Latest Technical Articles

Control systems engineering requires knowledge of at least two basic components of a system: the plant, which describes…

Control systems engineering requires knowledge of at least two basic components of a system: the plant, which describes the mathematically described behavior of your system, and the output, which is the goal you are trying to reach.

This article is part 2 of a two-part series that introduces the tools and techniques for programming PICAXE…

This article is part 2 of a two-part series that introduces the tools and techniques for programming PICAXE microcontrollers. Part 1 focused on construction of a test circuit and the AXEpad IDE; part 2 covers the PICAXE Editor 6 IDE.

Beaglebone Black is the most recent incarnation of the Beaglebone open source hardware platform. For less than $50, the…

Beaglebone Black is the most recent incarnation of the Beaglebone open source hardware platform. For less than $50, the board includes Ethernet, graphics processing, 4Gb of nonvolatile storage, and ports supporting USB, HDMI, and Beaglebone's custom I/O add-ons, called "capes". Here's how to run some simple commands to toggle digital I/O on the board!

Part 4 in the “How to Make an Ambient Light Monitor” series

Part 4 in the “How to Make an Ambient Light Monitor” series

This is one simple way to control a LED, fan, relay or solenoid with a computer and a PIC.

This is one simple way to control a LED, fan, relay or solenoid with a computer and a PIC.

Operational amplifiers are a cornerstone of EE design. Get your first taste of this topic through a few simple circuit exercises!

Operational amplifiers are a cornerstone of EE design. Get your first taste of this topic through a few simple circuit exercises!

An introduction to the properties and purposes of a negative resistance device. Later articles will extend to negative…

An introduction to the properties and purposes of a negative resistance device. Later articles will extend to negative impedances and some applications.

We've all been there - you've spent hours and hours trying to get that sketch working, but somehow, you're not reacting…

We've all been there - you've spent hours and hours trying to get that sketch working, but somehow, you're not reacting well to time critical events in your system. Maybe it's a wireless peripheral indicating when a packet is ready. Maybe it's an external Flash device signaling when data is ready to be read out. Maybe it's as simple as a button push that you need to react quickly to! But, try as you might, it seems the best way to see these sort of events is to just digitalRead() that pin over and over in your main loop() function until something interesting happens. ...or is it?

You and your friends are planning the greatest party your hometown has ever seen. Just one problem: you don't have a…

You and your friends are planning the greatest party your hometown has ever seen. Just one problem: you don't have a karaoke system. What's a great party with no karaoke? We're about to fix that. All you need are a few potentiometers and an op-amp.

Building on skills developed in the introductory KiCad tutorial, this article will focus on creating custom parts and…

Building on skills developed in the introductory KiCad tutorial, this article will focus on creating custom parts and adding them to a local library, expanding the default libraries to include community repositories, and contributing parts back into the open source ecosystem. The end product will be a MAX31855 K-type thermocouple amplifier which can be used for a huge array of temperature sensing projects.

Detect audio with an electret microphone and a TI CC3200 Wifi microcontroller. This handy project will allow you to set…

Detect audio with an electret microphone and a TI CC3200 Wifi microcontroller. This handy project will allow you to set up an audio detection device that can be used to catch your roommate stealing things from the fridge or send you an alert if the noise in your room goes above a certain threshold.

The use of dependent sources when using Nodal Analysis.

The use of dependent sources when using Nodal Analysis.

How to read humidity and temperature from a DHT11 and display it on a LCD with a PIC microcontroller. In this example…

How to read humidity and temperature from a DHT11 and display it on a LCD with a PIC microcontroller. In this example we're going to use a PIC16F628A.

This article walks through the very basics of quantum computing and how they are designed. It will also provide accurate…

This article walks through the very basics of quantum computing and how they are designed. It will also provide accurate information about the principles behind quantum theory that helps quantum computing work. The objective is to help you understand this new age technology and its benefits.

Part 2 in the "How to Make an Ambient Light Monitor" Series. Our smart ambient light monitor will need to digitize and…

Part 2 in the "How to Make an Ambient Light Monitor" Series. Our smart ambient light monitor will need to digitize and analyze signals from an optical detector, so it is time to explore the EFM8’s integrated analog-to-digital conversion functionality.

Part 3 in the “How to Make an Ambient Light Monitor” series. The project continues by building an ambient light…

Part 3 in the “How to Make an Ambient Light Monitor” series. The project continues by building an ambient light sensor circuit on a breadboard, digitizing the circuit’s output signals, and interpreting the digitized measurements.

LTSpice possesses several features that can be used to test your design beyond simple transient analysis and AC sweeps.…

LTSpice possesses several features that can be used to test your design beyond simple transient analysis and AC sweeps. This article will go over a few advanced functions.

How to interface a Raspberry Pi to an I2C temperature sensor (TMP102) and then publish the data to a Google sheet and graph.

How to interface a Raspberry Pi to an I2C temperature sensor (TMP102) and then publish the data to a Google sheet and graph.

This article is part 1 of a two-part series that introduces the tools and techniques for programming PICAXE…

This article is part 1 of a two-part series that introduces the tools and techniques for programming PICAXE microcontrollers. Part 1 focuses on construction of a test circuit and the AXEpad IDE; part 2 will cover the PICAXE Editor 6 IDE.