — Build both rectifiers with a smoothing capacitor and measure ripple at different loads on a scope. Skills: rectification, ripple, smoothing capacitors. Tools: diodes, transformer (low voltage), scope. Hardware build, Up to 15 h, Under $30.
- Seven-Segment Counter — Count button presses on a seven-segment display with a decade counter and decoder chain. Skills: counters, BCD decoding, display multiplexing. Tools: CD4026/74HC390, 7-segment display. Hardware build, Up to 15 h, Under $30.
- Clap-Activated Switch — Turn a lamp on and off with two claps using a microphone preamp, envelope detector and flip-flop. Skills: microphone preamp, envelope detection, flip-flops. Tools: electret mic, op-amp, CD4013. Hardware build, Up to 15 h, Under $30.
- Soil Moisture Probe — Read a resistive soil probe, filter the signal and display dry/moist/wet bands with LEDs. Skills: sensor reading, averaging, threshold bands. Tools: moisture probe, microcontroller. Hardware build, Up to 15 h, Under $30.
- Logic Probe Pen — Build a pocket logic probe that shows high, low and pulsing signals with LEDs and a pulse stretcher. Skills: logic levels, pulse stretching, monostables. Tools: comparators, 555, LEDs. Hardware build, Up to 15 h, Under $30.
- Breadboard Power Supply Module — Design a 5 V / 3.3 V breadboard supply with linear regulators, polarity protection and current limiting. Skills: linear regulators, protection diodes, heat dissipation. Tools: LM7805, LDO, fuse. Hardware build, Up to 15 h, Under $30.
- Simple Crystal Radio Receiver — Build a passive AM receiver, tune its LC circuit and measure resonant frequency against the formula. Skills: LC resonance, AM detection, antennas. Tools: coil, variable capacitor, germanium diode. Hardware build, Up to 15 h, Under $30.
- Buzzer Melody Generator — Play note sequences on a piezo buzzer by generating square waves at musical frequencies. Skills: square-wave generation, frequency, timers. Tools: microcontroller, piezo buzzer. Hardware build, Up to 15 h, Under $30.
- Light-Following Robot Sensor Board — Design the LDR comparator board that lets a small robot steer toward light, with tuning trimmers. Skills: LDR dividers, comparators, differential sensing. Tools: LDRs, LM393, trimmers. Hardware build, Up to 15 h, Under $30.
- Electronic Dice — Roll a random number on an LED dice pattern using a fast counter stopped by a button. Skills: counters, pseudo-randomness, LED patterns. Tools: 555, CD4017, LEDs. Hardware build, Up to 15 h, Under $30.
Intermediate projects
- Low-Noise Sensor Front End — Design an instrumentation-amplifier front end for a strain gauge bridge and measure noise floor and drift. Skills: instrumentation amplifiers, bridge circuits, noise. Tools: INA128/INA333, strain gauge, scope. Hardware build, 15–45 h, $30–150.
- Active Filter Bank — Design Sallen-Key and multiple-feedback filters for three audio bands and verify responses with a frequency sweep. Skills: active filters, Q factor, frequency response. Tools: op-amps, signal generator, scope. Hardware build, 15–45 h, $30–150.
- Buck Converter Design — Size inductor and capacitor for a 12 V to 5 V buck converter and measure efficiency and ripple at several loads. Skills: switching regulators, inductor ripple, efficiency. Tools: buck controller IC, inductor, e-load. Hardware build, 15–45 h, $30–150.
- Battery Protection Circuit — Add over-voltage, under-voltage and over-current cut-off for a Li-ion cell and test each trip point safely. Skills: Li-ion protection, MOSFET switching, fault testing. Tools: protection IC, MOSFETs, current-limited supply. Hardware build, 15–45 h, $30–150.
- Precision Reference Source — Build a low-drift voltage reference, log its output over temperature and compute ppm/°C stability. Skills: voltage references, temperature drift, logging. Tools: reference IC, ADC, temperature sensor. Data lab, 15–45 h, $30–150.
- PWM Motor Controller — Control DC motor speed with an H-bridge and PWM, measure current ripple and add soft start. Skills: PWM, H-bridge, motor current. Tools: H-bridge IC, DC motor, microcontroller. Hardware build, 15–45 h, $30–150.
- Mixed-Signal Data Logger — Log four analog channels and two digital inputs to an SD card with timestamps and a configurable sample rate. Skills: ADC sampling, file systems, timestamps. Tools: microcontroller, SD card, RTC. Hardware build, 15–45 h, $30–150.
