As Internet of Things is quickly becoming a reality, it is intriguing more and more developers as well as prospective users. In a simplistic view, IoT can be seen as a sophisticated network of things. Things that are not just typical computers or mobile phones or machines but the things like door-lock, diapers, watches or anything you believe in to make life smarter and easier. It is excellent combination of multiple technologies to enable better life. The Internet of Things is the collection of objects on the internet or network that humans rely on to make their lives easier.
Amazon Prime Air – Delivery by Drones
Early December of 2013, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, revealed to the world a new dimension to fulfill their customer’s online shopping experience on popular news show “60 minutes” of CBN news.It took correspondent Charlie Rose and the 60 minutes crew completely by shock as he walked into a secret R&D unit to find what looked like a flying tarantula. It was in fact a drone. To be more precise, it was a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) with eight propellers (commonly known as an “Octocopter”). At first glance, he had no idea what purpose that it would fulfill. Bezos played a demonstration video showing how the drones pick up the packages which are placed in a yellow Amazon bucket and deliver them to the consumer within a period of 30 minutes.
3-D Printing – ‘Modern Manufacturing & Rapid Prototyping’
Intense global competition has pushed manufacturing firmsto apply new technologies which allowed them to push out products faster, more accurately and with lower labor dependence into the markets which not only satisfies customer requirements faster, but also at a cheaper prices.3D printing is a computer aided, additive manufacturing process in which a solid part is created from its CAD (Computer Aided Design) model. Sometimes this process is referred to as a ‘freedom manufacturing’ process thanks to its dynamic and flexible classes of applications. The CAD model produced by 3D modelling software applications such as CATIA, Solidworks, Pro-Engineer, UG, etc. is first sliced into layers by various other software applications. Th e 3D printer then produces the cross section of the part and stacks it layer by layer to produce the finished real world replica of the intended CAD model. 3D printing has been known to maintain a cycle time reduction between 30%-90% depending on the technology used and the complexity of the part.
6 Interesting mechanical motion transfer mechanisms you can use in your product design
Product designing often involves challenges of transferring mechanical motion between different parts of the product. A product can involve different types of motion like horizontal, vertical, radial, circular, see saw, spiral etc. The product designer’s community has to intelligently deal with parameters like space, cost optimization, strength, user comfort, look and feel etc. A combination of parts and structure designed to perfection work in synchronization to achieve the desired motion.From movement of a ball pen’s tip to the to and fro motion of the switch’s actuator, there is enough science and wonder in exploring designing methods for all mechanical motions. The factor of easiness and simple working is always fulfilled too. How does it all happen? What is the magic? Have a look at some of the common yet unseen mechanics involved in transfer of motion from the brains of product designers.
Connectors – Understanding Electrical Specifications
Let’s take a journey to the world of the electrical connectors. What is an electric connector? It is a simple, small size electro-mechanical device. It is basically use to connect two or circuits together. It is possible for the circuits to transfer power or signal through the connectors. Connectors have one more metallic structure inside it for electrical connections.The connectors always provide a temporary connection between the circuits. This temporary connection has so many advantages over the permanent connections. You can easily replace a particular circuit in a system; you can check the input or output of a circuit independently etc. Moreover the connector provides easy assembling and troubleshooting. An electrical connector is made of two things, conductors and insulators. Usually there is more than one conducting path for power or signal separated by insulators.A conductor as we all know allows electricity to flow through it, offers very low resistance. They are used to make physical contacts through which the electric current can flow through.
Reed Switch: Understanding Specifications
A reed switch consists of two ferromagnetic nickel-iron wires and specially shaped contact blades (reeds) positioned in a hermetically sealed glass capsule with a gap between them and in a protective atmosphere. The glass capsule is filled with inert gas to prevent activation of the contacts. The ruthenium or rhodium plated contact surfaces are isolated from the outside environment, which protects the contacts from contamination. Reed switches can be operated using a magnetic field generated by either a permanent magnet or current-carrying coil. They induce north (N) and south(S) poles on the reeds. The magnetic attractive force leads to closure of the reed contacts. Upon removal of the magnetic field, contact open again due to the elasticity of the reeds. There are Reed Switches which operate with permanent magnet, while there are Reed Switches operate with coils which can be magnetized by sending current through them.
