Author Topic: Components you wish existed.  (Read 60442 times)

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Offline dr.diesel

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Re: Components you wish existed.
« Reply #175 on: October 04, 2017, 02:57:00 pm »
Small single interface (I2C, SPI, whatever) multi gang environmental sensor:

 - Barometric pressure, humidity, altitude, temp
 - Complete 9 DOF IMU (accelerometer, magnetometer and gyroscope) with available post processing built in
 - CO, O2, NH3, H2S, NO2, HF, SO2, CL2, O3, C2H4, CH3O, ETO, N2, HCL (Probably missed a few)
 - Combustible Gas (all of the *tane's, *anol's, *tone's etc)

All with appropriate PPM/PPB where applicable.

Since I'm wishing let's toss in a ~1cm accurate > 50hz GPS, with external antenna port.

Something size suitable for IoT, phones, small robotics etc.


Online asmi

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Re: Components you wish existed.
« Reply #176 on: October 04, 2017, 03:49:14 pm »
I would love to have affordable bridge IC CSI/DSI<-> Parallel 24bit RGB. CSI/DSI IP cores for FPGA costs a fortune, as well as in most cases require external circuitry to make MIPI signals electrically compatible with FPGA IO :rant:

Online asmi

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Re: Components you wish existed.
« Reply #177 on: October 04, 2017, 03:52:43 pm »
- Barometric pressure, humidity, altitude, temp
BME280: https://www.digikey.ca/product-detail/en/bosch-sensortec/BME280/828-1063-1-ND/6136314

- CO, O2, NH3, H2S, NO2, HF, SO2, CL2, O3, C2H4, CH3O, ETO, N2, HCL (Probably missed a few)
 - Combustible Gas (all of the *tane's, *anol's, *tone's etc)
That would be huge and cost a fortune.
Something size suitable for IoT, phones, small robotics etc.
BME280 is 2x2 mm I believe, most 6DOF chips are also in that ballpark.

Offline xani

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Re: Components you wish existed.
« Reply #178 on: October 04, 2017, 03:55:26 pm »
I also would like to make a tricorder  ;D
to add, affordable (<$50 each)
  • thermal camera
  • wide-range optic spectrum analyzer,  200(UVA/B) to 1800(to cover various fiber flavours)
  • mini mass spectrometer

- An adapter that has 2.54mm male header pins on one side (say, 2x5) and individually spring-loaded pins on the other that will make contact with a wide range of PCB hole sizes. The header pins then go to a cable. For testing before soldering real headers on.

- Jumper wire with one end having some kind of connector that lets you make secure, but temporary connections with a plated through-hole of various sizes *vertically* at most points on a PCB.

These ideas are similar to the reusable solderless headers that I wish existed.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/components-you-wish-existed-88167/msg1206329/?topicseen#msg1206329

Wouldn't just a bunch of pogo pins + some way of clamping it to hold it in place be enough ?.

I did something similiar once for AVR isp header and it was basically a isp header breakout board with pogo pins + another one few mm below to make it rigid (basically a sandwich of 2 boards with some spacing).

Basically i could press it to unpopulared ISP header and press program to program the chip
 

Offline dr.diesel

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Re: Components you wish existed.
« Reply #179 on: October 04, 2017, 03:57:39 pm »
- Barometric pressure, humidity, altitude, temp
BME280: https://www.digikey.ca/product-detail/en/bosch-sensortec/BME280/828-1063-1-ND/6136314

- CO, O2, NH3, H2S, NO2, HF, SO2, CL2, O3, C2H4, CH3O, ETO, N2, HCL (Probably missed a few)
 - Combustible Gas (all of the *tane's, *anol's, *tone's etc)
That would be huge and cost a fortune.
Something size suitable for IoT, phones, small robotics etc.
BME280 is 2x2 mm I believe, most 6DOF chips are also in that ballpark.

yeah, i'm wishing, and want it all in a single package, single interface.

Offline BrianHG

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Re: Components you wish existed.
« Reply #180 on: October 04, 2017, 04:39:06 pm »
as well as in most cases require external circuitry to make MIPI signals electrically compatible with FPGA IO :rant:

To put it more precisely:

I would like an affordable FPGA with multiple 50 gigabit transceivers with built in differential receiver with cable length equalizers and programmable signal level differential cable drivers to accommodate all high speed differential buses directly, not just MIPI, but USB3.1, 10G Ethernet, SDI, HDMI, Display Port, ect...

The darn cable length equalizers are the nasty thing which usually requires an analog circuit...
 

Offline westfw

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Re: Components you wish existed.
« Reply #181 on: October 05, 2017, 12:03:16 am »
User-programmable USB device chip in the same price class (and physical size) as CH340g...
 

