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 […]
Teardown: Amazon 4th generation Echo Dot
One of the latest incarnations of the Echo Dot boasts premium sound and an ability to pair up with Fire TV devices for a home theater audio experience. Construction-wise, there are usually a few changes from one generation of Echo devices to the next, and sometimes between early and later models of the same generation. […]
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 […]
Development chassis sports mix of VME64x, OpenVPX backplanes
An open-frame enclosure contains multiple configuration options utilizing VME and OpenVPX backplanes. With a vast array of standard VITA 65 profile and power and ground only (unrouted) OpenVPX backplanes available, Pixus can offer a wide range of solutions. Coupled with various standard VME/VME64x backplanes, the company can provide a mix of slot options in both […]
Source measure unit combines four-quadrant voltage/current source with 6.5-digit meter
The AIM-TTi SMU4000 Source Measure Unit Series integrates a fast and agile high-power, four-quadrant voltage/current source with advanced precise voltage/current meters as an all-in-one test solution. Precisely supplying positive and negative voltages, sourcing or sinking power, while simultaneously measuring both current and voltage, makes these instruments candidates for rapid I-V characterization. The PowerFlex autoranging design […]
Test gear checks out Wi-Fi 7 chipsets
An automated test solution checks out Broadcom Wi-Fi 7 chipsets, the industry’s first Wi-Fi 7 chipsets optimized for mobile handsets that also support simultaneous dual-band 2×2 IEEE 802.11be-compliant operation. Rohde & Schwarz collaborated with Broadcom to successfully verify the R&S CMP180 next generation wireless device test platform for R&D and production. The IEEE 802.11be amendment […]
Inference engine hits 1,000 TOPS with sub-10 msec processing delay, 25-W power consumption
The Recogni Scorpio is billed as the world’s first 1,000 TOPS (Peta-Op) class inference solution for autonomous mobility. The vision-inference chip enables superhuman object detection accuracy up to – 300 m in real-time under various road and environment conditions, and the ability to process multiple streams of ultra-high resolution and very high frame rate cameras. […]
