Page 470 – Electronics-Lab.com

ATL431LI High-Bandwidth, Low IQ Programmable Shunt Regulator

Posted on 31 December, 201931 December, 2019 by mixos

Texas Instruments’ regulator features active output circuitry making it an excellent Zener diode replacement in many applications.

Texas Instruments’ ATL431LI device is a three-terminal adjustable shunt regulator with specified thermal stability over applicable automotive, commercial, and military temperature ranges. The output voltage can be set to any value between V_REF (approximately 2.5 V) and 36 V, with two external resistors. This regulator has a typical output impedance of 0.3 Ω. Active output circuitry provides an ultra-sharp turn-on characteristic, making these devices excellent replacements for Zener diodes in many applications such as onboard regulation, adjustable power supplies, and switching power supplies. This device is a pin-to-pin alternative to the TL431LI and TL432LI, with a lower minimum operating current to help reduce system power consumption. The ATL432LI and the ATL431LI have the same functionality and electrical specifications, except the ATL432LI has a different pinout for the DBZ package. The ATL431LI is offered in a tiny X2SON (1.00 mm x 1.00 mm) package which makes it ideal for space-constraint applications.

The ATL431LI device is offered in B grade and A grade with initial tolerances of 0.5% and 1% (at +25°C), respectively. The low output drift versus temperature ensures good stability over the entire temperature range. The ATL43xLIxQ devices are characterized for the operating temperature range of -40°C to +125°C.

Features

Reference voltage tolerance at +25°C:B grade: 0.5%, A grade: 1%
Output voltage: 2.5 V (minimum typ.), VREF to 36 V (adjustable)
Operating temperature range: -40°C to +125°C (Q temp)
Max temperature drift: 17 mV (I temp), 27 mV (Q temp)
Output impedance: 0.3 Ω (typ.)
Sink-current capability: Imin: 0.08 mA (max.), IKA: 15 mA (max.)
Reference input current IREF: 0.4 µA (max.)
Deviation of reference input current overtemperature, II(dev): 0.3 µA (max.)
Packages: 1 mm x 1 mm X2SON or SOT23-3

more information: www.ti.com

InspectAR constantly improves and recognizes your PCB

Posted on 31 December, 201931 December, 2019 by Emmanuel Odunlade

Augmented and Virtual Reality rank among the top 10 technologies driving Industry 4.0 and while they are having a huge impact on the development of new devices, it’s interesting to see them also being used as a major ingredient in the technology development process. This was one of the reasons why a while back we took a look at InspectAR which is an augmented reality-based app that is currently disrupting how developers and users interact with printed circuit boards.

In the last article, we mentioned how the InspectAR app uses augmented reality to lay a similitude of your board’s design over a real-time image of the actual physical board. The overlayed similitude is obtained from your PCB’s original Gerber files, so you can toggle which layers are visible at any given time with an additional exploded view feature that allows you view multiple/all layers at once. As you move the board, the overlayed similitude layer automatically moves and changes orientation and view in line with the physical PCB, giving you the ability to inspect the design at any angle. For example, by simply turning on a trace layer, users can see if a pin is properly connected to a component or if you made a mistake during the design phase — or the manufacturer made a mistake during fabrication.

However, thanks to constant efforts going into the software, the team has made several upgrades since then. Some of those updates were displayed by the team during the last SuperCon Conference by Hackaday. As a way of demonstrating the new features, the InspectAR team preloaded the FPGA based SuperCon badge into InspectAR. This allowed users to get detailed information about the badge’s hardware using the InspectAR App. When users point their cameras to the badge, InspectAR displays overlays on the badge, via the screen. The overlays display information like pin numbers, PCB traces and part numbers of the components on the board. This reduced the need for users to look up the datasheet or Pinout of components every now and then.

The overlays displayed by the App are usually in layers, as such, to ensure things are neat and useful, the app provides a way for users to hide and switch between the layers. Also, the annotations displayed on each component/part of the PCB can also be moved such that it is positioned in a place the user finds comfortable.

While it’s still early days, the amount of work going into InspectAR makes it easy to predict a bright future for the project. There is every chance that InspectAR and other software like Circuit-Tree will grow into becoming tools that define how design is done in the future.

