Notes

Generation of a Sine Wave

By Steven McFadyen on 4/16/2012 1:57 PM

A fundamental concept behind the operation of alternating current systems is that voltage and current waveforms will be sinusoidal – a Sine Wave. This is best explained by considering how a coil of wire... read more..

Michael Faraday (the father of electrical engineering)

By Steven McFadyen on 2/22/2009 8:22 PM

Famed English chemist and physicist Michael Faraday was born on September 22, 1791, in Newington Butts, a suburb of Surrey just south of the London Bridge. His family was not very well off and could onl... read more..

Lithium Ion Battery

By Steven McFadyen on 11/11/2012 11:46 AM

Over recent years the Lithium Ion battery has become popular in applications requiring high power densities with small weight and footprint. Today Lithium Ion batteries are commonly found in mobil... read more..

Low Voltage Fault Tables

By Steven McFadyen on 6/24/2012 7:11 AM

The following tables provide quick order of magnitude fault levels for a a range of typical low voltage situations.

9 power supply issues solved by using a UPS

By Steven McFadyen on 7/3/2012 1:58 PM

Installation of a UPS can help in reducing problems due to issues with the power supply. A lot of people relate this to nine key issues. Depending on the type of UPS installed it is possible... read more..

IEC 61439 Verification Methods

By Steven McFadyen on 3/3/2012 3:33 PM

The (relatively new) switchgear and control gear standard, IEC 61439 'Low-voltage switchgear and controlgear assemblies' has three methods which can be used to verify the characteristics of an assemb... read more..

8 Steps to Low Voltage Power Cable Selection and Sizing

By Steven McFadyen on 7/25/2011 2:48 AM

A recurring theme on our forums is cable sizing. Now many installations are unique and require special consideration. However, a lot of the time things are just repeated. When looking at low voltage pow... read more..

Questions - Reputation and Privilege

By Steven McFadyen on 6/15/2012 9:08 AM

Our question and answer system while letting you do exactly what it says, is much more. It is a dynamic user driven system, where our users not only ask and answer questions, but can manage the... read more..

Famous Scientists

By Steven McFadyen on 3/22/2012 11:35 AM

Here’s list of some famous scientists. Deliberately short, with the aim to provide a quick memory jog or overview. If your looking for more detailed information, Google and Wikipedia have tons of ... read more..

Material Properties

By Steven McFadyen on 5/10/2012 2:15 PM

Everything physical in electrical engineering from insulations to conductors revolves around materials. Here we are listing common materials along with their most useful properties in relation to electr... read more..

Surface Treatment – Ladders, Trays and Baskets

By Steven McFadyen on 5/22/2012 8:41 AM

Steel ladders, trays and baskets form the backbone of cable containment systems. Often these items need some form of surface treatment to prevent corrosion due to the installed environmental conditio... read more..

DC Motor Operation

By Steven McFadyen on 3/28/2012 1:00 PM

Coils of wire on the rotor carry a d.c. current which generates a magnetic field. A stator magnetic field is created using either permanent mag... read more..

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Introduction to Traction Substations

Following on from my post on railway electrification voltages, I thought an introduction to traction substations would be a good idea. Traction substations...

Sony Pocket eBook Reader

For the past few years I have reading eBooks on my HTC touch phone. On and off I have debated buying an eReader and recently purchased a Sony PRS-300 ...

Understanding electric motor insulation & temperature

Anyone specifying or using electric motors should have a basic understanding how the insulation is related to temperature. Three classes of insulation...

What is a rectifier transformer?

I've recently come across this question a couple times browsing the internet. Decided to give a quick answer here. A rectifier transformer is a transformer...

Power Factor

Power factor is the ratio between the real power (P in kW) and apparent power (S in kVA) drawn by an electrical load. The reactive power (Q in kVAr)...

Cable Sizing Software

When sizing cables nearly, everyone uses some form of software. This ranges from homespun spreadsheets to complex network analyses software. Each has its...

Lead Acid Batteries

Lead acid batteries are cost effect and reliable, making them suitable for many applications.This note examines topics of interest associated with the...

Capacitor Theory

Capacitors are widely used in electrical engineering for functions such as energy storage, power factor correction, voltage compensation and many others...

Maximum Demand for Buildings

Estimating maximum demand is a topic frequently discussed. Working out how much power to allow for a building can be very subjective . Allowing too much...

Mobile Phones (Brick to Implant)

The mobile phone was born in 1973. They were the size of a brick and weighed a couple of kg, making them difficult to fit into your pocket. At a few thousand...

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