Kerry Wong writes: I was doing a project that needed a driver for hard disk spindle motors. While I could use a microcontroller to generate the required driving waveform sequence, keeping the waveform in sync with the motor rotation is actually quite tricky especially at higher rotation speeds. To ensure the correct timing sequence, a […]
Category Archives: testing
Testing switch mode voltage regulators
Bajdi did some tests for switch mode voltage regulators: There are different types of DC-DC regulators. The most common are linear and switch mode regulators. Everyone that has tinkered with electronics has probably used a 78xx series linear regulator. They are easy to use since they don’t need any special components. With most linear regulators you […]
Overclocking the STM32F4
mux writes: I’ve been doing some tests with the STM32F407 to see how fast it can go, STMicro has released an almost identical one that runs at 180MHz, is it a marketing thing ? will they release a 200MHz version in a few months? who cares, anyway, I was able to run the STM32F407 at […]
Resistor reels just arrived
63 resistor reels just arrived for a test 0603 OOMP part book. Books and sheets should be here tomorrow. We’ll stuff some samples and get an idea of the time involved this weekend if everything goes smoothly.
Kevin’s LED tester
Kevin Rye designed a simple LED tester: I decide to put together a small LED Tester board. It’ll be powered by a small coin cell battery. I can pick up an LED with a pair of tweezers and just simply tap it to the solder pads. If it lights up, I know I’m holding it […]
FT230X charger detection investigation
Baoshi writes: I bought some FT230X (FT230XS) USB-USART bridge chip recently for a new design. FT230X is not only cheaper than the traditional FT232RL, but also offers a new fancy “USB charger detection” function. This interests me because I’m quickly running out of desk space and power socket. I wish the new device to be […]
Making your own test leads
Viktor wrote a post on his blog detailing his DIY test leads: The result is that now I have proper test leads with resistance of less than 0.1 ohm per meter. This is a measurement of one of my new test leads Also, with this method now I can have as many test leads of any length as […]
DTMF decoder test circuit
Kenneth Finnegan writes: As part of a few projects I’m working on, I want circuits to be able to decode DTMF tones played over an amateur radio link for remote control. This can be done with a moderately powerful processor in DSP, but I opted to buy a handful of MT8870D dedicated DTMF decoder chips […]
FriedCircuits inline voltage/current tester board
Edouard gives us a preview of the new version of the in-line voltage/current tester board by FriedCircuits. He reports that the board is also compatible with the OLED Backpack (requires separate USB power source.) Via the contact form.
Microprocessor controlled 16 line connectivity tester
An ATmega32 based Proteus simulation of 16 line connectivity tester by Dilshan Jayakody: The main functionality of this system is to detect open and short circuits in cables and connectors. This system can test maximum of 16 lines in each test cycle and it indicate the defective line(s) through LCD. This is customizable system and user […]
Dummy electrical Load
Debraj built an electrical dummy load to test his power supply and wrote a post on his site detailing it’s assembly: Recently, I purchased a power supply that claimed a max current of 2A and 0~15V. So I wanted to test it. I had a 36 watts bulb (used in motor cycles), but that was too […]
ATtiny25 Basic VCO, RC oscillator overclocking and testing frequency pickup
Alex over at InsideGadgets has posted an article describing how he built an ATtiny25 voltage controller oscillator (VCO): I recently bought a Rigol DS1052E and have been playing around with the different functionality it has. Eventually I came to the point that I’d like to see what frequency does to various components and wanted to build […]
Simple LED tester/matcher
Here’s a simple adjustable current source with a PNP transistor that drives either one or two LEDs for testing and/or intensity matching purposes. The current is from 2 to 16 mA in four steps using a rotary switch. While this would make a good beginner’s project, its also a useful gadget for hobbyists of all […]
DigiPot assembled
Matseng continues his challenge of designing one PCB a week. His week 2 board, the DigiPot, has arrived and he assembled it. He did run into problems soldering the connectors which he unfortunately clustered under the encoder. Soldering them was very hard and the leads on both the pin headers as well as the encoder […]
Testing the new reduced-sized ICSP connector
This week we received a batch of PCBs and amongst them was the latest revision of our USB TFT breakoutboard. This board is the first board that features a new ICSP footprint, which occupies less space on the PCB and should improve testing and programming times at Seeed.
A look at the Teensy 3.0 testbed of nails
SJaak refers us to this article by Paul Stoffregen about how they test new Teensy 3.0 boards using a “testbed of nails.” Essentially the Teensy 3.0 crew has developed this testing interface which gives them a way to test every new board by bringing it into contact with the test jig’s pins. The result is […]
Poor man’s pogo test pins
To test his LCD launchpad booster packs, Robg improvised some DIY test connections. Using slightly larger than standard male headers and some rubber-bands, he is able to make solder-less contact between the Launchpad and his LCD booster pack. Via 43oh.
Global Geek Shenzhen: USB microscope
We all bought one of these USB microscope at the SEG Market. We were immediately fond of the heavy base and the smooth adjustment of the camera. We bargained a bit and bought it for 260 RMB ($40), that’s half the cost of the same thing on eBay from another China seller. Some example shots […]
MicroCC microamp-range constant current source
MicroCC is a constant current source, but focused on the low current microamp range. It uses the Touchstone Semiconductor TSM6025 voltage reference, a drop in replacement for the MAX3025 with better than 15PPM stability. The TSM6025 used both as the reference voltage and regulator for a TS1001 op-amp (previously covered here) powered by a single 3volt CR2032 coin cell. […]
Review of the XC9572XL clone by Numato Lab
A few weeks ago Numato Lab ported our XC9572XL CPLD breakout board to KiCad. Hilipka got one of their assembled boards for free and wrote a review. its quite a nice board, feeld of high quality even included an oscillator the JTAG header is not labeled at all, making it difficult in the beginning I […]