An SBC or a Single Board Computer is a complete computer set up on one single circuit board. It consists of everything like the memory, microprocessor(s), input/output (I/O) and other characteristics needed for a functional computer. This type of computer was made as development and demonstration systems, to be used as embedded computer controllers and also for educational purposes. In contrast to desktop computers, single board computers frequently don't depend on extension slots for peripheral development.

A wide range of microprocessors is being used to make up a single board computer. Straight designs, for example, those worked by PC specialists, frequently utilize static RAM and processors of 8-or 16-bit that are cheap. Other categories like the blade servers, would work in the same manner as a server computer but in a much compact framework. A computer on module is a kind of single-board computer that can be plugged into a baseboard, backplane or even a carrier board for the expansion of the systems.

The very first SBCs were known as "dynamicro". It was based upon the first EPROM of Intel, C1702A and Intel's C8080A. With the efforts of E&L instruments in Derby, Connecticut the "dynamicro" was rebranded as "MMD-1" in 1976 and became a popular example of a microcomputer in the very famous 8080 "BugBook” series. Single Board Computers likewise figured intensely in the early history of home PCs, for instance in the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron. Another example of early SBCs was the KIM-1 which was shipped without electrical enclosure. Nascom and Ferguson Big Board were also some of the popular single-board computers at that time.

Lifting the density of integrated circuits was one of the main reasons for the possibility of single-board computers. The overall cost of the system is reduced by using a single board configuration as it eliminates the use of bus driver circuits as well as the connectors. Connectors are a regular wellspring of unwavering quality issues, so a single board framework takes out these issues. Not only that but it also reduces the requirement of the amount of circuits board used.

The SBCs are most popularly used in industries where they are either implanted with compatible devices to offer interfacing and control, or utilized in rackmount framework for process control. It is used for the investigation in the deep ocean as well as in outer space, on Pegasus and Ariane rockets and Space Shuttles. As said earlier, SBCs have high integrating speed, fewer connectors, fewer component counts and because of these features they are generally lighter, smaller, much reliable than other multi-board computers and also power efficient.

Some of the powerful SBCs that are being used presently are PXI, VXI, VMEbus, PICMG and CompactPCI. Single Board Computers are set up by keeping in mind several internal processing structures like multiprocessing architecture, lower power processing systems like SPARC and RISC as well as intel architecture.

This was all about Single Board Connectors. Hope you liked the article. Brands that make Single Board Connectors are Advantech, IEI and Ibase. Make sure to check them out using the links as provided.

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The word solenoids got its birth from the Greek word “solen” which signifies a pipe or a channel. The second part of the name is coined from “edios” which is also a Greek word signifying an outline. Basically, it's an electrical component having a pipe-like structure. There are a large number of solenoid designs available that are used in many devices. Every one of them has their very own characteristics that make it valuable in the equipment they are used. Though they are available in several forms still all of them have the same working principle.

A solenoid is a simple electrical component that consists of a metallic core with a coil of wire winded around it. Whenever a current is passed through the solenoid, a continuous and uniform magnetic field is generated inside it. One of the most important things to note about a solenoid that produces a uniform magnetic field is that if its length is immeasurable then the strength of the field is the same throughout the element. Thus a solenoid can be used to do a large amount of work with a minimal amount of force generated due to an electric current.

Types of solenoids

As said earlier, there are several solenoids present in the market. They come in different design, materials and has diverse functions. Let's have a look at some of them.

• Linear Solenoid

Linear solenoids are enabled of using a push or a pull force on mechanical gadgets. It has found its use in diverse devices. For example, the started device of an automobile which has a motor in it. The best place where this solenoid is popular is in the electric lock. When the jolt is appended to the electric lock on an entryway, it can promptly secure the door by holding up a great deal of savagery and violence.

• DC C-Frame Solenoid

A DC C-Frame solenoid operates on a single frame, shaped like the letter ‘C’, which is winded by the coil. Though they are made to be used in a DC configuration but still can be designed to work with AC power. This type of solenoid has a broad range of use in various applications.

• DC D-Frame Solenoid

A DC D-Frame solenoid comes with 2-piece frames that are winded around by the coils. Like the DC C-Frame solenoids, these solenoids can also be formed into AC alternatives. These types of solenoids are mostly used in industrial applications.

• AC Laminated Solenoid

An AC laminated solenoid is popular for their force that they generate during their first stroke. You can get them in a number of different configurations and specifications. These categories of solenoids will deliver a perfect buzz when they are being utilized.

• Rotary Solenoid

Unlike other solenoids as discussed above, it has got a disc in it. The body consists of grooves and the presence of ball bearing makes motion easier. Initiating the solenoid makes the core to get drawn back into the coil. The force that is generated is then converted into rotational force which moves the disc. Nowadays this device is used in industrial environments.