Switch: Specification of a Switch
Although a smaller shape, switches are essentially crucial for any device and hence, a design engineer should consider so many technical things related with a switch, while choosing a switch. Some of the few important terms that are taken care while configuring a switch are operating force, stroke, bounce time, various resistances, dielectric strength, power ratings etc.Alteration in these mentioned configurations affects the structure and working of switch in every possible manner. Hence, from a hardware designer to an installer, switch configuration plays an important part for any electrical device.The most common specifications found in the datasheet of switches are explained below.
Switch : Basics, Types, Structure
In our day-to-day lives, how often do we encounter switches? Switches can be seen everywhere. For electronic and electrical system, they act as a physical interface to the real world. Be it a key of a keyboard or mobile or be it a knob on an electrical appliance or be it a miniature button used on the PCBs of embedded systems or be it a circuit breaker used on the power lines- all these are switches. We are in continuous interaction with switches without bothering about the manner it functions behind the scene?Switches are of different types, of different specifications and are selected and used in a particular application according to specific requirements. Subsequent sections will discuss the switches in detail.
OLED Display Technology
During the last two decades, organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have attracted considerable interest owing to their promising applications. They have already made inroads into the displays used for mobiles, PDAs and OLED TVs are also available in the market. Soon, OLEDs will be replacing incandescent and fluorescent lamps. Fig. 1: Image Showing a Regular…
RoHS
RoHS is the acronym for Restriction of Hazardous Substances and is also known as “Lead free” (though incorrectly). RoHS directive is a European Union Directive 2002/95/EC and is applicable in all EU countries. The prime purpose of this directive is to restrict the use of hazardous substances in electric and electronic equipments with an objective of promoting environment friendly mechanism of recovery and disposal of wastes from electrical and electronic equipments. This directive restricts the use of six hazardous substances found in electrical and electronic products. Under RoHS, all electrical and electronic products destined for sale in the EU market after July 1, 2006 must pass RoHS compliance, i.e., they must be free of six hazardous substances identified by the directive. RoHS directive does not apply to spare parts for the repair or reuse of EEE put on the market before 1st Jul 2006.
HDMI
Today, many of us are in the process of removing their CRT TVs and shopping for the new hype in the TV market –High Definition TVs. And if you happen to be one of them, you surely would have come across the term HDMI. Not only TV, HDMI port is available on home theatres, play stations, HD-DVDs and many others.The difference between a HDTVs and old TVs( also, now known as standard definition TVs) lies in the technology. Older TVs were analog, whereas HDTVs are digital. Older TVs used interlacing, aspect ratio of 4:3 and picture resolution of about 704 X 480 pixels. HDTVs use progressive scanning, aspect ratio of 16:9, picture resolutions up to 1920 X 1080 pixels. In other words, HDTVs use higher refresh rates, wider displays as well as enhanced picture resolution. What this implies is that HDTVs require higher amount of data to be processed and also at a faster rate compared to standard TVs.
Passive Infrared Sensor (PIR Sensor)
When a communication is to be established, that too wirelessly, with a remote device, we typically employ optical radiations or radio waves or sometimes, acoustic waves (for underwater applications). These three types of wireless communications basically differ in their frequencies. All frequencies starting from frequency bands like LF, HF, VHF, UHF and so on, extending up to microwaves and millimeter waves are referred to as radio waves. Acoustic waves use ultrasonic portion of frequency spectrum. Optical Radiations use visible and infrared portion of the spectrum. Infrared sensors have been widely utilized for remote based applications such as in televisions etc. This article will detail with a Passive Infrared Sensor.
