Editorial

Esta é a Newsletter Nº 136 que se apresenta com o mesmo formato que as anteriores. Se gostar da Newsletter partilhe-a!

Todas as Newsletters encontram-se indexadas no link.

Esta Newsletter tem os seguintes tópicos:

• Novidades da Semana
• Ciência e Tecnologia
• Modelos 3D
• Documentação
• Projetos Maker

Faz hoje anos que nascia, em 1823, Leopold Kronecker. Este matemático alemão trabalhou para unificar a aritmética, a álgebra e a análise, com especial interesse em funções elípticas, equações algébricas, teoria dos números, teoria dos determinantes e teoria das integrais simples e múltiplas. No entanto, os tópicos que ele estudou foram restringidos pelo facto de ele acreditar na redução de todas as matemáticas em argumentos envolvendo apenas os números inteiros e um número finito de etapas. Ele acreditava que a matemática deveria lidar apenas com números finitos e com um número finito de operações. Ele foi o primeiro a duvidar do significado de provas de existência não construtivas e acreditava que os números transcendentais não existiam. A função delta Kronecker é nomeada em sua homenagem.

Faz também anos hoje que nascia, em 1905, Gerard Kuiper. Este Astrónomo americano nascido na Holanda, descobriu Miranda, uma lua de Urano e Nereid, uma lua de Neptuno. O Kuiper Belt é chamado após a sua sugestão original de sua existência fora da órbita de Neptuno antes de ser confirmado como um cinto de pequenos corpos. Ele mediu o diâmetro de Plutão. Na atmosfera marciana, Kuiper detectou o dióxido de carbono, mas a ausência de oxigénio (1947). Na década de 1960, Kuiper foi pioneiro na observação infravermelha no ar usando uma aeronave Convair 990 e serviu como cientista-chefe para as sondas da nave Ranger da Lua. Ao analisar as fotografias da Ranger, ele identificou locais de aterragem na superfície lunar mais adequados para aterragens seguras com tripulação.

Completam-se hoje 45 anos que foi lançada a ultima missão Apollo - a Appolo 17. Com uma equipa de três astronautas composta pelo comandante Eugene Ceman, o piloto do modulo de comando Ronald Evans e pelo piloto do modulo lunar Harrison Schmitt foi a ultima a usar o hardware Apollo para o seu propósito original. Foi a primeira missão lançada durante a noite e a ultima a ser lançada pelo foguetão Saturno V. Com uma missão de três dias na superfície da Lua, no vale Taurus–Littrow foram recolhidos cerca de 110 Kg de amostras lunares e usados diversos instrumentos científicos para fazer medições. Foi a ultima vez que foi usado o Rover Lunar. A missão demorou um total 12 dias e cerca de 14 horas. O modulo de comando entrou na atmosfera terrestre no dia 15 de Dezembro.

Faz também 22 anos que a sonda espacial Galileo chegou a Jupiter. Foi lançada em 18 de Outubro de 1989, transportado pelo Space Shuttle Atlantis, na missão STS-34. Depois de voltas de assistência gravitacional de Vénus e Terra, tornou-se a primeira nave espacial a orbitar em Júpiter. Ela lançou a primeira sonda em Jupiter, medindo directamente sua atmosfera. Apesar de sofrer grandes problemas de antenas, Galileu alcançou o primeiro vôo de asteróides, de 951 Gaspra, e descobriu a primeira lua de asteróides, Dactyl, por volta de 243 Ida. Em 1994, Galileo observou a colisão do Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 com Jupiter.

Esta semana ficámos a saber que, a Voyager 1, que se encontra em voo à 40 anos, a NASA voltou a ligar com sucesso os propulsores após 37 anos destes terem estado parados. A comunicação com a sonda demora cerca de 19 horas e 35 minutos a chegar à antena em Goldstone na Califórnia. Com o sucesso deste teste estima-se que a sonda possa ter mais dois ou três anos de vida. Estima-se que a sonda se encontre neste momento no espaço interestelar indo a caminho de uma estrela chamada AC + 79 que se encontra a 17,6 anos luz da Terra.

Tambem esta semana, um grupo de cientistas descobriram uma relíquia rara do universo: o buraco negro super-massivo mais distante. Este gigante que come matéria tem 800 milhões de vezes a massa do nosso Sol, que é surpreendentemente grande para a sua idade jovem. O buraco negro recentemente encontrado é material vorazmente devorador no centro de uma galáxia - um fenómeno chamado quasar. Este quasar é especialmente interessante porque vem de um momento em que o universo estava apenas começando a emergir de sua idade das trevas. A descoberta fornecerá informações fundamentais sobre o universo quando era apenas 5% da idade actual.

Por fim, a Google afirma que o programa de inteligência artificial AlphaGo Zero triunfou no xadrez contra o software especializado mundial em poucas horas do ensino do jogo a partir do zero. A divisão DeepMind da empresa diz que jogou 100 jogos contra o Stockfish 8 e ganhou ou empatou todos eles. Os especialistas já sugerem que a conquista fortalecerá a posição da empresa num sector competitivo. "Do ponto de vista científico, é o último de uma série de deslumbrantes resultados que o DeepMind produziu", disse o professor Michael Wooldridge, da Universidade de Oxford, à BBC. "A trajetória geral em DeepMind parece ser para resolver um problema e, em seguida, demonstrar que ele realmente pode acelerar o desempenho, e isso é muito impressionante.".

Na Newsletter desta semana apresentamos diversos projetos de maker assim como alguns modelos 3D que poderão ser úteis. É apresentada a revista "The Official Raspberry Pi Beginner’s Book".

João Alves ([email protected])

O conteúdo da Newsletter encontra-se sob a licença Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Voyager 1 Fires Up Thrusters After 37 Years

"If you tried to start a car that's been sitting in a garage for decades, you might not expect the engine to respond. But a set of thrusters aboard the Voyager 1 spacecraft successfully fired up Wednesday after 37 years without use. Voyager 1, NASA's farthest and fastest spacecraft, is the only human-made object in interstellar space, the environment between the stars. The spacecraft, which has been flying for 40 years, relies on small devices called thrusters to orient itself so it can communicate with Earth. These thrusters fire in tiny pulses, or "puffs," lasting mere milliseconds, to subtly rotate the spacecraft so that its antenna points at our planet. Now, the Voyager team is able to use a set of four backup thrusters, dormant since 1980." [...]

Found: Most Distant Black Hole

" Scientists have uncovered a rare relic from the early universe: the farthest known supermassive black hole. This matter-eating beast is 800 million times the mass of our Sun, which is astonishingly large for its young age. Researchers report the find in the journal Nature. "This black hole grew far larger than we expected in only 690 million years after the Big Bang, which challenges our theories about how black holes form," said study co-author Daniel Stern of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Astronomers combined data from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) with ground-based surveys to identify potential distant objects to study, then followed up with Carnegie Observatories' Magellan telescopes in Chile. Carnegie astronomer Eduardo Bañados led the effort to identify candidates out of the hundreds of millions of objects WISE found that would be worthy of follow-up with Magellan." [...]

