Editorial

Esta é a Newsletter Nº 164 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
• Documentação
• Projetos Maker

Faz hoje anos que nascia, em 1781, Siméon Denis Poisson. Este matemático francês ficou conhecido pelo seu trabalho em integrais definidas, avanços nas séries de Fourier, teoria electromagnética e probabilidade. A distribuição de Poisson (1837) descreve a probabilidade de que um evento aleatório ocorra num intervalo de tempo ou espaço sob as condições em que a probabilidade do evento ocorrer é muito pequena, mas o número de tentativas é muito grande para que o evento realmente ocorra poucas vezes. Os seus trabalhos incluíram aplicações para electricidade e magnetismo e astronomia. Ele também é conhecido pela integral de Poisson, pela equação de Poisson na teoria do potencial, pelos parênteses de Poisson nas equações diferenciais, pela razão de Poisson na elasticidade e pela constante de Poisson na electricidade.

Faz também hoje anos que nascia, em 1863, Max Wolf. Este astrónomo alemão fundou e dirigiu o Observatório Königstuhl. Ele usou a fotografia de campo amplo para estudar a Via Láctea e usou o tratamento estatístico da contagem de estrelas para provar a existência de nuvens de matéria escura. Ele foi um dos primeiros astrónomos a mostrar que as nebulosas em espiral têm espectros de absorção típicos de estrelas e, portanto, diferem das nebulosas gasosas. A sua contribuição mais importante foi a introdução da fotografia para descobrir centenas de asteróides, o primeiro dos quais ele nomeou Brucia em homenagem ao doador de seu telescópio duplo de 16 polegadas, Catherine Wolfe Bruce.

Por fim, faz hoje anos que nascia, em 1916, Joseph Bamford. Este inventor e industrial Inglês inventou e fabricou a máquina de construção JCB com uma pá operada hidraulicamente na frente e um braço de escavadora nas costas. Do negócio que levou suas iniciais, que ele começou numa garagem em 1945, e tornou-se num dos industriais mais bem sucedidos da Grã-Bretanha. Ele foi pioneiro a introduzir o conceito de retro-escavadora na Europa. Ele também é creditado com a ampla aplicação da tecnologia hidráulica na construção e equipamentos agrícolas. A empresa que ele fundou agora tem um mercado global de máquinas pesadas e máquinas agrícolas.

Nesta semana que passou ficámos a saber que os construtores de Stonehenge usaram o teorema de Pitágoras 2.000 anos antes do filósofo grego nascer. Um novo livro, Megalith, reexaminou a antiga geometria dos monumentos neolíticos e concluiu que eles foram construídos por astrónomos sofisticados que entendiam longos ciclos lunares, solares e de eclipses e construíram enormes calendários de pedra usando geometria complexa.

Também esta semana ficámos a saber que a China é pioneira em impressão 3D em cerâmica em micro-gravidade. O uso potencial mais excitante da tecnologia é construir bases na Lua, Marte ou outros planetas. Ou talvez apenas para beber chá de um copo feito de poeira lunar ou solo marciano. Cientistas do Centro de Tecnologia e Engenharia para Utilização Espacial da Academia Chinesa de Ciências (CAS) concluíram a primeira experiência de fabricação de cerâmica do mundo sob micro-gravidade, usando a tecnologia de processamento digital de luz a bordo de um avião europeu de voos parabólicos na Suíça.

Na Newsletter desta semana apresentamos diversos projetos de maker. É apresentada a revista hackspace número 8 e o livro acelarando a transformação digital com contentores e Kubernetes.

João Alves ([email protected])

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

Stonehenge builders used Pythagoras' theorem 2,000 years before Greek philosopher was born, say experts

"The builders of Britain’s ancient stone circles like Stonehenge were using Pythagoras' theorem 2,000 years before the Greek philosopher was born, experts have claimed. A new book, Megalith, has re-examined the ancient geometry of Neolithic monuments and concluded they were constructed by sophisticated astronomers who understood lengthy lunar, solar and eclipse cycles and built huge stone calendars using complex geometry One contributor, megalithic expert Robin Heath has even proposed that there exists a great Pythagorean triangle in the British landscape linking Stonehenge, the site from which the Preseli bluestones were cut in Wales, and Lundy Island, an important prehistoric site. Pythagoras’ discovery that the sum of the areas of two squares on the sides of a triangle will add up to the area of a square on hypotenuse has been used for millennia to help builders attain perfect right-angles. The new book, published today to coincide with today’s summer solstice, shows how within one of Stonehenge’s earliest incarnations, dating from 2750BC, there lies a rectangle of four Sarsen stones which when split in half diagonally forms a perfect Pythagorean 5:12:13 triangle. The eight lines which radiate from the rectangle and triangles also perfectly align to important dates in the Neolithic calendar, such as the summer and winter solstices and spring and autumn equinoxes. They also mark Imbolc, the ancient date for the beginning of Spring on February 1, Beltane, or May Day, lammas, the start of the wheat harvest and Samhain, October 31 which traditionally marked the time when cattle were brought down from summer pastures and slaughtered for the winter which has become Halloween." [...]

China pioneers ceramic 3D printing in microgravity

"One of the first civilizations to make ceramics about 10,000 years ago, China is now developing technology to manufacture ceramics in space. The most exciting potential use of the technology is to build bases on the Moon, Mars or other planets. Or maybe just to drink tea from a cup made of lunar dust or Martian soil. Scientists at the Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have completed the world's first ceramic manufacturing experiment under microgravity, using digital light processing technology aboard a European parabolic flight aircraft in Switzerland. "This is a widely used 3D printing technology, but it's previously been regarded as inapplicable in a microgravity environment," said Wang Gong, director of the CAS Key Laboratory of Space Manufacturing Technology. During the flight experiments, the scientists also tested a metal casting technique using 3D printed ceramic molds." [...]

Arm Mbed OS 5.9 release: Focus on low power, robustness and ease of use

"About this release Mbed OS 5.9 includes the release of device statistics APIs, which allow you to gather critical device information. This is a first step toward giving you power to remotely diagnose the health of IoT devices deployed in the field. Mbed OS 5.9 focuses on mainlining and increasing adoption of low power features, such as the microsecond ticker, low power timer, sleep manager and real time clock APIs. Power consumption is one of the most important design requirements for IoT devices. Meeting the power budget is becoming challenging as the systems today include more sensors, faster responses and more connectivity. With the introduction of, and improvements to, key low power features, such as the microsecond ticker, low power timer, sleep and real time clock APIs, meeting tight power requirements and designing low power systems becomes straightforward." [...]

Mobile Industry Works Together to Deliver Complete 5G System Standard on Time

"3GPP TSG #80 Plenary Meeting has approved the completion of the standalone (SA) Release 15 5G specifications. After the release of the 5G NR specifications for non-standalone (NSA) operation in Dec. 2017, another essential step of standardization of 5G has been successfully completed. Now, the whole industry is taking the final sprint towards 5G commercialization. The completion of SA specifications which complements the NSA specifications, not only gives 5G NR the ability of independent deployment, but also brings a brand new end-to-end network architecture, making 5G a facilitator and an accelerator during the intelligent information and communications technology improvement process of enterprise customers and vertical industries. New business models will be enabled and a new era where everything is interconnected will be opened up for both mobile operators and industrial partners. More than 600 delegates from the world’s major telecom operators, network, terminals and chipset vendors, internet companies and other vertical industry companies have witnessed this historic moment for 5G." [...]

