Ryan's World of Nonsense

  Texas Instruments CD74HCT7046A Phase-Locked Loop IC Phase-Locked Loops. You probably wouldn't have heard of it unless you're studying electronics (like me) or you're extremely enthusiastic about such topics. It's just one of the many unsung heroes that quietly sat somewhere in your phone or computer, quietly keeping the components within to function properly without you knowing. In this post, I'd like to talk about this special circuit and how it revolutionised FM signal demodulation. But first, let's have a look at what a Phase-Locked Loop is: A Phase-Locked Loop (PLL) is a circuit that synchronises two signals (an input signal and a reference signal) so that the two signals will have the same frequency and phase. (The position of the wave, e.g. If two people are jumping side by side on a trampoline and they both go up and down at exactly the same time, their jumps are in phase (perfectly aligned); If one person is going up while the other is going down, thei...

  Hovertravel Griffon 12000TD "Solent Flyer" Hovercraft Back in December last year, I had the chance to ride on the UK's only commercial hovercraft service that runs between Southsea and Ryde, connecting the Isle of Wight with the mainland. This service, as I'm writing this post, is the only regular scheduled passenger hovercraft service in the UK that operates every single day. It's also the fastest way to get from the Isle of Wight to the mainland, with a crossing time of about 10 minutes. (The Wightlink high-speed catamarans take about 22 minutes from Portsmouth harbour to Ryde Pier Head) The SR-N1 prototype hovercraft. Credit: RAF Museum Now, the concept of hovercrafts is definitely not something new. It came up in the 50s and the first prototype (the SR.N1) took flight on 1959. But if hovercrafts are so much faster than conventional boats, that actually has to wade through waters, why aren't hovercrafts dominating the world of sea transportation?  With th...