Google's 'superhuman' DeepMind AI claims chess crown

"Google says its AlphaGo Zero artificial intelligence program has triumphed at chess against world-leading specialist software within hours of teaching itself the game from scratch. The firm's DeepMind division says that it played 100 games against Stockfish 8, and won or drew all of them. The research has yet to be peer reviewed. But experts already suggest the achievement will strengthen the firm's position in a competitive sector. "From a scientific point of view, it's the latest in a series of dazzling results that DeepMind has produced," the University of Oxford's Prof Michael Wooldridge told the BBC. "The general trajectory in DeepMind seems to be to solve a problem and then demonstrate it can really ramp up performance, and that's very impressive."" [...]

Soyuz fails to deliver 19 satellites from Vostochny

"The second Soyuz rocket mission from Russia's new Vostochny spaceport lifted off on November 28, carrying the Meteor-M2-1 weather and climate-monitoring satellite, along with a cluster of 18 secondary payloads. However the spacecraft had never established contact with mission control..." [...]

China’s dark matter space probe detects tantalizing signal

"A long-standing challenge in physics has been finding evidence for dark matter, the stuff presumed to make up a substantial chunk of the mass of the universe. Its existence seems to be responsible for the structure of the universe and the formation and evolution of galaxies. But physicists have yet to observe this mysterious material. Results reported today by a China-led space science mission provide a tantalizing hint—but not firm evidence—for dark matter. Perhaps more significantly, the first observational data produced by China’s first mission dedicated to astrophysics shows that the country is set to become a force in space science, says David Spergel, an astrophysicist at Princeton University. China is now "making significant contributions to astrophysics and space science," he says." [...]

Qualcomm Launches Technology Innovation with Advancements in the Always Connected PC and its Next-Generation Qualcomm Snapdragon Mobile Platform

"Today at its second annual Snapdragon Technology Summit, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM), made several customer, ecosystem and technology announcements aimed to deliver significant advancements and innovation in mobile and Always Connected PC technologies. Cristiano Amon, executive vice president of Qualcomm Technologies and president of QCT, as well as Alex Katouzian, senior vice president and general manager of mobile for Qualcomm Technologies, were joined on stage by senior executives from Microsoft, Asus, Sprint, HP, AMD, Xiaomi and Samsung Electronics, each delivering technologies and products designed to support superior mobile experiences for the consumer using Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ mobile platforms. Always Connected PC Amon was joined by Terry Myerson, executive vice president of the Windows and Devices Group at Microsoft, where they reiterated their collaboration and the progress made over the last several months, to deliver Windows 10 on Snapdragon. They were joined by Jerry Shen, chief executive officer of Asus, who announced the first Windows on Snapdragon device: the 2-in-1 convertible ASUS NovaGo, expected to be available early next year. Kevin Frost, vice president and general manager of consumer personal systems at HP, Inc., also joined Amon to announce a detachable HP ENVY x2 Windows on Snapdragon Mobile PC. This new class of PC can support an always on and always connected experience with Gigabit LTE speed*." [...]

Panasonic Develops Unique Vacuum Insulated Glass Based on Its Plasma Display Panel Technology

"Panasonic Corporation today announced it has developed and succeeded in mass production of thin, high-performance vacuum insulated glass by applying technologies the company accumulated in the development and manufacturing of plasma display panels (PDPs). The glass achieves a heat transfer coefficient (Ug value) of 0.7 (W/m²K)(*2), the industry's top-class(*1) insulation performance for glass with a total thickness of 6 mm, which is equal to or greater than triple glass containing argon gas(*3) with a total thickness of about 3 cm. A PDP displays an image by causing phosphors to emit light within an extremely thin vacuum layer between two sheets of glass that are vacuum-sealed. Generally, to maintain the vacuum state within the glass, vacuum sealing material technology is required to suppress emission of gas from the substances inside the vacuum layer while maintaining a high vacuum state. Panasonic has retained the vacuum glass panel manufacturing technology and lead-free vacuum maintaining material technology that it cultivated during the development and manufacture of PDPs. Now, Panasonic has realized a practical vacuum insulated glass with excellent insulation performance by developing a new slim-model gas adsorbent that adsorbs the gas that occurs within the vacuum layer, and a new low thermal conductive component that forms a 0.1 mm gap between the two sheets of glass." [...]

Samsung Starts Producing First 512-Gigabyte Universal Flash Storage for Next-Generation Mobile Devices

"Setting a new threshold for mobile storage to handle ever-increasing amounts of multimedia content Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it has begun mass production of the industry’s first 512-gigabyte (GB) embedded Universal Flash Storage (eUFS) solution for use in next-generation mobile devices. Utilizing Samsung’s latest 64-layer 512-gigabit (Gb) V-NAND chips, the new 512GB eUFS package provides unparalleled storage capacity and outstanding performance for upcoming flagship smartphones and tablets. “The new Samsung 512GB eUFS provides the best embedded storage solution for next-generation premium smartphones by overcoming potential limitations in system performance that can occur with the use of micro SD cards, said Jaesoo Han, executive vice president of Memory Sales & Marketing at Samsung Electronics. “By assuring an early, stable supply of this advanced embedded storage, Samsung is taking a big step forward in contributing to timely launches of next-generation mobile devices by mobile manufacturers around the world.” Consisting of eight 64-layer 512Gb V-NAND chips and a controller chip, all stacked together, Samsung’s new 512GB UFS doubles the density of Samsung’s previous 48-layer V-NAND-based 256GB eUFS, in the same amount of space as the 256GB package. The eUFS’ increased storage capacity will provide a much more extensive mobile experience. For example, the new high-capacity eUFS enables a flagship smartphone to store approximately 130 4K Ultra HD (3840×2160) video clips of a 10-minute duration*, which is about a tenfold increase over a 64GB eUFS which allows storing only about 13 of the same-sized video clips." [...]

mbed OS 5.6.6 released

"We are pleased to announce the Mbed OS 5.6.6 release is now available. This is the latest patch release based on the feature set introduced by Mbed OS 5.6. Summary This patch release includes new target support for the SAKURAIO_EVB_01 board. We've included an upgrade to the Silicon Labs HAL. This upgrades the version of emlib in mbed to v5.3.3. Additionally it enables the use of USART3, USART4 and USART5 for both serial and SPI (important for using TB_SENSE_12's IMU)." [...]

Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform Introduces New, Innovative Architectures for Artificial Intelligence and Immersion

"Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM), has introduced the new Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 845 Mobile Platform. Thoughtfully designed with tech savvy consumers in mind, Snapdragon 845 utilizes Qualcomm Technologies’ industry leading wireless heterogenous compute expertise to design a platform for immersive multimedia experiences including eXtended reality (XR), on-device artificial intelligence (AI), lightning-fast connectivity, and introduces our new secure processing unit (SPU) delivering vault-like security for premium, flagship mobile devices. Immerse: The Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform was designed for consumers to capture cinema-grade videos and blur the lines between physical and virtual worlds. Snapdragon 845 introduces an integrated Qualcomm Spectra™ 280 image signal processor (ISP) and Qualcomm® Adreno™ 630 visual processing subsystem. These brand-new architectures bring high-performance, true-to-life cinematic video capture, along with superior photography to flagship mobile devices. Snapdragon 845 will be able to captures 64x more high-dynamic range color information for video capture and playback on Ultra HD Premium displays, compared to the previous generation —a first in the mobile industry." [...]

New research creates a computer chip that emulates human cognition

"Imagine working in an office where, once you’ve finished one task, you had to wait until everyone in all the other cubicles completed the tasks they were working on before you could move on to your next assignment. That’s how most digital devices that rely on synchronous circuits work. Built-in clocks allow the same amount of time for the completion of each computational function. Based on a binary system of ones and zeros, it’s reliable, but it also means that the system can run only as fast as the slowest function in the chain. “In a clocked implementation, everything has to fit into a time budget, so unless you make everything faster, your chip doesn’t run faster — and ‘everything’ includes things you don’t always need,” said Rajit Manohar, the John C. Malone Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Even before Siri and Google Home became our household companions, we’ve had a tendency to anthropomorphize computers." [...]

“Holy Grail” for Batteries: Solid-State Magnesium Battery a Big Step Closer

"A team of Department of Energy (DOE) scientists at the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR) has discovered the fastest magnesium-ion solid-state conductor, a major step towards making solid-state magnesium-ion batteries that are both energy dense and safe. The electrolyte, which carries charge back and forth between the battery’s cathode and anode, is a liquid in all commercial batteries, which makes them potentially flammable, especially in lithium-ion batteries. A solid-state conductor, which has the potential to become an electrolyte, would be far more fire-resistant. Researchers at DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Argonne National Laboratory were working on a magnesium battery, which offers higher energy density than lithium, but were stymied by the dearth of good options for a liquid electrolyte, most of which tend to be corrosive against other parts of the battery. “Magnesium is such a new technology, it doesn’t have any good liquid electrolytes,” said Gerbrand Ceder, a Berkeley Lab Senior Faculty Scientist. “We thought, why not leapfrog and make a solid-state electrolyte?” The material they came up with, magnesium scandium selenide spinel, has magnesium mobility comparable to solid-state electrolytes for lithium batteries." [...]

Harnessing the rattling motion of oxygen ions to convert T-rays to visible light

"A team of researchers led by Hideo Hosono at Tokyo Tech has shown that terahertz rays can be converted to light visible to the human eye. The finding is a breakthrough for functional materials research and could lead to the development of a new kind of terahertz detector. Scientists have successfully visualized terahertz radiation, popularly known as T-rays, using a crystal called mayenite (Ca12Al14O33). Their method cleverly utilizes the rattling motion caused by the vibration of oxygen ions inside the cage-like structures of the crystal. In recent years, there has been growing interest in developing practical devices based on terahertz technology. With wavelengths longer than infrared light, T-rays are considered safer than conventional imaging systems." [...]

Child-proofing the 'Internet of Things'

"Computer scientists are to explore how children can stay safe and retain their privacy as they engage with the ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT). Concerns about levels of computing literacy among young people, and the demands of future economies, has led to innovative programmes aimed at encouraging more children to explore and programme connected devices. Schemes to help ensure future generations of digital innovators include the creation of the BBC micro:bit, a micro controller with in-built sensors, such as compass and accelerometer, Bluetooth connectivity and pins that enable it to be connected to external sensors and other devices. The developers of the micro:bit took a very considered ethical approach to developing their device – purposefully restricting some functions, such as disabling Internet connectivity, restricting radio communication, and strengthening security around others, such as Bluetooth pairing, due to concerns around safety and privacy of children users. However, as many other current, and potentially future, devices can connect to the Internet researchers are keen to learn more about how so called IoT devices could affect the privacy and security of young people. Working alongside partners from the NSPCC, the Family Online Safety Institute, and the Micro:Bit Educational Foundation, researchers from Lancaster University, including computer scientists involved in the development of the operating software for the BBC micro:bit, will explore these issues as part of a one-year project ‘Child Proofing the Internet of Things’." [...]

Predicting the future of lightweight vehicle composites

"Researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, along with experts from industry and academia, have developed predictive engineering tools for designing new, economical, and lightweight automotive composites. This approach should speed the development of more economical carbon fiber materials. Lower cost, lighter weight materials are needed for improved fuel efficiency. By model year 2025, U.S. regulations mandate that the average fuel economy standard meets 54.5 miles per gallon, a 60 percent improvement over the 35.5 mpg required now. While stronger and lighter than steel, carbon fiber composites are relatively expensive. For widespread adoption to occur, new, economical composites that meet mechanical and safety requirements — such as long carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastic resins like polypropylene and nylon — need to be developed." [...]

A hybrid renewable energy solution

"FAU researchers are participating in a project aimed at making the supply of renewable electricity more stable Grid operators need to do more than simply distribute the electricity generated by wind farms and photovoltaic plants. They also have to ensure a consistent quality of supply. Achieving this with the available systems and components is a complex issue. Researchers at FAU are currently developing a hybrid compensation plant system with partners from the fields of science, energy supply and business. To this end, the researchers have combined in a single system an energy storage element and a very powerful converter that can influence the form of the signal in the power grid. The aim is to reduce the number of individual systems." [...]

New nanowires are just a few atoms thick

"“Two-dimensional materials” — materials deposited in layers that are only a few atoms thick — are promising for both high-performance electronics and flexible, transparent electronics that could be layered onto physical surfaces to make computing ubiquitous. The best-known 2-D material is graphene, which is a form of carbon, but recently researchers have been investigating other 2-D materials, such as molybdenum disulfide, which have their own, distinct advantages. Producing useful electronics, however, requires integrating multiple 2-D materials in the same plane, which is a tough challenge. In 2015, researchers at King Abdullah University in Saudi Arabia developed a technique for depositing molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) next to tungsten diselenide (WSe2), with a very clean junction between the two materials. With a variation of the technique, researchers at Cornell University then found that they could induce long, straight wires of MoS2 — only a few atoms in diameter— to extend into the WSe2, while preserving the clean junction. The researchers contacted Markus Buehler, the McAfee Professor of Engineering in MIT’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, who specializes in atomic-level models of crack propagation, to see if his group could help explain this strange phenomenon." [...]

