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H: Optocoupler with phototransistor base lead I'm thinking about using 4N25 optocoupler - it has a separate lead for base of phototransistor. How do I use it? I suppose I can't leave it floating? AI: The base terminal of certain phototransistor optocouplers is exposed to address specific design requirements, such as b...
H: Looking for a Constant Voltage/ Constant Current power supply schematic I would like to create as an hobbistic project a power supply circuit allowing to switch between a Constant Voltage mode and a Costant Current one. When Voltage Mode is on, Current regulation should act as an upper limit as well as voltage regu...
H: CAN controller in a CPLD As I cannot manage to find it done on internet, I wonder if it is possible to program a CAN controller in a CPLD ? It's look like it is going to require a least an FPGA. AI: There is a CAN Protocol controller on OpenCores. It has a size of 930 flip-flops. You can usually estimate 1 flip-flo...
H: How can an imported graphic be deleted? I imported a graphic into Eagle, and what it did was make a ton of little tiny lines to get the image. I want to now delete all of that. I tried selecting the group, and then using the DELETE command. How can I delete this stuff? AI: Here is how to delete a group: To select ...
H: Is hot glue a good insulator? I need to mount some relays that I have soldered wires to. If I place them on a non-conductive surface and use a generous amount of standard glue from a hot glue gun, will that be relatively safe? I'll be running mains level voltage through the relays. According to this aricle hot...
H: UART Communication Issues I am using a UART to communicate with RS232 on a Roving Networks RN-42 SM bluetooth module. I have the transmitter and receiver connected to a logic analyzer. The issue that I am having is that my when i connect my uC's TX to the Roving networks RS232 RX, the logic analyzer shows that the ...
H: Is noise a random process? I have some confusion in noise signals and their nature. Can any one explain how the nature of noise signals is. Is noise a random process. AI: Adding to @Kaz's answer, noise is normally modeled as a random process. Even an interfering RF carrier or hum can be modeled as a random process ...
H: Drawing complex shapes in Eagle I have two parallel lines intersecting a circle. Is there a command that will break the drawing up into separate pieces (2) at the intersection points? I want to send up with what's in (3). AI: Unlike AutoCAD or SolidWorks, there is no command in Eagle, which would break or trim lin...
H: Logic Levels between 5(V) and 3.3(V) devices I am using a 5V microcontroller to communicate with a Bluetooth module operating at 3.3V. I have regulated the output from the 5V microcontroller rail to 3.3V rail for the Bluetooth module. Since I am using a UART, I need to use a TX pin to go to the RX. The issue here ...
H: What resistor to use with this RGB LED? i have this led, and im not sure what resistor to use to drop the 5v current to an appropriate voltage and produce the appropriate current. the LED is rated at 200mA, but the data sheet says i should apply 150mA through it. my micro-controller outputs 5v i think, but im not s...
H: High wattage speaker using low wattage amplifier If I have a 250W amplifier and I want to use a set of speakers: subwoofer x 1, 4 ohms x 1 mid-rage x 1, 4 ohms x 1 tweeters x 2, 8 ohms x 2 with a combined handeling wattage that surpasses 250W. will this work? This is for a yeah 12 electronics Major Work and I need...
H: Why are they called breadboards? Why are solderless protoboards called "breadboards"? I've used the term for decades but couldn't answer a student's question about the name. AI: This terminology goes waaaaay back to the days of vacuum tubes. Generally, you would mount a number of tube-sockets on standoffs to a pie...
H: Can you pass resistance through analog mux? I have a digital potentiometer that I want to calibrate by sending in my commands and then measuring what the actual resistance is. However, the resistance from the digital pot is (obviously) connected to other bits of the circuit and I'd need to isolate it to get an accu...
H: 2-layer USB 2.0 High-Speed routing First off: This is for a one-off (or two-off) hobby project, nothing more serious. If this were a commercial design, I would go 4-layer at once (though I wouldn't be designing such a project in the first place). Going 4-layer is acceptable only if TRULY necessary; such boards cos...
