Electrical Engineering V2 - Developers

make it flash at random intervals for maximum effect

[QUOTE=nuttyboffin;45161424]Look at my beautiful SMPS driver for my isolated gate powersupply. The pins towards the bottom go to the transformer, then there will be other PCBs for the outputs, controlling the gates of each massive IGBT! :) *pics*[/QUOTE] I want to get started on PCB design. What software did you use to design that board, and which one you recommend to a newbie? Does it run on Linux?

[QUOTE=TTSDA;45168036]I want to get started on PCB design. What software did you use to design that board, and which one you recommend to a newbie? Does it run on Linux?[/QUOTE] I use Eagle for my pcb design, allows up to a 10cm by 8cm PCB to be made for free I don't know about linux

[QUOTE=pentium;45161465][url]http://www.ebay.ca/itm/301153223869[/url] I bought one and I have no idea what I'll do with it but hey, it was only $10.[/QUOTE] I thought i was buying a 100W LED Module, ended up being 33W. I've bought one off DX that says 100W, hopefully it comes soon.

Digi-key botched my order for the first time ever. If I was a dick I'd keep the connectors because I'm assuming they cost a lot more than the fuses I ordered, but I already contacted them. [thumb]http://i.imgur.com/EiklQdr.jpg[/thumb] And the sexy new caps came for the amp I'm working on. [thumb]http://i.imgur.com/KTgPnZ2.jpg[/thumb] [thumb]http://i.imgur.com/C82xA1v.jpg[/thumb] Mmm...I love this kinda stuff. Also touched up most the solder joints on the bottom of the board. A lot of them looked like they were cracking.

The best PCB and schematic layout tools for Linux are [url=http://www.geda-project.org/]gEDA[/url] or [url=http://www.kicad-pcb.org/display/KICAD/KiCad+EDA+Software+Suite]KiCad[/url]. [url=http://ngspice.sourceforge.net/]ngspice[/url] or [url=http://qucs.sourceforge.net/]Qucs[/url] for circuit simulation. [QUOTE=Subby;45170577]I thought i was buying a 100W LED Module, ended up being 33W. I've bought one off [b]DX[/b] that says 100W, hopefully it comes soon.[/QUOTE] Probably another one that doesn't meet its specifications.

Eagle does run on linux. KiCad is nice, but has extreme usability problems.

[QUOTE=TTSDA;45153962]TI/Maxim/Analog/Microchip offers most of their ICs as samples. Atmel samples most of theirs too, including relatively expensive AVR chips. There's a lot more info here: [url]http://www.ladyada.net/wiki/findingparts/sampling[/url]. Most companies will not send to people with free e-mail addresses (@gmail.com, etc), and some will call you/send you an email before sending the stuff. The five I mentioned just send the samples without asking anything.[/QUOTE] Maxim did ask me for an export form when I wanted to get a VFD controller IC.

24 wax paper capacitors. All tucked away into absolutely mindfucking locations. This is going to suck so much to repair.

[QUOTE=pentium;45188532]24 wax paper capacitors. All tucked away into absolutely mindfucking locations. This is going to suck so much to repair.[/QUOTE] Take lots of pictures and notes. Most importantly don't rush.

I'm trying to get the schematics for the chassis so I know exactly how everything was wired but I'm running into a problem. Westinghouse America and Westinghouse Canada organized their schematic catalogs differently.

[QUOTE=ben1066;45181665]Maxim did ask me for an export form when I wanted to get a VFD controller IC.[/QUOTE] Odd. They didn't ask me for anything.

got [URL="http://www.infineon.com/cms/en/product/evaluation-boards/KIT_XMC45_RELAX_LITE_V1/productType.html?productType=db3a304437849205013813b23d4f7764"]one of these[/URL] at a scholarship (I think it's called?) at my school today. Will be fun to see what it can do. Non-lite version has ethernet capability so if it's interesting I might get one of those. They also have a modular system. I do not know the specs but I do know that it looks quite fancy (and a bit expensive for me). [t]https://fablab.fau.de/sites/fablab.fau.de/files/images/cpu_board_com_hdmi_aut_plain_medium.jpg[/t]

Soo what's a good first micro controller to get into? I'd imagine the chips from different manufacturers are all pretty similar, the main differences being documentation and community.

the different microcontrollers can differ quite a bit I believe. [URL="http://www.arduino.cc/"]Arduino[/URL] is the most common one to start with as it's quite easy to use and by now has a huge community to ask stuff from. Beagleboard also tends to be fairly common but I know nothing about that.