Addition of tin boosts nanoparticle’s photoluminescence

"Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory have developed germanium nanoparticles with improved photoluminescence, making them potentially better materials for solar cells and imaging probes. The research team found that by adding tin to the nanoparticle’s germanium core, its lattice structure better matched the lattice structure of the cadmium-sulfide coating which allows the particles to absorb more light. “For a photovoltaic material, obviously absorbing light is the first part and converting that solar energy into electrical energy is the second part,” said Ames Laboratory scientist Emily Smith. “So you want a material that does both efficiently. Germanium has some desirable characteristics for photovoltaic materials, but unfortunately it doesn’t absorb light well.” Part of the problem is that the outside surface of germanium nanoparticles changes over time, primarily from oxidation. Previous work by Ames Laboratory scientist Javier Vela’s group found that coating nanoparticles—commonly referred to as surface passivation—improved the nanoparticles’ ability to absorb light." [...]

Craters on Graphene: Electrons Impact

"Novel defect control in graphene enables direct imaging of trapped electrons that follow Einstein’s rules. The Science Imaging electrons can help scientists better understand exotic electronic states, such as electricity that travels through wires without loss. The team created images of superfast electrons trapped as they tunnel through energy barriers in graphene. They visualized this unusual tunneling for the first time. They did it by imaging the density of charge carriers in a circular junction in a graphene layer on top of insulating boron nitride. Charge carriers are excited electrons and their holes (positively charged spots where the electrons resided before becoming excited)." [...]

Squeezing light into a tiny channel brings optical computing a step closer

"By forcing light to go through a smaller gap than ever before, researchers have paved the way for computers based on light instead of electronics. Light is desirable for use in computing because it can carry a higher density of information and is much faster and more efficient than conventional electronics. However, light does not easily interact with itself, so while it can be used to move information quickly, it is not very good at processing information. For example, light is currently used to transfer information over long distances, such as in transatlantic cables and fibre optics, which deliver fast internet. However, once the information reaches your computer, electronics are needed to convert and process it. In order to use light for processing on microchips, several important obstacles need to be overcome." [...]

Engineers 3-D print a “living tattoo”

"New technique 3-D prints programmed cells into living devices for first time. MIT engineers have devised a 3-D printing technique that uses a new kind of ink made from genetically programmed living cells. The cells are engineered to light up in response to a variety of stimuli. When mixed with a slurry of hydrogel and nutrients, the cells can be printed, layer by layer, to form three-dimensional, interactive structures and devices. The team has then demonstrated its technique by printing a “living tattoo” — a thin, transparent patch patterned with live bacteria cells in the shape of a tree. Each branch of the tree is lined with cells sensitive to a different chemical or molecular compound." [...]

A space-time sensor for light-matter interactions

"LMU-Physicists have developed an attosecond electron microscope that allows them to visualize the dispersion of light in time and space, and observe the motions of electrons in atoms. The most basic of all physical interactions in nature is that between light and matter. This interaction takes place in attosecond times (i.e. billionths of a billionth of a second). What exactly happens in such an astonishingly short time has so far remained largely inaccessible. Now a research team led by Dr. Peter Baum and Dr. Yuya Morimoto at LMU Munich and the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics (MPQ) has developed a new mode of electron microscopy, which enables one to observe this fundamental interaction in real time and real space." [...]

Clear leads to fully transparent devices

"See-through electronic devices, such as transparent displays, smart windows and concealed circuits require completely translucent components if users are to digitally interact with their perceived surroundings and manipulate this information in real time. Now, KAUST researchers have devised a strategy that helps to integrate transparent conducting metal-oxide contacts with two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors into these devices. Ultrathin semiconductor sheets that are composed of transition metals associated with chalcogen atoms, such as sulfur, selenium and tellurium, present exceptional electronic properties and optical transparency. However, to date, incorporating molybdenum sulphide (MoS2) monolayers into circuits has relied on silicon substrates and metal electrodes, such as gold and aluminum. The opacity of these materials has stalled attempts to develop fully transparent 2D electronic devices. The KAUST team led by material scientists Xi-Xiang Zhang and Husam Alshareef has combined MoS2 monolayers with transparent contacts to generate a series of devices and circuits, such as transistors, inverters, rectifiers and sensors." [...]

Discovery for modifying diamonds could change computing – WSU research

"A group of WSU researchers has discovered a way to modify diamonds that opens up important applications in the field of quantum computing and in radiation detection. Kelvin Lynn, professor of physics and of mechanical and materials engineering, and his team were using very thin strips of diamond inside a particle accelerator when they made an intriguing scientific discovery — by accident. As the researchers bombarded the diamond strips with deuterons, or tiny pairs of protons and neutrons, they observed a bluish light coming from the diamond and soon determined that it was nitrogen gas leaking out of the diamond. It was the first time that nitrogen has been removed from a diamond at such relatively low temperatures. If the deuteron process were to continue, a diamond would eventually decay back to a stable carbon isotope. “The tag line is that a diamond is forever, but actually it transforms when hit with deuterons,” said Marc Weber, a research professor and physicist at WSU’s Center for Materials Research." [...]

Google’s Quantum Simulator Gets Real Trippy And Generates A Butterfly

"Right when you thought quantum simulators could only crunch numbers, they throw on a drug rug and start making tapestries. This psychedelic image isn’t just something to stare at after a couple of bong rips. It’s called the Hofstadter butterfly and it’s actually a map of how electrons behave in a strong magnetic field. Every split and shift of these subatomic particles are beautifully rendered by the photons inside of Google’s quantum chip. The Hofstadter butterfly was discovered in 1976 and has always been nothing more than an educated guess of how electrons ebb and flow inside of a magnetic field. With this collaborative research effort by Google and scientists from universities in California, Singapore, and Greece, published Thursday in Science, we now have a much better idea of what this phenomenon looks like." [...]

3D Printing Wireless Sensors Without Electronics

"Our goal is to 3D print wireless sensors, input widgets and objects that can communicate with smartphones and other Wi-Fi devices, without the need for batteries or electronics. To this end, we present a novel toolkit for wireless connectivity that can be integrated with 3D digital models and fabricated using commodity desktop 3D printers and commercially available plastic filament materials. Specically, we introduce the first computational designs that 1) send data to commercial RF receivers including Wi-Fi, enabling 3D printed wireless sensors and input widgets, and 2) embed data within objects using magnetic fields and decode the data using magnetometers on commodity smartphones. To demonstrate the potential of our techniques, we design the first fully 3D printed wireless sensors including a weight scale, flow sensor and anemometer that can transmit sensor data. Furthermore, we 3D print eyeglass frames, armbands as well as artistic models with embedded magnetic data. Finally, we present various 3D printed application prototypes including buttons, smart sliders and physical knobs that wirelessly control music volume and lights as well as smart bottles that can sense liquid flow and send data to nearby RF devices, without batteries or electronics." [...]

