Editorial

Esta é a Newsletter Nº 162 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
• Projetos Maker

Faz hoje anos que nascia, em 1862, Philipp Lenard. Este físico húngaro-alemão recebeu o Prémio Nobel de Física de 1905 pela sua pesquisa sobre raios catódicos. Ele descobriu que eles poderiam deixar um tubo de raios catódicos, penetrar em finas chapas metálicas e percorrer uma pequena distância no ar, que se tornaria condutor. Em 1902, ele observou que um electrão livre (como num raio catódico) deveria ter pelo menos uma certa energia para ionizar um gás, derrubando um electrão ligado de um átomo. A sua estimativa da energia de ionização necessária para o hidrogénio foi notavelmente precisa. Também em 1902, ele mostrou que o efeito fotoeléctrico produz os mesmos electrões encontrados nos raios catódicos, que os foto-electrões não são apenas desalojados da superfície do metal, mas ejectados com uma certa quantidade de energia.

Faz também anos hoje que nascia, em 1868, John Sealy Townsend. Este físico britânico foi pioneiro no estudo da condução eléctrica em gases. Em 1898 ele fez a primeira medição direta da carga eléctrica da unidade (e). Como pós-graduado, ele era um estudante de pesquisa de J.J. Thomson. Em 1897, Townsend desenvolveu o método drop-drop para medir e, usando nuvens saturadas de gotículas de água carregadas (estendidas pelo método altamente preciso da gota de óleo de Robert Millikan). Ele foi o primeiro a explicar como as descargas eléctricas passam pelos gases (Electricity in Gases, 1915), pelo que o movimento de electrões num campo eléctrico liberta mais electrões por colisão. Estes, por sua vez, colidem libertando ainda mais electrões numa multiplicação de cargas conhecida como uma avalanche.

Faz igualmente anos hoje que nascia, em 1877, Charles Glover Barkla. Este físico inglês recebeu o Prémio Nobel da Física em 1917 pelo seu trabalho na dispersão de raios-X. Esta técnica é aplicada à investigação de estruturas atómicas, estudando como os raios X passam através de um material e são desviados pelos electrões atómicos. Em 1903, ele mostrou que a dispersão dos raios X pelos gases depende do peso molecular do gás. As suas experiências sobre a polarização de raios-x (1904) e a direcção do espalhamento de um feixe de raios-x (1907) mostraram que os raios X são radiação electromagnética como a luz (enquanto, na época, William Henry Bragg afirmava que Os raios X eram partículas.) Barkla descobriu ainda que cada elemento tem seu próprio espectro de raios X característico.

Por fim, faz anos hoje que nascia, em 1896, Robert Sanderson Mulliken. Este químico e físico recebeu o Prémio Nobel de Química de 1966 pelo “trabalho fundamental sobre ligações químicas e estrutura electrónica de moléculas”. Em 1922, ele sugeriu pela primeira vez um método de separação de isótopos por centrifugação por evaporação. Posteriormente, a maior parte de sua carreira de pesquisa foi dedicada à interpretação dos espectros moleculares e com a aplicação da teoria quântica aos estados electrónicos das moléculas. Com Friedrich Hund, ele desenvolveu a teoria molecular-orbital da ligação química, baseada na ideia de que orbitais atómicos de átomos isolados tornam-se orbitais moleculares, estendendo-se por dois ou mais átomos na molécula. Ele também fez importantes contribuições para a teoria e interpretação de espectros moleculares.

Nesta semana que passou ficámos a saber que a Microsoft afunda centro de dados no mar, em Orkney para investigar se pode aumentar a eficiência energética. O data center, um cilindro branco contendo computadores, pode ficar no fundo do mar por até cinco anos. Um cabo submarino leva a energia para o data center e leva seus dados para a costa e para a Internet - no entanto se houver avarias nos equipamentos elas não poderão ser reparadas. Orkney foi escolhido porque é um grande centro de pesquisa em energia renovável.

Também esta semana, Linus Torvalds anunciou o lançamento do Linux 4.17. O lançamento vem alguns meses após a primeira release candidate, e na sua mensagem Torvalds também fala sobre a versão 5.0 do kernel do Linux. Tendo dito anteriormente que o kernel Linux v5.0 "seria sem sentido", ele disse que este próximo grande marco numérico virá em torno "no futuro não muito distante". Por enquanto, porém, é a versão 4.17 - ou Merciless Moray.

Ainda esta semana a NASA anunciou ter encontrado material orgânico antigo, metano misterioso em Marte. O rover Curiosity da NASA encontrou novas evidências preservadas em rochas em Marte que sugerem que o planeta poderia ter sustentado a vida antiga, bem como novas evidências na atmosfera marciana que se relacionam com a busca pela vida actual no Planeta Vermelho. Embora não sejam necessariamente evidências da própria vida, essas descobertas são um bom sinal para futuras missões para explorar a superfície e a sub-superfície do planeta. As novas descobertas - moléculas orgânicas "duras" em rochas sedimentares de 3 mil milhões de anos perto da superfície, bem como variações sazonais nos níveis de metano na atmosfera - aparecem na edição de 8 de Junho da revista Science.

Na Newsletter desta semana apresentamos diversos projetos de maker assim como alguns modelos 3D que poderão ser úteis.

João Alves ([email protected])

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

Microsoft sinks data centre off Orkney

"Microsoft has sunk a data centre in the sea off Orkney to investigate whether it can boost energy efficiency. The data centre, a white cylinder containing computers, could sit on the sea floor for up to five years. An undersea cable brings the data centre power and takes its data to the shore and the wider internet - but if the computers onboard break, they cannot be repaired. Orkney was chosen because it is a major centre for renewable energy research. The theory is that the cost of cooling the computers will be cut by placing them underwater. "We think we actually get much better cooling underwater than on land," says Ben Cutler, who is in charge of what Microsoft has dubbed Project Natick." [...]

Version 4.17 of the Linux kernel is here... and version 5.0 isn't far away

"In his weekly message to the Linux community on Sunday, Linus Torvalds announced the release of Linux 4.17. The release comes a couple of months after the first release candidate, and in his message Torvalds also talks about version 5.0 of the Linux kernel. Having previously said that Linux kernel v5.0 "should be meaningless", he said that this next major numerical milestone will come around "in the not too distance future". For now, though, it's version 4.17 -- or Merciless Moray, if you prefer -- that's of interest. Linux kernel 4.17 is not a major release, and Torvalds announced it without much fanfare. "So this last week was pretty calm, even if the pattern of most of the stuff coming in on a Friday made it feel less so as the weekend approached." [...]

NASA Finds Ancient Organic Material, Mysterious Methane on Mars

"NASA's Curiosity rover has found new evidence preserved in rocks on Mars that suggests the planet could have supported ancient life, as well as new evidence in the Martian atmosphere that relates to the search for current life on the Red Planet. While not necessarily evidence of life itself, these findings are a good sign for future missions exploring the planet's surface and subsurface. The new findings -- "tough" organic molecules in 3-billion-year-old sedimentary rocks near the surface, as well as seasonal variations in the levels of methane in the atmosphere -- appear in the June 8 edition of the journal Science. Organic molecules contain carbon and hydrogen, and also may include oxygen, nitrogen and other elements. While commonly associated with life, organic molecules also can be created by non-biological processes and are not necessarily indicators of life. "With these new findings, Mars is telling us to stay the course and keep searching for evidence of life," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, in Washington." [...]

Next-Gen Robotic Systems to Be Enabled by Jetson Xavier Computer and Isaac Robotics Software

"NVIDIA today announced the availability of NVIDIA® Isaac™, a new platform to power the next generation of autonomous machines, bringing artificial intelligence capabilities to robots for manufacturing, logistics, agriculture, construction and many other industries. Launched at Computex 2018 by NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang, NVIDIA Isaac includes new hardware, software and a virtual-world robot simulator. “AI is the most powerful technology force of our time,” said Huang. “Its first phase will enable new levels of software automation that boost productivity in many industries. Next, AI, in combination with sensors and actuators, will be the brain of a new generation of autonomous machines. Someday, there will be billions of intelligent machines in manufacturing, home delivery, warehouse logistics and much more.” Jetson Xavier At the heart of NVIDIA Isaac is Jetson™ Xavier™, the world’s first computer designed specifically for robotics." [...]

Alibaba made a driverless robot that runs 9 mph to deliver packages

"And a storage locker that will unlock when it recognizes your face Alibaba has just announced a couple of tech innovations that hint at a future with even more delivery conveniences. The company showed off a driverless delivery robot that will help ship goods purchased online to customers more conveniently and a storage locker with facial recognition that promises to keep food warm. The robot is called the G Plus, and it’s currently being road-tested at Alibaba’s headquarters in Hangzhou, a major city located in eastern China. The G Plus robot can carry multiple packages of different sizes, and it has extended stamina to travel longer distances compared to its predecessors. The G Plus’ loading box can change sizes depending on the package it needs to deliver, and Alibaba says the robot can also deliver fresh food. The robot has a built-in navigation system that relies on LIDAR to create a 3D map." [...]

A Flexible Arduino Prototype

"We recently visited NextFlex, the flexible electronics manufacturing institute in Silicon Valley, where they developed a flexible prototype based on the Arduino Mini. Their mission is to make flexible electronics mainstream, opening up all kinds of new applications. How did you make the flexible Arduino prototype? Some of the equipment we use is familiar. For example, automated screen printers and industrial inkjet printers. We used them to print the circuit on a 1mm thick flexible plastic ‘board’ (known as the substrate)." [...]

Juno Solves 39-Year Old Mystery of Jupiter Lightning

"Ever since NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft flew past Jupiter in March, 1979, scientists have wondered about the origin of Jupiter's lightning. That encounter confirmed the existence of Jovian lightning, which had been theorized for centuries. But when the venerable explorer hurtled by, the data showed that the lightning-associated radio signals didn't match the details of the radio signals produced by lightning here at Earth. In a new paper published in Nature today, scientists from NASA's Juno mission describe the ways in which lightning on Jupiter is actually analogous to Earth's lightning. Although, in some ways, the two types of lightning are polar opposites. "No matter what planet you're on, lightning bolts act like radio transmitters -- sending out radio waves when they flash across a sky," said Shannon Brown of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, a Juno scientist and lead author of the paper." [...]

