Every Tuesday we give away two coupons for the free PCB drawer via Twitter. This post was announced on Twitter, and in 24 hours we’ll send coupon codes to two random retweeters. Don’t forget there’s free PCBs three times a every week: Hate Twitter and Facebook? Free PCB Sunday is the classic PCB giveaway. Catch […]
Author Archives: DP
ESP8266 troubleshooting guide
Rui Santos has written an article on SP8266 troubleshooting guide: The ESP8266 has a few common issues, specially when you are trying to flash a new firmware or uploading scripts. This is a companion guide to the Home Automation using ESP8266 and Password Protected Web Server eBooks. Here’s a compilation with some of the most […]
App note: Thermal behavior of small-signal discretes on multilayer PCBs
App note from NXP Semiconductors about multilayer PCB as additional heatsink for flat SMD components mostly power transistors to dissipate heat. Link here (PDF) This application note illustrates how to improve the power dissipation of discrete components by using multilayer PCBs. It focuses on the impact of using larger copper areas to improve the thermal […]
Free PCB Sunday: Pick your PCB
We go through a lot of prototype PCBs, and end up with lots of extras that we’ll never use. Every Sunday we give away a few PCBs from one of our past or future projects, or a related prototype. Some of these boards originate from commercial hardware tests, such as a recent RFID reader designed […]
App note: Enhancing cellphone battery performance during GSM pulses through the use of a parallel supercapacitor
Low ESR and ESL supercapacitor paralleled to cellphone batteries can react more quickly to the demanding power required by GSM pulses. A great appnote read from AVX, link here (PDF) With the constant addition of data-intensive features and functionality such as continuous GPS tracking, high-definition media streaming, and the real-time server connections required by mobile […]
App note: QuickBoot method for FPGA design remote update
A QuickBoot method for FPGA design remote update application note (PDF!) from Xilinx: This application note presents detailed descriptions of the QuickBoot method that are important for evaluating the QuickBoot solution and debugging implementation problems. Demonstration implementations of the QuickBoot method are provided for the KC705 evaluation board using the serial peripheral interface (SPI) flash or […]
App note: High voltage adjustable power supplies
TI application note (PDF!) on high voltage adjustable power supplies: An improved approach is shown in Figure 2. Here an LM329B 6.9V zener reference has been stacked in series with the LM317’s internal reference. This both improves temperature stability, since the LM329B has a guaranteed TC of ±20 ppm/˚C, and improves regulation, because more […]
Free PCB coupon via Facebook to 2 random commenters
Every Friday we give away some extra PCBs via Facebook. This post was announced on Facebook, and on Monday we’ll send coupon codes to two random commenters. The coupon code usually go to Facebook ‘Other’ Messages Folder . More PCBs via Twitter on Tuesday and the blog every Sunday. Don’t forget there’s free PCBs three […]
Arduino MPPT solar charger shield
Lukas Fässler made an MPPT solar charger project and wrote a post on his blog detailing its assembly: The basic idea behind an MPPT solar charger is simple. A solar panel has a certain voltage (in the region of 17 to 18 volts for a 12 volts pannel, somwhat dependent on temperature) at which it […]
ESP8266 – Wireless weather station with data logging to Excel
Rui Santos writes, “In this project we are going to establish a wireless communication between two ESPs and send data from three sensors to an Excel spreadsheet. This tutorial shows a wireless weather station with data logging that you can implement in your home.” Project info at Random Nerd Tutorials site.
Datalogging Accelerometer Data To An SDCard
MindForge built a datalogger project which logs accelerometer values to an SDCard: This project started as an EMG datalogger to study my dad’s Parkinson’s disease, but after some testing I determined wearing electrodes wasn’t practical for the long term datalogging that I wanted to do, the data ended up very noisy due to RF interference […]
#FreePCB via Twitter to 2 random RTs
Every Tuesday we give away two coupons for the free PCB drawer via Twitter. This post was announced on Twitter, and in 24 hours we’ll send coupon codes to two random retweeters. Don’t forget there’s free PCBs three times a every week: Hate Twitter and Facebook? Free PCB Sunday is the classic PCB giveaway. Catch […]
Maker’s rule, the feature packed PCB multi-tool
Rohit Gupta made a more refined version of his tinker rule: My initial scale was big and not handy, So, this one should be small and compact and must not miss a single feature from its ancestor. This one has : 0.1 inch grid to quickly prototype/resolve parts for perf-boarding or part creation A collection […]
Free PCB Sunday: Pick your PCB
We go through a lot of prototype PCBs, and end up with lots of extras that we’ll never use. Every Sunday we give away a few PCBs from one of our past or future projects, or a related prototype. Our PCBs are made through Seeed Studio’s Fusion board service. This week two random commenters will […]
App note: Projection with LED light sources
LEDs are now mostly used in light projection systems due to their low power requirements, long life and robustness. Here’s an app note from OSRAM for proper integrations on these projection LEDs. Link here (PDF) This application note provides insights into the use of LED light sources for projection applications. An overview of LED projection […]
App note: Potting protection for outdoor LED video walls and signs
LED signs and large LED video panels are always subjected to harsh environment resulting to corrosion to their pcb mountings, here’s an app note from OSRAM about potting these LED panels for protection. Link here (PDF) This note provides basic information about the potting of flat SMT LEDs in video wall and signage applications. Thereby […]
Simple Arduino SD-Card GPS/NMEA Datalogger
KF5OBS writes: This article is going to show how to build a minimalistic GPS datalogger. The GPS logger is based on the Arduino platform and stores raw NMEA sentences from pretty much any GPS module to a SD card. More details at KF5OBS blog.
Free PCB coupon via Facebook to 2 random commenters
Every Friday we give away some extra PCBs via Facebook. This post was announced on Facebook, and on Monday we’ll send coupon codes to two random commenters. The coupon code usually go to Facebook ‘Other’ Messages Folder . More PCBs via Twitter on Tuesday and the blog every Sunday. Don’t forget there’s free PCBs three […]
Simple small QRO for HF
Marko Pavlin has been working on a HF amplifier project: I followed the ARRL Homberw challenge 50 watt aplifier entry. It is low cost, simple HF linear amplifier designed and built by the author as an entry in the ARRL’s 2009 Homebrew Challenge contest. The requirements of the amplifier were: 40 meter band 50 watt output […]
Teardown, repair & calibration of a Valhalla 2701C Programmable Precision DC voltage standard
A teardown and repair of a Valhalla 2701C Programmable Precision DC voltage standard from The Signal Path: In this episode Shahriar examines a faulty Valhalla 2701C Programmable Precision DC Reference instrument. Valhalla Scientific’s 2701C Programmable Precision DC Voltage Calibrator delivers ultra-precision, ultra-stable DC voltage from 100 nanovolts to 1200 volts. This unit does not have a working […]