Study Confirms that Cuprate Materials Have Fluctuating Stripes that May Be Linked to High-temperature Superconductivity

"These stripes of electron spin and charge are exciting because of their possible link to a phenomenon that could transform society by making electrical transmission nearly 100 percent efficient. Scientists at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have shown that copper-based superconductors, or cuprates – the first class of materials found to carry electricity with no loss at relatively high temperatures – contain fluctuating stripes of electron charge and spin that meander like rivulets over rough ground. The stripes are zones where electrons either pile up, creating bands of negative charge, or align their spins to create bands of magnetism. They were previously known to exist in cuprate superconductors at temperatures near absolute zero, although in this deep chill the stripes did not move around and their exact role in superconductivity – do they boost or squelch it? – has been unclear. Now the researchers have computationally demonstrated for the first time that these stripes also exist at high temperatures, but they are subtle and fluctuate in a way that could only be discovered through numerical computer simulations of a precision and scale not done before." [...]

Researchers develop graphene nano ‘tweezers’ that can grab individual biomolecules

"Discovery could lead to revolutionary handheld disease diagnostic system Researchers from the University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering have found yet another remarkable use for the wonder material graphene—tiny electronic “tweezers” that can grab biomolecules floating in water with incredible efficiency. This capability could lead to a revolutionary handheld disease diagnostic system that could be run on a smart phone. Graphene, a material made of a single layer of carbon atoms, was discovered more than a decade ago and has enthralled researchers with its range of amazing properties that have found uses in many new applications from microelectronics to solar cells. The graphene tweezers developed at the University of Minnesota are vastly more effective at trapping particles compared to other techniques used in the past due to the fact that graphene is a single atom thick, less than 1 billionth of a meter. The research study is published in Nature Communications, a leading journal in the field of nanomaterials and devices. The world’s sharpest tweezers The physical principle of tweezing or trapping nanometer-scale objects, known as dielectrophoresis, has been known for a long time and is typically practiced by using a pair of metal electrodes." [...]

Watching a Quantum Material Lose Its Stripes

"Stripes can be found everywhere, from zebras roaming in the wild to the latest fashion statement. In the world of microscopic physics, periodic stripe patterns can be formed by electrons within so-called quantum materials. Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have now disentangled the intriguing dynamics of how such atomic-scale stripes melt and form, providing fundamental insights that could be useful in the development of novel energy materials. In strongly correlated quantum materials, interactions between the electrons reign supreme. The complex coupling of these electrons with each other – and with electron spins and crystal vibrations – results in exotic phases such as charge ordering or high-temperature superconductivity. “A key goal of condensed matter physics is to understand the forces responsible for complex phases and the transitions between them,” said Robert Kaindl, a principal investigator and staff scientist at Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division." [...]

‘Magnetoelectric’ material shows promise as memory for electronics

"Smartphones and computers wouldn’t be nearly as useful without room for lots of apps, music and videos. Devices tend to store that information in two ways: through electric fields (think of a flash drive) or through magnetic fields (like a computer’s spinning hard disk). Each method has advantages and disadvantages. However, in the future, our electronics could benefit from the best of each. “There’s an interesting concept,” says Chang-Beom Eom, the Theodore H. Geballe Professor and Harvey D. Spangler Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. “Can you cross-couple these two different ways to store information?" [...]

Robots contribute to mapping the brain

"As the only Danish representatives, researchers from DTU contribute to EU’s flagship project to map the human brain: The Human Brain Project. A major international research project has previously mapped human genomes. The aim of the large-scale EU project Human Brain is to map the brain’s signalling systems, molecules and nerve cells. Denmark’s contribution to the project is not, however, traditional brain science, but is about testing new knowledge about brain functions using a technological model and in this way contribute to verify the knowledge and theses of brain researchers . “We have developed a biologically inspired control architecture which is based on artificial intelligence, and a model of the modules in the cerebellum which is the part of the brain that controls our movements,” explains postdoc Silvia Tolu who together with Professor Henrik Hautop Lund, both from DTU Electrical Engineering, are responsible for the Danish part of the Human Brain Project. “We have used that model to control a modular robot." [...]

3D-printed minifactories

"ETH researchers have developed a biocompatible ink for 3D printing using living bacteria. This makes it possible to produce biological materials capable of breaking down toxic substances or producing high-purity cellulose for biomedical applications. There will soon be nothing that cannot be produced with 3D printing. However, the materials used for this process are still “dead matter” such as plastics or metals. A group of ETH researchers led by Professor André Studart, Head of the Laboratory for Complex Materials, has now introduced a new 3D printing platform that works using living matter. The researchers developed a bacteria-containing ink that makes it possible to print mini biochemical factories with certain properties, depending on which species of bacteria the scientists put in the ink." [...]

New robots can see into their future

"UC Berkeley researchers have developed a robotic learning technology that enables robots to imagine the future of their actions so they can figure out how to manipulate objects they have never encountered before. In the future, this technology could help self-driving cars anticipate future events on the road and produce more intelligent robotic assistants in homes, but the initial prototype focuses on learning simple manual skills entirely from autonomous play. Using this technology, called visual foresight, the robots can predict what their cameras will see if they perform a particular sequence of movements. These robotic imaginations are still relatively simple for now – predictions made only several seconds into the future – but they are enough for the robot to figure out how to move objects around on a table without disturbing obstacles. Crucially, the robot can learn to perform these tasks without any help from humans or prior knowledge about physics, its environment or what the objects are. That’s because the visual imagination is learned entirely from scratch from unattended and unsupervised exploration, where the robot plays with objects on a table." [...]

pcb enclosure library

"This thing is mainly a refactoring from the very good library OpenSCAD-Arduino-Mounting-Library / arduino.scad from kellyegan ( https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:64008 ) This library uses tbuser's pin library for the pin mounts: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:10541 At first I used it to print boxes for arduinos. Then I began to add designs to the library to make boxes for Grove shields. After four or five additions, it began fastidious to add to new designs to the global variables of the main file of the library. This lead me to do this refactoring. " [...]

Parametric Hinge

"Parametric Butt Hinge This is a parametric butt hinge designed in OpenSCAD, offering a wide range of parameters for customization. The hinge is designed to be printed in one step, but the individual leaves can be printed independently if desired. And in the case of applications that require an external pin, the default fused pin may be disabled, to leave a pin shaft ready to accept an external pin, during post printing assembly. Note: There may be a rendering artifact that appears in the Customizer, when enabling knuckle gussets. This is either a browser issue or an OpenSCAD rendering artifact, and should not affect the physical model that you download and print. Also, if you download the OpenSCAD source file, it should render without any artifacts once loaded in the latest version of the OpenSCAD editor." [...]

