design-notes

By:
On:
In: Power Electronics

I first saw this practically in the Orthodox Cherokee SMPS. This is where we differentiate from Engineered Products and just Mass Production without following standards. The Cherokee SMPS was a work of art, perfect in all respects.

The Copper Desert or Isolation Land

There is a No Man’s Land in PCB. Any good power electronics designer should/will know. Product Safety and HV Isolation, Quality and Reliability all depend on this.

High Energy Circuits

Power Electronics Design Methods

These things don’t come overnight, it is a culture, learning, experience and integrity of some of these American Firms. Reliability and Product safety are important. Every human values his life very much. A manufacturer too should appreciate this.

Coming back to isolation, Keep in mind creepage distance, High energy circuits and Low voltage circuits should have clear isolation, use the best insulation. Fire and shock hazard. Mains HV transitions, spikes.

Regulated High Voltage Power Supply

Power supply faces all these, even other areas where a Human Life or Property can be endangered.

HV High Voltage Reliability and Safety

Use a Servo Stabilizer or CVT Constant Voltage Transformer or at least an Isolation Transformer. The First Defense form HV Surges, Spikes.

High Voltage Polyester & Polypropylene Metallized Capacitors in Stepdown Supplies should be Fire Retardant & Self Healing with a MOV too.

By:
On:
In: Handheld Portables

A Jpeg browser device like Digital Photo Album. It has a LCD Screen and a FM Radio interface. It costs less that $100 or comes free with 5 yrs subscription to a paper. – The SmartRadio

In the early morning it downloads the media on a built-in locked FM receive only radio.The FM newspaper station just transmits a few minutes of encrypted digital data. This is stored and static jpeg pages generated, which can be easily viewed and read using scroll and zoom using a convenient handheld device.

Cost Effective eNewspaper Delivery Jpeg Radio

XML-HTML FM Radio – FM Radio enhancements

Electronic Engineering Magazines

FM radios consume less power and are affordable, now we should add a small LCD display like you have in cellphones. Xml should be frequency modulated and transmitted by fm stations in adjoining bands.

Read More →

By:
On:
In: Design, Software and Computing

The wear and tear, fragmentation on HDD can be reduced using a Tripod Hybrid. Access Speed improves too…

Top Layer is RAM Drive with Li-ion Battery. Second layer is Flash. Third is the Spinner HDD.

All active files of user are on RAM drive and backed up on Flash by intelligent Drive (not CPU). The files go into HDD after they have been stable for over an hour. As HDD sizes are increasing. The files and file system can be like svn and maintain 3 versions of all dynamic files. This is useful for user also and HDD too.

Storage Tripod Hybrid for Reliability Speed

Static files like Binaries can be on one area of HDD. Frequently accessed binaries are promoted to flash layer. Extremely frequent to Ram Layer. The HDD now is less stressed and lasts longer and is a stable backup. Power failures immune.

Bare Essentials

A supercap built into a HDD. On Brownout OR Power Fail. The falling ramp is detected beyond an isolating diode. It says to HDD uC … Look there is something funny with power now. The HDD uC at once finishes the work at hand, drawing its juice from the stable supercap, parks its heads and goes to sleep.

Embedded Systems at delabs.org

When power is stable again, it wakes up and the supercap is replenished too. This way damage to HDD is avoided, these happen when .. battery connection problems in laptop or mains power fluctuations or switching power systems carelessly. It makes HDD idiot proof at least electrically.

– delabs 2009

By:
On:
In: Software and Computing

These are some ideas, comments, feedback and communication that i have had over the past many years online. 2006-11

Photonic Speeds

The real speed can be seen when we switch completely to photons and photonic circuits. No more electrons. Blazing Tera Hertz Transfer Speeds. Just a few decades away. Another smart alec comment i made at the site of a major speed provider.

System-on-Chip – SoC – IP

3D Hologram Newspaper

3D Hologram Newspaper

An Interactive 3D Hologram Newspaper that is Projected by a Small Rechargeable Pendent or Desktop Device. It can be a MultiMedia 3D Book, Magazine or Newspaper. It can be used even when lying down on a bed. It can be used on a Restaurant, the group can read the day’s Paper. (An idea i gave at a website with a Questionnaire, years ago)

Digital Signal Processing – DSP

Rechargable Wireless Peripherals

Buy only those Wireless Peripherals or Even Keyboard / Mouse, that can be recharged & dockable or on a Ferrite / Magnetic, No wire/metal charging base. (Just drumming up an old idea of mine)

By:
On:
In: Design, Handheld Portables

I once worked in Tek for a very short period. I got to experience the 2235 and 2465 analog scopes and their controls. The 2465 was a 400 MHz Digitally Controlled Analog Scope.

