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A Simple DIY Dynamometer For Small Motors
Measure Mechanical Power Using A Self-Built Prony Brake Dynamometer
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Hexadecimal Value Display for 16 Bit Logic Input
Designing and Building a Hexadecimal Display for Small Computer and Logic Projects. I do digital design regularly, and it’s occasionally real handy to take a group of signals (e.g. an address bus) and display them. I don’t have a lot of great tools to do that though. Ordinarily I’d hook up my logic analyzer. That…
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6502 Development: NOPerator Debugging Aid
A Very Simple 6502 Accessory That can Catch Very Complex bugs. Debugging is hard. Anyone who programs computers knows how hard it is to get stuff working reliably. Tiny oversights can lead to massive problems, often in ways that aren’t obvious. Patches get churned out on a daily basis. Hardware engineers have it much, much…
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HP 1660A Logic Analyzer Floppy Drive Replacement
Replacing an Obsolete Floppy Drive to Make an old Tool More Modern. Many, many years ago I scored an HP 1660A on eBay for 250 bucks. This is professional quality equipment that probably cost at least ten times that price when new. What a deal! Of course the reason I got it dirt cheap was…
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Simple Power: A Minimalist Adjustable Power Supply
A Simple Power Supply for When you Don’t Need all the Bells and Whistles. Having a bench supply? That’s great. Moving it around? Well, it’s called a bench supply for a reason. There’s definitely a niche for a small power supply you can carry from place to place. I’m not pushing the boat out too…
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DIY U-Tube Manometer
Perhaps the Simplest Measuring Instrument After the Calibrated Stick. Pressure. It’s one of those things. You know, the sort of thing you never, ever think too much about. Until one day you run into a problem where it would be really handy to know about it. Obviously pressure gauges exist, and are relatively easy to…
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20V 2A Linear Bench Power Supply
A classic project with ample utility.
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Simple Load: A Low-cost, Medium Power Test Load
Building a Constant Current Load for Power Supply Testing. Usually when we talk about “power” we refer to a power source, e.g. “battery power”, “mains power”, etc. Sometimes though, its more useful to refer to what’s using the power: the load. Having a controllable load is particularly useful when designing a power source. You can,…