At last!  The first Component Pack for PSoC Creator 2.0 (which you really should be using if you haven't upgraded yet).  No code changes, just some great new components.  Main thing I'm excited about it the new Filter component, which now supports IIR filters, and custom coefficient entry.  It's had a lot of detail work done to it on the FIR side as well.  It's not the last word in filter design software - not enough time and resources to achieve that lofty goal  But it's pretty good in some respects - and your feedback can make it even better in future releases.  So, go get it, try it out, let me know the good and bad things about it.  best / Kendall

Did you know that you can make filters with negative delay?  Check out my latest article at http://www.analog-eetimes.com/en/prediction-and-negative-delay-filters-five-things-you-should-know.html?cmp_id=71&news_id=222902919 to see how it's done.  There are a couple of screenshots from the forthcoming Filter component for PSoC Creator too.  Enjoy, and as always, send me your feedback!  best - Kendall

Happy New Year, filter fans!

I'm fleshing out some topics for the Filter Wizard articles that I publish on EE Times Europe (http://www.electronics-eetimes.com/en/News/filter-wizard.html).  Why not tell me which of these seem the most interesting or relevant to you, and I'll see if I can arrange my schedule around them.  Or let me know what else you'd like me to write about.  The "Five things you should know about" format of the last one proved popular and I may adopt that for many other pieces.  Here's a list of some things I'm looking at:

Delay - time, phase and group.  What is it, what gets delayed, how to create filters with zero or even negative group delay (at some frequencies) and why you'd want to.

AC line interference - approaches to filtering it out (if you couldn't stop it getting in).  The "dial-a-notch" method of FIR filter design.

Ninety degrees of separation - quadrature: how to get it and where you use it

Waveform distortion - big deal or no deal? What information is there in a waveform, and what damage might different types of filters do?

Electrical energy measurement: how good do the ADCs need to be? Can we use just one ADC and get good results on reactive loads?  How custom filters help here.

The new PSoC Creator Filter component using the DFB - now does IIR filters too, with pole ordering for best SNR, and direct access to the optimized coefficients.  Out beginning of February.

So - give each of these a score 0 to 5 and send the result to filterwizard@cypress.com.  And let me know what else I should be writing about - theoretical or practical.  My deadline for the first article of the year is approaching fast, so get slewing!  best - Kendall

 Just published the latest Filter Wizard column.  It's based on work I did at Cypress on a super-high precision electricity meter based on PSoC3.  If you are ever bothered by the interchannel time delay in a system with a single multiplexed ADC, check it out!

http://www.analog-europe.com/en/sample-multiple-channels-simultaneously-with-a-single-adc.html?cmp_id=71&news_id=222902424

 Here's a great way to use a couple of spare PSoC3 op-amps to do something I bet you thought you couldn't do: reduce the ripple level on a 180V bias voltage (or indeed, any voltage you want, + or -) by a cool 60dB.  So, not only is PSoC3 useful as a supervisor in solid-state power amps, but you can do some great stuff in tube amps as well!

http://www.analog-eetimes.com/en/a-fast-settling-bias-voltage-filter-with-high-ripple-rejection.html?cmp_id=71&news_id=222901909

Oh, and for another trick to help reduce the size of low-frequency gain rolloff caps in compact audio circuits, see my article in Linear Audio (www.linearaudio.net ; you actually have to pay money for it and get a paper version, how retro!  But well worth it.)

Keep on filtering!