Nodes » DesignSpark

Blog

Related Blog posts

Hands on with a 144 core processor

16/07/2012
The GA144 from GreenArrays is a highly novel 144 core processor that combines high performance with low power consumption. This post covers initial experiences with breadboarding the GA144 and using t
Panasonic Power Device Simulator Introduction

23/05/2013
Power Device Simulator is the Web Simulator provided by Panasonic.
NetWorker - an advanced web server with a microcrontroller

13/04/2011
- Analogue
- Capacitors
- Circuit Design
- Communication
- Display & Lighting
- DSP
- dsPIC
- EEPROM
- Ethernet
- FLASH
- Functional Test
- GAL
- Human Machine Interface
- Interconnect
- Manufacture
- Mbed
- Memory
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- PIC24
- PIC32
- Power
- Programming
- Research Phase
- Resistors
- RS232
- RX
- SERIAL
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Solder
- Test
- Trial & Evaluation
An Internet connection would be a valuable addition to many projects, but often designers are put off by the complexities involved. The ‘NetWorker’, which consists of a small printed circuit board
Interim Project Report by Team 6: Boost Converter for Solar Vehicle

29/03/2013
- Circuit Design
- Mbed
- PCB
- Power
- Test
Interim Project Report submitted by team 6: Boost Converter for Solar Vehicle
Learning how to be Smarter with Energy

08/12/2010
RS hosts Microchip seminars.
HD Audio from ground up (Part 1)

18/05/2011
- Analogue
- ARM
- Capacitors
- Circuit Design
- Communication
- Cortex-M
- DSP
- FLASH
- Functional Test
- Human Machine Interface
- Interconnect
- LCD
- Mbed
- Memory
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- Power
- Programming
- Research Phase
- Resistors
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Test
- Trial & Evaluation
There are different ways for a system to interact with the real world. Starting with the use of a simple LED that describes the state of a process and going all the way down to complicated graphic LCD
What is VHDL.?

06/12/2010
BLOG UPDATED-!VHDL or “very-high-speed integrated circuits hardware description language” must have one of the longest names going in the world or electronics, however as suggested it’s a langua
Embedded development with EDP

01/02/2011
The RS Embedded Development Platform offers an alternative path to the engineering prototype stage of a project allowing quick and easy changes of processor at the time of initial design or for upgrad
bladeRF: a low cost wideband SDR transceiver

13/02/2013
With a 300MHz to 3.8GHZ range, 40MHz bandwidth, USB 3.0 interface and priced at only $400, it's hardly surprising bladeRF reached its $100,000 Kickstarter goal in under 8 days.
Final blog post updated by Team 6: Boost Converter for Solar Vehicle

17/05/2013
Hardware test for DC DC interleaved boost converter Hardware test for Monolithic interleaved boost converter with MPPT: -Hardware model: ST microelectronics, ISV008V1, (complementary 3 X SPV 1020) -Use DC power supply and photovoltaic cell 2V to 28V input voltage -Value and waveform of V, I, P, I ripple will be recorded by CRO.
Old and New at Sci-Fi London 2012

10/05/2012
- Analogue
- Arduino
- ARM
- ARM11
- Development Kits - Electronics
- Display & Lighting
- FLASH
- H8
- Human Machine Interface
- Interconnect
- Manufacture
- Memory
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- Power
- Programming
- Raspberry Pi
- Research Phase
- Robots
- Sensors
- SERIAL
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Test
A major highlight of a week of activity at the Sci-Fi London festival was the Horizon Spectrum event at the BFI Southbank celebrating 30 years of the Sinclair Spectrum 'home' computer. I attended the
Battle of the Engineers - Hardware vs. Software

24/02/2012
For the hardware engineer, software is regarded as a necessary evil; totally unintelligible and the root cause of most system crashes. The software engineer on the other hand, views the hardware as a
STM8S-Discovery Kit Review

23/01/2011
“The STM8S-DISCOVERY helps you to discover the STM8S features and to develop and share your own application. Even though the STM8S-DISCOVERY is built around an STM8S105C6T6, it allows evaluation of
Progress on the Renesas/Eco Solar Breizh solar race car