- Solar Charge Controller — Charge a lead-acid or LiFePO4 battery from a small panel with PWM charging stages and status reporting. Skills: charge profiles, PWM charging, solar I-V. Tools: small PV panel, MOSFETs, microcontroller. Hardware build, 15–45 h, $30–150.
- Wireless Sensor Node — Send temperature and humidity readings over BLE or LoRa every minute and measure average current per reading. Skills: radio links, duty cycling, power budgeting. Tools: ESP32/nRF, sensor, current meter. Hardware build, 15–45 h, $30–150.
- Programmable Electronic Load — Build a constant-current electronic load with a MOSFET and op-amp loop to test power supplies. Skills: current regulation, MOSFET SOA, heat sinking. Tools: power MOSFET, op-amp, heatsink. Hardware build, 15–45 h, $30–150.
- Phase-Locked Loop Frequency Synthesizer — Lock a VCO to a reference with a CD4046 PLL and divider, and measure lock range and jitter. Skills: PLL, VCO, loop filter design. Tools: CD4046, counters, scope. Hardware build, 15–45 h, $30–150.
- Capacitance and ESR Meter — Measure capacitance from RC charge time and estimate ESR with a pulse method, checked against known parts. Skills: RC charging, ESR, measurement design. Tools: microcontroller, analog front end. Hardware build, 15–45 h, $30–150.
- Class-D Audio Amplifier — Build a class-D stage with a triangle comparator and LC output filter, comparing efficiency with class AB. Skills: class-D modulation, output filters, efficiency. Tools: comparator, MOSFET half-bridge, LC filter. Hardware build, 15–45 h, $30–150.
- Ultrasonic Distance Ranger — Measure distance with a 40 kHz transducer pair, compensate for temperature and compare against a tape measure. Skills: time of flight, temperature compensation, filtering. Tools: ultrasonic transducers, microcontroller. Hardware build, 15–45 h, $30–150.
- Function Generator — Generate sine, square and triangle waves with DDS and an output amplifier, testing amplitude and frequency accuracy. Skills: direct digital synthesis, DAC, output stages. Tools: AD9833, op-amp, microcontroller. Hardware build, 15–45 h, $30–150.
- Isolated Gate Driver Board — Drive a high-side MOSFET with an isolated driver and bootstrap supply, then measure switching edges. Skills: gate drive, bootstrap supplies, isolation. Tools: gate driver IC, MOSFETs, scope. Hardware build, 15–45 h, $30–150.
- Thermal Camera Readout — Read a low-resolution thermal array sensor and render a false-colour image with min/max tracking. Skills: I2C sensors, image mapping, calibration. Tools: MLX90640/AMG8833, microcontroller. Visualizer, 15–45 h, Software only (free tools).
- Hall-Effect Current Sensor — Measure DC and AC current with a Hall sensor, calibrate offset and gain, and display RMS current. Skills: Hall sensing, RMS calculation, calibration. Tools: ACS712/ACS723, microcontroller. Hardware build, 15–45 h, $30–150.
- Analog Synthesizer Voice — Build a VCO, VCF and ADSR envelope into one monophonic voice controlled by a 1 V/octave input. Skills: exponential converters, filters, envelopes. Tools: op-amps, transistors, potentiometers. Hardware build, 15–45 h, $30–150.
- Optical Heart-Rate Front End — Extract a PPG pulse from reflected light with ambient-light rejection and a band-pass filter. Skills: PPG signals, ambient rejection, band-pass filtering. Tools: LED/photodiode, op-amps, microcontroller. Hardware build, 15–45 h, $30–150.
- Power Factor Monitor — Measure voltage and current waveforms of a low-voltage AC load and compute real power, apparent power and PF. Skills: AC power, phase angle, sampling. Tools: isolated sensing, microcontroller. Dashboard, 15–45 h, Software only (free tools).
- Fault-Injection Test Board — Inject open, short and noisy-signal faults into a sensor line and check that firmware detects each one. Skills: fault modes, diagnostics, test coverage. Tools: analog switches, relays, microcontroller. Hardware build, 15–45 h, $30–150.
- USB Power Delivery Sniffer — Decode USB-PD messages on the CC line and show negotiated voltages and currents on a display. Skills: USB-PD protocol, BMC decoding, logic analysis. Tools: PD analyzer IC/logic analyzer, microcontroller. Data lab, 15–45 h, Software only (free tools).
- Constant-Voltage Bench Supply — Build an adjustable 0–15 V bench supply with current limit, foldback protection and front-panel metering. Skills: linear regulation, current limiting, metering. Tools: LM317/op-amp, pass transistor, panel meter. Hardware build, 15–45 h, $30–150.
