Electronics-Lab.com Blog

How to generate high voltage DC with a Cockcroft-Walton Multiplier circuit. a.k.a Cockcroft-Walton / Villard / Greinacher Cascade

EEVblog #469 – Cockcroft-Walton Multiplier - [Link]

by Steven Keeping:

Traditionally, switching DC/DC converters (voltage regulators) were controlled using analog techniques because these were simple to implement and helped to maximize the power supply’s efficiency. Digital components were too slow and power greedy to challenge analog dominance.

However, over the past several years the introduction of high-speed, low power consumption and inexpensive silicon has rekindled interest in “digital power management.”

Armed with these new chips, designers are keen to take advantage of features such as the ease with which digital control enables optimization of the power supply by adaptation of a closed-loop response – even allowing adjustment “on the fly” to suit changes in the operating environment or to compensate for factors such as capacitive loading and component aging.

This article considers the benefits that digital power brings to voltage regulators by comparing an analog power supply with its digital equivalent. The article then continues by describing some of the latest digital regulators released by major vendors that take advantage of the control techniques discussed.

The Rise of Digital Control for DC/DC Regulation - [Link]

This is an 125 kHz RFID reader that is based on ATtiny13 micro-controller and an LM358 Operational Amplifier. No special RFID chip is used. The reading, decoding and printing the unique ID from 125 kHz RFID tags is made entirely in software by ATtiny13.

125 kHz RFID reader based on ATtiny13 - [Link]

Philip Peter writes:

I always like a challenge, so when I saw [simpleavr]s vusbtiny programmer, I started to wonder how small I could make an AVR programmer. All in all I’m pretty pleased with the result.The schematic is almost the same as the original one. I only added a LED an resistor to indicate a proper power supply.

Minimalist AVR programmer - [Link]

Philip designed a simple component size and silkscreen reference board:

since I kept checking old projects to figure out which silkscreens worked, and which didn’t, I made myself a simple reference board. I also included some common SMD component sizes, just to keep me from thinking 0402 was a viable default size.

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Simple silkscreen reference board - [Link]

An application note from Microchip: Practical guide to implementing Solar Panel MPPT Algorithms (PDF!)

This application note describes how to implement MPPT using the most popular switching power supply topologies. There are many published works on this topic, but only a tiny portion of them show how to actually implement the algorithms in hardware, as well as state common problems and pitfalls. Even when using the simplest MPPT algorithm with a well-designed synchronous switching power supply, it can be expected that at least 90% of the panel’s available power will end up in the battery, so the benefits are obvious.

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Practical guide to implementing Solar Panel MPPT Algorithms - [Link]

Guan Yang of HackManhattan writes about his efforts working with a Bluetooth low energy component:

This amazing component is the Nordic nRF51822 that was released last year and is now available for order from Mouser. It’s a Bluetooth Low Energy system-on-chip that includes a transceiver and a Cortex-M0 microcontroller.Here’s a breakout board I made for it, using a Johanson balun and chip antenna. It takes a little help from the Internet, but I got it to work with Nordic’s SDK and the gcc-arm-none-eabi toolchain. Haven’t tried debugging yet.

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HackManhattan’s Nordic nRF51822 breakout board - [Link]

Compact embedded module WizFi630 enables to connect any serial RS232 device to a TCP/IP network. 

However it´s not all. By supporting  3 Ethernet ports, it offers a wide variability to connect another devices to a Wi-Fi network, in various operation modes.

Novelty from company Wiznet  WizFi630 module provides, besides the RS232/ Wi-Fi interface, even many other functions, which place it to a category of routers. Via 2 UART and 3 Ethernet ports it is possible connect several devices in various modes of operation: AP (Access point), Client , AP client and Gateway. These modes are best illustrated in attached picturs. For a development support, we offer you a novelty -  WizFi630EVB evaluation board with complete accessories.

WizFi630 – the immediately available WiFi - [Link]

Dave takes you through designing a signal overload detector circuit from scratch and then builds it up on the breadboard.

• Window comparators
• Schmitt inverters,
• Capacitor charging,
• Pulse stretching,
• Common mode input range,
• Tongue angle tweaking,
• .. it’s all here.

EEVblog #471 – Overload Detector Circuit Design - [Link]

Steve Taranovich writes:

Touchstone, with its first analog power management product, has enhanced such a function with the capability to use supply voltages down to 0.6V while still being able to deliver a 75 mA output current.

The device can be used in power harvesting or peak load buffering applications, the LDO may post-regulate voltage buffered in a large capacitor or super-capacitor at boost’s output. Finally, the LDO may be operated simply as an on/off load switch.

TS3300 switching regulator coupled with an LDO in same package - [Link]