29/05/2013
The next World Solar Challenge car race takes place in October 2013. The race involves purpose-built vehicles being driven from the north to the south coast of Australia powered by energy which must come from the sun or be recovered from the kinetic energy of the vehicle itself. Here is the third post in a series charting the development of one entrant sponsored by Renesas Electronics.
Gas Guzzlers and Green Chips

03/07/2012
- Analogue
- ARM
- Batteries
- Communication
- Cortex-M
- Development Kits - Electronics
- Display & Lighting
- Enclosures
- Mbed
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- Power
- RENESAS
- Research Phase
- RL78
- Robots
- Sensors
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Test
- Wireless
The socially responsible among us wishing to save the planet from a carbon dioxide doom should quickly move on to the next blog post now, as I have a confession to make: I own and occasionally get to
Final blog post updated by Team 6: Boost Converter for Solar Vehicle

17/05/2013
Hardware test for DC DC interleaved boost converter Hardware test for Monolithic interleaved boost converter with MPPT: -Hardware model: ST microelectronics, ISV008V1, (complementary 3 X SPV 1020) -Use DC power supply and photovoltaic cell 2V to 28V input voltage -Value and waveform of V, I, P, I ripple will be recorded by CRO.
How do we know? We sample! (Ecocar part 2)

05/03/2011
- Analogue
- PIC
- Power
- Research Phase
- Sensors
- Test
- Trial & Evaluation
In order to optimize the working of the ecocar (Prototype class) a huge amount of data is acquired. Learn how it is done. Lessons learned during the past week:1. Time does not stand still, just b
Pi Perspectives: Jeremy Ruston (Federatial)

28/03/2012
Image © Nick J. Webb (CC BY 2.0)Jeremy Ruston is the inventor of TiddlyWiki and founder of software consultancy, Federatial Ltd, and gained his introduction to computing during those heady
Why reinvent the wheel?

16/02/2012
From the release of the first PC by IBM back in 1981, engineers have found more and more creative ways of using this system architecture. True, many things have changed over the years, but execu
The Changing Role of the Development kit

04/05/2012
Roughly ten years ago, the embedded world was a simpler place (or at least it seemed to be), and the development kit off ered an excellent starting point for an embedded design project. Like the prove
Will FRAM’s ultra low power, faster speed and better data Integrity see the demise of flash?

27/07/2011
What’s the difference between, FRAM, F-RAM and FeRAM?, Well it’s the same thing!, it's Ferroelectic RAM. Texas Instruments (TI) are among the first to offer a family of Microcontrollers with
My First mbed

13/10/2010
A few weeks back I a received the mbed dev kit from RS (Part No.703-9238), but it was only today that I got a gap in my work schedule to play with it.
MBED Workshops!

03/11/2010
Rapid Prototyping with 32-bit MicrocontrollersThese workshops brought to you by the ESP KTN Electronics Knowledge Centre in partnership with RS Components and ARM/NXP, are aimed at demonst
Make your own walking, talking, living….robot

29/02/2012
- Accelerometers
- ARM
- Beagle
- Coldfire
- Communication
- Cortex-M
- Development Kits - Electronics
- DSP
- dsPIC
- Freescale
- Interconnect
- Manufacture
- Mbed
- Memory
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- PIC32
- Power
- Programming
- Raspberry Pi
- Research Phase
- Robots
- Sensors
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Test
As I wrote this blog Raspberry Pi exploded on the scene taking everyone by surprise with the sheer volume of people wanting to buy it. Many readers will have to wait a while to get their hands on one so why not use the time to investigate rather more interesting projects than just writing games? How about giving a humanoid walking robot some Artificial Intelligence…
So when will we get the Star Trek Tricorder then?

19/01/2012
- ARM
- ARM11
- Communication
- Cortex-M
- Development Kits - Electronics
- Enclosures
- Ethernet
- Human Machine Interface
- Interconnect
- Mbed
- PIC
- Power
- Programming
- Raspberry Pi
- Research Phase
- Robots
- Sensors
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Switches
- Test
A competition has been announced with a $10m prize for the first working medical tricorder. If you claim to be an engineer and don't know what I'm talking about, then may I suggest locking yourself in
Software-defined Radio (SDR)

13/11/2010
- Analogue
- Communication
- FPGA
- GSM
- PIC
- Power
- Programming
- Research Phase
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Test
- Wireless
John Melton holding a HPSDR Mercury Digital Down-conversion board at OSHUG #5Last month the Open Source Hardware User Group were treated to a presentation on the High Performance Software Defined Radi
The Arduino Effect