We hope that you have got a good idea of solenoids. Brands that produce solenoids are Crouzet, TE Connectivity, and Littelfuse. Refer to them using the links as provided. Thanks for reading.

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A reed relay is a kind of relay that takes the help of an electromagnet to have a control on one or even more than one reed switches. The contacts are made up of magnetic materials, furthermore, the electromagnet acts directly without requiring an armature to displace them. The contacts are sealed in a narrow, long tube made up of glass which defends them from corrosion. Several reed switches can be inserted inside the glass envelope or can be placed into a single bobbin and actuate simultaneously.

The moving parts in reed relay are lightweight and smaller than the armature based relays, thus, they can switch at a much faster speed. However, switch bounce is still present. Additionally, the requirement of operating power is not much and the value of their contact capacitance is low. Reed relay’s capacity to handle electric current is quite low but with a suitable contact material they can be optimized for “dry” switching applications. They are precisely basic, making for dependability and long life.

Basic part present in the reed relays are as follows:

• Coil – Wire is wrapped up around a core of metal. The coil causes the generation of the electromagnetic field.
• Frame – The relay has a heavy-duty frame that contains and bolsters its parts.
• Contacts – It is the conducting part present in the switch that opens or closes a circuit.
• Armature – It is the moving part of the relay. The armature closes and opens the contacts. The armature is set back to its initial position by an attached spring.

From the 1930s to 1960s a few million reed relays were utilized in Bell System electromechanical telephone exchange for memory functions. A multiple reed relay was also used where one of the reeds was carrying out memory or logic functions while the other ones were fastened with the relay. During the 1940s to the 1970s, reed relays used in the crossbar switching systems were bundled in gatherings of five. Such kind of “reed pack” was capable to keep 1 decimal digit, computed in two-out-of-five code for a simple legitimacy checking by wire spring relay logic. Such a category of latching reed relay needs consistent capacity to look after its state, which is not like magnetic latching relay i.e. later remreed (remanent reed relay) or the ferreed (ferrite and reed relay).

In the mid-1990s reed relay went out of utilization in the field of digital telephone systems (like 5ESS switch and DMS-100). But due to their fast operating time, hermetic seal, exceptionally reliable contact execution and extended lifetime, it has got its use in electronic instrumentation and automatic test equipment. It has also got several of its use in microwave switching and RF applications. The device is also utilized in equipment which utilizes their low leakage current e.g. photomultiplier detectors. Reed switches can likewise be made to withstand several kilovolts and can be utilized as high-voltage transfers instead of all the more exorbitant vacuum transfers or sulfur hexafluoride.

Some brands that make reed relays are Coto, MEDER and TE Connectivity. Check them out by going through the links as provided.

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These blade-shaped plugs and sockets, popularly known as Jones or Cinch Jones Power Connectors are strong and durable and is used in the industrial applications for quite a long time. These blade connectors are best for those types of equipment that require a current of high capacity. They are best in that situation where un-mating and mating is done most often. These plugs and socket is a good choice to select in place of high-reliability connectors which are not that cheap.

Howard P Jones Company was the main founder of this connector. They called this item as "Jones" plugs and socket in their promotional catalogs and literature. Today we have popular brands like Molex, Bel Fuse and TE Connectivity which manufactures them. You can refer them using the links as provided.

Applications of Cinch Jones Blade type connectors

• Industrial Controls
• Media Equipment
• Data Processing Controls
• Test Equipment
• Amusement / Vending Machines
• Communication Equipment
• Security Systems

Specification of Cinch Jones Blade type connectors

• Insulator: Black phenolic for general purpose, Molded monoblock
• Operating Temperature: Up to a threshold of 150 degrees Celsius.
• Contact Style: Plug comes with projected flat blades. 500,400 and 300 have recessed twin bellows and 2400 series has recessed bifurcated twin.
• Intermateability: The 2400 and 400 series are intermateable.
• Polarization: To prevent insertion in the wrong way, all kinds of "Jones" sockets and plugs are polarized.
• Contact Material: Sockets are Cadmium plated phosphor bronze and plug are Cadmium plated brass.
• Cable Clamps: Zinc, electroplating of bright nickel, irridite-plated steel

Advantages of Jones Plugs and sockets

• Robust and strong blade contacts help in the prevention of damage due to uneven mating.
• You will be getting guaranteed high reliability at a sensible expense.
• A twofold wipe socket and a flat blade mating in contact; the measure of the surface territory is extensively bigger than with pin contacts.
• Flat blade connectors are much more durable than hollow pin connectors.

