Empowering Electronics Innovators

MBStech — Hands-on tutorials, expert insights, and practical engineering for high-reliability aerospace electronics design and development.

MBSTech Engineering Motto

F.E.A.R. — Failure Encourages Adaptive Response
Because every burnt resistor, every blown fuse, and every crash log teaches us something new.

Welcome to MBSTech

MBSTech (Magic Blue Smoke Technology) is a creative and educational hub for electronics enthusiasts, makers, and engineers.

Our platform blends hands-on tutorials with deep technical dives, focusing on the design and development of high-reliability electronics, including

firmware, hardware, and software for demanding applications in aerospace.

Is PCB Design Functional ART ?

Learn more

"ART is a Journey, not a RACE"

Great PCB design is iterative—it evolves through careful thought, revision, and experience.

Rushing leads to signal integrity issues, EMI problems, and manufacturing headaches.

Each board tells a story—from conception to production—and refining your design philosophy over time leads to mastery.

A lot of engineering tasks are not tangible they are not seen or can’t be held. PCB design is uniquely different.

It can be seen

It can be held

It must function / perform

So, design your PCB’s so they function but also so you can hang them on your wall like a Picaso or a Banksy!!!

Explore Some Educational Content

Engineering Toolbox.

Click on an image to download content

Understanding capacitors and their usage from the perspective of an FPGA.

Project SkyBridge Open Source TSN Comms Layer

PCB Constraints, Do you over constrain your design ?

Si and Pi challenges in FPGA systems.

PCB is it Functional ART!

ISO USB FT4232 CCB

Copper Balancing in PCB's

Link to

MBSTech Youtube Channel

M2GL05 Igloo2 CCB

Application Notes

Do you Trust Them !!!

MBSTech FPGA

Design Flow

Full Military Temp CCM

VHDL Modules with TestBenches

FPGA Building Blocks

Basic Strobe Module

Precision FPGA timing, built for high-reliability control systems. This strobe generator creates deterministic multi-rate timing pulses from a single clock, with independent 10 ms correlation checking, fault latching, and synchronous recovery reset. It provides clean, phase-aligned timing references for embedded logic, avionics-style control, and safety-focused digital designs in demanding environments.

VHDL + TestBench

High-reliability reset control for FPGA clock domains. This module converts a raw external active-low reset into an internal reset with immediate asynchronous assertion and controlled synchronous release. A configurable hold-off delay, defaulting to five clock cycles, rejects reset chatter, contains metastability risks, and protects downstream logic through power-up or fault recovery.

Basic Reset Module

FPGA Building Blocks

A simple heartbeat LED driver for FPGA status indication. Running from a 40 MHz clock, it creates a 1 ms timing base, an 8-bit PWM output, and a repeating 1.2-second double-pulse brightness profile. The result is a clear visual “alive” indicator for embedded boards during reset, bring-up, and normal operation.

LED Heartbeat

FPGA Building Blocks

VHDL Module

Deterministic IAA signal status encoding and decoding for FPGA systems. The transmitter converts system health into frequency-coded tones, while the receiver classifies valid status bands and detects static, over-frequency, invalid-frequency, and duty-cycle faults. Qualification, lock indication, diagnostics, and simulation coverage support robust link monitoring in safety-focused embedded control system designs.

I Am Alive Signal

FPGA Building Blocks

VHDL + TestBench

High-reliability TMR strobe generation for deterministic FPGA timing. Three replicated timing chains are majority-voted and self-corrected, producing phase-aligned strobes from 4 clocks to 10 ms. Independent correlation checking, fault pulsing, latching, and internal recovery reset provide robust timing references for avionics-style, safety-focused embedded control systems operating in harsh environments and applications.

Hi-Rel Strobe Module

FPGA Building Blocks

VHDL + TestBench

Precision AD7124-4 FPGA interface for deterministic sensor acquisition. The VHDL controller manages SPI reset, ID checking, ROM-based configuration, direct register access, SYNC control, and continuous conversion streaming. It supports thermocouple and PT1000 operating modes, truncates 24-bit ADC data to 16-bit samples, and includes testbenches for verified integration in embedded systems.