Time crystals may hold secret to coherence in quantum computing

"New experimental evidence also lays groundwork for new ways of studying time An Aalto University study has provided new evidence that time crystals can physically exist – a claim currently under hot debate. A time crystal is a structure that does not repeat in space, like normal three-dimensional crystals such as snowflakes or diamonds, but in time. In practice this means that crystals constantly undergo spontaneous change, breaking the symmetry of time by achieving a self-sustaining oscillation. The value is in the time crystal’s coherency, a property that allows temporal and spatial consistency, amounting to longevity otherwise not possible. ‘Nature has given us a system that wants to be coherent over time,’ says Senior Scientist Vladimir Eltsov, leader of the ROTA research group at Aalto University. ‘The system spontaneously begins to evolve in time coherently, over long periods of time, even infinitely long,’ he shares." [...]

Graphene Layered With Magnetic Materials Could Drive Ultrathin Spintronics

"Measurements at Berkeley Lab's Molecular Foundry reveal exotic spin properties that could lead to new form of data storage esearchers working at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) coupled graphene, a monolayer form of carbon, with thin layers of magnetic materials like cobalt and nickel to produce exotic behavior in electrons that could be useful for next-generation computing applications. The work was performed in collaboration with French scientists including Nobel Laureate Albert Fert, an emeritus professor at Paris-Sud University and scientific director for a research laboratory in France. The team performed key measurements at Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry, a DOE Office of Science User Facility focused on nanoscience research. Fert shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2007 for his work in understanding a magnetic effect in multilayer materials that led to new technology for reading data in hard drives, for example, and gave rise to a new field studying how to exploit and control a fundamental property known as “spin” in electrons to drive a new type of low-energy, high-speed computer memory and logic technology known as spintronics. In this latest work, published online May 28 in the journal Nature Materials, the research team showed how that spin property – analogous to a compass needle that can be tuned to face either north or south – is affected by the interaction of graphene with the magnetic layers. The researchers found that the material’s electronic and magnetic properties create tiny swirling patterns where the layers meet, and this effect gives scientists hope for controlling the direction of these swirls and tapping this effect for a form of spintronics applications known as “spin-orbitronics” in ultrathin materials." [...]

Back to the future as researchers invent real-life flux capacitor

"The "Back to the Future" time machine runs on an imaginary flux capacitor but could the movie invention become reality? In the popular movie franchise Back to the Future, an eccentric scientist creates a time machine that runs on a flux capacitor. Now a group of actual physicists from Australia (RMIT University, University of Queensland) and Switzerland (ETH Zurich) have proposed a similar device that can break time-reversal symmetry. While their flux capacitor doesn’t enable time travel, it’s a critical step in future technologies like the quantum computer and could lead to better electronics for mobile phones and wifi. The research, published in Physical Review Letters, proposes a new generation of electronic circulators - devices that control the direction in which microwave signals move. RMIT’s Professor Jared Cole said the device proposed in the research was built from a superconductor, in which electricity can flow without electrical resistance." [...]

An elastic fiber set to revolutionize smart clothes

"It’s a whole new way of thinking about sensors. The tiny fibers developed at EPFL are made of elastomer and can incorporate materials like electrodes and nanocomposite polymers. The fibers can detect even the slightest pressure and strain and can withstand deformation of close to 500% before recovering their initial shape. All that makes them perfect for applications in smart clothing and prostheses, and for creating artificial nerves for robots. The fibers were developed at EPFL’s Laboratory of Photonic Materials and Fiber Devices (FIMAP), headed by Fabien Sorin at the School of Engineering. The scientists came up with a fast and easy method for embedding different kinds of microstructures in super-elastic fibers." [...]

Better, Faster, Stronger: Building Batteries That Don't Go Boom

"Understanding how lithium reacts to pressure developed from charging and discharging a battery could mean safer, better batteries. There’s an old saying: “You must learn to walk before you learn to run.” Despite such wisdom, numerous industries skip the basics and sign up for marathons instead, including the battery industry. Lithium ion batteries hold incredible promise for improved storage capacity, but they are volatile. We’ve all heard the news about lithium ion batteries in phones—most notably the Samsung Galaxy 7—causing phones to catch fire. Much of the problem arises from the use of flammable liquid electrolyte inside the battery. One approach is to use a non-flammable solid electrolyte together with a lithium metal electrode." [...]

Switched on: a breakthrough for spintronics

"Researchers at Tohoku University in Japan have discovered a switch to control the spin current, a mechanism needed for information processing with full spin-based devices. This is significant because although the technology behind detecting and generating the spin current has been established for some time, a long-missing component in the history of spintronics has been a "spin current switch." It's the equivalent of the transistor used in electronics to enable and disable the flow of electricity. Spintronics is an emerging field of nanoscale electronics which uses not only the charge of electrons but also the spin of electrons. The technology doesn't require a specialized semiconductor material resulting in reduced manufacturing costs. Other advantages include less energy requirement, as well as low power consumption with competitive data transfer and storage capacity." [...]

Imaging the inside of injection needles with neutrons

"PSI researchers help to understand why in pre-filled syringes, liquid medication can enter the needle inadvertently Researchers from the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, the University of Basel and the company F. Hoffmann-La Roche have found out why proper storage is crucial for syringes which are pre-filled with a liquid medication. Thanks to the special, well established neutron imaging capability at PSI, it's clear: The liquid medication can inadvertently get from the syringe cylinder into the metal needle prior to administration when the pre-filled syringe is stored at adversely high temperatures. The research results have been published in the scientific journal European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics. Pre-filled syringes with staked-in needles are a popular option enabling patients to give themselves injections at home. These syringes are already filled with the liquid medication and commonly need to be kept cool. Depending on several conditions (the water vapour permeability of the needle's protective shield, the temperature history and the long-term storage condition), it is possible for the injection needle to become clogged." [...]

Imec demonstrates efficient cost-effective cooling solution for high performance chips

"Imec, the world-leading research and innovation hub in nano-electronics and digital technology, today announced that it has demonstrated for the first time a low-cost impingement-based solution for cooling chips at package level. This achievement is an important innovation to tackle the ever-increasing cooling demands of high-performance 3D chips and systems. High performance electronic systems are coping with increasing cooling demands. Conventional solutions realize cooling through combining heat exchangers that are bonded to heat spreaders that are then attached to the chip backside. These are all interconnected with thermal interface materials (TIM) that create a fixed thermal resistance that can’t be overcome by introducing more efficient cooling solutions. Direct cooling on the chip backside would be more efficient, but current direct cooling microchannel solutions create a temperature gradient across the chip surface." [...]

Liquid Printed Pneumatics

"BMW and MIT's Self-Assembly Lab collaborate to design the first printed inflatable material. Self-Assembly Lab Team: Bjorn Sparrman, Shokofeh Darbari, Rami Rustom, Maggie Hughes, Schendy Kernizan, Jared Laucks, Skylar Tibbits BMW Team: Sophie Richter, Akos Stegmar The BMW Design Department in collaboration with MIT’s (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Self-Assembly Laboratory have successfully developed printed inflatable material technologies that self-transform, adapt and morph from one state to another. This visionary commission is showcased at the V&A and for the first time on display during their exhibition The Future Starts Here, which explores the power of design in shaping the world of tomorrow. The BMW Design Department and MIT’s Self-Assembly Laboratory have started their cross-disciplinary study two years back with the mutual ambition to push the boundaries of material technologies. BMW’s forward thinking concepts of future interiors that can interact and adapt seamlessly were the starting point of an in depth exploration by MIT’s Self-Assembly Laboratory. This collaboration resulted in the first example of a fully printed inflatable that can be customized to any size or shape." [...]

Scientists discover new magnetic element

"This schematic illustrates how a tetragonal phase of Ru has been forced using ultra thin film growth methods. Credit: University of Minnesota, Quarterman et al, Nature Communications A new experimental discovery, led by researchers at the University of Minnesota, demonstrates that the chemical element ruthenium (Ru) is the fourth single element to have unique magnetic properties at room temperature. The discovery could be used to improve sensors, devices in the computer memory and logic industry, or other devices using magnetic materials. The use of ferromagnetism, or the basic mechanism by which certain materials (such as iron) form permanent magnets or are attracted to magnets, reaches back as far as ancient times when lodestone was used for navigation. Since then only three elements on the periodic table have been found to be ferromagnetic at room temperature—iron (Fe), cobalt (Co), and nickel (Ni). The rare earth element gadolinium (Gd) nearly misses by only 8 degrees Celsius." [...]

Making better batteries

"Research focused on upscaling of energy-storage devices was presented by Dr Billy Wu and Professor Jason Riley in an IMSE Lunchtime Seminar last week. The Institute for Molecular Science and Engineering (IMSE) co-ordinates a range of integrated activities to bring Imperial College London’s world class engineers, scientists, medics and business researchers together to collaborate on pressing global challenge problems. The Lunchtime Seminar Series is a key part of these community-building endeavours. They provide the opportunity for Imperial staff and students to learn about different aspects of research projects that are ongoing in College, in a relaxed environment. In the latest of these seminars, Dr Billy Wu (Dyson School of Design Engineering) and Professor Jason Riley (Department of Materials and Associate Director of IMSE) described some of their current research on the topic of upscaling energy-storage technologies. These efforts are occurring within the modern ‘renewable revolution’, in particular the growing worldwide drive towards electric vehicles and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions." [...]

The right squeeze for quantum computing

"Scientists at Hokkaido University and Kyoto University have developed a theoretical approach to quantum computing that is 10 billion times more tolerant to errors than current theoretical models. Their method brings us closer to developing quantum computers that use the diverse properties of subatomic particles to transmit, process and store extremely large amounts of complex information. Quantum computing has the potential to solve problems involving vast amounts of information, such as modelling complex chemical processes, far better and faster than modern computers. Computers currently store data by coding it into “bits.” A bit can exist in one of two states: 0 and 1. Scientists have been investigating ways to employ subatomic particles, called “quantum bits,” which can exist in more than just two separate states, for the storage and processing of much vaster amounts of information. Quantum bits are the building blocks of quantum computers." [...]

