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Learning optoisolators by making one

Posted on October 11, 2014 by R-B Leave a comment

Optoisolators, also known as optocouplers or photocouplers, are a very useful component in transferring electrical signals between two circuit blocks, while providing a complete electrical isolation between the two blocks. The key advantage of using an optoisolator is it blocks high voltages and voltage transients in one block being transferred to other, so that a surge in one part of the system will not disrupt or destroy the other parts. An opto-isolator connects the two blocks with a beam of light, which is modulated by input current. In this tutorial, Dan explains the basics of optoisolators and illustrates its working principle by

Digital voice recorder design using C8051F411

Posted on October 10, 2014 by R-B Leave a comment

Designing a digital voice recorder requires sampling the audio channel, compress and decompress the signal, and store and retrieve the samples. Silicon Labs provides a reference for designing a digital voice recorder using their C8051F411 microcontroller, which has a 12-bit ADC, and a 12-bit DAC, available on chip. The ‘F411 samples the voice signal using the ADC, compresses the sample using DPCM (Differential Pulse Code Modulation), and sends the sample to the external Flash using the SPI. Later, the microcontroller retrieves the samples from the external Flash, decompresses them, and sends them to the speaker through the DAC. This reference design can record up to 87

MPLAB® Harmony supports all 32-bit PIC® MCUs

Posted on October 8, 2014 by R-B Leave a comment

Microchip Technology Inc., a leading provider of microcontroller, mixed-signal, analog and Flash-IP solutions, today announced the availability of MPLAB® Harmony Version 1.0. MPLAB Harmony is a flexible, abstracted, fully integrated firmware development platform for all 32-bit PIC32 microcontrollers (MCUs). It takes key elements of modular and object-oriented design, adds in the flexibility to use a RTOS or work without one, and provides a framework of software modules that are easy to use, configurable for specific design requirements and that are purpose built to work together. The new features in this release include the MPLAB Harmony Configurator for quick and easy driver and middleware

MSP430 FET using TI Launchpad

Posted on October 7, 2014 by R-B Leave a comment

TI’s MSP430 family of MCUs are low-power and RISC-based powerful mixed-signal processors that require a Flash Emulator Tool (FET) for in-system programming. The official MSP430 FET from TI costs about $100. Vincete describes a way to construct a MSP430 FET using TI’s popular and in-expensive Launchpad board. [via]

Learn Python programming with Raspberry Pi using RPi board

Posted on October 6, 2014 by R-B Leave a comment

Jesus Echavarria has tipped us off about his RPi board, which is focused to learn Python with the Raspberry Pi board. The board easily fits on the GPIO headers of Raspberry Pi, and contains basic electronic components like LEDs, tact switches, buzzer, header for 2×16 and LCD display, to get going with basic Python programming.

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