Offline NiHaoMike

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Re: Components you wish existed.
« Reply #182 on: October 05, 2017, 03:12:34 am »
A multiple input LDO that uses the lowest voltage input still able to achieve the set output voltage. The main use case being a device that has (for example) a 12V input and a 5V buck regulator that is only only some of the time. It also needs an always on 3.3V at a current too low to justify having a buck converter, but of which having the capability to regulate from the 5V rail when it is on gives a worthwhile power savings.
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Offline technix

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Re: Components you wish existed.
« Reply #183 on: October 05, 2017, 05:51:56 am »
A multiple input LDO that uses the lowest voltage input still able to achieve the set output voltage. The main use case being a device that has (for example) a 12V input and a 5V buck regulator that is only only some of the time. It also needs an always on 3.3V at a current too low to justify having a buck converter, but of which having the capability to regulate from the 5V rail when it is on gives a worthwhile power savings.
I would prefer the bypassable switcher approach (a switch mode regulator that have a bypass mode forcing the switching element on.) This way if you don’t need the 5V rail, you can shut most of it down with a MOSFET and bypass the regulator and force 12V out to the “5V” rail.
 

Offline Jeroen3

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Re: Components you wish existed.
« Reply #184 on: October 05, 2017, 07:11:15 am »
Look for 100% duty cycle switchers. They exist!

I would like serial memory (fram/flash/eeprom) that you can map to memory with read and write capability. Like you can with many parallel memory interfaces or quad-spi (read only).

 

Offline technix

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Re: Components you wish existed.
« Reply #185 on: October 06, 2017, 02:25:22 am »
Look for 100% duty cycle switchers. They exist!

I would like serial memory (fram/flash/eeprom) that you can map to memory with read and write capability. Like you can with many parallel memory interfaces or quad-spi (read only).
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Offline cdev

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Re: Components you wish existed.
« Reply #186 on: October 06, 2017, 03:32:11 am »
a navspark mini could likely interface with the bme280 and maybe some of the others and its GPS is in my experience quite accurate.. and its only around $7

will do 20 hz its one of the faster GPSs

Small single interface (I2C, SPI, whatever) multi gang environmental sensor:


 - Barometric pressure, humidity, altitude, temp
 - Complete 9 DOF IMU (accelerometer, magnetometer and gyroscope) with available post processing built in
 - CO, O2, NH3, H2S, NO2, HF, SO2, CL2, O3, C2H4, CH3O, ETO, N2, HCL (Probably missed a few)
 - Combustible Gas (all of the *tane's, *anol's, *tone's etc)

All with appropriate PPM/PPB where applicable.

Since I'm wishing let's toss in a ~1cm accurate > 50hz GPS, with external antenna port.

Something size suitable for IoT, phones, small robotics etc.


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Offline Jeroen3

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Re: Components you wish existed.
« Reply #187 on: October 06, 2017, 07:01:32 am »
...
That existed for a while and died: Fully Buffered DIMM.
I think there could be a market for say, ST, selling micro-controllers and memory IC that can be memory mapped instead of used with a software layer.
 

Online asmi

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Re: Components you wish existed.
« Reply #188 on: October 06, 2017, 01:04:41 pm »
I think there could be a market for say, ST, selling micro-controllers and memory IC that can be memory mapped instead of used with a software layer.
Many MCUs have external bus interfaces, and some even have SDRAM/DDR memory controllers.

Offline Jeroen3

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Re: Components you wish existed.
« Reply #189 on: October 06, 2017, 02:16:06 pm »
Yes I know. For large footprint IC's, with a large number of lines.
How about a memory mapped soic8 flash with only 3 lines that you can write to?
 

Online asmi

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Re: Components you wish existed.
« Reply #190 on: October 06, 2017, 07:00:06 pm »
Yes I know. For large footprint IC's, with a large number of lines.
How about a memory mapped soic8 flash with only 3 lines that you can write to?
How do you see this implemented over 3 lines? Without dedicated address lines any implementation will be incredibly slow, which kinda defeats the purpose of RAM as fast "scratch" memory space.
Besides, there are (Q-)SPI RAM chips out there, so perhaps they can be used to implement it somehow, but like I said, I don't really see utility for RAM which is that slow, unless you use huge bursts to amortise command/address phase.
Also there are HyperRAM chips from Cypress, which do provide up to 333 MB/s of bandwidth over just 11 or 12 lines, I used a couple of them on my FPGA board, but real achieved bandwidth heavily depends on access pattern - if you attempt to use it as RAM (as in random access memory), the bandwidth will be horrible as command/address phase takes 10 to 18 clock cycles, so you will need to use loooong bursts to get anywhere near theoretical 333 MB/s BW (it uses 166.667 MHz DDR interface over 8 DQ lines).
« Last Edit: October 06, 2017, 07:40:26 pm by asmi »
 

Offline GarthyD

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Re: Components you wish existed.
« Reply #191 on: October 06, 2017, 10:25:16 pm »
- An adapter that has 2.54mm male header pins on one side (say, 2x5) and individually spring-loaded pins on the other that will make contact with a wide range of PCB hole sizes. The header pins then go to a cable. For testing before soldering real headers on.

