Most electrical engineers probably are aware that connecting the ground connection for ordinary oscilloscope probes to the wrong part of an ac power line will invite a lot of trouble. Unfortunately the remedies sometimes employed to head off difficulties can cause their own woes. In a lab where I was once employed, the instrument carts […]
How to control dc microgrids
Microgrids are a great way to power locations where grid connections are unreliable, though it can be tricky to control them in robust ways. Daniel Zammit, Dept. of Industrial Electrical Power Conversion, University of Malta Microgrids get a fair amount of press coverage these days thanks to their role in distributed power generation. A typical […]
A better way to handle dc-dc converter hold-up times
Converters with built-in holdup circuitry reduce the size and requirements for input capacitors. Dr. André Buffing, L. Dinkelmann, Traco Power DC/DC converters are generally designed to maintain their output despite brief interruptions of their input power. The duration of this output hold-up often is set by the value of an external capacitor connected across the […]
Teardown: IOGEAR Smart USB-C 100-W GaN fast charger
YouTube has several videos featuring really bad designs for fast phone chargers. YouTubers doing these videos often point to problems such as transformers with chintzy insulation, line capacitors that lack the correct safety rating, and even chargers with plastic cases that heat up so much that they actually melt when there’s a heavy load. Fortunately, […]
How to run video games on an oscilloscope
Spend enough time on YouTube and you’ll uncover numerous videos showing some kind of video game being played on an oscilloscope. The most popular game choices for these videos seem to be the old Doom and Quake games and Pong, the first real video game released in 1972. Perhaps the main reason for Doom’s popularity […]
Why you don’t need a variable-speed drive to change a fan’s speed
To engineers schooled in modern motor control methods, it may be hard to grasp why three-speed fans designed to move air around in a room can be inexpensive. After all, these fans are powered by as motors, and the go-to method for changing the speed of industrial ac motors is via variable-frequency drives. VFDs work […]
What’s a ring tester and why do you need one?
If you one day find yourself with a transformer that might or might not have a shorted winding, your first inclination for verifying your suspicions might be to find an inductance meter. The problem with powering up an inductance meter for this situation is that the inductance of a transformer containing a shorted turn might […]
Autonomous technology and the compute environment
Purpose-built compute technology that has sensory input to accurate perception processing provides a path forward, addressing concerns around latency, jitter, and power consumption. Contributed by Recogni Although it may not be the first technology that comes to mind when thinking about autonomous vehicles (AVs), compute plays a critical role. To understand the role of compute, […]
Teardown: Why the Kinect V2 doesn’t show “ghosts” that aren’t there
Do you believe in ghosts? And do you believe video gaming equipment can find ghosts lurking in your house? That’s the premise of some YouTube videos that use the Xbox Kinect gaming system to display what they have claimed are ghostly apparitions. That premise has been thoroughly debunked by several YouTubers, perhaps most notably Ken […]
What to look for during instrument calibration
When you send an instrument to a calibration lab, what do you expect to happen? The comprehensive definition of calibration is a verification of instrument specifications by measuring actual performance using external lab standards, normally instruments, which have better performance than the thing they’re measuring and which are traceable to the International System of Units […]
