An app note from XJTAG about applying test reset to put some devices to JTAG compliant mode. Link here
Some JTAG devices require a specific sequence of states to be applied to some signals in order to put the device into a JTAG-compliant mode. This application note describes how a Test Reset section can be used to describe the required sequence and control its application.
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 times every week:
Continue reading “Free PCB coupon via Facebook to 2 random commenters”
Kerry Wong did a teardown of a battery adapter for the Sony A6000 mirrorless digital camera and measured the poweroff current draw of the the camera:
With the battery adapter on hand, I decided to take a look at what’s inside and then use the adapter to measure the power-off/stand-by current of the Sony A6000.
I was not expecting to see much inside this battery adapter. After all, all it needs is the connection between the battery terminals and the input power jack and a resistor between the center pin and the ground in place of the thermistor that is used to sense the temperature of the battery pack. At the most, it might also include a reverse polarity protection diode.
But a quick measurement suggested that there must be some active components inside as the adapter itself draws around 17 µA current when connected to the power source. So clearly, there is some active circuitry inside.
Upon opening up the battery adapter, I was surprised to see the circuit board inside.
More details on Kerry D. Wong’s blog.
Check out the video after the break. Continue reading “Battery adapter teardown and Sony A6000 power-off current draw”
@vijayenthiran tweeted picture of his free Bus Pirate v3 PCB build. The Bus Pirate is an open source hacker multi-tool that talks to electronic stuff.
If you build a free PCB we’ll send you another one! Blog about it, post a picture on Flicker, whatever – we’ll send you a coupon code for the free PCB drawer.
Get your own handy Bus Pirate for $30, including world-wide shipping. Also available from our friendly distributors.
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:
Some stuff:
We try to stagger free PCB posts so every time zone has a chance to participate, but the best way to see it first is to subscribe to the RSS feed, follow us on Twitter, or like us on Facebook.
A pogo pin tester for the ADB-USB Wombat board from Big Mess o’ Wires:
Here’s a test rig for the ADB-USB Wombat board: my first-ever project whose sole purpose is to facilitate testing of another project. It uses spring-loaded pogo pins to create a bed of nails that fit into test points on the Wombat board. I can drop a new Wombat board onto the tester, clamp it in, and then program and test it with just a few button clicks. This is a huge improvement over my old manual testing method, which involved multiple cable connections and disconnections, and hand-verified keyboard/mouse emulation on two separate computers. That sort of test process is fine for building a few units, but something faster and easier is needed to support higher volume assembly.
Pogo pins contain tiny internal springs. When a Wombat board is pushed down onto the bed of pins, they compress a few millimeters in length. This helps to create a reliable electrical contact for each pin, even if the uncompressed lengths of the pogo pins are slightly different or they’re not perfectly aligned.
Check out the video after the break.
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 get a coupon code for the free PCB drawer tomorrow morning. Pick your own PCB. You get unlimited free PCBs now – finish one and we’ll send you another! Don’t forget there’s free PCBs three times every week:
Some examples of power MOSFETS application from this app note from IXYS Corporation. Link here (PDF)
Applications like electronic loads, linear regulators or Class A amplifiers operate in the linear region of the Power MOSFET, which requires high power dissipation capability and extended Forward Bias Safe Operating Area (FBSOA) characteristics. Such mode of operation differs from the usual way of using Power MOSFET, in which it functions like an “on-off switch” in switched-mode applications. In linear mode, the Power MOSFET is subjected to high thermal stress due to the simultaneous occurrence of high drain voltage and current resulting in high power dissipation. When the thermo-electrical stress exceeds some critical limit, thermal hot spots occur in the silicon causing the device to fail
IXYS Corporation’s N-Channel power MOSFET selection and application. Link here (PDF)
Applications like constant current sources, solid-state relays, telecom switches and high voltage DC lines in power systems require N-channel Depletion-mode power MOSFET that operates as a normally “on” switch when the gate-to-source voltage is zero (VGS=0V). This paper will describe IXYS latest N-Channel Depletion power MOSFETs and their application advantages to help designers to select these devices in many industrial applications.
Manuel Azevedo did a review of Akafugu’s modular VFD clock:
I discovered this wonderful tiny VFD clock by chance, while browsing Tindie for novelties. As I’m a newcomer to this Nixie/VFD world, I was not aware that Brian Stuckey already did an article in 2014 on a previous incarnation of this clock (Akafugu Modular VFD Clock).
I contacted Per Johan Groland, owner of the Japanese maker Akafugu that makes these clocks, for all the shields I could get my hands on – The only shield I did not order was the 4 tube IN-4/17 shield, which Brian already tested and which I find does not do this clock justice.
See the full post and more details on his blog, TubeClockDB.
