Editorial

Esta é a Newsletter Nº 231 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
• Projetos Maker

Faz hoje anos que nascia, em 1818, Alexander MacMillan. Este editor escocês, embora não fosse cientista profissional, fez muito para promover a ciência nos tempos vitorianos, publicando a revista Nature, permitindo a comunicação entre homens da ciência. A primeira edição foi publicada em 4 de Novembro de 1869. A revista teve o apoio de muitos colaboradores influentes, incluindo Thomas Huxley. No entanto, permaneceu um desafio financeiro para Macmillan. Macmillan tolerou perdas por três décadas, por causa de seu compromisso com a missão da revista “de colocar diante do público em geral os grandes resultados do trabalho científico e da descoberta científica; e instar as reivindicações da ciência a passarem a um reconhecimento mais geral na educação e na vida quotidiana. ”Essa missão continua até os dias actuais.

Faz também anos hoje que nascia, em 1830, George Brayton. Este engenheiro norte-americano inventou o primeiro motor comercial de combustão interna a gás (patenteado em 2 de Abril de 1872), que ele fabricou e vendeu na área de Providence, Rhode Island. O seu princípio de ignição contínua tornou-se mais tarde a base do motor de turbina. Uma mistura pressurizada de ar-combustível de um reservatório era inflamada ao entrar num cilindro arrefecido a água. O motor de Brayton foi submetido a testes para abastecer embarcações, um dos submarinos de John Holland e um usado por alguns meses instalado numa carruagem (1872-3). Na sua carreira inicial ele dedicou-se ao desenvolvimento de motores a vapor.

Faz igualmente anos hoje que nascia, em 1904, Charles J. Pedersen. Este Químico coreano-americano juntamente com Jean-Marie Lehn e Donald J. Cram, recebeu o Prémio Nobel de Química de 1987 pela sua síntese dos éteres de coroa - um grupo de compostos orgânicos com interacções estrutura-específicas de alta selectividade ao reagir com outros átomos e moléculas, assim como as moléculas nos organismos vivos, isto é, moléculas que podem "reconhecer" uma à outra e escolher com quais outras moléculas formarão complexos. Os três investigadores estudaram as propriedades químicas e físicas desses complexos e elucidaram os factores que determinam a capacidade das moléculas de se reconhecerem e se encaixarem umas nas outras, como se uma chave se fechasse.

Por fim, faz anos hoje que nascia em 1944, Pierre Deligne. Este Matemático belga recebeu a Medalha Fields no Congresso Internacional de Matemáticos em Helsínquia, Finlândia, em 1978, pelo seu trabalho em geometria algébrica. O seu trabalho teve origem nas ideias de André Weil sobre equações polinomiais que levaram a três perguntas sobre quais propriedades de um objecto geométrico podem ser determinadas puramente algebricamente. Esses três problemas rapidamente se tornaram grandes desafios de pesquisa para os matemáticos. Uma solução das três conjecturas de Weil foi dada por Deligne. Este trabalho reuniu geometria algébrica e teoria dos números algébricos. A solução para esses problemas exigiu o desenvolvimento de um novo tipo de topologia algébrica.

Nesta semana que passou ficámos a saber que a sonda japonesa Hayabusa2 largou o ultimo Rover no asteroide Ryugu. Estando a explorar o asteroide desde Junho de 2018 onde já largou três outros rovers, este ultimo - o MINERVA-II2 - foilargado a cerca de 1 km de altitude. Este lançamento a esta altitute, muito superior à dos anteriores lançamentos tem por objectivo o estudo das forças gravitacionais que atraem os objectos. A sonda Hayabusa2 voltará para a Terra antes do final deste ano, transportando o recipiente de amostras cheio de pedaços preciosos de Ryugu. Esta cápsula chegará aos desertos do sul da Austrália no final de 2020, dando aos cientistas a oportunidade de analisar o asteróide em laboratórios terrestres.

Na Newsletter desta semana apresentamos diversos projetos de maker.