H: Establish connection between analog and GSM modem I want to know if I can call a GSM modem (a SIEMENS MC55) from a normal analog (PSTN) modem. If so, how do I have to configure the GSM and the analog device? I've read about the +FCLASS and +CSNS commands but the connection doesn't work - I'm getting a BUSY or NO CA...
H: Use a 12 volt bulb in 110 AC socket? If I were go get this light bulb (with the following specs). Would there be a way to use it in a standard U.S. light socket? Specifications: Interface type: E27 Input voltage: 12V Power: 3W I am interested in even the weird solutions, though they may be of only intelle...
H: computing shunt resistence for a microammeter Let's suppose I have a dc microammeter with a range of 100 ua that claim to have an internal resistence of 1Kohm. I want to use this instrument to measure a range of 1A. I'm assuming I need a shunt resistence producing a voltage drop makinga 100 ua current flowing in th...
H: Half-H bridge or low-side MOSFET for PWM motor control I'm driving a DC motor (12 V, approx. 4 A) and I need to control the speed by PWM but I need one direction only and braking is not required. My question is: is there any advantage to using a half-H bridge over using a simple low-side N-channel MOSFET (e.g. a IR...
H: Testpoints: Vias versus pads I was fixing an ultra cheap home router few days ago and noticed that it had vias marked TP_12V, TP_3V3, TP_GND and similar. The problem turned out to be leaky electrolytic crapacitors in the buck converter and the vias really helped debugging that, but that's not the main point of this...
H: Will a BigEasy driver handle 14 amps? I'm getting some conflicting information regarding the BigEasy stepper driver. I have a 24VDC 14.6A electromagnet that I need to toggle. I have a few Arduino Mega's and a box full of BigEasy stepper drivers that I would like to utilize to accomplish this as I'm extremely short ...
H: Using lots of slide potentiometer for computer control I want to mount a bunch (say 16+) slide potentiometers in a long project box (or other housing that can sit on a desk) that I can use to interact with software on my computer, specifically lighting software, which I would program. How could I get the output of ...
H: To "ground fill"or not to "ground fill"? I have been reading up on the EMI issues in Electromagnetic Compatibility Engineering by Henry Ott. (wonderful book btw). One of the topics "PCB Layout and Stackup" (aka Ch 16) there is section about ground fill (16.3.6). Basically what it states, that to minimize the "retu...
H: Creating a keyboard with a microcontroller, do I need an input pin for each key? I am planning to implement V-USB with an ATMega8 microcontroller. I am interested in implementing an HID device; more specifically, I want to try and make my own simple 26 key keyboard (each corresponding to a letter of the English alp...
H: Power from battery when primary source fails I'm attempting to design a circuit that will be powered from a 12V primary source but if the power fails then a relay switch to battery (which is maintained charged by an UC3906). The idea is that if primary source is present the MOSFET is on, activating the relay. When...
H: How to determine the units when reading a multimeter? Say for instance I am trying to measure the current. The units around the edge of the multimeter is 2000u, 200m, 20m, 10A, etc. Does this mean that the reading displayed on the multimeter is in that particular unit? For example, if I set it to 20m and the readin...
H: Circuit review: Impedance bridging for microphones I have a pair of specialist condenser mics with a nominal output impedance of 3.6k Ohm that I would like to interface with mic preamps with nominal input impedance of 2.2k Ohm. Does this impedance bridging circuit look ok? I have breadboarded it and it seems to wo...
H: MPLAB XC16 compiler outputting 8-bit HEX files for PIC24? I am trying to understand a HEX file I compiled with Microchip MPLAB X IDE using the Microchip MPLAB XC16 Compiler. Concerning the MCU, I am targeting the PIC24EP512GU814. However the scope of this question should at least apply to all PIC24 MCUs. To compile...
H: Future-proofing home network cabling in a building with poor WiFi performance I have a very frustrating home WiFi network. The building in which I live is very (over 300 years) old and was long-ago extended on one side so that the (15"-thick) formerly-external wall is now internal; owing to layout, the radio must o...
