Editorial

Esta é a Newsletter Nº 202 que se apresenta com o mesmo formato que as anteriores. Se gostar da Newsletter partilhe-a!

Todas as Newsletters encontram-se indexadas no link.

Esta Newsletter tem os seguintes tópicos:

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

Faz hoje anos que nascia, em 1692, Pieter van Musschenbroek. Este Físico e matemático holandês inventou o frasco de Leyden, o primeiro dispositivo eficaz para armazenar electricidade estática. Ele cresceu numa família que fabricava instrumentos científicos como telescópios, microscópios e bombas de ar. Antes da invenção de Musschenbroek, a electricidade estática tinha sido produzida por Guericke usando uma bola de enxofre, com efeitos reduzidos. Em Janeiro de 1746, Musschenbroek colocou água num recipiente de metal suspenso em cordões de seda e conduziu um fio de latão através de uma rolha para dentro da água. Ele acumulou uma carga na água. Quando um assistente incauto tocou o recipiente de metal e o fio de latão, a descarga deste aparelho produziu um choque substancial de electricidade estática. O nome de Leyden está ligado à descoberta feita na Universidade de Leiden.

Faz também anos hoje que nascia, em 1800, James Bogardus. Este inventor e construtor norte-americano popularizou a construção em ferro fundido, que era comummente usada na construção industrial e comercial americana de 1850-80. Ele fez isso enviando secções pré-fabricadas da sua fábrica em Nova York para os locais de construção. O seu primeiro prédio com fachada de ferro era uma loja de químicos de 5 andares (1848). O seu prédio mais conhecido era sua própria fábrica de quatro andares que ele construiu na Center Street, em Nova York, com um exterior consistindo inteiramente de pilares e vigas de ferro fundido. Anteriormente, ele era um fabricante de máquinas de esmerilamento e também era conhecido pela sua invenção de máquinas de gravação e de tingir.

Faz igualmente anos hoje que nascia, em 1879, Albert Einstein. Este Físico germano-americano desenvolveu as teorias gerais e especiais da relatividade e ganhou o Prémio Nobel de Física em 1921 pela sua explicação do efeito fotoeléctrico. Reconhecido em seu próprio tempo como um dos intelectos mais criativos da história humana, nos primeiros 15 anos do século XX, Einstein desenvolveu uma série de teorias que propunham maneiras inteiramente novas de pensar sobre espaço, tempo e gravitação. As suas teorias de relatividade e gravitação foram um avanço profundo sobre a antiga física Newtoniana e revolucionaram a investigação científica e filosófica.

Por fim, faz anos hoje que nascia, em 1956, Alexey Pajitnov. É um engenheiro de computação russo que ficou conhecido na história por ter desenvolvido o Tetris enquanto trabalhava no Centro de Computação Dorodnitsyn da Academia Soviética de Ciências.

Hoje é o dia do Pi (3.14) e para comemorar esse dia a Google publicou uma noticia onde uma equipa bateu o recorde de calculo do famoso numero com maior precisão até agora registada. Quer se perceba ou não, o PI está em toda parte. É a relação entre a circunferência de um círculo e seu diâmetro. E já que o PI é um número irracional, não há fim para quantos dos seus dígitos podem ser calculados. É conhecido como 3,14, mas os profissionais de matemática e ciências estão constantemente a trabalhar para calcular mais e mais dígitos do PI, para que possam testar supercomputadores (e também ter um pouco de competição saudável). Para calcular o PI, Emma Haruka Iwao usou um aplicativo chamado y-cruncher em 25 máquinas virtuais do Google Cloud. “O maior desafio do PI é que requer muito armazenamento e memória para calcular”, diz Emma. O seu cálculo exigiu 170 terabytes de dados para serem concluídos - o que equivale aproximadamente à quantidade de dados em todas as colecções de impressão da Biblioteca do Congresso. O numero agora calculado tem 31.415.926.535.897 dígitos, para ser exacto. Este recorde agora batido existia deste 2016 quando foram calculados 22.459.157.718.361 dígitos.

Como é o dia do PI, fica aqui um link para receitas de Tartes! Para os mais excêntricos podem também ouvir uma musica baseada no numero PI composta por um musico e que tem 1 milhão de horas.

Esta semana que passou também ficámos a saber que a World Wide Web fez 30 anos. Em 1989, o maior laboratório de física do mundo, o CERN, tinha um grupo de ideias e informações armazenadas em vários computadores incompatíveis. Sir Tim Berners-Lee imaginou uma estrutura unificadora para ligar informações em diferentes computadores e escreveu uma proposta em março de 1989 chamada "Information Management: A Proposal". Em 1991, essa visão de conectividade universal tinha-se tornado a World Wide Web.

Na Newsletter desta semana apresentamos diversos projetos de maker assim como alguns modelos 3D que poderão ser úteis. É apresentada a revista Hispabrick nº 32.

João Alves ([email protected])

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

30th Anniversary of the World Wide Web

"Suppose all the information stored on computers everywhere were linked. Suppose I could program my computer to create a space in which everything could be linked to everything.’ Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web In 1989 the world’s largest physics laboratory, CERN, was a hive of ideas and information stored on multiple incompatible computers. Sir Tim Berners-Lee envisioned a unifying structure for linking information across different computers, and wrote a proposal in March 1989 called "Information Management: A Proposal". By 1991 this vision of universal connectivity had become the World Wide Web. " [...]

A recipe for beating the record of most-calculated digits of pi

"Today, March 14, is Pi Day (3.14). Here at Google, we’re celebrating the day with a new milestone: A team at Google has broken the Guinness World Records title for most accurate value of pi. Whether or not you realize it, pi is everywhere you look. It’s the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, so the next time you check your watch or see the turning wheels of a vehicle go by, you’re looking at pi. And since pi is an irrational number, there’s no end to how many of its digits can be calculated. You might know it as 3.14, but math and science pros are constantly working to calculate more and more digits of pi, so they can test supercomputers (and have a bit of healthy competition, too)." [...]

JAXA and Toyota Reach Agreement on Consideration Toward International Space Exploration

"Aiming to make future lunar mobility a reality The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) announce their agreement today to consider the possibility of collaborating on international space exploration. As a first step, JAXA and Toyota have reached agreement to further cooperate on and accelerate their ongoing joint study*1 of a manned, pressurized rover*2 that employs fuel cell electric vehicle technologies. Such a form of mobility is deemed necessary for human exploration activities on the lunar surface. Even with the limited amount of energy that can be transported to the moon, the pressurized rover would have a total lunar-surface cruising range of more than 10,000 km. International space exploration, aiming to achieve sustainable prosperity for all of humankind by expanding the domain of human activity and giving rise to intellectual properties, has its sights set on the moon and Mars. To achieve the goals of such exploration, coordination between robotic missions, such as the recent successful touchdown by the asteroid probe Hayabusa2 on the asteroid Ryugu, and human missions, such as those involving humans using pressurized rovers to conduct activities on the moon, is essential." [...]