Researchers devise new way to make light interact with matter

"Reducing the wavelength of light could allow it to be absorbed or emitted by a semiconductor, study suggests. A new way of enhancing the interactions between light and matter, developed by researchers at MIT and Israel’s Technion, could someday lead to more efficient solar cells that collect a wider range of light wavelengths, and new kinds of lasers and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that could have fully tunable color emissions. The fundamental principle behind the new approach is a way to get the momentum of light particles, called photons, to more closely match that of electrons, which is normally many orders of magnitude greater. Because of the huge disparity in momentum, these particles usually interact very weakly; bringing their momenta closer together enables much greater control over their interactions, which could enable new kinds of basic research on these processes as well as a host of new applications, the researchers say. The new findings, based on a theoretical study, are being published today in the journal Nature Photonics in a paper by Yaniv Kurman of Technion (the Israel Institute of Technology, in Haifa); MIT graduate student Nicholas Rivera; MIT postdoc Thomas Christensen; John Joannopoulos, the Francis Wright Davis Professor of Physics at MIT; Marin Soljačić, professor of physics at MIT; Ido Kaminer, a professor of physics at Technion and former MIT postdoc; and Shai Tsesses and Meir Orenstein at Technion. While silicon is a hugely important substance as the basis for most present-day electronics, it is not well-suited for applications that involve light, such as LEDs and solar cells — even though it is currently the principal material used for solar cells despite its low efficiency, Kaminer says." [...]

New High-Precision Instrument Enables Rapid Measurements of Protein Crystals

"A team of scientists and engineers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have developed a new scientific instrument that enables ultra-precise and high-speed characterization of protein crystals at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II)—a DOE Office of Science User Facility at Brookhaven, which generates high energy x-rays that can be harnessed to probe the protein crystals. Called the FastForward MX goniometer, this advanced instrument will significantly increase the efficiency of protein crystallography by reducing the run time of experiments from hours to minutes. Protein crystallography is an essential research technique that uses x-ray diffraction for uncovering the 3D structures of proteins and other complex biological molecules, and understanding their function within our cells. Using this knowledge about the basic structure of life, scientists can advance drug design, improve medical treatments, and unravel other environmental and biochemical processes governing our everyday lives. For this technique to work, proteins must be crystallized—and the most challenging proteins often only grow into tiny microcrystals. To reconstruct these complex protein structures, scientists need to measure x-ray diffraction data from thousands of microcrystals and merge the collected data, a technique called serial crystallography." [...]

Prototype nuclear battery packs 10 times more power

"Russian researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), the Technological Institute for Superhard and Novel Carbon Materials (TISNCM), and the National University of Science and Technology MISIS have optimized the design of a nuclear battery generating power from the beta decay of nickel-63, a radioactive isotope. Their new battery prototype packs about 3,300 milliwatt-hours of energy per gram, which is more than in any other nuclear battery based on nickel-63, and 10 times more than the specific energy of commercial chemical cells. The paper was published in the journal Diamond and Related Materials. Conventional batteries Ordinary batteries powering clocks, flashlights, toys, and other compact autonomous electrical devices use the energy of so-called redox chemical reactions. In them, electrons are transferred from one electrode to another via an electrolyte. This gives rise to a potential difference between the electrodes." [...]

Self-learning assistance system for efficient processes

"To prevent long downtimes and high quantities of scrap, manufacturers must design production processes to be stable and efficient. Particularly successful outcomes are achieved when the experience of the people who operate the machines is taken into account. The Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV in Dresden is developing a self-learning assistance system that helps machine operators resolve errors and build up their experience and process knowledge. To take a concrete example: On a processing machine, chocolate bars are wrapped in paper. A sensor detects a deviation in the production process and the machine stops. Even with state-of-the-art systems, a brief interruption occurs on average every five minutes." [...]

Researchers develop one-step, 3D printing for multimaterial projects

" Similar to the advance from black and white to color printing, a Washington State University research team for the first time has used 3D printing technology in a one-step process to print structures made of two different materials. The advance could potentially help manufacturers reduce manufacturing steps and use one machine to make complex products with multiple parts in one operation. Until now, 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, has been limited to using mostly one material at a time. Led by Amit Bandyopadhyay, Herman and Brita Lindholm Endowed Chair Professor in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, the researchers used 3D printing technology to print out metal and ceramic structures as well as a bimetallic tube that is magnetic in one end and nonmagnetic in the other. The report on their work is published in the May issue of Additive Manufacturing. More precise, versatile product characteristics Three-dimensional printing has changed the landscapes of many industrial practices and has significantly influenced product design protocols." [...]

Supercomputers Provide New Window Into the Life and Death of a Neutron

"Berkeley Lab-led research team simulates sliver of the universe to tackle subatomic-scale physics problem Experiments that measure the lifetime of neutrons reveal a perplexing and unresolved discrepancy. While this lifetime has been measured to a precision within 1 percent using different techniques, apparent conflicts in the measurements offer the exciting possibility of learning about as-yet undiscovered physics. Now, a team led by scientists in the Nuclear Science Division at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has enlisted powerful supercomputers to calculate a quantity known as the “nucleon axial coupling,” or gA – which is central to our understanding of a neutron’s lifetime – with an unprecedented precision. Their method offers a clear path to further improvements that may help to resolve the experimental discrepancy. To achieve their results, the researchers created a microscopic slice of a simulated universe to provide a window into the subatomic world. Their study was published online May 30 in the journal Nature." [...]

Breakthrough in controlling DNA-based robots

"Researchers use magnets to move tiny nano-devices faster than ever before Researchers have devised a magnetic control system to make tiny DNA-based robots move on demand—and much faster than recently possible. In the journal Nature Communications, Carlos Castro and Ratnasingham Sooryakumar and their colleagues from The Ohio State University report that the control system reduced the response time of prototype nano-robot components from several minutes to less than a second. Not only does the discovery represent a significant improvement in speed, this work and one other recent study herald the first direct, real-time control of DNA-based molecular machines. The discovery could one day enable nano-robots to manufacture objects – such as drug-delivery devices -- as quickly and reliably as their full-size counterparts. Previously, researchers could only move DNA indirectly, by inducing chemical reactions to coax it to move certain ways, or introducing molecules that reconfigure the DNA by binding with it. Those processes take time." [...]

Device allows a personal computer to process huge graphs

"With novel system, data scientists can analyze massive networks without the need for power-hungry servers. In data-science parlance, graphs are structures of nodes and connecting lines that are used to map scores of complex data relationships. Analyzing graphs is useful for a broad range of applications, such as ranking webpages, analyzing social networks for political insights, or plotting neuron structures in the brain. Consisting of billions of nodes and lines, however, large graphs can reach terabytes in size. The graph data are typically processed in expensive dynamic random access memory (DRAM) across multiple power-hungry servers. Researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have now designed a device that uses cheap flash storage — the type used in smartphones — to process massive graphs using only a single personal computer." [...]

Atomically thin nanowires convert heat to electricity more efficiently

"Heat can be converted to electricity more efficiently using nanowires as thin as atoms, according to new University of Warwick research Atomically thin nanowires conduct less heat and more electricity at the same time, yielding unprecedented conversion efficiency in comparison to the same bulk material Research opens up future routes into renewable energy from heat-to-electricity conversion Waste heat can be converted to electricity more efficiently using one-dimensional nanoscale materials as thin as an atom – ushering a new way of generating sustainable energy – thanks to new research by the University of Warwick. Led by Drs Andrij Vasylenko, Samuel Marks, Jeremy Sloan and David Quigley from Warwick’s Department of Physics, in collaboration with the Universities of Cambridge and Birmingham, the researchers have found that the most effective thermoelectric materials can be realised by shaping them into the thinnest possible nanowires. Thermoelectric materials harvest waste heat and convert it into electricity - and are much sought-after as a renewable and environmentally friendly sources of energy. Dr Andrij Vasylenko, from the University of Warwick’s Department of Physics and the paper’s first author, commented: “In contrast to 3-dimensional material, isolated nanowires conduct less heat and more electricity at the same time. These unique properties yield unprecedented efficiency of heat-to-electricity conversion in one-dimensional materials.” The researchers - which included the group of Dr Andrew J. Morris from the University of Birmingham - were investigating the crystallisation of tin telluride in extremely narrow carbon nanotubes used as templates for the formation of these materials in their lowest dimensional form. In a combined theoretical-experimental research, they were able not only to establish a direct dependence between the size of a template and a resulting structure of a nanowire, but also to demonstrate how this technique can be used for regulation of the thermoelectric efficiency of tin telluride formed into nanowires 1-2 atoms in diameter." [...]

Designer materials with completely random structures might enable quantum computing

"Topological randomness may be the answer for lossless electronics and making the nuts and bolts of quantum computers. Designing quantum materials with exotic and unprecedented electrical properties has the field of physics teeming with buzz. Researchers at Aalto University in Finland have now introduced a significant turn in this discussion by developing an amorphous material which exhibits topological superconductivity. Until this point, these materials have required highly regular structures to show desired electrical properties. The findings, published in Nature Communications, bring the field one step closer to application. Topological superconductors and insulators are considered to be possible building blocks of lossless components for quantum computers." [...]

Novel Insulators with Conducting Edges

"Physicists at UZH are researching a new class of materials: Higher-order topological insulators. The edges of these crystalline solids conduct electric current without dissipation, while the rest of the crystal remains insulating. This could be useful for applications in semiconductor technology and for building quantum computers. Topology examines the properties of objects and solids that are protected against perturbations and deformations. Materials known so far include topological insulators, which are crystals that insulate on the inside but conduct electrical current on their surface. The conducting surfaces are topologically protected, which means that they cannot easily be brought into an insulating state." [...]

Future robots need no motors HKU Engineering invents world's first nickel-hydroxide actuating material that can be triggered by both light and electricity

"To develop micro- and biomimetic-robots, artificial muscles and medical devices, actuating materials that can reversibly change their volume under various stimuli are researched in the past thirty years to replace traditional bulky and heavy actuators including motors and pneumatic actuators. A mechanical engineering team led by Professor Alfonso Ngan Hing-wan, Chair Professor in Materials Science and Engineering, and Kingboard Professor in Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, the University of Hong Kong (HKU) published an article in Science Robotics on 30 May 2018 (EST) that introduces a novel actuating material – nickel hydroxide-oxyhydroxide – that can be powered by visible (Vis) light, electricity, and other stimuli. The material actuation can be instantaneously triggered by Vis light to produce a fast deformation and exert a force equivalent to 3000 times of its own weight. The material cost of a typical actuator is as low as HKD 4 per cm2 and can be easily fabricated within three hours. Among various stimuli, light-induced actuating materials are highly desirable because they enable wireless operation of robots. However, very few light driven materials are available in the past, and their material and production costs are high, which hinder their development in actual applications such as artificial muscles for robotics and human assist device, and minimally invasive surgical and diagnostic tools." [...]

