Using a PV panel indoors by biasing with an external power supply

Using a PV panel indoors by biasing with an external power supply

  May 01, 2025    Tahmid

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My introduction to working with solar panels goes back a long time. In fact, in 2012, I posted this article when I was working on some charge controllers and inverters. One consistent challenge when doing such work is always having a consistent reliable PV panel outdoors in bright (ideally not-too-hot) sunlight. This becomes difficult with varying weather conditions and limiting development.Recently I learned about how you can very easily use an external power...

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Power Testbench and Upcoming Power Electronics Tutorials

Power Testbench and Upcoming Power Electronics Tutorials

  March 30, 2025    Tahmid

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While I have written many articles on this blog about power electronics related topics, I am hoping to share more fundamentally structured tutorials and articles, based on power electronics fundamentals that have been reinforced during my time in graduate school. To that end, I have designed a testbench to cover topics ranging from basics to slightly more involved ones. I have completed the design of a power electronics test bench, sent out the PCB files to be fabbed...

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Sprucing up an old scope: fixing the dials on the Owon SDS6062V

Sprucing up an old scope: fixing the dials on the Owon SDS6062V

  January 01, 2025    Tahmid

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I got the Owon SDS6062V scope back in 2014 when it seemed a great deal compared to brands like Tektronix and much better than cheaper analog or portable digital scopes. These days, I've been using the Rigol DS1202 for hobby projects which is a better part, in my opinion. Of course, none of these are as nice as the Keysight MSOX scopes at work.I've demonstrated the Owon scope in previous projects such as Generating complementary PWM with adjustable deadtime for...

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Insights from repairing a 30V 5A power supply (BPS-305)

Insights from repairing a 30V 5A power supply (BPS-305)

  December 31, 2024    Tahmid

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When I started working on a project (hopefully more on that soon), I reached out for an old 30V 5A power supply (Lavolta BPS-305). I rotated the voltage dial to try to get to 24V and observed that the voltage would not go past 15V, even though it is rated for 30V. Even though this supply was a few years old, I had not personally used it before. So, it wasn't clear whether it was a previously-functioning supply that stopped working, or whether it was always broken.Fig....

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A low-cost high-side current sense amplifier: design considering non-idealities

A low-cost high-side current sense amplifier: design considering non-idealities

  July 10, 2024    Tahmid

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Current-sensing is commonly used in power electronics and embedded systems, both for system monitoring, as well as to take decisions. Examples of common use cases for the latter are:Monitoring inductor current for current-mode control in power convertersMonitoring converter current for overcurrent protectionReading battery charge current to inform the charging processReading output current to compute output power to inform how to proceed in an MPPT charge controllerUse...

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Generating complementary PWM with adjustable deadtime for the RP2040

Generating complementary PWM with adjustable deadtime for the RP2040

  July 03, 2024    Tahmid

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I have previously discussed the benefits of using the Raspberry Pi Pico, leveraging the easy-to-program Micropython along with the capable hardware peripherals: 2023 Updates: PhD; Pi Pico and Quick and dirty PIC16F72 programmer with the PicoSeveral articles in the blog have previously described applications of PWM in embedded systems, such as Stereo audio player using the PIC32, MCP4822, microSD card and the MDDFS library, DC motor control with...

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