Electronics
PCB Prototype Manufacturers
- BatchPCB (Connected with SparkFun)
- List of manufacturers
- CustomPCB
PCB Design
- PCB Design Tutorial
- Ground fill
- Tips for Designing PCBs
- The PCB Design Process -- the background images are terrible, but might have some useful stuff.
- Electronics Design Checklist
- Designing a Better PCB:
- Electronics Design Checklist
DIY PCB
- How to make PCBs at home in 1 hour & W I T H O U T special materials -- Uses glossy magazine paper
- Easy Printed Circuit Board Fabrication -- Using Laser Printer Toner Transfer
- Decent PCB's on the cheap
- Etching with Air Regenerated Acid Cupric Chloride
- Saltwater PCB etch process
- Stop using Ferric Chloride etchant! (A better etching solution.)
- How to make really really good homemade PCBs -- Mostly UV
- Making a Hand Drawn PCB
- Quickie PCB Production -- Hand-drawn
- Making Printed Circuit Boards, Double-Sided Printed Circuit Boards, PCBs with SMT Components -- (Also some PCB design and soldering comments)
- DIY Flexible Printed Circuits
Schematic, layout drawing and documentation
- SVG electronic component library
- Breadboard line art (SVG format)
- Designing a Stripboard Layout includes Stripboard Layout Planning Sheet (PDF)
- DIP SVG Outline Views including Top
- Transistor SVG outline top/bottom view
- Basic Resistor SVG outline
- IC SVG outline templates
- Stripboard SVG example circuit
- Package Outlines DIP
- IC Package Outlines
- Maxim IC Package Outlines
- List of electronics package dimensions
- PDFs of Fairchild Semiconductor package dimensions
- Electronic Breadboard Templates -- (SVG, PDF, PNG format)
- Timing Diagram Font inspired by xwave - A Waveform Font
- Electronics Stock Photos
- How to draw VeroBoard Layouts (Using MS Paint)
- How To Draw Schematic Diagrams
- SVG Circuit Symbols
Software
- Fritzing "From prototype to product"—interesting early-stage software project. Includes overview of existing EDA and PCB design software.
- Eagle3D--visualise PCB in 3D (for Eagle only).
- Java Breadboard Simulator with Chip Design Tools "Virtual Breadboard" type tool (ancestor)
- Stripboard layout designer -- commercial (with autorouter) and no-cost versions.
- Stripboard Designer 1.0
- DIY Layout Creator -- "PCB, Perfboard or Stripboard designer"
- Qucs integrated circuit simulator
- Logicly -- "Logicly simulates the boolean algebra performed by logic gates, which are a vital part of digital circuitry and computer achitecture."
- See also: LearningAboutKiCad
Parts Sources, Identification and Datasheets
- Octopart -- search engine for electronic parts
- Samples sources
- Component Identification Tool -- not updated since 1995
- Capacitor codes
- Notes on connectors
- Molex Connectors Explained, as used in Pinball
- Howto identify chip packages
- Howto identify computer chips or integrated circuits on circuit boards
- How to read LED Data Sheets
- How to read a semiconductor data sheet
- How to Read a Datasheet (PDF)
- See also: Datasheet and other information sources
ATMEL AVR related
- USB Host Controller implementation
- Procyon AVRlib C function library for AVR processors.
- AvrUsb500v2 -- an open source Atmel AVR Programmer, stk500 V2 compatible, with USB interface -- "no 'chicken and egg problem'" but uses 1 SMD component
- AVR-USB -- A Firmware-Only USB Driver for Atmel AVR Microcontrollers
- HIDKeys - An Example USB HID AVR-USB 17-key keyboard example
- PowerSwitch Simple AVR-USB example
- The NanoVM - Java for the AVR
- KontrollerLab -- IDE
- AVR Fuses HOWTO Guide
- Learning About the AVR Parallel Programmer -- creating a programming "jig" for the parallel programming cable
- See also: Arduino, LearningAboutAtmelRZRAVEN, LearningAboutJTAGICEmkII
Opto-Couplers
- Example Optoisolator circuit (See figure 3)
- The Complete BJT Circuit (includes Opto-coupler circuit)
- Learning About OptoCouplers -- my notes
- Arduino temperature controlled PC Fan. -- includes Arduino opto-coupler circuit
- Opto Coupler for Keying -- includes example circuit
- Opto-isolators
- Control an iPod with the Arduino -- includes TIL116 opto-isolator example
- "4N25 Optoisolator Limits?"
H-Bridge
- "An H-bridge is an electronic circuit which enables DC electric motors to be run forwards or backwards."