More on how InspectAR works can be found on their website and Blog.

Waveshare releases a Compute Module IO Board with POE Feature

Posted on 31 December, 201931 December, 2019 by Emmanuel Odunlade

As the Raspberry Pi grew popular, users began to ask for a more flexible form factor which will allow the use of the Raspberry Pi capacities in products, especially those with industrial applications. The response of the Raspberry Pi’s team to these demands was the Raspberry Pi Compute Module which, now is in its third version, carrying the Raspberry Pi’s gut from Processor to RAM. Since the Compute Module was a bare-bones board with none of the IO and Ports that makes prototyping easy with the Pi, the Raspberry Pi Foundation decided to create an accompanying board called the Compute Module IO Board, which is capable of providing the IO, ports and other features that make the compute module easy to use and program like the normal Raspberry Pi. The design of the compute module was made open source and since then, several manufacturers have made their own IO boards with different improvements to make it more useful. One such board is the recently released POE Enabled, Compute Module IO Board by Waveshare.

The Compute Module PoE Board is a development board that you can plug a Raspberry Pi Compute Module into, and make use of the resources of Pi more flexibly. With the PoE (Power over Ethernet) feature, and versatile onboard peripheral interfaces, it is suitable for evaluating the Raspberry Pi compute module, also is an ideal choice for end products. The board comes with a Camera interface, USB ports, HDMI Ports, and GPIO headers that allows users to connect sensors to the Compute module. Courtesy of the Power Over Ethernet feature of the board, the board can be powered over the ethernet port. This reduces the number of cables needed in case of large deployment as the same ethernet cables used for network connectivity also powers the system.

Some of the features of the board are highlighted below:

Raspberry Pi GPIO header, for connecting sorts of Raspberry Pi HATs
10/100M auto-negotiation Ethernet port, with PoE, enabled
4x USB ports allow connecting more USB devices
2x CSI camera interfaces
Onboard HDMI / DSI interfaces for connecting displays
Onboard USB TO UART, for serial debugging
Cooling fan interface, autorun on power-up OR controlled by IO pins
Adopts isolated SMPS (Switching Mode Power Supply)
Power supply over a micro USB port or the Ethernet port
37V ~ 57V DC Input power
5V 2.5A DC output Power
802.3af PoE standard
Board dimension 114mm × 84.4mm

Although it’s sold as a separate entity, a plastic enclosure called the CM-IO_POE Box exists for the IO board. The enclosure has a vent, presumably for a Fan, along with other features to support the IO board.

Waveshare created a Wiki page which provides enough information to help first-time users get up and running with the board in a couple of minutes. The board is available on Seeedstudio for $40 and on the Waveshare store page for $38

COM-WHUC6: Industrial Power on Module from AAEON

Posted on 31 December, 2019 by mixos

AAEON, an industry leader in embedded computing, announces the COM-WHUC6 COM Express module. Built to the Compact Type 6 form factor, the COM-WHUC6 is designed to operate in a range of applications from automation to mobile operations.

The COM-WHUC6 is powered by the 8th Generation Intel® Core™ i7/i5/i3 and Celeron® ULT series processors (formerly Whiskey Lake), providing energy efficient performance for a range of industrial and embedded applications. Coupled with two DDR4 slots and up to 64GB of on-board eMMC storage, the COM-WHUC6 is designed to provide optimized processing capabilities.

Built for industrial embedded use, the COM-WHUC6 is designed with several key features to ensure flexibility and ease of maintenance. I/O support for USB 3.2 Gen 2 provides high speed connectivity, and support for VGA, eDP/LVDS, and DDI makes it easy to fit into existing setups. The COM-WHUC6 supports expansion for two SATA III devices and five PCIe devices.

The COM-WHUC6 is backed with AAEON support and can be easily configured to a range of options, including WiTAS 2 compliance for operation in temperatures from -40°C to 85°C. With AAEON manufacturer services and OEM/ODM support, AAEON can easily provide COM carrier boards, custom I/O and PCIe support configurations, and more.

