Building a toaster oven temperature profile controller might not sound so exciting, but that's just the first layer of the onion! The exact same hardware and software can be used to build all sorts of embedded microcontroller projects, and you can do so without ever installing a software development environment anywhere because it's all inside the microcontroller itself. This is all based on relatively new technology called "WebUSB" and "Web Serial."
This article addresses the subject of semiconductor-based temperature measurement. The theory is developed in a general way and then applied to the construction of a device useful to those of us who spend many hours at our workbench or desk. It’s hoped that the presentation is such as to suggest to the reader many possible variations and other applications.
What could be more fun than building a miniature oscilloscope? Not one with an LCD screen, but a scope with a real live cathode ray tube just one inch in diameter. All the parts -- including two 6AU6 vacuum tubes -- will be housed in a 5” x 7” x 2” box.
In Part 1 of this series, I covered basic sweep alignment theory and construction/operation of an all-in-one sweep alignment instrument I dubbed the WhippleWay Sweep Alignment Board (or WSAB for short). In Part 2, I’ll describe sweep alignment procedures for AM and FM radios and give an actual example of each.
DC-to-DC (DC-DC) converters are a common part of modern electronics. The need for an “odd” voltage can arise for biasing, backlighting, analog components, communications, or — as in the case of the LP130 discussed in the last issue — programming and verification. If your main circuit is powered from +5V and you have a few chips that need 3.3V, a simple linear regulator will suffice. However, linear regulators can only reduce the supplied voltage. Most practical DC-DC converters are a type of switching regulator and in this article, DC-DC converter means a switching type of regulator.
The popularity of repairing and restoring tube radios has highlighted the need for a variety of test instruments. After repair or restoration of a radio, the final step is often alignment. For an AM radio, a signal generator and voltmeter will do a good job. But with an FM radio, using a signal generator and voltmeter does not always produce the best results. So, I came up with my own design using a digital signal generator module, Arduino processor, and digital display.
Now that I’ve retired, I’ve started experimenting with some of the analog subjects that I haven’t done much with since school back in the seventies. To begin with, I started with op-amp circuits; specifically, Colpitts oscillators. I built the circuit on one of those plug-in ‘protoboards,’ a ±15V power supply, an oscilloscope, and a multimeter. For my experimentation, I was using a trim pot. I would adjust until oscillation began, then power down, pull one end of the trim pot, measure the resistance, then re-connect, power up again, and continue adjusting until I reached the other end of the resistance range, where the oscillation would cease. I would then repeat the resistance measurement. That procedure was not ideal. In addition to the multiple tedious steps, adjusting a trim pot can be a pain. Enter my potentiometer box.