João Alves ([email protected])

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

Japan's Hayabusa2 Probe Drops Its Last Rover on Asteroid Ryugu

"Japan's asteroid mission has deployed its last rover to explore Ryugu's rocky surface. The Hayabusa2 spacecraft has been exploring the asteroid since June 2018, and it deployed three other landers to the asteroid's surface last fall. Then, the mission switched its focus to sample collection. But now, Hayabusa2 is executing its last remaining task before turning for Earth: deploying its final rover, dubbed MINERVA-II2. That process began on Wednesday (Oct. 2) when the main spacecraft lowered itself to 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) above the asteroid's surface to release MINERVA-II2. That's much higher above the surface than its twins, MINERVA-II1A and MINERVA-II1B, were deployed, at about 165 feet (50 meters) above Ryugu's surface." [...]

Raspberry Pi OS Raspbian Improves Raspberry Pi 4 Support, Adds Many Improvements

"Raspberry Pi Foundation released a new version of the official Raspberry Pi operating system, Raspbian, to improve support for the latest Raspberry Pi 4 computer, as well as to add many other enhancements and updated components. Raspbian 2019-09-26 images are now available to download and they include the rpi-eeprom tool, which will automatically update the SPI EEPROM on the new Raspberry Pi 4 computer to the latest stable version. Furthermore, it adds overscan support added for FKMS driver, and improves Bluetooth connection with audio devices by adding the latest changes to the Bluez ALSA interface. Furthermore, the Audio Settings tool has been modified to integrate more closely with the Volume plugin, which now lets users switch audio input devices, as well as the audio output between two HDMI devices. Support for more audio devices has been added as well in Raspbian 2019-09-26 by implementing "plug" values in the ALSA configuration file (.asoundrc). Support for multi-monitor configurations was improved as well in this release with the implementation of new options in the Appearance Settings panel for using the same desktop on both monitors or display different desktop icons on both monitors." [...]

NASA Takes Delivery of First All-Electric Experimental Aircraft

"The first all-electric configuration of NASA’s X-57 Maxwell now is at the agency’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The X-57, NASA’s first all-electric experimental aircraft, or X-plane – and the first crewed X-plane in two decades – was delivered by Empirical Systems Aerospace (ESAero) of San Luis Obispo, California on Wednesday, Oct. 2, in the first of three configurations as an all-electric aircraft, known as Modification II, or Mod II. The X-57’s Mod II vehicle features the replacement of traditional combustion engines on a baseline Tecnam P2006T aircraft, with electric cruise motors. The delivery is a major milestone for the project, allowing NASA engineers to begin putting the aircraft through ground tests, to be followed by taxi tests and eventually, flight tests. "The X-57 Mod II aircraft delivery to NASA is a significant event, marking the beginning of a new phase in this exciting electric X-plane project,” said X-57 Project Manager Tom Rigney. “With the aircraft in our possession, the X-57 team will soon conduct extensive ground testing of the integrated electric propulsion system to ensure the aircraft is airworthy." [...]

One small step for electrons, one giant leap for quantum computers

"Quantum computing has the potential to revolutionize technology, medicine, and science by providing faster and more efficient processors, sensors, and communication devices. But transferring information and correcting errors within a quantum system remains a challenge to making effective quantum computers. In a paper in the journal Nature, researchers from Purdue University and the University of Rochester, including John Nichol, an assistant professor of physics, and Rochester PhD students Yadav P. Kandel and Haifeng Qiao, demonstrate their method of relaying information by transferring the state of electrons. The research brings scientists one step closer to creating fully functional quantum computers and is the latest example of Rochester’s initiative to better understand quantum behavior and develop novel quantum systems. The University recently received a $4 million grant from the Department of Energy to explore quantum materials. Quantum computers A quantum computer operates on the principles of quantum mechanics, a unique set of rules that govern at the extremely small scale of atoms and subatomic particles." [...]

