Electronics-Lab.com Blog

ermicro.com writes:

PWM is used in many industrial mostly for controlling the motor speed. The PWM is used because it’s the most efficient method comparing to the analog one. That’s why most of the modern microcontrollers today have this features build in. How does this PWM works will be described on the following circuits:

Introduction to AVR Microcontroller Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) – [Link]

ermicro.com writes:

The PICJazz 20PIN board from ermicro is designed to be used both as the Microchip PIC microcontroller learning and development board. The PICJazz 20PIN board is stand alone microcontroller module equipped with the latest 8-bit class Microchip midrange and high performance such as PIC16F690 or PIC18F14K50 microcontroller that could be used for wide range of applications including embedded controller, remote data logger, robotics and much more.

PICJazz 20PIN Learning and Development Board – [Link]

ermicro.com writes:

The AVRJazz Mega168 board from ermicro is designed to be used both as the AVR microcontroller learning and development board. The AVR Jazz Mega168 board is stand alone microcontroller module equipped with the latest Atmel high performance low power technology AVR ATMega168 or ATMega328 microcontroller that can be used for wide range of applications including embedded controller, remote data logger, robotics and much more.

AVRJazz Mega168/328 Learning and Development Board – [Link]

Another review of ITead’s OverLoad programmable dummy load:

All in all, interesting device. The only major flaw I see attm is that instead of using DAC and drive the current value trough mcu they are doing that analogue … I’ll check schematic to see if there is DAC on board at all, but if not I see that there is i2c on the connector, maybe it would be an easy hack to add DAC there and link instead of the pot .. I haven’t used i2c dac’s mostly spi but I assume there are some nice i2c versions too

Another OverLoad review - [Link]

John Park writes:

At this point in my Android saga, I’ve gotten the Android SDK and Eclipse all running well enough to run a Hello World in the Android emulator. This is an important step, but I want more. I want it running on real hardware! In this case, a Nexus One phone.

I installed a system update to bring the phone up to snuff, specifically to OS version 2.3.4 (Gingerbread). The ADK and USB host functionality requires 2.3.4 or later. Using the steps in this guide, I set up the phone for development mode. The key steps are to set the phone’s Applications > Development mode to “USB debugging”, and to set the “Debuggable” flag to “true” in the AndroidManifest.xml file for the HelloWorld program in Eclipse.

Adventures in Android ADK Development: Hardware – [Link]

drzasiek.cba.pl writes:

XM-scope 3 – Miniature 2-channel digital oscilloscope for everyone.

This is already the third version of the digital oscilloscope for the AVR processor family. This time the machine is more complex, added a lot of interesting and useful features and above all, adding the device more practical applications.

The main goal of the project was to make a 2-channel oscilloscope with the smallest dimensions, with low hardware complexity, so that everyone can do it at home. An important role played by the cost of implementation and availability of parts.
About the unit

The heart device is a microcontroller ATXMega128A3-AU. The oscilloscope uses two built-in A / D converters of the microcontroller. The LCD display is a 132×176 pixel TFT driver L2F50 LS020 or the popular Siemensów S65/SX65/CX65 etc.

XM-scope 3 – Miniature 2-channel digital oscilloscope - [Link]

dangerousprototypes.com writes:

When spy satellites peer down at you from over head, what can you do? Well, if your’re Thierry Legault and Emmanuel Rietsch you look back! The pair of enterprising Frenchmen have modified a consumer-grade telescope, added a small motor, hand-held controller and a video camera. The result is a do-it-yourself satellite tracker capable of recording the movements of America’s most secretive spacecraft.

Looking up at the spy - [Link]

At recent international trade shows Epson debuted the S4E5A0A0 Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU). An inertial measurement unit senses inertial motion consisting of angular rate sensors on three axes and accelerometers in three directions. IMUs are primarily used to measure and control the behavior of mobile objects. [via]

The IMU includes triple gyroscopes and a tri-axis accelerometer, for six degrees of freedom. The gyroscope provides high accuracy and stability (±300 deg/s), while the accelerometer offers a dynamic range of ±3 G. It offers excellent angular rate measurement performance (angle random walk: 0.24deg/√hr) and stability (gyro bias instability: 6 deg/h). The device is also equipped with industry-standard SPI and UART interfaces.

This Epson component is suited to industrial applications in areas such as inertial motion analysis and control, motional analysis and control, moving object control, vibration control and stabilization, and navigation systems.

Now, the bad news. At $2,500 per chip, the S4E5A0A0 is targeted toward industrial applications. It will reportedly begin shipping in July.

Epson S4E5A0A0 Inertial Measurement Unit - [Link]

If you’re interested in how delta-sigma modulators and ADCs work, you should check out this excellent introduction by Uwe Beis: [via]

When looking for an introduction to delta sigma conversion I found that most explanations were from a very theoretical point of view. It took me a while to understand how Delta Sigma converters really work. So I decided to write this introduction for people who prefer circuit diagrams to reading abstract equations.

To understand what I’m talking about you should at least be familiar with:

- Standard analogue techniques (op-amps, comparators etc.)
- Standard digital techniques (latches, binary codes etc.)
- Standard ADCs and DACs (resolution, speed)
- What a low pass filter is (at least an analogue one)
- The sampling theorem (sample frequency > 2 x input bandwidth, alias effects)

Delta sigma converters are different from other converters. Note that I do not make a difference between analogue-to-digital (ADC) and digital-to-analogue converters (DAC). Both are very similar and what is realized in one of them using analogue signal processing circuitry is implemented in the other one using digital signal processing and vice versa. I will explain the delta sigma technique with the analogue-to-analogue delta sigma converter as the first object.

An Introduction to Delta-Sigma Converters – [Link]

Microchip introduced a new 18-pin microcontroller, PIC16F1847, to its enhanced mid-range 8-bit family. The following project describes a full-featured, DIY development board for PIC16F1847 microcontroller with lot of other peripherals.

Development board for newly released PIC16F1847 microcontroller – [Link]