Page 860 – Electronics-Lab.com

How to Improve Buck Converter Light Load Efficiency with an LDO

Posted on 1 June, 2016 by mixos

By Michael Hartshorne @ digikey.com:

Designing a DC/DC converter that only consumes micro amps of current at no load can be compared to fueling a muscle car with lighter fluid – you may get it to work, but it won’t be easy. High efficiency at full load currents is commonplace in most modern DC/DC converters; however, achieving high efficiency when the load is disabled or disconnected is still a difficult and/or expensive task.

How to Improve Buck Converter Light Load Efficiency with an LDO – [Link]

Parallel Port Breakout board with Buffer for CNC & Routers

Posted on 1 June, 2016 by mixos

Parallel port I/O break out board designed for Hobby CNC, Routers and Motion controller , This Board is an easy solution to driver stepper Motor driver, AC Servo (with Step-DIR Driver) and DC servo (with Step-DIR Driver), The Board is compatible with various CNC software specially made for LPT port data out. The board has been tested with MACH3 CNC software. All outputs are buffered, all inputs are optical isolated and can be used as emergency switch, limit switch and home switch.

The board has 12 output pins that can control various devices such as stepping motor drivers, AC Servo Driver, DC Servo Driver, Plasma Torch, Pump for coolant, spindle, 5 Input pins are provided for limit or home switches, feedbacks, Emergency switch. All inputs has 470E for current controlled and TTL Voltage input required driving the inputs. This board can be powered with USB input or DC input supply 7V to 36V, keep jumper J2 open in case of USB supply input. Board has Screw Terminals for Inputs and out connections and also provided with 4X6Pin header connecters for outputs. J15 is connected directly to parallel port pins for testing purpose.

Note: For 24V input signal replace of R3, R4, R5, R6, and R7 with 2K2 Ohms.

Features

Supply 7V to 36V DC
25 D SUB Female Connecter for PC LPT Port Interface
On Board Power LED
On Board USB Connector for Supply from PC or other USB source
Jumper Selection for USB Supply Input or External Supply
All Outputs are buffered
All inputs are optically isolated
Two Options for Outputs, Screw Terminals and Header Connectors
4X6Pin Header for easy motor driver interface
On Board L317 Regulator for 5V DC
Heat sink for regulator
5V DC Output for External Circuits
3X3 Header Connector for Relay Driver for Spindle, Plasma, Laser, Pump ON/OFF

Parallel Port Breakout board with Buffer for CNC & Routers – [Link]

Parallel Port Breakout board with Buffer for CNC & Routers

Note: For 24V input signal replace of R3, R4, R5, R6, and R7 with 2K2 Ohms.

Features

Supply 7V to 36V DC
25 D SUB Female Connecter for PC LPT Port Interface
On Board Power LED
On Board USB Connector for Supply from PC or other USB source
Jumper Selection for USB Supply Input or External Supply
All Outputs are buffered
All inputs are optically isolated
Two Options for Outputs, Screw Terminals and Header Connectors
4X6Pin Header for easy motor driver interface
On Board L317 Regulator for 5V DC
Heat sink for regulator
5V DC Output for External Circuits
3X3 Header Connector for Relay Driver for Spindle, Plasma, Laser, Pump ON/OFF

Connections

CN15 : LPT Port Test Pins
CN7 : Inputs , Limit Switch, Feedback, Home Switch, Emergency Switch
CN1 : DC Supply Input 7V to 36V
CN2 : DC 5V Output
CN10, CN11, CN12, CN13 : Header Connector for Stepper driver Interface
CN8, CN9, CN14 : 3X3Pin Header Connector to driver Relay for Outputs
CN5 : Outputs
J3 : E Stop Optional Jumper for Test Purpose
J4, J5 : I/O Direction Control ( Jumper Close to VCC for Normal Operation)
CN6 : USB Connecter for VCC Supply input ( Keep Jumper J1 Open for USB Supply Input)
D1: Power LED

Schematic

Parts List

Connections

Configuration

Photos

Arduino Lightning Detector

Posted on 31 May, 201631 May, 2016 by mixos

This is an Arduino tutorial on how to detect lightning from far away.

In this tutorial, we will build a lightning detector using an Arduino Uno, a few resistors and some jumper wires. Most lightning detectors often cost too much for the normal hobbyist, however this does not mean one cannot enjoy lightning detection and the physics behind it. In this tutorial, using a surprisingly simple circuit we will be able to detect lightnings from around 10-20 km away, which is to say the least impressive.