Artificial skin could help rehabilitation and enhance virtual reality

"EPFL scientists have developed a soft artificial skin that provides haptic feedback and – thanks to a sophisticated self-sensing mechanism – has the potential to instantaneously adapt to a wearer’s movements. Applications for the new technology range from medical rehabilitation to virtual reality. Just like our senses of hearing and vision, our sense of touch plays an important role in how we perceive and interact with the world around us. And technology capable of replicating our sense of touch – also known as haptic feedback – can greatly enhance human-computer and human-robot interfaces for applications such as medical rehabilitation and virtual reality. Scientists at EPFL’s Reconfigurable Robotics Lab (RRL), headed by Jamie Paik, and Laboratory for Soft Bioelectronic Interfaces (LSBI), headed by Stéphanie Lacour at the School of Engineering, have teamed up to develop a soft, flexible artificial skin made of silicone and electrodes. Both labs are part of the NCCR Robotics program." [...]

First fully rechargeable carbon dioxide battery with carbon neutrality

"Lithium-carbon dioxide batteries are attractive energy storage systems because they have a specific energy density that is more than seven times greater than commonly used lithium-ion batteries. However, until now, scientists have not been able to develop a fully rechargeable prototype, despite their potential to store more energy. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago are the first to show that lithium-carbon dioxide batteries can be designed to operate in a fully rechargeable manner, and they have successfully tested a lithium-carbon dioxide battery prototype running up to 500 consecutive cycles of charge/recharge processes. Their findings are published in the journal Advanced Materials. “Lithium-carbon dioxide batteries have been attractive for a long time, but in practice, we have been unable to get one that is truly efficient until now,” said Amin Salehi-Khojin, associate professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at UIC’s College of Engineering. Traditionally, when a lithium-carbon dioxide battery discharges, it produces lithium carbonate and carbon." [...]

Photovoltaic-powered sensors for the “internet of things”

"RFID-based devices work in indoor and outdoor lighting conditions, and communicate at greater distances. By 2025, experts estimate the number of “internet of things” devices — including sensors that gather real-time data about infrastructure and the environment — could rise to 75 billion worldwide. As it stands, however, those sensors require batteries that must be replaced frequently, which can be problematic for long-term monitoring. MIT researchers have designed photovoltaic-powered sensors that could potentially transmit data for years before they need to be replaced. To do so, they mounted thin-film perovskite cells — known for their potential low cost, flexibility, and relative ease of fabrication — as energy-harvesters on inexpensive radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags. The cells could power the sensors in both bright sunlight and dimmer indoor conditions." [...]

Compute At The Speed Of Light

"UD research team develops new way to make integrated photonics The signals from a lighthouse to ships at sea is an early example of optical communication, the use of light to transmit information. Today, researchers in the field of integrated photonics are using optical communications principles to build high-tech devices, like lightning-fast computers, which utilize light instead of electricity. At the University of Delaware, a research team led by Tingyi Gu, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, has designed an integrated photonics platform with a one-dimensional metalens — a thin lens that can be designed at the nanoscale to focus light in a specific way — and metasurfaces — tiny surfaces made with nanostructures to manipulate the transmitted or reflected light-- that limit the loss of information. The team recently described their device in the journal Nature Communications. “It’s a new way to achieve integrated photonics compared to the conventional way,” said doctoral student Zi Wang, the first author of the paper. The team fabricated a tiny metalens on a silicon-based chip programmed with hundreds of tiny air slots, enabling parallel optical signal processing all within the tiny chip." [...]

CCNY physicists score double hit in LED research

"In two breakthroughs in the realm of photonics, City College of New York graduate researchers are reporting the successful demonstration of an LED (light-emitting diode) based on half-light half-matter quasiparticles in atomically thin materials. This is also the first successful test of an electrically driven light emitter using atomically thin semiconductors embedded in a light trapping structure (optical cavity). The research is led by graduate physics student Jie Gu and post-doctoral fellow Biswanath Chakraborty, in collaboration with another graduate student, Mandeep Khatoniyar. According to Vinod Menon, chair of physics in City College’s Division of Science and the research team’s mentor, their double feat, reported in the journal “Nature Nanotechnology,” marks an important milestone in the field of 2D materials and, more broadly, LEDs. While such LEDs have been realized in other materials at low temperatures, this device operates at room temperature and is fabricated using the now well known “scotch tape” based technique. “The fact that this device is fabricated using stacks of atomically thin materials and operates at room temperature makes it an important first step towards a technologically relevant device demonstration,” noted Menon, adding: “One potential application of such hybrid LEDs is the speed of operation – which can translate to using them for LED based communication systems including LiFi.” LiFi is a wireless optical networking technology that uses LEDs for data transmission." [...]