Increase System Performance in Closed-loop Control Applications with New PIC and AVR MCUs

"From pool pumps to air handling units, closed-loop control is one of the most fundamental tasks performed by embedded systems. Advancements in the architecture of PIC® and AVR® 8-bit microcontrollers (MCUs) have optimized the devices for implementing closed-loop control, enabling systems to offload the Central Processing Unit (CPU) to manage more tasks and save power. To help designers maximize performance and efficiency in these systems, Microchip Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MCHP) has introduced the new PIC18 Q10 and ATtiny1607 families, featuring multiple intelligent Core Independent Peripherals (CIPs) that simplify development and enable quick response time to system events. Ideal for applications that use closed-loop control, a key advantage of using the PIC18 Q10 and ATtiny1607 MCUs are the CIPs that independently manage tasks and reduce the amount of processing required from the CPU. System designers can also save time and simplify design efforts with the hardware-based CIPs, which significantly reduce the amount of software required to write and validate. Both families have features for functional safety and operate up to 5V, increasing noise immunity and providing compatibility with the majority of analog output and digital sensors." [...]

Hot Off The Press: 3D Printing Has Pushed This Gas Turbine To New Highs

"In 2012, Andrew Passmore thought he had taken a machine to its limits. His team of engineers had just upgraded a gas turbine powerful enough to supply with electricity the equivalent of 200,000 European homes. It was the second upgrade in seven years, but the team still managed to wring an extra 12 megawatts (MW) from the turbine, boosting its power capacity to 180 MW. They also pushed the machine’s maintenance interval to 48,000 hours, meaning that it could now generate power for nearly five and a half years without needing to go offline for service. Passmore, a senior product manager based in Baden, Switzerland, remembers feeling a sense of satisfaction. “At the time, we thought, ‘That’s it’ — we had reached the limits of this turbine,” he says." [...]

Norway tests tiny electric plane, sees passenger flights by 2025

"Norway tested a two-seater electric plane on Monday and predicted a start to passenger flights by 2025 if new aviation technologies match a green shift that has made Norwegians the world’s top buyers of electric cars. Transport Minister Ketil Solvik-Olsen and Dag Falk-Petersen, head of state-run Avinor which runs most of Norway’s airports, took a few minutes’ flight around Oslo airport in an Alpha Electro G2 plane, built by Pipistrel in Slovenia. “This is ... a first example that we are moving fast forward” toward greener aviation, Solvik-Olsen told Reuters. “We do have to make sure it is safe - people won’t fly if they don’t trust it.” He said plane makers such as Boeing and Airbus were developing electric aircraft and that battery prices were tumbling, making it feasible to reach a government goal of making all domestic flights in Norway electric by 2040. Asked when passenger flights in electric planes could start, Falk-Petersen, the pilot, said: “My best guess is before 2025 ... It should all be electrified by 2040.” The two said the plane, with a takeoff weight of 570 kg (1255 lb), was cramped and buffeted by winds but far quieter than a conventional plane run on fossil fuels." [...]

Russia Launches Soyuz-2.1b Carrier Rocket With Glonass-M Navigation Satellite

"Russia launched a Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket from the Plesetsk space center on Sunday to orbit a Glonass-M satellite, the Russian Defense Ministry said. "On Sunday, at 00:46 Moscow time [21:46 GMT]… the Space Forces of the Aerospace Forces successfully launched a middle-class Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with a navigation Glonass-M spacecraft," the ministry said in a statement. Hours later the ministry reported that the satellite reached the designated orbit. "The middle-class Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket launched on June 17 at 00:46 [21:46 GMT on Saturday] from the Plesetsk space center (Arkhangelsk Region) successfully put the Russian navigation Glonass-M spacecraft to the designated orbit," the ministry's press service said. Earlier, a satellite producer Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems reported that the signal interface control document for GLONASS would be updated in 2018, making radio signals to the satellite navigation system less susceptible to corruption. The developed in soviet-era navigation system GLONASS (the Russian acronym for 'Global Navigation Satellite System') was intended to become operational in 1995, the same year that the US launched its GPS, but due to lack of funding the system was put on hold." [...]

Panasonic Develops Long-range TOF Image Sensor

"This new image sensor is capable of detecting objects 250 m ahead at night with poor visibility and achieves high resolution by adopting APD with 250,000 pixels Panasonic Corporation announced today that it has developed a time-of-flight (TOF) image sensor [2] that uses avalanche photodiode (APD) [1] pixels and is capable of capturing range imaging of objects up to 250 m even at night with poor visibility. The sensor can be applied in a variety of fields including automotive range imaging and wide-area surveillance in the dark. The newly developed TOF image sensor directly measures the time-of-flight of light between an object and the sensor at all the pixels and collectively obtains 3D range images for short to long distances. The use of APDs, which amplify input signals, as the photodetector and the incorporation of an in-pixel circuit that integrates weak input signals, and it enables the 3D range imaging of a place 250 m ahead. In addition, the new sensor has achieved the integration of the world's best 250,000 pixels*1 through the lamination of the electron multiplier and the electron storage as well as the area reduction of APD pixels. This has enabled long-range and high-resolution 3D range imaging, which was difficult previously." [...]

Squeezing light at the nanoscale

"Ultra-confined light could detect harmful molecules Sciences (SEAS) have developed a new technique to squeeze infrared light into ultra-confined spaces, generating an intense, nanoscale antenna that could be used to detect single biomolecules. The researchers harnessed the power of polaritons, particles that blur the distinction between light and matter. This ultra-confined light can be used to detect very small amounts of matter close to the polaritons. For example, many hazardous substances, such as formaldehyde, have an infrared signature that can be magnified by these antennas. The shape and size of the polaritons can also be tuned, paving the way to smart infrared detectors and biosensors. The research is published in Science Advances." [...]

Quantum transfer at the push of a button

"In the new quantum information technologies, fragile quantum states have to be transferred between distant quantum bits. Researchers at ETH have now realized such a quantum transmission between two solid-state qubits at the push of a button. Data transmission is the backbone of the modern information society, on both the large and small scale. On the internet, data are exchanged between computers all over the world, most often using fibre optic cables. Inside a computer, on the other hand, information has to be shuttled back and forth between different processors. A reliable exchange of data is also of great importance for the new quantum information technologies that are currently being developed – but at the same time it is also fiendishly difficult." [...]

Electronic skin stretched to new limits

"A metal carbide within a hydrogel composite senses, stretches and heals like human skin for use in medicine and robotics. An electrically conductive hydrogel that takes stretchability, self-healing and strain sensitivity to new limits has been developed at KAUST. “Our material outperforms all previously reported hydrogels and introduces new functionalities,” says Husam Alshareef, professor of materials science and engineering. Smart materials that flex, sense and stretch like skin have many applications in which they interact with the human body. Possibilities range from biodegradable patches that help wounds heal to wearable electronics and touch-sensitive robotic devices. The material is a composite of the water-containing hydrogel and a metal-carbide compound known as MXene." [...]

Interfacing With the Brain

"New material improves brain-machine interfaces Chris Bettinger and his group have created a hydrogel material and fabrication process for electrodes that stick to the brain, matching its soft, squishy makeup in order to keep the body from rejecting electronic probes that measure neural signals. These probes could lead to a deeper understanding of processes such as thoughts, emotions or motor control, and could improve treatments for arthritis and medical procedures to the heart, brain and spinal cord. In the past 20 years, silicon-based electronics have evolved from being stiff like wood, to thin and flexible like paper, to stretchy and pliable like rubber bands. Bettinger's team is taking it one step further, making them not only flexible and stretchable but also extremely soft and adhesive. This could mean that the body would be less likely to attack a probe as an injury or a foreign object. "If we could fabricate electronic devices that have mechanical properties closer to 'Jell-O' rather than wood or plastic, then we can surreptitiously interface neural probes with the brain in a more benign manner," said Bettinger, an associate professor of materials science and engineering and biomedical engineering." [...]

