TOKYO, Japan, August 30, 2017 – Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE:6723), a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced a new high-sensitivity, high-resolution 8.48 megapixel (MP) CMOS image sensor (RAA462113FYL) that supports 4K video cameras. In conjunction with the existing Renesas 2.12 MP product that is already in mass production, Renesas will be providing full-scale sales support for its high-end CMOS image sensor for network security cameras.

To meet the increasing needs for network security cameras in financial institutions, transportation systems and commercial establishments, the new CMOS image sensor provides functions appropriate for imaging under the varied environmental conditions required by high-end devices and contributes to increased system performance.

Key features of the new CMOS image sensor

• Achieves excellent low-light performance
  The new sensor achieves clear, high-visibility full-color imaging even in a moonlit environment
• High resolution at high data rates
  The new sensor captures clear, high-visibility images even when digital zoom is used due to its capture of high-reliability 4K video at 60 fps.
• High dynamic range
  The new sensor supports a line-by-line HDR (high dynamic range) mode in which long exposure data and short exposure data are output separately for each line. This allows video capture, even for high-contrast scenes.

Renesas also provides a reference board that was developed together with a camera module manufacturer to allow users to evaluate the performance of the Renesas CMOS image sensor. Renesas plans to work with camera module manufacturers to supply camera modules with a variety of features such as autofocus functions, HDR (high dynamic range) functions, wide-area monitoring functions, and vibration reduction (image stabilization) functions. This will allow system manufacturers to reduce the development period and development costs for new high-performance network security camera products.

Renesas will continue to expand its line of security camera solutions for network security cameras, by providing its CMOS image sensors in combination with microcontrollers (MCU).

The post 8.48 MP CMOS Image Sensor for 4K Network Security Cameras appeared first on Electronics For You.

5V @50mA with Operation Down to 3.5Vin and Harness Short Protection

Worcester, MA – August 29, 2017– Allegro MicroSystems, LLC announces the release of a new wide input 5 V output regulator designed to power automotive sensors and low power uControllers. It can also be used for non-automotive applications where the input voltage could be above or below 5 V.

Allegro’s A4480 incorporates a unique multi-mode charge pump pre-regulator, followed by a 5V LDO. This enables operation with input voltages from 3.5 to 28 V (with 40V protection), while maintaining a 5 V output voltage. Compared to traditional LDO solutions, the efficiency across input range is improved, and VIN < VOUT operation is enabled.

Furthermore, as opposed to traditional switching solutions no inductor, diode, or external switching element is required in this simple, low component-count optimized solution.

The enable pin (ENB) is rated to operate at up to 40 V, so it can be connected directly to VIN (e.g., vehicle battery). The IC includes an open-drain Power OK (POK) output, and protection features include input undervoltage lockout (UVLO), foldback overcurrent protection, output under/overvoltage protections (UV/OVP), and thermal shutdown (TSD). In addition, the output is protected from a short-to-battery event, which is a critical feature when driving loads connected via a wiring harness.

The A4480KLJTR-T device is available in an 8-pin eSOIC package with exposed pad for enhanced thermal dissipation. It is lead (PB) free, with 100% matte tin leadframe plating and priced at $0.90 in quantities of 1,000.

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Silicon – the second most abundant element in the earth’s crust – shows great promise in Li-ion batteries, according to new research from the University of Eastern Finland. By replacing graphite anodes with silicon, it is possible to quadruple anode capacity.

In a climate-neutral society, renewable and emission-free sources of energy, such as wind and solar power, will become increasingly widespread. The supply of energy from these sources, however, is intermittent, and technological solutions are needed to safeguard the availability of energy also when it’s not sunny or windy. Furthermore, the transition to emission-free energy forms in transportation requires specific solutions for energy storage, and lithium-ion batteries are considered to have the best potential.