Algorithm Identifies Optimal Pairs for Composing Metal-Organic Frameworks

"The integration of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and other metal nanoparticles has increasingly led to the creation of new multifunctional materials. Many researchers have integrated MOFs with other classes of materials to produce new structures with synergetic properties. Despite there being over 70,000 collections of synthesized MOFs that can be used as building blocks, the precise nature of the interaction and the bonding at the interface between the two materials still remains unknown. The question is how to sort out the right matching pairs out of 70,000 MOFs. An algorithmic study published in Nature Communications by a KAIST research team presents a clue for finding the perfect pairs. The team, led by Professor Ji-Han Kim from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, developed a joint computational and experimental approach to rationally design MOF@MOFs, a composite of MOFs where an MOF is grown on a different MOF." [...]

Moving e-cars into the fast lane

"Researchers have been looking into silicon carbide, a promising alternative material for the semiconductor industry, for several years now. The Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM joined forces with partners in the SiC Module project to ramp up this type of power semiconductor for industrial manufacturing. Their effort goes to boost the efficiency of drivetrains in electric vehicles and extend these vehicles’ range. Electromobility has its naysayers, with some skeptics pointing to limitations such as electric cars’ top speed and maximum range. Both depend on the built-in power electronics, the electronic heart of e-mobility. Size, weight and efficiency are three make-or-break factors for power electronics destined for installation in e-cars." [...]

This flat structure morphs into shape of a human face when temperature changes

"New structural design could lead to self-deploying tents or adaptive robotic fins. Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have designed 3-D printed mesh-like structures that morph from flat layers into predetermined shapes, in response to changes in ambient temperature. The new structures can transform into configurations that are more complex than what other shape-shifting materials and structures can achieve. As a demonstration, the researchers printed a flat mesh that, when exposed to a certain temperature difference, deforms into the shape of a human face. They also designed a mesh embedded with conductive liquid metal, that curves into a dome to form an active antenna, the resonance frequency of which changes as it deforms. The team’s new design method can be used to determine the specific pattern of flat mesh structures to print, given the material’s properties, in order to make the structure transform into a desired shape." [...]

Using High Energy Density Material in Electrode Design Enhances Lithium Sulfur Batteries

"Lithium ion batteries aren’t keeping up with energy demands from higher power electronic devices, electric vehicles and smart electric grids. To develop higher capacity batteries, researchers have looked to lithium sulfur batteries because of sulfur’s high theoretical capacity and energy density. But there are still several problems to solve before lithium sulfur batteries can be put into practical applications, such as sulfur’s intrinsically low electrical conductivity and the rapid capacity decay caused by polysulfides escaping from the cathode. The biggest problem is the shuttling effect that occurs during cycling. This effect causes the diffusion of polysulfides from the cathode, creating capacity loss. It also consumes a lot of fresh lithium and electrolytes, and reduces battery performance." [...]

