Electronics-Lab.com Blog

LM2596 is a step-down (buck) Switching Regulator capable of delivering 3A of current and it is working at 150 KHz switching frequency. Using a few external components you are able to build a powerful power supply. It comes on 3.3V, 5V, 12V, and adjustable output versions.

Switching Power Supply Regulator with LM2596 - [Link]

This ebook has a collection of Switching Regulator Circuits for a variety of input and output voltages. Using this catalog you are able to easily select which type of switching regulator fits better on you needs. There are 12 basic circuit categories: Battery, Boost, Buck, Buck-Boost, Flyback, Forward, High Voltage, Multioutput, Off Line, Preregulator, Switched Capacitor and Telecom.

Switching Regulator Circuit Collection - [Link]

If you want to save some time and money on testing jobs you could make a test jig. In that way you can make the testing more easily. In this tutorial ladyada.net will show how designed a very basic jig with a “tested good” audible indicator. The board its testing is very simple but the basic premise can be expanded to large projects with ease. Check how to make a pogo pin testing jig on the site below. [via]

Pogo pin test jig - [Link]

This circuit shows how to interface an uC to PC RS232 port using MAX232. This is a standard configuration used when we want to translate the RS232 logic levels (-15V,+15V) to 0V and 5V logic levels.

Interface a uC to PC RS232 with MAX232 – [Link]

If you would like to learn more about PIC microcontrollers here is a nice ebook from mikroe.com. Learn what a microcontroller is and how it works. It includes numerous illustrations and practical examples along with a detailed description of the PIC16F887 microcontroller. Check it out!

PIC Microcontrollers – Free eBook! - [Link]

This project shows how to build a cold coffee (frappe) Machine using plain build materials. On the pages below “Giorgos Lazaridis” describes the procedure of building the coffee/sugar tanks, the raising/lowering mechanism that will blend the coffee and the rotaing glass table. He has to overcome many challenges to achieve his goal and he describes all them in his website. This project is under development.

Instant Cold Coffee Machine – [Link]

This project is an acrylic glass folding heater. Giorgos Lazaridis wanted to fold some “acrylic glass” and decided that doing with a heater gun you don’t get the desired results so he made a better heater from an old printer heating element. Check how he build a housing for the lamp and how he build the controlling board. For dimmer he used the PIC DCV Controlled AC Light Dimmer that he has already made. He only made one change to original circuit, he replaced a transistor. Check construction details on the link below. This project is under development.

Acrylic Glass Folding Heater - [Link]

This project is a great little idea based on LED. It uses a LED and a push button to make a LED push button switch that can easily mounted on your project box. To achieve that you need a smooth flat surface at the bottom of the LED and that can be made using some hot glue and a knife as seen on the page below.

A LED Pushbutton – [Link]

This project is a speed detector based on Arduino platform. Arduino is measuring the time it takes an object to travel between two points and transmit this data to a computer or smart phone where it is converted to speed value and presented in a clear way. Check more details on code on the site below. [via]

Arduino Based Speed Detector - [Link]

This oscilloscope is a wearable one that is currently under development by Seeed Studio. It’s a two analog channel oscilloscope with 20mV to 10V/div resolution, h36Msps sampling rate and approximate 30Mhz bandwidth. It also has 2 Digital channels, ext. trigger source etc. This is still an early review of the product. It needs at least 2-3 months for mass production and target price is >150$ [via]

DSO QUAD: Powerful and Wearable Oscilloscope – [Link]