We’d like to welcome you to our grand opening of our new online store, FriedCircuits.us! Over the past few months, we have diligently worked toward creating a one-stop-shop that offers tools & parts for sale as well as detailed documentation. There we hope to provide new products, tutorials and share FriedCircuits related projects. Fear not! This here blog will remain active, and host most of MobileWill’s personal projects and such. After all, it is through this blog that we were able to grow many ideas and tools that helped launched our FriedCircuits tindie shop (which we still plan to support)! Speaking of supporting – we’d like to thank all of our supporters for helping us succeed to where we are …
OLED Backpack New Features
Recently, the OLED Backpack has gone through a few updates and it has come to be quite a new tool! Thanks to Edouard Lafargue for all his hard work, he has made the OLED Backpack extra amazing. New features: Auto scaling (can change scale range in code) Multiple Screens – Short button press Scope View Energy Readings Peak and Min values Large font for each of the 3 readings (Voltage, Watts, Amperes) Amperes display auto adjusts decimal Button resets peak, min and energy counts Check out Edouard’s review http://www.aerodynes.fr/2013/09/08/fried-circuits-tester-multiscreen-and-energy-measurement/ You can get the latest version on Github: https://github.com/FriedCircuits/FC-USB-Tester-OLED-Backpack You can buy the OLED Backpack on Tindie.com: https://www.tindie.com/products/FriedCircuits/usb-tester-oled-backpack-bundle/
VA Tester Demo Video
Come watch a demo of the VA Tester and support us on Tindie: goo.gl/r3wkhJ
VA Tester Fundraiser is Live!
After designing and constructing both USB Tester and the OLED Backpack, this next tool was naturally conceived. Introducing the VA Tester, a device similar to the USB Tester. However, unlike its counterpart, the VA Tester allows you to use it inline with almost any project. Additionally, it makes the OLED Backpack twice as useful. The VA Tester allows you to monitor up to 26VDC at ±3.2A Max. This gives you a wide range of possibilities. Using the screw terminals, you can attach bare wire or jumper wires without having to solder, making for quick and easy connections. Another useful change from the USB Tester is the replacement of the banana connectors to standard sized test points that fit most of your DMM probes. Here …
Coin Cell & Higher Engery Drain
Working with microcontrollers tends to lead to using coin cell batteries. They are great small batteries and due to their internal resistance, you can usually run an LED directly. Here is a an interesting article from Nordic Semiconductor about high drain pulse impact on coin cells. ABSTRACTUltra low power wireless connectivity is being added to an ever greater number of coin cell battery poweredapplications. Calculating the battery lifetime of such a product is always important, buthow is the capacity ofthe battery affected by the usage pattern?This article shows how the high peak, but short duration pulsed loads typical of ultra low power wirelessapplications affect Energizer® CR2032 coin cell batteries and how your design and operation affects the batterylife time you …
Understanding Efficiency Standards For External Power Supplies
I came across this article about power supply efficiency the other day while researching power supplies. It is quite the informative read, I highly recommend it! In the early 1990s, it was estimated that there were more than 1 billion external power supplies active in the United States alone. The efficiency of these power supplies, mainly utilizing linear technology, could be as low as 50% and still draw power when the application was turned off or not even connected to the power supply (referred to as “no-load” condition). Experts calculated that without efforts to increase efficiencies and reduce “no-load” power consumption, external power supplies would account for around 30% of total energy consumption in less than 20 years. As early …