Wireless system can power devices inside the body

"New technology could enable remote control of drug delivery, sensing, and other medical applications. MIT researchers, working with scientists from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, have developed a new way to power and communicate with devices implanted deep within the human body. Such devices could be used to deliver drugs, monitor conditions inside the body, or treat disease by stimulating the brain with electricity or light. The implants are powered by radio frequency waves, which can safely pass through human tissues. In tests in animals, the researchers showed that the waves can power devices located 10 centimeters deep in tissue, from a distance of 1 meter. “Even though these tiny implantable devices have no batteries, we can now communicate with them from a distance outside the body." [...]

NIST Atomic Clock Comparison Confirms Key Assumptions of 'Einstein's Elevator'

"By comparing different types of remote atomic clocks, physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have performed the most accurate test ever of a key principle underlying Albert Einstein’s famous theory of general relativity, which describes how gravity relates to space and time. The NIST result, made possible by continual improvements in the world’s most accurate atomic clocks, yields a record-low, exceedingly small value for a quantity that Einstein predicted to be zero. As described in a Nature Physics paper (link is external) posted online June 4, NIST researchers used the solar system as a laboratory for testing Einstein’s thought experiment involving Earth as a freefalling elevator. Einstein theorized that all objects located in such an elevator would accelerate at the same rate, as if they were in a uniform gravitational field—or no gravity at all. Moreover, he predicted, these objects’ properties relative to each other would remain constant during the elevator’s free-fall. In their experiment, the NIST team regarded Earth as an elevator falling through the Sun’s gravitational field." [...]

Paving the way for safer smaller batteries and fuel cells

"Fuel cells and batteries provide electricity by generating and coaxing positively charged ions from a positive to a negative terminal which frees negatively charged electrons to power cellphones, cars, satellites, or whatever else they are connected to. A critical part of these devices is the barrier between these terminals, which must be separated for electricity to flow. Improvements to that barrier, known as an electrolyte, are needed to make energy storage devices thinner, more efficient, safer, and faster to recharge. Commonly used liquid electrolytes are bulky and prone to shorts, and can present a fire or explosion risk if they’re punctured. Research led by University of Pennsylvania engineers suggests a different way forward: a new and versatile kind of solid polymer electrolyte ( SPE) that has twice the proton conductivity of the current state-of-the-art material. Such SPEs are currently found in proton-exchange membrane fuel cells, but the researchers’ new design could also be adapted to work for the lithium-ion or sodium-ion batteries found in consumer electronics." [...]

SNU Researchers developed electronic skins that wirelessly activate fully soft robots

"A research team of Seoul National University (Co-senior authors: Professor Yongtaek Hong, Jaeha Kim, and Kyu-Jin Cho) has developed a skin-like electronic system that is soft, thin, lightweight and can wirelessly activate soft robots through a simple lamination process. They developed an electronic skin (e-skin) pair as a two-part, wireless soft driving system based on a fully printable “stretchable hybrid electronics” approach. One part is the e-skin for input sensing at a human side, and the other for activating soft robots. The e-skins are soft (same material for the target robot body), thin (<1 mm), and lightweight (~0.8 g) and also feature the spatially fragmented circuit configuration with a slew of miniature IC components (standard dimension, <1.5 mm × 1.5 mm). Therefore, they can be stretched and conformed onto the dynamic surface like human skin or soft robots. The electronic functionality of this system is “wireless inter-skin communication”." [...]

Aerial robot that can morph in flight

"Marking a world first, researchers from the Étienne Jules Marey Institute of Movement Sciences (CNRS / Aix-Marseille Université) have drawn inspiration from birds to design an aerial robot capable of altering its profile during flight. To reduce its wingspan and navigate through tight spaces, it can reorient its arms, which are equipped with propellers that let it fly like a helicopter. The scientists' work is the subject of an article published in Soft Robotics (May 30, 2018). It paves the way for a new generation of large robots that can move through narrow passages, making them ideal for exploration as well as search and rescue missions. Birds and winged insects have the remarkable ability to maneuver quickly during flight to clear obstacles. Such extreme agility is necessary to navigate through cramped spaces and crowded environments, like forests." [...]

Keeping data fresh for wireless networks

"Algorithm provides networks with the most current information available while avoiding data congestion. For wireless networks that share time-sensitive information on the fly, it’s not enough to transmit data quickly. That data also need to be fresh. Consider the many sensors in your car. While it may take less than a second for most sensors to transmit a data packet to a central processor, the age of that data may vary, depending on how frequently a sensor is relaying readings. In an ideal network, these sensors should be able to transmit updates constantly, providing the freshest, most current status for every measurable feature, from tire pressure to the proximity of obstacles." [...]

Physicists use terahertz flashes to uncover new state of matter hidden by superconductivity

"Using the physics equivalent of the strobe photography that captures every twitch of a cheetah in full sprint, researchers have used ultrafast spectroscopy to visualize electrons interacting as a hidden state of matter in a superconductive alloy. It takes intense, single-cycle pulses of photons – flashes – hitting the cooled alloy at terahertz speed – trillions of cycles per second – to switch on this hidden state of matter by modifying quantum interactions down at the atomic and subatomic levels. And then it takes a second terahertz light to trigger an ultrafast camera to take images of the state of matter that, when fully understood and tuned, could one day have implications for faster, heat-free, quantum computing, information storage and communication. The discovery of this new switching scheme and hidden quantum phase was full of conceptual and technical challenges. To find new, emergent electron states of matter beyond solids, liquids and gases, today’s condensed matter physicists can no longer fully rely on traditional, slow, thermodynamic tuning methods such as changing temperatures, pressures, chemical compositions or magnetic fields, said Jigang Wang, an Iowa State University professor of physics and astronomy and a faculty scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory. “The grand, open question of what state is hidden underneath superconductivity is universal, but poorly understood,” Wang said." [...]

Scientists create new functionality in a spin Esaki diode

"Magnetoconductance controlled by spin-dependent band engineering Researchers at the University of Tokyo and the Tokyo Institute of Technology have successfully fabricated a spin Esaki diode composed of an n-type ferromagnetic semiconductor (FMS) indium iron arsenide (In,Fe)As—a hybrid material made by doping iron (Fe) into indium arsenide (InAs), a III-V semiconductor well-known for high-speed device applications—and p-type indium arsenide. In the Esaki diode, a type of semiconductor utilizing what is known as the tunnel effect, its magnetoconductance—the current change when an external magnetic field is applied—can be widely tuned, both in sign and magnitude, by the bias voltage, or the direct-current voltage applied for establishing optimal operation. This result highlights the novelty of integrating a spin degree of freedom into conventional semiconductor devices. FMSs are ferromagnets made by doping a large amount—i.e., more than 1 percent—of magnetic dopants into nonmagnetic semiconductors, and they are attracting much attention for their high compatibility with existing semiconductor technology. Using FMSs enables the integration of spin degrees of freedom into electronic devices, which could yield novel functionalities such as non-volatility, low power consumption, reconfigurability, and quantum computing. The research group of Research Associate Le Duc Anh and Professor Masaaki Tanaka at the Graduate School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo, in collaboration with Associate Professor Pham Nam Hai at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, used iron as the magnetic element in an indium arsenide-based Esaki diode structure." [...]

Rutgers-led Research Could Lead to More Efficient Electronics

"Findings could spur energy-saving electronics, quantum computing A Rutgers-led team of physicists has demonstrated a way to conduct electricity between transistors without energy loss, opening the door to low-power electronics and, potentially, quantum computing that would be far faster than today’s computers. Their findings, which involved using a special mix of materials with magnetic and insulator properties, are published online in Nature Physics. “This material, although it’s much diluted in terms of magnetic properties, can still behave like a magnet and conducts electricity at low temperature without energy loss,” said Weida Wu, senior author of the study and associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Rutgers University–New Brunswick. “At least in principle, if you can make it work at a higher temperature, you can use it for electronic interconnections within silicon chips used in computers and other devices.” Study co-authors in China combined chromium and vanadium as magnetic elements with an insulator consisting of bismuth, antimony and tellurium. When electrons in this special material are aligned in one direction – like a compass needle pointing north – an electric current can only flow along its edges in one direction, leading to zero energy loss. That means electricity could be conducted between transistors within silicon chips used in computers and other electronics with maximum efficiency." [...]

A Dramatic Improvement in Electron Mobility by Using an Ultra-thin, Single-Crystalline Film of Germanium

"Researchers: Wen Hsin Chang, AIST Researcher, the Nanoelectronics Research Institute, Toshifumi Irisawa, Senior Researcher, 3D Integration System Group of the institute, and Tatsuro Maeda, Research Manager of the institute Summary The researchers have developed a method for fabricating a uniform ultra-thin film of germanium (Ge) between two insulating layers. They have also discovered that electron mobility remarkably improved when thickness of the uniform ultra-thin Ge film was thinned below 10 nm. New Results The researchers have developed a semiconductor transfer technology for fabricating thin single-crystalline films of Ge with the thickness below 10 nm. Lattice matched epitaxial growth and selective etching were sophisticated and utilized. Contrary to common sense on semiconductors, electron mobility significantly increased as the thickness of the single-crystalline film of Ge was thinned. This may be attributed to modulation of Ge energy band structure." [...]

Nanomaterials tools developed to minimise risk to environment

"Nanoparticles of materials are increasingly used in electronics, from flexible circuits to solar cells. The properties of materials at the extremely small scale are not obvious to designers and knowing their potential effects on the environment, if released, and energy costs when manufactured, would help engineers make better materials choices. “As nanomaterials have already become the new hot emerging materials its more and more important to fully understand the environmental and human health effects of our use of these materials,” said Mark Falinski, a graduate student at Yale University’s Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering. Falinski is part of a team of Yale researchers that have been developing a strategy and database to give designers the tools that will help them make better informed decisions. The database includes materials’ nanoparticles’ size, shape, toxicity and antimicrobial activity. It is designed to allow researchers to enter their data, bringing an element of crowdsourcing to it and widening its potential usefulness for engineers." [...]

A drone made for a dark night (Or a Dark Knight)

"To get drones to fly around complicated obstacles in the dark by themselves, University of Cincinnati researchers are turning to the pros. Bats have evolved to use sound and echolocation to navigate and find food. Their sonar is so keen, in fact, that nectar-loving bats can “spot” their favorite flowers in pitch darkness using only sound. Now UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science is harnessing this superpower to improve drone navigation and autonomy. Drones can be piloted manually using line of sight, video cameras, global positioning satellites and laser-based radar called LIDAR. UC for years has been developing autonomous drones that rely on fuzzy logic and other forms of artificial intelligence." [...]

