How to Choose Between High-side and Low-side Switching

The principles of operation of high-side and low-side load switching are easy to grasp, but when do you prefer one method over the other?

Researchers from Sandia National Laboratories (USA) have developed a small device, based on silicon, that can use waste heat to generate DC current. The new method was developed mainly to recover energy from waste heat (infrared radiation). One application, for example, is to use engine heat and convert it into electricity for a hybrid vehicle.

Keeping your home at a nice cozy temperature represents one of the biggest outgoings in a domestic budget. It makes sense therefore to take a closer look at boiler operation and measure temperatures more accurately to help optimize energy usage. This heating monitor logs essential operating parameters, shows them on its built-in display and stores them on a USB stick for analysis later. The data is sent via Wi-Fi so you check it out from anywhere around the home or via the internet.

Inductors and capacitors are two types of components that have several things in common, yet they are very different. For instance, both can store energy even though it is stored as a magnetic field by the inductor whereas a capacitor stores electric charge. Another thing they have in common is that it is hard to know their exact value. Many multimeters can measure capacitance (C in pico-/nano-/micro-/milli-farad), but only a few do inductance (L in micro-/milli-henry). You have to buy an L meter to measure inductors. L meters usually also measure capacitance and resistance and therefore are often called LCR meters. We will limit ourselves to L & C and leave resistance to the trusty multimeter.

I wrote previously that it is hard to pass the EXIT / AUSGANG gates at the embedded world trade show in Nuremberg and not have a few demo or dev kits in your sponsored rucksack. That’s why the show is a must-attend for serious electronicists of all ages. I consider myself one but this year I was unable to attend the show and what do you think, I still I received a kit — it simply arrived in the mail a few days later. It is the Otii Arc Demo kit from IoT developers Qoitech in Sweden hence the polar bear on the box. On the Arc box proper I saw “Sony Belgium” printed.

For a long time, television sets and monitors were all equipped with cathode-ray tubes, but now that is ancient history. At the turn of the millennium there was a shift to flat-screen liquid-crystal displays, which consume less energy but still do not qualify as true low-power devices. That’s because LCDs do not generate their own light, but only change the polarisation of light shining through them.

Many people are interested in a more detailed view of their energy consumption than the dull rolling numbers on the traditional domestic watt-hour meter. Likewise, energy suppliers and network operators need better insight in “consumption patterns”. The SmartPi “bidirectional” smart meter is an interesting and affordable solution for both types of user.

Researchers from Purdue University were able to demonstrate experimentally how an effect called ‘negative capacitance’ makes a new transistor type more energy efficient. This proves a theory proposed in 2008 by a team at Purdue University...

Designed to support the supervisory circuits of microprocessors, the APX803L micro-power voltage detector from Diodes offers a detection between 1.2 and 5.0 V in 0.1-V steps, while consuming a trifling 1 μA (typical; 2.5 μA max.).

For some time electric flyswatters have been available at giveaway prices. Made with a metal grid and a plastic handle, they look rather like miniature tennis racquets. Two AA-size batteries produce a voltage in the region of 1 to 3 kV and use this to charge a small capacitor. This level of energy is just enough to annihilate mozzies (mosquitoes) and render house flies unflightworthy for just a short while. This project describes some improved high-voltage electronics that take us right to the limits of what is technically achievable.