A Milestone in Moving Data

"Compute Express Link Technology will Improve Performance and Remove Bottlenecks in Computation-Intensive Workloads As part of my job leading the data-centric groups at Intel, I regularly meet with customers from across many different industries. They all face unique business challenges, but they have one thing in common: the need to get more value out of enormous amounts of data. To address this, Intel together with Alibaba*, Cisco*, Dell EMC*, Facebook*, Google*, Hewlett Packard Enterprise*, Huawei* and Microsoft* today announced the founding of a consortium to develop Compute Express Link (CXL), an open interconnect technology that improves performance and removes the bottlenecks in computation-intensive workloads for CPUs and purpose-built accelerators. Intel developed the technology behind CXL and donated it to the consortium to become the initial release of the new specification. I am proud of the work Intel has done in developing this interconnect technology and the milestone it represents to the technology industry – much like our roles with Universal Serial Bus (USB) and PCI Express – and we look forward to working with the CXL consortium on future versions of the specification. Why CXL is Important The explosion of data and rapid innovation in specialized workloads – like compression, encryption and artificial intelligence (AI) – have given rise to heterogeneous computing, where purpose-built accelerators work side-by-side with general-purpose CPUs." [...]

Water-Resistant MEMS Pressure Sensor from STMicroelectronics Targets Budget-Conscious Consumer and Industrial Applications

"The STMicroelectronics LPS33W water-resistant MEMS pressure sensor combines chemical compatibility, stability, and accuracy for use in a wide range of applications such as fitness trackers and other wearables, vacuum cleaners, and general-purpose industrial sensing. Water-Resistant MEMS Pressure Sensor from STMicroelectronics Targets Budget-Conscious Consumer and Industrial Applications Protected by a viscous potting gel inside the cylindrical metal package, the IPx8-rated LPS33W withstands salt water, chlorine, bromine, detergents such as hand soap and shampoo, e-liquids, and light industrial chemicals such as n-pentane. The package lid provides high corrosion resistance, and the cylindrical form factor is easy to use with o-rings in applications that require a sealed enclosure. The unique properties of ST’s proprietary gel formula, together with the sensor’s built-in signal-conditioning ASIC, ensure class-leading 0.008hPa RMS pressure noise thereby allowing outstanding measurement resolution. Susceptibility to reflow-soldering stress during assembly is also extremely low, drifting less than ±2hPa and recovering normal accuracy in 72 hours; more than twice the speed of other sensors. Temperature compensation keeps accuracy within ±3hPa over the operating range from 0°C to 65°C." [...]

Samsung Launches Highest-capacity Mobile DRAM to Accommodate Next-generation Smartphones

"New 12GB LPDDR4X joins 512GB eUFS to enable a seamless user experience in smartphones with multi-cameras, 2X screen sizes, and AI and 5G features Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it has begun mass producing the highest-capacity mobile DRAM – the industry’s first 12-gigabyte (GB) low-power double data rate 4X (LPDDR4X) package – optimized for tomorrow’s premium smartphones. Featuring higher capacity than most ultra-thin notebooks, the new mobile DRAM will enable smartphone users to take full advantage of all the features in next-generation smartphones. “With mass production of the new LPDDR4X, Samsung is now providing a comprehensive lineup of advanced memory to power the new era of smartphones, from 12GB mobile DRAM to 512GB eUFS 3.0 storage,” said Sewon Chun, executive vice president of Memory Marketing at Samsung Electronics. “Moreover, with the LPDDR4X, we’re strengthening our position as the premium mobile memory maker best positioned to accommodate rapidly growing demand from global smartphone manufacturers.” Thanks to the 12GB mobile DRAM, smartphone makers can maximize the potential of devices that feature more than five cameras and ever-increasing display sizes as well as artificial intelligence and 5G capabilities. For smartphone users, the 12GB DRAM enables more fluid multitasking and faster searches as they navigate through a myriad of apps on ultra-large high-resolution screens. Also, the 1.1-millimeter thickness allows for even sleeker smartphone designs." [...]

Hardware innovation for data growth challenges at cloud-scale

"The Open Compute Project (OCP) Global Summit 2019 kicks off today in San Jose where a vibrant and growing community is sharing the latest in innovation to make hardware more efficient, flexible, and scalable. For Microsoft, our journey with OCP began in 2014 when we joined the foundation and contributed the very same server and datacenter designs that power our global Azure cloud, but it didn’t stop there. Each year at the OCP summit, we contribute innovation that addresses the most pressing challenges for our industry, including a modular and globally compatible server design and universal motherboard with Project Olympus to enabling hardware security with Project Cerberus to a next generation specification for SSD storage with Project Denali. This year we’re turning our attention to the exploding volume of data being created daily. Data is at the heart of digital transformation and companies are leveraging data to improve customer experiences, open new markets, make employees and processes more productive, and create new sources of competitive advantage as they work toward the future of tomorrow. Data – the engine of Digital Transformation The Global Datasphere* which quantifies and analyzes the amount of data created, captured, and replicated in any given year across the world is growing exponentially and the growth is seemingly never-ending." [...]

TINYGO - a GO compiler for small places

"TinyGo is a project to bring the Go programming language to microcontrollers and modern web browsers by creating a new compiler based on LLVM. You can compile and run TinyGo programs on several different microcontroller boards such as the BBC:Microbit and the Arduino Uno. TinyGo can also be used to produce WebAssembly (WASM) code which is very compact in size. Just want to see the code? Go to the Github repository at https://github.com/tinygo-org/tinygo. TinyGo also has support for several different devices such as accelerometers and magnetometers." [...]

Fujitsu Successfully Develops Technology to Miniaturize High-Sensitivity Infrared Cameras for Autonomous Ship Navigation

"Enhanced technology can monitor a vessel's full surroundings day or night up to six nautical miles away, automatically differentiating objects in concert with Deep Learning AI technology Fujitsu Limited and Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. today announced the development of a miniaturized photodetector for high-sensitivity infrared cameras. In the future this breakthrough sensor technology will allow for infrared cameras just one eighth the size of previous models able to take detailed images even at night or at a distance. There are considerable expectations surrounding the use of high-sensitivity infrared cameras in the navigation of ships under human observation. These cameras are capable of taking high resolution images from a distance of up to six nautical miles (about 11 kilometers) during day or night. The photodetectors in these cameras remain susceptible to thermal noise, however, and since the equipment required for cooling them is quite large, it became necessary to find a way to reduce the cameras to a practical size. With the development of a sensor semiconductor structure that reduces the impact of thermal noise, Fujitsu Laboratories has made it possible to create handheld-sized, high-sensitivity infrared cameras." [...]

When Semiconductors Stick Together, Materials Go Quantum

"A new study led by Berkeley Lab reveals how aligned layers of atomically thin semiconductors can yield an exotic new quantum material A team of researchers led by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has developed a simple method that could turn ordinary semiconducting materials into quantum machines – superthin devices marked by extraordinary electronic behavior. Such an advancement could help to revolutionize a number of industries aiming for energy-efficient electronic systems – and provide a platform for exotic new physics. The study describing the method, which stacks together 2D layers of tungsten disulfide and tungsten diselenide to create an intricately patterned material, or superlattice, was published online recently in the journal Nature. “This is an amazing discovery because we didn’t think of these semiconducting materials as strongly interacting,” said Feng Wang, a condensed matter physicist with Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division and professor of physics at UC Berkeley. “Now this work has brought these seemingly ordinary semiconductors into the quantum materials space.” Two-dimensional (2D) materials, which are just one atom thick, are like nanosized building blocks that can be stacked arbitrarily to form tiny devices. When the lattices of two 2D materials are similar and well-aligned, a repeating pattern called a moiré superlattice can form." [...]