Quantum material goes where none have gone before

"Alloy behaves strangely while traversing potential ‘spin liquid’ state Rice University physicist Qimiao Si began mapping quantum criticality more than a decade ago, and he’s finally found a traveler that can traverse the final frontier. The traveler is an alloy of cerium palladium and aluminum, and its journey is described in a study published online this week in Nature Physics by Si, a theoretical physicist and director of the Rice Center for Quantum Materials (RCQM), and colleagues in China, Germany and Japan. Si’s map is a graph called a phase diagram, a tool that condensed-matter physicists often use to interpret what happens when a material changes phase, as when a solid block of ice melts into liquid water. The regions on Si’s map are areas where electrons follow different sets of rules, and the paper describes how the researchers used the geometric arrangement of atoms in the alloy in combination with various pressures and magnetic fields to alter the alloy’s path and bring it into a region where physicists have only been able to speculate about the rules that govern electron behavior. “That’s the corner, or portion, of this road map that everybody really wants to access,” Si said, pointing to the upper left side of the phase diagram, high up the vertical axis marked G. “It has taken the community a huge amount of effort to look through candidate materials that have the feature of geometrical frustration, which is one way to realize this large G.” The frustration stems from the arrangement of cerium atoms in the alloy in a series of equilateral triangles. The kagome lattice arrangement is so named because of its similarity to patterns in traditional Japanese kagome baskets, and the triangular arrangement ensures that spins, the magnetic states of electrons, cannot arrange themselves as they normally would under certain conditions." [...]

Controlling 2-D magnetism with stacking order

"MIT researchers discover why magnetism in certain materials is different in atomically thin layers and their bulk forms. Researchers led by MIT Department of Physics Professor Pablo Jarillo-Herrero last year showed that rotating layers of hexagonally structured graphene at a particular “magic angle” could change the material’s electronic properties from an insulating state to a superconducting state. Now researchers in the same group and their collaborators have demonstrated that in a different ultra-thin material that also features a honeycomb-shaped atomic structure — chromium trichloride (CrCl3) — they can alter the material’s magnetic properties by shifting the stacking order of layers. The researchers peeled away two-dimensional (2-D) layers of chromium trichloride using tape in the same way researchers peel away graphene from graphite. Then they studied the 2-D chromium trichloride’s magnetic properties using electron tunneling. They found that the magnetism is different in 2-D and 3-D crystals due to different stacking arrangements between atoms in adjacent layers." [...]

Finding the 'magic angle' to create a new superconductor

"Researchers at The Ohio State University, in collaboration with scientists around the world, have made a discovery that could provide new insights into how superconductors might move energy more efficiently to power homes, industries and vehicles. Their work, published last week in the journal Science Advances, showed that graphene—a material composed of a single layer of carbon atoms—is more likely to become a superconductor than originally thought possible. "Graphene by itself can conduct energy, as a normal metal is conductive, but it is only recently that we learned it can also be a superconductor, by making a so-called 'magic angle' – twisting a second layer of graphene on top of the first," said Jeanie Lau, a professor of physics at Ohio State and co-author of the paper. "And that opens possibilities for additional research to see if we can make this material work in the real world." Unlike most conventional conductors, superconductors are metals that can conduct electricity without resistance, thus suffering no loss of energy. Graphene is two-dimensional crystal—a perfectly flat piece of carbon—and, as a single layer, is not a superconductor." [...]

Researchers synthesize ‘impossible’ superconductor

"Researchers from the U.S., Russia, and China have bent the rules of classical chemistry and synthesized a “forbidden” compound of cerium and hydrogen — СеН₉ — which exhibits superconductivity at a relatively low pressure of 1 million atmospheres. The paper came out in Nature Communications. Superconductors are materials capable of conducting an electric current with no resistance whatsoever. They are behind the powerful electromagnets in particle accelerators, maglev trains, MRI scanners, and could theoretically enable power lines that deliver electricity from A to B without losing the precious kilowatts to thermal dissipation. Unfortunately, the superconductors known today can only work at very low temperatures (below −138 degrees Celsius), and the latest record (−13 C) requires extremely high pressures of nearly 2 million atmospheres. This limits the scope of their possible applications and makes the available superconducting technologies expensive, since maintaining their fairly extreme operating conditions is challenging." [...]

