IO-Link Device Transceiver

The IO-Link is a compliant of International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC 61131-9) standard. It is the standard for single-drop digital communication interface for small sensors and actuators. Furthermore, IO-link is a 24-V communications interface that allows smart sensors and actuators to exchange advanced configuration, status and diagnostics information using a powerful, yet simple protocol. It specifies point-to-point communication over a maximum distance of 20m using standard M5/M8/M12 connectors and 3/4/5 wire cables. The IO-Link masters provide communication over standard fieldbuses, such as Ethernet, RS485, etc., with any IO-Link device (smart sensor or actuator). Each master port provides both power and data over a single cable to each device. Read more

Battery Fuel Gauge

This reference design is a typical application for the bq28z610 Battery Fuel Gauge device. It is a 1 to 2 series Li-Ion/Li Polymer battery pack and protection solution, enabling independent charger control and cell balancing. The device provides a fully integrated pack-based solution with a flash programmable custom Reduced Instruction-Set CPU (RISC), safety protection, and authentication for 1- to 2-series cell Li-Ion and Li-Polymer battery packs. It also measures cell voltage and current simultaneously, and also measures temperature to calculate the information related to remaining capacity, full charge capacity, state-of-health, and other gauging parameters. Read more

Heat-Shrink Fabric for Industrial Wires

The manufacturing industries are used to have different types of motor in the operation. The motor plays an important role in the process because it provides convenience to operators. Majority of these motors used in the process are electrically powered, which some of these requires 3-phase supply or 2 single phase supply. These motor supplies are used to be in a control box that handle centralised splicings and connection of the electric motors. The connections of these motors are prone to mechanical strain due to the environmental condition inside the industry. This design features shrinkable fabric for wire protection. Read more

30W Stereo Audio Amplifier with Clipping Protection

This reference design features a 30W stereo audio amplifier that employs a motorized slide potentiometer to provide clipping protection. The PSM60-081A-103B2 is a half-watt, 10kΩ, 60mm, motorized slide potentiometer. It provides two built-in 10kΩ variable resistors labeled as line track and servo track. The line track variable resistor can be used for other purpose, while the servo track variable resistor can be used for tracking the position of the potentiometer lever. The built-in DC motor controls or adjusts the position of the potentiometer lever as well as the resistance of the line track and the servo track variable resistors. Read more

Dual Mode Battery Charger Circuit Using Adjustable Positive-Voltage Regulator

This dual mode battery charger is a simple electronic device that features the two essential modes of a battery charger. It has both the constant voltage and constant current characteristics which both prevents overcharging in batteries. The device specifically uses the Texas Instruments’ LM317L, an adjustable, 3 terminal, positive voltage regulator capable of supplying 100mA over an output voltage range of 1.25V to 32V. It is easy to use and requires only two external resistors to set the output voltage. Read more

FLORA as Wearable Pedometer

One of the devices used to monitor the progress of an exercise is the pedometer. This device is used to measure steps taken by an individual and determine the speed, distance and even calories burned to motivate them in getting fit. Present designs available in the market today uses accelerometer compared to the mechanical devices used in the early designs. This design uses the Flora v2 platform from Adafruit as the host controller for the system. It is built around the Atmega32u4 chip, which has built-in USB support. Read more

Ultra-low Power Multi-sensor Data Logger with NFC Interface

The cold chain monitoring is the process of ensuring a certain product temperature to remain constant upon shipping and distribution. The ultra-low power multi-sensor data logger with NFC interface reference design integrates multiple sensors for cold chain monitoring. The board features wireless communication through RF430CL330H dynamic near field communication (NFC) interface transponder. The TMP112 device is a digital temperature sensor ideal for NTC/PTC replacement and has an accuracy of ±0.5°C. The OPT3001 is an ambient light sensor that measures the intensity of visible light. For humidity measurement, the HDC1000 is a digital humidity sensor with integrated temperature sensor. The board also comes with MSP430 mixed-signal microcontroller. Read more

BTN8982TA DC Motor Controller for Arduino Uno

The BTN8982TA is a half bridge DC motor controller. It is composed of a driver, a p-channel high-side MOSFET, and an n-channel low-side MOSFET. The built-in driver makes the device easy to be interfaced with a microcontroller. It features logic level inputs, slew rate adjustment, diagnosis with current sense, dead time generation, over-temperature protection, under-voltage protection, overcurrent protection and short circuit protection. The BTN8982TA can be combined with other BTN8982TA to form H-bridge and 3-phase drive configurations. Read more

LMH1218 Low Power Ultra HD Cable Driver with Integrated Reclocker

This reference design is an evaluation module that provides a complete high bandwidth platform to evaluate the SDI/UHD and 10GbE signal conditioning. It is an LMH1218EVM evaluation board that especially employs Texas Instruments’ LMH1218 UHD Cable Driver with Integrated Reclocker. It is a low power cable driver with integrated reclocker to drive serial video data to SMPTE-SDI, SMPTE 2022-5/6, 10GbE Ethernet, and DVB-ASI standards. It also supports up to 11.88Gbps to enable Ultra High Definition Video for 4K/8K applications. With 75-Ω and 50-Ω transmitter outputs, the LMH1218 enables multiple media options such as coax, fiber, and FR-4 PCB. Read more

Magnetic Position Sensor

The use of sensors in automotive and industrial applications have dramatically increased, similarly there’s been an increase in number of electrical fields or stray field present in this kind of applications. The magnetic sensors and other sensors are exposed to this stray field that can affect its reliability and system safety. The AS5048 has a stray field immunity that can withstand external stray field. The AS5048 is a 14-bit high-resolution output with 360° angular position sensor that has a maximum system accuracy of 0.05° assuming that the linearization and averaging is done by the external microcontroller. It requires no additional programmer, since a simple programming of the zero position is possible over the interface. Read more