Exploring Engineering Marvels and Challenges | Electronics Weekly

Off to spend more time in Wonderland

Steve Bush — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 10:45:18 +0000

I am leaving this blog to spend more time making things in the workshop and, hopefully, finally mastering FreeCad – amongst other mountains to climb (both intellectual and physical). So ...

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Mosfet replacement for SCR-based 180Vdc motor drivers

Steve Bush — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 15:29:34 +0000

There are easier-to-use alternatives to the thyristor (aka SCR) based mains fed motor controllers used to control ‘180Vdc’ brushed electric motors. These are mosfet choppers, but they tend to cost ...

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A proper isolated dc current sensor?

Steve Bush — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 15:34:52 +0000

An isolated dc current sensor is required. Isolation in this case, is from the mains, and it transpires that finding something that will do the job safely is tricky. Three ...

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Is Qualcomm bad for Arduino?

Steve Bush — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 11:21:08 +0000

I can’t say that my heart leapt for joy when I saw that Qualcomm had bought Arduino. It is not that Qualcomm doesn’t make great semiconductors, and the first Arduino ...

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One I missed: LTG8F328P improved ‘Arduino’ processor

Steve Bush — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 11:13:51 +0000

Arguably, the ATmega328P is being left behind as ‘the Arduino processor’ because Arduino’s are following the rest of the world and going 32bit. But on the other hand, something simple ...

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Adafruit accurate humidity and temperature sensor

Steve Bush — Thu, 27 Nov 2025 14:10:17 +0000

The Sensiron SHT45 precision temperature and humidity sensor got featured here a couple of years ago, and wonderful Adafruit has picked up on it, and not only produces SHT4x breakout ...

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A development lab desktop cnc machine?

Steve Bush — Wed, 05 Nov 2025 16:15:53 +0000

Desktop cnc cutting machines are following the same path as 3d printers, and might just be reaching the point where one could be useful in a development lab. Suitable hardware ...

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Hats off to Sprint Electric

Steve Bush — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 08:18:00 +0000

Wonderland’s current pwm to voltage converter mini-project is to interface a modern grblHAL cnc board with a late 1990s era thyristor-based motor control board in an milling machine. The board ...

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A good Isolated pwm to 0-10V converter?

Steve Bush — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 11:45:40 +0000

Once more opto-isolators are to be seen in Wonderland. The aim was to see if the faster photodiode types can operate quickly in common collector mode. They consist of an ...

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Wooden beam success

Steve Bush — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 15:26:16 +0000

Making beams thicker makes them stiffer, but I had no feel for how much. Some bikes needed hanging up at in a neighbour’s shed, but there was very little vertical ...

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