- Infrared Remote Decoder — Capture and decode NEC/RC5 remote codes, then replay them to control a TV or fan. Skills: IR modulation, protocol decoding, timing. Tools: IR receiver, IR LED, microcontroller. Hardware build, 15–45 h, $30–150.
Advanced projects
- DC-DC Converter Loop Compensation — Measure the control-loop Bode plot of a boost converter, design type-II compensation and verify phase margin. Skills: loop compensation, stability, injection measurement. Tools: boost controller, signal injection transformer, scope. Hardware build, 45–100 h, $150+.
- Emi-Aware PCB Layout — Lay out a switching regulator board twice—careless and EMI-aware—and compare near-field probe scans. Skills: PCB layout, return paths, EMI reduction. Tools: KiCad, near-field probe, spectrum analyzer. CAD / design, 45–100 h, $30–150.
- Low-Power Wearable Circuit — Design a coin-cell wearable that lasts a year, profiling sleep current and each wake-up burst. Skills: ultra-low power, power profiling, battery life. Tools: nRF52/MSP430, power profiler. Hardware build, 45–100 h, $150+.
- Automatic Test Fixture — Build a bed-of-nails fixture that powers a board, measures rails and runs a scripted pass/fail test. Skills: production test, test scripting, fixtures. Tools: pogo pins, DAQ, Python. Workflow, 45–100 h, Software only (free tools).
- Energy-Harvesting Circuit — Harvest indoor light or vibration energy into a supercapacitor and run a sensor node purely from it. Skills: energy harvesting, MPPT, cold start. Tools: harvesting PMIC, supercap, PV cell. Hardware build, 45–100 h, $150+.
- Self-Calibrating Measurement Module — Add an internal reference and calibration routine so an ADC module corrects its own gain and offset. Skills: self-calibration, error budgets, ADC linearity. Tools: precision ADC, reference, microcontroller. Hardware build, 45–100 h, $150+.
- Lock-In Amplifier — Recover a tiny modulated signal buried in noise with a digital lock-in amplifier and measure its sensitivity. Skills: synchronous detection, noise rejection, DSP. Tools: ADC, microcontroller/PC, modulated source. Data lab, 45–100 h, Software only (free tools).
- Galvanically Isolated ADC Channel — Measure a floating high-side signal through an isolated sigma-delta modulator and digital filter. Skills: isolation, sigma-delta conversion, digital filtering. Tools: isolated modulator, FPGA/MCU. Hardware build, 45–100 h, $150+.
- Flyback Converter Prototype — Design a low-power isolated flyback supply, wind or select the transformer and test regulation and snubbing. Skills: flyback topology, transformer design, snubbers. Tools: flyback controller, transformer, scope. Hardware build, 45–100 h, $150+.
- Battery Fuel-Gauge Estimator — Estimate state of charge with coulomb counting plus voltage correction and compare with a full discharge test. Skills: coulomb counting, SoC estimation, calibration. Tools: fuel-gauge IC, e-load, logging. Data lab, 45–100 h, Software only (free tools).
- High-Speed Signal Integrity Study — Measure reflections on mismatched traces with a fast-edge generator and fix them with proper termination. Skills: transmission lines, termination, TDR. Tools: fast pulse source, scope, test PCB. Hardware build, 45–100 h, $150+.
- Motor Current Sensing for FOC — Build the three-phase current-sense front end for field-oriented control and verify bandwidth and offsets. Skills: shunt sensing, differential amplifiers, PWM sync. Tools: shunt resistors, current-sense amps, MCU. Hardware build, 45–100 h, $150+.
- Software-Controlled Oscilloscope Front End — Design a switchable attenuator and buffer front end for a USB scope and characterise its bandwidth. Skills: attenuators, input protection, bandwidth. Tools: analog switches, op-amps, ADC. Hardware build, 45–100 h, $150+.
- Precision Thermocouple Interface — Measure thermocouple voltage with cold-junction compensation and linearisation to ±0.5 °C. Skills: thermocouples, CJC, linearisation. Tools: thermocouple ADC, reference thermometer. Hardware build, 45–100 h, $150+.
- Hot-Swap and Inrush Controller — Limit inrush current when a board is plugged into a live backplane and test fault-timer behaviour. Skills: inrush control, MOSFET SOA, fault timers. Tools: hot-swap controller, MOSFET, e-load. Hardware build, 45–100 h, $150+.
- Digital Power Supply Controller — Close a buck converter's voltage loop in firmware and compare digital compensation with an analog design. Skills: digital control, discrete compensators, PWM resolution. Tools: MCU with high-res PWM, power stage. Simulator, 45–100 h, $30–150.
