16-channel solid-state power controller for military and aerospace applications introduced by DDC | Circuit Breaker Parts

OK … back to the task at hand. Anyone care to comment on how a toaster oven is wired? How about a thermal blanket? None of these use a 12V or 24V switching power supply brick, so how do they do it???

No need, really. You just need a few mates with smartphones – just enable the wifi hotspot on each of them, place them roughly in a circle and put your coffee in the center. Make sure to dismantle the circle before you reach in for your cup though if you don’t want to get fried too – safety first!

The back-EMF voltage generated across the start winding causes a small current to flow in the start winding and potential relay coil, because they are in the same circuit. When the back-EMF has built up to a high enough value (referred to as pick-up voltage), the contacts between terminals 1 and 2 will be picked up (“opened”). This will take the start capacitor out of the circuit.

I also seen a technique where a relay is placed in parallel with the zero crossing triac so the triac is only passing the load for 200ms or so while the relay switches. Since the triac is on longer than the relay, the contacts don’t arc over when switching, and the traic doesn’t pass the current all the time.

I recently had a home inspector ask me how hot is too hot when it comes to circuit breakers and switches. Many home inspectors, including all of the inspectors here at Structure Tech, use infrared cameras during home inspections. These cameras can’t see through walls, but can often alert us to problems with a house that can’t be seen with the naked eye.

The most unusual capability of the Sony Alpha A33′s video mode is enabled by its translucent mirror. The Sony A33 can continue to use phase detection autofocusing during movie recording, allowing swift adjustments to focus as your subject moves. Since standard Alpha-mount lenses are used, this focusing action is accompanied by significant levels of AF drive noise, which is clearly picked up by the camera in recorded videos. For consumers, this is likely a relatively small price to pay for sharply focused video, however, given that manually pulling focus during video capture is a difficult art to learn. If focus point selection is set to local, the Sony A33 even allows the active focus point to be changed during video capture, and it’s also possible to adjust exposure compensation during recording. Also available in Movie mode are the autoexposure lock function to prevent variations in scene brightness, and white balance, creative style, AF area and metering mode functions. However, if autofocus is used, lens aperture must be controlled automatically by the camera, regardless of AF servo mode. When using manual focus, the A33 allows manual control of aperture before video capture commences. In all cases, shutter speed and ISO sensitivity of videos is controlled automatically.

Heating is a function of power loss, which varies by the square of the voltage drop and inversely with the resistance. Current is a fallout of the voltage drop across the resistance. While typically stated as I*I*R losses, getting that “I” to be a big number with a low input voltage means that R has to also be low, which decreases power. Requiring a low R for the heating element magnifies the power losses in the rest of the circuit, where heat isn’t desired.

Sega announced on its Twitter account today that the release of its Mega Drive Mini, a miniature version of its classic console, would be delayed until sometime in 2019. The Mega Drive Mini’s release was originally slated to coincide with the console’s 30th anniversary in Japan, but its global availability was unknown. Now, the company has confirmed that the miniature console will be released as the Mega Drive Mini in Japan and Europe and as the Genesis Mini in North America.

Interesting how both the sounds and the letters on a QWERTY keyboard for V and B are close enough that it’s possible to switch them by accident.

Flash. The Sony A33 includes an auto-popup flash strobe with a guide number of 10 meters at ISO 100, as well as a proprietary flash hot shoe. The built-in flash has 18mm coverage, and a recycle time of four seconds. Flash modes include Auto, Auto w/ Red-eye reduction, Fill, Fill w/ Red-eye Reduction, Slow-sync, and Rear-sync. Flash metering modes include ADI and pre-flash TTL. +/-2 EV of flash exposure compensation is available, in 1/3 EV steps, and flash exposures can also be bracketed, with three frames varying by 1/3 or 2/3 EV. External strobes including the HVL-F36AM, HVL-F42AM, HVL-F56AM, and HVL-F58AM support high-speed sync and wireless shooting.

Hey [Martin] I think you deserve some recognition for your contribution here tonight (or whatever time it is for you).

In case you hadn’t noticed, 2010 is the Year of 3D in the HDTV space, and all the television makers are rushing to add 3D capability across their product lines. Sony has come up with a clever way of capturing 3D images using the same "sweep" technology as in their normal 2D panoramas. As the camera is swept across a scene, it will naturally see various parts of the subject from slightly different angles at different points along its sweep. Sony’s engineers have taken advantage of this to add a 3D Sweep Panorama mode to a number of their cameras, the A33 and A55 included. While the 3D data is apparently stored in a fairly standard file format, viewing the 3D images currently requires connecting the camera’s HDMI output to a Sony 3D-capable television set. Sony’s promised 3D Sweep Panorama playback support for their PS3 game consoles, supposedly coming as early as this September. That’s still a bit limiting, but hopefully as 3D technology matures, various manufacturers will be able to read each others’ 3D formats.