H: Wireless bridge for embedded ethernet switch I'm building a robot which has an embedded 8 port ethernet switch on it (using a KS8997 controller IC). The reason for that is, that some components like the motor controllers are controlled via ethernet. So there is a CAT5 cable hanging from the robot that connects to m...
H: Sending audio over ethernet I am trying to send audio from a microphone such as this over Ethernet to a computer. My first idea was to connect the mic to an arduino's ADC and send the data using an ethernet module such as the ENC28J60 but some people say that the micro controller can only send about 5kb/s. Has anyo...
H: What makes an "rf transistor" different from an ordinary transistor? I have been looking at various types of transistors that can switch at higher speeds than my clunky but powerful IGBT, and I came across these things called "rf transistors" or "rf mosfets" which can switch at speeds anywhere from a few mhz to a f...
H: Replacing a component in an Eagle board that has already been routed? I'm pretty new to eagle so there might be a better way to do this.. There's an error in one of the parts I'm using. It has one of the connections from the schematic to the board going to the wrong I/O pin. The problem is I've already routed t...
H: RX String on UART not working I am having some problems with UART communication with the RN-42 SM Bluetooth module. Currently, I am just using polling to get communication going. I have my source files below. The problems is that I can send properly, however cannot receive. I have been able to receive PARTS of a re...
H: Processor design: turning blocks on/off dynamically to save power? I was wondering if this is possible and if it is done in current designs. Seemed like an interesting enough idea to me. Here's a little diagram I made to help try and explain: So let's say I'm clever and I build a bit of hardware that tracks the nu...
H: Circuit symbol for ammeter with output What is the correct symbol for an ammeter that measures 0..200 mA and generates 0..2 V proportional output? AI: That's the same as a current controlled voltage source, a CCVS. The symbol looks like a diamond with an equation next to it. In your case, V=10A.
H: Battery voltage not reaching the expected 12.8V For a few weeks now I have been charing a deep cycle battery using a 80W solar panel on the roof and a charge controller. The frist few days the battery voltage would settle at 12.8V once the sun went down. Now days it only has a rest charge of 12.6V and I am no longe...
H: Ideas for what to use as project enclosures/cases I have seen myself working on a growing number of projects over the past few months. The one thing I have started to dislike is seeing the circuit board (and often my messy soldering) after I consider my project complete. I would like to start putting my projects in...
H: Why does this Verilog hog down 30 macrocells and hundreds of product terms? I have a project that's consuming 34 of a Xilinx Coolrunner II's macrocells. I noticed I had an error and tracked it down to this: assign rlever = RL[0] ? 3'b000 : RL[1] ? 3'b001 : RL[2] ? 3'b010 : ...
H: Why output of square wave signal after bypass capacitor is a triangular wave? I understand square wave contains many sine waves of different frequencies as so does triangular wave. My impression with bypass capacitor is that the higher the frequencies the better it attenuates those signals. Therefore, I hope to se...
H: When abstract logic circuits get translated to the electrical equivilant, how are conversions from 0 to 1 handled? I've searched around and there's lots of good information out there, but I'm a bit of a n00b when it comes to the precise meanings of words like current, voltage, amplify, resistor, diode etc. So what ...
H: PCB Design - Polygon pour remove islands or not? Sometimes a polygon pour (I use Altium, so I am using it's naming reference, for other packages it can be power plane and etc.) makes a dead copper area, and the software gives you the option to remove it or no, but why someone will want to not remove it? The only re...
H: I want to find \$\frac{\hat{\theta}}{\hat{T}}\$ I have the following block diagram, and I want to find the transfer function \$\frac{\hat{\theta}}{\hat{T}}\$. I am not sure how to do this, I've got the rules of connection in a series or parallel, but I am stuck. I started with the entrance of \$T\$ but got stuck, ...