The COM-WHUC6 can support a wide range of embedded applications, from automated inspection to mobile medical devices. The Compact Type 6 form factor means the COM-WHUC6 is easy to install, replace, or even upgrade when the time comes. The COM-WHUC6 also supports applications requiring multi-module configurations.

“The COM-WHUC6 is a highly versatile COM module,” said David Hung, Product Manager with AAEON’s Embedded Computing Division. “With the 8th Generation Intel® Core™ and Celeron® processors along with its wide temperature design, the COM-WHUC6 can be deployed anywhere for any task.”

for more information visit www.aaeon.com

Intel® NUC 8 Rugged PC

Posted on 30 December, 2019 by mixos

Intel® NUC 8 Rugged is a PC kit that’s small on size but not on toughness or reliability. It features a fanless, ventless design to minimize particle intrusion, so it’s built to survive environments most PCs can’t—from a busy factory floor to a dusty warehouse. And even without a fan, it can operate in temperatures from 0-40˚C to thrive in severe in-the-field conditions.

Housed in a small chassis that’s slim enough to fit almost anywhere, the NUC 8 Rugged is also available as a board-only option that can be easily integrated into your own digital solutions. It’s powered by an Intel® Celeron® processor, making it the ideal PC solution to keep edge analytics, digital signage, or surveillance cameras up and running around the clock. And with a 3-year warranty, it’s performance that’s designed to last.

Features

Intel® Celeron® processor
Fanless and ventless design
Minimal dust intrusion
Qualified for 24×7 operation
Multiple mounting options
Dual HDMI*
2 USB 3.0 ports
2 USB 2.0 ports
Internal 4-lane eDP connector
Intel® Wireless-AC
Bluetooth® technology
Intel® Gigabit LAN
3-Year limited warranty

-> Product Brief PDF

MLX90374 Position Sensor

Posted on 30 December, 201930 December, 2019 by mixos

Melexis’ MLX90374 monolithic magnetic position processor IC enables the design of non-contacting position sensors in automotive and industrial applications

Melexis’ MLX90374, a Triaxis® family position sensor, offers stray field robustness featuring two output drivers, high operating voltage, and temperature operation.

The MLX90374 is a monolithic magnetic position processor IC. It consists of a Triaxis Hall magnetic front end, an analog-to-digital signal conditioner, a DSP for advanced signal processing, and a dual output stage driver.

The MLX90374 is sensitive to the three components of the magnetic flux density applied to the IC (i.e., Bx, By, and Bz). This allows the MLX90374 with the correct magnetic circuit to decode the absolute position of any moving magnet (e.g., rotary position from 0 to 360° or linear displacement). It enables the design of non-contacting position sensors that are frequently required for both automotive and industrial applications.

The MLX90374 provides either a dual PWM output or a combination of SENT plus a programmable switch function. In dual PWM output mode, the circuit offers a wide panel of configurations from fully redundant signals to individually configurable outputs, including the choice between several error reporting modes. In SENT mode, the circuit delivers enhanced serial messages consisting of error codes and user-defined values.

Features

ASIL-C capability (per die) (SEooC)
High temperature (-40°C to +160°C)/high operating voltage
Two configurable output drivers
Stray field immune (up to 4 kA/m) mode of operation
In-application programmable
Triaxis Hall technology
On-chip signal processing for robust absolute position sensing
AEC-Q100 qualified
Programmable measurement range
Programmable linear transfer characteristic (4 or 8 multipoints or 16 or 32 PWL)
PWM redundant dual output
SENT and programmable switch dual output
SAE J2716 APR2016 SENT
Enhanced serial data communication
48-bit ID number option
Single die – SOIC-8 package (RoHS)
PCB-less DMP-4 package (RoHS)
Robustness against stray-field

more information: www.melexis.com

New GAP9 IoT offers five times lower power consumption than GAP8

Posted on 30 December, 2019 by Tope Oluyemi

Last year, GreenWaves Technologies launched the GAP8 multi-core RISC-V microcontroller, aimed at artificial intelligence (AI) at the edge at ultra-low power consumption. Results from the GAP8 IoT SoC shows it performs inference at 3.7mA against 60mA for the same workload on STM32F7 Arm Cortex-M7 MCU. As a result of this performance, the company has now expanded its GAP IoT application processor family They launched GAP9, which delivers five times lower power consumption, in comparison to GAP8 microcontroller, and also enabling inference on neural networks 10 times larger. It was launched at the RISC-V summit at San Jose California on December 10-12.

