Passive Probes? Active probes? Which to use?

Learn the main difference between passive probes and active probes and when to use each type in this installation of our probes blog series: https://lcry.us/2G6cGn1

Making Firmware Designs More Robust!

IkaLogic's Ibrahim Kamal has written a short eBook about making your firmware design more robust! https://lnkd.in/em8g4-h

"It's 2018 and the number of people who think they know how to write micro-controller firmware is constantly growing. Writing a firmware that will work on a prototype is one problem, regardless of what this firmware is achieving. But ensuring this firmware will work on thousands of circuit boards and never endure sporadic system failure is a whole other story, and this is what this eBook is all about.

In this document, Ibrahim doesn't explain programming basics,  and even assumes you already know how to code in C, and that you have already dug your way through several embedded firmware projects.

This eBook will help you to organize your code to be stable and robust. It will show you how to design the firmware in such a way that allows it to grow without breaking up at some point. A firmware is something that is often meant to evolve and needs to be easily maintained.

He presents a proven method of designing robust firmware according to his personal experience during the past 15 years. Maybe not the perfect method nor the only one."

Let us know what you think!

Only two remaining SDS2072 70MHz scopes discounted to $375!

Only two remaining SDS2072 scopes discounted to $375!
https://www.saelig.com/product/sds2072.htm

The SDS2000 Series “Super Phosphor” Oscilloscopes features innovative “SPO Display Technology”, a novel waveform acquisition and graphics processing engine delivering 110,000 wfm/s capture rate, 256 levels of color grading, deep memory storage, and new digital trigger technology. Together, these technologies have been collectively dubbed by the manufacturer Siglent as “SPO” (Super Phosphor Oscilloscope) Technology.

With an extremely long memory depth of up to 28Mpts and a remarkable waveform capture rate of up to 110,000 wfm/s, these oscilloscopes with large 8” 800 x 480 color LCDs represent a step up in scope performance. Add Advanced Math operations (FFT, integral, differential, square root) and an optional built-in 25MHz waveform generator or logic analyzer, this 70 – 300MHz scope range comes at affordable pricing. Real-time analog sampling of 2GSa/s is matched with a Logic Analyzer option capable of simultaneously sampling at digital signals at 500MSa/s.  

The series is available in two- or four-channel models and supports extensive serial bus triggering and decoding functions (IIC, SPI, UART / RS232, CAN, LIN) and advanced hardware-based low-jitter triggering capabilities (Window, Runt, Interval, DropOut, Pattern, and HDTV video triggering). Precisely set trigger delay and configurable trigger noise suppression add to the 2000 Series signal acquisition functionality. Traditional digital storage oscilloscopes use analog trigger technology, but Siglent 2000 Series oscilloscopes implement a digital trigger system using a digital comparator and digital time-to-digital converter. This overcomes the shortcomings of analog trigger circuits completely and provides high trigger sensitivity and low trigger jitter.

PCB-RE: Tools & Techniques

Shortly after posting a tweet about ABI Electronics RevEng (Reverse Engineering) system a while back, we received a reply from an engineer in Singapore. His name is Ng Keng Tiong. “The RevEng clip-n-learn method is covered in my recently published book, PCB-RE: Tools & Techniques, along with other chapters contributed by various industry experts,” he wrote.

PCB-RE: Tools & Techniques is the sequel to a book titled The Art of PCB Reverse Engineering. The older book by Ng Keng Tiong is about reverse engineering the hard way – without assistance from hardware/software tools.

PCB-RE Tools and Techniques devotes most of one chapter to ABI’s RevEng. Along with the chapters by other reverse engineering experts, PCB-RE Tools and Techniques includes a comprehensive review of systems that help automate the process of reverse engineering. It is Chapter 8, titled Clip-N-Learn: As Easy As ABC, that is mostly devoted to ABI Electronics’ RevEng system.

In his introduction to Chapter 8, Keng Tiong wrote that to demonstrate the clip-n-learn approach he’d selected ABI’s RevEng for its straightforward approach and ease-of-use.

