Blog

These two new carbon capture systems could mitigate climate change and reduce carbon emissions

Catwell

Wood pieces at different stages of modification, from natural (far right) to delignified (second from right) to dried, bleached, and delignified (second from left) and MOF-infused functional wood (first on the left). (Image Credit: Gustavo Raskosky...
- 7 Mar 2023
Keithley DMM6500 Scanner Card - temperature and 4-wire resistance continuous measurements

Jan Cumps

I road tested the Keithley Bench Digital Multimeter DMM6500. I recently purchased a 2000-SCAN 10 channel scanner card. This 4th post shows a continuously running script that logs temperature and 4-wire resistance with th...
- 6 Mar 2023
Quick hot-air soldering video

shabaz

Very bad and shaky video quality, but I've decided to upload this 2-minute video anyway, in case it helps anyone, because I struggled for years with hot air tools, and it only slowly dawned on me the issues I'd had were related to things like no pre-...
- 5 Mar 2023
Keithley DMM6500 Scanner Card - 2-wire and 4-wire resistance measurements

Jan Cumps

I road tested the Keithley Bench Digital Multimeter DMM6500. I recently purchased a 2000-SCAN 10 channel scanner card. This 3rd post shows the 2-wire and 4-wire resistance measurement mode with the scanner card. ...
- 10 Feb 2023
Keithley DMM6500 Scanner Card - wiring

Jan Cumps

I road tested the Keithley Bench Digital Multimeter DMM6500. I recently purchased a 2000-SCAN 10 channel scanner card. This 2nd post shows 2 ways I wired it: for easy use and for least resistance Twisted pair For my first tests...
- 9 Feb 2023
Keithley DMM6500 Scanner Card - first impressions

Jan Cumps

I road tested the Keithley Bench Digital Multimeter DMM6500. I recently purchased a 2000-SCAN 10 channel scanner card. This is my fist little test after receiving it. I bought a 2nd hand card. 250€ on eBay. It's the ...
- 7 Feb 2023
Researchers develop a new shield to block EMI and allow wireless optical signals

Catwell

The grid-patterned mesh blocks electromagnetic interference while allowing optical communication channels. (Image Credit: Optical Materials Express (2022). DOI: 10.1364/OME.478830) Electronic devices are everywhere, including factories, medical faci...
- 7 Feb 2023
Easy Grounding for USB Soldering Irons

shabaz

Table of Contents Introduction What’s the Problem? What’s the Solution? Building It Using It Useful Items Introduction USB powered soldering irons are handy tools, however, they are fundamentally different to normal mains-powered sold...
- 5 Jan 2023
USB-C Soldering Iron Quick Review: Sequre S60

shabaz

Table of Contents Introduction Motivation What Soldering Iron? What’s Inside the Kit? Using It Grounding Quick Teardown Things that Could be Improved Things that were Excellent Summary Introduction I recently purchased a couple of USB-C s...
- 3 Jan 2023
Building a Digital Microscope with Ghost Overlay Mode

shabaz

Table of Contents Introduction New Features Cross-Hairs Quick Record Overlay/Optical Alignment What was wrong with the old project? Keep what Works Use Standard Photography Mounts Improved Lighting Build Software Summary Introduction A very l...
- 31 Dec 2022
Piezo disk as Vibration Sensor: input buffer and filter

Jan Cumps

For the Sound and Vibration Measurement Hat for Raspberry Pi road test, I reviewed industrial Piezo Acceleration Sensor PCB Piezotronics 603C01. It's intended for unfriendly environments, and has built-in electronics. For less...
- 17 Dec 2022
Secrets of Ground Loops explained!