The Greenwaves GAP9 will enable machine learning and signal processing capabilities for (coin cell) battery operated or energy harvesting devices like IoT sensors in consumer and industrial markets, wearables, smart building, smart farming, etc. The GAP9 functions, by combining architectural enhancements with Global Foundries 22nm FDX process to enable a peak cluster memory bandwidth of 41.6 GB/sec and up to 50 GOPS compute power while consuming just 50mW. Its increased memory bandwidth (20x over GAP8) enables a highly improved detection accuracy while analyzing streams of data from series of different image sensors, microphones, and/or radar chips. The new processor has the same GAP form factor as GAP8, but includes support for 8-/16-/32-bit floating-point arithmetic with support for vectorization, and also support for vectorized 4-bit and 2-bit integer operations.

“GAP9 enables a new level of capabilities for embedding combinations of sophisticated machine learning and signal processing capabilities into consumer, medical and industrial product applications,”

said Loic Lietar, CEO of GreenWaves Technologies.

“The GAP family provides product designers with a powerful, flexible solution for bringing the next generation of intelligent devices to market.”

The GAP9 can be applied to bi-directional multichannel, synchronized digital audio interfaces for wearable audio products, CSI2 and parallel camera interfaces for low resolution, low power cameras used in computer vision, etc. For clarity, the chip is capable of processing MobileNet V1 neural network with 160 x 160 images by means of a channel scaling of 0.25 in just 12ms with a power consumption of 806μW/frame/second. For security features, the chip has a built-in AES128/256 hardware cryptography and a Physically Unclonable Function (PUF) unit for unique and secure per-device identification.

All Software development available on the GAP8 will be made on an enhanced GAP SDK. This includes GAP AutoTiler automatic code generator for neural network graphs and GAPFlow tools for automating the conversion of neural networks from training packages like Google TensorFlow. There will also be out of the box, open-source, network implementations such as a full open-source Face Identification implementation. GreenWaves did not mention any GAP9 evaluation/development board, but we might likely see an update to the GAP8-based GAPuino board later.

GreenWaves has not published a product page for GAP9 yet, but for more information, visit GreenWaves’ website.

AMD Launches Open Ecosystem For Ryzen Embedded Mini- PCs

Posted on 30 December, 2019 by Tope Oluyemi

AMD launched a Ryzen Embedded “open ecosystem” for mini-PCs from multiple vendors, which runs on its Ryzen Embedded V1000 and the newer Ryzen Embedded R1000 system-on-chips. The new line of hardware includes two new Linux enabled mini-PCs from OnLogic, the R1000-based ML100G-40, and V1000-based MC510-40. The systems highlighted in the Ryzen Embedded mini-PC ecosystem are aimed at rugged industrial applications, in exception of ASRock mini-PCs on AMD’s list, which is listed only with Windows 10 support: the R1000-based 4X4 BOX-R1000Vand the V1000-based 4X4 BOX-V1000M. In their announcement, AMD includes the ML100G-40 and MC510-40 systems, but only lists the ML100G-40 on their product page. They both support 0 to 50°C operating temperatures and run Windows 10 or Ubuntu Desktop 18.04 (ML100G-40) or 16.04 (MC510-40) LTS.

ML100G-40's back view — ML100G-40’s back view

The ML100G-40 has similar features like the exposed heatsink design and 142 x 107 x 62mm dimensions with other ML100 branded systems, but it is a more feature-rich product, with more display, GbE, and USB ports. The fanless ML100G-40 features an AMD Ryzen Embedded R1505G, the lower-end of the two R1000 parts with dual quad-threaded Zen cores clocked to 2.4GHz/3.3GHz and a Vega GPU with triple 4K display support at 1.0GHz. You can choose to configure it with a V1605B, which is the lower-end model among the three quad-core V1000 parts. The V1605B enables 4x octa-threaded Zen cores at 2.0GHz/3.6GHz and a Vega GPU at 1.1GHz. All of Ryzen Embedded SoCs offer configurable 12-25W TDPs.