H: Selecting the right bridge rectifier There are a number of schematics I'm trying to interpret that have bridge rectifiers. In the components list, however, they're simply listed as "D1-D4 rectifier unit" without any specific values. How do I interpret the specific rectifier parameters? Does it need to specifically ...
H: Simple radio serial communication I need a way to transfer small amount of data (4 8bit integers + checksum) over wireless. I'm struggling to find any information dealing with sending serial transmissions over some sort of radio link. Sending is quite simple, but I have no idea how would the receiving end work, as ...
H: Decoupling caps with PICs I'm working on a project and read that decoupling caps should be connected across the VDD and VSS pins of PIC microcontrollers(or rather all microcontrollers?). I'm using a 9V battery with a 7805 voltage regulator as the source and have two decoupling capacitors connected with the regulato...
H: When should I use SR, D, JK, or T Flip flops? In class I've learned about SR, D, JK, and T flip flops. From what I understand, you can construct any design by using any of them. So my question is when making a design, how does one choose which to use? Which one is used more in commercial circuits and why? AI: In di...
H: Implementing 4-to-16 decoder using 3-to-8 and 2-to-4 This is digital logic question. I think it's alright to post it here. I'm trying to implement a 4 to 16 decoder using 2 to 4 decoder and 3 to 8 decoder. What I did, I used 2x of 2-to-4 decoder and 1x 3-to-8 decoder. But I think there is a mistake in the 3-to-8 pa...
H: Why use PLC instead of microcontroller? Why does everyone use PLCs in industrial environments, instead of a microcontroller based solution? For a longer task, the PLC program is as complicated as a microcontroller program. A microcontroller based solution may be more customisable, and of lower price. AI: I'd think...
H: Circuit RL simumation explanation I was playing around with a circuit, and I am not understanding its behaviour, it appears to be wrong. I am using this circuit. If you close the switch, the current will flow through the inductor, since it will appear as a wire. But when you open the circuit with the inductor alrea...
H: Gettting hand movements registered and sent to an arduino I want to control a servo motor attached to an arduino through hand movements. I am just beginning the project and my idea is to attach a couple of accelorometers to each finger and then send that data to the arduino through Xbee . Firstly is this the right ...
H: How do I troubleshoot a broken SAA3004 Remote control transmitter used in a remote control? I'd like to troubleshoot and fix a broken remote control for a Guldmann ceiling lift that uses the SAA3004 remote control transmitter (documentation below in link). Can someone explain the tools required to do this, and the...
H: Is it possible to make illegal clones of an Intel Core i7? The reason I'm asking is that on http://alibaba.com you can find prices for the Core i7 as low as $20, minimum quantity 1. This looks like impossibly low for a genuine Intel, but then I also can't believe you can clone this kind of CPU. What's the matter he...
H: Connecting the Shield of a strain gage cable connector to PCB with ADC I have a half-bridge strain gage sensor (pre-assembled product) with a 30cm cable, which I am trying to interface with my PCB containing a 24-bit ADC. The connector at the cable end toward the ADC (i.e., the end away from the strain gage) has th...
H: LEDs and weird results from various Arduino pinModes I'm currently repurposing an old Arduino project - it consisted of several super bright LEDs wired according to the following schematic: The same configuration is repeated with pins 3, 5, 6 (and not shown to keep things simple). I was controlling the lights via ...
H: What is the holding current on a triac? What does the Holding Current characteristic mean on a triac? What does this mean for switching loads less than the Holding Current? For example the Sharp S108T02 has a max 50 mA Holding Current. AI: To answer this, consider the simpler to understand SCR instead of a triac. ...
H: How do I identify Pin 1 on a chip with no corner mark I am trying to identify Pin 1 of MAX3222E, the TSSOP variant (See Page 16 of datasheet), but it doesn't have any corner mark! Could someone suggest how to identify Pin 1 in this type of situation? I don't have a high-res camera on me right now, but I do have the...
H: How do manufacturers determine LED characteristics? I have several hundred clear LED's of mixed colour and would like to sort them and determine their characteristics so I can use them. As far as my research tells me, there is no way to determine the forward current of an LED directly, and in order to determine for...