Arduino Lightning Detector – [Link]

AutoResetRRR – Automatically reset routers/cameras/servers

Posted on 31 May, 2016 by mixos

“bogdan” published a new project, a device able to automatically reset your router, camera or server.

AutoResetRRR is a kind electronic frustration reducing device: it cuts the power periodically to devices that can go nuts (routers, net cams, servers), but it does give a heads up. If all is well, they can shut down safely and start back up. If not, the power cycle can fix a thing or two.

AutoResetRRR – Automatically reset routers/cameras/servers – [Link]

USB to RS485 converter

Posted on 31 May, 201631 May, 2016 by mixos

Marko Pavlin has published a USB to RS485 converter. He writes:

Testing of sensors with RS485 using PC without proper interface is not possible. Since RS232 interfaces are very rare, the interface should be hooked to USB. The interface between USB and RS485 can be soldered with one of the many FTDI interfaces with added RS485 driver, or bought as assembled module. There is always the third option. I made it from scratch.

USB to RS485 converter – [Link]

Optically Isolated LPT Breakout Board for CNC & Routers

Posted on 31 May, 2016 by mixos

Optically isolated parallel port break out board designed for Hobby CNC, Routers and Motion controller, This Board is an easy solution to drive stepper Motor driver through PC parallel port, The Board is compatible with various CNC software specially made for LPT port data output. The board has been tested with MACH3 CNC software. All outputs are optically isolated and inverse, all inputs are optical isolated and can be used as emergency switch, limit switch, home switch and feedbacks. The Opt coupler and inverter require power supply at both PC side and output side. USB connector and CN5 Screw terminal provided for PC side power supply input and CN4 for output side power supply 7 to 36V DC.

The board has 12 output pins that can control various devices such as stepping motor drivers, Plasma Torch, Pump for coolant, spindle, 5 Input pins are provided for limit or home switches, feedbacks, Emergency switch. All inputs has 470E for TTL Voltage input required driving the inputs.

Note: For 24V inputs replace R10, R12, R13, R15, and R16 with 2K2 Ohms.

Features

Supply 7V to 36V DC output side of opt-coupler
5V DC for PC side
25 D SUB Male Connecter for PC LPT Port Interface
High Speed Opto-coupler s 6N137 on all outputs
PC817 Opto-coupler for Inputs and Output Controls
On Board USB Connector for Supply from PC or other source
All Outputs are buffered and optically isolated
All inputs are optically isolated
Screw Terminals for all outputs and inputs
On Board L317 Regulator for 5V DC
Heat sink for regulator

Optically Isolated LPT Breakout Board for CNC & Routers – [Link]

1.8″ DIY Photo Frame using and Arduino Nano and a ST7735 Color TFT display

Posted on 28 May, 201630 May, 2016 by mixos

In this video educ8s.tv is going to show us how to use the SD card slot of the popular 1.8″ Color TFT display which uses the ST7735 driver. Then we will save some bitmap images in the SD card and we will display them on the display. In other words, we will build a simple Photo Frame using Arduino!

If you have watched some of my previous videos, you may have noticed that I use this 1.8” color TFT display a lot recently. The reason for that is that this display is very easy to use, it costs less than $5 and it offers color! At the back, the display has an SD card slot, so I thought that we have to learn how to use that as well. As it turned out, it is really easy to use the SD card slot of the display! That makes this display even better.

The project that we are going to build today is this. A simple photo frame which loads images from the SD card. I have placed some .bmp images in the SD card and the project loads them and displays them at the display in full color! As you can see the speed of the project is very high if we take in consideration that the brains of this project is the old and slow Arduino Nano. In my opinion, this is really impressive. But let’s now see how to build this project.

1.8″ DIY Photo Frame using and Arduino Nano and a ST7735 Color TFT display – [Link]

150V DC/DC inverting controller: single inductor, ground-referenced control

Posted on 27 May, 201627 May, 2016 by mixos

LTC3896 is a high voltage inverting switching regulator controller that drives an all N-channel synchronous power MOSFET stage. Most low to medium power inverting DC/DC converters use a coupled inductor or transformer: this device uses only a single inductor.

The chip converts a 4V to (150V – |VOUT‾|) positive input voltage to a regulated negative output voltage from -60V to -0.8V at output currents up to 15A. Efficiencies are as high as 96%, for transportation, industrial, telecom and power distribution applications.

150V DC/DC inverting controller: single inductor, ground-referenced control – [Link]