This is how a “fuzzy” universe may have looked

"Scientists simulate early galaxy formation in a universe of dark matter that is ultralight, or “fuzzy,” rather than cold or warm. Dark matter was likely the starting ingredient for brewing up the very first galaxies in the universe. Shortly after the Big Bang, particles of dark matter would have clumped together in gravitational “halos,” pulling surrounding gas into their cores, which over time cooled and condensed into the first galaxies. Although dark matter is considered the backbone to the structure of the universe, scientists know very little about its nature, as the particles have so far evaded detection. Now scientists at MIT, Princeton University, and Cambridge University have found that the early universe, and the very first galaxies, would have looked very different depending on the nature of dark matter. For the first time, the team has simulated what early galaxy formation would have looked like if dark matter were “fuzzy,” rather than cold or warm." [...]

Speeding up the machine learning process

"A new approach for training algorithms makes the machine learning process faster and more accurate. At a time when big data reigns supreme, training machine learning algorithms to perform certain tasks is often costly and time-consuming. At KAUST’s Visual Computing Center, computer scientist Peter Richtárik and his colleagues have developed a new method for training models with greater efficiency, accuracy and flexibility. Their method, known as the arbitrary sampling paradigm, provides a shortcut for training machine learning algorithms that use large datasets, which usually take huge amounts of computing power to process. The approach allows practitioners to pinpoint the most useful subset to work with and its optimal size for a given scenario. “The method specifies which functions in the dataset should be sampled more often and by how much,” says Richtárik." [...]

Home Automation Using IOT With Blynk and ESP8266-01

"Whats app guys.. in this video, you are going to learn how to make a simple home automation using esp8266-01 and blynk app. because IoT is the current trend on the market. so at the end of the tutorial, you can able to know how to make the home automation. Supplies:materials required 1) ESP8266-01 2) 2 channel Relay 3) USB to TTL converter 4) jumper wi" [...]

Digital Scale Using Ultrasonic Sensor ( in Freeform )

"Today we are going to make a simple portable Ultrasonic based Digital Scale, but there is a small twist in it, we are going to make this project in Free-Form, without using jumpers or pcb, instead we will use thick copper rods, so lets get started! Supplies: Parts: 1. Arduino Nano 2. Ultrasonic Sensor (HC-SR04) 3. 0.96" OLED 4. 0.8mm Copper Wire 5." [...]

Monopoly RFID Automated Bank

"This project was created with the already existing electronic bank monopoly in mind. It uses an arduino uno and rfid to operate. Moreover it is equiped with an lcd and a keypad for navigation. I did make it using a 3d printer but if you do not have acces to one it is ok since the housing could be manufacture with different materials and means. From my experience from using it, it makes the game not only more fun but quicker and less messy. In this tutorial i will so you how to programm the arduino how to wire the components and how to put it all together." [...]

Diy Game Using Arduino and Nokia 5110 Lcd

"Hello everyone, I'm Sarvesh an electronics hobbyist who loves to make fun projects using arduino and other micro-controllers. Today we will learn the interfacing of a Nokia 5110 lcd to an arduino board and then we will create a simple game to catch the eggs in a bucket and control the movements of the bucket using a joystick module. So read the complete instructable and try making this project. Let's get started !!! " [...]

Gadget for Visually Impaired People (GVIP)

"This simple & lightweight glove will help visually impaired people to sense their surroundings with a quick response rate. This project is based on Time of Flight sensor. Visually impaired people generally use stick in outdoor but in indoor condition stick is not convenient specially to detect a obstacle just in front of him or horizontally. This project is not the direct replacement of stick rather it will help blind people to detect object in front of him. Laser sensor is much faster than sonar sensor so its response time is faster. In this project when a obstacle is detected a vibration motor began vibrating by which visually impaired people can understand a obstacle has been detected." [...]

89S52 Programmer Using Arduino Uno

"Hello everyone, today we will learn to program the 89S52 micro-controller using the arduino board. The 89S52 uC is slightly different from the 89C51 uC as it has ISP(In System Programming) feature. It has SPI pins MOSI, MISO and SCK which will be used to upload the hex file to the uC. The original creator of this project is Nick Pablo and a huge thanks to him. This project will be helpful for those who are willing to start with the 89S52 uC and don't want to invest on an additional programmer for the 89S52 uC. You just need your arduino board and few additional components to make this project." [...]