- Jumper wire with one end having some kind of connector that lets you make secure, but temporary connections with a plated through-hole of various sizes *vertically* at most points on a PCB.

These ideas are similar to the reusable solderless headers that I wish existed.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/components-you-wish-existed-88167/msg1206329/?topicseen#msg1206329

Wouldn't just a bunch of pogo pins + some way of clamping it to hold it in place be enough ?.

I did something similiar once for AVR isp header and it was basically a isp header breakout board with pogo pins + another one few mm below to make it rigid (basically a sandwich of 2 boards with some spacing).

Basically i could press it to unpopulared ISP header and press program to program the chip

That sounds like something that could be built that is functionally close. I don't suppose you remember the specific pogo pins you used? Did they handle holes that house 2.54" headers? I'd like to investigate them if so and you remember.

Yes I know. For large footprint IC's, with a large number of lines.
How about a memory mapped soic8 flash with only 3 lines that you can write to?

The SAM70 series (http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/Atmel-11242-32-bit-Cortex-M7-Microcontroller-SAM-S70Q-SAM-S70N-SAM-S70J_Datasheet.pdf) does memory mapped quad SPI with XIP (ie. run code direct from it), and if you used FRAM (8-pin) you've got fast non-volatile storage. It isn't exactly what you've asked for, but it does tick a lot of boxes. Haven't tried it myself but had planned to.

Imagine that backed with hardware cache. I bet one of the high-end ARMS does it.
« Last Edit: October 07, 2017, 05:30:08 am by GarthyD »
 
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Offline Etesla

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Re: Components you wish existed.
« Reply #192 on: October 12, 2017, 07:49:03 pm »
Flux Capacitor
 

Offline Neomys Sapiens

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Re: Components you wish existed.
« Reply #193 on: October 12, 2017, 10:30:59 pm »
A little box, containing the necessary components for making modular rotary switches for ALL the options that are possible (normal break-before-make, make-before-break, and shorting (all up to the current position).
For PCB and free mounted ones, in a high quality and reliability version. Also momentary with return, two steps on each side, and coaxial ones.
 

Offline coppice

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Re: Components you wish existed.
« Reply #194 on: October 13, 2017, 09:32:12 am »
A little box, containing the necessary components for making modular rotary switches for ALL the options that are possible (normal break-before-make, make-before-break, and shorting (all up to the current position).
For PCB and free mounted ones, in a high quality and reliability version. Also momentary with return, two steps on each side, and coaxial ones.
Kits like that were common in the 60s and 70s. I haven't seen one for decades, though.
 

Offline precaud

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Re: Components you wish existed.
« Reply #195 on: October 13, 2017, 01:48:40 pm »
Passive components that combine resistance and defined inductance. We could call them reductors or some other clever name. Resistance in the 1mOhm to 100mOhm range, inductance in the nH to uH range. Example: I could order a reductor with 4.7mOhm and 330nH. Or 10mOhm with 750nH.
 

Offline Neomys Sapiens

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Re: Components you wish existed.
« Reply #196 on: October 13, 2017, 07:57:01 pm »
I know those kits. But they don't produce rotary switches as nice as the ready-made ones and they always leave out some options. Most were low-to-medium quality and had open contacts.
 

Offline alexanderbrevig

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Re: Components you wish existed.
« Reply #197 on: November 07, 2017, 08:17:24 am »
I'm going nuts looking for this.

I have a PCB with an LCD close to the front panel, and I need to have a 1/4" jack on that same panel. I can of course route out a hole for a panel mount jack and then wire it up but seem so wasteful as it's an extra manual (expensive) step in assembly.
 

Offline RES

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Re: Components you wish existed.
« Reply #198 on: November 07, 2017, 08:29:04 pm »
3 mm RGB LED with four leads at the bottom (not in one line, but one on each "corner", in square) of the dome and without edge (with a dot for cathode/anode indication) Can only find these 3 mm RGB LEDs with the leads in line and without round shape.
« Last Edit: November 07, 2017, 08:52:19 pm by RES »
 

Offline technix

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Re: Components you wish existed.
« Reply #199 on: November 09, 2017, 07:44:42 am »
3 mm RGB LED with four leads at the bottom (not in one line, but one on each "corner", in square) of the dome and without edge (with a dot for cathode/anode indication) Can only find these 3 mm RGB LEDs with the leads in line and without round shape.

Surface mounted ones may work.
 


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