H: correctly choosing a relay in term of breaking current I would like tu interrupt a resistive load on AC of about 1 kw at 220 Vac. I'm looking at this relay, that claim to have a 10A current ( that sounds enought to me ) but the breaking current is just 0.12A at 220 V. What does it exactly mean? Would this relays ju...
H: 3.2 Gb/s high speed interface over 50m: copper, fiber, other ideas? I need to run a 3.2 Gb/s interface over 50m. My client is keen on Cat6e. The lower the price, the better. These are my findings so far: I'm looking at using a Spartan 6 GTP Tranceiver with copper (Cat6/6a). I've spent most of the past few days digg...
H: Finding Failed Component in broken florescent lantern circuit Recently, I burned out the circuitry in a florescent lantern by accidentally reversing the polarity of the volts in. The circuit seems pretty simple, a transformer, 3 resistors, 3 mono capacitors, a 100uf electrolytic capacitor, a 5609 transistor (it exa...
H: Why does working processors harder use more electrical power? Back in the mists of time when I started coding, at least as far as I'm aware, processors all used a fixed amount of power. There was no such thing as a processor being "idle". These days there are all sorts of technologies for reducing power usage when ...
H: Difference between EEPROM types I was wondering what the difference between EEPROM types are. For example 24S128 and 24LC128. My understanding is that typically the later digits, 128 in this case, represent the amount of space available on EEPROM. But what does the 24 and the S/LC/C/AA stand for? Thanks AI: First ...
H: How can I emulate the PS/2 protocol without a microcontroller? I am trying to emulate the PS/2 keyboard protocol with a custom piece of hardware, without using a microcontroller. The said piece of hardware will consist of 13 momentary push buttons. http://pcbheaven.com/wikipages/The_PS2_protocol/ The keys will be...
H: Eagle project wont open, "Error reading file" I'm working on a board layout with Eagle. I tried to open the file today and get a message "error reading file". No other info besides that and I haven't been able to find anything about this. It does this with both the .sch and .brd files. Any ideas? AI: If it is a ...
H: Is this a good circuit to control LED? I'm taking an intro electronics course, and we recently covered MOSFETs. Would the circuit below work for controlling a 3W LED? Here is the part info. The LED wants about 1A of current. I'm thinking I can use the variable resistor to set \$V_{gs}\$ on the MOSFET so that it al...
H: what is solderless post I've seen metal "sticks" with a special end that let them fit snugly into a through-hole for when you want a contact but don't want to solder a wire into the hole. What are they called and where can I buy them? I think they are called "Posts" and are used for prototyping, but searching "elec...
H: How can I get a C program to execute Python code that sends commands to an Arduino? I followed these instructions successfully, so I was able to get the Raspberry Pi to send "HELLO\n" to my Arduino Mega 2560 over USB and print to Serial console. I have installed Open CV successfully on my Raspberry Pi using these...
H: Designing an inverse polarity and overload (crowbar) protection circuit There are some great resources on the internet and on this site about designing various protection (crowbar) circuits. For example, Leon's answer to a general circuit protection question. I'm looking for a little more specific advice on selecti...
H: Will a digital potentiometer work with 230 volts (ac)? Will a digital potentiometer work in a circuit that uses UK mains power (230vac)? I want to be able to adjust the voltage digitally. How could I digitally (or non-manually) control the voltage of a 230vac circuit? AI: I guess no digital potentiometer will allow...
H: Tracking pen within whiteboard surface (Question in response to the comments.) I have a fixed flat white rectangular whiteboard of dimensions 1 meter by 0.5 meter and pen. I want to track the position of the tip of the pen within the whiteboard, in real time. I am allowed to have as many different sensors and proce...
H: What's a good estimate on how low an alkaline battery voltage can be to still make the battery useful? Here's a YT video by Duracell about how many batteries declared dead and sent to recycling still have some usable energy. In the beginning of the video there's a sequence where they have a row of batteries and a p...
