When bench testing noise sensitive circuits, one needs an ultra clean power source. Low noise lab power supplies are usually bulky and expensive. Abracon challenges both the bulkiness and the expensiveness with their new low noise pocket sized ABPSM-ULN-A ultra low noise power supply module. With the ABPSM-ULN-A, Abracon intends to set a new standard … [Read more…]
Freescale’s new low-cost development platform FRDM-KL25Z featuring Freescale Semiconductor’s ARM® Cortex™-M0+ processor-based high performance, low-power Kinetis L series 32-bit MCUs has launched last Tuesday. Let’s check it out. The FRDM-KL25Z “Freedom” development platform is an extremely inexpensive development board with a Kinetis KL2 Family 32-bit ARM®CortexTM-M0+ MCU [1]. The Kinetis L-Series MCUs promise true 32-bit … [Read more…]
Most professional devices which require high accuracy and precision have an input for some sort of external frequency reference. The frequency 10 MHz is an industry standard particularly for test equipment. Most reference generators are designed for lab use and therefore are bulky and unsuitable for portable use. Abracon now offers a pocket-sized portable solution. … [Read more…]
That a chain is only as strong as the weakest link should be common sense. Yet I see many people investing into extremely cheap soldering irons and then being surprised about their weak performance. Let’s compare tips of a budget soldering iron and a professional brand soldering iron. A while back I read an article … [Read more…]
Most switch mode power supplies can handle both 120 or 240 Volts just fine. They usually either have a switch to select the input voltage or are simply designed to cover the whole range to begin with. But what if one needs to operate a switch mode power supply, that is exclusively designed for 240 … [Read more…]
Freescale announced a new line of ARM® Cortex™-M0+ based microcontrollers, the Kinetis L Series. The MCUs are supposed to offer the performance of a real 32-bit MCU at the price and energy rating of an 8-bit microcontroller. A tight budget and low power requirements used to limit design engineers to 8-bit and 16-bit MCUs. Freescale’s … [Read more…]
When parts are being used in military or aerospace applications they need to meet special quality standards. Using off-the-shelf parts is a big no-go and should be avoided at all times. While inventorying all my electronic parts, I stumbled across a few old forgotten parts from a fairly old project which was designed according to … [Read more…]
Circuits with flashing LEDs and amazing color combinations are pretty popular. This is probably because they are not only simple but one can literally see the results instantly. Let’s have a look at a microcontroller controlled police strobe light using an ATtiny45 from Atmel. LED flashing circuits have been around for ages and probably always … [Read more…]