New graphene-based device is first step toward ultrasensitive biosensors

"Researchers in the University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering have developed a unique new device using the wonder material graphene that provides the first step toward ultrasensitive biosensors to detect diseases at the molecular level with near perfect efficiency. Ultrasensitive biosensors for probing protein structures could greatly improve the depth of diagnosis for a wide variety of diseases extending to both humans and animals. These include Alzheimers disease, Chronic Wasting Disease, and mad cow diseasedisorders related to protein misfolding. Such biosensors could also lead to improved technologies for developing new pharmaceutical compounds. The research is published in Nature Nanotechnology, a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Nature Publishing Group. In order to detect and treat many diseases we need to detect protein molecules at very small amounts and understand their structure, said Sang-Hyun Oh, University of Minnesota electrical and computer engineering professor and lead researcher on the study." [...]

Breakthrough research using quantum cryptography addresses security in 5G networks

"New research has demonstrated a ground-breaking solution for securing future critical communications infrastructures, including emerging 5G networks. The research addresses widely reported concerns on security vulnerability of 5G networks which are predicted to transform the telecommunications industry in the next ten years. The work was carried out by the High Performance Networks (HPN) Research Group at the University of Bristol's Smart Internet Lab and following a competitive peer review selection process. The findings are presented today (7 March) at a highly prestigious post-deadline paper in the Optical Fibre Communication Conference (OFC), San Diego, USA. The proposed solution will enable 5G network operators to offer ultimately secure 5G services while guaranteeing ultra-low-latency and high-bandwidth communications. This is due to the novel combination of quantum and infrastructure virtualization technologies." [...]

Magnetization Reversal achieved at room temperature using only an electric field

"Scientists at Tokyo Tech achieved magnetization reversal in cobalt-substituted bismuth ferrite by applying only an electric field. Such an effect had been sought after for over a decade in order to make new types of low-power-consumption magnetic memory devices. In the era of information technology revolution, electronics demand rapid evolution facilitated by greater efforts from materials researchers to pave the way for further improvements and novel devices. In particular, a better understanding of the electromagnetic properties of various types of materials and new ways to harness them would allow for the fabrication of devices based on such principles. Two years ago, a research team from the Laboratory for Materials and Structures at Tokyo Tech, led by Prof. Masaki Azuma, demonstrated very promising properties of Cobalt-substituted Bismuth ferrite (BFCO). This peculiar material exhibits both ferroelectric and ferromagnetic properties at room temperature; these two are coupled in a way that, the team inferred, could be exploited to exhibit reversal of the magnetization of the material by application of only an electric field at room temperature without the need of electric current." [...]

Making Green Cars Greener

"CMU Researchers Examine Ways To Recycle Electric Vehicle Batteries. The widespread implementation of electric vehicles will go a long way toward eliminating the greenhouse gas emissions of the transportation sector. But these emissions don't just come from the tailpipe. There's another major culprit of greenhouse gases, one that the electric vehicle industry might need some help from policymakers to avoid: battery recycling. Current lithium-ion battery recycling policies and processes were designed for the relatively low size and volume of consumer electronic batteries — AAs, AAAs and the like. But with nearly every major automaker committing to all electric or hybrid-electric product lines in the coming years, this flood of new lithium-ion batteries will require a different approach to battery recycling." [...]

Researchers Use Machine Learning To More Quickly Analyze Key Capacitor Materials

"Capacitors, given their high energy output and recharging speed, could play a major role in powering the machines of the future, from electric cars to cell phones. But the biggest hurdle for these energy storage devices is that they store much less energy than a battery of similar size. Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology are tackling that problem in a novel way, using machine learning to ultimately find ways to build more capable capacitors. The method, which was described in February 18 in the journal npj Computational Materials and sponsored by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, involves teaching a computer to analyze at an atomic level two materials that make up some capacitors: aluminum and polyethylene. The researchers focused on finding a way to more quickly analyze the electronic structure of those materials, looking for features that could affect performance. “The electronics industry wants to know the electronic properties and structure of all of the materials they use to produce devices, including capacitors,” said Rampi Ramprasad, a professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering." [...]

Listening to quantum radio

"Researchers at Delft University of Technology have created a quantum circuit that enables them to listen to the weakest radio signal allowed by quantum mechanics. This new quantum circuit opens the door to possible future applications in areas such as radio astronomy and medicine (MRI). It also enables researchers to do experiments that can shed light on the interplay between quantum mechanics and gravity. The results have been published in Science. We have all been annoyed by weak radio signals at some point in our lives: our favourite song in the car turning to noise, being too far away from our wifi router to check our email. Our usual solution is to make the signal bigger, for instance by picking a different radio station or by moving to the other side of the living room." [...]

Ultra-Low Power Chips Help Make Small Robots More Capable

"An ultra-low power hybrid chip inspired by the brain could help give palm-sized robots the ability to collaborate and learn from their experiences. Combined with new generations of low-power motors and sensors, the new application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) – which operates on milliwatts of power – could help intelligent swarm robots operate for hours instead of minutes. To conserve power, the chips use a hybrid digital-analog time-domain processor in which the pulse-width of signals encodes information. The neural network IC accommodates both model-based programming and collaborative reinforcement learning, potentially providing the small robots larger capabilities for reconnaissance, search-and-rescue and other missions. Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology demonstrated robotic cars driven by the unique ASICs at the 2019 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC). The research was sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) through the Center for Brain-inspired Computing Enabling Autonomous Intelligence (CBRIC)." [...]

Breakthrough could enable infrared cameras for electronics, self-driving cars

"Quantum dots could make technology cheaper, more widely available There’s an entire world our eyes miss, hidden in the ranges of light wavelengths that human eyes can’t see. But infrared cameras can pick up the secret light emitted as plants photosynthesize, as cool stars burn and batteries get hot. They can see through smoke and fog and plastic. But infrared cameras are much more expensive than visible-light ones; the energy of infrared light is smaller than visible light, making it harder to capture. A new breakthrough by scientists with the University of Chicago, however, may one day lead to much more cost-effective infrared cameras—which in turn could enable infrared cameras for common consumer electronics like phones, as well as sensors to help autonomous cars see their surroundings more accurately. “Traditional methods to make infrared cameras are very expensive, both in materials and time, but this method is much faster and offers excellent performance,” said postdoctoral researcher Xin Tang, the first author on a study which appeared Feb. 25 in Nature Photonics." [...]

Scientists Take a Deep Dive Into the Imperfect World of 2D Materials

"Berkeley Lab-led team combines several nanoscale techniques to gain new insights on the effects of defects in a well-studied monolayer material Nothing is perfect, or so the saying goes, and that’s not always a bad thing. In a study at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), scientists learned how nanoscale defects can enhance the properties of an ultrathin, so-called 2D material. They combined a toolbox of techniques to home in on natural, nanoscale defects formed in the manufacture of tiny flakes of a monolayer material known as tungsten disulfide (WS2) and measured their electronic effects in detail not possible before. “Usually we say that defects are bad for a material,” said Christoph Kastl, a postdoctoral researcher at Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry and the lead author of the study, published in the journal ACS Nano. “Here they provide functionality.” Tungsten disulfide is a well-studied 2D material that, like other 2D materials of its kind, exhibits special properties because of its atomic thinness. It is particularly well-known for its efficiency in absorbing and emitting light, and it is a semiconductor." [...]

