Commercially available IR distance rangers typically handle a 3- to 30-in. detection distance. Many times, it is necessary to determine smaller distances. The circuit in Figure 1 is useful for measuring small distances to reflective surfaces. Its ...
An important figure of merit for all precision constant current sources is their active impedance. Which is to say, just how “constant” is their output held against changes in applied voltage? Frequent and expert Design Idea (DI) ...
The circuit in this Design Idea detects short-circuit faults or excess-current conditions in line-operated equipment, such as a UPS (uninterruptible power supply), across an isolation boundary. If the load current rises higher than a predetermined ...
Unless you add a measurement instrument to your computer, you have only the sound card as an analog I/O port. You can use the sound card to digitize ac analog voltages but only within a limited range. You can, however, add some signal processing ...
Another day, another dodgy device. This time, it was the continuity beeper on my second-best DMM. Being bored with just open/short indications, I pondered making something a little more informative. Perhaps it could have an input stage to amplify ...
Ages ago, humankind crawled out of the primordial analog ooze and began to do digital. They soon noticed and quantified a fundamental need to interconnect their new quantized numerical novelties with the classic continuum of the ancestral ...
Electronic systems must often isolate their inputs or outputs from the main reference common (ground). Various conditions can make necessary such galvanic isolation: the type of input sensor or driven actuator, safety considerations for medical ...
An adjustable load in Figure 1 provides a constant-current load for testing power supplies and batteries. It allows you to set the load current to up to 1.05 A, using a potentiometer, and displays the current on a three-digit LED display controlled ...
This Design Idea (DI) offers an alternative solution for an application borrowed from frequent DI contributor R. Jayapal, presented in: “A 0-20 mA source current to 4-20 mA loop current converter” ( Ref. 1 ). It converts a 0/20 mA ...
A 4 to 20 mA loop current is a popular terminology with Instrumentation/Electronics engineers in process industries. Field transmitters like pressure, temperature, flow, etc., give out 4 to 20 mA current signals corresponding to the respective ...