To generate high voltages with proper insulation between the “hot node” and the rest of the circuitry, a car ignition coil can function in place of a high-voltage transformer. These coils have voltage ratings of approximately 20 kV, so ...
Precision-matched resistors, diode pairs, and bridges are generic items. But sometimes an extra critical application with extra tight tolerances (or an extra tight budget) can dictate a little (or a lot) of DIY. Figure 1’s matchmaker circuit ...
Stephen Woodward, a prolific circuit designer with way more than 100 published Design Ideas (DIs), had his “80 MHz VFC with prescaler and preaccumulator” [ 1 ] published on October 17, 2024, as a DI on the EDN website. Upon reading his ...
Implementing a simple digital-to-analog converter (DAC) by cascading a single pulse width modulator (PWM) and an analog low-pass filter is nothing new. Nor is applying to a filter the sum of the outputs of a most significant 2 N -count PWM and a ...
Meters that indicate analog levels via a moving-pointer meter, a numeric display, or a column of LEDs typically occupy considerable panel area and require more than a casual glance to read. An indicator lamp or LED takes little space but indicates ...
Integrating ADCs that provide accurate results without requiring a precision integrator capacitor has been around for a long time. A venerable example is that multimeter favorite, the dual-slope ADC. That classic topology uses just one integrator ...
Analog designers often need matched resistors for their circuits [ 1 ]. The best solution is to buy integrated resistor networks [ 2 ], but what can you do if the parts vendors do not offer the desired values or matching grade? The circuit in ...
I designed and built this thing many years ago. I published the hobby circuit in the now defunct “Radio Elecronics” magazine back in 1992. The electronic circuit injects a precise 1 Amp of current into any unknown resistor, up to about ...
Designing an analog circuit can be a frustrating experience, as noted by Nick Cornford in his Design Idea (DI), “DIY RTD for a DMM” ( Ref. 1 ). With a fortnight’s struggle, I completed the design of 4 mA to 20 mA, two-wire ...
At its invention roughly four decades ago, STM (scanning tunneling microscopy) created a sensation because it was the first technology to make atomic-scale-resolution imaging a routine procedure. An essential requirement for the practical ...