Author: Peter S.

What workshop doesn’t have an air compressor? From impact wrenches and orbital sanders to pneumatic chisels, the potential energy of compressed air can be utilised in a variety of ways. Commercially available compressors usually work with a supply pressure of 8 to 12 bar. If too much air is released from the tank quickly, the supply pressure can even fall below 5 bar. But how can I find out the available pressure on the system? Small pressure gauges on the compressed air connections can provide information, but these are difficult to read from a few meters away. For this reason, we decided to build a large digital 2×7-segment display that shows the actual pressure.

Listening to the radio via frequency modulation (FM) has its pitfalls. Not all stations of choice can always be received, and these are also locally limited. Noise-free analog reception is also not always guaranteed and sometimes significantly limits the playback quality. Using an ESP32 microcontroller, a 128×64 OLED display and an encoder, a simple web radio was built that can be programmed wirelessly and is suitable for connection to an audio amplifier.

A remote control can make life easier. Especially if you work alone and without any assistance. In the hobby workshop, this may be the case more often. A vehicle lift is usually operated by a control on the lifting columns – it is not possible to operate the buttons and control the alignment on the vehicle at the same time, for example, when installing or removing the engine. In the following, a conventional vehicle lift was retrofitted with a radio remote control based on Arduino. The material costs amount to approx. $30, the installation is reliable and suitable for everyday use.

ed from ABS plastic and the aluminum heating block is made in several parts on a 3-axis CNC milling machine. A Nextion touch display is used to simplify user interaction. The material costs remain consistently below $100.

ed and the finished modules were tested in practice. The total price of required components does not exceed $15.

ed multimedia panel fitting into a 50 mm cable channel eliminates the need for the proprietary infrared remote control. The cost of the equipment was reduced by 80% compared to a commercial solution and is highly customizable. The secondary objective of the installation was to provide the user with a simple, unambiguous control panel that is completely reliable. The project presented covers the entire work-through process from analysis and planning to installation and the finished result.