Breakdown of the part number of blade type power connectors

                               P  -  3  06  -  AB  -  04

P – Type ; P is for Plug and S is for Socket

3 – Series

06 – Number of Contacts

AB – Mounting

04 – Options

For the Mounting part:

• AB - Angle bracket
• DB - Deep bracket
• EB - End bracket
• FP - Flush plate
• LAB - Less angle bracket
• RP - Recessed plate
• SB - Shallow bracket
• CCE - Cable clamp end
• CCT - Cable clamp top
• CCE-K - Cable clamp end with keepers
• CCT-K - Cable clamp top with keepers
• CCE-L - Cable clamp end with locks
• CCT-L - Cable clamp top with locks
• FHE - Flared hole end
• FHT - Flared hole top

For the Options part:

• 03 - Silver contact plating
• 04 - Gold contact plating
• 05 - Rhodium contact plating
• M - Metal backshell
• 63A-AB - Panel lock
• 63A-SB - Panel lock
• 63A-DB - Panel lock
• 2 - Cable clamp
• 17 - Cable clamp
• 47 - Cable clamp
• 59 - Cable clamp
• 78 - Cable clamp
• 98 - Cable clamp

We hope that you have got a brief idea regarding Jones Plug and Socket. Thanks for reading.

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A Gas Discharge Tube or a Gas Plasma Arrestor is an arrangement of gas in an electrode inside a temperature-resistant and an insulating envelope. Gas Discharge Tubes results in the phenomena linked with the electric release in gases and gets initiated by converting the gas into ions with an applied voltage adequate to cause electrical conduction by the basic principle of the Townsend discharge. A gas discharge lamp is an electric light that takes the help of Gas Discharge Tubes; these consist of neon lights, metal-halide lamps, fluorescent lamps, and sodium-vapor lamps. Some specific gas discharge tubes like thyratrons, ignitrons and krytrons support as switching devices.

The required voltage for initiating and sustaining the discharge completely depends on the pressure, the amount of gas-filled in the tube as well as its geometry. Though the envelope is made up of glass, military tubes use glass-lined metal most often while power tubes use ceramics frequently.

As said earlier, the principle mechanism is the Townsend discharge. It is defined as the sustained increase of electron stream by ion impact when a critical estimation of the strength of the electric field for the thickness of the gas achieved. With the increase in the electric field, various discharge phases are encountered. The gas utilized significantly impacts the parameters of the cylinder. The breakdown potential difference relies on the distance between the electrodes and the composition of gas inside the tube.

Gas Used

• Hydrogen – It is used in tubes that require fast switching.
• Deuterium – It is used in neutron generator as well as UV lamps for UltraViolet spectroscopy.
• Noble Gases – It is used for several purposes, from switching to lightning.
• Elemental Vapors – Mercy vapors is used in ignitors, mercury-arc valves etc; Sodium vapors in sodium-vapor lamps; Sulfur vapor in sulfur lamps.

Gas Pressure

The gas pressure is kept between 0.001 and 1,000 Torr. But generally, it is kept between 1 to 10 torr. Factors that affect the gas pressure are as follows:

• Sputtering of cathode – With an increase in pressure, it gets reduced.
• Ignition Voltage or the Breakdown Voltage
• Backfire Voltage
• Operating Voltage
• Current Density
• Lifetime of the tube – Tubes having lower pressure have a short duration of life because of the gas consumption.

Gas Purity

To maintain the desired properties it is important that the gas present inside the tube needs to be kept pure; even a small quantity of impurities can significantly change the values of the tube; the presence of gases that are non-inert results in the increment of burning as well as the breakdown voltage. One can get to know the presence of impurities inside the tube by experiencing the change in the color of the gas glowing. Leakage of air inside the tube results in the introduction of oxygen, which is exceptionally electronegative and represses the generation of electron avalanches. This leads the discharge to look milky, reddish or pale. Traces of mercury vapors gleam pale blue, darkening the original gas shading. To forestall outgassing of the components of the tube during the process, a bake-out is required before loading up the tube with gas and fixing it.

This was a brief idea about the Gas Discharge Tube. We hope that you liked it. Brands that make Gas Discharge Tubes are Bourns, Littelfuse, and EPCOS. Make sure to check them out.

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A fuse is a device which helps in defending electrical circuit from the flow of excessive current. It contains a strip of wire or metal which melts itself down when a current more than it's limiting value passes through it. In the absence of fuses, there are chances of the passage of a large amount of current to the entire circuit which may lead to an electrical fire, thus, resulting in the damage of foundations as well as equipment. Keeping this in mind we have brought this article to make people well accustomed to Electrical and Industrial fuses such that they can be used at their best.

Electrical Fuses

Today each and every building and house are equipped with electrical fuses for their safety in terms of the use of electricity. Two of the major reason behind this is:

• They do not require human support and is automatic
• The prices of these fuses are quite affordable

Electrical fuse can be divided into two types according to the kind of current flowing through it. They are as follows:

• DC Fuses: DC fuses are those electrical fuses that are compatible with electrical circuits having DC. As direct current flows in one direction and never gets a zero value, it is tough to interrupt it. Thus enough power is required to cease the current passing through the circuit.
• AC Fuses: AC fuses are those electrical fuses that are compatible with electrical circuits having AC passing through them. Alternating current inverts its progression of direction and accomplishes zero value during its oscillation period. Thus, it’s quite easy to stop the flow of Alternating current when it is flowing through the circuit.