- Howto: Make A Robot Car - Part 2: H-Bridge Details
- Brief H-Bridge Theory of Operation
- H-Bridges: Theory and Practice (mcmanis.com)
- Bipolar Junction (BJT) H-Bridges (mcmanis.com -- comprehensive)
- The Complete BJT Circuit (includes Opto-couplers) (mcmanis.com -- comprehensive)
- Implementing H-Bridge elements (mcmanis.com)
- BJT H-Bridge analysis (mcmanis.com)
- H-Bridge (higher voltage)
- Arduino Stepper Motor Control
- Motors
Proximity sensing
Other sensors
DIY Oscilloscope
- EE 491 Senior Project Digital Oscilloscope Cornell University 1999
- Large Storage Depth Oscilloscope
- Digital oscilloscope Project
- eOscope ver. 1.2 - LCD Scope 40MSPS
- ScopeOnPC ADC Converter -- includes breadboard layout
- Figure 3: Typical Probe/Oscilloscope 10-to-1 Divider Network
- Oscilloscope probes for accurate signal measurements -- includes probe circuit
- The µSCOPE -- "A poorman's oscilloscope" PIC-based with TV output
- DC to 1GHz Probe Construction Plans -- with stripboard design
- xoscope for Linux -- soundcard-based oscilloscope
- Learning About Xoscope -- my notes
- XYZs of Oscilloscopes -- Oscilloscope education from Tektronix
- Oscilloscope using a (Atmega) microcontroller and a TV (related Atmega oscilloscope discussion)
- openbench Lady Ada's open source bench tools project (in early stages)
- 10MS/s USB-2.0 ("high speed") oscilloscope with two 8 bit sampling inputs
DIY Logic Probe / Analyzer
- Building an 8-bit PC-Based Logic Analyzer
- Logic Probe
- Logic Probe with Pulse
- Logic probe with AVR attiny2313 through rs232 -- Uses GTKWave to display output graph. OS X/X11 GTKWave port
- The Fabulous Logic Analzyer -- Parallel port and software
Circuit snippets
- How To: Connecting a Switch or Button to a microcontroller with pull-up/-down resistor
- 1Hz Oscillator
- Interfacing Microcontrollers to External Devices
Parallel Port Interface
- Interfacing the Standard Parallel Port (and others)
- Parallel Port Signal Detail
- The Centronics Printer Interface -- includes how the interface is implemented on the IBM PC
- Parallel port states
- "THE TYPICAL SCHEMATIC OF ORIGINAL IBM PC PARALLEL PORT"
General Electronics Tutorials
- http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/study.htm
- Define sink/source I Define sink/source II Define sink/source III
- http://homepage.ntlworld.com/g.knott/index1.htm
- Using Transistors, high current device and microcontrollers--includes maths
- Notes on BJT & FET Transistors -- includes maths and Common Circuit Applications.
- Types of, Choosing and Testing transistors
- The operation of transistors in circuits
- Transistors
- Example high current "source" and "sink" circuits for micro-processors
- "Demonstrating the wonderful amplifying action of a transistor"
- Practical Electronics WikiBook
- Electronics WikiBook
- Circuit Idea Electronics Teaching WikiBook -- very incomplete
- Learning About Transistors and LEDs
- Capacitor Selection Chart
- "When should I protect the circuit components?" Capacitor selection.
- Capacitors and ESR
- Capacitors Overview -- Overview of capacitor operation and types, includes photos and descriptions
- Capacitors
- Electronics shopping list, part II: Components -- Nice overview of what components you should consider purchasing when you're getting started, and why.
- See also "Schematic, layout drawing and documentation" category above.
Technique tutorials
- How to Solder Correctly - and Why
- Soldering, test equipment etc
- Oscilloscope Tutorials
- How to design battery packs and How to calculate battery run-time
- Making an Amplified Color Sensor from an LED and an Op Amp
- How to: How to -- How ladyada designed the minty boost—talks about boost regulator usage. (See also: DIY DCDC Stepup with Max756)
- Electronic Prototyping: Tips and Pitfalls
- Prototyping - Part 2
- See also other categories like PCB above.
- ANTENNAS FOR LOW POWER APPLICATIONS
- 433MHz antenna designs
Power supply
- Power Supply for Logic Circuits -- Includes partial explanation of parts in 7805 voltage regulator circuit.
- Building a 5 volt power supply -- Includes explanation for input capacitor in 7805 voltage regulator circuit
- build a simple 5v power supply for digital circuit -- Partial (but more complete) 7805 circuit explanation—note follow-up post correction for calculation of 4700uF capacitor.
- Batteries and cell characteristics
- Learning How To Power Circuits -- my notes
- "Capacitors are key to voltage regulator design"
- DC-DC Converter Basics -- with Maths!
- "Batteries in a Portable World" -- online book table of contents (Also: Battery University)
- How to make 5V from 1.5V
Datasheet and other information sources
- Datasheet Archive
- SupplyFrame
- http://www.alldatasheet.com/
- http://www.findchips.com/
- The Hardware Book -- "free collection of connector pinouts and cable descriptions."
- AllPinouts -- "Web-based free content project to collect and list all known pinouts."
- Datasheet/IC information
- 4000 series CMOS Logic ICs
Prototyping / Construction
- Photo of SOIC to DIP soldered adaption
- "How to make sexy front panels"
- See also: Ponoko Project One
- USB Enclosures
FPGA, Verilog and Chip design
- See: Learning About FPGA
Hardware hacking
- Hacking 27Mhz Remote Control Car Transmitters -- includes X-Twin RC plane transmitter protocol research
- ZyXEL AG-225H WiFi Finder hacking, WHF-430 Wifi Adapter + Wifi Finder Reverse Engineering
- Hack The Spy Ear and Learn to Reverse Engineer a Circuit
- See also: Reverse Engineering
Electronics/Microcontroller blogs
- uCHobby -- "Links for stuff" exchange :-)
Complete Bloc-Tronic manual (See also bottom picture: http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2007/11/hello_from_tokyo.html) @@ TODO: Check and remove