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My journey of creating a 5 V to 170 V DC-DC Boost converter
For a Nixie clock I was designing, I needed a compact but functional and stable 170 V supply for upwards of 18 mA. The only available source on our board is 5 V, as we wanted this product to work on any USB supply that supported our current draw on 5 V to eliminate the…
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Creating a Bode plotter with an oscilloscope, function generator and Python
At work, I recently used a bode plotter to characterize the gain and phase margins of a high-performance buck converter. I found this device to be fascinating and wanted one for myself at home. I could not think of a reason why, but then again, why not? I thought of combining LXI on my oscilloscope…
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The importance of design for manufacturing
Having worked in the production of PCBs, the debugging of PCBs and the design of PCBs, I can confidently say that Design For Manufacturing (DFM) is often overlooked by professional designers. In my professional career, I have met some PCB designers who do not know what impact making certain design choices have on the manufacturability…