A working robotics prototype involves mechanical, electrical, and software design. Five golden rules for prototyping robotic systems article shares some lessons learned while designing an autonomous robotic helicopter.It shows that a well-thought-out plan for prototyping can significantly pay off in the long run and can be even more important in robotics applications than in other →
Tyco Electronics has an interesting application note named Relay Contact Life. The Relay Contact Life document outlines the basics of relay contact selecting, properties of different contact material and strategies for protecting relay contacts. There is no such thing as a universal relay contact. Relay contacts are available in a variety of metals and alloys, →
The challenge of protecting today’s systems from transient threats is more complex than ever before. As semiconductor manufacturers introduce new wireline transmission devices built on smaller CMOS geometries, more circuit protection challenges are emerging. CommsDesign article System level transient voltage protection–Five in-depth answers to ESD questions gives answers to important questions that can ensure that →
A Ham’s Guide to RFI, Ferrites, Baluns, and Audio Interfacing is an interesting tutorial on understanding and solving RF interference problems. To solve interference problems, we must understand them. The document describes many EMC issues well. Almost all RFI problems we describe as “RF in the shack” have pin 1 problems as their root cause! →
Gold on HIFI connectors is quite much talked about subject. This article tries to give some information on gold planted connectors so you could decide case by case if they are good idea to use or not. Gold connectors are very much hyped on cable advertisements. Gold is equated with being expensive so having something →
Let us count the ways these modern marvels of technology drive us bonkers, day after day. Fifteen Consumer Electronics Design Mistakes article shows how thing have gone wrong. Avoid making those and similar mistakes on your own designs. →
If you’ve ever had a problem getting two chips to talk, or wanted to reverse engineer a protocol, a logic analyzer is the right tool for this. Logic analyzer only detects digital high and low digital states, it records many signals simultaneously and allows to dump data to a computer for analysis. Logic analyzers can →
Solid-state-lighting applications are quickly moving into the mainstream. Testing the driver circuit using LEDs, although easy, yields only typical results. Accurately simulate an LED article shows a circuit that you can use to test your LED drive circuit with worst-case LED parameters. You can easily tune this one transistor test circuit for any LED voltage. →
Renowned audio design guru Douglas Self has published many audio related articles and books. Some of them can be read on the web. Self on Audio book consists of collected works from 30 years of magazine writing: all the classic preamplifier and power amplifier designs. This is really worth to read collection of articles to →
LED-based lighting is still far from a mainstream technology, and its designs are in flux. Early SSL products are making their way onto store shelves and into inventory. LED lighting teardowns: Five lighting designs that illuminate the future of lighting article shows product examples that can indicate what direction SSL design will take, at least →