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A range of materials used to construct electrical components can absorb moisture from the air over time. This initially became a problem with introducing reflow soldering, where the components are subjected to sudden high temperatures over a short period. This was then exacerbated with the switch to lead-free solder, which resulted in higher peak temperatures during the reflow process. Other factors that have increased the prevalence of moisture...

When we think of electronic components, it’s natural to think about their specifications, and possibly their footprints and STEP files. There is much more data attached to a component than its specs and CAD data, and it all needs to be tracked to ensure designs can be created, sourced, and manufactured without defects. Instead of using a 3rd party service or pulling data from component manufacturer websites, Altium Designer users have a more...

Electrical devices don't tend to be useful unless they can interact with the real world, taking measures, producing outputs, or responding to events, for example. One functional ability that devices may require is the capability to measure physical movement. This may be a wheeled vehicle traveling across a surface or a fixed machine's shaft rotation.  An encoder is a sensor that turns a position into an electrical signal. This position may be...

Some designers love reference designs and some designers hate them. No matter how you feel about reference designs, the best component companies will release reference designs for their new and legacy products to show designers an example application for a component. Some reference designs are very high quality and could be easily adapted into production-grade systems. Other reference designs are only good for the BOM and block diagram, leaving...

“Don't gap your ground plane, there's never really a good reason to do that.” - Dr. Todd Hubing Dr. Todd Hubing debunks the EMC myth. Dr. Hubing has authored or co-authored over 200 papers and presentations on electromagnetic modeling, electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), and the design of reliable electronic systems. In this episode he shares with us 30 years worth of knowledge, tested and proven facts about EMC. Listen to the Podcast: Down...

Designing is stressful enough, you shouldn’t have to worry about procuring parts as well. Unfortunately, this is the reality for most of us, especially in today’s climate. Supplies and prices seem to change overnight, and with counterfeit components being so prevalent it sometimes seems that the most difficult part of a project is being able to obtain trusted supply chain sources for your components. You need to ask yourself. Can you trust...

Designing is stressful enough, you shouldn’t have to worry about procuring parts as well. Unfortunately, this is the reality for most of us, especially in today’s climate. Supplies and prices seem to change overnight, and with counterfeit components being so prevalent it sometimes seems that the most difficult part of a project is being able to obtain trusted supply chain sources for your components. You need to ask yourself. Can you trust...

Designing is stressful enough, you shouldn’t have to worry about procuring parts as well. Unfortunately, this is the reality for most of us, especially in today’s climate. Supplies and prices seem to change overnight, and with counterfeit components being so prevalent it sometimes seems that the most difficult part of a project is being able to obtain trusted supply chain sources for your components. You need to ask yourself. Can you trust...

Tired of having to create components because you can’t find what I’m looking for, or worse, you find what you’re looking for but whoever created it didn’t do a good enough job. Whether you’re solo or a whole team, components need to have more than just a schematic symbol and footprint.  Incomplete components can lead to chaotic libraries that are difficult to filter through and find needed components. This usually leads to duplicated efforts as...