General Q&A about the design and function of electronic systems, electric power systems and infrastructure, their theory, and tools specific to those fields. Read these guidelines before posting.
Filters (None)
Hi, I built a constant current load following the circuit from https://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Constant-current-load/ But my op amp gets destroyed after a few minutes. The transistor or the op...
Recently, my home suffered a partial power outage, and due to curiosity and a desire to learn more about residential AC power, I'm trying to understand how the event that took place resulted in the...
Hello. I have a grounding problem on my acquisition system. I have read many articles, app notes and whatever but still could not find a convincing solution for the topic. The acquisition system is...
I'm using a variable duty cycle square-wave oscillator to drive a half-bridge MOSFET pair like this. Upper MOSFET is P-channel type, lower MOSFET is N-channel type: - And, I think I'm getting shoo...
A few decades ago, I found a digital circuit that squares a 4-bit input in an old textbook (perhaps 1970s or 1980s). (The figure below is not the original. It differs from the original in that it ...
What benefit has a differential amplifier when measuring the signal from a sensor that is remotely located such as in this example: - Why can't I use an arrangement like this: -
My step-up converter makes audible noise both with and without a load.I am almost certain it is the inductor, because when I hold my finger on it I can feel vibration and it gets quieter. Unfortuna...
I've built a non-inverting op-amp amplifier with a gain of 101 using this circuit: - My input is 10 mV DC and I expected to measure 1.01 volts at the output but I measure 0.81 volts. What has happ...
When switching a relay there should be a flyback diode. It could be just a diode or diode with resistor in series. I understand there is a difference in the speed of relay switch-off. But what is t...
When should I consider using RTOS in my application? Every microcontroller has a good number of interrupts then what is the need of it?
I've heard that a bootloader is code that runs on a microcontroller, and is used to get your application code onto the micro. How does that work? Is there anything special that needs to be done to...
When writing firmware in C for a microcontroller, how can I directly access a memory location such as a hardware peripheral register, given its absolute address? Is there a way to do this safely an...
I have a signal at 10 MHz produced from a 50 Ω source. How can I match that to a 300 Ω load with low losses without using an RF transformer (space constraints)? Are there any circuits and formulas ...
I always have a doubt that how do firmware engineers dump code into a quad flat microcontroller? For a starter kit there is already connection like USB or some SPI ,I2C headers to burn the code,als...
I can't get my CAN bus application (ISO 11898-2, classic "high speed CAN") working and I'm receiving various CAN error frames. These error frames manifest themselves as sequences of 6 bits with my ...
What is the relationship between the pole zero diagram and bode plot? Case example: a 2nd order RLC low pass filter: - $$\dfrac{V_{OUT}}{V_{IN}} = \dfrac{\frac{1}{j\omega C}}{R+j\omega L +\frac{1}...
How can I acquire electronic parts/items/modules and ensure that there is minimal risk of them being unsuitable for my project or design?
I'm trying to drive a relay according to a 5 V digital signal, using this circuit: It works for a while, but then the transistor fails. When I replace the transistor, it works for a while again, ...
If the external power supply to a device fails, and I can't get the exact model, what do I need to specify to get the right replacement? I can re-use the old supply's connector, but what about the...