3D Printing Terminology Visual Displays

"Created this as a visual aid for newcomers to 3D printing" [...]

The Official Raspberry Pi Beginner’s Book

"We are incredibly excited to reveal The Official Raspberry Pi Beginner’s book. This 116-page guide to computing with the Raspberry Pi includes all the following: A Pi Zero W computer The official case with three separate covers USB and HMDI adaptor cables 8GB Micro SD Card pre-loaded with the NOOBS operating system A 116-page Beginner’s Guide to using a Raspberry Pi computer We’ve been working on this book for a while now. It’s based on many of the starter guides you find in The MagPi, and covers everything from setting up the Pi Zero to learning programming and making. And, as with all our books and magazines. You can download a free digital edition in PDF format (this does not include the Pi Zero W or other accessories). " [...]

ATMega1284 Bottle Boat

"This device is a bottle boat that is powered by an ATMega1284 microcontroller, two DC motors, bluetooth control, a water level sensor, and an L293D motor driver. Another microcontroller may be used and will have many code differences. The body of the boat is made with household or recycled supplies that include ocean spray juice bottles, pencils, tape, hot glue, and a tupperware container. Also to note: this tutorial will be made under the assumption that you know how to program your microcontroller already. GitHubHere is the GitHub link to my folder. This is where you will find my code so that you can learn from and create this program for yourself." [...]

Handheld Camera Stabilizer

"This is a guide for creating a 3-axis handheld camera stabilization rig for a GoPro using a Digilent Zybo Zynq-7000 Development Board. This project was developed for CPE Real-Time Operating Systems class (CPE 439). The stabilizer uses three servos and an IMU to correct the motion of the user to keep the camera level. " [...]

IC Based Simple 12V to 240V Inverter Using MOSFET & IC 4047

"In this tutorial we will show you how to make simple IC based inverter circuit. You can watch the video which is embedded in this step for construction, parts list, circuit diagram & testing or you can continue reading the post for further details. " [...]

Make Automatic Night Light Switch Circuit Using Mosfet

"HOW TO MAKE AN AUTOMATIC NIGHT LIGHT SWITCH WITH MOSFET Hello, friends in this project i will show a simple circuit diagram on how to make an automatic night activated switch using one mosfet and some small components that i managed to salvage from a real night lamp.Ok, so no more time wasted let's get started. Components required for auto on off night light: - Mosfet IRFZ44N - LDR(LIGHT DEPENDENT RESISTOR) - RESISTOR 4.5Mohm - load(in this case 12v led strip) - Power supply(in this case 9v battery)" [...]

Arduino-Controlled Platformer Game With Joystick and IR Receiver

"Today, we're going to use an Arduino microcontroller to control a simple C#-based platformer game. I am using the Arduino to take input from a joystick module, and send that input to the C# application which listens and decodes input over a Serial connection. Although you don't need any previous experience in building video games to complete the project, it may require some time to absorb some of the things going on in the "game loop," which we will discuss later. To complete this project, you will need: - Visual Studio Community - An Arduino Uno (or similar) - A joystick controller module - Patience If you're ready to begin, carry on! " [...]

Intelligrill, Powered by Feather.

""Intelligrill, Powered by Feather" is a wifi enabled remote grill, smoker and oven thermometer with the added feature of providing real time updates of when the "main course" will be ready to serve. By constantly monitoring the change in food temperature over time, "Intelligrill, Powered by Feather" provides you with a very reasonable estimate of the time remaining to when your main course is ready to be moved from the grill, smoker or oven to your table. You simply specify the temperature you desire, and Intelligrill will keep you constantly informed of the cooking progress and time remaining via the Intelligrill OLED display and via a wifi connected web browser of your choice. I designed the first Intelligrill in 2012 using a PIC24FJ64GB002 processor, a Roving Networks wifi module, an Adafruit 128 by 64 oled module, and around 20 additional components (see the photo "Intelligrill, Circa 2012"). It was designed for my wife, who as soon as the main course (say a whole chicken, whole turkey, pork roast or shoulder, etc.) was placed in the grill, smoker or oven, would immediately ask "when will it be ready?"" [...]

Infinity Fidget Spinner Robot

"This instructable was created in fulfillment of the project requirement of the Makecourse at the University of South Florida (www.makecourse.com). Hello guys, This is my final project for the Make Course at USF. We were able to build anything we wanted, as long as it operated with the Arduino platform. Everybody knows what a fidget spinner is.... at least majority of millennials do. It became a popular fad out of the blue one day and before you knew it everybody was rotating spinners to help "relieve" anxiety or just spin out of pure bordem. In my eyes, I cringed at the sight of one, so I decided to take on an effort to stop the fidget spinner revolution." [...]

Browser Streaming Robot With The GoPiGo3

"Build a video streaming robot with the Raspberry Pi and the GoPiGo3. In this advanced project with the GoPiGo3 we build a Browser video streaming robot which streams live video to a browser and can be controlled from the browser. In this project we use the Raspberry Pi Camera module with the GoPiGo3. You can control the robot using a controller on the browser as the live video streams directly on the browser. The video quality is very good and the latency of the video is low, making this ideal for live video streaming robot projects. " [...]

Continuous Stirred Reactor

"This Instructable was created in fulfillment of the project requirement of the Makecourse at the University of South Florida (www.makecourse.com) Are you ChemE? Do you want to prototype a CSTR? You are in luck! Hi, I'm Chukwubuikem Ume-Ugwa a Chemical Engineering student at University of South Florida. This Project models a CSTR and uses a 5V stepper motor for the impeller. The CSTR is temperature controlled." [...]

Raspberry Pi Internet Weather Station

"The RPi Internet Weather Station project displays the weather information such as temperature, humidity and successive weather forecast. The Raspberry Pi Internet Weather Station project displays the weather information such as temperature, humidity and successive weather forecasts. This project uses 4D Systems’ 4DPi-35-II. 4DPi-35-II acts as the primary display of this RPi Project. The 4DPi-35-II is a 3.5" 480x320 Primary Display for the Raspberry Pi, which plugs directly on top of a Raspberry Pi and displays the primary output which is normally sent to the HDMI or Composite output. It features an integrated Resistive Touch panel, enabling the 4DPi-35-II to function with the Raspberry Pi without the need for a mouse." [...]

Nevma: Gesture Control for the Masses

"Working at Delphi (soon Aptiv) allows me the luxury of being immersed in a high-tech and innovative environment that provides constant inspiration for creating new and exciting gadgets. One day, some colleagues mentioned gesture control being one of the recent trends in automotive. This got me thinking of ways to bring gesture control to the broader audience in an affordable and easy to use package. And thus, Nevma was born. Nevma (Greek for "gesture") is a simple to build, program and utilize device that translates your hand gestures into keyboard and mouse input. Just plug it in your USB port and magically wave through your presentations, documents, pictures, songs and the like." [...]

