Articles and news - 7

Let’s see how you can effectively double the output sink current of the plain old 555 timer...

In recent EDN design ideas, we’ve seen thermostat designs that meld the functions of sensor and heater into a single device: FET, BJT, or even a simple length of fine gauge copper wire...

A short while back, I published a design idea that uses a single linear pot to control the gain of a high performance OP37 decompensated op-amp over an unusually wide (–30 dB to +60 dB) range...

Diodes Incorporated introduces a new 12-channel, constant-current LED driver, the AL58221. It features 12 open-drain outputs that are rated to 24 V and sink up to 60 mA of high-accuracy current with a fast transient response...

With the addition of a few inexpensive miniature components, the hard-wired, voltage-controlled current source of yesterday becomes a software-programmable voltage-controlled current source...

An instrumentation amplifier offers precise gain without feedback resistors, and, at any value of gain, it provides high input impedances at its noninverting and inverting inputs. In a typical IC instrumentation amplifier, a single resistor...

One option for driving high-brightness LEDs uses the standard stepdown buck converter. The sense resistor, RS, generates a feedback voltage, VFB, that sets the desired LED current...

You can use the simple sensor circuit to remotely monitor the level of liquid water in a vessel such as a swimming pool. The LMC555 sensor oscillator provides an output-signal frequency that is a function of the water level...

Pulse width modulation is a terrific basis for digital to analog conversion. Credit goes to features like simplicity and perfect differential and integral linearity. Unfortunately, PWM’s need for ripple filtering tends to make it slow...

The 0- to 20-mA current loop is a reliable means of data communication in industrial applications. These circuits use a precision shunt in the receiver to convert the current signal into a voltage signal...