Benchtop Micro Milling Machine

"This is a micro sized benchtop mill that is suitable for milling small parts in soft metals such as Aluminum and Brass. While it is a manual mill it wouldn't be too difficult to convert it to CNC by adding suitable stepper motors and a controller. The travel specs are: X axis- 150 mm Y axis- 75 mm Z axis- 150 mm This design uses off the shelf assembled linear slides and 80/20 Aluminum extrusion for simple assembly and accurate alignment. The beauty of this design is its modular nature- you can make it any size you want (with a few limitations.) Let's get started! " [...]

Maslow Upright CNC Router

"The Maslow is a large format CNC router capable of cutting wood and other materials with precision and repeatability, based on a digital file. A CNC (computer numerical control) machine allows makers to automate the cutting process in woodworking and other manufacturing operations. When the Maslow kit is built and software is installed, makers will have a fully functional CNC machine able to cut a surface of 4×8 feet, with adjustable cut depth. The design is open source so anyone can build it, from scratch or from a kit. The application for this tool is enormous. Cabinet makers, hobbyists, sign makers, woodworkers, furniture makers, and more have all seen the value in automated cutting that can multiply their productivity and produce extremely intricate designs." [...]

Daisy mp3 project

"Here you will find everything you need to make the Daisy mp3 player. All the source files, hex files, EAGLE cad files, and documents are here. This is the official Make: mp3 player available here or at the Make: store. www.makezine.com The Daisy is a multipurpose sound player for embedded applications. It can be used as a standalone personal music player,as the sound for an art project, in a kiosk, as a museum tour guide, in a toy, or anywhere that high quality embedded audio is desired. It uses MMC or SD flash memory cards so storage size is unlimited." [...]

Make Your Own 8051 Minimal System

"Even before Arduino was a thing, the world had microcontrollers only thing was they were pretty less known and best example will be an 8051 Microcontroller which was quite famous and guess what even today for enthusiasts like me it's still famous! So in this tutorial, I'll take you back to 1980s and show you how to build a Minimal system for 8051. So let's get started Littel History about 8051 The 8051 series of microcontrollers was developed by Intel in 1980 for embedded systems. They should have been extinct by now, but they are still around and are in fact quite popular. The 8051 has since then been upgraded. The newer variants of the 8051 currently available in the market are more powerful, consume less power and, most importantly, are cheaper." [...]

One POV Display to Rule Them All!

"I really like POV (persistence of vision) displays! They are not only interesting to look at but also a big challenge to develop them. It's a really interdisciplinary task. You need a lot of skills: mechanical, electronic, programming and so on! I've always wanted to build my own and make it as big and as capable as possible. One year ago I did it!" [...]

Arduino / ESP8266 RS485 MODBUS Anemometer

"The objective is to find an easy way to implement RS485 on an Arduino Uno, then to adapt it to an ESP8266. The anemometer will be a part of a bench of measures that will be added to the wind turbine MPPT regulator. This bench of measures will work with a ESP8266, for its Wi-Fi availability. For the moment, the objective is to find an easy way to implement RS485 on an Arduino Uno, then to adapt it to an ESP8266, the Wemos Lolin D1 mini for instance. The code result seems very simple and cool, but I spent many and many hours to find a way to get something from this wind sensor. So I think it will interest everyone that have to implement RS485." [...]

MutantC - an Easy to Build Raspberry Pi Handheld/UMPC

"A Raspberry-pi handheld platform with a physical keyboard, Display and Expansion header for custom boards (Like Arduino Shield). First take a look at this in 3D usingAutoDesk Fusion 360 Online. Now see some key features. mutantC v1.4It is fully open-source hardware. So you can hack it as you wish. You can make your expansion-card like gps, Radio etc and attach them." [...]

How to Make a Bluetooth Controlled RC Car at Home

"Learn How to Make A simple SmartPhone controlled robotic car by using Arduino and very basic electronic components. Let's make an Awesome cellphone controlled car in Super Easy way. I showing here The easiest way to make A Bluetooth Controlled RC Car. with detail explained Progragraming. Components Used: 1. Arduino Uno - x1 2." [...]

