The first project is a transformerless voltage doubler that takes a DC voltage from 12 to 30 volts and doubles it. Unlike most other voltage doubler circuits, this design can supply amps of current. The second project uses a power MOSFET in a linear (rather than switching) application.
A perfect wire should conduct a signal without adding noise, attenuation, or distortion. Whatever is electrically happening at one end of the wire should be happening at the other end exactly in the same form, no matter what the current, voltage, frequency, surroundings, or temperature. However, this isn't the case.
Electronic designers are familiar with the apparent perversity of Nature in the tendency of amplifiers to oscillate and oscillators to amplify. But even the beginning designer knows that questions of oscillation and stability involve feedback — that ubiquitous structure in natural systems and many man-made ones — whereby a fraction of the system’s output energy is fed back to the input to produce useful effects.
Understanding And Designing With The Ever-Useful CMOS Timer: Not as commonplace as the operational amplifier, the integrated circuit CMOS timer — such as the ICM7555 and TLC555 — has nonetheless found a secure niche in electronics. Why is this?
Crystals That Make The World Go 'Round: Strike a crystal goblet with a spoon, and you immediately have both the attention of your guests and the sympathetic resonance of other goblets on your sumptuous holiday table. What is happening here? Well, you have created a crystal oscillator that generates acoustic waves in the air.
The goal of breadboarding is to mount electronic components on a supporting substrate and make all of the necessary electrical connections that result in a functional electronic device.
Some people tend to shy away from using surface-mount components in their projects. It seems to be too difficult or needs an array of specialized equipment. In the past, I found myself in this same mindset — wary of using these types of parts. That all changed.
Power MOSFETs (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors) have a lot of nice features that seem to be overlooked. Let's take a close look at these useful devices, then in Part 2, we'll use them to build a couple of handy projects.
I’ll show you two examples of circuits that don't use a micro but are often built with one, and explain some of the logic and theory behind these circuits.
Who was Hugo Gernsback? The answer depends on whom you ask. “Gernsback published the first science fiction magazine!” a science fiction reader will declare. Ask an engineer and you might hear, “Gernsback ... wasn’t he involved in early experiments with television broadcasting?” Others will recall Gernsback’s radio magazines. A radio historian will tell you that Hugo Gernsback owned radio station WRNY, introduced the first home radio set (1905), and championed the cause of radio amateurs.
