Ok, let us continue the reverse engineering of the E27 LED bulb LEDARE from IKEA. After describing the actual light emitting diode assembly in the previous post, I will today look deeper under the hood into the power supply. The power supply itself is located in a plastic cylinder which is screwed to the cast… Continue reading The best LED bulb? – part 2
Category: Everything
The best LED bulb?
At least the best one I have seen so far. After giving a lecture on LEDs yesterday I finally unpacked and tested my latest buy – the clear E27 LED bulb LEDARE from IKEA. The specs of this LED bulb are not overly impressive, with an efficacy of a mere 50 lm/W it is about… Continue reading The best LED bulb?
DIY STK505 replacement
The Atmel STK500 development board does support many but not all of Atmels AVR controllers. As an enhancement a STK505 unit was constructed by Atmel to support the ATtiny24/44/84 series of microcontrollers, which come in a 14-pin DIP package. Other plugin-boards for other pinouts have also been made, but since the STK500 itself is considered… Continue reading DIY STK505 replacement
Counterfeit electronics?!
My latest post was about differences within legitimate versions of the same integrated circuit from different manufacturers, today I’d like to write about experiences with supposedly counterfeit components. It has been in the media that the electronic component market is fighting with counterfeit products from the far east. I myself encountered possible indications of such… Continue reading Counterfeit electronics?!
Be careful with manufacturers
I just wanted to construct a simple constant-current source using a shunt regulator. The shunt regulator TS431 – which I had lying around – is made by both ST and by Taiwan Semiconductor. Both manufacturers use the same component name, the same package and the same description. However, there is one significant difference: while the… Continue reading Be careful with manufacturers
Winter orchids
Three of my orchids are currently lightening up the winter days… (Pentax K200, SMC Pentax A 1:2 50mm, 12mm extension tube, Walimex ring flash)
almost free – still too expensive?
Sorry, this entry is only available in Deutsch.
The customer is always right…
…sorry German language only
A fluxgate magnetometer – a prestudy
Just a few days ago I read up about variations in the magnetic field of earth and how these can be used to detect northern lights. Since there have been sightings of northern lights quite recently even in major parts of Germany I became interested in the topic. A common type of magnetometer is based… Continue reading A fluxgate magnetometer – a prestudy
…another watt saved…
A few days ago I posted my driver prototype for a 20 W, 700 mA, 32 V white LED. Under best conditions I reached 85% of power conversion efficiency between the 12 V input and the electrical power delivered to the LED. I was not satisfied and one of my suspicions were substantial losses in the power MOSFET. I… Continue reading …another watt saved…