KAIST Team Develops Flexible Blue Vertical Micro LEDs

"A KAIST research team developed a crucial source technology that will advance the commercialization of micro LEDs. Professor Keon Jae Lee from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and his team have developed a low cost production technology for thin-film blue flexible vertical micro LEDs (f-VLEDs). In CES 2018, micro LED TV was spotlighted as a strong candidate for replacing the active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) display. Micro LED is a sub-100 um light source for red, green and blue light, which has advantages of outstanding optical output, ultra-low power consumption, fast response speed, and excellent flexibility. However, the current display industry has utilized the individual chip transfer of millions of LED pixels, causing high production cost. Therefore, the initial market of micro LED TV will be estimated to ~ a hundred thousand dollars for global premium market." [...]

Using Gold Nanoparticles to Trigger Sequential Unfolding of 3-D Structures

"Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new technique that takes advantage of gold nanoparticles to trigger the sequential unfolding of three-dimensional structures using different wavelengths of light. Specifically, the technique makes use of the fact that different shapes of gold nanoparticles convert different wavelengths of light into heat. In this instance, researchers embedded gold nanospheres and nanorods into different areas of a shape memory polymer. The polymer can then be folded into a desired shape. When exposed to light wavelengths of 530 nanometers (nm), or green light, the folds in the part embedded with nanospheres unfold. When exposed to wavelengths of 860 nm, or near infrared, the nanorod-embedded regions unfold." [...]

Research Charts the Way to More Reliable Carbon-based Microelectronics

"Carbon nanotubes – cylindrical formations of carbon atoms with incredible strength and electrical conductivity – hold great promise for creating new micron-scale low-power electronic devices. But finding a way to build a reliable computing platform based on the carbon material has been a major challenge for researchers. Now, a team of mechanical and materials engineers at Georgia Institute of Technology has devised a method for identifying performance variabilities in transistors made from carbon nanotube networks. The new approach could help researchers create more reliable devices and ultimately harness that technology for a range of applications such as wearable electronics, sensors and antennas. “Using carbon nanotubes to make thin-film transistors with good performance repeatability has been challenging because of the random imperfections in the fabrication process,” said Satish Kumar, an associate professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. “Those random imperfections cause variations in the properties of the nanotubes – differences in length, diameter and chirality." [...]

Multiple lasers could be replaced by a single microcomb

"Every time we send an e-mail, a tweet, or stream a video, we rely on laser light to transfer digital information over a complex network of optical fibers. Dozens of high-performance lasers are needed to fill up the bandwidth and to squeeze in an increasing amount of digital data. Researchers have now shown that all these lasers can be replaced by a single device called a microcomb.​ A microcomb is an optical device that generates very sharp and equidistant frequency lines in a tiny microphotonic chip. This technology was developed about a decade ago and is now reaching a maturity level that enables new applications, including lidar, sensing, timekeeping and of course optical communications. The soul of a microcomb is a tiny optical cavity that confines laser light in space. Therefore, this technology provides a fantastic playground to explore new nonlinear physical phenomena." [...]

MIT engineers build smart power outlet

"Design can “learn” to identify plugged-in appliances, distinguish dangerous electrical spikes from benign ones. Have you ever plugged in a vacuum cleaner, only to have it turn off without warning before the job is done? Or perhaps your desk lamp works fine, until you turn on the air conditioner that’s plugged into the same power strip. These interruptions are likely “nuisance trips,” in which a detector installed behind the wall trips an outlet’s electrical circuit when it senses something that could be an arc-fault — a potentially dangerous spark in the electric line. The problem with today’s arc-fault detectors, according to a team of MIT engineers, is that they often err on the side of being overly sensitive, shutting off an outlet’s power in response to electrical signals that are actually harmless. Now the team has developed a solution that they are calling a “smart power outlet,” in the form of a device that can analyze electrical current usage from a single or multiple outlets, and can distinguish between benign arcs — harmless electrical spikes such as those caused by common household appliances — and dangerous arcs, such as sparking that results from faulty wiring and could lead to a fire." [...]

Sculpting with graphene foam

"Rice lab creates conductive 3D carbon blocks that can be shaped for applications Rice University scientists have developed a simple way to produce conductive, three-dimensional objects made of graphene foam. The squishy solids look and feel something like a child’s toy but offer new possibilities for energy storage and flexible electronic sensor applications, according to Rice chemist James Tour. The technique detailed in Advanced Materials is an extension of groundbreaking work by the Tour lab that produced the first laser-induced graphene (LIG) in 2014 by heating inexpensive polyimide plastic sheets with a laser. The laser burns halfway through the plastic and turns the top into interconnected flakes of 2D carbon that remain attached to the bottom half. LIG can be made in macroscale patterns at room temperature. The lab extended its technique to create LIG on wood and even food, but 3D objects of pure graphene were less practical until now, Tour said." [...]

Tripling the Energy Storage of Lithium-Ion Batteries

"As the demand for smartphones, electric vehicles, and renewable energy continues to rise, scientists are searching for ways to improve lithium-ion batteries—the most common type of battery found in home electronics and a promising solution for grid-scale energy storage. Increasing the energy density of lithium-ion batteries could facilitate the development of advanced technologies with long-lasting batteries, as well as the widespread use of wind and solar energy. Now, researchers have made significant progress toward achieving that goal. A collaboration led by scientists at the University of Maryland (UMD), the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the U.S. Army Research Lab have developed and studied a new cathode material that could triple the energy density of lithium-ion battery electrodes. Their research was published on June 13 in Nature Communications. “Lithium-ion batteries consist of an anode and a cathode,” said Xiulin Fan, a scientist at UMD and one of the lead authors of the paper." [...]

Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine researchers create first artificial human prion

"Finding may shed added light on, offer treatment hope for brain-wasting diseases Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine researchers have synthesized the first artificial human prion, a dramatic development in efforts to combat a devastating form of brain disease that has so far eluded treatment and a cure. The new findings are published in Nature Communications. Prions are proteins that have folded incorrectly. They can bind to neighboring normal proteins in the brain, triggering a domino effect that causes microscopic holes, turning brains into sponge, resulting in progressive deterioration, dementia and certain death. There are numerous types of prion diseases in humans, the most common being Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). Why and how human prion mis-folding occurs has been a mystery that the Case Western Reserve investigative team may have solved with its new findings." [...]

Protecting plants intelligently

"We must reduce the environmental and health risks of pesticides. However, rather than banning them completely, Robert Finger advocates an intelligent approach to crop protection. Glyphosate, neonicotinoids, drinking water initiative – renouncing pesticides is currently the subject of fierce discussion. For while on the one hand our nutrition system cannot function without crop protection, especially pesticides carry undisputed risks for humans and the environment. Prohibition of the main plant protection products stands at the heart of the debate. The EU imposed a complete ban on the outdoor use of three common neonicotinoids at the end of April 2018, as these neuroactive insecticides are also harmful to beneficial organisms such as bees." [...]

Exact Optical Frequencies on Demand

"Caltech's "fine-toothed" optical comb contributes to a fomenting technological revolution In 2014, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) launched the Direct On-Chip Digital Optical Synthesizer (DODOS) program, with the goal of finding a way to synthesize optical frequencies with the same exactness as radio and microwave frequencies. Four years later, that promise is on the verge of paying off—with an important contribution from applied scientists at Caltech. Radio and microwave frequency synthesis is so fundamental that it can be easily taken for granted. It, for example, enables cellular communications systems to operate at specific frequencies automatically—but a fine level of control is not yet available on a practical level for optical signals. However, in April, DARPA and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced that a team of researchers including members from NIST, UC Santa Barbara, and Caltech had made significant progress in creating a chip-based means of miniaturizing an optical synthesizer that can emit specific frequencies of light. "The goal is to shrink laboratory-grade capabilities down to the size of a sugar cube for use in applications like LIDAR, coherent communications, chemical sensing, and precision metrology," according to Gordon Keeler, the DARPA program manager leading DODOS." [...]

