Branislav Korenko and Marek Cerný, Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava, Slovakia EDN This Design Idea was realized for voltage/current measurement on a four-channel analog voltage source but has wide use in many other applications. ...
09-05-2013
Horst Koelzow, Calgary, Alberta EDN Many single-voltage power supplies consist of a transformer, a rectifier, and a filter capacitor, as shown in Figure 1. This circuit is relatively inexpensive and easy to build but supplies only a single voltage. ...
29-04-2013
Ali Asgher Mansoor Habiby and Abdus Sami Abdul Qayyum, Sir Syed University, Karachi, Pakistan EDN When you go hiking or mountain biking, or simply take a long walk around the neighborhood, you might wonder about the distance you covered or specific ...
24-04-2013
Raju Baddi EDN Most PN-junction diodes can be used as photodiodes. While not optimized for this application, they do work. When the diode is reverse biased, it will produce a small photovoltaic output as the light level is increased. LEDs are ...
16-04-2013
Thomas Mathews, Texas Instruments EDN For battery-powered circuits, it is easy to build an ultralow-current crystal oscillator designed around a 32.768-kHz crystal. This crystal is common for real-timeclock circuits. Because these circuits must ...
11-04-2013
Shawn Stafford, Pittsburgh, PA EDN A typical voltage-to-frequency converter also known as a VCO (voltage-controlled oscillator) IC has a simple linear tuning characteristic relating input voltage to output frequency. It is usually of the form ...
27-03-2013
The objective of this project is to build an Arduino voice shield to empower thousands of voice related applications! All this mostly thanks to an integrated ISD1790PY chip (Figure 1). Figure 1. Voice Shield for Arduino This particular voice/TTS ...
24-03-2013
Nora Jacalan Esteves, Technor Semiconductor LLC EDN With only a few additional components, you can use a highly efficient step-down dc/dc converter to create a constant-current, multiple-channel LED driver. It is relatively easy to drive a ...
21-03-2013
Vishwas Vaidya Thermocouples and their leads often have to detect open-circuit or short-circuit faults. However, it is very difficult to distinguish a valid millivolt temperature signal from an open/short-circuited thermocouple, which generates a ...
14-03-2013
John Fattaruso, Dallas, TX EDN Measure the pinch-off voltage V P and zero-bias drain current I DSS to select matched pairs of JFETs When working with discrete JFETs, designers may need to accommodate a large variation in device parameters for a ...
10-03-2013
Mehmet Efe Ozbek, PhD, Atilim University, Ankara, Turkey - August 17, 2012 EDN A previous Design Idea demonstrates how you can use a microcontroller to drive a piezoelectric buzzer at a high alternating voltage through a four-MOSFET circuit that ...
05-03-2013
Raju Baddi, India EDN Bipolar junction transistors transfer a current from a lower-resistance emitter to a higher-resistance collector. You can use this property to measure inductance Bipolar junction transistors transfer a current from a ...
24-02-2013
James B Wood, Inovonics Inc, Felton, CA; Edited by Martin Rowe and Fran Granville- June 24, 2010 You can design a hardware-based frequency synthesizer with one inexepensive IC and a few passive components. Such synthesizer chips are not always ...
21-02-2013
Richard Oliver, Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, AZ- June 4, 2012 Solenoid loads generally exhibit large hysteresis. Application of the rated voltage actuates these loads. Once they are in position, however, you can use a significantly lower voltage ...
21-02-2013
Part 1 - Hardware The getting started will guide you with installing the required software on the pc. There are only two programs required before you can program the Simplecortex: the IDE and the driver for Windows to recognize the Simplecortex as ...
14-02-2013
SimpleCortex
Originally developed for the do-it-yourself (DIY) and hobbyist communities, the Arduino open-source electronics prototyping platform is based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. While still wildly popular among artists, tinkerers, and ...
14-02-2013
Stephen Kamichik, Ile Bizard, PQ, Canada EDN You often need to block signals of specific frequencies; of these frequencies, 50- or 60-Hz line frequency is the most common. You can use the PLL notch filter in Figure 1 to block unwanted frequencies. ...
11-02-2013
Create the mathematical inverse of an analog voltage by converting it to frequency and measuring the period. Jordan Dimitrov, Toronto, ON, Canada EDN A popular series of inexpensive distance sensors integrates an infrared emitting diode, a linear ...
10-02-2013
Ever wanted to control a tank with your phone? Well, here’s one way to make it happen (Figure 1). Figure 1. Bluetooth MSP430 Tank Parts: MSP430 Launchpad with MSP430G255 3 chip from Texas Instruments (TI). Wireless Bluetooth V2.0 RS232 TTL ...
01-02-2013
Mehmet Efe Ozbek, PhD, Atilim University, Ankara, Turkey EDN Piezoelectric buzzers find wide use in embedded systems for audible-signal generation. You can drive a piezoelectric element directly from a microcontroller’s I/O pins, but the ...
31-01-2013