Rock-paper-scissors Robot

"Hello, Everyone. This is a series of courses, I will share how to use cartons and arduino to make something interesting.Today, I'll show you how to make a Rock-paper-scissors robot. " [...]

WebApp Controlled Gate Operator Add-on (IoT)

"I have a client who had a gated area where many people needed to come and go. They didn't want to use a keypad on the outside and only had a limited number of keyfob transmitters. Finding an affordable source for additional keyfobs was difficult. I thought it would be a great opportunity to upgrade this Liftmaster gate operator to be IoT compatible with custom hardware, web API and web app interface. This not only solved the mass access problem it opened up additional functionality as well! In the last photo above is the test unit that I had running for almost a year in a ziplock bag." [...]

Building a LiPo Battery Storage Monitor: Part 1 – Design

"When finding out that one cell of my 3x 4S 1300mAh batteries were discharged to 3.3-3.4V (other cells were 3.7-3.8V) after not flying for 2-3 months, I was a bit surprised, these batteries were one of my first batteries purchased about 1.2 years ago. I’ve tried to be better now, checking packs every month, I’ve got some old packs for the RC car that hardly get used so I wrote down the idea to do battery storage voltage monitoring a few months ago so let’s make it happen. I’m thinking of using the nRF24L01 module (as it’s pretty low cost), using an ATtiny24/44/84 which should give us 6S support and have it powered from the first cell of the LiPo, it shouldn’t take too much current from the first cell as we stay in sleep/power down most of the time. Add in a few resistors, led, mosfets to turn on when we want to measure the voltage. I will coat the PCB in lacquer and cover it with heat shrink to protect against the environment and since the board needs to be as small as possible, I’m going to try the SMD version of the nRF24. Check-in times for these sensors might be in the range of hours as battery voltage won’t change too much, it would be nice to have a graph over say 30 days but I might look into that later if I feel it’s worth doing, for the moment it will just show the sensor number, cells, status if it’s ok or not, battery cell voltages and last check in time." [...]

Poor Man's Hue Switch

"In this instructable i'll show you how to build a very inexpensive wireless switch for Phillips Hue Lights. The problem: These lights needs permanent power supply, wall switches have to be always on. If you go to bed and turn off the wall switch the light will never shine again if the hue bridge try to switch on the light, for example in the morning to wake up you softly with a "warm light". You have to buy the Hue Tap or dimmer switches, which are very expensive, especially if you need one for each room. The solution is the using of an ESP8266. These tiny controllers with inbuild usb adapter are available for less than 3$." [...]

Light-Seeking Robot

"Euglena is a genus of single-celled organisms that live in bodies of fresh and salt water. Most species of Euglena have chloroplasts that are used for photosynthesis, much like plants. Additionally, most contain a single photoreceptor and eyespot, allowing the Euglena to track and move toward light sources. To learn more about Euglena, see this Wikipedia page. You can also see hundreds of Euglenas swimming around in this video. To emulate Euglena behavior, we’re going to make a light-seeking robot that moves toward areas of bright light." [...]

VHDL Stopwatch

"This is a tutorial on how to make a stopwatch using VHDL and a FPGA circuit board, like a Basys3 Atrix-7 Board. The stopwatch is able to count from 00.00 seconds to 99.99 seconds. It uses two buttons, one for the start/stop button and another for the reset button. The numbers are displayed on the board's seven-segment display using its anodes and cathodes. There are three different files needed in order to get this stopwatch to work. " [...]

Arduino Basic PC With TV Output

"In this Instructables I will show how to build a retro 8-bit computer running BASIC, by means of two Arduino and few other components. You can input the variables and the BASIC program with a PS2 keyboard, and the output is shown on a monitor with a text 47 columns x 29 rows of 8x8 pixels characters (B&W), a resolution similar or better than the Commodore 64, equal to 40 x 25 characters. You can see it in action in this video. The program can then be saved on the Arduino EEPROM, and you can still control the I/O pins directly via Basic dedicated commands. One Arduino is the "master", and it runs Tiny Basic Plus, a C implementation of Tiny Basic, with a focus on support for Arduino. It also control a PS2 keyboard." [...]

Learn How to Setup the Wifi Module ESP8266 by Using Just Arduino IDE

"In This Tutorial, I Will Show You How To Setup ESP8266 Module just By Using Arduino IDE not External TTL converter. " [...]

Simple Easy Homework Machine

"This machine is built using cheap materials and doesn't cross 7$ to build. To build this you need some patience and 2hours of time. And you must be familiar with soldering and wiring since this involves a small circuit. Once it is built just plug in this device to your computer and run the required content to be written and it will start the job in no time. This I have called writing machine since it uses a pen to write the things. So let's build your own writing machine." [...]

How to Make Record and Play Servo Based Robotic Arm

"Record and play servo robotic arm In this project i used four mini servo and four potentiometer Read from potentiometer is record to arduino board in teach mode and those steps are payed in loop in play mode. To make this project run smoothly I prepared a PCB layout and order it from" [...]

Arduino Door Alarm With Text Alerts

"This is an Arduino based door alarm that uses a magnetic reed switch to determine the door state and has an audible alarm and a text message based alarm. " [...]

Nixie Clock

"This is our Nixie Clock made with atmega 328 We all know these wonderful old lamps (Nixie). It is time to re-use them! so we made this nixie clock. " [...]

RFID Lockbox

"This instructable was created in fulfillment of the project requirement of the Makecourse at the University of South Florida (www.makecourse.com) This Inscrutable will take you through all of the steps necessary to build your own arduino controlled RFID Lockbox. The final product will use an RFID reader along with RFID chips to lock and unlock your deposit box. The Lockbox uses a rechargeable battery to power itself. One can open it with the RFID Chips, but if for some reason you want to use the original key, of course you can do so. Only now you need to disarm it with your own secret combination. I found the project fun, and I learned alot about programming." [...]

Get Notified If ISS Passes Over Place with Bolt IoT

"Space is so amazing and so are the people and space ship there! Using an IFTTT recipe, let your Bolt notify you when the ISS passes over you. This is a quick 15 minutes project with Bolt WiFi Module. I break down the project into 3 sections. 1. Setting up the Bolt WiFi Module Once you configure the Bolt WiFi Module for the first time using Android/iOS application, your device is connected to the internet." [...]