Researchers Fabricate New Type of Cellulose Nanopaper

"Cellulose nanopaper (CNP) has potential application in the fields of electronic devices, visual display substrates, batteries, barrier material due to its renewability, light-weight, low thermal expansion, excellent mechanical properties and optical properties. However, CNP is sensitive to moisture due to the hydrophilic nature of cellulose. Absorption of moisture could result in the loss of strength and durability of CNP. These drawbacks limited the usability of CNP under high-moisture environments or in water. To overcome this obstacle, the introduction of expensive building blocks or complicated procedures was usually unavoidable for the fabrication of CNP. Recently, a research team led by Dr. LI Bin from the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences extracted lignin-containing cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) via a one-step recoverable organic acid hydrolysis plus homogenization in dimethylacetamide (DMAC)." [...]

Method could be boost to large scale production of graphene

"The measure by which any conductor is judged is how easily, and speedily, electrons can move through it. On this point, graphene is one of the most promising materials for a breathtaking array of applications. However, its ultra-high electron mobility is reduced when you synthesize larger sheets of the material. Now this barrier to industrial production of graphene may be broken as a result of new research done at KTH with universities in Germany. The long list of possible uses for graphene touches on nearly every dimension of future technologies, including those which address energy and health. Transistors, sensors, energy storage, flexible electronics, biomedicine and more can take advantage of its superior mechanical, electrical, thermal and optical properties." [...]

New Material for Splitting Water

"Solar energy is clean and abundant. But when the sun isn't shining, you must store the energy in batteries or through a process called photocatalysis -- in which solar energy is used to make fuels. In photocatalytic water splitting, sunlight separates water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen and oxygen can then be recombined in a fuel cell to release energy. Now, a new class of materials -- halide double perovskites -- may have just the right properties to split water, according to a newly published paper in Applied Physics Letters, from AIP Publishing. "If we can come up with a material that can be useful as a water-splitting photocatalyst, then it would be an enormous breakthrough," said Feliciano Giustino, a co-author on the paper." [...]

A Bit of Quantum Logic-What Did the Atom Say to the Quantum Dot?

"Let’s talk! Scientists demonstrate coherent coupling between a quantum dot and a donor atom in silicon, vital for moving information inside quantum computers. The Science Quantum computers could tackle problems that current supercomputers can’t. Quantum computers rely on quantum bits, or “qubits.” Current computers perform millions of calculations, one after the other. Qubit coupling allows quantum computers to perform them all at the same time. Qubits could store the data that add up to bank accounts and medical records." [...]

Designer layered materials put a colorful twist on sensing

"Layers of color-changing plastic can be tuned by hosting organic or metallic ‘guests’, enabling easy-to-read measurements of heat and friction A smart polymer developed at Keio University responds to stimuli by absorbing different wavelengths of light, allowing minor changes to objects to be visualized that might escape other techniques1−6. For example, the polymer can indicate how hard a pen presses on an object through vivid color transformations. This technology, which can also be used to display three-dimensional temperature changes, may be used to sense mechanical stress in material degradation, and for biomedical applications such as diagnosing pressure ulcers. Inspired by dirt The clay minerals found in soil naturally exemplify the versatility of layered materials. Consisting of stacked sheets of alumina and silica, clays can swell and hold water by absorbing molecules between these sheets through a process known as intercalation. People learned as early as two millennia ago that the intercalation of different ‘guest’ particles into sheets could create rudimentary dyes, and applications based on this principle continue to this day." [...]

Mysterious IceCube event may be caused by a tau neutrino

"Theoretical physicists calculate the origin of a high-energy particle track captured by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory It was just eight years ago that the IceCube detector, a research center located at the South Pole to detect neutrinos emanating from the cosmos, was commissioned. Three years later, it began to register the first momentous results. The detection of high-energy neutrinos by IceCube made viable completely new options for explaining how our universe works. "These neutrinos with their considerable energy are cosmic messengers we have never encountered before and it is extremely important that we understand exactly what they are telling us," explained Dr. Ranjan Laha of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU). Working in collaboration with a colleague at Stanford University in the USA, the Mainz-based physicist has put forward a new hypothesis on what this interstellar message carrier might be. The two physicists have calculated that what has been detected could be the track of a high-energy tau particle that transited the IceCube detector." [...]

Carbon nanotube optics poised to provide pathway to optical-based quantum cryptography and quantum computing

"Researchers at Los Alamos and partners in France and Germany are exploring the enhanced potential of carbon nanotubes as single-photon emitters for quantum information processing. Their analysis of progress in the field is published in this week’s edition of the journal Nature Materials. “We are particularly interested in advances in nanotube integration into photonic cavities for manipulating and optimizing light-emission properties,” said Stephen Doorn, one of the authors, and a scientist with the Los Alamos National Laboratory site of the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT). “In addition, nanotubes integrated into electroluminescent devices can provide greater control over timing of light emission and they can be feasibly integrated into photonic structures. We are highlighting the development and photophysical probing of carbon nanotube defect states as routes to room-temperature single photon emitters at telecom wavelengths.” The team’s overview was produced in collaboration with colleagues in Paris (Christophe Voisin) who are advancing the integration of nanotubes into photonic cavities for modifying their emission rates, and at Karlsruhe (Ralph Krupke) where they are integrating nanotube-based electroluminescent devices with photonic waveguide structures. The Los Alamos focus is the analysis of nanotube defects for pushing quantum emission to room temperature and telecom wavelengths, he said." [...]

The Future of AI Needs Better Compute: Hardware Accelerators Based on Analog Memory Devices

"Software-equivalent accuracy achieved with analog memory for faster, lower power neural network training Imagine personalized Artificial Intelligence (AI), where your smartphone becomes more like an intelligent assistant – recognizing your voice even in a noisy room, understanding the context of different social situations or presenting only the information that’s truly relevant to you, plucked out of the flood of data that arrives every day. Such capabilities might soon be within our reach – but getting there will require fast, powerful, energy-efficient AI hardware accelerators. In a recent paper published in Nature, our IBM Research AI team demonstrated deep neural network (DNN) training with large arrays of analog memory devices at the same accuracy as a Graphical Processing Unit (GPU)-based system. We believe this is a major step on the path to the kind of hardware accelerators necessary for the next AI breakthroughs. Why? Because delivering the Future of AI will require vastly expanding the scale of AI calculations." [...]

Ground-breaking discoveries could create superior alloys with many applications

"Many current and future technologies require alloys that can withstand high temperatures without corroding. Now, researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have hailed a major breakthrough in understanding how alloys behave at high temperatures, pointing the way to significant improvements in many technologies. The results are published in the highly ranked journal Nature Materials. Developing alloys that can withstand high temperatures without corroding is a key challenge for many fields, such as renewable and sustainable energy technologies like concentrated solar power and solid oxide fuel cells, as well as aviation, materials processing and petrochemistry. At high temperatures, alloys can react violently with their environment, quickly causing the materials to fail by corrosion. To protect against this, all high temperature alloys are designed to form a protective oxide scale, usually consisting of aluminium oxide or chromium oxide." [...]

