Here’s an application note from Maxim describing hot-swap circuits, and the advantages of dedicated hot-swap ICs over discrete component circuits: There are many approaches for protecting a system against electrostatic discharge (ESD), surge current, overcurrent, undervoltage, overvoltage, and other disruptions to power. Industry, company, or regulatory standards such as UL®, USB, IEEE®, CSA, or IEC […]
Category Archives: app notes
App note: Regulator topologies for battery-powered systems
Here is an app note from Maxim describing the various SMPS regulator topologies for battery powered systems: This tutorial presents an overview of regulator topologies for battery-powered equipment. The discussion covers linear regulators, charge pumps, buck and boost regulators, inverters, and flyback designs. The importance of peak current is explained, and schematics of each topology […]
App note: digital constant current power LED driver
Here is an app note from Microchip describing how a PIC12HV615 MCU can be used to implement a digital current control loop for power LEDs: This document describes a power LED driver solution using the PIC12HV615 microcontroller (MCU). The PIC12HV615 is an 8-pin MCU with many integrated analog features. The LED driver circuit is a […]
App note: Powering portable media players
Here is an application note from Texas Instruments on how to power various systems required for portable media players. These devices require several different voltages, multiple power sources, as well as integrated battery charging.
App note: Protect Your Designs from malware with the DeepCover MAXQ1050 secure microcontroller
Here’s an app note from Maxim describing how to protect your embedded systems from Malware with DeepCover MAXQ1050 Secure Microcontroller: Malware injection has become a critical threat to embedded systems. Implementing an asymmetric cryptography-based secure boot is the best protection against this class of attacks. This application note describes the key principles of such a secure […]
App note: Button debouncing with configurable logic cells
Here’s an application note from Microchip describing how to make a button debouncer with the peripheral. In this application note, a PIC10F322 is being used to implement a delay block/debouncer. The delay can be set between 2us and 193us. This can be used effectively as a noise discriminator, or for switch debouncing.
App Note: Adding intelligence to LED lighting
Here’s a tutorial from Maxim on how to design smarter LED lighting. How smart is your LED lighting system? While LED lighting holds the promise of reducing energy consumption and maintenance costs, smart LED lighting designs improve system performance in both areas, achieving higher performance per watt and reducing cost in the long term. Energy […]
App note: Using the A/D Amplifier on AT90PWM
Here’s an application note from Atmel for using the 10-bit ADC amplified conversion on AT90PWM (PDF!): ADC features on Atmel® AVR® AT90PWM devices: – 10-bit ADC amplified conversion with differential inputs – Programmable gain – Internal voltage reference The AT90PWM devices feature a 10-bit successive approximation ADC. The ADC is connected to an analog multiplexer […]
App note: Using the XMEGA external bus interface
Here’s an application note from Atmel describing how to use the external bus interface fount on the XMEGA series AVR microcontrollers. The XMEGA External Bus Interface (EBI) is a highly flexible module for interfacing external memories and memory addressable peripherals such as LCD controllers and advanced communication controllers. The EBI module has four separate Chip […]
App note: Using the CLC module to implement a PCM IR driver
Here is an application note from Microchip describing how to implement pulse code modulation infrared remote control. This technical brief shows how to construct a simple, low-power IR (infrared) remote control transmitter using a PIC16F1708 microcontroller. The remote control transmitter makes use of the Configurable Logic Cell (CLC) and Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) to create a […]
App note: BLDC control with Hall effect sensors.
Here is an application note from Atmel based on sensor driven BLDC control implemented on AVR microcontrollers. This application note describes the control of a BLDC motor with Hall effect position sensors. The implementation includes both direction and open loop speed control.
App note: Data encryption routines for PIC24 and dsPIC devices
Here’s an app note from Microchip describing how to implement data encryption routines on PIC24 and dsPIC microcontrollers and digital signal processors. This application note discusses the implementation of two of these for PIC24 and dsPIC devices: Triple Data Encryption Standard (TDES) and Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). Source code for this application note is available […]
App note: Getting started guide for the Atmel Lightweight Mesh
Here’s an getting started guide from Atmel describing their Lightweight Mesh wireless protocol. The purpose of this application note is to introduce users to the Lightweight Mesh network protocol stack and typical application development process from Atmel. This document describes how to start quickly with the Lightweight Mesh SDK, by setting up the development environment […]
App note: Implementing a Manchester decoder using the CLC and NCO peripherals
Here is an application note from Microchip describing how to implement a hardware Manchester decoder using the CLC and NCO peripherals found on some of their PIC microcontrollers. The objective of this document is to demonstrate how the NCO and CLC peripherals found on PIC16F devices can be used as a Manchester Decoder. Traditional algorithms […]
App note: Calibration of the ATtiny25/45/85 internal temperature reference
Here is an app note from Atmel describing how to calibrate the ATtiny internal temperature reference. This application note describes how to calibrate and compensate the temperature measurements from the ATtiny25/45/85. It can also be used on other AVR microcontrollers with internal temperature sensors. The temperature measurement is based on an on-chip temperature sensor that […]
App note: Understanding basic sensored BLDC motor operation
Here’s a video tutorial from Texas Instruments describing basic sensored BLDC motor operation. Michael Firth, Motor Driver marketing manager, discusses the basic operation of a BLDC motor.
App note: Understanding common-mode signals
Here is a tutorial from Maxim on common-mode signals. To understand how common-mode signals are created and then suppressed, you should first understand the interaction of shields and grounds in common cable configurations. The following discussion defines a common-mode signal, reviews the common cable configurations, considers shielded vs. unshielded cables, and describes typical grounding practices. […]
App note: Techniques to disable global interrupts
Here is an app note from Microchip describing ways to disable global interrupts. This application note discusses four methods for disabling global interrupts. All discussion will be specific to the PIC16CXXX family of products, but these concepts are also applicable to the PIC17C42.
App note: Protecting 1-wire 5V slaves from overvoltage
Here is a tutorial from Maxim describing how to protect your 1-wire slave devices from overvoltage. If an application requires writing to EPROM devices after deployment, 5V devices need to be protected from overvoltage exposure. This article explains how to have 1-Wire EPROMs and 5V 1-Wire devices on the same bus, if the 5V devices […]
App note: LLC DC DC reference design using dsPIC
Here is a LLC DC DC converter reference design from Microchip using dsPIC digital signal processing capabilities for control. As presented in this application note, resonant converters, LLC resonant converters in particular, have all of the features mentioned above, resulting in a compact and highly efficient design. Their ability to keep the output voltage regulated, […]