smbakeryt made a floppy controller for his Raspberry Pi: If there’s one criticism I hear more often than any other about the pi, it’s “I wish my Raspberry Pi had a floppy drive“. It’s really shocking that the pi doesn’t have the ubiquitous 34-pin floppy header that we all know and love. How else are […]
Author Archives: DP
App note: dV/dt ratings for low voltage and high voltage power MOSFET
App note from Alpha & Omega Semiconductor, Inc. about the importance of voltage ramp and diode recovery dV/dt and avalanche breakdown ratings of power MOSFET. Link here (PDF) dV/dt rating is an important parameter for the ruggedness of power MOSFET. It is usually a parameter shown in high voltage Power MOSFET (BVdss ≥ 500V) datasheets, […]
App note: Reliability of the OSLON® Black Series family
App note from OSRAM about their new OSLON® series LEDs. Link here (PDF) The OSLON® Black Series family was developed particularly for applications that require maximum luminous flux with little consumption of space. The package also makes the series predestined for applications that experience high temperature fluctuations because very good solder point reliability can be […]
Reverse-engineering a vintage comparator chip
Reverse-engineering a vintage comparator chip: So what is this chip? Maybe it’s simply four comparators, but they could have a specific purpose. The chip could be a converter for four differential input signals, e.g. DCS (Differential Current Switch) logic. Another chip in the family seems to be Emitter-Coupled Logic, so this chip could be four […]
App note: Active cable usage with ON Semiconductor Redrivers
App note from ON Semiconductors about the need for long cables for high speed Type-C and Type-A connectors. Link here (PDF) With the increasing requirement for high speed transfer of larger bulk of data, better quality video and power delivery, change over from analog to digital videos, bi−directional transfers, it become essential to use a […]
App note: Automotive pre-regulator reference design and evaluation board overview
App note from ON Semiconductors on their various reference designs on automotive regulator topologies. Link here (PDF) ON Semiconductor provides several reference designs for automotive synchronous buck pre−regulators covering a broad range of applications such as ADAS, cluster, body and infotainment.
A passive tunable HF preselector
Dave Richards (AA7EE) has written an article detailing his tunable passive HF preselector: When I built the VE7BPO DC Receiver Mainframe recently, it wasn’t intended to end up as a final finished project. The intention was more to have it as part of an experimental platform. The little box that contains the DBM, diplexer, and […]
App note: Super Barrier Rectifier (SBR®) improves automotive supply line protection to ISO7637
App note from Diodes Incorporated on their SBR technology which can supports ISO standard supply protection. Link here (PDF) Electrical disturbances in an automotive environment present reliability and functional risks to the various electronic systems and components that may be exposed. Many modules, for example electronic control units (ECUs), have sensitive microcontrollers at their core […]
App note: AL8860Q LED driver remote mounting and LED open/short to GND protection solution
App note from Diodes Incorporated on their AL8860Q LED driver with built-in faults protection. Link here (PDF) The AL8860Q is a hysteresis mode DC-DC buck LED driver, designed for driving single or multiple series connected LEDs in automotive lamps. In some circumstances the LED string should become in fault status such as open-circuit, short-circuit, LED […]
MetaClockClock build
Erich shared detailed instructions of how to build the MetaClockClock project, a set of individual analog ‘clocks’: The ‘MetaClockClock’ project is using multiple small dual-shaft stepper motors which are usually used in instrumentation clusters. In this project multiple such motors are interconnected on a RS-485 bus and can be controlled by a master to display […]
App note: Performance comparison of 1200 V SiC MOSFET and Si IGBT Used in power integrated module for 1100 V solar boost stage
App note from ON Semiconductors comparing the performance between SiC MOSFET and Silicon IGBT in a similar and compatible power modules. Link here (PDF) This application note compares the performance of two power integrated modules (PIMs) in the boost stage of an 1100 V solar inverter. One PIM used state−of−the−art silicon 1200 V IGBT (part […]
App note: Characteristics and driving recommendations of ON Semiconductor Gen 1 1200 V SiC MOSFETs & modules
App note from ON Semiconductors on their SiC MOSFET’s key characteristics and how to drive them. Link here (PDF) Silicon carbide (SiC) is part of the wide bandgap (WBG) family of semiconductor materials used to fabricate discrete power semiconductors. Conventional silicon (Si) MOSFETs have a bandgap energy of 1.12 eV compared to SiC MOSFETs possessing […]
App note: The thermal measurement point of LEDs
App note from OSRAM on different thermal masuring locations of LEDs. Link here (PDF) When current passes through the junction area of a chip, light is emitted. Not only light is generated, but also a lot of heat. Good thermal management is a major factor for the stable performance of LEDs in applications. However, a […]
HP 27201A, the world’s first speech synthesizer by a major computer company
smbakeryt has written an article on reverse-engineering the protocol used by the HP 27201A: The HP 27201A is a TMS5220 based speech synthesizer released in 1983. According to the HP museum, it’s the first synthesizer designed by a major computer computer. Yes, the TI99/4A’s speech synthesizer uses the same IC and is at least contemporary […]
Using a thermal printer mechanism
Casio CP-10 printer re-use: I bought a CP-10 to see if I could re-use the printer mechanism instead of the receipt printers that I have bought off ebay in the past. They are relatively expensive (over £20) whereas the CP-10 can be had for half the price, if the CP-10 is listed as non-working. Unfortunately […]
I2C master mode emulator
Dilshan has published a new build: The I2C master mode emulator allows communication with I2C devices by sending or receiving data to/from the I2C bus. To issue the I2C commands, the emulator should connect to a PC over the USB port. After initializing the emulator, the PC and directly control the I2C slave chip/module. This […]
Over engineered true random value generator
maker_ATOM shared detailed instructions of how to build over engineered true random value generator, project instructables here: Random numbers are often used daily, for example in encryption, gambling, gaming, and much more. These numbers are generated by computers using complex algorithms, but they can be predicted if we know the seed value and the algorithm. […]
A USB microphone for online meetings
An I2S USB microphone using an INMP441 and STM32 @ Andy’s Workshop Project files are available on Github. Check out the video after the break.
App note: Advanced bioimaging
App note from Newport about laser microscopy. Link here Optical microscopes have been instrumental in the study of the life sciences for centuries. Since the invention of the laser, many advanced bioimaging techniques using microscopy have been created with progress accelerating greatly in the last two decades. Limitations in optical penetration depth, due to the […]
App note: Ophthalmic surgery
Great read app note from Newport about non contact treatment for eye diseases using lasers. Link here Ophthalmology is the branch of medicine that deals with the anatomy, physiology and diseases of the eye. The laser is particularly suited to ophthalmic surgery since it can provide a non-contact method of interacting with the cornea or […]