Liquid has structure, which may be key to understanding metallic glass

"Researchers have found that liquid has structure in certain circumstances, and that this structure significantly influences the mysterious and complex formation of metallic glasses. Moldable like plastic but strong like metal, metallic glasses are a relatively new class of materials made from complex, multicomponent alloys. Their unique properties come from how their atoms settle into a random arrangement when they cool from a liquid to a solid. But controlling this process — and fully capitalizing on these materials — has proved tricky, since so much is still unknown about what happens in the cooling process. A new study, published in Nature Communications, provides some answers. The researchers, led by Judy Cha, the Carol and Douglas Melamed Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science, found that metallic glasses in the liquid state will periodically form crystalline structures — their freely moving atoms arrange themselves into certain patterns." [...]

UTA researcher working to determine minimum energy use possible in lasers

"Inside massive data centers, electrical data interconnections consume huge amounts of electricity. But an alternative—semiconductor laser-based optical interconnects—offers an energy-efficient solution for the sustainable power consumption required to keep up with explosive data traffic growth. Weidong Zhou, an electrical engineering professor at The University of Texas at Arlington, will use a $450,000 grant from the Army Research Office to determine the minimum amount of energy required to develop high-speed and energy-efficient lasers based on nanophotonic cavities and nanostructured materials. Zhou’s research will explore carrier dynamics, or the speed at which electrons are distributed and how quickly they change to light in different materials. For example, when a flashlight is turned on and off quickly, the amount of time it takes for the charge from the battery to create light is based on carrier dynamics. In lasers, better carrier dynamics leads to better efficiency and greater speed." [...]

Machines whisper our secrets

"Lab instruments are important tools throughout research and health care. But what if those instruments are leaking valuable information? When it comes to biosecurity, this could be a very real threat, according to a group of researchers at the University of California, Irvine, and the University of California, Riverside. By simply recording the sounds of a common lab instrument, the team members could reconstruct what a researcher was doing with that instrument. “Any active machine emits a trace of some form: physical residue, electromagnetic radiation, acoustic noise, etc. The amount of information in these traces is immense, and we have only hit the tip of the iceberg in terms of what we can learn and reverse engineer about the machine that generated them,” said Philip Brisk, a UC Riverside associate professor of computer science who worked on the project." [...]

Thermoelectric efficiency of quantum dots now characterizable

"Thermoelectric materials can convert temperature differences into electrical energy and vice versa. In nanodimensions, they are potentially useful for applications such as cooling microchips, or improving their energy efficiency in the form of nanoscale thermoelectric generators. Thermoelectric materials can convert temperature differences into electrical energy and vice versa. In nanodimensions, they are potentially useful for applications such as cooling microchips, or improving their energy efficiency in the form of nanoscale thermoelectric generators. Although in macroscopic materials, the so-called transport coefficients necessary for determining the thermoelectric efficiency of a material can easily be measured, in nanodimensioned samples, it is technically difficult to measure one in particular, known as the Seebeck coefficient. A team of researchers from Grenoble, Pisa and Jülich have now measured this fundamental thermoelectric parameter for the first time in an individual single-quantum dot and modelled it theoretically." [...]

Quantum physicists succeed in controlling energy losses and shifts

"Achievement can be applied to speed up quantum computers and design new quantum technological devices Quantum computers need to preserve quantum information for a long time to be able to crack important problems faster than a normal computer. Energy losses take the state of the qubit from 1 to 0, destroying stored quantum information at the same time. Consequently, scientists all over the globe have traditionally worked to remove all sources of energy loss—or dissipation—from these exciting machines. Dr Mikko Möttönen from Aalto University and his research team have taken a different point of view. ‘Years ago we realized that quantum computers actually need dissipation to operate efficiently. The trick is to have it only when you need it,’ he explains In their paper published today in Nature Physics, the scientists from Aalto University and the University of Oulu demonstrate that they can increase the dissipation rate, on demand, by a factor of thousand in a high-quality superconducting resonator—just like the ones used in prototype quantum computers." [...]

Driverless car project researches advances in vehicle connectivity

"The £5.5m FLOURISH driverless car project has successfully completed the latest phase of its investigations into the requirements of the cyber-physical infrastructure of the future. Pioneered by the University of Bristol, a member of the FLOURISH consortium, the findings of this research give new insights into the ability of connected vehicles to communicate with each component in the system, including other connected vehicles and the roadside and digital infrastructure. Robert Piechocki, Professor of Wireless Systems at the University of Bristol, said: “Digitally connected vehicles have the potential to revolutionise the cities we live in and the way we travel. Our research into the optimum conditions for the robust, effective and resilient transfer of data is the cornerstone of a new customer journey experience.” The FLOURISH car trials explore the minimum conditions needed for data to be effectively transferred. They focus on the level of connectivity required to communicate with integrity, to respond to real-time traffic events and to identify if the source of information is trustworthy. With its varied topography, the results proven in Bristol are directly transferrable to other cities across the country, in both even and more challenging terrain." [...]

Light provides control for 3D printing with multiple materials

"3D printing has revolutionized the fields of healthcare, biomedical engineering, manufacturing and art design. Successful applications have come despite the fact that most 3D printing techniques can only produce parts made of one material at a time. More complex applications could be developed if 3D printers could use different materials and create multi-material parts. New research uses different wavelengths of light to achieve this complexity. Scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison developed a novel 3D printer that uses patterns of visible and ultraviolet light to dictate which of two monomers are polymerized to form a solid material. Different patterns of light provide the spatial control necessary to yield multi-material parts." [...]

Making the World a Lot Quieter

"Mechanical engineers have developed an “acoustic metamaterial” that can cancel 94 percent of sound What sounds would you mute if you could? A pair of Boston University mechanical engineers are asking that question, with the ever-increasing din of drone propellers, airplane turbines, MRI machines, and urban noise pollution blaring in the mind’s ear. “Today’s sound barriers are literally thick heavy walls,” says Reza Ghaffarivardavagh. Although noise-mitigating barricades, called sound baffles, can help drown out the whoosh of rush hour traffic or contain the symphony of music within concert hall walls, they are a clunky approach not well suited to situations where airflow is also critical. Imagine barricading a jet engine’s exhaust vent—the plane would never leave the ground. Instead, workers on the tarmac wear earplugs to protect their hearing from the deafening roar." [...]

Device That 'Shakes' Light A Breakthrough In Photonics

"The ability to control light with electronics is a critical part of advanced photonics, a field with applications that include telecommunications and precision time-keeping. But the limits of available optical materials have stymied efforts to achieve greater efficiency. Researchers at Yale, though, have developed a device that combines mechanical vibration and optical fields to better control light particles. The device has demonstrated an efficient on-chip shaping of photons enabled by nanomechanics driven at microwave frequencies. Led by Hong Tang, the Llewellyn West Jones, Jr. Professor of Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics & Physics, the results of their work are published today in Nature Photonics." [...]

Novel technology aims to improve lithium metal battery life, safety

"Rechargeable lithium metal batteries with increased energy density, performance, and safety may be possible with a newly-developed, solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI), according to Penn State researchers. As the demand for higher-energy-density lithium metal batteries increases — for electric vehicles, smartphones, and drones — stability of the SEI has been a critical issue halting their advancement because a salt layer on the surface of the battery's lithium electrode insulates it and conducts lithium ions. "This layer is very important and is naturally formed by the reaction between the lithium and the electrolyte in the battery," said Donghai Wang, professor of mechanical and chemical engineering. "But it doesn't behave very well, which causes a lot of problems." One of the least-understood components of lithium metal batteries, the degradation of the SEI contributes to the development of dendrites, which are needle-like formations that grow from the lithium electrode of the battery and negatively affect performance and safety. The researchers published their approach to this problem today (Mar." [...]