Researchers from the University of Eastern Finland introduced new technology to Li-ion batteries by replacing graphite used in anodes by silicon. The study analysed the suitability of electrochemically produced nanoporous silicon for Li-ion batteries. It is generally understood that in order for silicon to work in batteries, nanoparticles are required, and this brings its own challenges to the production, price and safety of the material. However, one of the main findings of the study was that particles sized between 10 and 20 micrometres and with the right porosity were in fact the most suitable ones to be used in batteries. The discovery is significant, as micrometre-sized particles are easier and safer to process than nanoparticles. This is also important from the viewpoint of battery material recyclability, among other things. The findings were published in Scientific Reports.

“In our research, we were able to combine the best of nano- and micro-technologies: nano-level functionality combined with micro-level processability, and all this without compromising performance,” Researcher Timo Ikonen from the University of Eastern Finland says. “Small amounts of silicon are already used in Tesla’s batteries to increase their energy density, but it’s very challenging to further increase the amount,” he continues.

Next, researchers will combine silicon with small amounts of carbon nanotubes in order to further enhance the electrical conductivity and mechanical durability of the material.

“We now have a good understanding of the material properties required in large-scale use of silicon in Li-ion batteries. However, the silicon we’ve been using is too expensive for commercial use, and that’s why we are now looking into the possibility of manufacturing a similar material from agricultural waste, for example from barley husk ash,” Professor Vesa-Pekka Lehto explains.

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A good bench power supply is the most vital equipment for electronics engineers and hobbyists. However, bench power supplies used in R&D labs are costly. Output rating is also a major issue. A variable DC supply up to 30V with a few amperes current is the basic requirement for labs.

Making a power supply for use in labs is not an easy task due to the complexity of the circuit. To provide high current outputs, it needs heavy transformers and semiconductor devices. A simple alternative is to use a computer power supply unit (PSU). With some modifications, the PSU can be turned into a good bench power supply.

Fig. 1 shows input and output ratings of an ATX computer PSU. The available outputs are +3.3V (20A), +5V (34A), +12V (16A), -5V (0.5A), -12V (0.5A) and +5VSB (2A).

These outputs are available on one 20-pin Molex connector (some newer PSUs have 24-pin connector) and four various other 4-pin connectors.

A 20-pin Molex connector is shown in Fig. 2. Wire colour codes of standard ATX PSU connector are shown in the table below. From the table, you can identify voltage outputs corresponding to different colour codes.

Power up and testing

To test a computer PSU without connecting it to the motherboard, short its green wire to any of the black wires (ground wires). The power supply’s cooling fan should turn on to indicate that the power supply is ‘on.’ Now you can check the voltages of all the different wires with respect to black wire by using a multimeter. If all the voltages are as per the colour code table, the power supply is working fine.

Another method is to check the voltage of grey wire, which is a PGS or power-good signal. It should be +5V approx.

Opening the power supply unit

As you know, computers work on 230V AC power. To open the PSU enclosure, first disconnect its 230V supply cord. After you unscrew the PSU enclosure and remove the cover, be careful of large capacitors on the PCB. Wait for a while or discharge them using a proper discharging tool. Otherwise, you run the risk of getting an electric shock from capacitors.

You will see that all the same-colour wires are bundled together and soldered in one place on the PCB. The PCB is also marked with legends for their voltage and signals.

Modifications

Fixed outputs.

Since the outputs available on various PSU connectors are meant for connections to the motherboard, the connections need to be slightly modified for use of the unit as a bench power supply.

All the required connections for fixed but multiple outputs are shown in Fig. 3 and the author’s prototype of the same is shown in Fig. 4. Front panel of the author’s prototype is shown in Fig. 5.

Power-on switch.

The green wire in ATX is PS_ON or ‘power supply on’ wire. It is used by the motherboard to turn on the PSU. Normally, its voltage level is +5V DC. To turn on the PSU, it needs to be grounded. So you need to connect an on/off switch between PS_ON and ground.

Standby indicator.

When AC power cord is plugged into 230V AC socket and power switch is in ‘off’ position, the PSU is in standby mode. To provide an indication for standby mode, connect an LED to purple wire, which provides a 5VSB signal from ATX PSU. 5VSB is active-high when the PSU is in standby mode. The voltage level of 5VSB is +5V DC, so you need to connect a 220-ohm, 0.25-watt resistor in series with the LED. As soon as power switch is operated to power-on the PSU, 5VSB goes low and the LED stops glowing, indicating that the PSU is in power-on mode.