Scientists use neutrons to take a deeper look at record boost in thermoelectric efficiency

"Neutron facilities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are aiding scientists in research to boost the power and efficiency of thermoelectric materials. These performance increases could enable more cost-effective and practical uses for thermoelectrics, with wider industry adoption, to improve fuel economy in vehicles, make power plants more efficient, and advance body heat–powered technologies for watches and smartphones. Thermoelectric materials, typically metal compounds, can convert heat to electricity and vice versa in the presence of a temperature gradient, making them ideal for applications in waste heat recovery. Thermoelectrics could capitalize on enormous amounts of unused waste heat produced by industrial operations, fossil-fuel power generation, commercial buildings, vehicles, and even people by converting that “lost” heat into useable energy. But so far their application has been limited to add-on technologies due to their low efficiency compared with conventional forms of energy generation. To reach benchmarks set for standalone thermo-powered devices, scientists are now looking deeper—down to the atoms—into promising materials and methods to raise efficiency scores." [...]

Interaction of paired and lined-up electrons can be manipulated in semiconductors

"The way that electrons paired as composite particles or arranged in lines interact with each other within a semiconductor provides new design opportunities for electronics, according to recent findings in Nature Communications. What this means for semiconductor components, such as those that send information throughout electronic devices, is not yet clear, but hydrostatic pressure can be used to tune the interaction so that electrons paired as composite particles switch between paired, or "superconductor-like," and lined-up, or "nematic," phases. Forcing these phases to interact also suggests that they can influence each other's properties, like stability – opening up possibilities for manipulation in electronic devices and quantum computing. "You can literally have hundreds of different phases of electrons organizing themselves in different ways in a semiconductor," said Gábor Csáthy, Purdue professor of physics and astronomy. "We found that two in particular can actually talk to each other in the presence of hydrostatic pressure." Csáthy's group discovered that hydrostatic pressure, which is 10,000 times stronger than ambient pressure, compresses the lattice of atoms in a semiconductor and, therefore, influences the electron arrangement within a two-dimensional electron gas hosted by the semiconductor." [...]

An unlikely marriage among oxides

"Sebastian Siol is looking for new materials with unusual properties that were so far not accessible in experiments. To do this, he connects partners who don't really fit together: One partner forces the other into a state that would not be possible without the unlikely pairing. Siol also makes sure that the crystal bonds last in everyday life. Only then are they interesting for industrial applications. The term alloy usually refers to a mixture of several metals. However, other materials can also be alloyed." [...]

Not always bad-MXenes' spontaneous oxidation harnessed to create 2-D nanocomposites

"Researchers at Missouri S&T have discovered a new way to harness the potential of a type of spontaneously oxidized MXene thin films, to create nanocomposites that could sense both light and the environment. Previously, such spontaneous oxidation was considered detrimental because it degrades the MXene structure. The research is published in the June 2018 issue of ACS Nano, one of Google Scholar’s top-rated, peer-reviewed scientific journals. “Now we’ve demonstrated that partial spontaneous oxidation of MXenes into titanium oxide that is integrated with the MXene flakes, can be harnessed to inexpensively manufacture useful MXene-titania nanocomposites,” says Dr. Vadym Mochalin, associate professor of chemistry at Missouri University of Science and Technology and principal investigator of the research. “With the exponential increase in MXenes’ research over the past several years, conceptual discoveries are becoming less frequent,” says Mochalin. “In parallel, researchers delve deeper into MXenes’ fundamental properties, in particular, the complicated chemistry of these materials.” MXenes are two-dimensional inorganic compounds that consist of a few atoms-thick layers of metal carbides and nitrides that possess high electrical conductivity along with hydrophilicity, non-linear optical and tunable electronic properties." [...]

University collaboration reveals world's first-ever graphene sports shoes

"The world’s first-ever sports shoes to utilise graphene – the strongest material on the planet – have been unveiled by The University of Manchester and British brand inov-8. Collaborating with graphene experts at National Graphene Institute, the brand has been able to develop a graphene-enhanced rubber. They have developed rubber outsoles for running and fitness shoes that in testing have outlasted 1,000 miles and are scientifically proven to be 50% harder wearing. Graphene is 200 times stronger than steel and at only a single atom thick it is the thinnest possible material, meaning it has many unique properties. inov-8 is the first brand in the world to use the superlative material in sports footwear, with its G-SERIES shoes available to pre-order from June 22nd ahead of going on sale from July 12th. The company first announced its intent to revolutionise the sports footwear industry in December last year." [...]

Physicists solve the mystery of vanishing particles in graphene

"Researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and Tohoku University (Japan) have explained the puzzling phenomenon of particle-antiparticle annihilation in graphene, recognized by specialists as Auger recombination. Although persistently observed in experiments, it was for a long time thought to be prohibited by the fundamental physical laws of energy and momentum conservation. The theoretical explanation of this process has until recently remained one of the greatest puzzles of solid-state physics. The theory explaining the phenomenon was published in Physical Review B. In 1928, Paul Dirac predicted that an electron has a twin particle, which is identical in all respects but for its opposite electric charge. This particle, called the positron, was soon discovered experimentally." [...]

Chip upgrade helps miniature drones navigate

"Low-power design will allow devices as small as a honeybee to determine their location while flying. Researchers at MIT, who last year designed a tiny computer chip tailored to help honeybee-sized drones navigate, have now shrunk their chip design even further, in both size and power consumption. The team, co-led by Vivienne Sze, associate professor in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), and Sertac Karaman, the Class of 1948 Career Development Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, built a fully customized chip from the ground up, with a focus on reducing power consumption and size while also increasing processing speed. The new computer chip, named “Navion,” which they are presenting this week at the Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits, is just 20 square millimeters — about the size of a LEGO minifigure’s footprint — and consumes just 24 milliwatts of power, or about 1 one-thousandth the energy required to power a lightbulb. Using this tiny amount of power, the chip is able to process in real-time camera images at up to 171 frames per second, as well as inertial measurements, both of which it uses to determine where it is in space. The researchers say the chip can be integrated into “nanodrones” as small as a fingernail, to help the vehicles navigate, particularly in remote or inaccessible places where global positioning satellite data is unavailable." [...]

Electron sandwich doubles thermoelectric performance

"Researchers more than doubled the ability of a material to convert heat into electricity, which could help reduce the amount of wasted heat, and thus wasted fossil fuel, in daily activities and industries. Researchers from Hokkaido University and their colleagues in Japan and Taiwan have improved the ability to transform wasted heat into usable electricity by significantly narrowing the space through which spread electrons move, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Communications. More than 60 percent of energy produced by fossil fuels is lost as waste heat. One way to address this problem is to convert the wasted heat into electricity, known as thermoelectric energy conversion. However, improving the conversion rate has been difficult because of a trade-off relationship between the required properties within the material. Thermoelectric materials convert heat into electricity when there is a temperature difference, a phenomenon known as the Seebeck effect." [...]

Purdue phoneme project creates new haptic communications future

"Communication could step beyond reading a cellular phone screen with a new technique by Purdue College of Engineering researchers to learn and read messages through a person’s sense of touch. Hong Tan, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, was the lead professor on the haptic research that developed a method to receive messages by learning to interpret signals such as a buzzing sensation and others through the skin on the forearm. The research results were presented Friday (June 15) at the Proceedings of EuroHaptics 2018 conference in Pisa, Italy. The yearlong project was done with researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Facebook Inc. Tan, founder and director of Purdue’s Haptic Interface Research Laboratory, said while the research lends itself to being used by hearing-impaired and visually impaired users, the study is also being looked at on general terms for any number of possible uses. “We are collaborating with Facebook through the company’s Sponsored Academic Research Agreement. Facebook is interested in developing new platforms for communication and the haptic research we are doing has been promising,” she said." [...]