Designing next-generation optical antennas

"Antennas catch radio waves, a form of electromagnetic radiation, from the air and convert the energy into electrical signals that feed modern telecommunications. They can also convert electrical signals into radio waves. Without antennas, the world would be a much different place than it is today. Optical engineers and scientists like Anthony J. Hoffman, associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, are working toward leveraging these devices to control light instead of radio waves. Hoffman has been focusing his efforts on next-generation materials, technologies and devices for infrared light. Most often associated with night vision, infrared light has many uses in optical sensing and detection." [...]

Researchers reverse the flow of time on IBM's quantum computer

"Quantum simulation gives a sneak peek into the possibilities of time reversal. We all mark days with clocks and calendars, but perhaps no timepiece is more immediate than a mirror. The changes we notice over the years vividly illustrate science’s ​“arrow of time” — the likely progression from order to disorder. We cannot reverse this arrow any more than we can erase all our wrinkles or restore a shattered teacup to its original form. Or can we? An international team of scientists led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory explored this question in a first-of-its-kind experiment, managing to return a computer briefly to the past." [...]

Diy 3D Printed Vise

"Hello everyone i want to present one of my projects , 3d printed vise. " [...]

OpenSCAD Hinged Box generator and toolkit

"This is an OpenSCAD script for generating a two peice hinged box, with rounded corners, lid, interlocking rims, snap fit, magnet, or screw closures, and easy places for adding cutouts or additions to any face. All features are optional and specified by defining a few simple variables. Included utility functions make perforations, text and image decorations possible in a single line of code. " [...]

Customizable Raspberry Pi B+/Pi 2 rack

"A simple mini rack for your raspberry pi cluster. Open in customizer to select a different rack height. " [...]

Open SCAD Raspberry PI3 model

"Just a PI3 and Hifiberry DAC+ Model for testing cases etc. See my github Repo for updates: https://github.com/saarbastler/library.scad Raspberry PI Zero added" [...]

HispaBrick Magazine 032

"Today is International Women’s Day, and the HispaBrick Magazine team has worked hard to create aspecial themed issue to participate in this celebration. HispaBrick Magazine 032 celebrates the Female Fan of LEGO (FFOL) in many different ways. The theme for International Women’s Day 2019 is #BalanceForBetter. To promote this theme we have invited Regina Mateos Rodilla to write an editorial as well as an article about what being a fan of LEGO means to her. We have also included interviews with female builders like Sachiko Akinaga, Mariann Asunama, Alice Finch and Jessica Farrell. Karine Linder from Stuck in Plastic has provided us with some insights from photographers like @by_a.n.n.a and @lady_brick." [...]

Gravity Boi

"This game is a basic project who wants to work on 16x2 LCD on a new level. 'GRAVITY BOI' is a game where the player has to toggle between the 'monsters' as they come near. As the game progresses the monster will come at a faster rate. When the monster hits the player...BOOM....the game is over. To restart the game press the reset button on the Arduino board. High Score won't get erased with this." [...]

Non Contact Voltage Detector

"In this Instructable I'll show you how you can build a non contact voltage detector for checking of live power wires. A transistor is a device that can be used in two basic operations, as an electronic switch or as an amplifier. Depending on the current we apply to it’s base, it can control a much larger current through the collector and emitter path with a typical multiplication of around 200 times. This is called the transistor gain. By connecting the output of one transistor to the base of another, we can multiply this gain to now get an amplification of 40 000 times. By building a circuit with three such stages we can create a device that is capable of detecting even the tiniest charges and movement of electricity." [...]

Smart Home System

"This instructable will help to explain how to set up and use our Smart Home System by using the Matlab software and the Raspberry Pi hardware. At the end of this instructable, you should be able to fully use our product with ease! Parts and Materials Needed: Raspberry Pi Breadboard (x2) PIR Motion sensor LCD Module LED Light Capacitor Raspberry Pi Camera Micro Servo Motor Double Ended Wires (20) The issues that our product is trying to address are manual light controls, indoor temperature control, and energy efficiency. We focused on the amount of energy that the average home uses, and we wanted to find ways to reduce energy usage. Lights being left on and unnecessary thermostat temperatures account for very high unnecessary energy usage. The light will be motion activated to where they shut off when a room is vacant, and the thermostat adjusts to a environmentally efficient temperature based on the reading of the outdoor temperature." [...]

Quest Smith

"Quest Smith is a Raspberry Pi Zero-driven thermal printing text-based game. In each level, it gives you options to choose so every game is different than the other one depending on your choices. After I saw one in the Game Museum in Berlin, I decided to build my own. Here it's in action: Putting everything together Well after you solder the wires as it shown in the sketch picture above, you need to fit the hardware in the empty space left from the thermal printer in the box. The only tip I can give you would be to use a short usb cable to save from the space, glue the thermal pinter and the buttons, after you put everything together glue the swicth button to the hole as well. I used a Solar panel to charge the battery, so you will need to glue the solar panel to the case when you complete eveyrthing else." [...]

Beehive Monitoring with Theft Prevention (GPS)

"Motto: If All The Bees In The World Die, Humans Will Not Survive My goal was to address the remote monitoring of a beehive (nevertheless the solution could be used for any kind of remote monitoring and data logging). Beehive monitoring is quite unique as there are certain limitations which must be taken into account as beehives are usually located in nature which means that: There is no electricity source - the power consumption matters There is no connectivity and even GSM signal is often not available Beehives are a subject of robbery (eighter because of the honey inside or because of the bees and beehive itself) This is why I decided to use the combination of Sony Spresense board and Sigfox network as the reliable data carrier to build a solution which fulfills all the basic requirements on remote beehive monitoring. So how does it look like? The prototype consists of the Sony Spresense board responsible for all the computing and detailed data logging to SD card, BME280 sensor responsible for temperature, humidity and atmospherical pressure measuring, GY MAX4466 microphone module with amplifier responsible for noise level monitoring and finally Sigfox modem responsible for the data transfer. Beehive monitoring with theft prevention (GPS) Sensors are recursively requested to provide the data and the result is stored to SD card each one minute. Each 15 minutes is the data sent over Sigfox too." [...]

The LEGO Guardian

"Introduction This project has the intention to solve to prevent accidental death by stepping on LEGO bricks. How many times have we been barefoot in your house? Thinking about your future prospects, suddenly and without warning, you step on a LEGO brick, generating pain just comparable to a blow to the jewels of the family. We seek the answer to this serious problem, and LEGO is no stranger to the solution, they have created slippers just for that purpose: All rights reserved to LEGO. https://www.amazon.com/finally-makes-slippers-protect-parents/dp/B0184LJJ3U In addition here is an article that supports this thesis: https://qz.com/366858/legos-are-so-painful-to-step-on-because-of-physics/ There are even people who are capable of doing this out of charity: All rights to Dailymail. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-1616382/Man-walks-bare-foot-120-feet-legos-charity.html In order to protect yourself from this horror you need nerves of steel and pain immunity." [...]

Reaction Timer - F1 Style

"Would you like to train your reaction time in milliseconds? Now you can with a timer inspired by the F1 race start lights. 1 - Introduction Would you like to train your reaction time in milliseconds? This project is a reaction timer using Arduino and more some components, but really simple and easy to be done. The rules are very simple, similar to the Formula 1 racing start lights procedure: "Once all cars have safely taken up their grid positions at the end of the formation lap five red lights will appear in sequence at one-second intervals. These red lights are then extinguished to signal the start of the race"." [...]

