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LED tutorial demystifies several control techniques
Controlling LEDs is really quite simple. As you know, they need to be current limited which is as easy as applying Ohm’s law to your given set of values. To make things even more even there’s a slew...
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Color changing coaster has a built-in drink detector
[Robert] put together his own illuminated coasters that know when they hold a drink. They look fantastic, thanks to professionally produced PCBs and a layered, laser-cut acrylic case. They’re much...
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Re:load, an Open Source Dummy Load
When testing power supplies or LEDs, a constant current dummy load is needed. These devices will draw a constant amount of current, regardless of the voltage at the input terminals. [Nick] was looking...
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Shocking your brain and making yourself smarter
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation – or tDCS – is the technique of applying electrodes to the skull and running a small but perceptible current through them. It’s not much current – usually on...
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Building a DC Constant Current/Power Electric Load
By just looking at the picture above, we’re pretty sure that most Hackaday readers will have guessed by now that much power can be dissipated by this electric load. For those who don’t know, an...
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Simple 10 Watt LED driver is Hot Stuff
[Peter] needed to drive a high power LED for his microscope. Rather than pick up a commercial LED driver, he built a simple constant current LED driver and fan control. We’ve featured [Peter's]...
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Current Limiting Diode Use and Tutorial
Not that this happens often, but what do you do when faced with a repair where you don’t know the power source but you do know you have to drive LED backlighting? When faced with this dilemma [Eric...
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An Arduino Programmable Load
Having a big block of hot to dump current into is a very useful thing to have if you’re testing batteries, power supplies, high power LEDs, electroplating, or any thing else that would normally...
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Bench Power Supply Constant Current EZ-SET
Here is a nice hack you may find very useful if you have a cheaper bench power supply that supports constant current limit protection (CC mode) and the only way to set or check your max current limit...
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A Simple Programmable Electronic Load Using the Arduino
Some projects are both educational and useful. We believe that [Jasper's] Arduino based electronic load is one of those project. [Jasper's] electronic load can not only act as a constant current load,...
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Ode to the TL431, and a LiFePO4 Battery Charger
Nerd Ralph loves cheap and dirty hacks, and for that we applaud him. His latest endeavor is a LiFePO4 battery charger that he made out of parts he had on hand for under $0.50 US. (Although we think he...
View ArticleJunkbox Constant Current Source Helps with Kelvin Sensing
Is it ironic when a YouTube channel named “The Current Source” needs to build a current source? Or is that not ironic and actually just coincidental? Regardless of linguistic considerations, [Derek],...
View ArticleTurning a Bad Bench Supply into a Better Bench Supply
‘Tis the season for dropping hints on what new doodads would make a hacker happy, and we have to admit to doing a little virtual window shopping ourselves. And as a decent bench power supply is on our...
View ArticleTest Unknown Fuses Without Destroying Them
There’s a problem with fuses. On the face of it, testing would seem to be a one-shot deal — exceed the rated current and see if it blows. But once you know the answer, the device is useless. If only...
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Cool WS2811 Trick Makes LED Art Installation Smooth
Normally, when a project calls for addressable LEDs, we just throw a strip of WS2812s and an Arduino together, cobble together some code from the examples in the FastLED library, and call it a day. We...
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