Skip navigation
Electronics Industry Search
Advertisement

Mechatronics Zone

RSS

Interpreting trends, analyzing tools and techniques and exploring cross-discipline skills for electronic, mechanical and system designers.

My Yahoo

MCU Family Cuts Power, Expands LCD Drive Capability

Jon Titus
Posted by Jon Titus on November 19, 2009

I had a conversation with David Niewolny, a Freescale product marketing manager, about the company’s new “LL64″ processor, a member of the MC9S08 family, and thus properly called the MC9S08LL64. David explained Freescale developed this microcontroller (MCU) primarily for portable and industrial devices that can benefit from low power consumption and the capability to drive as ...... Read More

Comments (0)

Where Are the Inexpensive-But-Useful Design Tools?

Jon Titus
Posted by Jon Titus on November 9, 2009

Recent information from a company pitched a new net-list editor at a cost of $5000, and that was a special introductory price. I have seen prices in the multi-thousand-dollar range for a variety of software-development, circuit-simulation, and circuit-design tools. That made me wonder where engineers can find low-cost yet capable tools for design work. Of course companies offer free software as a ...... Read More

Comments (26)
Industries: Materials/Fastening , Software/Hardware

Miniature Motor Squiggles into Small Precision Devices

Jon Titus
Posted by Jon Titus on November 5, 2009

Look at small motors for a product design and you’ll find a gap between small DC motors and micro electromechanical systems (MEMSs) fabricated on a silicon wafer. New Scale Technologies has helped filled that gap by designing squiggle-motion motors, or squiggle motors, for engineers who need a tiny motor in miniature and subminiature applications. You can find out more at: http://www.newsca ...... Read More

Comments (1)
Industries: Motion Control/Automation , Electronics/Test

Hot-Tub Pump Teardown & Lessons Learned

Jon Titus
Posted by Jon Titus on October 27, 2009

My neighbors decided to get rid of a small hot tub, so I put in my request for the pump and motor. I don’t like to waste a decent AC motor that might find use in my workshop. The pump arrived in a plastic-foam enclosure that included a control panel and an AC power cord. I pulled apart the enclosure and found a set of pipes and electronics. An aluminum box that contains the electronics cam ...... Read More

Comments (16)

Single CMOS Image Sensor Sees in 3-D

Jon Titus
Posted by Jon Titus on October 22, 2009

An email arrived from Canesta, a company that I hadn’t heard of, so I went to the Canesta Web site where I learned the company makes 3-D CMOS image sensors. You can buy or design 3-D vision systems with off-the shelf cameras, but most of these systems use off-axis laser beams or several cameras to grab images that intensive software processing turns into a 3-D image. That means they requir ...... Read More

Comments (2)

A Water-Meter Reading Robot?

Jon Titus
Posted by Jon Titus on October 13, 2009

By coincidence, Texas Instruments and Freescale Semiconductor both sent email messages today to tout their “metering” integrated circuits that let engineers design small efficient products that can work within electric, water, and gas meters. Products from TI include microcontrollers, power-semiconductors, and low-power wireless transmitters and transceivers. Freescale’s pro ...... Read More

Comments (22)

Motor-Drive Module Includes CANopen Interface and Programming Language

Jon Titus
Posted by Jon Titus on October 7, 2009

The small PIM3605 module from Technosoft caught my eye because it lets engineers control brushless-DC, brushed-DC, linear, or step motors at continuous powers as high as 180W (36V at , 5A), or 600W peak. The module supports the CAN in Automation (CiA) standards DS-301 and DSP402 for CANopen, which makes the module suitable for applications that communicate over a controller-area network (CAN) bus. ...... Read More

Comments (1)

Old Mechanisms Deserve New Attention

Jon Titus
Posted by Jon Titus on September 29, 2009

One of our cats got a bit too chunky for her health, so I thought seriously about building a small treadmill to give our feline friend some exercise. People have used treadmills for thousands of years and you can find a short video of a recent cat treadmill at: www.videovat.com/videos/2606/cat-treadmill.aspx. What’s old in new. It looks like the cat gets a “treat” every once i ...... Read More

Comments (4)

How Long is a Jobber-Length Drill Bit?

Jon Titus
Posted by Jon Titus on September 11, 2009

Browse through a machine-tool catalog and you’ll find many sets of jobber-length drill bits. I’ve often wondered what jobber-length meant and after seeing yet another flyer from Travers or Enco, I decided to find out. Although you can find many mentions of jobber-length bits, it’s difficult to locate a clear definition. The Wikipedia defines jobber-length bits as those for ...... Read More

Comments (11)

Evaluate and Test Power-Factor Correction Needs

Jon Titus
Posted by Jon Titus on September 9, 2009

Electronic and electromechanical equipment often uses switch-mode power supplies, motors, and other devices that “appear” as non-resistive loads to power-company generators that produce a sinusoidal voltage. These “reactive-load” devices often require power-factor correction, whereas purely resistive loads such as incandescent lamps, steam irons, and electric ranges do ...... Read More

Comments (0)

Pay Attention to Enclosure Codes

Jon Titus
Posted by Jon Titus on August 31, 2009

The International Protection Rating code numbers specified in IEC 60529 will let you know about products you buy and will let you offer an “IP rating” for the products you design and manufacture. The two-digit code indicates the level of protection against the entry, or ingress, of solid objects and about protection of equipment against the entry of liquids. Manufacturers use a nome ...... Read More

Comments (1)

Student Mechatronics Project Entertains, Feeds Elephants

Jon Titus
Posted by Jon Titus on August 25, 2009

Rohan Jhunjhunwala has a passion for robotics and technology, but his current project isn’t part of a school assignment. He plans to build a mechatronic entertainment system for elephants at the Oregon Zoo. Dale Yocum, Rohan’s mentor, noted he’s a highly motivated student who likes to make things happen. Students from Portland State University built the zoo’s original r ...... Read More

Comments (1)
Next ›
Advertisement
Advertisement

Design News Partner Zones

Light Matters: The Unsung Heroes of Modern Health Care
First, let's define "no-compromise." In an ideal configuration, this lamp would use a high-brightness LED (HBLED) that is built into a small, integrated package and is able to produce a large quantity of focused light, operate with a high level of reliability and generate no audible noise. Is this difficult? Yes, but it is possible.
Read More

Design Engineers' Portal for Sensing and Machine Safety
Whatever industry you're in, or whatever product you manufacture, the right sensors to automate your plant, and to improve your overall efficiency, quality and safety are a must. You'll find Banner Engineering to be an amazing resource of products, training and people with expertise.

Test & Measurement World Machine Vision & Inspection Report
Topics include machine-vision software, Power over Camera Link, thermal imaging and frame grabbers. Read More

Design News Partner Zone Directory »

Please visit these other Reed Business sites