Power-on indicator.

For power-on indication, you need to connect an LED to grey wire through a 220-ohm, 0.25-watt resistor. This grey wire provides PGS or power-good signal. In standby mode, this signal is active-low. After powering up the PSU, it becomes active-high (+5V DC).

Series fuse.

You may ask what’s the need of a series fuse when the PSU has a very good inbuilt short-circuit protection. The fuse is used here not to protect the PSU but your valuable project.

As you know, the current rating of the PSU is moderately high at more than 10 amperes. But in general, an average electronics project or circuit doesn’t need such high current. If there is any short circuit in your project, the short-circuit current will reduce to the level of the fuse current. Without a fuse, the short-circuit current will reach the maximum output current of the PSU, severely damaging the circuit.

To make your power supply more effective, remove the PCB board from the PSU enclosure. Place it in a larger enclosure and mount banana sockets for different outputs. You can also use an ammeter in series with the output to measure the load current onboard.

The post Bench Power Supply Using a Computer’s Power Supply appeared first on Electronics For You.

In this video, the presenter will be showing you how to make an Electroscope by using things easily available in your house like a glass jar, copper wire, aluminum foil etc.

Courtesy: RimstarOrg

The post DIY: How to make an Electroscope appeared first on Electronics For You.

•  Open source makes tasks easier for businesses and customers alike.

While open source may be just another tech jargon to you, it has transformed operations for many organisations in the past and can intrinsically bring an all-new experience for your company, too. But what is great about open source for your business? Essentially, it is the ease that brings open source to the mainstream, as it makes tasks easier for consumers.

Technology giants like Google and Microsoft, network operators such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone, and social networking sites like Facebook and Google+, all are using open source to grow in the market.

Unified, profitable model

The original model revolved around open source software alone. But nowadays, hardware and even the cloud have started going the open source way. “It is easier to deploy open source technologies than proprietary ones as these are meant for specific use-cases,” said Anant Kumar, head of product engineering and IT, Bharti Airtel.

Airtel is widely adopting open source developments to expand its position in the Indian telecom sector. Whether it is customer acquisition or optimising the experience for its own call centre agents, the Gurugram-headquartered telco is leveraging open source at all major levels.

“Open source has helped us build elastic, scalable systems at low cost and hence increase our productivity,” said Harmeen Mehta, global chief information officer, Bharti Airtel. At present, Airtel entirely depends upon open source for its six important projects and has a team of more than 80 engineers to continually monitor and improve its developments.

Substitutes for proprietary solutions

One of the most obvious advantages of open source is its availability as an alternative to proprietary solutions. If you want to switch from Microsoft Office to an open source solution, you can find not just one or two but plenty of substitutes. There are LibreOffice, Apache OpenOffice and KOffice to give you the closest experience to Microsoft Office at no cost.

Likewise, if you are looking to abandon your existing proprietary database solution to move to an open source alternative, you have PostgreSQL, MySQL, NoSQL and MariaDB among various other options.

Chandigarh-based Jugnoo, which is among the early open source-adopting startups, recently moved from Tally and SAP ERP to open-sourced Odoo for its HR developments. Co-founder and CTO Chinmay Agarwal now plans to shift the company’s other business processes also to open source.

“We liked the implementation of Odoo for HR, and it will be easy for us to transition ultimately to Odoo for other business processes too,” Agarwal highlighted.

Cost saving

The prime benefit of switching to open source is cost saving. Online travel company MakeMyTrip that handles its online presence with a monthly traffic of over 22 million visits considers open source as an efficient alternative.

“At an optimal operating expenditure, we were able to exercise greater flexibility using open source components on our website,” said Vikram Mehta, senior manager for information security, MakeMyTrip.

Airtel also counts on the efficiency and flexibility of open source. “Preferring open source lets us take control in order to make our decisions smoothly,” Kumar said.

Kumar considers spending on open source technologies virtually puts zero burden. “If we have to take a licensed product, then its cost gets multiplied. You can compare this with any popular commercial solution and get the total saving. It will be in tunes of crores (tens of millions),” he pronounced.