ESP Solar Tracker - Revolutions

"So it's now offical, I'm in love with the ESP8266. My god these little fellas can really go like a cut snake on hot sand. So no surprise the the third installment (revolutions) will involve a nodemcu. Now, I have been practicing between drinks so I'm doing a little better coding wise. So built in reliable WiFi - No problems. Stand alone configuration mode and AP wifi client - No problems." [...]

IGo - Low-Cost Advanced Driver Assistance System

"The typical day of every human being starts with waking up late and getting ready for work in a hurry. The workplace will not be very near, one has to travel a significant distance or around 30 minutes on an average. People choose different modes of transport to commute from their home to the workplace and vice versa. Just by driving 30 mins to and fro people get tired like hell due to traffic and bad road conditions especially in developing nations like India. Now imagine the situation of cab drivers and truck drivers who drive at least 14 to 16 hours a day. In developing nations like India the more attention is given to cost-cutting and high production rate and not to ergonomics and anthropometry of seat design." [...]

Single LED Matrix Arduino Flip Clock

"A simple to build LED matrix flip clock. I build this 8x8 LED Matrix Module CLOCK developed by Adrian Jones.Time is displayed by scrolling from left to right, or, under software control, from top to bottom. Each digit of the time successively slides in from the right side and when centered, stops momentarily and brightens slightly. It then scrolls to the left while the next digit in the display scrolls into view. The cycle repeats with a short delay between successive displays.For "from top to bottom" vertical flipping you should change : static boolean top2bottom = false; to: static boolean top2bottom = true; As you can see in the comments of the code, many parameters can be changed, for example scroll spreed, number of blank lines between characters, 12/24 hour display, ms between characters, brightness etc.. Time can be easily set using a rotary encoder.A two-color diode displays the setting mode (minutes, hours or normal).I put the clock in a box made up of two basic pieces so the access to the inside of the box is very convenient and practical. " [...]

HarviaWiFi

"Arduino code to control Harvia sauna heaters, with esp8266 enabled sonoff TH device" [...]

Unique TFT Shield for Arduino Uno (Start)

"Introduction This article is the first article, with which I would like to begin a story about the unique TFT shield designed for the Arduino Uno platform, which makes it possible to significantly expand the capabilities of Arduino Uno. Despite the fact that this TFT shield is still under development, at the moment there is already a working device. Hardware Brief characteristics of TFT shield: Size 3.5 " diagonal, Resolution 320x240, Number of colors 65536 (16-bit), Resistive touch screen (XPT2046 controller), 5 buttons, RTC IC DS1307 with 3V lithium battery CR1220, Slot for connecting a micro SD card, 4-pin (2.54 mm) connector for connecting the Bluetooth module HC-05 (-06), 20-pin (2.54 mm) connector for camera (OV7670). " [...]

ESP32 Thing Plus Hookup Guide

"Introduction The SparkFun ESP32 Thing Plus enjoys all the amenities of the ESP32 Thing, but with a few added sparkles. We've lengthened the board just a bit to accommodate a Qwiic connector for all your Qwiic breakout needs. We've also moved a few pins around to make the board compatible with the Adafruit Huzzah32 – ESP32 Feather Board such that you can use all of those lovely shields available out there! The ESP32 Thing plus also integrates a rich set of peripherals, ranging from capacitive touch sensors, Hall sensors, SD card interface, Ethernet, high-speed SPI, UART, I2S and I2C. " [...]

Arduino Analog Value Plotter

"A while ago, I figured it would be pretty handy to have a graph for my analog outputs. It would help debug my outputs, give me a general idea of the sensor's limits and whatnot, and would even be just a pretty cool interface to have for any sensor. So, with an Arduino, an oled, and a sensor of your choice, let's get this up and running. An Arduino A display (my project uses a 0.96" OLED, and the sketch is suited for the same, but feel free to use any display you'd like. You will have to tweak the code a it, though (explained in the code section)) A breadboard (I use a custom breadboard shield, but it doesn't matter what you use) Jumper wires Not a lot of time" [...]

Asi (Anansi) Robot Companion

"Want a cool spider-like robot to wear around and impress your friends? Well, this is the bot for you! This project was originally going to be an Xpider, from Thingiverse. Then I say Archimedes by Alex Glow. It blew my mind. I wanted one so bad." [...]

Transparent Graphical OLED Breakout Hookup Guide

"The future is here! You asked and we delivered - our Qwiic Transparent Graphical OLED Breakout allows you to display custom images on a transparent screen using either I2C or SPI connections. With Qwiic connectors it's quick (ha ha) and easy to get started with your own images. However, we still have broken out 0.1"-spaced pins in case you prefer to use a breadboard. Brilliantly lit in the dark and still visible by daylight, this OLED sports a display area of 128x64 pixels, 128x56 of which are completely transparent. Control of the OLED is based on our new HyperDisplay library." [...]

cVert

"cVert is the result of an idea I’ve been kicking around for years, and took a few months of work to bring to fruition. The idea was to use a Geiger counter as a true random number generator to give a non-deterministic input for computer art or music. The result is a MIDI controller with a large amount of control removed - it plays a random musical note every time a radioactive decay is detected. The idea of using radioactive decay to generate random numbers is not especially novel. Geiger-Müller tubes have been used to provide random numbers for many years in hardware random number generators. These are generally used to provide a greater level of security in cryptography, where true randomness is important and pseudorandomness would not be adequate." [...]

Retro Pocket Game Console

"I like retro games, especially retro game consoles. When i was a kid, one of our neighbour's who used to work in abroad, used to bring his son electromechanic portable game devices or consoles i remember. We also queu up as the other kids to have our chance to play with the games. They were interesting, nearly nothing electronic or solid state inside, everything working with gears, wires, dc motors, lamps (not leds) and some color filters for creating screen effects. I sketched several similar console designs on paper first. Selected one of them which would be easier to design, 3d print and assemble then started working in solidworks." [...]

Making a USB Game Controller

"Here at NextFab, we designed a fully functional, USB game controller for Philly Tech Week. This project will be particularly tricky without some more serious electronics equipment or a local makerspace with the proper tools, but we thought we would post our walk-through in case you do have the access and would like to make your own! Tools Needed: Laser Cutter 3D printer Stencil Printer Pick and Place machine - Manual or Automatic Reflow oven Soldering iron Supplies Needed: Electronic components (list attached later) PCB (Order from our Gerber files) 1/8" Acrylic NinjaFlex filament Hardware (list provided later)" [...]

HRV (Home Air Exchanger) Arduino Controller With Air Economizer

"HRV Arduino Controller with Air Economizer So my history with this project is I live in Minnesota and my circuit board fried on my LifeBreath 155Max HRV. I didn't want to pay the $200 for a new one. I always wanted something with an air economizer since our springs and falls here are perfect times to take in cool low humidity outside air and condition the house rather than turning on the air conditioner or opening windows. This is where this project fits in. I wrote up a detailed description of operation for all the modes, setpoint control, etc can be found here "HRV Control Narrative.docx" All source code, photos, wiring schematics and documentation can be found on my GitHub page. " [...]

DIY Cheap and Sturdy Laser Engraver.

