Category Archives: Hardware

Information related to electronic hardware

Test Equipment and Manuals

August 22, 2024

It’s always a pain finding the manuals for test equipment. You might use it for a little while then you don’t need it for 6 months. The perfect solution is to put it where you can always find it quickly. Hmmmm. FG085 miniDDS Function Generator This generator is almost entirely based on the kit that is sold all… Read More »

MCP2221x – USB 2.0 to I2C/UART Protocol Converter with GPIO

April 2, 2023

The MCP2221x is used to allow a host computer to communicate with hardward via USB. The interface chip does not require any onboard logic to provide a bidirectional UART, and I2C interface. Using the appropriate host driver software to communicate to the chip, you can configure the remaining 4 GPIO pins as up to three 10-bit ADCs, single… Read More »

ESP8266 System on Chip

July 4, 2024

The ESP8266 is a System on Chip (SoC), manufactured by the Chinese company Espressif. The central processor is a Tensilica L106 32-bit microcontroller unit (MCU) and a Wi-Fi transceiver. It has 11 GPIO pins and an analog input also. Note that the ESP8266 chip itself has 17 GPIO pins, but 6 of these pins (6-11) are used for communication with the on-board flash memory chip.… Read More »

ESP-12E and ESP-12F

July 4, 2024

Some of the sites for information on the ESP3266 line of processors integrated into PCBs is Elecrow (site may not work), Utmel Electronics and Electronics Hub. This excerpt compares and contrasts the devices. Other modules specifications at Ai-Thinker Technology. Good source for pin functionality and tutorials at Random Nerd Tutorials. ESP8266 is a low-cost and high-performance wireless SOC,… Read More »

Notable Datasheet Links

April 3, 2023

Datasheets for items I have used in projects for quick reference. ICs AT24C32 – Atmel 2-Wire (I2C) Serial EEPROM, 4096/8192 8-bit words (Module using part) DS3231 – Extremely Accurate (I2C) RTC/TCXO/Crystal (Module using part)