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Integral Hall sensors

Hall sensors are common sensors of many measuring devices, including linear or angular motion, magnetic field, current, etc. The main convenience of hall sensors is that they don’t have to be mechanically connected to objects. They are also simple, cheap, which makes them attractive in the automotive, manufacturing, and aviation industries. Many manufacturers produce hall sensors: Honeywell, Melexis, Allegro Microsystems, Micronas Intermetall, Siemens, Analog Devices, etc. A typical circuit for connecting Hall sensors One of the simplest is linear Hall sensors that are used for measuring magnetic field strength. Integral hall sensors include a sensor signal amplifier, also temperature compensation, and supply stabilization circuits. Sensor output signal voltage and polarity depend on magnetic field strength and direction. If there is no magnetic field near the sensor, then output is equal to zero. To achieve this differential amplifier has to be used, characteristics will be corrected to be output voltage zero when there is no magnetic field. Other groups of hall sensors have comparator built-in. This allows having digital level signals on output. There can be two types of such hall devices: switches and triggers.

Protection circuits for operational amplifiers

In the specifications of operational amplifiers, there are maximum limits of allowed voltages on pins. Maximum currents are limited as well. So voltage and current they both limit allowed dissipated power Pmax=Umax*Imax. In well-designed circuits, Op Amps should have protection circuits from various overloads like a short circuit, high common phase voltage level in differential inputs, electrostatic charges, etc. Earlier operational amplifiers didn’t have built-in protection circuits, while modern ones have. Today popular operational amplifiers have internal protection circuits built-in, and this makes designers’ life much easier. But protection elements lowers some operational amplifiers like operation speed, dynamic range, and output signal swing level. Because of this, some operational amplifiers may not have internal protection circuits. In this case, you have to take care of it.

Switching step-up and step-down regulators

All regular voltage regulators (like 7805) have several disadvantages like output voltage is always lower than input, and some power is dissipated in the control element. Dissipated power is approximately equal to I(Vin-Vout). There is another way to generate a regulated voltage. The method is different from the previous one. A transistor operates as a saturated switch in a switching regulator, which periodically applies the full unregulated voltage across an inductor in short intervals. During each pulse, inductor current builds up, storing energy on its magnetic field: Inductor also smooths the output voltage. Feedback circuit with comparator compares the output voltage with reference and this way changes oscillators pulse width or frequency.

Dual polarity power supply source

Most op-amp circuits run from the symmetrical bipolar supply source, let’s say ±15V. The simplest way to generate symmetrical split supplies is to use a pair of 3 terminal voltage regulators. For instance, let’s take two voltage regulators: 7815 and 7915. If you need an adjustable variant of dual polarity regulated voltage source, you can use 317 and 337 adjustable regulators, where you can trim voltage with a voltage divider, which consists of two higher accuracy resistors:

Fractal antenna constructions

Among the usual antennas used in today’s data transfer, different types of antennas are used. First publications about electrodynamic characteristics of fractal structures were published in the 1980s, but the first practical approach appeared after 10 years. Dr. Nathan Cohen, professor of Boston University, designed, engineered, and patented many practical fractal antenna solutions and founded “Fractal Antenna Systems” in 1995. Van Koch fractal antenna As Nathan states, there were forbidden to use external antennas in the city in the center of Boston. Hence, he managed to hide the antenna within the design of an amateur radio station. He took aluminum foil and made an antenna as decoration according to Van Koch figure:

What are electrical switches principles and switching problems?

Switches are an important part of electronic systems. It is one of the most frequently used human interaction with electronic devices methods. But switches are the mechanical components that are a vital part of any equipment. Electrical switches Electrical switches are as old as electricity. The function is always the same – it makes or breaks current in a circuit. In early 19th switches were used for DC circuits, while later for AC and then they serves for switching wide spectra signals starting from audio and ending with digital. Well, switches have changed compared to those before 100 years, but the principle is the same old as the electric itself. When the switch connects the circuit path, it has a resistance of mOhm, and when the current path is broken, resistance is high MOhms and higher. This resistance and maximum voltage that can be applied to insulation is often a major important and vital feature that leads to switching stability.

Overview of noises in electronic systems

There are several sources of noise in electronic systems. Noises are unwanted signals polluting random or not signals that reduce overall signal quality. Thermal Johnson/Nyquist noise Two scientists, Johnson, discovered this noise who did the experiments and Nyquist, who developed the formula. Thermal noise is present at all frequencies (has a constant power density at all spectra) and is called white noise. This noise can only be reduced by reducing the temperature, resistance, and bandwidth. Let’s see the Noise voltage RMSformula:

Multiple controllers in one design

Actually, many embedded systems use multiple microcontrollers and microprocessors. This is not about multi-core processors but several distinct processors used in one design. Multiprocessor systems allow the distribution of computing power among different processors, and this way, overall speed may be increased, coding simplified, and modularity reached. Using multiprocessor embedded design has many benefits. One of them is modularity. Imagine a situation when a particular microcontroller-based subsystem needs to be installed only if a particular opinion is installed. Another, as we mentioned, is coding simplicity. Instead of writing and debugging one complex firmware, it may be broken into several distinct, easily manageable functions on different MCU’s.

Debugging embedded hardware and software traces

When designing an embedded project, we typically focus on the actual application but do not pay enough attention to the hardware and software debugging process. Adding the debugging capability to the project requires some strategy. Simple situation: hardware may not be installed but connected to another circuit when needed. So software must support the functionality regardless of whether or not hardware is installed. Another example may be Embedded inboard with multiple temperature sensors. Hardware should detect when the sensor is connected or disconnected without interrupt other sensors’ readings. One way of debugging is software trace(log) to provide historical information on what was happening if something went wrong. This technique is a good solution for developers who have no ability to use other debugging tools because of the following reasons:

Long range directional microphones-myth and reality

There are a lot of myths about directed long-range microphones. You can hear that they can reach distances of 100, 200, and more meters, others say that this is a myth and these numbers are for commercial purposes. Let us try mathematically to find proof and see the real situation. Introduction to long-range microphones When talking about directed microphones, we usually remember that sound sources are in the open air and have no reverberation effects. So the only factor is the distance of the sound source object from the microphone. Along with the distance, sound power drops significantly, and in longer ranges, it interferes with other sounds like wind and other noises in the atmosphere. When the distance is about 100m, sound pressure drops more than 40dB(compared to a distance equal to 1m). If the sound level is 60dB, then from 100m, you will hear 20dB. The sound level of 20dB is less than other environmental noise, and many standard microphones are not sensitive enough for such sound levels. So we can say that directed microphones must have: Complying with these requirements with one microphone is quite a difficult task. Other solutions were creating low directive microphones with high sensitivity…