Scalable till infinity

If you want to grow the presence of your company, scalability is the first parameter to consider. But this is something that you cannot achieve entirely with a proprietary solution. You must move to open source.

“Open source technology gives you the freedom to try, test and scale your solution, one step at a time,” said Amit Ranjan, who co-founded SlideShare and is presently working at National e-Governance Division (NeGD).

NeGD has developed citizen-first projects including DigiLocker and Government e-Market (GeM) using open source technologies. This helps the government department to effectively offer its solutions to the public and enable scalability with ease. To date,  DigiLocker has provided access to over a billion documents online. All that came from a small in-house team of around 14 people from diverse domains.

“Our small team is capable of doing tasks that require hundreds of engineers. It is all because of the skills that come from the open source support,” Ranjan states.

External R&D

Among the lifelines of open source, community support comes at the top. “If a project has an active community, it will be regularly patched and improved,” said Bob Canaway, CMO, BlackDuck.

The post Why Everyone Is Switching To Open Source appeared first on Electronics For You.

• Manage your vehicles better while keeping an eye out for any kind of nuisance like fuel theft.

In 2012, Arjun S. Kumar, then 13-year-old school student from Chennai, was caught in a cyclone-induced heavy rain while returning home by the school bus, leaving his parents worried about his whereabouts and wellbeing. To help parents in such situations, the boy later went on to program a mobile application called Locatera, which helps school authorities and parents to track a school bus, get information on the students available in the bus and know whereabouts of the bus at any given time. Interestingly, this app, developed by a school student, has been acknowledged by the government of India, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Google. Fortunately, there are a host of similar solutions available today. Here we talk about a few of them.

Scope of the technology

Apart from educational institutions like schools and colleges that provide transport services to their students, transport companies that often partner with hospitality majors can boost their business using bus tracking applications.

Creating a brand value.

For any player in the transport business, safety is the biggest concern. Thus, when safety is assured, the brand value of the transport company goes several notches up. And this is exactly the USP of this technology. The application helps track a vehicle’s movements in real time—including location, speed, direction and so on. Tabs on the driver’s behavioural patterns like punctuality, driving style and route regulations keep both the company as well as customers informed about the reliability of the driver. In addition, there are panic buttons to raise emergency alerts.

Trans Global Geomatics, a Hyderabad-based fleet management solutions company, has provided a school-bus tracking solution for International School, Kakinada, which manages 40 buses. There were reports of frequent school bus delays during pickup. Additionally, the management suspected fuel theft from the buses, noticing unavailability of the vehicles at times.

Trans Global Geomatics provided the school a bus tracking solution, which gave users insight like vehicle idle alert (SMS- and email-based notification for every five-minute halt), real-time bus navigation tracking to monitor the whereabouts of the bus, details on every halt made by the bus throughout the day, and daily pickup and drop-off data. All this data helped the school authority to manage their vehicles better while keeping an eye out for any kind of nuisance like fuel theft.

Saving money.

Be it an organisation’s own fleet of buses or a third-party transport company, cost efficiency is a necessity. Application-based analytics, route consistency monitoring and driver tracking greatly reduce unnecessary expenses. Organisations can monitor hourly paid drivers to avoid over-payment due to driver delays. Route optimisation helps reduce inefficient driving, cutting down fuel expenses. Applications also allow fuel and engine status visibility, so institutions can track unplanned vehicle usage or unaccounted fuel loss. For instance, InnoVita Technologies, a Pune-based vehicle tracking solutions company, has reported up to 15 per cent decrease in the fuel cost for its customers who have incorporated the school bus tracking solution.

Better customer services.

Bus tracking solutions provide details like estimated time of bus arrival and analytics on driver punctuality, time management and schedule patterns, utilising which organisations can improve their schedules and advise drivers on better time management. Parents can also be pre-informed about the pickup timings.