09/11/2011
- Arduino
- ARM
- AVR
- Beagle
- Chipkit
- Cortex-A
- Cortex-M
- Development Kits - Electronics
- DSP
- FRAM
- Freescale
- Manufacture
- Mbed
- Microcontrollers
- MSP430
- PIC
- PIC32
- Power
- Programming
- Research Phase
- Robots
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Test
I’ve noticed an interesting trend recently. Forgive my lack of awareness if this has all been said before, but here it is: microcontroller chip manufacturers are making/supporting some very cheap development kits nowadays.
Trust your life to a computer?

22/09/2011
- ARM
- Circuit Design
- Communication
- Functional Test
- Manufacture
- Mbed
- Memory
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- Power
- Research Phase
- Safety Testing
- Test
Texas Instruments have recently launched a new range of ARM-core microcontrollers called Hercules. They contain redundant circuits to detect and deal with faults when used in safety-critical applications. Specifically, two Cortex R4F cores run a common program in lockstep and a comparator unit makes sure they produce the same outputs.
TAUTIC - CPLD Development Board Review

14/04/2012
- Arduino
- Circuit Design
- Circuit Simulation
- Development Kits - Electronics
- FLASH
- FPGA
- Human Machine Interface
- Interconnect
- Mbed
- PIC
- PLD
- Power
- Programmable Logic
- Programming
- SERIAL
- Solder
- Test
- Verilog
- VHDL
There seems to be more and more people getting into FPGA design and development. There are some very cheap, sorry, low cost kits out there too. Right down in the low end starter kits is one new kit th
A step back in time to the 1980's with a Raspberry Pi...

12/03/2012
- Analogue
- Capacitors
- Ethernet
- Memory
- PIC
- Power
- Programming
- Raspberry Pi
- Research Phase
- Standards
- Test
Over the weekend I took home one of the Raspberry Pi prototypes. From the moment I took the first byte of the Pi, memories came flooding back...
WEBENCH® LED Designer

22/06/2010
- Analogue
- Circuit Design
- Display & Lighting
- Power
- SERIAL
- Test
National Semiconductor have updated Webench LED Designer With National’s WEBENCH LED Designer suite of tools, you can configure a system with up to 60 LEDs in serial or parallel strings. With
What is CFD .. Science or Black Magic?

25/03/2011
Introduction As a leading thermal management company ebm-papst UK Ltd has recently invested in state of the art CFD analysis software. This is to support both our own design work and as a service we
A simple recipe for a successful PCB Design

28/10/2011
- Capacitors
- Circuit Design
- Interconnect
- Manufacture
- Mbed
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- Power
- Resistors
- Test
- Trial & Evaluation
An electronics or embedded engineer should not limit themselves to writing firmware. Having thorough knowledge on hardware empowers the designer to understand what is happening and take the right path
Microchip Motor Control Starter Kit Review - DM330015

16/01/2012
At ebm-papst are well known as a fan manufacture so I was keen to see the latest development kit from Microchip, the Motor Control Starter kit. So I was interested to see how easy it is to setup and u
DesignSpark @ ElectroneX 2011, Melbourne

15/09/2011
No testers, no batteries, no clamps, but schematics, circuits, and DesignSpark PCB!For the first time, in Asia I believe, we spent two full days at a public tradeshow to purely demonstrate the award-w
DE0-NANO FPGA Development Kit Review - Terasic

31/07/2011
- 740
- Accelerometers
- Circuit Design
- Development Kits - Electronics
- Display & Lighting
- DRAM
- EEPROM
- Enclosures
- FLASH
- FPGA
- Human Machine Interface
- Mbed
- PIC
- Power
- Programming
- Switches
- Test
- USB (Universal Serial Bus)
- VHDL
When it come to most Dev Kits people can normally find one that fits their needs. However when entering the world for FPGA’s people are always asking which kit to buy. Why? Well they have always
DesignSpark PCB workshop with Renesas Analog and Power Device Product team

03/07/2012
In June, RS components had conducted two DesignSpark PCB workshops to the engineers of Renesas's Analog and Power Device Product team in Shanghai and ShenZhen, China.During these two workshops, we sha
Connecting electronics design to Google SketchUp

