Hackaday mentioned some time ago an interesting Arduino cellphone. The fact that you can build a cellphone around an Arduino is pretty neat: An Average Joe can build this thing with a minimum or background knowledge and without breaking the bank. Wow. The components include and Arduino Uno, GPRS shield from Seeed Studios, a TFT →
Knowing the electrical characteristics of direct current and its differences in comparison with alternating current is fundamental to understand how to employ direct current. Direct current presents different problems than alternating current with a regard to the phenomena associated to the interruption of high value currents since the arc extinction results to be particularly difficult. →
Every summer we get thunderstorms, with the accompanying lightning in Finland. It is expected that thunderstorms starts in few days. Varo! Torstaina salamoi article says that it is expected that next Thursday there will be (according to weather forecast) 5000-10000 lightning discharge events in Finland. Lightning is a massive electrostatic discharge between electrically charged regions →
Comparison of EDA software page has a nice comparison table of Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software. It list very many Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) that could be worth to take a look. →
I was just pointed to a new interesting ground loop document few days ago. Ground Loop Tutorial is a tutorial on electrical interference with emphasis on ground loops. It distinguishes several different types of interference and discusses the underlying physics at a basic level. In the end there is a good list of Methods for →
USB Fume Extractor project combines a small craft box, 12v case fan, aquarium carbon filter, dc boost converter and some basic electronic components to create a USB powered fume extractor which treats your lungs to some clean air when soldering. Check the USB Fume Extractor video how the project works: USB Fume Extractor was designed →
Grounding, or connecting some part of an electrical circuit to ground ensures safety for personnel and it usually improves circuit operation. Unfortunately, a safe environment and a robust ground system often do not happen simultaneously. It takes planning based on systematically understanding how electricity behaves in various types of circuits. Preventing electrical shocks and electrical →
Flexible printed circuits are useful when the size and shape of your invention is integral to its overall design. Very many consumer electronics gadgets have them inside: in mobile phones, cameras, etc. Tips for Building a Flex Circuit article tells that because of the unique characteristics that set them apart, an electronics engineer must consider →
Hackaday article Hand placing flash die to make USB drives tells how boards inside USB drives populated. The article points to Where USB Memory Sticks are Born article that tells that once the bare die FLASH chips are screened for functionality, they are placed by hand onto a PCB (using some sort of tool made →
The markings on SMD components have been always hard to read. Besides the fact that the numbers and letters in them are very small, the number coding used on them is different than what is used on traditional though-hole components (the reason is that there would not be enough space to print any long codes →