OpenCircuits:Community portal

Welcome to Open Circuits. This is a good place to talk about Open Circuits, as a whole.

We have 794 articles now. Yay!

Anti-Vandalism Bot

It is my opinion that this should be the top goal for this site to accomplish.

We recently updated the $wgSpamRegex ( http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgSpamRegex ). It should block nearly all of the kinds of spam we've been seeing in the past. (Use Meta:Sandbox for testing). --DavidCary 08:46, 6 June 2007 (PDT)

The problem is, that this is not a one time thing. It must be updated regulary, so it also works for new kinds of spam --SebDE

Seeing a lot of stubborn spammers. Can we implement some kind of ip blocking mechanism?, that blocks repeated spam ip's for a week or so. Here's a list of known spammer ip.

Blocking based on IPs might be usefull if it uses a maintained black or gray list, but the kind of IP blocking is used around here doesn't help much. --SebDE

Disabling edits from users that aren't logged in might help a lot: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Faq#How_can_I_prevent_editing_by_anonymous_users.3F --Mzandrew 14:16, 8 September 2007 (PDT)

DavidCary wrote: "We want a system in a way that makes it very easy for anyone to help us." on his User Discussion page.

But it wouldn't hurt if the creation of new sites would be logged in users only. (Would reduce the need to delete certain articles over and over again) --SebDE

Or if someone's not logged in, could we enable a captcha so that the spammers would at least have to do it manually? Here's the ReCAPTCHA extension for mediawiki sites: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ReCAPTCHA There's also the ConfirmEdit extension. http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ConfirmEdit --Mzandrew 13:38, 9 September 2007 (PDT)

That is way to overdesigned if you know what I mean. And just btw it is hell for accessibility. I would rather see the use other techniques like wgSpamRegex and the use of a maintained IP black list first before using such ugly things... --SebDE

I have a whole bunch of PIC projects and things I think I can do to contribute to this Wiki, but the spam here is way way out of control. I'm looking at the change logs and I'm seeing 20 spam edits per day. I'm not so sure I want to contribute if my contributions are going to be destroyed in a matter or days. I think requiring a logon to make changes would cut out most of the spam. At this point, the problem is so bad that making things alittle harder for people to make changes is probably worth the benefits.

Also, this isn't directly related to spam, but it would be nice if the site didn't put nofollow on all the URLs. I think more people would be willing to add project info pages to the wiki if they new it would make them more visable in search engines. The wiki is small enough at this point that if people start abusing this it would be easy to ban or delete their account( assuming the change is made to require a login to make edits) Mzoran 21:42, 14 October 2007 (PDT)

electrical mailing lists

Yahoo claims they have 1,831 electrical engineering mailing lists. What would be a good way of letting the people on those lists know about the Open Circuits wiki, without spamming them? --DavidCary 13:30, 31 May 2006 (PDT)

• Publish cold fusion howto :-)
• Send one email/week and only once per list. And be on topic, listen carefully for responses.

Freqmax 16:24, 30 July 2007 (PDT)

about Open Circuits

So, is there any connection between http://OpenCircuits.org/ , http://OpenCircuits.net/ , and this http://OpenCircuits.com/ wiki? --DavidCary 23:47, 13 June 2006 (PDT)

No. There is no connection between any of http://opencircuits.com and the other websites listed. Chazegh 02:55, 18 June 2006 (PDT)

web rings

Document an original microcontroller project and join a PIC webring, or AVR webring. 20 June 2006

audio electronics

Is there some other wiki for people to talk about audio electronics? Or is this Open Circuits the best wiki for talking about things like "Analog Devices AN-221: The Alexander current-feedback audio power amplifier" by Mark Alexander ?

I think I would prefer to offload all the audio electronics controversies to some other wiki (but which one?). Still, it would be nice to have some "tips for high-power electronics" here. I imagine that tips page would list the various quirks of high-power MOSFETs, BJTs, TRIACs, and IGBTs, and (given a particular motor or speaker or other load) how to select one over the others, and various ways of working around those quirks. --65.70.89.241 07:17, 10 August 2006 (PDT)

I just joined Open Circuits. I have been servicing and designing audio equipment for several years (Recording consoles a specialty) I hope you will have a section for audio electronics. I also work with video projection systems and theatrical lighting (stage struck at an early age) I play electric rock-blues guitar, so I also am interested in tube guitar amps (Marshall and Boogie). And there is a big difference in what a guitar player thinks an amp should do, and what a recording engineer wants an amp for. I think these are valid points for discussion. I've also got an interest in power supplies (my experience is mostly with linear, but I've started learning about switching designs). In fact that brings me to my question, I have some regulator designs based on the 723 that I'd like to share. How do I go about doing that? I built a replacement for a console /- 18V @6A supply when I couldn't find the original regulator devices. I used 723s with external series pass devices. The unit has been working for close to 10 years now, so I think the design is worth sharing. Is anyone interested?

