ATMega8-Powered Peltier Controller
In this project a set of four Peltier coolers, also called TE Coolers, are to be controlled via USB. The power requirements for the coolers are high, +/- 12 volts at up to 7.5 amps each. The ATMega8 on this MPU schematic page is responsible for controlling duty cycle and current flow direction through an H-bridge circuit, which is on another schematic sheet. This control is accomplished via a set of commands issued to the ATMega8 from an application running on the host PC. There is also a thermistor and A/D converter connected to the ATMega8, which will report the temperature the TE coolers have achieved at the target. The completed unit will require firmware that is not too complex, but could grow to include a full PID (Proportional-Integral-Derivative) algorithm. This will be programmed in C via the AVRStudio IDE.
