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Forget Parking Frustrations with Capacitive Touch Sensing Keypad Design

Forget Parking Frustrations with Capacitive Touch Sensing Keypad Design Sometimes it feels like the parking ticket machines are neglected intentionally to incur more parking tickets from people incapable or unwilling to wait for the machine to function enough to give them their ticket stub. I’ve had my fair share of frustration when coming across one with malfunctioning buttons on its keypad, forcing me to hunt the surrounding area for a machine which actually is working. Finding parking is hard enough in many cities Read Article

Keep Your PCB Assembly and Production Processes Like Your Best Pants: Seamless

Keep Your PCB Assembly and Production Processes Like Your Best Pants: Seamless I lost a button on an old pair of jeans the other day and I was totally unable to repair it. The seams were all sorts of wonky, and while normally you can find extra buttons along the waist there were none to be found. My mom taught me to always check the seams, but sometimes it’s easy to get lazy and forget to do some of the most basic procedures when you want to get an otherwise grueling experience done with. Some brands are more trustworthy Read Article

buck converter regulator STM32

Buck Converter Regulator vs LDO for DC, AC, and RF: Which is Best? For small, low-current loads, LDO is usually the best option. What about a buck converter? Learn more about choosing between a buck converter vs. LDO in this guide. Read Article

ESD Protection Circuit Design

Beginner’s Guide to ESD Protection Circuit Design for PCBs Circuit protection from transient voltages and currents can be applied with ESD protection circuit designs. Learn more about these circuits in our guide for new engineers. Read Article

Don’t Settle for Better Late Than Never: Packing and Shipping Your PCBs

Packing and Shipping Your PCBs: Best PCB Packaging Standards I mailed my last Christmas present yesterday, a few weeks after the holidays are over. I’m only a little embarrassed; I like to do a very precise job with wrapping even if I’m not terribly concerned with punctuality. The package was for a friend overseas who had a craving for her favorite American candies. Let me tell you: a beautiful wrapping job on a bag of fun-size Butterfingers is no small feat. Circuit board packing and shipping are more Read Article

Efficient Heat Dissipation with SMD Heat Sinks Keeps You From Dropping PCBs

Efficient Heat Dissipation with SMD Heat Sinks Keeps You From Dropping PCBs In electronics, there is the possibility that your PCB can get pretty hot due to power dissipation in certain components. Whenever a component reaches an extreme temperature that goes beyond a component's safe operating range, its lifetime will be greatly reduced or the component may fail immediately. The heat-producing component being defective means the entire PCBA will need to be scrapped. There are many things to consider when dealing with Read Article

Should You Omit a Current Limiting Resistor for LED If You're Using a Matching Voltage Power Supply?

Current Limiting Resistor LED Systems with Matching Voltage Power Supply Most of my friends in engineering live a balanced lifestyle. However, there are some engineers that are workaholics. These engineers do not limit their working hours and are constantly dealing with stress. Their lifestyle is not so different from an LED’s that is directly connected to a power supply without a current limiting resistor or with the wrong resistor value. They start out strong, but eventually flicker and burn out. In the architecture Read Article

DNP in BOM and PCB assembly

Best Practices for DNI/DNP Components in Your PCB BOM You can use the DNI/DNP designation on components in your PCB BOM to create design variants as long as you’ve created your layout correctly. Read Article

LDO efficiency

Testing the Limits of Your LDO's Efficiency The efficiency of your LDO isn’t a fixed value, but neither is your maximum current output. Read about your LDO efficiency curve to better see why LDOs have narrow operating ranges. Read Article

PCB connector pinout

How to Design a Connector Pinout For Your PCB PCB connector pinouts can be customized to fit your power, signal, and ground requirements. Learn how in this article. Read Article

PCB copper thickness

What PCB Copper Thickness Should You Use? Do you know what PCB copper thickness you should use in your circuit board? Learn more about 0.5 oz/sq ft or 1.0 oz/sq ft copper thickness standards and what it means for your fabrication process in this guide. Read Article

PCB schematic netlist

The Anatomy of Your Schematic Netlist, Ports, and Net Names Your schematic netlist will create the link between components as you build your schematic sheets. See how your schematic sheets enable usage of net names and ports to help you stay organized. Read Article

PCB manufacturing

How to Compare PCB Manufacturing Services for Your Board Do you know what to look for in PCB manufacturing services? Here are some of the important points to consider before placing your next order. Read Article

4-layer stackup 50 Ohms

Designing a 4 Layer Stackup With 50 Ohm Impedance PCB Traces Your 4-layer PCB stackup with 50 Ohm impedance will constrain your trace width to sit within a specific range of values. Read Article

Coming Soon: Altium CircuitMaker Pro®

Coming Soon: Altium CircuitMaker Pro® In 2015, Altium released Altium CircuitStudio® to best meet the needs of casual users, hobbyists, students, and PCB design aficionados on a budget. Learn about the new version coming to the public! Read Article

PCB Layout Tips to Design a Clap Switch Circuit

PCB Layout Tips to Design a Clap Switch Circuit I’m a self-professed workaholic. On a typical workday, lunch breaks become nonexistent as I obsess on my latest project or focus on clearing my list of tasks. During my off-days, however, I move to the opposite end of the spectrum. I became the epitome of laziness as I spend the whole day unwinding. I become immobilized as I sink deeper into the couch while watching my favorite TV shows. In these moments, I wish I could prepare dinner with a Read Article

Controlling High Current LEDs with a TIP3055 Power Transistor

Controlling High Current LEDs with a TIP3055 Power Transistor and Voltage Regulator One of the occupational hazards of being a hardware is a growing belly size that is proportional to age. That’s why I try to keep myself fit with a regular workout at the gym. Power bars are indispensable in helping me get through my workout routine by keeping my energy levels high during the entire session. In electronics, the power transistor is equivalent to the power bar. It handles high current components, such as hundreds of LEDs drawing Read Article