Federal Trade Commission said Broadcomm bullied its customers into exclusive contracts in order to buy Broadcomm chips. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/07/broadcom-is-a-monopolist-ftc-orders-chipmaker-to-stop-illegal-tactics/?amp=1
2021-06-12 First Commercial Semiconductor Device
Q: What was the first commercially successful semiconductor device? Hint: It wasn’t germanium. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Harrison_Chase_Dunwoody
2021-05-11 Power Supply Protection Diodes
First off, *all* power supplies should have what this one has. A high current diode across the output jacks, cathode or banded end to positive. This is to protect the output from reverse voltage. A high current diode across the 2N3055 pass transistor, cathode or banded end towards the collector. This protects the transistor from
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2021-05-06 Farming With Salty Water
The farm land that has salt can be used to grow vegetables. 2.1 minute YouTube video. https://youtu.be/sspt-evxL0Q
2021-02-25 Set Blows Out Substitute Diodes
From FB group I take … Alejandro Cruz He said a diode is a diode but there are more than volts and current. The reverse recovery time is important. If it is rectifying 50 or 60 Hz AC then standard recovery time is good. If it’s rectifying high frequencies then it should be fast recovery
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2021-02-08 IEEE.ORG Website Is Not Private. Intersil ICL 8038 Function Generator
Chrome won’t allow me to connect to the spectrum.ieee.org website because it’s saying it’s not private. I go to learn more and they don’t have any way to override the error message. I went here first to read the story and tried the link at the end to comment. https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/tech-history/silicon-revolution/decoding-the-innovation-delusion-nurturing-the-maintenance-mindset They asked in an article
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2020-10-29 Freq Counter – Crystal Tester Mod For Low Frequencies
I got this frequency counter and crystal tester mainly for the frequency counter. Today I decided to test a few crystals, and was successful with ones above 10 MHz but not at 4 MHz. The two capacitors labeled C2 and C3 are the feedback to the crystal, and they were originally 22 pF. So I
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2020-09-05 Capacitive Dropper Failures In 240 VAC countries
From a comment I left in Big Clive’s youtube video https://youtu.be/jgaCYRc1-og In the past I’ve seen Clive having to replace “used up” capacitors in the ‘capacitive dropper’ circuits of low cost line operated devices. The problem seems to be common in other countries but here in the US I haven’t seen any problems with the
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2020-06-11 Optocouplers Don’t Always Protect
From FB comment Monty Ross It’s true that optocouplers are used for isolation. But I have seen whole sections of PC boards with a hole burned where the optocouplers used to be. It is incredible how much damage the power lines do to the PC boards due to high voltage spikes in the power. Transformers
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