Erich Styger writes:

Open Source software has been around for decades. But open source on hardware especially microcontroller is not much a reality these days. But there is something which might change this: RISC-V is a free and open RISC instruction set architecture and for me it has the potential to replace some of the proprietary architectures currently used. RISC-V is not new, but it gets more and more traction in Academia (no surprise). Not only because it is open: Think about all the recent security issues with proprietary architectures: Spectre, Meltdown, and Foreshadow just be the most recent one.
I wanted to play with RISC-V for over a year, but finally a week ago I did one of these “hey, let’s buy that board” thing again. Sometimes these boards get on a pile to wait a few weeks or longer to get used, but that one I had to try out immediately :-).

More details on MCU on Eclipse site.

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Every Friday we give away some extra PCBs via Facebook. This post was announced on Facebook, and on Monday we’ll send coupon codes to two random commenters. The coupon code usually go to Facebook ‘Other’ Messages Folder . More PCBs via Twitter on Tuesday and the blog every Sunday. Don’t forget there’s free PCBs three times every week:

• Free PCB Sunday. The classic. Every week, get free PCBs right here on the blog comments
• Tweet-a-PCB Tuesday. Follow us and get boards in 144 characters or less
• Facebook PCB Friday. Free PCBs while you wait for the weekend
• Check out our video on how we mail PCBs worldwide.

Some stuff:

• Yes, we’ll mail it anywhere in the world!
• We’ll contact you via Facebook with a coupon code for the PCB drawer.
• Limit one PCB per address per month, please.
• Like everything else on this site, PCBs are offered without warranty.

We try to stagger free PCB posts so every time zone has a chance to participate, but the best way to see it first is to subscribe to the RSS feed, follow us on Twitter, or like us on Facebook.

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Kerry Wong did teardown of an MEDA PLM-100 AC magnetometer:

I did a teardown a while ago on a cheap eBay electromagnetic radiation detector, and if you recall the performance of that meter was mediocre at the best. This time around though, I’ve got a MEDA PLM-100 AC magnetometer. Since MEDA (Macintyre Electronic Design Associates) specializes in fluxgate and search coil magnetometers, this PLM-100 magnetometer is a piece of professional test equipment. In this blog post, you will see some teardown pictures and for those who want to see some real world actions you can take a look at the video included towards the end.

See the full post on his blog here.

Check out the video after the break.

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We go through a lot of prototype PCBs, and end up with lots of extras that we’ll never use. Every Sunday we give away a few PCBs from one of our past or future projects, or a related prototype. Our PCBs are made through Seeed Studio’s Fusion board service. This week two random commenters will get a coupon code for the free PCB drawer tomorrow morning. Pick your own PCB. You get unlimited free PCBs now – finish one and we’ll send you another! Don’t forget there’s free PCBs three times every week:

• Tweet-a-PCB Tuesday. Follow us and get boards in 144 characters or less
• Facebook PCB Friday. Free PCBs while you wait for the weekend
• Free PCB Sunday, right here on the blog
• Check out how we mail PCBs worldwide

Some stuff:

• Yes, we’ll mail it anywhere in the world!
• Be sure to use a real e-mail in the address field so we can contact you with the coupon.
• Limit one PCB per address per month please.
• Like everything else on this site, PCBs are offered without warranty.
• PCBs are scrap and have no value, due to limited supply it is not possible to replace a board lost in the post

Be the first to comment, subscribe to the RSS feed.

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Another application note from Analog Devices this time about the superiority of digital over mechanical potentionmenters. Link here (PDF)

Potentiometers have been widely used since the early days of electronic circuits, providing a simple way to calibrate a system, adjusting offset voltage or gain in an amplifier, tuning filters, controlling screen brightness, among other uses. Due to their physical construction, mechanical potentiometers have some limitations inherent to their nature, such as size, mechanical wear, wiper contamination, resistance drift, sensitivity to vibration, humidity, and layout inflexibility.

Digital potentiometers are designed to overcome all these problems, offering increased reliability and higher accuracy with smaller voltages glitches. The mechanical potentiometer has now been relegated to environments where the digital potentiometer cannot be a suitable replacement, such as high temperature environments or in high power applications.

Comparing both technologies is the simplest way to discern which is the optimal solution for your system.

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App note from Analog Devices on robust precision signal conditioning. Link here (PDF)

Industrial measurement and control systems often need to interface to sensors while operating in noisy environments. Because sensors typically generate very small electrical signals, extracting their output from the noise can be challenging. Applying signal conditioning techniques, such as amplification and filtering, can aid in the extraction of the signal because these techniques increase the sensitivity of the system. The signal can then be scaled and shifted to take full advantage of high performance ADCs.

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Every Friday we give away some extra PCBs via Facebook. This post was announced on Facebook, and on Monday we’ll send coupon codes to two random commenters. The coupon code usually go to Facebook ‘Other’ Messages Folder . More PCBs via Twitter on Tuesday and the blog every Sunday. Don’t forget there’s free PCBs three times every week:

• Free PCB Sunday. The classic. Every week, get free PCBs right here on the blog comments
• Tweet-a-PCB Tuesday. Follow us and get boards in 144 characters or less
• Facebook PCB Friday. Free PCBs while you wait for the weekend
• Check out our video on how we mail PCBs worldwide.

Some stuff:

• Yes, we’ll mail it anywhere in the world!
• We’ll contact you via Facebook with a coupon code for the PCB drawer.
• Limit one PCB per address per month, please.
• Like everything else on this site, PCBs are offered without warranty.

We try to stagger free PCB posts so every time zone has a chance to participate, but the best way to see it first is to subscribe to the RSS feed, follow us on Twitter, or like us on Facebook.

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Ben Chong posted his RC2014 6809 CPU board, that is available on github.

More details on his blog.

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Davide Gironi published a new build:

Hall Sensor are pretty common components. Most of the time one will find 3 pin Hall Sensor. But there are time that one can find a 4 pin hall sensor. Those kind of sensor is called dual-channel.

See the full post on his blog.

Check out the video after the break.

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Every Tuesday we give away two coupons for the free PCB drawer via Twitter. This post was announced on Twitter, and in 24 hours we’ll send coupon codes to two random retweeters. Don’t forget there’s free PCBs three times a every week:

• Hate Twitter and Facebook? Free PCB Sunday is the classic PCB giveaway. Catch it every Sunday, right here on the blog
• Tweet-a-PCB Tuesday. Follow us and get boards in 144 characters or less
• Facebook PCB Friday. Free PCBs will be your friend for the weekend

Some stuff:

• Yes, we’ll mail it anywhere in the world!
• Check out how we mail PCBs worldwide video.
• We’ll contact you via Twitter with a coupon code for the PCB drawer.
• Limit one PCB per address per month please.
• Like everything else on this site, PCBs are offered without warranty.

We try to stagger free PCB posts so every time zone has a chance to participate, but the best way to see it first is to subscribe to the RSS feed, follow us on Twitter, or like us on Facebook.

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