"In this instructables I will show you how I made my own DIY laser engraver for very cheap. Also most of the parts are either salvaged from old things or are very cheap. This is a very interesting project for any electronics hobbyist. This engraver will be able to engrave wood, cardboard, vinyl stickers etc. and also for cutting paper due to the 250 mW laser that we will be using. If this instructables helps you in any way in making your own laser engraver, do share your project with me." [...]

RC522 and PN532 RFID Basics

"Some time ago I bought three different RFID modules for experimenting. In a previous project I detailed how to use a simple 125-kHz module to do a basic security function. Modules like that use read-only tags so the process is scan for the ID, store if desired, and compare against stored IDs. The other modules I bought operate at 13.56-MHz and use tags that can be both read and written so its kind of a waste to simply use them for basic security. The two common modules use either the RC522 chip or the PN532 chip both made by NXP. If youve read any of my other projects you know that I like to use cheap PIC microcontrollers and program in assembly language." [...]

Esp little game engine

"Game engine using a virtual machine with a simulator and a web compiler Game engine with web emulator and compiler. The image is displayed on the tft using the TFT_eSPI library The game engine has a virtual screen resolution of 128x128 pixels, 16 colors, one background layer, 32 soft sprites with collision tracking and rotation, 20kb of memory for the game and variables. The virtual machine performs approximately 900,000 operations per second at a drawing rate of 20 frames per second. Control of eight buttons. " [...]

A Raspberry Pi Powered Junk Drum Machine

"This Instructable will show you how to make a Raspberry Pi powered robotic drum machine. It really is a fun, creative, interactive project. Ill show you how to make the internal workings, but the actual drums is going to be up to you, giving you the opportunity to make something completely unique to you. For my machine I have used as many found items as I can... hammers from a piano rescued from my neighbours skip, a fishing net I found on the beach, an empty bake bean can, wooden spoons, an empty beer bottle, beer bottle tops and a desk bell among other things, but let your imagination go crazy - see what you have around the house, just about anything that makes a noise when hit can be used, and it will really make your project your own.To control it, you have 2 options: A browser based step sequence which I have called PiBeat - This is great fun and lets you control your drum machine interactively from your Pi, or any device on the same network (such as your phone, tablet or computer). We will install it on your Pi later, but a preview can be seen here, and the code is in GitHub here. A python script to program a drum pattern." [...]

Zobbie - a Pi Zero Hexapod for everyone!

"So, this is what happened when I bought a cute robot, pulled its head off, and replaced its brains with a Raspberry Pi! I had some time off over Christmas, which means I end up with time to do fun stuff like hacking toy robots, then making fun movies made with hacked toy robots…. This started I went to a favourite store of mine in London just before Christmas (please note other large toy stores are available!) where I found this very cute, fairly dumb, but remarkably not that overpriced, robot kit. How could I not take it home? This particular version is called a ‘Tobbie’ but it is a generic kit that I’ve now seen marketed under several different names ranging in price from £15-40 for an identical item." [...]

Portal 2 Turret - Master Turret Control

"This project is an extension or remix of my original Portal Turret on Instructables (Portal-2-Turret-Gun). It can also be used as a cheap controller to control anything that uses the nRF24L01 radio chip. The LCD screen is particularly useful when customizing. After I had completed the Portal Turret, I saw a short video clip of the Cara Mia opera scene at the end of Portal 2. I thought, “hey, I’ve built a few turrets now. I can do that!” Well, I had the turrets, but to make it work, they would now need to communicate with each other, or with some other device." [...]

How to Build an Arduino Energy Monitor and Data Logger

"How I built an Arduino energy monitor and data logger to collect energy data for different loads and plotted that data using Excel. In this post, I’m going to show you how I built an Arduino energy monitor and data logger that would help me to gather current and energy data for different loads easily, and plot that information using a program like Excel. Some of you might be aware that I’ve created a new energy monitoring breakout board that I call Dr. Wattson (which is based on the #Microchip #MCP39F521, a power monitoring IC) along with an #Arduino library and #Python library (for boards like #RaspberryPi and #BeagleBoneBlack) for easy integration of quality energy data into your next project! If you haven’t heard of it and would like more information, check out https://upbeatlabs-wattson.launchrock.com/ for more information. It is also available on Tindie. To help me study the energy characteristics of different loads, I went ahead and created an Arduino Energy Monitor and Data Logger, which is the subject of this post!" [...]

SMALL 3D-printed OLED Wrist-Watch

"Hello, do you like to build your own Wrist-Watch? It surely is a challenge to build a small DIY Wrist-Watch like this. The benefit is the pleasure to having made your own idea real and beeing proud of reaching this skills-level... The reason for me to make my own Watch was that my cheap smart-watch –stated to be water-proof– gave up its poor ghost once dipped into a swimming pool... :( So I was angry of buying watches (another expensive "solar"-watch also gave up - its propietary small-sized battery had no chance to be replaced...). On the other side, existing DIY-Watch Projects for my flavor were mostly to heavy or too rustical – so I decided to build my own watch, having so the possibility to include my preferred features! If you like, you may modify the software, to realize your own ideas: I've commented out every line (depending on chosen Program between 700-800 lines...) – But be warned: This project is really challenging and surely not for beginners!" [...]

Smart Thermostat, Airing and Lights Control With Bluetooth

"A simple but useful Arduino project. Just connect your Arduino smart home and control the heater, airing, and lights via Bluetooth! IntrodutionAn intelligent thermostat routine controls the heater gas boiler, and the system switches my kitchen lights and my bathroom airing fan with relays can be controlled by buttons and Android device or computer via Bluetooth. frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscree Celsius and Fahrenheit version also available! Developed on Arduino Nano (or higher) board, uses Dallas DS18B20 temperature sensor, HC-05/06 Bluetooth adapter, I2C 128X64 bicolor OLED display you can choose different LCD / OLED display, the u8glib supports a lot of types. Video & Downloads - the most important things!The video shows all the important working ways, gives you ideas how to build the project from the beginning." [...]

Cooperative Multitasking on Arduino - With Pretty Blinky Lights!

"In my first Instructable Motion Activated Automatic LED Stair Lights with Arduino I mentioned the use of "Cooperative Multitasking". So what is it and why is it helpful? This Instructable attempts to answer the "what is it" and "why is it helpful" question with a simple example that step by step builds up into a more complex example. The end result will hopefully answer an additional question being "Cool! How can I do it?". As a bonus we will end up with a project consisting of some randomly blinking LED's that will be almost as mesmerizing as a good old log fire - maybe even more so if you use enough LED's!" [...]

SUBZero - A Simple Network-Attached Storage Device

"An easy to use Raspberry Pi Zero USB file-level computer data storage server (frequently called Network-Attached Storage or NAS). Quite often I find myself on the go, in need of storing/sharing files locally with others without an accessible internet connection. Even with an internet connection, I find myself wanting to keep most of my file sharing local, to prevent storing sensitive data in the cloud (Infamous Cloud Security Breaches). For example, I, like many other DIYers, have spent wayyyyy too much money on a fleet of 3D printers. The process of either downloading prototype designs onto a USB and inserting it into each of my printers is tons of work, and its much easier to have a secure place on an isolated network for my printers to automatically look for files to print. To fix this problem I partnered with cyber-security researcher Josiah @ Halcy0nic to create SUBZero (Secure USB Backup Zero), a simple DIY wireless USB NAS (Network Attached Storage) that enables you to securely upload files on the go using a $10 Raspberry Pi Zero W!" [...]

midi-grid

"midi-grid is an open source MIDI controller, main part of which is 8x8 LED iluminated button grid. Main features of the device: 8x8 RGB LED illuminated button matrix 17 additional MIDI control buttons, most of them paired with RGB LED indicator 1 internal menu button 2 rotary encoders, acting as MIDI controls Monochrome LCD display with adjustable backlight Physical MIDI input and output ports Currently device is developed to work with Ableton Live, specifically with modified Launchpad95 MIDI remote script - Launchpad95g. Additional functionality, like stand-alone modes, or compatibility with other DAWs may be implemented later. More thorough information, regarding design and implementation, is available in wiki of this project. " [...]

