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Altium Designer Projects

Browse and learn about pcb design projects built using Altium's software

Temperature Sensor Project: Resistance Temperature Detectors (RTD) In this part of the series, we’re looking at Resistance Temperature Detectors (RTD), which are among the most accurate temperature measuring elements we have easy access to. Read Article

Using Altium Designer for the Cellular Industrial IoT Industrial IoT can benefit hugely from cellular connectivity, and new cellular IoT hardware solutions are making it easy for innovators to build new products. Read Article

Temperature Sensors: Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) Thermistors This is part 3 of our project to test every type of temperature sensor with all the standard implementations/topologies. If you want to add a temperature sensor to your project, this series has you covered with all the options covering the full range of precision and cost. At the end of the series we’ll be building a pair of host boards for all the sensor cards we have developed which will allow us to test, compare and contrast the different Read Article

Oscilloscope Basics: A Beginner's Guide As electronics engineers, we’re incredibly lucky compared to other engineering disciplines. Not only are electronics rapidly evolving and expanding in use and functionality, but our test equipment gives us the greatest capabilities to diagnose and investigate the devices we have built. While all disciplines of engineering have fantastic suites of simulation tools, being able to see how something is performing in the real world can provide a lot Read Article

NTC Thermistors as Temperature Sensors NTC thermistors are the most commonly used class of sensor as they are cheap, easy to use, and accurate enough for most applications. Read Article

Temperature Sensor Project: Intro In this project we will build a range of PCBs which will cover all the temperature sensor types and circuits to implement them. Read Article

Low Noise, Low EMI Power Distribution This board has several loads on it, but it is purely a distribution board with no regulation. The main loads are the hefty 5V Tilta nano focus motor, 5V SDI to HDMI converter, 5V Tilta follows focus control, and the battery voltage powered monitor. Out of these, only the SDI to HDMI convert needs remotely clean power. The motor, however, is very electrically noisy, so it needs good isolation. Read Article

Single Cell Lithium Polymer Battery Charger Project Learn how to create your first Altium project. This simple example shows you how to build a low-cost USB powered single cell lithium polymer battery charger. Read Article

RGB + White LED Strip Controller I’ve been playing around with RGB LED strips recently for lighting up my test equipment rack as well as some display shelves. On the display shelves, I have the RGB LED strips behind the shelves, which gives a great definition to the objects on the shelf. But I also want to have a high CRI white LED strip on each shelf to light up the objects. Typical RGBW LED strips available through online marketplaces do not have very good white LEDs, and I’m Read Article

Low Noise, Low EMI Voltage Regulator A couple of months ago, I purchased an entry-level cinematography camera: the Black Magic Ursa Mini Pro 4.6K G2. I'm planning to use it for project videos, factory tours, and trade show interviews with it mostly being mounted on a shoulder rig. In addition to the camera itself, this requires a surprising number of devices to be powered. To save having lots of batteries to keep track of, I want to run everything off the main camera battery Read Article

12V DC Uninterruptible Power Supply I live in a rural village that tends to have intermittent power when there are high winds or storms. Because of this, my computers, servers, and network equipment are all on relatively low-cost, uninterruptible power supplies. These all run on sealed lead acid batteries and are not an overly efficient way to power a DC device such as a Raspberry Pi or internet router as the incoming mains. AC charges a DC battery, which then creates AC power Read Article

The “Mini Monkey” Board – Using the LPC55S69 in the VFBGA98 Package For as long as I can remember, I have been a microcontroller addict. In 2020 there is no shortage of component selection. We are also at an interesting period where MCUs can tackle complicated tasks that we may have chosen a high-end applications processor for. Quite a bit of my career has been focused on doing really awesome things in the MCU space as you get a great balance of cost, design control, and simplicity. I am always on the lookout for Read Article

Current Monitor and Controller Project in Altium Designer In a previous project, I discussed options for using Current Transformers, and built a single channel amplifier/precision rectifier for one. In this project, we’re taking that idea to new levels. The house I rent has only 240V/16A to the garage. This is unfortunate, because as a Maker, I have some pretty fun toys in my garage, such as a CNC router and laser cutter. I have some moulds to machine for an upcoming big project in which I’ll be Read Article

Creating a Powerful 150W LED Driver for Driving Large Lighting Panels Most of my recent projects have been working towards building a high CRI (Colour Rendering Index) light panel for cinematography. A good quality video light panel is expensive, and for good reason, but as a maker, I tend to like buying things instead of just buying them. My goal was to build a 300-320W panel. However, I’ve come to realize that the limitation for a panel with that many LEDs is not driving them, but instead reflowing the board. A Read Article

USB Charger Project in Altium Designer: Part 2 In a previous blog post, I showed the process for building a schematic for a custom USB charger board using Altium Designer. This board requires a small number of components and some particular attention to the power supply design/decoupling networks, but aside from this it’s quite easy to build out the connections you need for the USB A connectors. Here, I’ll show the strategy for translating this schematic into a compact board with a small form Read Article

USB Charger Project in Altium Designer: Part 1 When I’m in my office, I keep my pluggable USB charger around, otherwise the battery on my phone is likely to run out. If you want to build your own USB charger, you can create your own USB charger board with the powerful schematic design and layout tools in Altium Designer. Here, I’ll present the overall design process for a portable USB charger. The charger requires 12 V of power and charges two external devices through two USB ports. We’ll Read Article

Current Transformers: How To Project If you need to measure the current from an AC source, a current transformer can be a low cost, accurate option. You can find current transformers designed specifically for anything between 50/60Hz power line applications and much higher frequencies that are more suitable for industrial/scientific machinery or process monitoring. Current transformers are non-contact and non-invasive, meaning that you do not need to run AC power through your Read Article