July 15, 2018, 8:00 pm
I recently found a Hittite (acquired by Analog Devices in 2014) HMC624LP4E evaluation board gathering dust in my miscellaneous PCB bin and thought it might be a great little project to add a microcontroller interface to it so I can use it as a convenient digital attenuator in my lab. The HMC624LP4E had been replaced by Analog Devices’ HMC624A-EP but these two chips are mostly identical so everything described in this post can be applied to the newer HMC624A as well. Continue reading ‘Controlling an HMC624LP4E RF Attenuator Using Arduino’ »
November 13, 2017, 10:29 pm
As mentioned in my previous post, besides the broken LCD there was also an issue with the power supply portion of the unit and the output voltage was clamped at around 10 to 11V. The digital circuitry portion however seemed to be intact. Unfortunately since an identical LCD is virtually unobtanium, I thought I’d reverse engineer the LCD protocol so once the power supply is fixed I can fix the display by hooking up a different LCD. Continue reading ‘Reverse Engineering of BK Precision 1696 Switching Power Supply’s LCD Protocol’ »
Tags:
7 Segment,
BK 1696,
BK Precision,
LCD,
NJU6433F,
Programmable Power Supply,
Protocol,
Reverse Engineering,
SDP,
SPI,
Switching Power Supply Category:
Electronics |
5 Comments
June 4, 2017, 11:45 am
I recently upgraded my home phone system and thus was left with a couple of old Uniden DCT648-2 handsets. Most of the components inside are probably not salvageable but these handsets use 3×16 character LCDs, so it would be nice if I could reuse them in my other projects. Continue reading ‘Reverse Engineering a Uniden Cordlessphone LCD’ »
Tags:
Arduino,
Atmega328P,
Cordless Phone,
DCT648-2,
Handset,
LCD,
Logic Analyzer,
Protocol,
Reverse Engineering,
SPI,
Uniden Category:
Electronics |
17 Comments
February 3, 2012, 10:10 pm
Since the current Arduino tools do not support in-circuit debugging, you will have to rely heavily on the serial print outs when tracking down those hard-to-find bugs unless you are one of those few elites whose code just works 100% every time. It is all good when you are doing your development when a computer is readily available. But what if you need to capture the outputs when you do not have the access to a computer? I found myself running into this situation quite often. Continue reading ‘Adding Off-Screen Buffer to Serial LCD Display’ »
July 30, 2007, 9:07 pm
In a post earlier this year, I wrote about how DELL uses inaccurate and even false technical data in its marketing material in order to attract consumer’s attention to a particular group of products it was offering. Continue reading ‘On “Ongoing Dialog With Dell”’ »
January 2, 2007, 7:40 am
So why should you buy an LCD instead of a CRT monitor? Well, an LCD is flat, lighter, more power efficient, and its viewable screen size is the same as the stated size (as opposed to CRT). Continue reading ‘LCD Vs. CRT – Dell’s False Advertising’ »