Double graphene sandwich provides protection against corrosion

"”Normally it’s not a huge success that not a damn thing has happened after 120 days.” These words belong to Professor Peter Bøggild after a four-month period where a novel type of anticorrosion coating was tested. The nanomaterial graphene plays a crucial role in this new type of coating. Furthermore, the result is a response to a line of studies showing graphene only provides a very short-term protection against corrosion, and actually makes it worse in the long run. When the article “Graphene as a Long-Term Metal Oxidation Barrier: Worse Than Nothing” was published in the journal ACS Nano, Peter Bøggild’s team was close to giving up. Now, five years later, a bright PhD student discovered how to solve the problem and the answer is… a double sandwich. Since the 1930’s, zinc has been a key component in counteracting corrosion, because zinc coating creates a galvanic barrier." [...]

Scientists Fabricate Inorganic Perovskite Solar Cells with Record High Stabilized Efficiency

"A research team led by Prof. LIU Shengzhong from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Dr. JIN Zhiwen from Shaanxi Normal University fabricated inorganic perovskite solar cells with a record high stabilized efficiency of 14.4%. Their findings were published in Joule. The most popular perovskite composition for photovoltaic applications is the organic-inorganic hybrid one with power conversion efficiency (PCE) as high as 22.7%. However, such hybrids suffer from poor photochemical and thermal stability owing to their volatile organic component. It is expected that the stability will be much improved if the organic cations are replaced by the inorganic ones. Recently, all-inorganic perovskite CsPbI2Br and CsPbI3 quantum dots (QDs) based solar cells are found to have excellent ambient phase stability." [...]

Capturing light in a waveguide array

"Confined, insensitive light could improve lasers, solar cells Cheaper and more efficient photonic devices, such as lasers, optical fibers and other light sources, may be possible with confined light that is unaffected by imperfections in the material that confines it, according to new research. A team of physicists from Penn State, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Illinois have demonstrated in a proof-of-concept experiment that they can contain light in such a way that makes it highly insensitive to defects that might be present in a material. The results of the research appear online on June 4 in the journal Nature Photonics. “Photonic technology involves the generation, transmission and manipulation of light, and it is used ubiquitously across industries,” said Mikael Rechtsman, the Downsbrough Early Career Assistant Professor of Physics at Penn State and the leader of the research team. “It underlies the fiber optic network that forms the skeleton of the internet; solar cells used in the generation of sustainable energy; and high-power lasers used in manufacturing, among many other applications. Finding a way to confine and manipulate light so that it is insensitive to defects could have a huge impact on this technology.” To confine the light, the researchers used a complex lattice structure composed of “waveguides” precisely carved in glass." [...]

Quantum Interference May Be Key To Smaller Insulators

"Breakthrough could jumpstart further miniaturization of transistors Ever shrinking transistors are the key to faster and more efficient computer processing. Since the 1970s, advancements in electronics have largely been driven by the steady pace with which these tiny components have grown simultaneously smaller and more powerful—right down to their current dimensions on the nanometer scale. But recent years have seen this progress plateau, as researchers grapple with whether transistors may have finally hit their size limit. High among the list of hurdles standing in the way of further miniaturization: problems caused by “leakage current.” Leakage current results when the gap between two metal electrodes narrows to the point that electrons are no longer contained by their barriers, a phenomenon known as quantum mechanical tunnelling. As the gap continues to decrease, this tunnelling conduction increases at an exponentially higher rate, rendering further miniaturization extremely challenging. Scientific consensus has long held that vacuum barriers represent the most effective means to curtail tunnelling, making them the best overall option for insulating transistors." [...]

Spooky Quantum Particle Pairs Fly Like Weird Curveballs

"Curvy baseball pitches have surprising things in common with quantum particles described in a new physics study, though the latter fly much more weirdly. In fact, ultracold paired particles called fermions must behave even weirder than physicists previously thought, according to theoretical physicists from the Georgia Institute of Technology, who mathematically studied their flight patterns. Already, flying quantum particles were renowned for their weirdness. To understand why, start with similarities to a baseball then add significant differences. A pitcher imparts spin, momentum, and energy to a baseball when throwing a curveball, a change-up, or a slider. Fermions’ funny flights are likewise carved by spins, momenta, and energies, but also by powerful quantum eccentricities like entanglement, which Albert Einstein once called “spooky action at a distance” between quantum particles." [...]

Chinese Researchers Discover New Superconductor by Pressurization

"Chinese scientists have discovered a new material that can conduct electricity with zero resistance, or superconduct upon heavy compression. In the research, scientists took a close look at molybdenum phosphide (MoP), a newly identified triply degenerate fermions material via application of external pressure. This discovery was made by a joint team from Institute of Solid State Physics and High Magnetic Field Laboratory of Hefei Institutes of Physical Science. Pressure is a viable physical tuning parameter which can induce superconductivity in the materials that would not superconduct if not pressurized. Here, scientists applied pressure to MoP using a diamond anvil cell (DAC), a device that uses the polished facets of two diamonds, the hardest materials in nature, to squeeze a sample placed between them. They measured the temperature-dependent resistivity to characterize the superconductivity." [...]

Golden nanoglue completes the wonder material

"In a recent study, scientists at the University of Oulu have developed a nanojunction, joining one of the most promising novel materials, molybdenum disulfide, with nickel. Graphene has undoubtedly been the most popular research subject of nanotechnology during recent years. Made of pure carbon, this wonder material is in principle easy to manufacture: take ordinary graphite and peel one layer off with Scotch tape. The material thus obtained is two-dimensional, yielding unique properties, different from those in three-dimensional materials. Graphene, however, lacks one important property, semiconductivity, which complicates its usage in electronics applications. Scientists have therefore started the quest of other two-dimensional materials with this desired property." [...]

New tools reveal prelude to chaos

"Picture a herd of sheep or cattle emerging from a shed or barn to graze a field. They head straight out of their digs to the pleasure of the pasture pretty much as one entity, but as the land opens up and the “grass gets greener” they disperse randomly in a motion that has neither rhyme nor reason. Individual animals depart at different angles from the herd and then at different angles from their original departure and so on until “the cows come home.” In physics, this movement that starts off on the straight-and-narrow (ballistic) and is correlated and then dissolves into randomness (diffusive), uncorrelated, is called a ballistic-to-diffusive transition. Researchers in a number of fields call this motion a “random walk,” also known as diffusive motion, a universal phenomenon that occurs in both physical (atomic-cluster diffusion, nanoparticle scattering and bacterial migration) and nonphysical (animal foraging, stock price fluctuations and “viral” internet postings) systems. Engineers at Washington University in St. Louis have developed mathematical tools that send that shot across the bow — they determine when randomness emerges in any stochastic (random) system, answering a long-standing question: When does randomness set in during a random walk? Led by Rajan K. Chakrabarty, assistant professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering, the researchers have provided 11 equations that they applied to directional statistics." [...]

Fast-Charging Lithium-Oxygen Batteries

"KAIST researchers have paved the way for fast-charging lithium-oxygen batteries. Professor Hye Ryung Byon from the Department of Chemistry and Professor Yousung Jung from the Graduate School of EEWS led a joint research team to develop lithium-oxygen batteries exhibiting 80% round-trip efficiency even at high charging rates, solving the problem of existing lithium-oxygen batteries which generally showed drastically lower efficiencies when the charge current rate was increased. This study exploits the size and shape lithium peroxide, a discharge product, which is known to cause the very problems mentioned above. In doing so, the researchers have lowered the overpotential, which is the difference between the thermodynamic reversible potential and the measured potential, and simultaneously improved battery efficiency. Of particular interest is the fact that these high-performance lithium-oxygen batteries can be realized without costly catalysts. One remarkable property of lithium-oxygen batteries is that they can accommodate three to five times the energy density of lithium-ion batteries commonly used today." [...]

Experts build pulsed air rig to test 3D printed parts for low carbon engines

"The new Transient Air System Rig (TASR) was designed and built by Dr Aaron Costall and his team from Imperial College London’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. The researchers hope it will help makers of large off-road and freight vehicles reduce the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) they produce. The rig uses fresh air instead of hot exhaust gas, so the 3D printed plastic parts won’t melt under the usually hot conditions found in normal engine test facilities. It also means makers can 3D print only the parts of the engine that need testing, instead of building a whole engine. TASR will be used to design and test engine components for new low emissions heavy off-road and freight vehicles, and the researchers believe it will help to reduce CO2 emissions both in the UK and worldwide. Caroline Brogan caught up with Dr Costall to discuss the new system." [...]

Transparent, Conductive Films Promising for Developing Flexible Screens

"Researchers have demonstrated large-scale fabrication of a new type of transparent conductive electrode film based on nanopatterned silver. Smartphone touch screens and flat panel televisions use transparent electrodes to detect touch and to quickly switch the color of each pixel. Because silver is less brittle and more chemically resistant than materials currently used to make these electrodes, the new films could offer a high-performance and long-lasting option for use with flexible screens and electronics. The silver-based films could also enable flexible solar cells for installation on windows, roofs and even personal devices. In the journal Optical Materials Express, the researchers report fabrication of a transparent conducting thin-film on glass discs 10 centimeters in diameter. Based on theoretical estimations that matched closely with experimental measurements, they calculate that the thin-film electrodes could perform significantly better than those used for existing flexible displays and touch screens." [...]

MaH - Modular Arm Helper - No support - Easy print

"MaH - Modular arm Helper MaH was brought into existance because I really, really needed it at my desk. So many times when I'm busy doing stuff when I need to hold more then 2 things :) (soldering iron, tin, wires or component?). This arm helper really helps me out to get stuff done more easily. There are a few things I had in the back of my mind when designing this: No supports needed when printing any component (this was REALLY TOUGH!) Strong and stable, the arms at 40% infil are very, very strong! Easily mounted and moveable (print 2 bases, move the arm, there ya go!)" [...]

Comfort fit ring customizer - ISO metric version

"This script generates comfort-fit rings in a wide variety of sizes. I wrote it to make customized ring shanks that I can combine with other 3D printed pieces or carved wax to use in lost wax casting. To make your own ring, click "Open in Customizer". The optional flat top makes it easy to attach things to the ring. If you don't want the flat top, set Top width = 0 in the Customizer. This is the ISO metric version." [...]

