Digi-Key

Digi-Key Electronics, a global electronic components distributor, and Student Circuit, an online resource for anyone undertaking further education within the world of electronics, has announced a competition to win ten SNAPTAIN drones and one InstaLab Kit at ten universities during the Freshers Week events 9th September - 2nd October, 2019. 

Digi-Key Electronics, a global electronic components distributor, and Student Circuit, an online resource for anyone undertaking further education within the world of electronics, announced today a competition to win 10 SNAPTAIN drones and one InstaLab Kit at 10 universities during the Freshers Week events 10 Sept. – 2 Oct, 2019. U.K. university students can enter the competition, and other Digi-Key giveaways, at one of the university events at Digi-Key & Student Circuit’s booth or via the Student Circuit competition page.

High energy density switch-mode power supplies (SMPSs) can accelerate battery charging, reduce the size of solar micro-inverters, and meet the demand of server farm power requirements, all without generating excessive heat. However, engineers are now reaching the performance limits of the silicon MOSFETs and IGBTs that form the primary switching elements of conventional SMPSs. Instead, transistors constructed from enhancement-mode gallium nitride (eGaN)—a wide bandgap semiconductor—can now be used to overcome the switching speed and efficiency limitations of silicon devices.

In the rush to more quickly and efficiently connect the analogue and digital worlds to take advantage of the Internet of Things (IoT), it’s easy but unwise to overlook the critical role of the voltage reference. Used by analogue-to-digital (ADC) and digital-to-analog (DAC) converters as the primary standard by which to “judge” the analogue input and output values, it helps ensure accurate signal and data conversion, but only if it is selected appropriately and applied correctly. Here Rich Miron, Applications Engineer at Digi-Key Electronics briefly describe the structure and characteristics of a voltage reference and describe how to go about selecting one.

Using the Arduino Platform and basic coding, in this video from Digi-Key, Robin shows how it possible to store data on a serial EEPROM memory chip with the I2C serial bus. 

Touchscreens and membrane switches are useful for visual and low-profile control panels. However, some applications require designers to emphasise safety, ease of access, the switching of high voltages or current, a known configuration at power up, or robustness. For such situations, mechanical switches and buttons are often ideal, but designers need to choose carefully. Rich Miron, Applications Engineer at Digi-Key Electronics, explains.

Digi-Key Electronics has confirmed its support of Renesas Electronics and IDT's broad product portfolios after the official announcement of completion of Renesas’ acquisition of IDT. To showcase how the complementary Renesas and IDT product portfolios work together, the companies developed “Winning Combinations,” compelling Renesas-plus-IDT product combinations that capture and highlight the technological advantages provided by the newly combined company.

Digi-Key Electronics and BQR Reliability Engineering are collaborating to deliver a simple yet powerful Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) calculator to support Digi-Key’s global customers. The tool makes it easy and quick to calculate MTBF for BOMs of any size. Users can export the BOM file and click on “Launch Calculator” on the Digi-Key website and the result appears immediately.

A secondary KiCad library, known as the Digi-Key Partner Library, has been released by Digi-Key on GitHub. It is intended to be a supplement to the existing Digi-Key KiCad library released last year. Whereas the previous library was developed and curated by Digi-Key’s Applications Engineering team, the Partner Library was created to allow manufacturers to submit their own symbols and footprints to be compiled into the Digi-Key format.

During embedded world 2019 in Nuremberg (February 26-28)Digi-Key Electronics will have representatives on-hand to talk about some of the latest products and technology they have to help make the jobs of engineers and designers easier and more efficient. In addition, visitors can get a hands-on demo of the DK IoT Studio and find out more about two new platforms that were recently added to the tool.

Celebrate National Engineers Week with Digi-Key Electronics by taking part in its contest by unscrambling the daily puzzle for a chance to win great prizes from B&K Precision, Pomona, FLIR, and TE Connectivity. 

Navitas Semiconductor and Digi-Key Electronics have completed a distribution agreement to provide worldwide, 24-hour availability and accelerate market penetration and revenue ramp of GaNFast power ICs. They are said to be the world’s first GaNFast power ICs to enable power systems to simultaneously achieve MHz-frequency and highest-efficiency operation.

Bourns has named Digi-Key Electronics, a global electronic components distributor, the recipient of their "Best POS Growth eCommerce Partner, EMEA" award.

Vesper, a developer of advanced acoustic sensors has added Digi-Key Electronics to its worldwide distribution network as the startup company company scales. Vesper offers what is said to be the first wake-on sound MEMS microphone, bringing voice activation to battery-powered devices of all kinds.  

There is no doubting that robots are on the rise. And despite some naysayers claiming that automation will take jobs away from humans, all the evidence points to robotics improving productivity, cost effectiveness, safety and actually creating employment. By next year it is predicted that the number of industrial robots deployed worldwide will increase to around 2.6 million units.

Kyle has been very good this year (at least that’s what he’s telling himself) and is looking to get his hands on the newest Picade from Pimoroni.

There was an air of tension at electronica last week as Digi-Key Electronics announced the winner of the it's 2018 Chevrolet Camaro V8 Convertible prize draw. And it turns out the name out of the hat is a deserved winner. Marcus E., a university student studying for his bachelor's thesis from Regensburg, Germany, attended electronica off his own bat to get a feeling for current market trends.

A design tool which will help developers and providers to create IoT solutions was unveiled at electronica 2018. The DK IoT Studio is an integrated development environment (IDE) that allows users to go from idea to prototype in minutes without writing any code. The tool, developed in partnership with Atmosphere IoT has an intuitive user interface along with drag-and-drop functionality.

Join the second annual Hack a Pumpkin Challenge with Digi-Key Electronics.

To help us get started with the Raspberry Pi, Robin Mitchell, has a simple circuit for blinking an LED that should take you a matter of minutes to set up.