It has been a while since the last LED related article. Was experimented the linear current source, its pros and cons and the field of application. Now arises the need of a small version, handling the same high power, things that are contrapposed in the linear regulator. I need something that I can bring with … Continue reading Tiny, robust, low cost, fail-safe LED driver: the Glighter-S project
Author: Enrico S.
Current sources for LEDs – Glighter: a multichannel LED Driver
A power constant current source, high speed, for power LEDs. Taken all the errors made previously, I tried a new linear based current source which should be kept "simple" and "fast".
Current sources for LEDs: firsts DIY impressions
Recently I found that today almost lighbulbs are made with power LEDs. And surprisingly most of them are made so cheap that the controller fails far away before its lifetime. At least for what I've experienced with few models. Most of them seems to work well, and I think that LEDs are the future for … Continue reading Current sources for LEDs: firsts DIY impressions
Smoked crystals (Oscillator)
Once upon a time, during a lecture about electronics, more specifically on crystal quartz oscillators, a professor said that you can break a crystal oscillator by dropping it, because the quartz inside can be broken due to the fall, even if it seems solid like a common 1/4W resistor. Let me start with a briefing … Continue reading Smoked crystals (Oscillator)
NTC Measurements (Part 1/2)
When dealing with low-cost, home made termometers, the choice often fall on the NTCs. These sensors are resistors which are varying their resistance in function of the temperature, with a negative trend: Negative Temperature Coefficient is their name, also known as Thermistor. That means higher the temperature, lower the resistance: We observe that this cheap … Continue reading NTC Measurements (Part 1/2)
DS1307 Real Time Clock hacking: the emulation
Maybe some of you knows well the so called GertDuino, an expansion board of the RaspberryPi. It is like an Arduino which can communicate with the Rasp, and moreover it also mount an Atmega48 which can be used to emulate an RTC. Yes, I'm going to talk about this. The challenge: proof-of-concept of commercial real … Continue reading DS1307 Real Time Clock hacking: the emulation
Il caos è l’anagramma di caso?
Ho un'idea che a stento trattengo da un po' di tempo. E' quella di pensare che la matematica che costruisce ogni cosa sia ancora fortemente limitata. L'infinito è una grandezza che viene esclusa a priori e in qualche modo aggirata per poter ottenere quel che si cerca. Per questo la matematica è potente, ma limitata … Continue reading Il caos è l’anagramma di caso?
The classic hardware hacking: ATX power supply
If you like playing with lab instruments, enjoy to make things and design electronic stuff, you are probably attracted from the idea of create a new powerful (with some limitations) bench power supply by using an old ATX supply. Moreover, I need an high power supply to test my motors. For sure, building your own … Continue reading The classic hardware hacking: ATX power supply
Blink an LED over the internet: the begginer’s low level approach
In this article we continue our road to the IoT approached at a low level, or better, at bottom-up approach, that will be applied in the future to my UART interpreter. Here I will talk about how to drive an LED over the Internet. So as always I'm using Python libraries to get things done … Continue reading Blink an LED over the internet: the begginer’s low level approach
Il tempo si paga in energia
Una frase del genere odora di Einstein. Ma lui rapportava la massa all'energia... ah, no, c'era di mezzo anche il tempo, con qualche giro matematico. Passeggiando in giro, andando in bicicletta, muovendosi in acqua. Ci rendiamo tutti conto che quando le cose vengon fatte con calma paiono meno faticose. Basti pensare alla stanchezza dopo una … Continue reading Il tempo si paga in energia
ALEA 