LEAP#393 Dickson Charge Pump
The Dickson Charge Pump is a neat trick for multiplying an input voltage. It is basically a capacitor bucket-brigade, with diodes for flow control, and a switching signal to make it go. It is not the most efficient voltage booster, and cannot drive very high currents, but may be a convenient solution depending on the application.
The version I’ve implemented here runs on an Arduino with a 62kHz PWM signal and generates a zener-regulated 12V output from the 5V supply on the Arduino.
As always, all notes, schematics and code are in the Little Electronics & Arduino Projects repo on GitHub
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LEAP#392 BoldportClub Whiteboard
The BoldportClub project #22 whiteboard is a neat little “breadboard enhancer”, featuring variable and coin-cell power supplies and prototyping areas. As always, all notes, schematics and code are in the Little Electronics & Arduino Projects repo on GitHub
Here’s a simple demonstration using the 4 LEDs on the shroud as outputs for a 4-stage CD4060 ripple counter:
Also included is a sheet of StickerCAD icons. I used them on my laptop case - including a rebus if you look carefully;-)
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LEAP#391 Packaging the mV Meter
A while back I breadboarded an ATmega328-based millivolt meter based on a design by Scullcom Hobby Electronics. It uses an LTC2400 ADC and LT1019 voltage reference, and has some nice display modes on a 16x2 LCD.
It’s a nice design so I decided to go the whole hog and fab a PCB at OSHpark, but this time using EasyEDA for the schematic capture and board design. Althoughit’s PCB design tools are relatively primative, it turned out just fine!
As always, all notes, schematics and code are in the Little Electronics & Arduino Projects repo on GitHub
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LEAP#389 Two-Stage Amp Design
Reviewing techniques for two-stage CE amplifier design.
Gobsmacked that my calcs put me within 3% of actual performance,
and I got a workable Class A amplifier to boot!
As always, all notes, schematics and code are in the Little Electronics & Arduino Projects repo on GitHub
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