- Capacitive Touch Slider — Design a multi-electrode touch slider with noise filtering and moisture rejection. Skills: capacitive sensing, interpolation, noise immunity. Tools: touch controller, PCB electrodes. Hardware build, 45–100 h, $150+.
- Electronic Load Line Tester — Automate load-step tests on a power supply and measure transient response, overshoot and recovery time. Skills: transient response, test automation, data analysis. Tools: e-load, scope, Python. Workflow, 45–100 h, Software only (free tools).
- Brownout and Reset Supervisor Study — Characterise how a microcontroller behaves through slow and fast supply dips and design a robust reset. Skills: brownout, reset supervisors, power sequencing. Tools: supervisor IC, programmable supply. Hardware build, 45–100 h, $150+.
- Audio DAC Measurement Bench — Measure THD+N, SNR and frequency response of a DAC board with a sound-card analyzer. Skills: audio metrics, FFT analysis, grounding. Tools: audio interface, analysis software. Data lab, 45–100 h, Software only (free tools).
- Power Analyzer for Standby Loads — Measure milliwatt standby consumption of appliances accurately using integrating sampling. Skills: low-power measurement, integration, shunt selection. Tools: precision shunt, ADC, isolation. Dashboard, 45–100 h, Software only (free tools).
- Wireless Power Transfer Coil Pair — Build a resonant inductive link, tune both coils and measure efficiency versus distance and misalignment. Skills: resonant coupling, coil tuning, efficiency. Tools: coils, driver stage, scope. Hardware build, 45–100 h, $150+.
- Thermal Design of a Power Board — Predict MOSFET and regulator temperatures, compare with thermal-camera images and improve copper pours. Skills: thermal resistance, PCB heat spreading, derating. Tools: thermal camera, KiCad, spreadsheet. CAD / design, 45–100 h, $30–150.
- Programmable Gain Instrumentation Chain — Auto-range an analog input across five gain settings and keep the ADC in its best region. Skills: auto-ranging, PGAs, overload detection. Tools: PGA, ADC, microcontroller. Hardware build, 45–100 h, $150+.
- Gas Sensor Conditioning Board — Heat, bias and read a metal-oxide gas sensor with baseline tracking and humidity correction. Skills: sensor heating, baseline drift, compensation. Tools: MOX sensor, humidity sensor, MCU. Hardware build, 45–100 h, $150+.
Expert projects
- Mixed-Signal ASIC-Style Prototype — Prototype an analog front end plus digital decimation filter on discrete parts and FPGA as a pre-silicon study. Skills: mixed-signal partitioning, decimation, verification. Tools: FPGA, ADC, analog front end. Digital twin, 100 h+, $150+.
- Adaptive Noise-Cancelling Sensor Interface — Cancel correlated interference in a sensor signal with an LMS adaptive filter running in real time. Skills: adaptive filtering, LMS, real-time DSP. Tools: DSP/MCU, reference sensor. Simulator, 100 h+, $150+.
- GaN Half-Bridge Characterisation — Measure switching losses and dead-time effects of GaN transistors with careful double-pulse testing. Skills: wide-bandgap devices, double-pulse testing, layout parasitics. Tools: GaN half-bridge board, high-bandwidth probes. Hardware build, 100 h+, $150+.
- Reliability Accelerated-Life Test Rig — Run temperature-cycling stress on circuit boards and model failure rates with Weibull analysis. Skills: accelerated life testing, Weibull analysis, failure modes. Tools: thermal chamber, data logger. Data lab, 100 h+, $150+.
- Circuit Digital Twin With Live Data — Run a SPICE model of a power stage alongside live measurements and flag when they diverge. Skills: SPICE modelling, model calibration, anomaly detection. Tools: ngspice/LTspice, DAQ, Python. Digital twin, 100 h+, Software only (free tools).
- Radiation-Tolerant Design Study — Compare single-event-upset mitigation such as TMR and EDAC on a microcontroller with fault injection. Skills: SEU mitigation, TMR, fault injection. Tools: FPGA/MCU, fault-injection scripts. Simulator, 100 h+, $150+.
- Battery Impedance Spectroscopy — Measure cell impedance across frequency to estimate ageing and fit an equivalent-circuit model. Skills: EIS, equivalent circuits, curve fitting. Tools: potentiostat/AC source, Python. Data lab, 100 h+, Software only (free tools).
- Multi-Phase Interleaved Converter — Design a four-phase interleaved buck with current sharing and measure ripple cancellation. Skills: interleaving, current sharing, phase management. Tools: multi-phase controller, power stages. Hardware build, 100 h+, $150+.