OpenSCAD Spool Drawer Storage Box (fully customizable)

"Yes, another spool drawer ! Dozens of models are available. I looked at them, I was inspired by the best of every ones. Here it is. This one is fully customizable : Spool size (width, height, depth) Number of racks Number of floors Number of separators per rack Separator height Grip shape (overhang or hollowed out) Orientation (mirror) Drill / Screw size For demonstration, I have uploaded 2 racks, full size and half size, for use with 1Kg BQ filament spool (4 racks model). But I recommend you to use Customizer and create your own model online, or download OpenSCAD file and do it offline." [...]

boozer - Kegerator Monitoring Toolkit

"Kegerator monitoring/volume tracking tool writting in Python. Track the remaining beer volume of your kegs! Flow sensors keep a running log of your remaining beer volume, using SQLITE. Slack & Twitter functionality. Sharing is caring. Temperature Monitoring." [...]

CO2-meter: from prototype to meter-in-a-box

"I spent too much time in too small, too busy meeting rooms, discussing about who knows what and too many times I felt the oxygen was letting me down. Was there too little oxygen? Or too much carbon dioxide? Or still something else? Time to find out and build my own CO₂-meter. On Sparkfun I found a CCS811 air quality sensor on a breakout board." [...]

Arduino Time Attendance System with RFID

"In this project you’re going to build a time attendance system with MFRC522 RFID Reader and Arduino. When you swipe an RFID tag next to the RFID reader, it saves the user UID and time in an SD card. It also shows if you are late or in time accordingly to a preset hour and minute. Before getting started it’s important to layout the project main features: It contains an RFID reader that reads RFID tags; Our setup has a real time clock module to keep track of time; When the RFID reader reads an RFID tag, it saves the current time and the UID of the tag in an SD card; The Arduino communicates with the SD card using an SD card module; You can set a check in time to compare if you are in time or late; If you are on time, a green LED lights up, if you are late, a red LED lights up; The system also has a buzzer that beeps when a tag is read. " [...]

Compact, $25 spectrometer

"AMS's new AS7265X 3-chip set promises a compact, 18-channel, 20 nm FWMH spectrometer for less than $25 Designing and building an inexpensive spectrometer just got easier with AMS' new 3-chip AS7265X smart spectral sensor; once this is working, building a modern tricorder should be a piece of cake! DETAILS AMS makes several interesting sensors including the CCS811 air quality sensor which I use in my STM32 Sensor Tile project and the AS7262 6-channel light sensor, which appears now in a breakout board that Adafruit has just announced. The AS7262 offers six channels in the visible (430 to 670 nm) with 40 nm FWHM resolution. There is also another similar AMS sensor the AS7263 which offers six channels in the near IR (600 - 870 nm) with 20 nm FWHM resolution. I was thinking of designing a simple spectrometer out of these two by combining them onto one pcb. The problem with this idea is that they both have the same I2C address, so I would have had to use an I2C multiplexer." [...]

Air Conditioner Controller

"Take a dumb air conditioner and make it smart so that you can set it and forget it. Uses Particle Photon. Story Introduction I have an Akita mix. She is the definition of a winter dog but with summer coming, I'm worried that she will get too hot in my house during the day. I don't want to leave on the air conditioner all day because that will waste a lot of energy but I need to leave it on because she'll get over heated. I don't have central air in my house so my thermostat only controls my heat." [...]

ArduMeter: an Arduino Based Multimeter (Sort Of)

"Well I had been working on this simple, but sometimes useful meter based on Arduino Nano. It can read battery voltages to 10% of actual value (as long as it is below 10V), it can measure resistance quite well (better with resistors from 10k-200K), has a pretty useful continuity tester, and finally an "Oscilloscope" which in this case only reads voltage at pin A2 really fast to create a graph. However all of it is quite useful when needed. This is not a proper tutorial, I am just sharing what I made with my code. I will update instructions in a day, so if you are interested follow up again. " [...]

Simple Raspberry Pi Camera Trap Made From a Food Container

""It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement, the greatest source of visual beauty, the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living. "- David Attenborough, English broadcaster and naturalistDo you like to sit back and admire the beauty and wonder of the natural world while the birds happily tweet and sing their songs? You may also like the idea of seeing nature up close and personal without the need to disturb it. If so, why not consider making yourself a Simple Raspberry Pi Camera Trap! 'What is a Camera Trap?'" [...]

Changing an Old RC Car to an Autonomous Car

"Well this is just a part of my complete project, but anyway I thought it will be useful as well its just cool! This project is for the kind of RC cars that have a group of wires ,or a group of joint wires, connected to the receiver that is present in the car. My RC Car had totally three wires, each one consisting of 2 wires joint together. " [...]

Tiny Micro:bit Robot - Part 1

"I have always thought small robots were great and creating one with the cost effective Microbit would be ideal. I wanted to create a robot that didnt use a ready made IO boards like I have used in the past to drive motors or get sensor inputs, I wanted something smaller. This small Microbit robot is one I will base a series of tutorials on. Starting first with how I made it using "The Really Useful Box Companies boxes" for a chassis, and using very small motors and motor drivers. I will use this base model to explore things like bluetooth control shown in the video, using the accelerometer and magnometer to determine direction, and adding things like Neopixels and IR distance sensors. There are plenty of boards you can buy to just plug your microbit into that will run motors and servos, but for this we will use the main components you will need to replace these add on boards.The same principals will apply to using any microcontroller when driving motors." [...]

Micro-adjustable Document (non) - Camera for "under-resourced" Classrooms

"Hello friends and fellow educators, My name is Aamir Fidai and I am a Mathematics teacher. Two things to make clear before we go any further, I am not an engineer and this is simply a prototype of an attempt at providing teacher in under-resourced classrooms with an equitable technology solution. There are a whole list of improvements that can be made to this design and time permitting I will share updates with you as they become available. What is this prototype? This micro-adjustable document (non)-camera is a simple device that Math/Science/Physics teachers or the sponsors of STEM or Math club may want to build with their students to expose them to the engineering design process while solving a real-life problem of lack of technological resources in the classroom. This project makes use of Arduino Uno R3, L288N H-Bridge Motor driver, and a NEMA 17 stepper motor along with other components." [...]

Aerobic Arduino - a $15 Fitness Tracker Power by an Arduino

"Please vote for this in the fitness challenge instead of a Fitbit or a smartwatch, you can build an Arduino powered fitness tracker for only $15! It tracks the pumping motion of your arms while running and uses an accelerometer to detect this. It is powered by an Arduino Nano and displays the unit that you want to track on a 2x16 screen. You can use miles, kilometers, meters, yards, or anything that you could think of. It also displays steps! You will need a 3D printer for this project because we are printing on fabric for the band." [...]

Arduino Digital Clock Using 1Sheeld

"Monitor the real-time clock on LCD using 1Sheeld board and its companion app. If I asked you: could you please turn off the lights when it comes to 10:30? Actually, the common answer would be check your smartphone and make a reminder on your phone to turn the lights off by 10:30. Well, that's ok for any normal person, but not for a maker, who would certainly think of automating this process by making some cool stuff which can get time automatically and take certain actions when 10:30 comes! So, this your 10-minute tutorial to learn how to get time automatically, monitoring it and can make any decisions based on it as far as we want. Let’s talk about the idea behind the Arduino Digital Clock project..." [...]

Bluetooth Voice Interface for Autonomous Robots

"I wanted the ability to give verbal commands to my robot. I looked into utilizing either speech to text software or speech to text hardware to communicate my commands to the robot. I found that the software and hardware readily available for micro controllers restricted the number of commands I could use. Android has speech to text and text to speech APIs that are freely available on their mobile platforms. Therefore, I decided to make use of the Android speech APIs. The robot used for this project is the DFRobot Baron - 4WD Arduino Mobile Robot Platform." [...]

Joule Thief Circuit How to Make and Circuit Explanation

"A Joule Thief is a simple voltage booster circuit. It can increase the voltage of a power source by changing the constant low voltage signal into a series of rapid pulses at a higher voltage. You most commonly see this kind of circuit used to power LEDs with a dead battery, but there are many more potential applications for a circuit like this. " [...]

Arduino Multimeter

"You will need: Arduino UNO oled screen 128x64 I2C DS3231 I²C-Integrated RTC buzzer 100k, 10K resistorsome Potentiometer button" [...]

Wi-Fi Smart Scale (with ESP8266, Arduino IDE, Adafruit.io and IFTTT)

"If it's already summer where you live, it's probably a great time for outdoor fitness activities. Running, cycling, or jogging are awesome exerciser for you to get in shape. And if you want to lose or control your current weight, it is essential to keep a record of your results. Using a sportsband (link/link) for instance, will allow you to verify whether you are on the right track and stay motivated. But it's essential to keep record of your weight progress. And with the right tools and using a little electronics and programming, you can make your own internet connected bathroom scale!" [...]

GetFit : Your Ideal Workout Partner

"Oh was it 5 or 6 ? This is a major missing when working out , we miss count of our exercises and will result in dissatisfied workout. As a small solution we are presenting a device which is a workout analyser and a counter too. In various steps of our project we have evolved the brain of the project according to the needs. We enclose the list and role of various components of the brain 1. Arduino Uno : It is a micro controller and in this project it is the dental processing unit which processes the input values and analyses the workout 2." [...]

Arduino Energy Meter - V2.0

"Hello friend, welcome back after a long break. Earlier I have posted an Instructables on Arduino Energy Meter which was mainly designed to monitor the power from the solar panel (DC Power) in my village. It became very popular on the internet, lots of people all over the world have built their own. So many students have made it for their college project by taking help from me. Still, now I am receiving emails and messages from people with questions regarding hardware and software modification for monitoring AC Power consumption. So In this Instructables, I am going to show you how to make a simple wifi enabled AC Energy Meter by using Arduino/Wemos board." [...]

DIY Bone Conduction Bike Helmet

"In this instructable, I explain how I have transformed my bike helmet to incorporate a bone conduction device in order to listen to music in a safe way while riding my bike. I have spent a lot of time on this project and it is fully functional, but it is not completely optimized (see conclusion), therefore I consider that this is a prototype. So I will probably write other Instructables for the next versions of this bone conduction bike helmet. About this project:To go to work I have to ride my bike for about 40 minutes. Twice a day, so 1 hour and 20 minutes. This is a quite long trip, and being able to listen to some music would be perfect." [...]

Fancy LED Hat

"I've always wanted to do an Arduino project, but never had any great ideas for one until my family was invited to a fancy hat party. With two weeks lead time, I was curious if I could both plan and execute a motion sensitive LED animation hat. Turns out I could! I probably went a little overboard, but the total project cost around $80. With experimentation and some coding you could do it for less. The goal with the hat was the following: Have a set of lights move from the center front of the hat to the back, one light on each side Change the speed of the light's travel dictated by the tilt of the hat front to back Allow the lights to reverse when the hat band was tilted downward (i.e." [...]