Magnasoft Consulting India cited an example where the transport manager of one of their client schools explained how difficult the bus fleet management was and how challenging it was to address the delays caused by the buses during pickup without a smart system helping them out initially. The integration of a bus tracking solution called Northstar Duo, by Magnasoft, helped the school to keep a constant tab on the bus on-road and also provided insight into the pickup timing patterns of the drivers—essentially allowing the school authority to formulate a better pickup schedule, manage the bus timings and get a clear idea of the vehicle whereabouts in real time. Parents receive an automated voice notification of the vehicle arrival. Additionally, the school was able to increase the fuel-efficiency of its vehicles through route monitoring. This greatly eased the vehicle management process for the school and improved parent satisfaction with punctuality maintained ever since.

Lower maintenance cost.

One of the most difficult challenges faced by institutions is to provide in time a substitute for a broken down vehicle. Bus tracking applications enable predictive maintenance by providing insights on probable malfunctioning or notification about due servicing. Thus, proactive service and maintenance minimises vehicle downtime. In case of a probable breakdown, vehicle owners can have a substitute bus ready to avoid any major service delay.

All in all…

For institutions providing transport services, delivering safe, smooth, timely and efficient services with minimal expenditure is crucial. All these factors culminate into trust and positive reputation of the institution in the eyes of its customers. And that’s what vehicle tracking applications are meant for!

If you want to share such case studies with EFY readers, please contact us at smartworld@efy.in

The post Keep Stress At Bay With Vehicle Tracking Systems appeared first on Electronics For You.

•  Harness the power of artificial intelligence to transform your business operations and serve customers better.

Almost everyone agrees that artificial intelligence (AI) is the next big thing for businesses. But, is there any AI platform ready for you to deploy? While IBM’s Watson is the most widely known AI platform, there are many more for you to hire.

Amazon AI

Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers a good range of AI services including tools, platforms, frameworks and infrastructure. Amazon Machine Learning is a cloud-based service that makes machine learning technology available to users of all skill levels. Using powerful algorithms, it helps users create machine learning models by finding patterns in existing data, and using these patterns to make predictions from new data as it becomes available. Offering a user-friendly interface utilising visualisation tools, wizards and more, the highly scalable platform enables creation, evaluation and deployment of meaningful machine learning (ML) models. AWS also provides AI services like image recognition, text-to-speech, voice and text chatbots, and more.

This service is widely used in applications like demand forecast, user activity prediction, item recommendation, fraud detection and suspicious transaction flagging, review filtering and so on. Amazon Machine Learning’s secret of ease lies in its automated processing in every step.

Experts suggest that this platform is well-suited for users who are looking for quick and powerful yet low-cost solutions. It is also a recommendable platform for relatively newer users. It can be used for retail, food chain, hospitality, sports and entertainment, and finance among other sectors.

Let’s look at the example of Upserve—a US-based company that delivers cloud-based intelligence and management system for restaurants. Amazon Machine Learning, ingesting data like reservations, real-time payment processing, menu preference histories, customer count and so on, developed over a hundred machine learning models, which helped Upserve’s client restaurants to improve profitability and drastically cut down on wastage based on major predictive parameters.

Google Cloud Machine Learning Engine

Google Cloud ML platform has made a mark very quickly despite being a much newer release than Amazon or Azure ML platforms. This platform attends to developers’ desire of forging their own machine learning model—no matter how complex or how large. This ability comes from the TensorFlow system—Google’s open source deep learning framework—lying at the heart of Google’s machine learning platform.

The massively scalable machine learning engine backed by AI APIs for speech recognition, advanced search, natural language processing, video, image and text analysis, and much more, gives users a machine learning model with benefits like accurate real-time analytics, efficient anomaly detection and correction, prediction, easy search and recommendations, meaningful insight into complex unstructured data, automated processes and so on.

Customers of any stature ranging from search engines, online retail, job search sites, sales or marketing up to bioengineering or even aerospace and defence firms will find Google Cloud ML platform suitable for their requirement. The biggest confidence in using Google’s offerings comes from the fact that the global giant itself uses the same technologies in its own systems as offered to its customers.

