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James Lewis

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Hands-On with B&K Precision 9140 Power Supply | Workbench Wednesdays #53

Bench power supplies are an essential piece of test equipment gear. And like most test gear, they have a wide range of capabilities. For example, the B&K Precision 9140 is a triple output supply that can output up to 300 watts. But, the basic capability isn’t what interested me about the supply. Instead, it was advanced features like rear panel triggers, adjustable slew rate, and built-in sequencing.

The element14 Community arranged for a B&K Precision 9140 power supply to be sent to me for a hands-on overview of those features.

Full notes on element14 community
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KiCad

KiCad: Connect Polygon Lines

fix broken polygons in kicad

In KiCad 6, using the Polygon tool makes square boards easy. Just select the Edge.Cuts layer, then the polygon tool, and draw a square. However, if you want custom shapes, then you need to connect multiple line segments together.

If you are not careful, the segments will not connect and you might get one of two errors. The first comes when you run DRC.

Error: Board has malformed outline (not a closed shape)

or, if you try to render the board in 3D (ALT-F3).

Board outline is missing or malformed. Run DRC for a full analysis.

As the gif above shows, there is a small trick to connecting the segments. Zoom in, grab an endpoint, and then “snap” it to the other line. Watch carefully for a white circle to appear along with a purple box. Align those boxes and SNAP. Now the segments are connected together.

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Blog

Fresh Paint 2022

Thank you again to those who came over from RSS to say the old feed was working.

Also. My apologies for the rash of new posts. I *thought* I had a clever way to prevent them from appearing in the feed.

Let me know if you see any issues. New (real) posts will start in the next week or two.

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