I also used the Plugin Scopes and Calibration systems that were Tek Culture and Tech contribution to the Instrumentation world, it probably evolved into VXI-PXI as uC systems took over.

delabs designs – The code has been moved from Google Code Hosting to github – delabs-dapj

delabs Web Widget and Application Interface Usability Experiments 2003-2008

I also had a chance to look at DSO/Logic Analyzers and the just developed TDS Series. The older tek analog scopes made me understand about usability and panel layouts. Many controls are inevitable in a Analog Scope with Electromechanical Interface.

In a Digital World that can be largely changed using the Monitor and Trackballs. The older BlackBerry phones are also good study for usability before Touch Screens came.

Read More →

By:
On:
In: Process Control

This is a way by which you can monitor the level of fluids like water in a tank. Based on data from the sensor you can control things like solenoids or motors as required or even turn on a buzzer, hooter or annunciator in a control panel. A simple Water Level Controller.

Description.

Look at the picture on the right, the float can be a Styrofoam type with a couple of ceramic magnets stuck inside. The float must move freely up and down a long plastic pipe of around 10 mm dia. If the fluid is not water but a solvent then design a non-soluble float or coat the float you made with something like an epoxy resin.

Water Level Controller

Then you need to assemble a small circuit within the long plastic pipe. Many reed relays with a chain of resistors in series has to be inserted in the pipe. The resistor and the glass reed relays should be in different levels of the pipe where you need an alarm or indication. Seal the pipe hermetically at both ends with epoxy resin after taking out a shielded cable of just 2 wires + 1 ground shield.

When the fluid level changes, the float moves up or down with it, when the float moves over a section of pipe where the reed relay is mounted, the magnets on the float make the reed operate and the resistance of the sensor changes.

The resistance is measured and the alarm can be operated as you like. The advantage of this arrangement is the electric circuit does not come in contact with the fluid, no sparking risk.

Reed Relay. It was invented by Dr. W. B. Ellwood at Bell Labs in 1936. Contacts are in a sealed glass tube filled with inert gas like in a bulb, so they do not corrode. It is faster than regular relays and as no spring is used it has a longer mechanical life. The two contacts are ferromagnetic blades plated with rhodium. When you take a magnet close by, the contacts touch each other. You can also put the reed in a coil, then when you energize the coil the reed operates. Used in telecommunication.OKI is one manufacturer of this type of component.

Design and Caution.

When you drive inductive loads you have to use RC snubbers, freewheeling diodes, varistors or zeners. when you drive lamps the cold current is high so use thermistors. The Reed relay is best used in telecom and instrumentation and avoided in power electronics. It can handle high RF frequency as the path of current is straight and footprint small.

Here is a Circuit to Build and Learn this Concepts – This can help make a Water level controller from sump to overhead tank. This can also be used in industrial fluid level control like oils and thick fluids. It may not work with highly viscous fluids or sticky mixes.

Fluid or Water Level with Reed Relays

“When you use the DMM or digital multimeter, try not to use it for high voltages and currents, use external shunts and attenuators instead. If you try to measure 230V AC in the Ohms mode or in the Current mode with the probe in the current socket then you will see fumes in your DMM and a hole in your pocket !!”

– Solderman Talks 1702

By:
On:
In: Design, Robotics, Training Consulting

Cars should be aware of their environment and display status in the dashboard. It is like having cameras all around. The objects around and their direction of movement and acceleration.

Simple Automobile Safety Radar

There must be a very affordable automobile radar with just a 10-20 feet radius around the vehicle. This should display as a graphic on the dashboard as some of the very old 2D car games. This radar must be based on sonar or infra red to avoid additional EMI-RFI pollution and confusion. The display should show all objects which include people, small animals, kerb and wall.

The sensor has to be a multiple sensor, static belt one near wheels and one at the roof of automobile. The display device on car should be TCP-IP so that you can monitor your vehicle with your cellphone, PDA or any browser.

Automobile Ideas from 2002

Cars can have multiple skins like Winamp

If you use organic flexible LEDs, encapsulated in transparent poly-sulphone or some silicones. And the RGB triad matrix of LEDs are driven by a computer system to make it work like a flexible LCD screen. It can be used to form a skin for a car. Only there will be no high resolution, but it will do.

This flexible layer is fixed on the car like a permanent cap. Now with the onboard graphics synthesis embedded car computer you can choose any jpg, png or gif textured tile or make your own. Then output the tile or wallpaper to the car exterior LED matrix skin. Now the Car has become skinnable. Not just colors but fine textures are possible.

 

Now with a Bluetooth enabled Human Mood Monitor plugin you can make the car exterior to reflect the mood of the life-forms inside. This will make a road alive and traffic jams very colorful.

Some things i had written online around 2002 on cars.

Microcontroller – 8051, 8052, OpCodes, Analog Interface.

(:->)—-\–/—-< Man Sleeping