Industrial Fuses

Industrial Fuses are utilized for protecting branch circuits and motors where higher amperes and Voltage ratings are a necessity. The electrical systems which are used in today’s world have a high chance of destruction during the occurrence of a short circuit. Having a proper fusing is a must. Just 1 cycle of faulty current can vaporize insulation and wiring, explode wires as well as warp bus bars. To defend against them, one needs to have an idea about 4 things: amperage, voltage, current-limiting ability and interrupt capacity.

• The current-carrying capacity or an amperage rating should be much close to the full-load current of the circuit. Fuses that are oversized do not offer good protection while undersized ones blow up easily.
• The voltage rating may either exceed or match up with the circuit’s voltage.
• The current-limiting ability is the proportion of the amount of current the device will "let through" the framework. Indeed, even a solitary cycle of 200,000A current will harm any establishment severely. When the currents are high these current-limiting fuses respond much faster. The current-limiting ability of a fuse is communicated as number i.e. as "K1", "K2", "K3" and likewise. Here K3 is less current-limiting than K1.
• Interrupt capacity is defined as the total amount of current the fuse can interrupt without any damage. Many fuses have them of 200,000A because the fault current in industries is that high.

Hope that you liked going through the above article. Brands that make Electrical and Industrial Fuses are Eaton, Siemens, and Littelfuse. Make sure to follow them using the links as provided.

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A DIN connector is defined as an electrical connector which came into existence in the very beginning of the 1970s by a German organization named as Deutsches Institut für Normung (DIN). There are a diverse number of connectors with DIN standards, thus it is mandatory to add the document number with each of them for their exact identification (e.g., “DIN 41612 connector”). Some of the DIN standards are as follows:

• DIN 41524 – This takes in circular connectors which are utilized for audio signals.
• DIN 41585 – This includes automotive coaxial connectors.
• DIN 41612 – This includes rectangular connectors for connecting plug-in cards to a motherboard.
• DIN 41652 – This takes in D-subminiature connectors utilized in computer data and video.

While dealing about consumer electronics, DIN connector generally refers to the class of circular connectors that were standardized for analog audio signals by DIN. These connectors have also helped in digital interfaces like IBM AT keyboard for computers or MIDI, analog video application and in setting up power connections. Keep reading this article below to get good knowledge about these circular connectors.

Circular Connectors

Every male connector (plugs) of this class highlight a 6.6 mm radius metal shield with an indent that restricts the orientation in which socket and plug can mate with each other. Circular connectors that can be distinguished by their pin configuration are standardized, originally in DIN 45326 / IEC/DIN EN 60130-9 (8-pin at an angle of 45°), DIN 41524 / IEC/DIN EN 60130-9 (5-pin at an angle of 45° and 3-pin at an angle of 90°), DIN 45329 (7-pin at an angle of 45°), DIN 45322 (6-pin and 5-pin at an angle of 60°) etc.

The plugs comprise of a circular protecting skirt of metal defending various straight round pins. The diameter of the pin is around 1.45mm and are spaced equally (at 45°, 60°, 72°, 90°or angles) in a circle of diameter 7.0mm. The skirt is keyed just to make it sure that the plug is fitted with the right format to nullify the occurrence of any damage to the pins. The primary framework likewise guarantees that the shielding is associated with plug and socket before the establishment of any signal path connection. Since the keying is same in all the connectors, it leads to the mating of incompatible connectors which causes damage. But Mini-DIN keys various connectors to solve the above problem. Apart from that some "domino" 5 – pin connectors consist of keyway on the side opposite to the plug.

Seven regular patterns can be formed with any number of pins ranging from 3 to 8. Three kinds of 5-pin connector that exists are domino/360°/270°, 240°, and 180° after the point of the curve covered between the first and last stick. There is also two categories of 8-pin connector (one where the external pins structure 262° and one where they structure 270°), 7-pin connector (one where the external pins structure 270° and one where they structure 300° or 360°) and 6-pin connectors. In addition to them, there are connectors with 14, 12 and 10 pins. Some high rated equipment utilizes 7 pin connector where 2 external pins serve with digital system data. If the equipment is not compatible with the outer pins, it can be detached from the plugs to fit into standard 5-pin 180° sockets with no data connection.

We hope that the above info has made you accustomed with the knowledge about Circular DIN Connectors. Brands which manufactures them are TE Connectivity, Amphenol, ITT. Make sure to follow them using the links as provided.

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