Parking Radar Sensor

"Use three HC-SR04 ultrasound sensors and two battery displays to show you how close the obstacles are and from which side. Hi, this project is about a DIY Parking Radar Sensor, it's very easy to make, it's based around the HC SR-04 Ultrasound sensor, I'm using 3 of them: One for each side and one for the middle, then 2 mini battery displays, that are actually made to show you the stat of the battery, but here I'm using it to show the distance between the sensors and the obstacles, depending on which side, also it depends on the maximum distance that you can set, above that distance it's considered enough space always, below that the displays will change depending on that distance and its direction. " [...]

8 Channel Optically Isolated I/O Shield for Arduino Nano

"This shield enables you to interface many different devices to Arduino Nano using optically isolated inputs/outputs. The circuit consists of 4 Input channels and 4 Output channels and all 8 I/O lines are optically isolated. This project can help in various industrial applications where EMI noise and high voltage lines can damage the Arduino Nano or other circuits connected to it. Circuit is built using 8 x 6N137 optocoupler. The 6N137 optocoupler can switch at frequency up to 10 MHz. " [...]

Angstrom - a Tuneable LED Light Source

"Angstrom is a 12 channel tuneable LED light source that can be built for under 100. It features 12 PWM controlled LED channels spanning 390nm-780nm and offers both the ability to mix multiple channels to a single 6mm fibre-coupled output as well as the capability of outputting any or all channels simultaneously to individual 3mm fibre outputs. Applications include microscopy, forensics, colorimetry, document scanning etc. You can easily simulate the spectrum of various light sources such as compact fluorescent lamps (CFL). Additionally the light sources could be used for interesting theatrical lighting effects. The power channels are more than capable of handling additional LEDs with a higher rated power supply, and the multiple wavelengths create a beautiful and unique multicoloured shadow effect that normal white or RGB LED sources cannot duplicate." [...]

Minimal ATSAMD21 Computer

"This project describes how to build an ATSAMD21-based computer on a prototyping board using the minimum number of components, and program it from the Arduino IDE. I give two alternative methods of uploading a bootloader to the bare ATSAMD21 chip using the Arduino IDE. You can then program the minimal ATSAMD21 computer from the Arduino IDE via the USB port, like any other Arduino board. Introduction If you're looking for something more powerful than the ATmega328 in the Arduino Uno a good choice is the ATSAMD21. This is an ARM Cortex M0+ processor with up to 256 KB flash memory, 32 KB RAM, and a 48 MHz clock, so it's substantially better equipped than the ATmega328. In addition it has a USB interface built in, so there's no need for a separate chip to interface to the serial port." [...]

Arduino 3D printed radio controller

"Yes, I've made another radio controller. Why? well, I wanted to have a more commercial look. So, I've designed a 3D case, then I've used some high quality joysticks in order to have better analog read, It has an OLED screen so we could see the data we send and we could also digitally adjust the data. It also has 2 modes, linear and exponential. Below you ahve the schematic for this project with all the connections and components values." [...]

Tiny Thermocouple Thermometer

"This project describes a thermocouple thermometer, capable of measuring temperatures up to +1350°C, using just an ATtiny85 and an OLED display. It uses the ATtiny85's analogue-to-digital converter with a x20 gain option to measure the thermocouple voltage, and the internal temperature sensor to measure the ambient temperature (shown on the bottom line of the display), and it gives readings accurate to better than 5°C. Some possible applications include a cooking thermometer, a soldering-iron temperature monitor, or a wood burning stove temperature display. Introduction I've recently wanted to build a circuit capable of measuring temperatures around 250°C, and so the temperature sensors I’ve used in previous projects, such as the DS12B20, aren't suitable because they usually have an upper temperature limit of 150°C. The sensor of choice here is a thermocouple, which uses the fact that a junction between two different metals generates a small voltage proportional to temperature. The most common type of thermocouple, called the K type, uses chromel (a nickel-chromium alloy) and aluminel (a nickel/aluminium/manganese/silicon alloy)." [...]

a tiny software UART TX for the AVR ATtiny

"The serial port is a very commonly used interface for communicating between a microcontroller and a PC for debugging or sending or receiving some values. Most microcontrollers include a hardware peripheral called UART (Universal Asynchroneous Receiver Transmitter) which handles the serial communication, but some especially small microcontrollers (like the ATtiny24a that I am using) don’t have one. In this case we can implement the communication in Software. This approach is often called bit bang’ing and can be used to emulate all sorts of communication peripherals. Another use case might be, that in an existing project the pins tied to the hardware-UART are already in use, in which case we could also use a software-UART. Since it is implemented in software, every GPIO pin can be used." [...]

Variable Power Supply V2

"When your building and prototyping circuits , one of the most essential tools you'll need is a variable power adapter. And if you're going to make one you may as well use a Super Nintendo Controller to put it into! Don't worry, I didn't use a genuine one, it's a cheap knock off that you can buy on eBay for a few bucks. There were a few challengers with ensuring all of the components could fit inside the controller but with a little planning I managed to jam it all inside the controller. I used an old 3.7v phone battery to run the power supply. These are usually easy to find (just ask around and you're sure to find someone with a few old phones lying around) and small enough to fit inside the controller." [...]

Ring of Fire - REMIX

"After building some of these: https://www.instructables.com/id/Matrix-LED-Light/ i've decided to bring the candle onto another level. While the first one looks good, it does look a little bit too much like the original. Nothing against the first design. It looks cool and modern. My new approach is a little bit warmer and uses different materials. Still quite geometrical." [...]

DIY Ableton Launcher MidiFighter

"I was inspired by some of the hardware dedicated to work with Ableton as well as the many DIY Midifighters on Instructables already but wanted to take it a step further by putting it through the DIY lens and taking advantage of some of the cool visuals that the Neopixel Rings can add to projects. Visuals are so important in electronic music performance and the need for some additional feedback to the musician and audience can really make the musical experience something to remember! I scrapped a previous project and tried to to push the possibilities of what a Pro Micro Arduino can do! Enjoy! " [...]

Cleaning Bot

"A remote controlled and line following cleaning bot with a scrub attached on its back to clean the table and floor. Project Report Our team here at NITK was motivated with the idea that we should design something that could actually be used by students of NITK in improving their lives and making it more comfortable. Therefore, we came up with the idea of a cleaning robot that could be operated in two modes: · Manual · Automatic Manual mode was controlled using an Android-based App that transmitted data through a Bluetooth module to MSP430. This was designed keeping in mind the fact that our rooms can have random obstacles like chairs, bags etc and an automatic robot might not clean everywhere properly. Automatic mode was made to follow predefined lined path which it detected using IR sensors. It was designed for places where path can be well defined in advance like mess tables." [...]