H: How does a TVS absorb voltage? I cant understand how a TVS might absorb voltage. As far as I can see, when a transient is applied to it, it becomes a very small resistor, so the transient voltage will still be on top of him, but all the current will flow through it. AI: In an ideal circuit with a perfect voltage so...
H: How to find the output and input impedance of an amplifier For example: Vcc -> GND capacitors -> wires NPNs -> hi and current source The schematic above becomes: How can you find the output and the input impedance? The answer in this case should be(output impedance): I guess hi1=hi2 since it's the same transisto...
H: Connecting RS232 output of Lattice XP2 Brevia Kit to PC USB (virtual COM port over USB) using a FTDI RS232RL based board I have a Lattice Brevia XP2 Kit (the older one that came out in 2010/2011, and the not the newer version 2). The only PC connectivity it has is through serial (rs232). I have anetbook that does n...
H: Can current be drawn from ground in a SWER transmission setup? I am almost certain that this is a ridiculous question, but cannot figure out why it wouldn't work. From what I understand, current from the electrical station is distributed to houses through power lines, then, to complete the circuit, returns to the ...
H: OR gate from one AND, three NOT? I'm just starting with digital-logic but I now face a little problem: I learned that AND, OR, NOT were basic gates and that one basic gate could not be made from a combination of two others. How comes that this combination: produces an OR truth table from only AND and NOT gates? AI...
H: PIC16: Problems with UART receive I have a PIC16 for which I have the (asynchronous) UART transmit working just fine, but the UART receive producing invalid results. For example, a gets interpreted as O, b gets interpreted as ', and c gets as N. Here is my receive function: char UART_read(void) { while(!PIR1bit...
H: Triac datasheet values I have a Triac that I want to use to control low voltage (~16 V) AC. The data sheet is found here. It specifies that the peak gate voltage is 5 V with a peak current rating of 2 A (which seems quite high to me). The datasheet also lists out the Gate trigger voltage as 0.7 V (typical). I'll...
H: How to simulate the depression of a push button connected to an Arduino, with another Arduino? I have an Arduino which uses several push buttons to simulate the keypad of a digital door lock. This microcontroller remembers the last four depressed buttons and turns a LED to green if the code is correct. Now I would ...
H: Thumb Wheel Potentiometer I know that thumb wheel potentiometers are an outdated technology, everything is moving to rotary encoders. The problem I have is that my company has a large number of legacy products. We have designed rotary encoders into most of our designs but have a few very low volume products that wo...
H: Assemble PIC connector from bits I want to build a custom connector to attach to the PICKIT3 serial pins. I have the black plastic bit and little metal bits (similar to the picture below), and wire. Out of these components, I would like to build a connector with a small piece of wire sticking out for every hole fr...
H: RC time constant in astable multivibrators I'm having trouble figuring out why exactly \$T=0.693 R C\$ is used for astable multivibrators (and why \$T=1.1 R C\$ for monostable). At first I assumed this was only used for 555 timers but the same formula is also used with astable multivibrators made with transistors....
H: Two Port parameters on an Op Amp I am asked to find the h-harameters for this op amp: I found the gain to be 1.87*Vi (where Vi = the input source). However I don't know how to do two port parameters with op amps, we've only covered basic circuits (Resistors, inductors, and capacitors.) How can I find the h-params ...
H: Integrating IP core to a project I'm working on a Lattice board and I'm want to to use IP cores for my project. I have a license to a third party IP core but I have no idea how to integrate the IP to my project. My research shows me that the info available online is specific to different design tools and I haven't...
H: Using JTAG to "explore" a board without damaging it? I have one Amontec JTAGKey2 Generic USB JTAG cable interface. What I am looking for is some explanation of how to "explore" a device of which I don't know all exact details, but for which I have a BSDL file that fits almost. I cannot damage the device, which is w...
