KiCad Portable

How to make KiCad, the free open source EDA Portable!

Download KiCad Installer

download the installer from: http://kicad-pcb.org/download/

Alternative you can use the KiCad Winbuilder to get the bleeding edge, but it can take quite a while to compile KiCad on your system! (took me 2 days on my a bit slow pc...)

Install to USB device

start the installer and choose a USB Stick as the place to install.

Enjoy!

Thats it, take your USB Stick with you and enjoy KiCad Portable!

Bottom line

KiCad is portable out of the box, there is no need to do anything, just install it to a USB Stick and take it with you.

There is a KiCad portable Project on Sourceforge, but it is from 2011! Dont use 4 years old code, make it from the latest source by yourself!

Arduino I2C multiple slaves

Connecting more than 1 I2C device to an Arduino is simple, if you follow some basic rules.

I2C Basics

The I2C bus is designed to be a multipoint serial connection system.
So it was always intended to use with multiple devices.

But how can they share the same Pins on the Arduino?

Here is a simple layout:

The µC Master is the Arduino, with multiple I2C Slaves connected over the SDA and SCL Lines.

The Trick is within the 2 pullup Resistors Rp!

I2C pullup resistors

They are needed to help the devices with getting the slew rates it needes.

If want to just get it going, take 4.7k and it will work when you have just 1 slave.

But we want to make it right or?

The size is depending from the total capacitance in the circuit, so you will have to look to the datasheets and sum up the capacitance to get our Cb, next look up the formula:

Rp(max) = tr/0.8473 x Cb

Where tr is our allowed rise time for the signal, take this with 1µs.

So what? What happens when the resistor is wrong?

I2C wrong pullup resistor

if the resistor is to high the signal rises to slow, that will cause missing bits -> trouble.

But also to low values get you trouble, they will draw too much current, do not go below 1,5k.

Good practice is to first make the calculations, then hook up a oscilloscope and verify your values.

I2C bus slave address conflict

Every slave must have a unique address, so check your datasheets and ensure that the devices all have unique addresses!

I2C Bus with mixed Voltages

mixing 5V and 3V devices is possible, but dont just connect them together!

(AN97055)

It needs a bidirectional level shifter, common practice is to use Mosfets with clamping diodes.

Take a look at the Application Note 10441 from NXP it is about "Level shifting techniques in I2C-bus design"

Also the old Application Note AN97055 "Bi-directional level shifter for I2C-bus and other systems." is a more in depth read about it.

Sources:

NXP AN10216 I2C Manual

Silabs AN0011 I2C Master and Slave Operation

TI SCAA106 Troubleshooting I2C Bus Protocol

DSScircuits Effects of varying I2C pullup resistors

NXP AN10441 Bidirectional level shifter for I2C

Phillips AN97055 Bi-directional level shifter for I2C-bus and other systems

Marantz CD-73 Kondensator tauschen

der Marantz CD-73 (Baujahr 1983!) ist immer noch einer der am besten klingenden CD Spieler den es gibt.
Die Bauqualität ist erstaunlich, der Laser wird wohl auch die nächsten 30 Jahre leben, aber die Kondensatoren nicht...

Dieser hier klingt grauenhaft, es brummt stark, nichts von wohlklang zu hören! Ein bekanntes Problem, die Kondensatoren sind eingetrocknet.

Weiterlesen ...

Marantz 1090 Phono Disable

The vintage (build year 1978!) Marantz 1090 amplifier is equipped with 4 regular inputs and 2 phono inputs. We need more regular inputs, so the phono stage was shortcut to get 6 regular inputs, yeah!

To see how its done, click "Weiterlesen"

Weiterlesen ...