Fingerprint Scanner Class Attendance System (GT-521F32)

"This Project is a simple attendance loging system that utilizes the GT-521F32, a low cost optical fingerprint scanner from Sparkfun to scan and record who, and when someone logs in. " [...]

IoT Desktop Console. Part : 11 IoT, Home Automation

"Preamble This article, the 11th in a series on home automation documents how to create and integrate an IoT Desktop Device into an existing home automation system including all the necessary software functionality to enable the successful deployment within a domestic environment. Picture 1 shows the completed IoT desktop device and Picture 2 shows all the component parts used in the prototype which were 'shoe horned' into the finished article. Introduction As mentioned above this Instructable details how to make an IoT Desktop Device whose primary purpose is to present the user with an 'at a glance' summary of temperature and humidity levels published by distributed sensors within an IoT network accompanied by local barometric pressure along with time and date. The design seamlessly hooks into the MQTT/OpenHAB based IoT network detailed in this series on home automation (HA), building on reused code taken from here. Alternatively as the MQTT interface is fully documented throughout it can be simply be adapted to an existing HA system via MQTT publications/subscriptions. At it's heart is an ESP8266-12E which is responsible for MQTT communications and controlling all functionality excepting LCD display back-lighting control and gesture sensing which use an ATTiny85 and ATMega328P respectively." [...]

LoRa-Tooth: Small Wireless Sensors

"This is a wireless sensors project that involves using LoRa and WiFi to extend the range of BLE sensors. In addition to building sensors and gateways, I also want to integrate the data into nice looking visualizations using open source tools like Grafana and InfluxDB. There are a lot of wireless sensor projects out there. Many use an Arduino with a temperature sensor and RF module sending data to a MQTT gateway, then display that data on a phone app. Since the introduction of the ESP8266, there's also been efforts to make this wifi module run as a battery powered sensor. But these approaches often resulted in devices that weren't immediately practical - either too big or not energy efficient enough." [...]

CalClock: Simply See Your Schedule

"The worst loss of concentration is getting interrupted just to learn that there is no need for an interruption. I find this often happens in relation to my schedule. Ill be working on a problem, and have the inkling thought, Is there something else I should be doing?. This prompts me to check calendar my phone. Once my phone is open, Im pulled to check email and social media. Ive lost the clear mental state I had moments ago." [...]

Building the FabTinyISP

"The FabTinyStar is yet another version of an AVR ISP programmer/board that can be produced in a fab lab using a milled PCB and readily available components. The project is based on the efforts of many people. For more history of the FabTinyStar and the people who have contributed to it, please refer to Zaerc's FabTinyStar page. This version (the "FabTinyISP Minimal" is a minor revision to Zaerc's version 0.3 (Bas), with small modifications: The reset switch and target power switch have been removed. The reset switch adds cost and isn't incredibly useful on an ISP programmer, as the target can be easily reset through a software command. The target power swtich has been removed as providing power to the target through the programming port is usually discouraged." [...]

Make a $6 Tiny Portable Weather Station that Transmits Live Data Wherever You Are

"Ask your iPhone for weather conditions and it'll display data from a sensor somewhere nearby - often at the local airport - which might be miles away from your current location. And at home, you may have IoT sensors that tell you the temperature in your bedroom or kitchen. But what if you want to know the temperature, humidity, air pressure and humidity WHERE YOU'RE STANDING RIGHT NOW? Even your mighty cellphone can't tell you all that. " [...]

FM DDS: First Light Hardware

"Some Barely Viable Prototype hardware for a frequency modulated DDS to replace Channel Elements requiring now-unobtainable crystals: The heatsink (surely harvested from a PC, then salvaged from a box o’ goodies) runs about 25 °C above ambient while dropping a 12 V input to 5 V at 180 mA, so it’s good for maybe 2°C/W. It carries a KA278RA05C LDO regulator; you’d probably want something fancier in real life. The AD9851 DDS requires a 5 V supply to run at 180 MHz from the 30 MHz oscillator on its PCB, with the side effect of putting its minimum Logic 1 Voltage threshold at 3.5 V. Because the Teensy 3.6 runs at 3.3 V from its own on-board linear regulator, the DIP 74AHCT125 level shifter between the two boosts the Teensy’s LVCMOS SPI signals to good old TTL. The sticker on the CPU reminds me of the jumper cut between the USB +5 V line and the VIN pin, thus putting the Teensy on the better-regulated local supply for the benefit of its ADC reference:" [...]

Google Assistant Controlled Switch Using NODEMCU

"Wouldn't it be great to Turn things on or off with the help of Google assistant..!!! So In this Instructables, I will show how to control any electrical appliances with the help of Google assistant, just like Amazon's Alexa. A lot of commercial devices already exist in the market for such application but, I wanted to have my own simple and low cost device and its always fun to learn new things. :) Take a look at my steps below to make your own smart switch. " [...]

ParticleSwitch

"Battery life has become a key competing feature between mobiles, laptops, wearable devices, etc. Over charging a battery leads to an effect called the "battery-effect", where due to charging a devices battery past it's power limit leads to decrease in battery life. I have lost phones due to this problem. There are various situations of over-charging - forgetting to switching off the charger, leaving the device on charging and going out, etc. So I decided to make a device that would help me solve the problem of over-charging my devices. Hence, I came upon the idea of the "Particle Switch."" [...]

MXE11: run UNIX on a microcontroller

"Looking for an architecture that can be well-emulated with modern microcontrollers and for which there is enough tools and software there, I came across the PDP11. The first approaches have already been made: https://dave.cheney.net/tag/pdp11 but in the end that was not optimal from my point of view. The core problem and bottleneck I see there is the external SPI RAM, but without that you will probably not get out. Or is it? Mini Unix was developed in the 70s by Heinz Lycklama at Bell Laboratories. It's a complete Unix V6 system, which was modified to run on only 56KBytes of RAM." [...]

EEPROM Rotation for ESP8266 and ESP32

"The Arduino Core for ESP8266 and ESP32 uses one SPI flash memory sector to emulate an EEPROM. When you initialize the EEPROM object (calling begin) it reads the contents of the sector into a memory buffer. Reading a writing is done over that in-memory buffer. Whenever you call commit it write the contents back to the flash sector. Due to the nature of this flash memory (NOR) a full sector erase must be done prior to write any new data. If a power failure (intended or not) happens during this process the sector data is lost." [...]

IOT123 - I2C Ky019 Brick

"The IOT123 BRICKS are DIY modular units that can be mashed up with other IOT123 BRICKS, to add functionality to a node or wearable. They are based on the inch square, double-sided protoboards with interconnected through holes. A number of these BRICKS are expected to be on multiple nodes (Master MCUs - ESP8266 or ATTINY84) on a site. The MCU needs no prior knowledge of the sensors purpose or software needs. It scans for I2C nodes then requests a property dump (sensor data) from each slave. These BRICKs supply 5.0V, 3.3V and another AUX line which is customizable." [...]

Arduino - Web Pattern Unlock

"It's a security feature for Arduino. User is required to input the unlock pattern before remotely controlling/monitoring Arduino. Introduction You may be familiar with the unlock pattern when you access your phone. Now this feature is available on Arduino. It prevents the unauthorized people from controlling/monitoring Arduino. User can freely re-use the code in this project for other application." [...]

Universal Internet of Things

"Internet Of Things will soon become a $6 trillion dollar business. But installation of IOT into existing houses would require massive amount of work. Drilling walls, check for proper grounding, replacing entire lights and fans, etc. But is there a simple and easy way to install IOT into your home without replacing any lights, fans or whatever? Is there an option for existing homeowners to install Internet Of Things quick and easily? Introducing, Universal Internet Of Things (UIOT) !" [...]

Using HLS on an FPGA-Based Image Processing Platform

"Building on the Zybo Z7 image processing application. This project demonstrates using HLS with C/C++ to accelerate image processing. To create our HLx Image processing block we will be using the eclipse-based Vivado HLS. Once we have Vivado HLS open, the first thing to do is create a new project and select the correct target device. " [...]

Hack An Ultrasonic HC-SR04 And Make It Talk Each Other

"Project: Ultrasonic 40khz modulation data communication (text transmission) Parts list: 1) Ultrasonic transducer TX and RX (which i desoldered from a HC-SR04 module) 2) LM386 to amplify the received signal 3) LM393 for comparing the signal once amplified 4) Two Arduino Uno 5) 10K pot for the tunning 6) LED 7) 220 Omhs resistor 8) 100nF cap 9) 10K resistor" [...]

Helium Solar Monitoring Board with Relays

"Arduino with a Helium Monitoring Shield that can monitor motion, temperature, solar power (including volts up to 80VDC and 10A). With the Internet of Things, there are many opportunities to play with new technologies and come up with innovative devices that compliment the new technologies. This is one of them. There are six components to this project: Board Design and Production Final Board Design and Soldering Tips Arduino Programming and Testing Setting Up the Node-Red Dashboard Wiring Up the Solar Panels and Batteries (if required) Wiring Up the Relays" [...]

Robot That Gets You a Job

"Are you a recent graduate? Are you a student looking for a summer side hustle? Do you, I don't know, just want a job? Well look no further, this robot helps you get one!! The Resume Robot is a convenient robotic distribution aid that allows you to gain gainful employment. With the Resume Robot, all you have to do is put your resumes on the robots platform, and it does all the distribution for you!" [...]

Arduino Barometer

"This is a simple barometer with Arduino. Well i am still a newbie with Arduino and i dont have enough free time to learn the programming properly. I found some sample codes with u8glib library for some sensors. They were originally for I2C oled SSD1306 displays. But!!! I don't like these tiny OLED displays." [...]

IOT123 - I2C 2Ch Relay Brick

"The IOT123 BRICKS are DIY modular units that can be mashed up with other IOT123 BRICKS, to add functionality to a node or wearable. They are based on the inch square, double-sided protoboards with interconnected through holes. A number of these BRICKS are expected to be on multiple nodes (Master MCUs - ESP8266 or ATTINY84) on a site. The MCU needs no prior knowledge of the sensors purpose or software needs. It scans for I2C nodes then requests a property dump (sensor data) from each slave. These BRICKs supply 5.0V, 3.3V and another AUX line which is customizable." [...]

