Page 852 – Electronics-Lab.com

EmbeddedLab introduces us TI’s Tiva C MCUs

Posted on 27 June, 201627 June, 2016 by mixos

Shawon Shahryiar @ embedded-lab.com introduces us to Tiva C series microcontrollers from TI.

The Tiva C series MCUs are high performance ARM Cortex M4F micros. Now what does that mean? Generally speaking the ARM Cortex M series is meant to be used in place of (or simply replace) regular microcontrollers like PICs and AVRs while the A series and R series are designed for application-specific and real-time purposes respectively. The “4” in the “M4F” means it has all of the features of ARM Cortex-M3 along with additional features like Digital Signal Processing (DSP) extensions. Likewise the “F” indicates the presence of a Floating Point Unit (FPU). Thus Tiva C micros are high-end ARM microcontrollers with DSP and FPU support.

EmbeddedLab introduces us TI’s Tiva C MCUs – [Link]

Inside the tiny RFID chip that runs San Francisco’s race

Posted on 27 June, 201627 June, 2016 by mixos

Ken Shirriff teardowns an RFID chip used to track the time each runner took to run the race.

At the beginning and end of the race, the runners cross special mats that contain antennas and broadcast ultra high frequency radio signals. The runner’s RFID chip detects this signal and sends back the athlete’s ID number, which is programmed into the chip. By tracking these ID numbers, the system determines the time each runner took to run the race. The cool thing about these RFID chips is they are powered by the received radio signal; they don’t need a battery.

Inside the tiny RFID chip that runs San Francisco’s race – [Link]

World’s First 1,000-Processor Chip

Posted on 27 June, 201627 June, 2016 by mixos

by Andy Fell:

A microchip containing 1,000 independent programmable processors has been designed by a team at the University of California, Davis, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The energy-efficient “KiloCore” chip has a maximum computation rate of 1.78 trillion instructions per second and contains 621 million transistors. The KiloCore was presented at the 2016 Symposium on VLSI Technology and Circuits in Honolulu on June 16.

World’s First 1,000-Processor Chip – [Link]

SparkFun Battery Babysitter

Posted on 25 June, 2016 by mixos

The SparkFun Battery Babysitter is an all-in-one single-cell Lithium Polymer (LiPo) battery manager. It’s half battery charger, half battery monitor, and all you’ll ever need to keep your battery-powered project running safely and extensively.

The Battery Babysitter features a pair of Texas Instruments LiPo-management ICs: a BQ24075 battery charger and a BQ27441-G1A fuel gauge. The charger supports adjustable charge rates of up to 1.5A, as well as USB-compliant 100mA and 500mA options. It also features power-path management, guaranteeing power to your project even if the battery has died. The self-calibrating, I2C-based BQ27441-G1A measures your battery’s voltage to estimate its charge percentage and remaining capacity. It’s also hooked up to a current-sensing resistor, which allows it to measure current and power! It’s a handy IC to have, if you ever need to keep an extra eye on your project’s power draw.

SparkFun Battery Babysitter – [Link]

Full featured Arduino DSLR Intervalometer

Posted on 25 June, 201625 June, 2016 by mixos

by aniansh @ instructables.com:

Have you ever felt like creating one of those city street time lapses that you see on the internet or recording the blooming of a flower through a time lapse or maybe create a night sky panorama of the milky way drifting in the background? Well, now you can do so with your own custom made and designed intervalometer.

Full featured Arduino DSLR Intervalometer – [Link]

Conventional Flow vs Electron Flow Explained

Posted on 25 June, 2016 by mixos

“baldengineer” explains which way the current flows.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about four current flow direction myths. As a follow up to that popular post, I decided to dedicate this month’s AddOhms electronics tutorial video to Current Flow. In episode #19, I tackle the question of which way does current flow.

You might have heard about “conventional flow” and “electron flow.” In conventional flow, we assume that current flows from the positive voltage towards the negative voltage. In digital, the “negative voltage” is usually called ground. However, that’s not how the electrons move nor is it how they carry the charge around a circuit path.

Conventional Flow vs Electron Flow Explained – [Link]

Inside the SDS7012 Oscilloscope: Mainboard Analysis

Posted on 25 June, 201625 June, 2016 by mixos

Christer Weinigel has been tinkering with an OWON SDS7012 o’scope, including deciphering the device’s OS and even disassembling the bootloader. Now it’s time to dive in and examine the mainboard, physically, with many of the board’s sub-circuits explained. via adafruit.com

Except for soldering some wires to the JTAG and serial port on the scope, most of the things I have discoveries about the SDS7102 I have made so far has been done with just software and a bit of thinking.

Inside the SDS7012 Oscilloscope: Mainboard Analysis – [Link]

Wireless Weather Station using Arduino Due, DHT22 sensor and NRF24L01+

Posted on 25 June, 2016 by mixos

educ8s.tv uploaded a new project on youtube.

In this video we build a Wireless Weather Station using the fast and powerful 32bit Arduino Due board. We measure the temperature and the humidity with a couple of DHT22 sensors and we communicate with the remote sensor using the 2.4GHz NRF24L01+ module. Let’s see how to build this project!

Today’s project is this. A Wireless Weather Station with a big 3.2” Color TFT display. As you can see, the project is up and running, and it displays the current date and time, the indoor temperature and humidity, and the outdoor temperature and humidity. The readings of the outdoor sensor are updated every second in order to demonstrate that we have a reliable communication link established with the transmitter which is outside at a distance of 5m. The readings of the indoor sensor are updated once every minute. The heart of the project is the fast Arduino Due, and as you can see there is no flickering of the screen when the values are updated. Let’s now see the transmitter.

The transmitter is much simpler. It consists of an Arduino Nano, a DHT22 sensor and the NRF24L01 wireless transceiver module. The transmitter reads the temperature and the humidity every second, and sends them to the receiver via the NRF24L01 module. This is a one way communication link, we don’t know if the receiver actually receives the data, but we send new data every second, so in case we miss a package we are going to receive another one soon. Let’s now see how to build this project.

Wireless Weather Station using Arduino Due, DHT22 sensor and NRF24L01+ – [Link]

Count down timer for UV lamps using PIC16F887

Posted on 25 June, 201625 June, 2016 by mixos

Here is a countdown timer for UV exposure lamps @ cuteminds.com

Here follows a simple count down timer useful for the production of pcbs using photoresist and UV lamps. We have used a pic 16F887 Microchip microcontroller; there are no particular reasons, we have simply used the picmicros available at the moment.

Count down timer for UV lamps using PIC16F887 – [Link]

High Current Discrete Half-Bridge Based on IR2104 or IR2101

Posted on 24 June, 2016 by mixos

This is a discrete Half-bridge driver based on IR2104 gate driver IC and low impedance high current N channel IRFP4368 MOSFETS. The IR2104 is a high voltage, high speed power MOSFET driver with independent high and low side referenced output channels. HVIC and latch immune CMOS technologies enable ruggedized monolithic construction. The logic input is compatible with standard COMOS or LSTTL output, down to 3.3V logic. A gate IR2104 driver is a power amplifier that accepts a low-power input from a controller IC and produces a high-current drive input for the gate of a high-power transistor such as a power MOSFET. In essence, a gate driver consists of a level shifter in combination with an amplifier.

This drive has many application, ranging from DC-DC power supply for high power density and efficiency, This project simplifies the design of control systems for a wide range of motor applications such as home appliances, industrial drives, DC brushed motors , Brushless motors, fans, Tesla Coil driver, Induction coil driver, LED driver, Halogen Lamp driver.

High Current Discrete Half-Bridge Based on IR2104 or IR2101 – [Link]