On paper, electricity behaves in easy-to-understand, predictable ways. That’s mostly because the wires on the page have zero resistance and the switching times are actually zero, whereas in real life neither of these things are true. That’s what makes things like switch-mode power supplies (SMPS) difficult to build and troubleshoot. Switching inductors and capacitors tens […]
At this point, many of us have gone all-in on USB-C. It’s gotten to the point that when you occasionally run across a gadget that doesn’t support being powered USB-C, the whole experience seems somewhat ridiculous. If 90% of your devices using the same power supply, that last 10% starts feeling very antiquated. So why […]
Most of us using desktop computers, and plenty of us on laptops, have some sort of fan or pump installed in our computer to remove heat and keep our machines running at the most optimum temperature. That’s generally a good thing for performance, but comes with a noise pollution cost. It’s possible to build fanless […]
We’ve often heard you should do everything twice. The first time is to learn what you need to do, and the second time is to do it right. We bet [Ian Carey] would agree after taking his old linear power supply PCB and changing it to a switching regulator design. You can see more about […]
Need to do some real fine power consumption measurements? [Gero Müller] was in that exact situation, and wasn’t happy with the expensive off-the-shelf tools for doing the job. Thus, he built his own. Meet nanoTracer. nanoTracer measures small current draws in very high resolution. The concept of the device is simple. It’s a power supply […]
One major flaw of designing societies around cars is the sheer amount of signage that drivers are expected to recognize, read, and react to. It’s a highly complex system that requires constant vigilance to a relatively boring task with high stakes, which is not something humans are particularly well adapted for. Modern GPS equipment can […]
When Apple started rolling out its Retina displays, it multiplied the amount of pixels compared to their standard, non-Retina displays by four. This increased pixel density while keeping the standard screen size — idea for those needing a lot of detail for their work. But, as is common with Apple, using these displays outside of […]
The fake AliExpress-sourced IRFP460 MOSFETs (Credit: Learn Electronics Repair, YouTube) These days, it’s super-easy to jump onto the World Wide Web to find purported replacement parts using nothing but the part identifier, whether it’s from a reputable source like Digikey or Mouser or from more general digital fleamarkets like eBay and AliExpress. It’s hardly a […]
When thinking of the first PCs, most of us might imagine something like the Apple I or the TRS-80. But even before that, there were a set of computers that often had no keyboard, or recognizable display beyond a few blinking lights. [Artem Kalinchuk] is attempting to recreate one of these very early digital computers, […]
The promise of USB Power Delivery (USB-PD) is that we’ll eventually be able to power all our gadgets, at least the ones that draw less than 100 watts anyway, with just one adapter. Considering most of us are the proud owners of a box filled with assorted AC/DC adapters in all shapes and sizes, it’s […]