Catwell

Ground loops are a mystery to many people. Even seasoned electronic engineers can struggle to understand the concept of ground loops. This is generally because either the engineer is focused on designing the power distribution system or the equipmen...
- 5 Dec 2022
Wiha Surface Mount Tweezers – Quick Review!

shabaz

When soldering surface-mount parts, half the battle is obtaining a reliable grip on the components when manipulating them into position. Another battle is seeing them ! I lost a really nice pair of VOMM PSF-SA-ESD tweezers, so I was keen to repl...
- 15 Nov 2022
Fun with BLE Apps and the MP730026 Digital Multimeter

shabaz

I had some time to experiment with my new MP730026 multimeter and was intrigued to know if I could get the BLE capability functioning. I wanted to be able to access the meter from the laptop, and the mobile phone! The MP730026 was interest...
- 14 Nov 2022
mini project: PICO-PI programmable Lab Switch - 5: use the USB Port as COM

Jan Cumps

In this series, I design a programmable lab switch based on RP2040, that can turn a set of signals or supplies on or off. Over USB. SCPI compatible.In this post: enable the USB as communication channel. Differences with UART approa...
- 22 Oct 2022
mini project: PICO-PI programmable Lab Switch - 4: Your Homework - extra pins

Jan Cumps

In this series, I design a programmable lab switch based on RP2040, that can turn a set of signals or supplies on or off. Over USB. SCPI compatible.In the previous post I gave you homework, but you didn't do it . So I'll pick up t...
- 20 Oct 2022
mini project: PICO-PI programmable Lab Switch - 3: DIGI:OUTP command

Jan Cumps

In this series, I design a programmable lab switch based on RP2040, that can turn a set of signals or supplies on or off. Over USB. SCPI compatible.In this post: add the SCPI command to switch an output (the LED in this demo): DIGI...
- 18 Oct 2022
mini project: PICO-PI programmable Lab Switch - 2: add SCPI parser

Jan Cumps

In this series, I design a programmable lab switch based on RP2040, that can turn a set of signals or supplies on or off. Over USB. SCPI compatible.In this post: integrate the SCPI parser, get default conversation going. Integrate ...
- 17 Oct 2022
mini project: PICO-PI programmable Lab Switch - 1b: retrieve UART characters in a FreeRTOS task, with Interrupt support

Jan Cumps

In this series, I design a programmable lab switch based on RP2040, that can turn a set of signals or supplies on or off. Over USB. SCPI compatible.In this post: convert the pico-pi uart_advanced example (UART with interrupts)...
- 17 Oct 2022
mini project: PICO-PI programmable Lab Switch - 1a: understand UART and Interrupts

Jan Cumps

In this series, I design a programmable lab switch based on RP2040, that can turn a set of signals or supplies on or off. Over USB. SCPI compatible.In this post: understand RP2040 UART with interrupts. image source: a similar exercise o...
- 16 Oct 2022
Rohde & Schwarz Scopetoberfest in Hillsboro, OR

ralphjy

Just attended the Rohde & Schwarz Scopetoberfest at their local office here in Hillsboro. German beers and food (sausages and sauerkraut and cookies) were provided. There was a short Oscilloscope Fundamentals presentation and they unveiled their ...
- 14 Oct 2022
DX10 Battery Contact Spot Welder Teardown

shabaz

Introduction The DX10 is a low-cost battery-powered spot-welder. It comes with a couple of electrodes, a length of metal strip (for use as battery tabs), a small piece of abrasive paper (for reshaping the electrodes as they wear out, or for removing ...
- 21 Sep 2022
Understanding Guanella Components (Baluns)

shabaz

Table of Contents Introduction Getting Started: Common-Mode, Differential-Mode Currents and Chokes Transmission Lines Putting It Together: The ‘Coil System’ Multiple Coil Systems Real-World Baluns High-Level Calculations Parallel and T...
- 9 Sep 2022
OpAmp basics: balanced to unbalanced signal with difference amplifier

Jan Cumps

A little OpAmp circuit to turn a balanced signal into an unbalanced one. This is the circuit that jc2048 shows in my previous article.It's a very simple circuit, discussed in many books (Analog Signal Processing by Pallas-Areny and...
- 5 Sep 2022
OpAmp basics: unbalanced to balanced signal with dual OpAmp

Jan Cumps

A little OpAmp circuit to turn an unbalanced signal into a balanced one.An unbalanced signal is the typical signal coming out of a signal generator, consumer audio equipment, headphone jacks.A balanced signal uses two separate wire...
- 28 Aug 2022