Electronics Resources
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General Information
Many undergraduates, especially, senior projects, are often looking for software,
device information,
and parts for their projects. This page is a collection of resources which I
have come across. Please let
me know of any others which should be added to the list.
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Electronic Parts
These are generally good places to get electronics parts for senior projects,
etc.
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- Analog Devices - has a lot of good
(but expensive) chips and a lot of really useful applications notes.
- Motorola - major manufacturer
of integrated circuits and semiconductos. Check out their applications notes.
- Texas Instruments - major manufacturer
of integrated circuits and semiconductos. Check out their applications notes.
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- To find data sheets and application notes from most manufacturers check
out:
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- Google Application
Notes and Data Sheets. This is a great central location to track down
part information and see how to actually use the parts.
- Places to buy integrated circuits and other electronic parts:
- Digi-Key
- Jameco Electronics
- Radio Shack
- Two of my favorite electronics sites:
- Educator's
Corner - This site publishes labs for engineering courses. Be sure
to check out all the experiments!
- Circuit Cellar - A
site by engineers for engineers! Has some excellent bulletin boards.
- Want to buy a used scope or find some odd electronic parts?
- Electronic Surplus Inc
- About 20 minutes from campus. They have a lot more than their web
page shows.
- HGR Industrial Surplus
- also about 20 minutes from campus. This is a good place to look for
cheap oscilloscopes and other electronic equipment. They have a great
on-line catalog with
pictures of everything. Click
on ELECTRONICS and
then do a search for "oscilloscope" as
an example. You will usually find several oscilloscopes under $100
and many as low as $29.99. You can also search by a specific
manufactuer, i.e., "tektronix," for Tektronix equipment.
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Printed Circuit Boards
In these days of surface mount components many students need to lay out
and produce PCBs (printed circuit boards. The department has a miniature
router which can mill PCBs but there is a charge for using this. However,
there are many on-line companies which will produce multiple-layer PCBs
for very low cost from a Gerber file (a special graphics format used by
the photolithography and pcb industries).
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- Sites which list a lot of useful electronic programs.
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- University of Nebraska
electronics resource center.
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- Companies which make printed-circuit boards. Many of these require that
you use their software which you download from their Web site.
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- Express PCB
- PCB Express will
provide up to $350 in PCB fabrication to student groups. For this they
require that you acknowledge them on your project Web site.
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- Some PCB programs which produce Gerber files.
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- PCB
is a UNIX based PCB layout program now maintained by Johns Hopkins Applied
Physics Lab.
- Osmond PCB is
a Mac based PCB layout program. Note that it is currently a Beta.
- PADS PCB is a
DOS based PCB layout program which has been around for a long time.
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- This site
maintains a list of PCB layout programs.
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An excellent tutorial on
how to use basic PCB design software to lay out a PC board.
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- Additional references
on what a PCB is, how to design one, and how to solder surface mount components.
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Free Printed Circuit Boards for CWRU Students
In general we can provide free printed circuit boards for CWRU
students. Any
circuit board, whether for a course, a senior project, or a personal
project is eligible for funding.
We have been using ExpressPCB which can be downloaded
for free at Express PCB. Please try to limit the board size to 3.8”
X 2.5” so that the “MiniBoard service” can be used. Larger boards can
be provided if necessary. No solder mask or silk-screen is available,
and you are restricted to a defined set of hole sizes and a rectangular
outline.
Contact Ed Burwell to get the latest information about vendors and how to submit boards for fabrication.
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Serial Communications
One of the most common requests I receive is for information about serial
communications, UARTS, and modems. The following are some of my favorite
references on that subject.
- Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill, The Art of Electronics, 2nd Edition,
Chapter 10, Microcomputers is an excellent
overview of early eight bit microcomputers. It describes basic computer
architecture, the 8086, assembly
language programming, the bus and how to interface to it. Section
10.19 begins a good discussion of serial communications, ASCII, how
to wire DB-25 connectors, handshaking, and modems.
- Alan Clements, Microprocessor Systems Design, 2nd Edition,
Chapter 9, The Serial Input/Output Interface
describes serial communications with the 68000 microprocessor.
There is a detailed explanation of ASCII, serial communications and
timing, the 6850 ACIA (Asynchronous Communications Interface Adapter),
the 68681 DUART, the RS-232 and RS-422 interface standards, the 1488
line driver, and the 1489 line receiver.
- John B. Peatman, Design with PIC Microcontrollers,
Chapter 11,
UART describes how to use a UART (Universal Asynchronous Receive/Transmit)
with Microchip's PIC series of microcontrollers. The discussion concentrates
on timing
and using the PIC's registers
to control it's built-in UART.
- Scott Edwards, Programming and Customizing the BASIC Stamp Computer,
Chapter 13, Worldwide Remote Control
with C2TERM describes how to use Parallax's BASIC Stamp (a hybrid computer
module incorporating the Microchip PIC) to implement serial communications
by modem or through BSR's popular X-10 power line control modules.
- David Benson, PIC'n Up the Pace,PIC/16/17 Microcontroller
Applications Guide describes the PIC
16/17, hardware for serial communications, and includes a number of
detailed project examples of serial sommunications including PIC-to-PIC
serial communications.
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Electronics Software
There are many sites which maintain lists of electronic softtware ranging from PCB layout
software to specialized electronic design software.
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- University of Nebraska
electronics resource center.
- PSpice is one of the most useful
programs you can find for modeling and analysis of simple circuits.
My old 245 Web page has
links to the new Cadence Web site and to local files for downloading..
Created: 2002-1-12. Last Modified: 2009-3-8.