H: Why do displays with auto-synchronization function get out of sync? (pixels blur) I'd like to know why LCD displays that have the "Auto" button need it in the first place. Are they losing sync with the signal because of some special feature or all LCD displays really suffer from this (because I don't remember havin...
H: Why is PIC Programming Voltage Higher Than Vsupply I work with PIC microcontrollers quite a bit and have never understood why Vpp (programming voltage) is higher than the max supply voltage that powers the PIC? AI: In older (EPROM) PICs the higher voltage was used directly to power the internal EPROM programming ha...
H: Math: Temperature tranform equation While reading the MAX6605 datasheet, which is an analog temperature sensor, I ran across the following: The temperature-to-voltage transfer function has an approximately linear positive slope and can be described by the equation: VOUT = 744mV + (T ✕ 11.9mV/°C) where T is the MAX...
H: A decent library of component simulation, schematic and PCB layout? I am truly a novice in PCB design, so I am new to all aspects of it. What I am having the most trouble with is actually picking suitable components. The trouble I am having is that I am not really able to use most of the components I find from Goog...
H: What is the difference between 1-phase and 3-phase motors? I've read the wiki page on AC motors, but it's still unclear to me as to how they work. I'm looking at motors for a project and need them to be able to have their speed controlled by a light dimmer (for various speed settings). While doing this, a lot of th...
H: time delay circuit keeping line high I'd like to create a simple circuit for keeping a line "high" for a few seconds after being triggered high, without any external power. To specify it in more detail: given three inputs, 3.3V, GND and a processor output line that can be driven high, create a circuit that drives a...
H: How to make any sensor a wireless one I am try to build a wireless sensor(right now I am using an adxl335 accelerometer with an analog output) but this project should be general for any sensor that outputs analog. The issue is that I have to first convert the analog to digital to transmit it over RF(I have a 12d,12...
H: Properly controlling a 6V servo motor from a microcontroller? Regular old 5V hobby servos can usually be safely connected directly to a microcontroller without any issues. When it comes to 6V servos (that also might be drawing sizable current), there doesn't seem to be as much information. I've read that you can si...
H: How does an LED matrix work? I've wired up a 3x3 matrix as in the attached image. My understanding is that if I apply 3.3 volts to row C and connect column 1 to ground, the electricity should flow through the bottom-left LED (as in the top-right of the image), turning it on. What seems to be happening, though, is t...
H: Transmitting a video stream through a microcontroller I'm working a a project that currently works well but this year we want to expand it by collecting data from it, independent of its current functions. We have set up an iPad App to control an Arduino through Bluetooth. The next step is transmitting video throu...
H: PIC18F2550 I2C Open Drain? As far as I have read, the I2C pins are Open Drain or Open collector, but in the PIC18F2550 the datasheet doesnt say anything about those pins, and even says they are a digital output if you select them to be one. Do I need to add a pullup resistor to the pins so to use them as a digitia...
H: Using Matlab to draw a step response graph I've got the next transfer function: $$ \frac{\hat{\alpha}}{\hat{\alpha_{ref}}} =\frac{w_n^2}{s^2+2w_n \xi s+ w_n^2} $$ Now I want to draw a step response input at height of \$\alpha_{ref}\$, where \$\xi\$ comes with differing values (i.e different graphs on the same axis ...
H: Meaning of an arrow in the control scheme I cannot understand what the arrow that goes through "internal model" block mean? how can I interpret what does it do? What is the difference from any other "normal" arrow? (source: cam.ac.uk) AI: A convention is that the normal arrows indicate data flow, and the 'through ...
H: Is it possible to solder the back pins of an Arduino board? To ensure a more stable connection to the arduino board, would it be possible to directly solder the wires to the pins below the board? Is there any risk of interference between the pins? It may be an obvious question, but I wouldn't like to ruin an Arduin...
H: Regulator and charging in a portable device There are quite a few similar posts on this subject but I'm a little confused about the best way to proceed in my specific project. All my previous regulators have been linear types (eg: 7805, LM317 at best) - nice and simple. For me anyway. The project I'm working on nee...