The process of creating electronic products, including components and end-user devices.

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37 views

Technology mapping

The function given is: g=ACFG + ADEG + DHJ + BCFI and i am asked to perform the reconverge theorem on this function which means taking all possible pairs of LUT that share the same input merge them ...
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1answer
77 views

Cow tipping robot plans [closed]

Does anyone have plans for a cow tipping robot? Its hard to do by hand so we are thinking a robot would be good. I remember seeing a robot wars or some other show where one bot tried to tip another, ...
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1answer
66 views

Is it possible to build a CPU from content-addressable memory?

Every modern programming language use objects and not C/C++ style struct/class. In C/C++ every data member has a size, so addressing a struct member is basically a memory address + offset. But script ...
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0answers
24 views

Asic Ideas (FFT, AES, Motion Estimation) [duplicate]

Could you give me a list of applications with kernels that can be accelerated in hardware? Some examples would include FFT, AES, Motion Estimation, Viterbi Decoder. I'm just looking for others. I'm ...
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0answers
62 views

How to create a noise budget and what to do with it afterwards?

While reading some questions/answers on this site, I came across this answer from Scott Siedman and I found it interesting. So, work out your noise budget, figure out how many bits you need, and ...
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2answers
121 views

Circuit version of a simple if else program

I have written a simple program that controls two motors (outputs) each with two states ( positive, negative) with an Arduino. The motors states based on the status of four buttons (inputs) (Up, Down, ...
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4answers
640 views

Do engineers still design for volume using discrete through-hole bipolar transistors?

As a hobbyist who likes plugging BJTs and discrete components into solderless breadboard for entertainment and education, I recognise that people like me are an insufficient market to make it ...
2
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1answer
55 views

Detached antenna and connecting wire length

Since my this particular question didn't get any answer, I thought of asking a more focused question, along a path which seems a bit more feasible after few tests. Is it possible to install the ...
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1answer
64 views

Interactive Art with Wooden Mirrors - How are the pixels controlled?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZysu9QcceM This video shows a mirror made up of moving wooden pieces. Please have a look. He achieves different intensity levels by motion of the wooden pieces and ...
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1answer
106 views

how to select capacitor values

I am trying to find information on formulas used to calculate capacitance required for a given circuit. Not a circuit in particular, just in general how to figure out what value should be used. I know ...
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1answer
54 views

Questions about RD snubber circuits

I am not too familiar with designing snubber circuits. Can somebody sanity check the following sizing calculation for a snubber circuit? Also: Is the undampened rise rime of the voltage due to the ...
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1answer
22 views

What to change when migrating designs from Altera DE2 to DE2-115?

I'm migrating a working design from Altera DE2 to Altera DE2-115 and I'm running into problems. First everything works with DE2 just like mentioned in the exercises doing what is instructed. Now I ...
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0answers
41 views

DC circuit breakers in automation plant

I am currently working on designing the power grid of a automation plant. Since i already have a background in automation, the rule of thumb i usually follow is to have circuit breakers in front of ...
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0answers
62 views

Wireless water level sensor, in sump. Installation best-practices for longivity

My wireless water-level sensor is working fine, and when deployed in the sump-well, it is giving me periodic readings quite well. At this stage, I have the circuit still on a breadboard, and now plan ...
2
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1answer
51 views

connecting IC with external components

i want to understand the thought process and ideas behind these: see the schematic http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/2124 1 - what is the n-FET and diode (Q1 and Q2) component means? 2 - why ...
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3answers
77 views

Video Controller Design

I'm designing my own computer based on the Zilog Z80. It has 256KiB of static RAM with paging as well as a few megabytes of flash memory. Everything is going along pretty well until * BAM * I hit a ...
4
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1answer
18 views

What are these spots on the PCB that are by the mounting holes?

When you look at the board, there is a weird part of the PCB right of the top left mounting hole. There is also another one above the top right mounting hole. ...
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1answer
77 views

Interactive Single Color LED Matrix

I'm trying to build an LED matrix (32x16) that lights up in certain areas in response to movement, as detected by another matrix (8x16) of infrared phototransistors. Here's where I'm at: Main ...
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1answer
38 views

Regulated power supply from thermostat to zigbee module

I have a thermostat that outputs a DC power supply for a communication daughter board. When I read it with the voltmeter, it reads ~3.9v, but the zigbee module that I want to use requires 3.3v ...
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3answers
172 views

BJT Bias Design and Operating

I'm to the task to design a BJT Common-Emitter Amplifier with resistance at the emitter as in the figure, and for that I need to: get the values for \$R_{1}\$, \$R_{2}\$, \$R_{C}\$ and \$R_{E}\$ ...
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2answers
199 views

Number of bits for tag, index, and block in a direct-mapped cache

Suppose you have a 64-byte cache on a system with 16-bit memory addresses. If the cache is direct-mapped and it has 10 bytes of tag overhead in total, how many bits are used for the tag, index, and ...
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1answer
122 views

Wrist-based Pulse Oximeter

I'm quite new to EE. I'm trying to design a wrist-based Pulse Oximeter. I have looked through a lot of literature and short listed these: PhD thesis using 6 LEDs A Single-Chip Pulsoximeter Design ...
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2answers
120 views

Power Electronics for 3.3v or lower MSP430 + 10v sensor

After asking around I realized that switching regulators should be used to regulate the power going to the MSP430. I'm wondering (I'm not very informed in the topic of power electronics) how can I ...
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4answers
348 views

From C to Silicon: How to implement software/firmware solution as hardware?

