Although sunshine is considered to be a relatively rare commodity in London, and is almost always welcomed, it has also been the source of a long-standing frustration. Being a light sleeper, I have often struggled with the amount of light… Continue
The first part of this series covered the definition of strain, and provided a very basic description of the deformation that a member goes through under uniaxial tension/compression. This post will focus on how strain measurements can be taken exactly… Continue
Having covered strain gauges and how they work (see Part 2), it is worth exploring how they are used and how we can get a useful signal from them to represent the strain that a member is undergoing. As discussed… Continue
A common requirement for many applications is the ability to convert the input power. Usually, a device will have a single power input which could be from a battery, directly from mains, or perhaps it will accept a specific voltage… Continue
Having briefly covered the general theory behind Analogue to Digital Conversion (see Signals, Sampling, Aliasing, Resolution, Accuracy), we will now look at an actual implementation. In this particular case we will be using an embedded Microprocessor Unit (MCU), specifically the… Continue
As an Analogue to Digital conversion isn’t exact, it is important to be aware of the types of errors that might occur, any inherent limitations, and see how this all affects the overall accuracy. In previous sections, aliasing was covered… Continue
The use of RGB Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) is very widespread. From the pixels that we see on advertising boards to indoor lighting that changes hue, they are being used more and more due to their power efficiency, long lifetime,… Continue
Electronics have always been very interesting for me, but I’ve never had a lot of opportunities and tools to try it. Now, as our office has become more of an electronics lab, I can start to get closer to the electronic part… Continue
The joule thief is a fascinating circuit with the ability to “steal” every little bit of charge left in a battery and power a device which would otherwise consider the battery to be dead. Many applications cut off when the… Continue
Having covered both analogue and digital signals in the previous section, the necessity of converting from one type to the other becomes evident. Digital signals are much easier to work with and process (especially from an electronic design standpoint) and… Continue