- On-Board Self-Test and Prognostics — Give a board built-in self-test and trend its health indicators to predict failures before they happen. Skills: BIST, prognostics, health monitoring. Tools: MCU, sensors, cloud dashboard. Dashboard, 100 h+, $150+.
- Ultra-Low Noise LDO Design — Design a discrete LDO with superior PSRR and noise, and benchmark it against commercial parts. Skills: LDO architecture, PSRR, noise density. Tools: discrete parts, spectrum analyzer. Hardware build, 100 h+, $150+.
- EMC Pre-Compliance Lab — Set up conducted and radiated pre-compliance scans and reduce a product's emissions below limit lines. Skills: EMC standards, LISN measurements, mitigation. Tools: LISN, spectrum analyzer, near-field probes. Workflow, 100 h+, $150+.
- Neuromorphic Spiking Circuit — Build analog leaky-integrate-and-fire neurons and show simple pattern recognition with spike timing. Skills: spiking neurons, analog computing, learning rules. Tools: op-amps/transistors, MCU. Hardware build, 100 h+, $150+.
- Printed Flexible Sensor Electronics — Print or fabricate flexible strain sensors and design the readout that tolerates bending drift. Skills: printed electronics, flexible substrates, drift compensation. Tools: conductive ink, flexible PCB, readout ADC. Hardware build, 100 h+, $150+.
- Automated Circuit Design Space Search — Search component values for a filter or converter with optimisation in SPICE and verify the best design on the bench. Skills: design optimisation, SPICE automation, verification. Tools: Python, ngspice, bench test. Simulator, 100 h+, Software only (free tools).
- Sub-Microwatt Wake-Up Sensor — Design a sensor that sleeps below one microwatt and wakes only on a real event, proven by long-term logging. Skills: nano-power design, event detection, leakage control. Tools: nano-power comparators, energy profiler. Hardware build, 100 h+, $150+.
- Open-Source Curve Tracer — Build a semiconductor curve tracer that plots I-V families of diodes and transistors with safe limits. Skills: device characterisation, sweep control, safety limits. Tools: programmable supplies, ADC, PC software. Visualizer, 100 h+, $150+.
- Smart Battery Management System — Balance and monitor a multi-cell pack with SoC/SoH estimation, fault handling and logged evidence. Skills: cell balancing, BMS safety, state estimation. Tools: BMS AFE, MCU, cells (supervised). Hardware build, 100 h+, $150+.
- Analog Computer for Differential Equations — Solve a damped oscillator and Lorenz system with op-amp integrators and compare against numerical solutions. Skills: analog computing, integrators, scaling. Tools: op-amps, capacitors, scope. Simulator, 100 h+, Software only (free tools).
- Hardware Trojan Detection Bench — Detect subtle malicious circuit changes by comparing power side-channel fingerprints of good and modified boards. Skills: side-channel analysis, fingerprinting, statistics. Tools: scope, current probe, Python. Data lab, 100 h+, $150+.
- Contactless Vital Sign Radar Front End — Detect breathing through a 24 GHz radar module with I/Q demodulation and motion filtering. Skills: FMCW/CW radar, I/Q processing, filtering. Tools: 24 GHz radar module, MCU/PC. Data lab, 100 h+, $150+.
- Self-Healing Power Distribution Board — Detect a failed rail, isolate it with eFuses and reroute power while logging the event. Skills: eFuses, fault isolation, redundancy. Tools: eFuse ICs, MCU, load banks. Hardware build, 100 h+, $150+.
- Precision Time Synchronisation Node — Synchronise sensor nodes to microseconds with PTP-style timestamping and measure residual error. Skills: clock synchronisation, timestamping, jitter. Tools: Ethernet PHY with timestamps, MCU. Dashboard, 100 h+, $150+.
- Variability-Aware Monte Carlo Board Study — Predict how component tolerances spread a circuit's performance and confirm with a batch of real boards. Skills: Monte Carlo analysis, tolerances, yield. Tools: SPICE, batch of PCBs. Simulator, 100 h+, Software only (free tools).
- Bio-Inspired Event Camera Readout — Build readout electronics for an event-based light sensor array and visualise change events. Skills: event-driven sensing, asynchronous readout, visualisation. Tools: photodiode array, FPGA. Visualizer, 100 h+, $150+.
- Open Lab Instrument Platform — Combine a scope, logic analyzer and generator into one open hardware platform with documented accuracy. Skills: instrument design, calibration, documentation. Tools: FPGA, ADC/DAC, PC app. Digital twin, 100 h+, $150+.