Tilt Sensor
The Paris Air show is one of the biggest platforms for various airplane manufacturers to showcase the swiftness of their planes. Some of the valiant pilots of the world perform amazing stunts. These pilots are supported by the power of fast computing machinery in their airplanes. One of the critical parts of this computer assisted circuitry is the tilt sensor. A type of transducer, tilt sensor aids in giving information about the vertical as well as horizontal inclination of the airplane so that the pilot can understand how can he tackle the obstacles during the flight and perform the stunts
Accelerometers
Body in motion usually experience vibration as well as shock. When a mobile falls on a floor, it is subjected to shock. When a vehicle moves on a bumpy road, it experiences vibrations. Likewise, there are many situations, where an object encounters shock and vibrations. Sometimes, they survive and at times, they get damaged. When delicate items like glass, crockery, etc. are packaged properly, they can withstand severe shock and vibrations. Whether a system will survive or not, how do we know this a priori? While some vibrations are desirable, some may be disturbing or even destructive. Hence, often a need is felt to understand the causes of vibrations and to develop methods to measure and prevent them.
Position Sensor : Types of Position Sensor
Sensors are very important organs of any measurement system. They collect data from the surroundings/ physical parameter and provide electrical signal as the input to the systems. Amongst wide variety of sensors operating on different sensing principles and used in different applications, position sensors play an important role in different systems. Whether it is fly-by-wire aircraft systems, drive-by-wire cars, bullet trains taking round curves, injection molding machines, packaging machines, medical equipments, and so on, position sensors finds their applications, of course in different ways.
What is a Transformer?
A transformer is an apparatus for converting electrical power in an ac system at one voltage or current into electrical power at some other voltage or current without the use of rotating parts. Transformers have been an essential component in electrical as well as electronic circuits. Apart from stepping up or stepping down the voltages, they are used for providing isolation, for impedance mismatch and so on. Development of new technologies has reduced the usage of transformers, but still they are quite vital in many applications.
Audio Transformer
Amazed by the electronic music of your favorite band? Mesmerized by the way suddenly an electric guitar goes as loud as the singer? Like most of know, there is an expert recording engineer present in the studio to make sure that music instruments and the voices make a perfect blend. A critical device that helps in creating this blend is an audio transformer. Works just like any other conventional transformer; audio transformers are designed to work at audio frequencies, i.e. between 20Hz to 20 KHz. interestingly, the initial need to design to such transformer was to enhance long distance voice communication. Now serving essentially for professional musicians, audio transformers stand as one electronic-audio component. This article will cover technical and applicative features of audio transformers explaining how they are different from the conventional counterparts
Introduction to SMPS (Switched Mode Power Supply)
Switched Mode Power Supply uses a switching regulator to convert electric power efficiently. SMPS transfers electric power from a source ( AC mains) to the load by converting the characteristics of current and voltage. SMPS always provide a well regulated power to the load irrespective of the input variations. SMPS incorporates a Pass transistor that switches very fast typically at 50Hz and 1 MHz between the…
Wireless Power Transmission
The technology for wireless power transmission or wireless power transfer (WPT) is in the forefront of electronic development. Applications involving microwaves, solar cells, lasers, and resonance of electromagnetic waves have had the most recent success with WPT. The main function of wireless power transfer is to allow electrical devices to be continuously charged and lose the…
Embedded Linux : Understanding the embedded linux
Linux is one of the few, ever expanding endeavors developed in the 20th century. Obvious or not, it has continuously cranked itself up to reach new horizons since its humble beginnings in 1991. A more than 50 year old market segment, the embedded systems, which encompasses a vast domain of electronic products ranging from little wristwatch cameras, to huge distributed systems like telecom switches, has been charmed by the frills and thrills of Linux and has deeply benefitted from the same. Embedded Systems are everywhere, ranging from small control applications which require small microcontrollers to massive parallel processors which have colossal memory requirements. Mobile phones, Inverters, microwaves, PDAs, you name it, and you might find an embedded system at its essential core.