In a real-life scenario, Google’s ML platform has benefited the likes of Airbus Defense and Space in detection and correction of satellite images. Even at high quality level, satellite images capture phenomena like cloud formation, which hinder the real motive of the picture like accurate atmosphere or seasonal analysis—something which is used in areas like precision farming, yield prediction or crop health analysis, where data is required to be absolutely precise. At Airbus, the process had been manual, time-consuming and error-prone for over a decade. Google’s solution automated it and delivered to Airbus customers results with absolute accuracy and detailed insight. Thus, Google’s platform is capable of delivering solutions for any scale of complexity.

IPSoft Amelia

USA-based IPSoft created an intriguing AI innovation, called Amelia. The interesting aspect of Amelia is its interaction capabilities coupled with conversation and advanced learning talents that push it closer to the true sense of AI. Geared with advanced learning and self-learning tools, machine learning and deep learning capabilities, understanding of entire sentences and conversations with knowledge of 20 languages, and facial expression and emotion detection, the system can extract knowledge from large documents and historical records, interact directly with its employer’s customers, educate human colleagues, oversee and streamline workflow in a management role, and do much more. The applications of Amelia put a major focus towards digital workforce management.

Chetan Dube, founder and CEO, IPSoft, says, “Amelia is neither a platform, nor a solution. It is a digital employee who has been designed with intelligence, reasoning and decision-making skills that help her more closely resemble the way humans think, act, and work. Amelia is a scalable digital workforce that can address as much work volume as needed. She has a direct impact on the key ROI metrics that shareholders and management teams prioritise above all others. Amelia’s ability to learn more quickly, manage more complex dialogues, respond to analytical triggers in real time, and better understand those with whom she interacts with truly sets her apart as a valuable asset for any modern enterprise.”

The post Artificial Intelligence On Hire! appeared first on Electronics For You.

MAX77756 with integrated power MUX provides higher current load, dual input, and I2C support

San Jose, CA—August 9, 2017— Developers of multi-cell, USB Type-C products that need higher current, dual input, and I2C support now have a flexible option with the MAX77756 24V, 500mA, low quiescent current (Iq) buck converter from Maxim Integrated Products, Inc.

USB Type-C products must generate an always-on 3.3V rail to detect USB insertions. Products utilizing the Power Delivery (PD) voltage range (5V to 20V) can generate an always-on (1.8V/3.3V/5.0V) digital supply rail for the port controller using the MAX77756 step-down converter. In addition, the MAX77756 has a 20μA quiescent current that extends battery life by reducing idle power consumption. To simplify the system design, the MAX77756 has a dual input ideal diode ORing circuit that allows the chip to power from the external USB source if the battery is empty.

Multi-cell battery-operated devices—such as ultrabooks, laptops, tablets, drones, and home automation appliances—can easily evolve to Type-C with PD using the flexible MAX77756 power supply. The MAX77756 has a unique combination of wide input voltage range, low quiescent current, higher current load, dual input, and I2C for flexibility and programmability. There is also a default power mode if customers do not want to use the I2C bus. The MAX77756 is a robust IC with short-circuit and thermal protection, 8ms internal soft-start to minimize inrush current, proven current-mode control architecture, and up to 26V input voltage standoff.

Key Advantages

• Low quiescent current: 1.5μA Buck and 20μA MUX for always-on operation
• High efficiency: Up to 92% with integrated power MUX
• Small solution size: 2.33mm x 1.42mm 15-bump WLP; no external Schottky array needed
• Wide input voltage: Operates on full VBUS range (5V-20V) and VBATT (2S, 3S, 4S Li+)

The post Extend Battery Life of USB Type-C Devices with Flexible Buck Converter appeared first on Electronics For You.

Internet of Things (IoT) solutions are evolving day-by-day and opening up new gateways for progress and innovation. In a conversation with Paromik Chakraborty of Electronics For You, Shekhar Sanyal, director and country Head, IET India, talks about the business opportunities for startups in IoT space, impact of IoT on industries and endeavours of the IoT Congress

Q. What are the business opportunities for startups in the IoT?

A. Right now, the best business opportunities in the IoT lie at the intersection of industries where no solution has been thought of yet. And by that, we mean intersection of data produced by industries. There lies a big opening for a startup if it can find the intersection where the data of one industry can be used for another using IoT solutions.

