and you can’t usually obtain such peak currents from the microcontroller port. This Design Idea describes “Chipiplexing,” a method in which you need to add only N cheap, bipolar transistors. This ...

Microcontroller projects often light up an ... If you want to try an experiment, replace the load resistor on the PNP circuit with a capacitor and run a transient analysis. Just be sure to set ...

Serial 4- to 20-mA chips exist but are relatively expensive and require serial programming and involve microcontroller overhead. Most lower end chips lack dedicated serial ports and require ...

A simple op-amp, and pnp transistor or p-channel mosfet in the positive rail (example right), was the obvious answer to me, but what had other people done? One internet search later and, aside from ...

Obviously the Zener diode is clamping power input for the microcontroller (which needs 5V), but I have no idea how the filter circuit leading back to the AC hot is working. Take a look at the ...

We break down the essential component of modern electronics—the transistor. Transistors are the building blocks behind most of today’s electronic devices, and understanding how they work is key to ...

The obvious solution was to switch to another microcontroller such as a lower-power version, but this would mean rewriting and retesting the code, redoing of the printed-circuit-board layout ...

1. This circuit, based on a PIC microcontroller with a few added components, converts a sensor-based voltage into a 4- to 20-mA current loop. Shown is the circuit as originally drawn on a whiteboard.

today announced availability of a new 32-bit microcontroller (MCU), the TMPM380. The TMPM380 MCU was specifically designed for the digital control of high-current circuits commonly found in industrial ...