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DISCOVERED NEW PRODUCTS
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New product announcements are made
nearly every day. I subscribe to many trade journals and each is filled with hundreds of
flashy advertisements. But, only a few of those product ads catch my eye. Since I’m
a circuit designer, I especially like those components that trigger many new application ideas
in my mind. Sometimes it is the smallest products that are the most useful.
Tiny surface mounted components that perform a nice little
function have countless applications. I also like anything that keeps battery power
consumption low. These days you can do many interesting things with a well-designed
circuit powered from just a few tiny button battery cells. |
I often discovered new products in surplus electronic catalogs.
The surplus companies often buy up stock that came from companies that went out of business.
Bad marketing or bad management may have killed a perfectly good product idea. Their loss
can be your gain if you can spot the bargain.
David A. Johnson, P.E. |
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Discovered New Products:
2010
2009 2008
2007 2006
2005 2004
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New Products 2006 |
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Low Power Voltage Comparators
from National Semiconductor |
The
LMC7215 from
National Semiconductor is a wonder device. I have found many applications for
this thing. Its 2 to 8 volt supply range is perfect for many battery powered
circuits. It draws only 1 microamp of current, yet can source or sink 25 milliamps
of current. This makes the device great for driving LEDs or big FETs. |
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Super Capacitors
from Cooper |
These are new devices looking for new applications. They are
like a hammer, looking for a nail. They can’t compete with batteries for energy
stored per unit volume or even energy per unit weight, but they will last much longer than
batteries and some have some real “punch” when it comes to delivering high peak power.
When coupled to a small solar cell panel, these devices can be charged during the day and
deliver their energy at night. I have also experimented with them for driving some
low voltage latching relays from small batteries. In that circuit, the big capacitor
is used as a charge pump to deliver more than enough peak voltage to the relay’s coil from
a single 3v lithium cell. There must over twenty different companies now offering
large capacitance devices in a small package. The capacitors from
Cooper are typical. Their AA size device claims a peak current delivery of 35
Amps with a voltage of 2.7 volts. |
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Tiny Single Gate Logic Devices
from Toshiba |
Have you ever had a design that required a single nand gate,
nor gate, inverter, analog switch or flip/flop? Now you don’t have to take up
valuable board space with a 14 pin logic package. You can just use one of these
devices. With the size shrunk down, these 5 or 6 pin devices can allow you to do
some neat things, while being squeezed into a small space. Fairchild, Toshiba
and Texas Instruments all have single gate devices. The
Toshiba
TC4S584 single Schmitt trigger inverter is typical. It has a wide power supply range
of 3v to 15v. By starving the device for voltage at 2.5 volts, you can make yourself
a nice low frequency oscillator, which draws only a couple microamps of current. At
the other extreme, The Toshiba
TC7SHU04 single unbuffered inverter can be turned into a voltage Amplifier with a gain
of about X10 and a bandwidth that exceeds 50MHz. |
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Latching Relays
from Aromat |
OK, I know, these are not the flashiest new products but I’m
amazed how many designs waste power by holding a set of relay contacts closed. Some new
latching relays are small and can handle over 10 Amps of current. This is enough to
power a good size pump motor or a bunch of lights. Using some small super
capacitors, I’m working out ways to latch and unlatch these relays using the power from a
small lithium battery cell. The relays from
Aromat are
typical. Their
DK1A-L2-3V can be latched or unlatched in about 20 milliseconds. It has a
contact rating of 10 Amps at 250vac and a coil resistance of 45 ohms. |
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Ultra Low Current Voltage
Detectors from Microchip |
These nifty parts will monitor the voltage from a battery
and change state when the voltage drops below a certain point. They do this feat
while drawing only a microamp or so of current. I have designed many
circuits using these things. You can even turn them into a very low power
oscillator with a few extra parts. These parts are available from
Digikey.
They are offered in both an open drain and a push pull output version. The series
54 draws only 1 microamp of current while monitoring voltages ranging from 1.4 volts
to 7.7 volts. The maximum voltage is 12 volts. |
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