ePanorama.net

All about electronics and circuit design

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Is H.264 a legal minefield?

H.264 use isn’t all free all the time. MPEG-LA is the industry group that licenses the H.264 patent portfolio to the likes of software companies, optical-disc duplicators, Blu-ray player makers, and others who have need to use H.264. MPEG LA licenses a portfolio of more than 1,000 H.264-related patents on behalf of 26 companies that →

Take advantage of open-source hardware

It does not always pay to design everything from ground up. Basing your product on a reference design or demo board can speed time to market. And on hobby projects using ready designs can help you so that you can concentrate using your time on the most interesting parts instead spending most of the time →

Electrolytic capacitor failures

The most common reasons that modern digital electronics devices fail seem to be a bad electrolytic capacitors. Bad electrolytic capacitors cause frequent failures of switch mode power supplies. It seems power supplies are often the weakest link in many modern electronics devices. Since there is tremendous price pressure on PC’s and other consumer electronics devices, →

Ecosia green search

Green his the web. Ecosia is a new Internet search engine backed by Yahoo, Bing and the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). According to site description it basically works like any other search engine but, it gives most (80%) if it’s advertising revenue to a rainforest protection program run by the WWF. Ecosia users →

Design by Community Smartphone

Do you want to help create a smartphone concept device of the future? Between March and May 2010 Nokia wants to harness the collective thoughts of the Conversations readership to map out a concept device of the future. It is a six-step process where you get to vote for the features and functions you think →

Unshielded RCA cable is bad design

Here is a bit long article about HIFI system interconnect cables. There are pages promoting use of different unshielded cable constructions for HIFI systems interconnections. But the truth is that unshielded RCA cable is bad design and should be avoided. This article tells the truth about unshielded RCA cables, why they are bad and how →

Broadband using LED lamps

Broadband through LEDs tips up article tells that German Scientists believe the light coming in to your home could by encoded to receive a wireless broadband signal. The scientists think they can transport data at high bandwidths (currently 230Mbps) by generating a signal in a room by slightly flickering all the lights in unison. The →

LED lamp challenges

Nowadays there is ENERGY STAR rating for solid state lamps in USA. Solid-state lighting (SSL) products that meet efficiency and performance criteria set by the U.S. Department of Energy can earn the ENERGY STAR. For more details refer to the ENERGY STAR Requirements for SSL Luminaires. In December 2009, DOE published ENERGY STAR criteria for →