Latest Consumer Electronics Technical Articles

What Is Joule Heating? Producing Heat with Electric Current

Joule heating, also known as ohmic heating, is used to directly heat water with electric current.

June 18, 2019 by Michael Wieckowski

Shunt Capacitance Compensation in Operational Amplifiers

In this article, we'll discuss how shunt capacitance can be used to achieve frequency compensation in op-amps and we'll also see why this is not the preferred technique.

June 11, 2019 by Dr. Sergio Franco

6 Ways to Design for Circuit Board Rework

Learn why you should design for rework—and 6 easy ways to do it.

May 31, 2019 by Matthew Cook

A (Solder) Bridge To Nowhere: What Is a Solder Bridge and How to Avoid Them in PCB Design

Learn what solder bridges are and how to avoid them.

May 09, 2019 by Matthew Cook

How Do Time of Flight Sensors (ToF) Work? A Look at ToF 3D Cameras

How do time of flight sensors determine distances? Learn more about ToF cameras using an example 3D camera.

May 08, 2019 by Mark Hughes

How to Read a Microcontroller Datasheet: Exploring the Hardware

This article provides some tips on making efficient use of the peripheral sections in your microcontroller’s datasheet (or reference manual, or user guide).

April 04, 2019 by Robert Keim

How Will 5G Networks Improve Location Awareness?

3GPP Release 16 holds the promise to make high precision location services cheaper and more reliable. Exploiting new signal properties in combination with a variety of non-cellular technologies could enable forms of hybrid positioning.

April 02, 2019 by Sylvia Lu, u-blox

How to Read a Microcontroller Datasheet: Introduction and First Steps

MCU datasheets sometimes present an overwhelming abundance of facts, figures, and specs. This practical, step-by-step guide will help you to identify and extract the information that you need.

April 01, 2019 by Robert Keim

How to Choose the Right Microcontroller for Your Application

This article continues the Introduction to Microcontrollers series with a discussion of the most important things to consider when you’re trying to find the best MCU for your next project.

March 28, 2019 by Robert Keim

What Is a Microcontroller? The Defining Characteristics and Architecture of a Common Component

In this article we’ll look at the defining characteristics of these extremely popular ICs, and then we’ll explore the internal architecture.

March 25, 2019 by Robert Keim

Bel Fuse Circuit Protection 0AD Series Family of Fuses

The Bel Fuse 0AD family of fuses are small fuses with very high AC and DC voltage ratings and interrupting ratings. The fuses leverage advanced materials and processing to shrink the fuse size without sacrificing electrical performance or physical integrity.

February 01, 2019 by Bel Fuse

Hybrid Memory Cubes: What They Are and How They Work

In this article, the engineering team at Promwad examines hybrid memory cubes (HMCs), which can provide a 15-fold increase in performance with up to a 70% energy savings per bit compared to DDR3 DRAM.

January 22, 2019 by Ivan Kuten, Promwad

How to Program an MSP430 Microcontroller to Gather Data from an Inclinometer

This article goes over the design of firmware for a custom PCB project: a precision inclinometer subsystem.

January 14, 2019 by Mark Hughes

How to Make Your Umbrella into a Weather Station with a Particle Photon

Want to get to-the-minute, location-specific weather information delivered right to your own Adafruit IO dashboard? It's time to assemble your very own SmartBrella.

December 13, 2018 by Robin Mitchell

Make Your Own Home Brewing Sensor Kit with the Gentleman Maker’s Adafruit IO SmartBrewer

Have a party coming up in the next few weeks that you want to make extra posh? Try making your own extra-special brew with the Gentleman Maker's SmartBrewer! Make sure you have an Adafruit IO account ready to go and your Particle Photon on hand.

December 06, 2018 by Robin Mitchell

Simplifying Hardware Security Implementation for IoT Nodes

This article provides an overview of what an IoT node needs for a faster and simpler implementation of robust security.

October 09, 2018 by Ramanuja Konreddy, Microchip

Protect Your Personal Castle With the Gentleman Maker’s Photon Trebuchet

In this Gentleman Maker project, we will use Particle Photon boards to power a motion-sensing trebuchet that can fend off all your mischievous intruders.

September 27, 2018 by Robin Mitchell