CUI has announced the expansion of two GaN desktop AC-DC power supply series to its SDI product family, broadening their product range for the GaN adapter line. The SDI300G-U and SDI300G-UR offer 300W of continuous power from a compact desktop...

MCU-Based Design We depend on GPS technology a lot these days, and technology advances have brought fairly powerful GPS functionally into our pockets. Today’s miniaturization of GPS receivers makes it practical to embed a GPS module into your system design....

DFI announced a “TGU” line of embedded boards and systems built around Intel’s 11th Gen Tiger Lake UP3 processors with 15-28W TDPs, starting with a thin mini-ITX board and COM Express Compact Type 6 and Mini Type 10 modules. The...

Hacker vs. Tracker In this article, Colin takes a look at a recently demonstrated fault injection attack on the AirTag device. While the AirTag alone has a limited attack surface, it opens the door for a variety of additional analysis....

Alif Semiconductor has announced the launch of its Ensemble and Crescendo (shown) product families. Alif says the devices fill the market need for scalable, power efficient devices that integrate AI/ML acceleration, multi-layered security, LTE Cat-M1 and NB-IoT connectivity, GNSS positioning...

As a Switch and More There’s a lot you can do with electronics these days without any EE-level of knowledge. But certain concepts can be tricky—like selecting a transistor for a high-current or high-voltage design. In this article, Jeff steps...

Renesas Electronics has introduced the RX671 group of 32-bit microcontrollers (MCUs). They provide high-performance, high-functionality single-chip solution with touch sensing and voice recognition capabilities for contactless operation. Part of Renesas’ mainstream RX600 Series, the RX671 MCUs are built around an...

Complete Compute Solutions Box-level embedded computers, also known as Embedded PCs, have emerged as a key technology for a variety of embedded systems markets. By using a complete, turn-key system-level solution, system developers no longer have to spend time on...

Adlink unveiled a “COM-HPC Ampere Altra” module that runs Linux on a 32- or 80-core, Arm v8.2 based Ampere Altra. There is also an automotive focused “AVA Developer Platform” that supports Arm’s new SOAFEE initiative. Adlink announced a COM-HPC/Server module...

Contactless Methods You’re now familiar with contact methods for displacement measurement. In this article, George covers contactless options, including ultrasonic, radio and laser ranging. Last month in Part 1 we reviewed major techniques of displacement measurement by contact methods. This...

A Complete Overview LCD displays don’t emit light by themselves. They need a light source, and LED backlights are now dominating the market. In this article, Orient Display’s Bill Cheung provides a complete overview of LED backlight technology, discussing different...

Tech for a Connected Sky The pace of commercial drone innovation continues to accelerate. Helping system developers keep up, technology vendors are providing a wide range of communications and control products to improve the capabilities of the drone designs themselves...

We often want to turn on a microcontroller (MCU)-based product or project with the press of a button. This is quite simple if the microprocessor is already running in the background. Most MCU families offer a range of low-power sleep...

The SmartPostBox Project Wouldn’t it be fun to get an email notification when your mail arrives in your post box? In this article, Andrei steps you through the details of building his ArduinoSmartPostBox project. This system is a smart post...

Semtech has announced its collaboration with Cloud Energy, an IoT solution provider in Vietnam, for the development and deployment of a network running on the LoRaWAN standard for a wireless solar power system installed on facility rooftops. A wired energy...

Measurement Techniques Object tracking is a required feature in many modern control systems. In this article, George examines measurement techniques used generate electrical output with respect to distance or position. Without displacement and position sensors, robotics and position control systems...

I don’t mean to brag, but when I was in the 6th grade, I won first place in my elementary school’s science fair. My project was “A Solar House of the Future.” It wasn’t very sophisticated. I attached copper tubing...

Click here for the Circuit Cellar article code archive p.6: Building the COSMAC ELF Microcomputer: Retro Design Reloaded, By Scott Weber References:[1] “Retro-Computing Takes to the Cloud,” by Todd Wade — Circuit Cellar 359, June 2020[2] “Understanding Proper PCB Design...

Massive IoT and the Internet of Transformation Traditionally, IoT is defined as the “Internet of Things.” However, there is a different and more accurate description for IoT: the “Internet of Transformation.” The transformation occurs when the things in our daily...

Smart Poles: A Thermal Management Challenge It seems everyone is talking about smart cities these days, and with good reason. The prospect of an entire city working harmoniously via interconnected technology is truly exciting. From Toyota’s “Woven City” [1] to...

eCapture has introduced what it claims is the smallest form factor stereoscopic 3D depth sensing camera. The new LifeSense G53 measures 50mm x 14.9mm x 20 mm and is designed for depth capture and object tracking for industrial, robotics and...

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Using Teensy 4.1 Using the same store-bought speaker system for both TV audio and playing music means dealing with unwelcome trade-offs. With that in mind, in this project article Brian taps a Teensy 4.1 to build a home-brew digital amplifier...

The October issue of Circuit Cellar is coming out next week! Here is a sneak peek at what’s inside. Embedded solutions for vision systems, retro microcomputer project, sensor ICs, ultraviolet LEDs, RISC-V technology, voltage-level translation, FreeRTOS and more! This 84-page...

Nordic Semiconductor has announced the launch of its “nRF Cloud Location Services.” The Cloud-based product enables customers to access detailed, fast and accurate commercial location services for their nRF9160 System-in-Package (SiP)-powered cellular IoT devices. Nordic says that the nRF Cloud...