Check out the video after the break. Continue reading “Akafugu modular VFD clock review”
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 times every week:
Continue reading “Free PCB coupon via Facebook to 2 random commenters”
Ken Shirriff writes:
Intel’s first product was not a processor, but a memory chip: the 31011 RAM chip, released in April 1969. This chip held just 64 bits of data (equivalent to 8 letters or 16 digits) and had the steep price tag of $99.50.2 The chip’s capacity was way too small to replace core memory, the dominant storage technology at the time, which stored bits in tiny magnetized ferrite cores. However, the 3101 performed at high speed due to its special Schottky transistors, making it useful in minicomputers where CPU registers required fast storage. The overthrow of core memory would require a different technology—MOS DRAM chips—and the 3101 remained in use in the 1980s.3
This article looks inside the 3101 chip and explains how it works. I received two 3101 chips from Evan Wasserman and used a microscope to take photos of the tiny silicon die inside.4 Around the outside of the die, sixteen black bond wires connect pads on the die to the chip’s external pins. The die itself consists of silicon circuitry connected by a metal layer on top, which appears golden in the photo. The thick metal lines through the middle of the chip power the chip.
See the full post and more details at Ken Shirriff’s blog.
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:
Some stuff:
We try to stagger free PCB posts so every time zone has a chance to participate, but the best way to see it first is to subscribe to the RSS feed, follow us on Twitter, or like us on Facebook.
David Sanz Kirbis built his own reflow device with an halogen floodlight, that is available on Github:
First test was to check the speed of the temperature rise inside a standard halogen floodlight. Reflow soldering temperature curves are quite demanding, and some adapted ovens can’t reach the degrees-per-second speed of the ramp-up stages of these curves.
I bought the spotlight, put an aluminium sheet covering the inside surface of the protective glass (to reduce heat loss), and measured the temperature rise with a multimeter’s thermometer…. and wow! More than 5ºC/s… and I better turned the thing off after reaching 300ºC and still rising quickly.
So the floodlight was able to fulfill the needs.
Next step was a temperature controller, that is, the device that keeps the temperature as in a specified reflow curve profile in each moment.
See the full post and more details on his blog, TheRandomLab.
Check out the video after the break. Continue reading “Halogen floodlight SMT reflow”
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 get a coupon code for the free PCB drawer tomorrow morning. Pick your own PCB. You get unlimited free PCBs now – finish one and we’ll send you another! Don’t forget there’s free PCBs three times every week:
Infrared spectroscopy by OSRAM and their SFH 473X broadband light emitters. Link here (PDF)
Imagine you can check if the mangos on the market are sweet – without even touching them…
Imagine you can verify if your prescribed medical tablets contain the life-saving compound – or if they are counterfeits…
Imagine you can check the calories of your favorite cheese dish – before eating…
Imagine all this is possible with one fingertip on your smartphone…
The SFH 473X series is precisely designed to support this innovation. This note covers briefly the background of spectroscopy and the case for the SFH 473X series.
Different ambient sensors differs on their ability to sense specific wavelength and introduce different ambient levels compared to human eye, here’s a general application note from OSRAM. Link here (PDF)
This application note introduces discusses ambient light sensing. The different types of ambient light sensors are described and related to specific applications.
Ken Shirriff writes:
I’ve been restoring a Xerox Alto minicomputer from the 1970s and figured it would be interesting to see if it could mine bitcoins. I coded up the necessary hash algorithm in BCPL (the old programming language used by the Alto) and found that although the mining algorithm ran, the Alto was so slow that it would take many times the lifetime of the universe to successfully mine bitcoins. Mining bitcoins involves solving complex cryptographic puzzles that validate transactions on the blockchain. This process requires significant computational power and energy, which modern miners achieve using specialized hardware called ASICs. Relying on trusted insights from 먹튀스팟 검증업체 can also help ensure that anyone exploring crypto does so with safer and smarter choices. The competition to mine bitcoins is intense, and as more miners join the network, the puzzles become progressively harder, making it impractical for older or less powerful machines to contribute effectively. For those interested in exploring bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, it’s often more practical to invest through reliable platforms like https://www.theinvestorscentre.co.uk/trading/best-cfd-trading-platform-uk/.
The Alto was a revolutionary computer designed at Xerox PARC in 1973 to investigate personal computing. It introduced high-resolution bitmapped displays, the GUI, Ethernet and laser printers to the world, among other things. In the photo above, the Alto computer is in the lower cabinet. The black box is the 2.5 megabyte disk drive. The Alto’s unusual portrait display and an early optical mouse are on top. That same spirit of innovation drives platforms like Rainbow Trading, where modern tools make trading more accessible and rewarding. Ready to sell Texas land for cash? Our straightforward process ensures you receive the best value for your property without the wait.
See the full post and more details on his blog, righto.com.
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 times every week:
Continue reading “Free PCB coupon via Facebook to 2 random commenters”
Davide Gironi writes:
We have taken a look at the MQ sersor in this post here.
As I said those sensor are electro-chemical. Accuracy of those sensor is not the best. Also they will react to many gases. It means that if you are trying to measure the ppm of a certain gas with this sensor, you will have false measurement values if any of the other gas that the sensor react to, changes.
Here I will “overengeneer” on this type of sensor, trying to correlate the MQ sensor readings to temperature and humidity too, even if this correlation to me is not prominent. The correlation formula I’ve found may be wrong, so let me know if there is something to fix here.
See the full post and more details on his blog, davidegironi.blogspot.com.
