Acroname Blog

Setting up product manufacturing involves many complicated systems and processes. In order to produce millions of devices a month, companies need to massively scale these systems. Yet this scale is in direct conflict with fast product changes and time-to-market for "the next big thing". Major…

Acroname's BrainStem® technology is a foundational tool for bridging the gap between hardware and software systems. BrainStem controllers gather and relay peripheral information to other systems, which may be a host computer, additional microcontrollers or an array of sensors and testing equipment…

Today's mobile devices continue to integrate more features and functions into ever smaller packages. Features usually win over battery life during the design phase. In order to help quantify and develop test methods, Acroname was contracted by a major cellphone manufacturer to design a mobile…

OVERVIEW A common automation system requirement is to drive or actuate high power loads using low level voltage signals. Motors, solenoids, relays and capacitive loads can be actuated with appropriate circuitry that is only possible using small current/voltage combinations often found in…

INTRODUCTION The Sharp family of infrared range finders are used extensively for robotics and automatic distance measurement applications. Unfortunately, the output of these sensors are inherently non-linear. In other words, a big change in output voltage does not always indicate a big change in…

The most popular infrared detectors and rangers are designed and manufactured by Sharp.  Boasting a small package, low-power consumption, and a variety of output options, Sharp Infrared Detectors and Rangers are built for any application that requires accurate distance measurements. Creators…

INTRODUCTION Electromotive force (EMF) refers to the voltage generated by a spinning motor. Measuring this voltage in order to determine the rotational speed of a motor is commonly called Back-EMF since the voltage tends to "push-back" against the circuit driving current into a motor's windings.…

PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) refers to the concept of rapidly pulsing a digital signal on a wire. Along with many other uses, it can be used to simulate a varying static voltage. PWM is commonly used for driving motors, heaters, LEDs or lights in varying intensities or speeds. TERMINOLOGY…

HOKUYO COMPARISON The table below shows some of the basic features and prices of the Hokuyo units tested and compared in this article. They are, the UTM-30LX-EW, the UST-10LX, and the URG-04LX-UG01. TABLE OF FEATURES AND PRICES    UTM-30LX-EW  UST-10LX URG-04LX…

  Sharp infrared ranging modules boast a small package, very low power consumption and a variety of output options. In order to maximize each sensor's potential, it is important to understand how these types of IR sensors work, their effective ranges, and how to interface to them. Sharp…