Nixie Tube Arduino Uno Driven Thermometer

"First off I give credit to the many sources I found right here on Instructables and GitHub to pull this project off. The design of the box and the programming modification to get the Nixie tubes to sequence on start up to help prevent poisoning of the tubes is all mine, but I cobbled a lot of info together to get this thing to work. As we go along, I will point to very good links that helped me greatly as they do a far better job explaining than I could. Materials Used: 1 - Arduino Uno ($10.00 eBay) - (I tried using a Pro Micro actually tried wiring two different units, and could NOT for the life of me get either to work with the DallasTemperature sensor. In frustration, I switched over to the UNO and had zero issues. 1 - Dallas Temperature sensor DS1820B ($5.00 eBay) - Water proof design, bought 3 to get the price discount." [...]

Alexa: "Your Clothes Are Dry"

"Using an accelerometer and Arduino Yun, the device monitors clothes dryer vibration and notifies via Echo when the dryer stops. The laundry room in my townhouse is on the lower floor, and my hearing isn't what it used to be. So, I can't always hear the dryer alarm go off to announce the clothes are dry. Since I also don't like wrinkled clothes, I need to know the moment the dryer stops so I can hang things up. So, I paired a Arduino Yun with an accelerometer and coded the Arduino to send notification via Alexa (and Cayenne SMS) to alert when the dryer stops vibrating. A button is added for the user to start the monitor and LED to visually indicate the monitor is actively sensing vibration." [...]

Solar Clock / Solar Tracker

"This instructable was created in fulfillment of the project requirement of the Makecourse at the University of South Florida (www.makecourse.com) This device is a solar powered clock. Its aim was to provide a nice desk piece that was self sufficient, and accurate. There are two motors that control the motion of the panel. The device is able to connect to the internet via an ESP8266, where it can update the time and location information. The arduino microcontroller then calculates the position of the sun, and guides the panel to its location for maximum efficiency. Since there are many different features on this device, I will focus on time keeping and the solar tracking algorithm, and separate them into their respective functions." [...]

Love You Pillow

"Open source is love, and so are hugs! We all know that being without that special person that you love can be hard, but what if you could send love and affection remotely over the internet from just hugging a pillow? Now, we can't really send hugs, but we can send a sweet emoji through a messaging app, triggered by you giving a pillow a hug. When you hug the I Love You Pillow you will hear the sound of a heartbeat coming from the buzzer inside. Depending on the time you keep hugging, a different emoji will be sent from a Telegram Bot to whatever chat you choose. Stay in touch with your loved one with this huggable device!" [...]

ARCA (Adorable Remote Controlled Android)

"This instructable was created in fulfillment of the project requirement of the Makecourse at the University of South Florida (www.makecourse.com). ARCA is an Adorable Remote Controlled Android that is incredibly fun to build and to play with. The goal of this project was to create something that anybody can understand and relate to by creating a robot that is both adorable and functional. The robot functions by displaying different emotions on an 8 by 8 LED matrix, these emotions include joy, sleeping, love, anger, silly, and looking up, left, and right. The robot also operates like an RC car and can go forward and turn left or right. The robot goes forward by activating both wheel motors, turns left by turning on the right motor, and turns right by turning on the left motor." [...]

WiFi Controlled LED Wedding Table Pieces

"Hello Everyone! I recently got married and although my now Wife did most of the planning, I wanted to also put my stamp on the wedding and this is the project I came up with it. In this instructable I will be showing you how I made WiFi controlled LED lamps that we used as table centers. There was 9 lights in total, each of them were connected to the WiFi and all worked in sync with each other.In the first GIF you can see an example of all the lights all changing colour at the same time, while in the second GIF you can see them changing at different times to create a pattern.While you might not have need for 9 of these lamps, I highly recommend building one as I think it looks great and the total price for one lamp is about 10.Let's get started! " [...]

MIDI 5V LED Strip Light Controller for the Spielatron or Other MIDI Synth

"This controller flashes tri-colour LED strip lights for 50mS per note.Blue for G5 to D#6, red for E6 to B6 and green for C7 to G7. The controller is an ALSA MIDI device so MIDI software can output to the LEDs at the same time as a MIDI synth device like the Spielatron. The tri-colour 5V LED strips and Arduino Nano were purchased from Banggood. " [...]

How to reduce Arduino Uno power usage by 95%

"Sometimes you have to use an Arduino UNO, instead of something more efficient like an Arduino Pro Mini — maybe you’re using an Arduino shield… Sometimes you have to run that same project from battery power, and every milliAmp counts… Sometimes that means that you’ll have to adjust the UNO to be much more power efficient, so you pick up a sharp scalpel, bring over the big loupe, and warm up the fine tipped soldering iron… The post formed part of development work performed for the Environment Agency. It has been re-published here with their kind permission, as part of the project commitment to open source development. The Arduino UNO is designed as a development board, instead of a specific low power device, it is built with several design choices that mean it uses more power that the minimum necessary. TL;DR To reduce the overall power usage of the Arduino UNO board significantly: replace the linear regulator with a DC-DC converter, adjust the USB-to-Serial circuit so it’s only powered from the USB port, cut out (or desolder) the always-on LED’s on the board, use the processor sleep mode. Using on-board circuit changes, selective replacement of components and the use of microcontroller sleep mode can reduce the continuous idle power usage of an Arduino UNO to only 5% of the default draw. Experimental Set Up Current measurements were made using the blink sketch that forms part of the standard Arduino Optiboot bootloader." [...]

Complete Home Automation Pack

"I made a complete home automation system for my home. Now I can control my electrical devices by a TV remote and from my smartphone. It is a low-cost solution and each unit will cost approximately $10 by which you can control four appliances. In next few steps, I will explain how I made it. I will add all necessary schematic, PCB layout, and Arduino sketch so that you can easily make it. Before going further watch the demo video." [...]

LED Matrix Display Badge

"Make a simple but challenging badge with an LED matrix display and an ATtiny13! Build a cool LED matrix badge with a custom sliding text string, using a dirty cheap microcontroller (the project is built around the ATtiny13 but if you have other spare ATtinys it will work fine) and other common components. There is a proposed PCB you can order, but the full sources are provided so you can make one on your own. " [...]

Obstacle Avoiding and Manual Controllable Robot Using Android Phone

"Hi everyone :) in this instructable im going to show you a simple way to make your own obstacle avoiding robot using ARDUINO and ANDROID phone to control it so follow the steps below one by one and i hope its gonna be helpful" [...]

Arduino Obstacle Avoidance Robot with Ultrasonic HC-SR04

"Arduino Nano based object avoidance robot which uses 3 HC-SR04 sensors in order to detect potential obstacles and correct its trajectory. alseTv1 alseTv1 is an Arduino Nano based object avoidance robot which uses three HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensors in order to detect potential obstacles. alseTv1 is the first iteration of a more sophisticated project which will make use of an additional Raspberry Pi in order to process signals from some sensors which already appear in the robot pictures, such as the Raspberry Pi Camera Module or an AMG8833 Grid-Eye infrared array sensor. " [...]