Smartwatches are popular wearable devices that are divided into two broad categories: phone companions and fitness trackers. The phone companion acts as an extension or mini clone of the wearer’s smartphone, staying connected via Bluetooth. Common features include email notifications, calling, messaging, social media integration, calendar management, music control, mobile payments, and voice assistant functionality. While certain…

Verilog is a hardware description language (HDL) first standardized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 1995. It plays an essential role in electronic design automation (EDA) tools for designing and documenting digital systems. Verilog is extensively used in the design and verification of digital circuits at various abstraction levels, from the…

This article explains how to establish secure communication between two LoRa end-node devices using Lora E5 mini boards. LoRa, which stands for “long range,” is a wireless technology with the ability to send small amounts of data over large distances. Two end-node devices can exchange encrypted messages. The transmitting device encrypts the message before sending…

A bipolar junction transistor (BJT) is commonly used as an amplifier or switch in electronic circuits. As a three-terminal device, it has an input stage and an output stage. At the input stage, the VI characteristics of a transistor are similar to the forward-bias characteristics of a signal diode. The transistor turns on (i.e., begins…

OMNIVISION has announced the new OG0TC BSI global shutter (GS) image sensor for eye and face tracking in AR/VR/MR consumer headsets and glasses. This release marks the introduction of OMNIVISION’s patented DCG high dynamic range (HDR) technology to the AR/VR/MR market in the 2.2-micron (µm) pixel OG0TC GS image sensor. The OG0TC has a package…

Lithium-ion batteries are another popular type of batteries that are used in the Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) designs. These batteries are commonly used in portable electronic devices. These are low maintenance batteries having high energy density, small size and light weight which makes them suitable for use in most of the portable devices. But, due to high energy density in comparison to the weight and volume of the Li-ion Battery, there are also some safety concerns while charging the Li-ion batteries. Before designing a charger circuit for these batteries, let us first understand charging methods and topologies involved in charging Li-ion batteries. Also, precautions required in handling, storing and disposing of these batteries are must to know.

A battery-management system (BMS) is an electronic system or circuit that monitors the charging, discharging, temperature, and other factors influencing the state of a battery or battery pack, with an overall goal of accurately indicating the remaining time available for use. It’s used to monitor and maintain the health and capacity of a battery. Today’s…

The main source of power is usually the AC Mains. The Mains Supply is used to charge a battery through the charger circuit. The battery provides the power backup when the mains supply is cut off. A battery stores electrical energy in the form of DC current.  The power backup is provided by connecting the load circuit to the inverter. The inverter draws the power from the charged battery on power failure, converts back the DC power to AC power and provides power backup to the load. This is how any basic UPS works.

In the previous tutorial, Online UPS was assembled from its basic building blocks like Lead Acid battery Charger, Square Wave Inverter and Modified Sine Wave Inverter. Now in this tutorial, offline UPS will be designed. The Offline UPS is one of the topologies of UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply). In UPS system, the term topology refers to the switching mechanism of the UPS system.  Contrary to online UPS, in offline UPS, the load circuit is initially directly powered by the AC mains. On the failure of power supply, the power failure is detected by a switching circuit and the power is provided to the load through the battery and inverter after the power failure has already occurred. So, in the offline UPS, the load experiences the power cutoff once before it receives the power backup from the UPS.

In this electronics project, we’ll design a healthcare solution over LoRa, using an Arduino Nano and a heart-rate sensor connected via the I2C bus. This device demonstrates the potential of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) in enhancing healthcare services and improving patient outcomes. The system measures a person’s heart rate in beats per minute (BPM) from a…

What is a Battery? A battery is an electrochemical device that can store energy in the form of chemical energy. It translates to electric energy when the battery is connected in a circuit due to the flow of electrons because of the specific placement of chemicals. It was invented by Alessandro Volta, whereas Gaston Plante…

The battery stores electrical energy in form of chemical energy and the chemical energy again able to convert into electrical energy. The conversion of chemical energy to electrical energy is called discharging. The chemical reaction during discharge makes electrons flow through the external load connected at the terminals which causes the current flow in the…

In this article, we will learn how to choose a battery according to the specifications and requirements of your application. Some applications need more power and some need to be cheap with less power. There are various factors and parameters that to consider when choosing the best battery for your application. No one battery is…

Several important metrics and considerations are important when evaluating battery performance: Cell, module, and pack level: It is important to consider whether the data refers to an individual cell or a complete battery pack when comparing energy and power densities. Cells will always have the highest energy and power for a given size or weight.…

Nearly every electronic device today relies on a battery as a power source. The dc-dc converter plays a significant role in maintaining the working time of the battery. A buck-boost dc-dc converter is an ideal choice for the most efficient and reliable battery range. The buck-boost converter provides the regulated voltage in the Lithium (Li-ion)…

In this era of battery-operated devices, a DC-DC converter is needed to meet the divergent power requirements of the electronic circuitry. A battery is a type of DC Supply whose output voltage varies with its use. This means it cannot maintain a constant voltage at the output due to its discharging characteristics. For this reason,…

A major advantage of a switching regulator is that it can boost a lower voltage into a higher one. This type of regulator is also known as a boost or step-up converter. A boost converter is used to step up an input voltage to a higher level as required by a load. This capability is…

In many applications, there’s a need for a constant voltage source. However, there are more constant current source applications than constant voltage sources. Most power supplies are voltage sources, including batteries and bench power.  A constant current source can be used anywhere a fixed current is required. A resistor can also be used, but the…

Most appliances require 5Vs for operation. In this experiment, we’ll design a DC-to-DC buck converter that provides 5Vs of the regulated output. We’ll use an Adjustable AP65111AWU-7 switch-mode IC for the DC voltage conversion and analyze its performance.  Specification of the IC: A step-down 12V DC to 0.8V to 6V DC An output current of…

Everyone must be familiar with the term – Switched Mode Power Supply or SMPS. Yes, they are used in every personal computer. In fact, the Switched Mode Power Supply is widely used with many other devices. Once it is understood that what SMPS actually is, its countless applications can be easily imagined.