In light of this question, I was wondering if there was a fairly standard process for turning a software solution into a hardware implemention. Forgive me and my imagination, but would there be a ...
22
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6answers
1k views

Why is open hardware so rare? [closed]

I'm trying to understand why open hardware is so much harder to come by than software. I've tried looking around online and I couldn't find as satisfactory explanation. I understand that hardware is ...
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2answers
111 views

180 Phase shift for oscillator

I am currently learning how to design/build a crystal radio receiver, transmitter and have a question for the 180 degrees phase shift for the carrier amplifier/oscillator system. I commonly see this ...
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2answers
172 views

What can I do as a student to be a better candidate for a hardware design job? [closed]

If you were looking to hire a student still in school for an internship position at a high-tech company (say, Microsoft, Apple, or Google) for hardware design. What kind of skills would you be looking ...
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1answer
79 views

How do I determine the proper FM transmitter strength?

I want to build an FM transmitter that will transmit (on an unused frequency) from my laptop (near my video projector) to my receiver (about 20' away on the other side of the room). Then, I thought ...
2
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1answer
239 views

XOR gate; transistor level design [duplicate]

What would a transistor level design of an XOR gate look like?
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votes
2answers
130 views

How to get UL approval for lamps and pendants

I'm a glass artist and designer and would like to make lamps and pendants. I'm told that I need UL approval for the electrical part. That is all the wiring etc. I know I can have an electrician who ...
2
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3answers
209 views

Why does active low even exist?

In my career I've often encountered signals that are active low (Reset being the most common). I've even seen interfaces where all control signals are actively low. To me, this is very unintuitive ...
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2answers
75 views

Considerations For Motor Cables: what are the downsides to ribbon cable?

My friend (a Mechanical Engineering student) is building machine that uses an array of motors in an application where they are under almost no load. He showed me the thin, old, ribbon cable he intends ...
3
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1answer
93 views

What are FIT's and how they used in reliability calculations?

In Military, Medical, Space, Professional eqt. design there is a need to be able to prove that your device can last a certain length of time with a certain confidence level. Or that reliability must ...
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2answers
101 views

180 degree motion servo that can take a hit

I was looking into servos and I need some help choosing the proper one. I need a servo that has complete 180 degree motion but it's going to get hit by dogs a lot so it needs to hold it's position ...
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1answer
53 views

General electronics [closed]

I have got a Power Supply Unit of PC, which blew off, then I extracted the PSU from the PC Cabinet and opened the PSU, I saw number of Capacitors,transistors,transformers, diodes, resisters and many ...
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3answers
180 views

How do I calculate the required value for a pull-down resistor in a PWM circuit?

I'm using 74HC595 with SoftPWM to control some LED's. When the 74HC595 is off, its outputting about 0.57v, enough to turn my LED's on somewhat. How do I work out the value of the pull-down resistor ...
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2answers
402 views

How to design Yagi-Uda Antenna? [closed]

I would like to know the theory concept behind how to design the Yagi-Uda Antenna. And how it works? Can anybody give the ideas and suggestions?
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1answer
96 views

Leaving target processor paused nios ii multiprocessor application

I m using the multiprocessor tutorial, to have a MPSOC application, but when i finish all steps and running the nios application I have this message in the terminal, ...
3
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1answer
123 views

Can I use ICSP if components share MOSI/SCK pins?

I'm designing a circuit with an ATmega32U4 where I will need to burn a boot loader once installed on the PCB. I currently have 4x 74HC595 Shift registers, sharing the MOSI & SCK pins. Will I ...
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5answers
572 views

Usefulness of constant current limiting in bench power supply

I'm building a bench power supply as my introductory project to electronics. When it comes to adjustable voltage it's easy to see the usefulness of such feature but I can't figure out what is the ...
2
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1answer
206 views

Designing a PI controller for my power system

I have a power system which is given as: Using MATLAB, I found the system's response to be: As you can see, the system is not stable. So, I need to design a PI controller, so that, the transient ...
7
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1answer
85 views

What is lead-in termination?

This term is mentioned in the Micron Application Note: Hardware Tips for Point-to-Point System Design on page 10 (...For signals with lead-in termination...), however I've been struggling to find out ...
2
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1answer
134 views

Put component designators on the PCB's silkscreen in KiCad

I'm doing my firs PCB design, and I've choose to use KiCad. The problem that I'm encountering is that when I look at my board in 3D view, the components' designators does not appear to be on the ...
2
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1answer
89 views

Parallel multiplication hardware

This picture is taken from Computer Organization and Design, Fourth Edition, David A. Patterson, John L. Hennessy. Sorry for the low resolution. I cannot get my head around it. I can see why the ...
3
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1answer
134 views

Bandpass Filter Design 6Mhz/6.5Mhz Center Approx +/- 250khz passband for ATV system

I'm looking to build two bandpass filters centered at 6Mhz and 6.5Mhz, with an approximate passband of 250kHz. I want to replace these two filters: http://www.yoketant.com.tw/yoketant/ceramic-7.htm ...
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1answer
211 views

Design rules for power AB amplifier stage [closed]

could you please point me to a good guide for a simple class AB power amplifier design based on BJTs (referring to the "classic" schema with complementary push pull, diodes to remove cross over, ...
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2answers
126 views

daisy chain ethernet: performing arbitration on an FPGA

EDIT: After discussions in the comments, I've realised that the only way to do this for full-duplex is to use a switching IC. Also, I mean simplex, not half-duplex for option 1. That is, the FPGA is ...
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1answer
174 views

10V DC Power Supply help

I've been researching power supply design techniques and information for the last few days and feel like I have a good understanding of how this is to work, but I can't seem to get my simulation to ...
0
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1answer
136 views

Lux meter - Voltage range problem measurment

I'm about to build a Luxmeter. I want it to give me a respons of 1mV/lux and be able to detect 10.000lux. Here is part of the solution I'm about to use (4. Luxmeter): ...

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