14/07/2011
RS’ free of charge IDf-to-Collada converter allows EDA tools to connect with the popular Google SketchUp 3D Modelling package. Ever had a design that did not quite fit the mould? You have laid out t
LeoStick Dev Kit Review - The Tiny Arduino Clone

07/05/2012
- 740
- Analogue
- Arduino
- Development Kits - Electronics
- Interconnect
- PIC
- Power
- Programming
- RX
- Solder
- Test
- USB (Universal Serial Bus)
So there are lots of development boards out now. And since the introduction of the Arduino there are lots of clones around too which is good in my view. So this is what I have to say is the smallest d
Does in-vehicle technology reduce driver safety?

16/03/2012
- Bluetooth
- Communication
- Display & Lighting
- Enclosures
- Functional Test
- GPS
- Human Machine Interface
- LCD
- Mbed
- PIC
- Power
- Research Phase
- Safety Testing
- Test
- Trial & Evaluation
- Wireless
There is a lot of focus these days on safety in vehicles, particularly associated with distracting electronic gadgets, installed in the drivers view. It could easily be argued that adding a computer s
Leaflabs Maple Dev Kit Review

31/10/2011
Sometimes you can get excited about a Dev Kit before you even switch it on, but can the Leaflabs Maple Board live up to my exportation's or will this just be another STM32 fail? So this last few weeks
Use your Cortex in the ARM jungle

15/12/2011
- ARM
- Batteries
- Communication
- Cortex-A
- Cortex-M
- Cortex-R
- Development Kits - Electronics
- DSP
- Enclosures
- FLASH
- Freescale
- Manufacture
- Mbed
- Memory
- Microcontrollers
- Microprocessors
- MIPS
- PIC
- PIC32
- Power
- Reliability Testing
- Research Phase
- Robots
- Test
There was a time when deciding which microprocessor to use for a new project was pretty easy: there weren’t that many to choose from. Who remembers the Intel 8080, Motorola 6800 or the CBM 6502? The
Segmenting Power with Digital Isolators

04/04/2012
Managing power consumption is a requirement in most designs. Isolation boundaries in a system are the logical place to segment power control since power can be removed in an entire portion of a design
Raspberry Pi Waveforms

31/05/2012
- Analogue
- Ethernet
- FRAM
- Memory
- Oscilloscopes
- PIC
- Power
- Raspberry Pi
- Research Phase
- Serial Peripheral Interface
- Test
So, a few people in the office have started to receive their Raspberry Pi's. Normally when we see new gadgets around the office we take it apart but there's no case on the Pi so we thought we'd 'scope
The Birth of the Engineering Renaissance

15/07/2011
- Analogue
- Arduino
- Communication
- Designspark PCB
- Display & Lighting
- FLASH
- GAL
- LASER
- Manufacture
- Mbed
- Microcontrollers
- PIC
- Power
- Research Phase
- Safety Testing
- Solder
- Standards
- Test
- USB (Universal Serial Bus)
Developments in recent years suggest that we may be on the cusp of an engineering renaissance. Significant advances are being made in key areas such as tools, technology, principles and methodologies,
Xbee and mbed streaming live data

11/06/2012
I seen a few reviews now of devices like the Xbee and they never seem very exciting. So this is the first of a number of posts I'll be writing were you see me using the product. So let get started and
You can build your own isolated USB Cable

19/12/2011
- Analogue
- Capacitors
- Circuit Design
- Mbed
- PIC
- Power
- Resistors
- Switches
- Test
- USB (Universal Serial Bus)
Have you ever wondered how to build an isolated USB cable? This requires both isolated D+ and D‐ lines as well as an isolated dc‐dc converter to supply power to the downstream port and cable.
A Practical intro to programming an open source SoC

30/03/2012
A post-event report from Open Source Hardware User Group meeting No. 17.At the seventeenth OSHUG meeting we were given an introduction to the practicalities of programming your own open source system-
PCB Design Tools - New Product Introduction Award

26/04/2011
DesignSpark PCB was recently recognised as New Product of the Year in the PCB Design Tools category, by Printed Circuit Design and Fab Magazine.
TI LaunchPad

28/10/2010
Welcome to the new blog theme on the TI Launchpad.I just received mine today and am looking forward to getting it fired up. I would like to invite all who get their hands on one of these boards to sha