[QUOTE=No_Excuses;45199676]Soo what's a good first micro controller to get into? [B]I'd imagine the chips from different manufacturers are all pretty similar[/B], the main differences being documentation and community.[/QUOTE] Uhm.. no, not at all.. microcontroller architectures differ quite a lot. If you want something easy to just dive straight into but you don't necessarily care so much about knowing how the hardware works, Arduino is an okay option (even though it's not technically a microcontroller, it's a development/prototyping board) 'cus there's a large community that develops for it and it has a C++ compiler. If you want to have a more involved experience, I would personally recommend getting something from Microchip's [URL="http://www.microchip.com/ParamChartSearch/chart.aspx?branchID=1004&mid=10&lang=en&pageId=74"]PIC18 series[/URL], but only because that's what I'm used to :v: Don't be put off by the massive table, there's a lot of options to consider but most of them probably won't be that important to you as a beginner. Program memory size and RAM are the ones you'll want to be looking at mostly, along with A/D channels and EEPROM size. If you're not planning on making anything too high-end, the [URL="http://www.microchip.com/wwwproducts/Devices.aspx?product=PIC18F2220"]PIC18F2220[/URL] isn't a bad choice for only $4 a pop. You'd have to build the board yourself, but that's not too difficult if you're at least slightly familiar with electronics. As far as I'm aware there aren't any IDEs for them that are as expansive as Arduino's, but there are C compilers available for pretty much all of Microchips MCUs and assembly is fun anyway :D

Arduino isn't a micro-controller, it's a development board using a C style language using an Atmel AVR micro-controller. Most MCUs are similar in hardware but the code can differ quite a bit since there is no real standardized library between MCUs due to the difference in instruction sets, most if not all MCUs will provide their own standard C library with some providing higher level languages. AVR and PIC are two of the most popular types of general purpose MCU, but there are a bunch of others such as Ti's MSP series, Intel 8051, Freescale / Motorola 68HC11. A lot of manufacturers are moving towards 32 bit ARM, these are almost as cheap as regular 8 / 16 bit MCUs these days, something like NXP's LPC series is a good starting point for these.

[QUOTE=Chryseus;45200184]Arduino isn't a micro-controller, it's a development board using [B]a C style language[/B] using an Atmel AVR micro-controller. [/QUOTE] Also known as C++ in some harcore nerd circles

Im getting weird results with my lm338 powersupply. Everything works as intended under small loads but when I get up into an amp or more not only does the output voltage drop a volt or so but the reference voltage drops from 1.23 to ~1.1 volts. Everything is heatsinked and so I doubt it is from heat and I'm only dropping from ~28 volts to ~ 22 volts on the regulator which per the data sheet should allow up to 5 amps of current. I'm using the provided schematic by the data sheet too. I'm puzzled.

Show us the heatsink, and how did you mount the heatsink to the device? It sure sounds like a thermal issue to me.

[QUOTE=DrDevil;45200956]Show us the heatsink, and how did you mount the heatsink to the device? It sure sounds like a thermal issue to me.[/QUOTE] I'll post a picture when I get home. I don't think it's theemal though. It happens instantly after a load is applied even if it's cold before hand and doesn't warm up unless left on for a little while.

Thanks for the replies. I've studied microprocessors on the hardware level so I have a pretty good understanding of how they actually work. I just didn't know what the market offers. I think I might end up getting a PIC of sorts. In fact I was looking for one with as many D/A channels as possible but they seem to care more about A/D conversion...

One thing to bear in mind with a PIC is that a lot of them only have a single accumulator, which can be a little annoying, but otherwise they're pretty solid.

I wouldn't ever choose PICs due to their proprietary toolchain (aka if you don't pay for the editor your code is limited by arbitrary size constraints).

[QUOTE=DrDevil;45204762]I wouldn't ever choose PICs due to their proprietary toolchain (aka if you don't pay for the editor your code is limited by arbitrary size constraints).[/QUOTE] Isn't there free compilers available ? I'm pretty sure there is a couple of them that work perfectly fine.

[QUOTE=Chryseus;45209350]Isn't there free compilers available ? I'm pretty sure there is a couple of them that work perfectly fine.[/QUOTE] From what I've heard they're not quite as good in comparison. But anyhow, the fact that one has to work around those artificial burdens is reason enough to not use PICs in my opinion.

[QUOTE=Amiga OS;45220771]Whoopsie, somebody didn't check the package size...[/QUOTE] Why didn't you just buy the correct package ? Also you can use any 74LS245.

[QUOTE=No_Excuses;45199676]Soo what's a good first micro controller to get into? I'd imagine the chips from different manufacturers are all pretty similar, the main differences being documentation and community.[/QUOTE] I'm a bit late with a response, but I have used AVR, MSP430 and ARM based devices in the past, and have found all to have fairly good toolchains. Currently I am working with MSP430 parts as I find they have a really accessible IDE and now they even have a good open source compiler (gcc). ARM seems very variable, depending upon the manufacturer as far as I can tell, and AVRs again have a good toolchain, but seem to cost well above their performance level.

Woop, finished my network analyzer detector adapters. Just decided to kinda copy the design of the original detector adapters (HP 11664C) for my network analyzer since those cost way too much for what they are. [url=http://i.imgur.com/hmRNKRV.jpg][img]http://i.imgur.com/hmRNKRVl.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://i.imgur.com/lxlAYRo.jpg][img]http://i.imgur.com/lxlAYRol.jpg[/img][/url] (there is some stuff on the bottom of the pcb as well) Soon I might actually be able to use my network analyzer :dance:.

Finished building my SMPS driver onto a breadboard, about to test it: [img]http://i.imgur.com/ueTTqkA.jpg[/img] After blowing up 5 FETs @ 60p each, 1 IC @ £1 each and a diode, i figured out why it wasn't working..... DRUM ROOOLLLLLLLL: [sp]Had the bridge rectifier diodes upside down so + was - and - was +[/sp]