How to control robots with brainwaves and hand gestures

"Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory system enables people to correct robot mistakes on multiple-choice tasks. Getting robots to do things isn’t easy: Usually, scientists have to either explicitly program them or get them to understand how humans communicate via language. But what if we could control robots more intuitively, using just hand gestures and brainwaves? A new system spearheaded by researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) aims to do exactly that, allowing users to instantly correct robot mistakes with nothing more than brain signals and the flick of a finger. Building off the team’s past work focused on simple binary-choice activities, the new work expands the scope to multiple-choice tasks, opening up new possibilities for how human workers could manage teams of robots. By monitoring brain activity, the system can detect in real-time if a person notices an error as a robot does a task." [...]

Producing sensors with an inkjet printer

"Microelectrodes can be used for direct measurement of electrical signals in the brain or heart. These applications require soft materials, however. With existing methods, attaching electrodes to such materials poses significant challenges. A team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now succeeded in printing electrodes directly onto several soft substrates. Researchers from TUM and Forschungszentrum Jülich have successfully teamed up to perform inkjet printing onto a gummy bear. This might initially sound like scientists at play – but it may in fact point the way forward to major changes in medical diagnostics." [...]

Swedish receiver to capture cosmic waves in the world's largest radio telescope

"Just arrived in South Africa, Chalmers’ most advanced radio receiver is Sweden's main contribution to the record-breaking telescope SKA (Square Kilometre Array). The advanced prototype, now being tested in the Karoo Desert, is not only shiny and new. It’s also an important step towards a radio telescope that will challenge our ideas of time and space. Onsala Space Observatory at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, has delivered its largest technology contribution to the SKA (Square Kilometre Array) project. A metre (3 ft) across, the 180 kg (400 lb) instrument is the first in place of over a hundred to be mounted on dish antennas in the Karoo Desert, today home to the 64-dish-strong new MeerKAT telescope. The Band 1 receiver, as it is called, allows the dish to measure radio waves with a frequency between 0.35 and 1.05 Gigahertz." [...]

New 'E-Dermis' Brings Sense of Touch, Pain to Prosthetic Hands

"Amputees often experience the sensation of a “phantom limb”—a feeling that a missing body part is still there. That sensory illusion is closer to becoming a reality thanks to a team of engineers at the Johns Hopkins University that has created an electronic skin. When layered on top of prosthetic hands, this e-dermis brings back a real sense of touch through the fingertips. “After many years, I felt my hand, as if a hollow shell got filled with life again,” says the anonymous amputee who served as the team’s principal volunteer tester. Made of fabric and rubber laced with sensors to mimic nerve endings, e-dermis recreates a sense of touch as well as pain by sensing stimuli and relaying the impulses back to the peripheral nerves. “We’ve made a sensor that goes over the fingertips of a prosthetic hand and acts like your own skin would,” says Luke Osborn, a graduate student in biomedical engineering." [...]

Game-changing finding pushes 3D printing to the molecular limit

"New University of Nottingham research proves that advanced materials containing molecules that switch states in response to environmental stimuli such as light can be fabricated using 3D printing. The study findings have the potential to vastly increase the functional capabilities of 3D-printed devices for industries such as electronics, healthcare and quantum computing. The research, led by Dr Victor Sans Sangorrin from the Faculty of Engineering and Dr Graham Newton from the School of Chemistry, is published in the academic journal, Advanced Materials. "This bottom-up approach to device fabrication will push the boundaries of additive manufacturing like never before. Using a unique integrated design approach, we have demonstrated functional synergy between photochromic molecules and polymers in a fully 3D-printed device. Our approach expands the toolbox of advanced materials available to engineers developing devices for real-world problems," explains Dr Sans." [...]

Accelerating Digital Transformation with Containers and Kubernetes

"Container technology can help transform a company into a digital enterprise focused on delivering innovations at the speed of business. Containers package applications and their dependencies into a distributable image that can run almost anywhere, streamlining the development and deployment of software. By adopting containers, organizations can take a vital step toward remaking themselves into flexible, agile digital enterprises capable of accelerating the delivery of innovative products, services, and customer experiences. Enterprises can become the disrupters instead of the disrupted. But containers create technology management problems of their own, especially when containerized applications need to be deployed and managed at scale, and that’s when Kubernetes comes into play. Kubernetes automates the deployment and management of containerized applications." [...]

HackSpace magazine #8

"Go behind the scenes at Arduino to find out the story behind the hottest microcontroller releases of the year – the new version of the Uno, the line of MKR boards, and their very first FPGA. Hardware development has never been easier. Bring science to the kitchen with some dry ice ice cream Be amazed at the ancient art of glassblowing Learn how one reader built a unique guitar synth Add machine learning to a simple Arduino project And what the hell is 'science busking' anyway? " [...]

3D Printer Thermal Runaway Watchdog / Thermistor Tester

"Most 3D printer firmware includes some sort of thermal runaway protection, a feature that monitors the heaters and shuts the printer down if it notices something gone wrong. You should always enable the thermal runaway protection in the firmware. However, most printers use MOSFETs to switch power to the heating element. Unfortunately, when MOSFETs fail, they usually fail closed (i.e. conducting). This means that, even if the firmware detects something has gone wrong, it won't be able to do anything about it." [...]

RFID Based Wardrobe Managament System

"It all started with a struggle that I had when I had to pack my suitcase. I had to go to my dorm but i didn't remember how many t-shirts or socks were still there. So I decided to make my life a little bit easier by making an RFID based storage system that keeps track of what clothing is in or out the closet. I am a student at Howest Kortrijk who studies New Media and Communication Technology(NMCT)For our module Project we had to make an Raspberry Pi or Arduino based prototype who collects data via sensors and stores this in a MySQL database. In this instructable I will guide you through each step so you can recreate this prototype for yourself. " [...]

Smart Security System

"Do you ever feel unsafe in your own home, or do you need to protect your company? Maybe you could make a security system so all of these problems gets solved. In this instructable i tell you how. I mounted all the parts on a wooden plank for demonstration purposes, you should mount it where you need it (the arduino part at the wall where you can reach it, the main board somewhere out of direct range, the siren and the strobe where you want it and the sensors in the rooms you want to protect. " [...]

Learn Six Oscilloscope Measurements with an Arduino DUT

"One of the best ways to learn how to use a new piece of test equipment is to use it. Sounds easy, right? The problem is, sometimes when you are in the middle of troubleshooting your circuit, figuring out what the knobs on your scope do is an immense frustration. Use these 6 oscilloscope measurements, and just an Arduino Uno, to learn how to use a new or unfamiliar digital scope. This tutorial is not a step-by-step guide on how to make each of these measurements on a particular scope. Instead, it is a general explanation on how to setup the Arduino and a screenshot to help identify if you set up your scope correctly." [...]

Five Finger Code Finder

"A device to quickly crack PIN codes on Ford automobiles with a PIN entry keypad, and to demonstrate the shortcomings of this system. The Five Finger Code Finder is an electromechanical device and software designed to efficiently find the PIN code that will unlock Ford automobiles equipped with a 5 button entry keypad.Its purpose is to demonstrate how the design of this system allows PIN codes to be found in a MUCH SHORTER TIME than would normally be required to brute force search and try all possible PINs. This system allows a good level of usability but in the process sacrifices security. The purpose of this project is to demonstrate how design decisions that put a priority on ease of use can greatly compromise the security of a system such as this.The system uses an Arduino for control, a standard HD44780 compatible LCD, and five solenoids to press the keypad buttons in sequence. DETAILS This project builds on the previous work of Samy Kamkar and the authors of “The Car Hacking Handbook.” Samy discovered a method to quickly open garage door openers that use a remote with a fixed binary code set by dip switches. Despite the development of rather secure rolling code systems these remotes are still in wide use in situations such as apartment parking garages where a large number of remotes must operate the same door." [...]