IoT Using Raspberry Pi and Firebase and Android

"Ever asked how to control your home light system wirelessly over the Internet from any place in the world?! Today, we will learn how to control any RGB LED Strip ambient light wirelessly over Wifi using a custom-built Andoird application connected with the awesome Raspberry Pi board through the Firebase database.To build this project we need to deal with some stuff like how to build an android mobile app, how to build a firebase database server, how to connect the raspberry pi and the android app together through firebase, how to take different actions based on the incoming data, some power management, electronics Wiring, … But yo hold on! Don’t worry we will cover all these topics in detail in today’s tutorial. So, bear with me and I promise it will worth it. Project Overview/Features Simply, today we will build a smart device that allows the user to control his/her home ambient lighting system wirelessly over Wifi using any android smartphone, our project is divided into four main parts Android mobile application.the mobile app is the control panel which the user will interact with to send his/her commands to the lighting system. Database.is the global server which acts as a postman who takes mails from one person to deliver it to someone else." [...]

PrintEye

"A lightweight ATMega328p based information display panel thingie for RepRap firmware based 3D Printers; specifically the Duet controller. This is somewhat of a Parts bin special; I wanted to add some sort of temperature feedback to my DuetWifi controlled 3D printer; it's Wifi interface is great but I got fed up with not being able to see the status at a glance while prepping the machine. This unit plugs directly into the UART (panelDue) connector on my controller, it runs at 5V from the supply on the connector; and has simple mosfet level converters on the serial port to cope with the 3.3V controller used by the Duet. This is a low cost and lightweight temperature and status monitor for 3d Printers using Duet (or other repRap Firmware) controllers. The Controller connects to the PanelDue serial port on the Duet card, and periodically queries the Duet Firmware for It's status and temperatures, then updates it's display as appropriate. Atmega328P based (as per the Arduino Uno) 2 x 0.96' OLED displays on individual I2C busses Level Shifter for Serial connections (duet is 3.3v, 328p is 5v) A button for pausing, a LED to show we are alive and a case to show off All the software is complete and tested, this was more than half the work.." [...]

Multi Player Score Tracker

"Device for tracking multiple players' or teams' score for games and activities. Assume you are part of a game or activity with following requirements Multiple players or teams will be participating, don't know the count of players in advance. Each player or team will be earning or losing points based on the rule of the game. Score of every players need to tracked using one device instead of multiple devices. Game or activity may span across days, option to store and retrieve score during breaks or even after days. Option to reset score of all players when you restart or reset the game." [...]

LED Matrix Sand Toy

"These LEDs interact with motion and looks like they’re affect by gravity. An Adafruit LED matrix displays the LEDs as little grains of sand which are driven by sampling an accelerometer with Raspberry Pi Zero! The 3D Printed handles make it easy to hold the 64x64 LED Matrix and the two buttons make it easy to switch modes or reset simulations! The code, written by Phillip Burgess, simulates physics by calculating collisions and terminal velocity. " [...]

Homemade CO2 Sensor Unit

"A quick and easy guide for making your own carbon-dioxide sensor unit to measure the percentage of carbon dioxide gas. Why we made it. Inspiration. Short description: Most of us know the effects of bad air in meeting rooms and classrooms. You get tired and less alert. Bad air is directly connected to the level of CO2 in a room, due to insufficient ventilation." [...]

Arduino Motor Shield PCB V1 | 4 Motors at Once

"Make your own motor driver shield PCB for an Arduino Pro Mini using an Arduino Pro Mini. Hey guys, welcome back. In my previous post, I explained what an H-bridge circuit is, L293D motor driver IC and piggybacking L293D motor driver IC for driving high current motor drivers. In this post, I will show you how you can design and make your own L293D motor driver board, that can control up to 4 high current DC motors independently and get your own Arduino Motor Shield PCB done using JLCPCB. H-Bridge H-bridge is simply a circuit that allows a voltage to be applied across a load in either direction. They are commonly used for controlling DC motor in moving parts of robots." [...]