Firstly I decided to write a small program to test if the USB / RS232 bridge is working. Using access via D2XX_NET, the program searches for devices connected to the PC, creates/shows a list and opens the first device using the serial number. Because it is a unique number, the serial number is preferred, but the device can be opened in other ways as well. For it to work, it is necessary to make a loopback connection on the BOB board; just to interconnect the RX and TX pins, I put in the attachments a photo of this link. After the identification of the devices, the traditional greeting "Hello World!" is sent and received back. The next step is to prepare the microcontroller to receive commands via the USB / Serial bridge. It is good to remember that it is also possible to use VCP instead of DLL access, but this is not the purpose of our project ... For more information about USB interfacing using FTDI devices, please see chapter 21 of "Visual Studio C# Programming & PC interfacing" Book from Elektor.

Gerber files added to the downloads above.

A good part of humanity loses precious night rest as a result of snoring or snoring bed partners and/or roommates. The Elektor Snore Shield tries to improve the lives of snoring victims (active and passive). Can you improve the Snore Shield and help people sleep better? The best solutions will be rewarded! The Snore Shield is an atempt to fight snoring. It uses an advanced algorithm to detect snoring. It has been tested by self-announced snorers and was found to work. Yet there seem to be as many ways of snoring as there are people, and so our algorithm probably can be improved to make it detect more snore types. Maybe you have an idea? The Snore Shield fights snoring by producing a masking sound. White noise is a classic sleep improving or relaxing sound, but you may prefer something else. An MP3 player attached to the Snore Shield allows you to make it play your preferred masking sound. Maybe you want to share it? The user interface of the Snore Shield is rather basic and leaves lots of room for improvement. Functions can be added like timers or data logging for later analysis in a spreadsheet. Maybe you have some ideas about this? Let us know how you would improve the Snore Shield. Post your ideas & suggestions below this post. Great ideas win great prizes! Great work wins even better prizes! Deadline: April 30, 2019 (posts with later dates, as indicated by this website, will be ignored)  

The kit is now available in our shop, see the links on this page.

Sorry, due to the high price we don't sell this project as a kit, we only have the bare PCBs. We (or you) could put it on GroupGets to see if there is enough interest for a production run.