The ML100G-40 enables 4GB to 32GB DDR4-2666 via dual slots, and also offers a 32GB to 512GB SSD that plugs into an M.2 slot. Available also is an M.2 E-key 2230 slot that supports an Intel Wireless-AC module with 802.11ac and Bluetooth 5.0 or a Sierra Wireless Extrovert 4G LTE module with Verizon or AT&T SIM cards. Due to the Extrovert module being used, one of the USB ports is offline. The system enables 2x GbE (Realtek RTL8111G), 3x USB 3.1, 2x USB 2.0, and optional COM port, which is not available if you order 4G. Other features include a DIO option, dual DisplayPorts, an HDMI port, an audio I/O jack, and a 12VDC input jack. Additional features include VESA, wall, and DIN-rail mounting options, but no temperature range was listed.

The 199.6 x 192.6 x 59.3mm MC510-40 is a Mini-ITX-based industrial computer. It starts at $690, and it’s based on the same quad-core V1605B SoC found in the ML100G-40. However, it supports 4x simultaneous displays instead of three. It also supports up to 32GB DDR4-2666 and ships with 32GB or higher M.2 storage. Worthy of note is that the upper range extends to 2TB, and provision is made to optionally add a second up to 2TB SSD or up to 4TB HDD via an optional 2.5-inch SATA slot. Also available are WiFi/BT, and Extrovert 4G options enabled via a mini-PCIe slot with optional antennas for the 3x antenna mounts. Additional features for the MC510-40 includes 2x GbE (Realtek RTL8111G), 2x 10Mbps USB 3.1 Gen 2, 4x USB 2.0, and 2x RS-232/422/485 COM ports. Available also are 4x DisplayPort 1.3/DP++ ports and a 12VDC jack. It has similar mounting options as the ML100G-40, with optional fan and power adapters.

For more information on AMD’s Ryzen Embedded mini-PC ecosystem, visit its announcement and product page. The OnLogic ML100G-40 starts at $590 and the MC510-40 starts at $690.

More information on the OnLogic’s ML100G-40 and MC510-40 product and shopping pages.

Eight-Character Alphanumeric Display

Posted on 30 December, 2019 by mixos

technoblogy.com published another in detail project. This time is an eight-character alphanumeric LED display with an I2C interface.

This is an eight-character alphanumeric LED display with an I2C interface. It’s based on a low-cost HT16K33 display-driver chip, and supports four two-character 14-segment alphanumeric display modules. Because it has an I2C interface it’s easy to drive from pretty much any microcontroller, such as an Arduino Uno, or even an ATtiny85.

I also include a display interface that provides a print() class that allows you to print strings and numbers to the display, with automatic scrolling. This lets you use the display as a convenient alternative to the Arduino Serial Monitor for printing values and results while debugging. The display interface will also work with Adafruit’s four-character alphanumeric displays.

Eight-Character Alphanumeric Display – [Link]

uLisp for Serpente boards

Posted on 30 December, 201930 December, 2019 by mixos

A version of the Lisp programming language for Serpente ARM board. This is a version of uLisp 3.0 designed to work with the tiny Arturo182 Serpente boards:

It’s a slightly modified of the ARM version of uLisp; at some stage I may incorporate it into the standard ARM version. For more information about uLisp see: uLisp – Lisp for microcontrollers.

I’ve also created an Arduino Core that is needed by uLisp. You could also use this on its own to program the Serpente boards in C from the Arduino IDE.

For full information about the Serpente boards see: Serpente Documentation.

To buy the boards see: Serpente – A Tiny CircuitPython Prototyping Board on Tindie.

These boards are based on the Microchip ATSAMD21E, an ARM Cortex M0+ CPU with a 48 MHz clock. There are three variants which differ only in the type of USB connector provided. Each board provides 256 KB flash and 32 KB RAM, and also include a separate 4 MB SPI DataFlash chip which is used by uLisp to allow you to save the Lisp image using (save-image).

uLisp for Serpente boards – [Link]