I also research discrete op amps like the Jensen 990. I've been working (on and off for years) on a clone of that using more modern, easily available parts and devices. Anyone else? Finally, in response to the first entry in this section, I too read that application note in Analog Devices Audio/Video Reference Manual. My copy is dated 1992. I've repaired a lot of amplifiers, but haven't built any. If anyone else is hip to this amp I'd like to hear about it. It is a very unique design. I also like the A75 amp design from Nelson Pass and Norman Thagard, and the Leach Amp by Marshall Leach. The last two are pretty normal as far as design goes, not as adventurous as the Alexander with its current-feedback approach. Aloha, RAF--66.8.194.185 14:04, 18 May 2007 (PDT)

automotive electronics

Is there some other wiki for people to talk about automobile electronics? Or is this Open Circuits the best wiki for talking about things like "experimental Do-It-Yourself programmable electronic fuel injection controller"? Or should we just point people who want to talk ECUs (engine control units) to the MSEFI discussion forum, even though it sadly lacks a wiki? --DavidCary 22:36, 2 July 2007 (PDT)

inviting bloggers to open circuits

how to connect a JTAG probe to a Nokia phone

I'd like to invite bloggers such as GyrosGeier to edit OpenCircuits. Rather than just spamming him, I think he would be more inclined to help out if we answered one of his questions first -- such as "If you have information on how to connect a JTAG probe to a Nokia phone, please let me know." Maybe I should start a page on JTAG... --DavidCary 09:37, 22 September 2006 (PDT)

The Hacked Gadgets blog also has a bunch of cool electronics. --DavidCary 11:58, 5 January 2007 (PST)

red links

The default skin at OpenCircuits currently has "red links" = page exists, "dark red links" = page does not exist.

I find that confusing. (But not as bad as the wiki that has some links black-on-white, indistinguishable from normal text).

work-around: Register (it's free, and you don't have to give any personal information), then choose the "preferences" link in the far upper-right corner and then pick any other skin.

The other skins have coloring that you may be more used to from other wiki: "blue links" = page exists, "red links" = page does not exist.

--DavidCary 08:58, 18 December 2006 (PST)

• • • Guys, the red color on links is AwuFul, it brings ppl headaches.

That's the only reason I cant participate ***

--Takeda 16:38, 29 September 2007 (PDT)

inviting people from other forums to open circuits

Lots of people talk about circuits for LED lighting at http://candlepowerforums.com/ . Perhaps we can talk some of them into contributing here -- perhaps using a page or two of Open Circuits as a FAQ for LEDs and drive circuits.

tool lists

Should we have an entire page on "tools", and mention it on the main page? That risks listing *every* tool anyone has ever heard about, like the page at http://massmind.org/techref/tools.htm . Yes, I'm responsible for uglier bits on that page; I think the wide variety of oscilloscopes are particularly confusing. How could we cut through the confusion?

I see the "techniques" page already has a list of software tools. Perhaps it would be nifty to have a short list of all the tools necessary for each technique? Then a beginner would have a better idea of what tools he really needs to get (rather than looking at a huge list of every tool, and wondering for each one, "Am I going to regret buying it when I see it gathering dust? Or am I going to regret not buying it when I need it during a midnight debug session?").

--DavidCary 08:37, 24 January 2007 (PST)

Requests For Help

Thanks for your help with the camcorder mic.

sample component

What is the purpose of the Sample Component ? --DavidCary 16:27, 7 May 2007 (PDT)

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current surge and battery life

Hi,

currently my board is using a 3V battery, in every 40msec it will turn on its RF to communicate with the base station. I face a problem here is that my battery life is badly affected. Turning on the RF with cause a current surge.

Will this surge affect my battery life? If I use a supercapacitor does it helps?

-- User:203.120.164.208 04:14, 30 April 2007

MIDI electrical interface

In my opinion, the MIDI interface got a lot of things right that too many later interfaces still trip over.

• http://www.repairfaq.org/filipg/LINK/F_MIDI.html -- ASCII schematics
• http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/30/how-to-control-csound-with-a-custom-midi-controller-hardware/ -- hand-sketched schematics
• http://www.midi.org/about-midi/electrical.shtml "MIDI Electrical Specification Diagram