Protect Your Room with Fingerprints for Under $20

"Create a locking system that locks your room with your fingerprint and an access code on the cheap. Story Protect Your Room with Fingerprints for Under $20 In this tutorial, we will build a system that protects your room based on your fingerprint and a set security code. " [...]

Maker Badge

"If you are a maker you must like making to stuff. We all do! Isn't it awesome when someone asks you what are you doing and you are like "I am just making cool things with my hands"? When you are going to a contest, school or maker fair (I wish to be there one day) you want to show everyone around that you are a maker. Because of that, I thought that some kind of LED sign would be cool. Maybe I should 3D print one and put some LEDs inside it?" [...]

Bit-Bang FTDI USB-To-Serial Converters To Drive SPI Devices

"The FT232 USB-to-serial converter is one of the most commonly-used methods of adding USB functionality to small projects, but recently I found that these chips are capable of sending more than just serial signals. With some creative programming, individual output pins can be big-banged to emulate a clock, data, and chip select line to control SPI devices. This post shares some of the techniques I use to bit-bang SPI with FTDI devices, and some of the perks (and quirks) of using FTDI chips to bit-bang data from a USB port. Code examples are available on GitHub, and links to additional resources are at the bottom of this post. After the final build I created a slightly more polished “ftdiDDS.exe” program to control an AD9850 frequency synthesizer from the command line by bit-banging a FT-232, and code (and binaries) are also available on GitHub. " [...]

Acoustic Radar Display

"This instructable describes how to make an ultrasonic radar-style display using an Arduino microcontroller, an ultrasonic sensor, and a small stepping motor. An optional sensor modification allows multiple objects to be detected with each ping. Construction is simple ... all you need are two drills, a sharp knife, a pair of side-cutters , and a soldering iron. Photo 1 shows the basic parts. The insert shows a random-dot test pattern. Dots representing primary objects are shown in red ... dots representing secondary objects are shown in blue." [...]

Custom NeoPixel Rings From Scratch!

"NeoPixel rings, and NeoPixels in general, are among the most popular electronic components for makers of all types. For good reason too, with a single pin from any popular microcontroller Adafruit makes adding gorgeous LEDs and animations to any project extremely easy. Unfortunately they are rather expensive, and Adafruit only sells four sizes. What many makers don't realize is NeoPixel is simply Adafruit's branding of a few identical LED chips named WS2812, WS2811 and SK6812 respectively. All Adafruit does it take the chip and put it on a circuit board, charging a hefty premium alongside. There is nothing wrong with Adafruit doing this as it makes NeoPixels accessible to everyone, but if one were to simply make the boards themselves one could make custom shapes of any size or design for around 15% of the cost of Adafruit's models (for a 24 LED ring)($3)." [...]

Bluetooth Controlled LED Matrix !

"In my previous tutorial, I showed you how to built and 24x6 LED Matrix, But the only problem with that was we have to upload entire new programme to change the message on the display which can be solved very easily by utilizing an HC - 05 module. So today I will show you how you can make a Bluetooth controlled led matrix. So lets get started. " [...]

Email Home Automation

"With this project, I tried to make my home "smart," but took a different route, completely avoiding voice commands. In this project, I will show you how to start designing and coding for home automation using Node-RED on the Raspberry Pi. I will be using a Pi Zero W, and an Arduino Uno. Okay, let's get started! First off, you need to set up your Raspberry Pi and make sure it is running. There are lots of tutorials online on how to do that so I won't explain that as it is quite straightforward." [...]

Make Your Own 1D Pong Game

"For this project I will show you how I combined an MDF board with buzzer buttons, LEDs and an Arduino Nano in order to create a 1D Pong Game that is really fun to play. Along the way I will show you how to create the electronics circuit and how difficult it actually is to program such a 1D Pong Game from scratch. Let's get started! " [...]

NeoPixel Ring Kaleidoscope

"I am pleased to offer instructions and material files for making a LightLogo Kaleidoscope! I have been thinking about doing this for many months and finally worked out a design. If you have any improvements on this design please do share! You will need: Adafruit 24 NeoPixel ring Arduino UNO or Adafruit Metro or Sparkfun redboard USB cable A couple pieces 12in X 24in 1/8" plywood, or corrugated cardboard optionally, 1 piece 12in X 24in X 1/8" mirrored acrylic Mylar roll a few jumper wires wood glue or hot glue double sided tape 3D printer soldering equipment" [...]

VGA Painting Program

"Project by: Adam Klein, Ian Strachan, Brandon Slater The project that we set out to complete was to store, parse, and display information from a USB mouse in the form of a painting program. The idea behind the project is to be able to plug the mouse and VGA cables into the Basys board in its built-in ports, and have the mouse displayed as a moveable painting square on the monitor, changing different colors when left and right clicks are used. In essence, wed be creating a driver for using the mouse with the basys board, and having the monitor as our verification of functionality. What ended up really happening was the creation of a drawing program with the basys board as an input system, and a semi-functional data capturing system for the mouse. In this instructable, we'll break down the steps from mouse input to vga output. " [...]

Set Up From Scratch a Raspberry Pi to Log Data From Arduino

"This tutorial is for those who have no experience with installing a new hardware, or software, let alone Python or Linux. Let say you have ordered to Raspberry Pi (RPi) with SD card (at least 8GB, I used 16GB, type I) and power supply (5V, at least 2.5A). Today, you decide to set it up and record data from Arduinos. So let begin! The tutorial includes setting up Raspberry Pi from the beginning, including Desktop Remote, preparing an Arduino with 18B20 temperature sensors, and executing a Python script in Raspberry Pi to collect and save the data. " [...]

The Earth Clock

"The Earth Clock is a project I made in order to visualize the face of the earth exposed to the sun in real time! In the nature the sun-rays are almost parallels because the sun is far away, that is why the Earth is 50% in the light and 50% in the dark. The light source is complicated to make, because by using a simple LED (picture-1), light-rays won't be parallels and the globe won't well be lit, however if we use a light with the same diameter than the globe, the planet will be well lit (picture-2), I chose to make an LED ring with a diameter of 100mm (as my globe). I bought warm white SMD LED (3200K) and I made a ring from wire, I decided to use 12 LED so I drew a circle and marks to place them correctly. Then I bended a metal wire into a circle and I placed the 12 LED in the correct polarity, I glued them in place and added a second wire circle slightly smaller than the first one, I also glued it to LED, then I connected the 12 LED together: 3 groups in parallel with 4 LED each, and the two wires of the ring are the positive and negative. " [...]

ESP32 and Radio Lora 10x More Powerful!

"Can you imagine a 1W Radio LoRa that is 10 times more powerful than the traditional 0.1W ones? Well today Ill introduce you to the E44-TTL-1W module, which is exactly this. This model has a transistor in the output that amplifies its signal, extending its reach. We will configure this module for use with an MCU or PC, and create an example of communication between the computer and an ESP32. However, its important to note that power isnt everything, folks. A friend told me that with his 500 milliwatt amateur radio, he could reach in Japan." [...]

Raspberry Pi Oled Clock Watch It Hear It and Feel It

"This is a smart clock that shows time on a OLED display and also you can hear time at different time interval that is help full for blind and It also change the led color with time like light in dusk light in evening goes orange to yellow and like that .This project is very exiting we are going to use OLed with it and very fun with it. " [...]

Amazon Alexa Smart Home Using Node MCU

"One of the most common hobby projects you will come across the internet is HomeAutomation. There you will be controlling devices in your house through your smartphone via wifi/Bluetooth. But here we won't be using any smartphone. we will be using our own voice for it. No need to take phone everytime to control any device. Just say "Alexa turn on the device" and it will automatically do it for you." [...]