RGB Box Clock

"This is a clock and decorative RGB Led Matrix It's controlled by a Colorduino Shield and NodeMCU v3 Board using i2C communication. With Blynk app you can setup the alarm,change colors and other things. Parts list is: LoLin V3 NodeMcu Lua CH340G ESP8266 Board 6 Link Colorduino V2.0 + 2088RGB-5 8x8 Matrix 10 Link Touch Button 1 Link Active Buzzer 1 Link PLA Printer Plastic 2 Total price is about 20" [...]

Arduino GPS Shield Tutorial: Distance Calculator

"GPS or Global Positioning System is a satellite-based radio navigation system which allows you to get your location and guide you through other locations through a well recognized and predefined map like Google maps, and in the world of Arduino, this is accomplished by the Arduino GPS Shield. The GPS knows your location through the latitude and longitude values of your location which specifies where exactly are you from the world and we are going to use these two measurements to calculate the distance between your current location and the desired destination using the GPS shield on 1Sheeld in a quick and funny Arduino GPS Shield Tutorial. Lets talk about the idea behind this Arduino GPS Shield Tutorial ... Idea: In the Arduino GPS Shield Tutorial, we are going to use the GPS Shield from 1Sheeld via its companion Android/iOS App to get the current location. We achieve this by telling the App (by using the voice recognition shield), both the latitude and longitude of the desired location we want to reach and the Arduino will calculate the direct distance between the 2 locations in km unit (by using the GPS shield) and tells you (by using the text-to-speech shield) what is the distance. Getting started: If this is your first time to deal with 1Sheeld or you want to learn more about it, I recommend checking this quick and easy getting started tutorial." [...]

StickPi - a Raspberry Pi Zero W with GPIO buttons and an e-paper display

"I always wanted to have a sturdy and rigid Raspberry Pi that is mobile and as small as possible. Recently I designed a Raspberry Pi 3 plus 5 inch display, built-in keyboard and a battery / charging circuit. It’s nice as it’s about a DIN A5 paper sheet. Then I came along these USB boards that you can pogo-pin to your Pi Zero which is similar in design to what the guy at NODE did. When working with a Pi Zero, I wanted to connect via VNC so I can run Pixel desktop and Geany on the Pi to develop and run software. When doing so, you quickly want the Pi to display the Wifi and IP address it’s connected to." [...]

8x16x8 RED GREEN CUBE - HANDWRITTEN CLOCK

"I do not know why I especially liked to do some projects about lighting and sound. Here is one of LED projects, as called "8x16x8 RED GREEN CUBE- HANDWRITTEN CLOCK", that actually made me very excited. And I hope you will be enjoyable what I wanna to share on this instructable. This cube has a total of 1024 leds, with 512 red leds and 512 green leds. They are same as two separated 8x8x8 led cubes and assembled into an 8x16x8 cube block. Let's take a look at some beautiful effects through the following videos: Handwritten Clock Mode: It can shows year, month, day of month, day of week, hour, minute & second by reading real time value from DS3231." [...]

32 Shades of Grey

"Portable NTSC test pattern generator This project implements a low cost portable NTSC video pattern generator for testing monochrome video systems regarding gain and resolution. The circuit provides a video output with voltage and impedance according with the RS-170 standard. A CR2025 coin cell powers the circuit that it is automatically activated when the output plug is connected. DETAILS The heart of the project is the ATTiny85 running with internal PLL thus providing 6 pins for generating the video signal, being 5 used for luminance and 1 for synchronism. The 5 bits of luminance drive a resistor network that altogether with the pin used for sync are calculated to provide the output voltages expected by RS-170 standard having an output impedance of 75 ohms. To accomplish that some math is required, basically an extension of this article." [...]

Micropython on ESP Using Jupyter

"On a previous tutorial, we explored how to control a Raspberry Pi using Jupyter Notebook: RPI PHYSICAL COMPUTING USING JUPYTER NOTEBOOK It was a great experience, and once the project worked very well I thought, "how about to also test Jupyter Notebook on an ESP8266 (or even on ESP32) using MicroPython?". As we all know, the Jupyter Notebook is an open-source web application that allows you to create and share documents that contain live code, equations, visualizations and narrative text. Uses include data cleaning and transformation, numerical simulation, statistical modeling, data visualization, machine learning, and much more. For "much more", we have also explored "Physical Computing". So far on my projects, I have mostly explored IoT and physical computing projects using ESP8266-01, 8266-12E (NodeMCU) and ESP32 programmed by an Arduino IDE, using its C/C++ type language. But another great tool to be used on programming those devices is MicroPython: MicroPython is a lean and efficient implementation of the Python 3 programming language that includes a small subset of the Python standard library and is optimised to run on microcontrollers and in constrained environments." [...]

OSU! KappaPad PCB

"I saw a Youtube video along time(can't find the video anymore) with someone using capacitive buttons. I found the github for the project but I didn't just want to copy it. https://github.com/fb39ca4/kappa-pad I wanted to use the Atmega32u4 for this project and the Arduino Pro Micro is perfect for this project. I bought the Pro Micro on Aliexpress for $2.98" [...]

Arduino Lilypad Controlled NeoPixel Earrings

"Hello everyone, Don't you want to have such a nice and cool earring when you go out at night or for parties? I would like to have it, that's why I made Arduino Lilypad Controlled Neopixel Earrings. :) These earrings don't just light up. They have several different animations and colors. " [...]

MegaMUX - 32 Channel Multiplexer Tutorial

"Often when I have an idea for a new project, it will involve some components or circuitry that I have not used before. To be safe, I will sometimes design a smaller "test" board with just that component or circuit to test it out before I design the larger project. This is where the MegaMUX comes from. I wanted to test out the ADG732 multiplexer which is a 32 channel MUX. This means you can connect one output from the MUX, and select 32 other IO to connect to it. In this project I will show you how to connect the MegaMUX to an Arduino, and give you an idea of what you can do with it." [...]

Security System Using Arduino Bluetooth Camera

"Nowadays, security systems made using open source hardware is widely used where you can develop your own security application according to your needs and thanks to Arduino platform and its based open source shields, you can now easily make your security systems which involve some security monitoring tools like alarm, laser, motion, distance, and camera. Of course, the last one is the most important and popular tool used almost in every security system as it's the only way to recognize not only the penetration of the security from a stranger but also know exactly who did that by capturing a photo of him. In this tutorial, we are going to use Arduino Bluetooth Camera with the help of an ultrasonic to detect whether a stranger has entered our house and capture a photo of him automatically once he gets into the area of the ultrasonic wave. Lets talk about the idea behind the Security System using Arduino Bluetooth Camera ... Idea: The idea behind the Arduino Bluetooth Camera is to use 1Sheeld board with the Arduino and using the camera shield from the 1Sheeld App and connect the App to the 1Sheeld board via Bluetooth and hence we have an Arduino Bluetooth Camera that's ready to capture photos and store them into phones storage by one line of Arduino code! We will use the ultrasonic sensor with an obstacle in front of it on a certain distance (say 100 cm) and once anything cut the distance and come in front of the ultrasonic sensor within the range of 10 cm or less, this is considered as a penetration to the security system." [...]

Minimalistic 1D Pong

"How little do you need for a game An exercise in futility. That is what many would call this endeavor. How few elements (signifiers and affordances) do you need to not only recognize a game for what it is, but also are able to play it? It turns out that you only need very little to do very much. o, what do you need to make the 1D Pong game? Input You need to have some input device." [...]

Arduino Irrigation System

"In this project we want to make an automatic irrigation system with Arduino. Have you everwanted beautiful plants in your garden? L’A.I.S, acronymof Arduino Irrigation System, can irrigate the plants in your home at defineenvironmental condition, because you mustn’t irrigate their whenever you want. When the environmentalconditions are correct, and is the correct hour, l’ A.I.S will irrigate. HOW WE MADE IT We made it intwo distinct parts: the “brain”, that control the system, and the irrigationpart, that irrigate the plants. The brain The brain was made with the school’s laser cutter, and the 6 mm plywood." [...]

AWS - Arduino Weather Station

"Very useful project made at school that detects some weather data. Story AWS, Arduino Weather Station, provides accurately round-the-clock data for the environment. In particular it is based on an Arduino microcontroller board, and it supports a full stuck of sensors for the analysis of the environment. The aim The aim of this control until is to detect a series of data through the sensors described above and to interface it with the user through an LCD screen. The little size of the project “hardware” makes it possible to closed it in a little box made with the lasercut machine. Water and Snow Level Sensor Water-level indicator is used to indicate the level of water in over head tank, by using this we can avoid the overflow of water, and at anytime we can know the level of water in tank." [...]

Qi- Special Shelves

"We built this library commissioned by MUDEC of Milan to present the meaning of a statue of a Chinese chimera. Each shelf has an hexagonal shape and express a meaning for this statue and for its culture. Everything is connected by a system of arduino that manages the lighting through a timer. This is only a prototype and so the dimensions are reduced. The hexagon has a height of 25 cm, a thickness of the plywood of 1 cm, while the shelf has a depth of 15 cm. Now well show you how to create the structure." [...]

Radio LoRa Ra-01 With STM32 and ESP32

"As this is a popular subject among those following my posts, I decided to talk about LoRa today. However, Im going to discuss the subject with some new elements: this time without using the ESP32, but the STM32 instead. I always wanted to post about the STM32, as it composes a whole family of 32-bit microcontrollers produced by STMicroelectronics. I have several friends who are using this chip outside of Brazil. They can attest to the successes of this European manufacturing device. First, Im going to introduce the STM32, and also discuss the LoRa Ra-01 Module." [...]

Scanlime-in-Progress Indicator (aka YouTube Live Indicator)

"Never miss your favourite YouTube channel going live again with this Particle Photon-based indicator. I'm a big fan of the scanlime-in-progress live streams Micah Elizabeth Scott (Scanlime) does under the watchful eye of Tuco the cat. Micah's streams are often epic, building, hacking and tinkering with everything from reverse engineering firmware to building a Tuco flyer which I find really interesting, sometimes these are adhoc and I found I frequently missed the first few hours until I noticed the email from YouTube (once I remembered to enable notifications). To solve this problem I put the Particle WebHook to use to query the YouTube API, I added a few LEDs on a ThingyStick prototype PCB to indicate the channel being live. I had planned to 3D print a nice lime enclosure but that's still pending, the final indication can be modified, maybe a big LED, or a "Live" sign using a relay, or maybe some nice RGB Neopixels, the choice is yours. " [...]