NI Multisim I give a thumbs down. It was a good tool when it was Electronics Workbench. NI bought it and ruined it.   LTSpice is used by everyone I work with. One person even uses TI Tina. Tina is a little clunky, and I don't get as much use out of it. Linear's tool is awesome!   The...

I myself might go with an AC transformer, create a full-wave bridge rectifier circuit, use two larger electrolytic caps, two smaller value ceramics, and add two voltage indicating LEDs.

I've used the ST50 and TD-100 pencil. A nice combination. I had near thirty different tips for the TD-100. I hope you enjoy your new setup.

Another feature I like is the auto off with the digital station. Some analog have it too. It's much easier to look at the display and see a lower temperature due to auto shut-off.

My project ended up not using a digital pot at all. The cost of adding a VCA into the design was too great. For my own circuit, I'd go with a VCA.   I can't ever use a Maxim or Dallas Semiconductor part ever again. They bit me hard while working in the audio industry, and failed to deliver a...

Analog Devices makes some nice digital pots. I worked on a project many years ago where a digital pot was an option for replaced resistive pots. It was a short lived idea. The digital pots all had problems with "zipper noise" Each time a signal was sent to attenuate, or boost a signal, the pot...

I have a Pace analog station, and a Pace digital station. I greatly prefer the digital over the analog. The digital has a feature which allows you to set a temperature and lock it so someone else can't come along and change it.

Quote: The prices of CAD software are amazingly high. I think the software vendors are realizing this. In the last year or so, Altium has been allowing people to obtain the software without dishing out thousands of dollars in one transaction. Hopefully the huge influx of free PCB...

I have over ten years experience with Altium tools. First started using Protel in 1998 or so. Then switched over to Mentor Graphics PADS for a year, then to P-CAD. Used P-CAD for ten or so years and finally don't do major PCB layouts anymore. All I can say is Altium kicks ass.   For free...

This has me so confused.Does the Onkyo receiver not have a switch for turning off the speakers? Most other receivers do.    

That sounds like one nice relay. I found some a while back which has various gases in them also. Not sure what ever came of them though.

Not all relays are sealed. The contacts can all be different too. I've seen copper contacts, silver contact, nickel plated something, and can't remember what else. Relays are cool though. I like them.

I bridged a couple of LM386 chips once. There were three version of that chip at the time I had them. I can't remember how much power I ended up getting out, it was enough to run an 8-ohm speaker pretty powerfully though. My circuit involved and op amp to invert the phase going to one chip, the...

The best I was able to find is on the following link. If you look at page 10, it has a circuit called a "Limit Comparator". You actually only need one half of this circuit for what you want to do.   You basically set some reference voltage on one of the pins, and feed your signal to the...

Comparator circuit. That will do it.