Design

Soldering irons and solder recommendations in UK?
Hi All, I'm a consultant designer here in the UK and build my own prototypes. I'm looking for a decent soldering iron (maybe Pace or Weller or clone) that have a range of bits suitable for SMD down to 0.5mm TQFP and also for through hole components. I don't want to spend too much. Anyone have any recommend... 18 Jan 2010 13:10

skin deep?
is it possible to design a subcutaneous x ray? A surgeon might want to see a depth just below where he intends to cut. The point is, I thought only bones are opaque to x rays. -- Rich ... 20 Jan 2010 21:56

The thing that pisses me off the most...
Is that John Larkin (the designer I admire the most here) hasn't invited me out to dinner in Oakland yet! Not even with fries and a salad on the side! I hope you have a conscience, John! ;-) ... 16 Jan 2010 15:01

9v UNregulated PSU
Hi, chums, It's good for you for me to be back! Anyone know of a really simple 9v limited PSU schematic with no regulation and no filtering or owt.? ... 16 Jan 2010 13:55

White LED Spice Model
Here's a white LED Spice model that I created by fitting to data points of a real device. Unfortunately I've misplaced which actual device number it was :-( ****************************************************************** **** My White LED **** ..SUBCKT MyWhiteLED A K D_D1 N_1 0 D1N4148 F_F1 ... 2 Feb 2010 16:24

Problem with LM3150
I'm debugging a buck converter using an LM3150 simple switcher. The switching FET is an N type, FDP060AN08A0 and gets hotter than anticipated. The gate drive voltage is generated using a 470n X7R boost capacitor as specified in the data sheet. However the gate-source pulses are only about 4.5V peak which mean... 27 Jan 2010 17:11

PCB Cleaning
Is it safe to soak a pcb in acetone for several minutes to clean it up all the flux? The board only has some QFN's, SMT LED's, and passive SMT's. I imagine the acetone won't harm these packages? ... 20 Jan 2010 01:51

Build your own Z80 CP/M homebrew computer
Hi! If you are interested in building your own homebrew Z80 CP/M single board computer please contact me. I have many PCBs available for the N8VEM SBC and all the peripherals. You build the computer yourself using the PCBs you either make them yourself or you can buy the low cost ECB Eurocard PCBs from me. Th... 17 Jan 2010 12:48

Somewhat OT: Long term design
A recent episode of Stargate Atlantis prompted me to think about how would could design equipment that's intended to function far into the future. The episode required stuff to function 48,000 years after construction, but perhaps we could be less optimistic. Say 1000 years. Note, the requirement is not tha... 2 Feb 2010 16:24

Looking for Microcontroller Recommendations
Years back I played some with PIC microcontrollers but I've heard that manufacturers are making better microcontrollers for less money. Not looking for professional ICE or anything but maybe something competitive with Microchips in circuit programmer/debugger. I was considering buying Microchips ICD3 with P... 20 Jan 2010 21:56