Arduino Sunflower: An Electronic Sun-Dancer

"An electronic sun-dancing sun tracker. A maker is always sensitive to new and funny things. One day, I watched a video in which a sunflower moves along with the sun. I had a sudden insight then. Why can't I make an electronic device imitating this biomechanism. In the following days, I began to carry out my solar tracker project." [...]

A Sonic Pi controlled Glockenspiel

"he release of Sonic Pi version 3 last summer opened up a whole new range of possibilities for the use of this free versatile music program, available for the Raspberry Pi, Apple Mac, and Windows PC computers, and, if you compile it yourself, for various Linux Computers. The key to this was the ability of Sonic Pi to send and receive signals using MIDI, OSC messages, and audio input and output. Over the year I have written about several projects making use of these facilities, but this current project is to me one of the most satisfying, and fulfils an ambition to produce a Sonic Pi controlled musical instrument. This article assumes you are using a Pi 3. About 30 or so years ago, we bought a Glockenspiel for our Son, who was musical, but for many years when he had grown up it languished in our attic. It had a range of two octaves from :G5 to :G7 Although it is possible to utilise all these notes, I decided to limit the range, using only the notes :C6 to :E7 plus a “roving note” which could be allocated to any of the other notes." [...]

Low-cost and precise rotary encoder with magnetic spheres

"You know what they say that constraints drive creativity, I think this post is just another little example of that. Usually I do not put time constraints to my hobby projects, but I make sure to have some other kind of constraints, like keeping the cost low and trying to reuse stuff that I already have. In this case I needed a way to measure the angle and speed of a rotating object for some of my projects, and I wanted a rotary encoder that was inexpensive, but precise enough to work at very low speeds. I ruled out optical encoders (I could have reused a mouse) because there could have been noise issues in the final project, so I decided to go magnetic. I purchased a couple of Hall effect sensors but I had no idea of how I was going to use them. Later I realized that the US1881 sensors I bought were bipolar latching sensors (check out the Hallbook for a nice reference of magnetic sensing), meaning that their state would persist when the magnet was out of reach." [...]

Current Sensor Breakout (ACS723) Hookup Guide

"The ACS723 is a handy little current sensor from Allegro MicroSystems for low to moderate current sensing applications. SparkFun offers two flavors of breakout board, one with just the sensor and another with an on-board amplifier to increase the sensitivity. The ACS723 sensor uses a Hall effect sensor to output a voltage relative to the current flowing through the IP+ and IP- pins. The advantage of using a Hall effect sensor is that the circuit being sensed and the circuit reading the sensor are electrically isolated. This means that, although your Arduino is running on 5V, the sensed circuit can be operating at higher DC or AC voltages! The amplified breakout board (Low Current) is capable of sensing very small currents down to around 10mA and large currents up to 5A!" [...]

Pan and Tilt Mechanism for DSLR Time Lapses

"I had a few stepper motors lying around and really wanted to use them to make something cool. I decided that I would make a Pan and Tilt system for my DSLR camera so that I can create cool time lapses. " [...]

Delta Robot Project

"Introduction: In this tutorial we will be making a pick and place Machine as this is the most common use for a delta Robot in the industry besides delta 3d printers. This project took me a bit of time to perfect and was very challenging, it involves: Mechanical design and feasibility check Prototyping and making of the mechanical structure Electrical wiring Software and graphical user interface development Implementing of computer vision for an automated robot (still need your help in this part" [...]

Wi-Fi Controlled Robot Using Wemos D1 ESP8266, Arduino IDE and Blynk App

"In this tutorial I show you how to make a Wi-Fi controlled robotic tank controlled from a smartphone using Blynk App. In this project an ESP8266 Wemos D1 board was used, but other plate models can also be used (NodeMCU, Firebeetle, etc. ), and the principles presented in this tutorial can be applied to other robot models. In previous projects I presented how to mount a robot controller with an Arduino Uno connected to an ESP8266 module and a web interface using html and javascript. A robot was developed using simple materials, without the need of using complex tools such as 3D printers and laser cutting machines. You can read more about this project at the link below: https://www.instructables.com/id/WiDC-Wi-Fi-Controlled-FPV-Robot-with-Arduino-ESP82/ It had some drawbacks, such as the need to use two independent controllers (an Arduino and an ESP8266) and the fact that it could only send/receive commands from a local area network and using a computer (desktop or laptop)." [...]

Remote Controlled Power Strip

"You want to control your power strip wireless, but are bored of modern smarthome accessorys? You want to have some physical switches and buttons, to control your power strip? In this Instructable you will learn, how to build your very own Remote Controlled Power Strip, using the 433MHz HC-12 Transceiver Module! " [...]

SunGlass-BOT || Automatic SunGlass Robot.

"A Sun Glass that automatically detects light intensity and closes or opens it's black glass. So from now on you don't need to worry about eyes, this Glass is here to automatically protect your eyes.and also Opens the glass for ease of viewing at low light. This robot is made using Arduino and some basic parts. Sounds cool,isn't it? " [...]

Controlling 7-Segment LED Display Using ESP8266 Web Server

"My project has a Nodemcu ESP8266 which is controlling a 7-segment display through the http server using html form. It is a IOT project developed using ESP8266 (NodeMCU) wifi module. The motive of the project is to create a web server on the module that can host multiple clients over the network. Here, basic knowledge of html and javaScript is needed to understand my project. Some advance topic which I will discuss here regarding ESP8266 and javaScript are: 1. Uploading files on the SPIFFS of the ESP8266 to use those file more efficiently in our arduino code." [...]

IC Egg Timer

"This project demonstrates the basics of digital logic, the characteristics of a NE555 timer, and demonstrates how binary numbers are counted. The components used are: a NE555 timer, a 12-bit ripple counter, two 2-input NOR gates, a 4-input AND gate, a 2-input AND gate, and a 2-input OR gate. The logic gates, NOR, AND, and OR come in TTL and CMOS equivalents which can be found at Lees Electronic. This project is a simple egg timer with two settings: hard or soft boiled and comes with a reset function. Parts and Tools 1x Breadboard (Lee’s Number: 10516) 1x 9V battery (Lee’s Number: 8775, or 16123) NOTE: THIS CIRCUIT CAN ALSO WORK USING 5V POWER. DO NOT EXCEED 9V BECAUSE IT MAY DAMAGE THE IC CHIPS 1x 9V battery holder (Lee’s Number: 657 or 6538 or 653) Solid hook-up wire (Lee’s Number: 2249) Jumper Wire (Lee’s Number: 10318 or 21805) Alligator Test Leads (Lee’s Number: 690) 3x Tactile Switches (Lee’s Number: 31241 or 31242) 1x NE555 Timer (Lee’s Number: 7307) 1x 12-bit ripple counter CMOS 4040 (Lee’s Number: 7210) 1x Dual Quad input AND gate CMOS 4082 (Lee’s Number: 7230) 1x Quad 2-input AND gate CMOS 4081 (Lee’s Number: 7229) 2x Quad 2-input NOR gate CMOS 4001 or 74HC02 (Lee’s Number: 7188 or 71692) 1x Quad 2-Input OR gate 74HC32 (Lee’s Number: 71702) 3x 1k OHM resistors ¼ watt (Lee’s Number: 9190) 2x 150k OHM resistors ¼ watt (Lee’s Number: 91527) 1x 10nF (0.01UF) capacitor (Lee’s Number: 8180) 1x 4.7UF Capacitor (Lee’s Number: 85) 1x 1N4001 Diode (Lee’s Number: 796) 1x Buzzer 3-24V DC Continuous (Lee’s Number: 4135)" [...]