Easily develop a motor conptrol application using this kit from ON Semiconductors without special knowledge of motor driver specs. Link here (PDF) This kit provides an API function library for motor driver control designed to control the ON Semiconductor motor driver product (LV8702V) via the Arduino Micro microcomputer. It also provides a dedicated GUI for […]
Author Archives: DP
UHF version of TinySA
DuWayne KV4QB posted his UHF version of TinySA project: I had started on the TinySA from Groups.io HBTE, but am still waiting on some parts that I had orderd than have yet to show up. Looking around I found a UHF version that covers 240 to 940 MHz. This only uses a single si4432 transceiver […]
A circuit board from the Saturn V rocket, reverse-engineered and explained
Ken Shirriff writes, “In the Apollo Moon missions, the Saturn V rocket was guided by an advanced onboard computer system built by IBM. This system was built from hybrid modules, similar to integrated circuits but containing individual components. I reverse-engineered a circuit board from this system and determined its function: Inside the computer’s I/O unit, […]
Tinkering TI MSP430F5529
Shawon Shahryiar @ Embedded Lab writes: In my past tutorials on MSP430s, I demonstrated how to get started with MSP430 general purpose microcontrollers from Texas Instruments (TI). Those tutorials covered most aspects of low and mid-end MSP430G2xxx series microcontrollers. For those tutorials, TI’s official software suite – Code Composer Studio (CCS) – an Eclipse-based IDE […]
Signal generator control project
VE3POA published his DIY signal generator control project: I built a step attenuator, highlighted in 2 previous posts, and quite some time ago I experimented with the AD8307 logarithmic amplifier chip and have a couple of prototype circuits for measuring low power signals sitting around in the junk box. I have the prototype SigGen as […]
Intelligent 7-Segment display
An intelligent 7-Segment display based on Padauk MCU: I elected to use a PADAUK PFS154-S16 as microcontroller for each segment. This device has flash memory and sufficient I/O to control a 7 segment display without multiplexing. The cost is only $0.07, so it is cheaper than, for example, using multiple WS2811 instead. The data input […]
#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 […]
Dual Mono AK4493 DAC (MK II)
An update on Dual Mono AK4490 DAC project we covered previously: Since I was going to update the PCB design, I thought I might as well improve on as much as I could. So, the new board would: *Include a new reclocking solution. I went for the best specc’ed chip out there, the famous Potato […]
App note: 18pF crystals may not oscillate with energy saving MCUs
App note from Abracon about problems due on large crystal capacitive loading on smaller sized MCUs. Link here (PDF) The 18pF plated Quartz Crystals may no longer be the ideal choice for a typical clocking circuit using an off-the- shelf MCU. As silicon geometries have shrunk over the last decade, the Pierce oscillator loop embedded […]
App note: PCB trace vs. chip antenna design considerations
Abracon lists the requirement which antenna type best fit to your application. Link here (PDF) The modern urban environment poses a challenge to high-speed designs involving Cellular, GNSS, WiFi/Bluetooth/BLE/ZigBee and LPWA protocols: the reflection, refraction, scattering, diffraction, polarization and absorption of signals necessitates highly efficient RF chains. Of all components in the chain, the antenna […]
Repairing a vintage 40-kilovolt xenon lamp igniter
Ken Shirriff writes: What do xenon lamps and the invention of radio have in common? The box below is a 1960s German high voltage unit that CuriousMarc obtained as part of an auction. After some research, we determined that it is an Osram1 igniter2, which generates a 40-kilovolt pulse3 to ignite a xenon arc lamp. […]
DIY voltage and current reference
Petteri Aimonen designed and built his own voltage and current reference: When developing a data acquisition system, I ran into a need of having fairly accurate current reference to compare against, 0.1% accuracy or better. This is not a particularly high standard, but unable to find a suitable device in my price range, I chose […]
#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 […]
Build an 8-bit computer from scratch
Ben Eater built a programmable 8-bit computer from scratch on breadboards using only simple logic gates and documented the whole process on his blog: Builds like this one have a quietly broader audience than the hobbyist label suggests — they’re recommended internally at plenty of places where unexplained system behaviour is genuinely expensive, from latency-sensitive trading […]
Tiny breathalyzer
Facelesstech posted a tiny breathalyzer project, that is available on GitHub: A breathalyzer built around a ATtiny85 using a MQ-3 alcohol sensor displayed on a 4×7 segment display powered by a power bank. I 3d printed the body that slots over a power bank. More details on Facelesstech blog. Check out the video after the […]
App note: Cable compensation of a primary-side-regulation power supply
Another tech note from Richtek on power supply regulation with cable compensation. Link here Cable compensation has been used to compensate the voltage drop due to cable impedance for providing a regulated charging voltage in battery charger applications. This application note uses a novel cable compensation method, which called cable minus compensation, as an example […]
App note: Analysis of buck converter efficiency
Tech note from Richtek on buck converter profiling. Link here The synchronous buck circuit is wildly used to provide non-isolated power for low voltage and high current supply to system chip. To realize the power loss of synchronous buck converter and to improve efficiency is important for power designer. The application note introduces the analysis […]
The ArduINA226 power monitor
ArduPicLab published the details on how to build a current, voltage and power datalogger with Arduino and the INA226 module: In the past I have developed various projects of ammeters based on Hall effect current sensors such as the ACS712, or on High-Side Current-Sense Amplifiers such as the MAX4080SASA or made with operational amplifiers. All […]
MCP4141 based digital potentiometer
Dilshan Jayakody has been working on an open-source hardware project MCP4141 based digital potentiometer, that is available on GitHub: The main objective of this project is to create an experimental prototype of a digital potentiometer using Microchip’s MCP4141 IC. MCP4141 is available with end-to-end resistances of 5KΩ, 10KΩ, 50kΩ, and 100KΩ. This potentiometer-module can drive […]
DIY motion simulator
Bogdan Berg has been working on a DIY motion simulator: As you may have seen from some of my other posts on this blog, motorsports and cars in general are one of my passions. I try to attend at least couple track days in a season, and enjoy circuit racing greatly. However, costs can add […]