Good Resources EEVBlog 611 – Great video in a series of videos about microphones Voltage Requirement The characteristics of elect microphones are typically specified with a 2K resistor up to +5V. However you can power with a lower voltage. Many will work down to 1.2V, and some down to 0.8V (see the eevblog video) – […]
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6800 and 8080
These are two different parallel microprocessor interface methods: Intel 8080 Uses: nRD and nWR Motorolla 6800 Uses: RD/nWR and E.
MIDI Comms
Good resources hinton-instruments.co.uk/reference/midi/protocol/ midi.org/techspecs/midimessages.php Communications Overview Command bytes Always 128 or greater (0x80 to 0xFF) Includes things like note on, note off, pitch bend, etc. Data bytes Always less than 127 (0x00 to 0x7F) Includes things like the pitch of the note to play, the velocity, or loudness of the note, and amount of pitch […]
Midi PC Development Apps
Midi Test Interfaces We've used the Proxima Direct USB to Midi Cable under Windows 7 64bit without any problems to test Midi RX from embedded devices we're developing. Development Applications MIDI-OX
MIDI General
UART 31.25KBaud (+-1%), asynchronous, 1 start, 8 data, 1 stop (31250-8-N-1) 320 uS per byte. Start bit is 0, stop bit is 1 Electrical Interface http://www.midi.org/techspecs/electrispec.php Interface 180° five-pin DIN connector MIDI devices are joined together in chains, passing the same message along a serial chain. Up to 16 receivers may be joined on one chain. […]
RFID Reader Antennas
A Word Of Caution… RFID Antenna designs can require optimsation for the particular RFID tags you are using, especially if you are using a small antenna coil. When evaluating a RFID solution, especially a components based solution, don't just assume it will all work. Test using the tags you plan to actually use, test the maximum and minimum read range […]
RFID Tag Types
Low Frequency vs High Frequency Low frequency readers are often cheaper (although not always due to the mass production of high frequency). Low frequency writable tags typically have smaller memory and the data transfer between read and tag is slower due to the lower frequency. High frequency tags can often have a shorter range than low […]
Heatsinks General
Heatsink Colour In natural convection a black or dark colored heatsink will perform 3% to 8% better than an aluminum heatsink in its natural silverish color. This is due to dark colors radiating heat more efficiently. In forced air applications, surface color does not increase a heatsink's performance due to the increase in convection. A […]
Valve amplifiers
Why do valve amps sound "better"? Distortion, its that simple. In fact you can design valve amps and remove most of the distortion they tend to have and they then loose all of that warmth that audiophiles claim makes them better. However the truth of it is that the warmth is simply a distortion imperfection in […]
DC Motor Types
DC Brushed Motors The original DC motor and still the best suited for many applications. You get bags or torque by giving it current (they develop a maximum torque when stationary, linearly decreasing as speed increases). Brushed DC motors generally have lots of commutators. This means they are often superior for low RPM […]