Electronics-Lab.com Blog

Push-buttons resistant to dust and water, moreover with the well-visible LED backlight, will manage even rough handling.

If you have an application, where you need sturdy push-buttons and ideally even with backlight, then the Schurter MSM19 may be the right for you. Dust- and water-proof push-buttons can be advantageous not only in an expressly demanding industrial environment, but also in a common indoor environment, when they´re supposed to be frequently used, for example in various information or control panels etc. Right such a “harmless” environment can be easily dangerous thanks to wet hands, spilled coffee, …

Push-buttons Schurter MSM series feature a similar usage like MCS series, but it features a higher protection class – IP67 (from the actuator side). In the MSM series can be found several versions, in stock we keep 2 types – 1241.6624.x  with a ring green or red backlight (powered by 24VDC). Transparent ring from polyamide is of a neutral color (in off state of LED).

MSM series is constructed modularly, i.e. consists of the stainless steel body and the micro-switch which determines its electrical properties. MSM series can be equipped by various tact switches – 2 Types which we keep in stock are equipped with the type 1050.1151 from company Marquardt. Mid-rated force of 4,5N necessary to push the switch and the 1mm travel make these push-buttons very pleasant for handling. Gold-plated contacts of the micro-switch enable also to switch very small currents.

Detailed information will provide you the Schurter MSM datasheet.  In case of interest, please contact us at info@soselectronic.com.

Resistant and irresistibly beautiful push-buttons Schurter MSM 19 - [Link]

Battery-Charging Controllers for Energy Harvesters by Jon Gabay:

Whether your energy harvesting application uses large solar panels with high voltages and currents or, more often the case, must make do with minute amounts of power derived from various other ambient energy sources, one thing is almost certain: some type of energy storage is on board, whether in the form of a small rechargeable lithium ion battery, a supercapacitor, or solid-state energy storage technology. For the engineer this means that not only do we need to design circuits to harvest and convert ambient energy, but we also have to include an energy-harvesting interface (and protection circuitry) as well as a charge controller. This article looks at single chip energy harvesting devices that also provide some form of charge control. It discusses the different conditions under which energy can be extracted as well as what to expect when trying to squeeze power out of the ambient environment. Finally, the article will present some typical integrated solutions for small-sized low-power energy-harvesting designs.

Battery-Charging Controllers for Energy Harvesters - [Link]

by Publitek European Editors

There are many different types of accelerometers for industrial applications, ranging from the latest micro-machined capacitive devices to traditional rugged piezo electric crystals. The boom in portable devices and the advantages of knowing the position and orientation of the equipment, as well as the increased use of accelerometers in vehicle air bags, has led to an explosion in the different types of devices in recent years. All of this is to the advantage of the engineer who can use the wide range of devices for different applications, from monitoring to position measurement.

Sensor Technologies for Accelerometers - [Link]

The LT3651 enables fast charging of Li-Ion/Polymer batteries by delivering up to 4A of continuous charge current with minimal power loss. This is due to its high efficiency switchmode topology, including on-chip synchronous MOSFETs. Its autonomous operation means no microcontroller is necessary and the device integrates an onboard C/10 or timer charge termination. The LT3651’s programmable input current limit with PowerPathTM control regulates charge current to maintain a constant supply current, preventing the input supply from collapsing.

• Wide Input Voltage Range: Up to 32V (40V Absolute Maximum)
• Programmable Charge Current Up to 4A
• Selectable C/10 or Onboard Timer Termination
• Dynamic Charge Rate Programming/Soft-Start
• Programmable Input Current Limit

LT3651 – Monolithic 4A High Voltage 1 Cell Li-Ion Battery Charger - [Link]

Turning on/off lights by whistling, Limpkin writes:

Basically, it is an ARM Cortex M4 running 80FFTs per second to detect a whistling sequence. The project is obviously open hardware/source

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Turning on/off lights by whistling (Cortex M4 @ 80FFTs/sec) - [Link]

Ray Wang wrote this post about voltage conversion from 24VAC to 5VDC.

Voltage conversion from 24VAC to 5VDC is quite useful, because a lot of home automation devices use 24VAC, including sprinkler solenoids, home surveillance systems etc. Having a conversion module makes it easy to use a single power supply, without a separate 5V adapter for your control circuit. There are plenty of resources you can find online about it. But these resources are rather scattered. So in this blog post I summarize and discuss the common choices.

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24VAC to 5VDC Conversion - [Link]

The Aithon board is an integrated robot controller board with a 32-bit ARM microcontroller and a powerful software library.

The Aithon board is a microcontroller board that combines the power of a 32-bit ARM Cortex-M4 with several integrated features that make robot building and experimentation fun. We set out to create a board that has more processing power and memory than the typical Arduino, yet has integrated hardware that you would not find on a Raspberry Pi.

Aithon: 32-bit ARM Microcontroller Board - [Link]

Thermocouples are a great way to take accurate temperature measurements in hard to reach places or in very rugged environments.  Using one can be tricky if your new to the device. This circuit has two parts the thermocouple needs to be driven by a device and then an amplifier can be used to amplify and offset the voltage into a signal that can be useful. In this circuit the output of the amplifier Vout = 10mv/°C when using a K-Type thermocouple.

How to Driving and Measure a Thermocouple - [Link]

GPS modules from company Quectel have excellent features and enable a relatively quick development of applications also thanks to ready-made development kits.

GPS receivers are still more often used in various segments, what is also reflected in our offer of top-featured GPS modules from company  Quectel. Naturally, it is ideal, when there´s also available a development kit for a given module.  Really, development kits are the components, which significantly help at development and thanks to a simplified and accelerated development, this investment usually refunds very quickly. That´s why it´s possible to find in our offer development kits for almost every GPS or GSM/GPRS module from Quectel, moreover immediately available directly from our stock.

Do you want to know your position? - [Link]

Microchip announces two new 8-bit PIC microcontrollers (MCUs), the PIC16F527 and PIC16F570, which combine a PIC MCU with a dual Op Amp module, an 8-bit ADC and two comparators. The new MCUs add several features to support ease of use and system robustness.

8-bit PIC Integrates Analog Circuitry - [Link]