   

Thermal imaging speeds up repair of printed circuit boards

Fotric 220 Series Thermal cameras can used to investigate and speed-up the repair of printed circuit boards and components.

Customer service providers and same day repair centers for leading brands of electronic devices can speed up their repair work by using thermal cameras to locate problems and identify what is happening on a PCB.

A non-contact thermal measurement system which pairs a high sensitivity infrared camera with an integrated stand enables technicians to make a quick thermal behavior analysis of a printed circuit board or other electronic assembly. The Fotric 220 series of thermal cameras are very easy to use and can quickly identify a problem with a PCB and where that problem is located.  The software provided with the Fotric 220 series allows picture-in-picture overlays of the heat profile on top of a vidual image, which helps locate problem areas.  Lenses are available that will allow focusing down to as small as 20um lines too.

Beneficially being a portable device, the Fotric 220 Series setup can also easily be shared among many users if necessary. A side-by-side comparison of a good board and a field one can show turn-on heat characteristic differences.  The investment in a thermal camera setup can help technicians work faster and improve customer satisfaction.

By offering up to 640 x 480 individual pixels of temperature measurement, the Fotric 220 series offers the ability to detect hot spots, check power consumption, , and identify potential failure hazards on boards that are being serviced as well as during product development.  

More here:  http://www.saelig.com/pr/fotric-220.html

http://www.saelig.com/pr/fotric-220.html

FOTRIC - How to Analyze and Export Radiometric Thermal Images

Fotric’s analysis software runs on Windows operating system with powerful thermal analysis and reporting tools for research and development. Stream or record fully-radiometric video. You may view, capture, and analyze pictures at high-speed. Software enables you to generate charts, graphs, and plots.

This video shows more: https://youtu.be/ciixHHShgcY

http://www.saelig.com/category/fotric.htm

IkaScope WS200 Wireless Oscilloscope Probe Reviewed by Elektor Mag

Elektor Magazine (http://bit.ly/2oKdlyV) recently reviewed the WS200 30MHz wireless scope from IkaLogic.

Harry Baggen writes:  "With test equipment such as oscilloscopes, innovations usually come at a slow pace and there is rarely anything really new. However, the IkaScope from the French company Ikalogic – mainly known for their logic analyzers – has some features that I have never seen before in my long career as a product reviewer."

His conclusion?  "The IkaScope is a unique, innovative device, but it has some downsides due to its design. In my view it is not suitable for making extensive measurements in the lab, due to its unusual mode of operation. Service technicians and electronics enthusiasts on the go who do not want to take along a lot of equipment will certainly like it."

Check the specs out for yourself here!
http://www.saelig.com/MFR00108/ws200.htm

Here's a Simple Guide to Stepper Motors

Here's a simple guide to Stepper Motors http://snip.ly/g2uty

Electric motors are the obvious and ubiquitous way to translate electrical to mechanical energy.  DC motors are usually used where battery power is needed. AC motors are usually used in industry and for appliances where higher power is needed. The power can vary from a few milliwatts to several hundred megawatts. But a common type in machines is the Stepper motor.

Stepper Motors

Stepper motors turn a rotor in angular steps as the windings are energized.  The torque of steppers is generally the highest when there is no movement of the rotor and the torque decreases with increase of rotation speed. The holding current on stepper windings is highest when there is no movement, so that is opposite to the other types of DC motors. That is the reason they tend to run hot.
Steppers are found in places where high precision is needed, e.g disk drives and CD players for head movement. They are an indispensable part of CNC machines. Printers uses steppers too.
There are three main types of stepper motors :

• Permanent magnet stepper
• Hybrid synchronous stepper
• Variable reluctance stepper

Permanent magnet motors use a permanent magnet in the rotor and operate on the attraction or repulsion between the rotor and the stator electromagnets. Variable reluctance motors have a plain iron rotor and operate based on the principle that minimum reluctance occurs with minimum gap, hence the rotor points are attracted toward the stator magnet poles.

Read on here:   http://snip.ly/g2uty