T&L Publications

For simplicity you cant beat a diode and a resistor in series.<p>Apply a linear voltage sweep across a series connected resistor and diode. You will get a non linear current response which happens to be logrythmic (a diode characteristic plotted on a log scale has a straight line)<p>Measure the volt...

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Try it plain www.curvetrace.com

For parts that are from the 74xx or 4000 family, I have an IC Identifier. You plug the part in and it does a series of tests and tells you what part number it is. (see it on my website [url=http://www.curvetrace.com)]www.curvetrace.com)[/url] <p>But this is a very narrow cross section of the parts a...

Momentary means the switch is on only while you hold the button. Latching means the switch or relay stays on indefinately when activated until switched back or a reset button is pushed. <p>The remote control you indicated will work great. The two blue blocks on the PCB are relays and they are normal...

Thats right, and strike my last irrelevant paragraph.<p>Thats why this and these forums are so great. Since you can't beleive any single source of information on the web (this includes me ;) ) an average of answers like these threads usually reviels the core of truth.<p>I only tried 4-5 retail avail...

Caddock makes power resistors in 1% or better tol in a range or wattage. Digikey and Mouser both carry them. I just bought some 1, 10 and 100 ohm 60W in TO-220 Package.<p>Dale/Vishay is one of the major manufacturers and they make some fine precision matched pair resistors we also use.<p>For audio a...

LOL :D "Excuse me sir, can you ask that Lion to pee in this cup" LOL<p>Digital audio is not too hard to add once you decide to make your own circuit Holtek makes some easy to use Voice chips. look at the Voice/Music section of this page. Minimal external components are required and can be ...

Turning on the computer by remote control keychain is the easy part. Get one of those remote door lock kits for your car (<$50) and connect the relay output across the power switch. <p>In an ATX computer, all you need to do to power it on is push the momentary switch on the front panel which is powe...

IR would require several sensors for 360 degree coverage. PIR sensors (especially the 120V variety) are easy to find and relatively inexpensive. Are you willing to power it off an inverter. Standard floodlight fixtures would do the trick, just substitute the bulb with your scarecrow.<p>Microwave (li...

Since the Peltier Junction requires a substantial chunk of silicon, it is difficult to assemble onto anything but a flat substrate. I imagine it is possible but you would need to be a major player to get the manufacturers to change anything just for you. A polyimide flex substrate (the typical type)...

Forget about holes and electrons, they apply mainly to semiconductor components. If electrons "went flying off" you would either see a corona (plasma) or be able to detect a radio pop.<p>In a coil, when the power is switched off the magnetic field lines (which loop around the coil from pol...

A standard bridge rectifier followed by an RC filter sould be sufficient. The output will be unregulated meaning that when you connect a load, the voltage might drop a little but for your application that should be OK. I imagine you will connect a relay then gradually increase the voltage until the ...

The Sluce gate analogy only holds water if you consider the volume in the trough that the water builds up in, is Capacitance. <p>The capacity of your pipe to overfill (above average depth while flowing) is what gives you the surge current. The voltage pulse comes when the trough overfills and the re...

In a Darlington pair transistor, the first transistor is used to drive the base of the second. The result is greater gain than a typical bipolar transistor. <p>If each transistor has a gain of 100, a darlington pair of them yeilds a gain of 1000. You can build it out of seperate transistors but havi...

The reverse leakage current is a maximum spec and the actual may be much smaller. Ideally, they would want it to be zero. They tell you this so you know how it behaves if unintentionally reverse biased so you can design accordingly. (like a misinserted battery or wrong polarity adapter used). <p>Thi...