Most startups work on intersections where solutions are already available. The value comes from aligning the different datasets available and intersecting them so that the combination can benefit the users in new ways.

Q. What are the areas for investments in industrial IoT?

A. In sectors like automobile manufacturing, especially with the advent of electric cars, use of automation will keep increasing for the next three to five years. In the SME sector, the difference between the cost of investing in automated process and the cost of laboured process will start to narrow. So more and more SMEs will start implementing automation.
Speaking of specific technology, AI will play a key role. Nanotechnology will also get linked to IoT and play a bigger role. New technologies will develop in the background, and that is where the investment should be made.

Q. How can Indian IoT startups hit the bull’s eye?

A. Most startups are digitally savvy. They understand how the software and the technologies work. But, they lag behind in finding the link to the traditional industry. How many startups are looking at the electronics, electrical, power and energy, or automobile manufacturing industries, and providing solutions for them? These are the key infrastructure industries that are vital for the progress of the industrial economy. Since these industries are large and capital-intensive, startups tend to stay away from them.

Q. Please explain…

A. Let’s consider the energy industry, where a primary area for deep-diving is the smart grid—it will essentially change the way power is distributed. Another example is e-transportation, where electric vehicles need to optimise their electricity consumption. The internal combustion engine, which has a lot of moving parts today, will become much more digital. This leads to many new things that can be done over and above what is already present on the ground. The third example is energy storage. The renewable energy sector needs highly efficient solutions for storing and managing energy.

Q. How reliable are IoT networks currently?

A. Security and privacy are separate concerns. A lot of work is being done to ensure security on the cloud, and the available security levels are quite adequate. The challenge comes around privacy. There is presently no legal regulation or system for privacy handling. The situation is the same at global scale, and we all need to work towards bringing in some laws for data privacy.

Q. How will standardisation impact the industry?

A. Currently, there are about 15 different standards in various parts of the IoT, especially surrounding the way the data stack comes in and the kind of systems used to transfer the data. Availability of so many different standards creates a silos within the platform, disrupting interoperability—the main idea of the IoT. Having a single standard opens up the silos and makes the platform stronger and more valid.

From developers’ point of view, if there is a single common standard, you can just add onto the platform irrespective of what you create. It assimilates together and the value goes up.
With standardisation, anything developed around the globe will work in your country as well and you will not have to worry about compatibility.

Q. What is the main agenda for this year’s IoT Congress?

A. The theme of this year’s IoT Congress is healthcare, manufacturing and what’s next in IoT, with special attention to Clean Ganga project. It will focus on startups in IoT and also provide a peek into the virtual reality future of the IoT.

The post The Best Opportunities are at the Intersection of Industries appeared first on Electronics For You.

This project proposes a peltier element based Cyclic thermoelectric heating and cooling system with precise temperature control by using PID controller with microcontroller. In this project I have used Peltier Thermoelectric device, Arduino mega board & LM35 temperature sensor.

What is a thermoelectric device?

A thermoelectric device is a solid state semiconductor device consisting of a number of semiconductor elements (P- type and N-type) mounted between two substrates. the elements are connected electrically in series (P-N-P-N)and thermally in parallel. When voltage is applied in one direction, one side of the device creates heat while the other side absorbs heat. TEC module is working on the principle of peltier effect.

The peltier effect is a creation of temperature difference from electric current, when direct current passes across the different materials (metal or semiconductor) that are connected at two junctions. When a current flows across the junction of two different metals (or semiconductors), it absorbs or liberates heat, depending on the direction of current. i.e. electron carriers transports heat from one junction to the other junction. If the current direction is reversed hot and cold junction are also reversed. The thermoelectric module can be use as thermoelectric generator. When temperature gradient is applied on both surfaces of the module, the generated current is proportional to the temperature gradient. Thermo electric generator working on the principle of seebeck effect.

Thermoelectric modules have several advantages for regulating temperature like high precision and stability, quick response time and decent set temperature range. TE devices are small in size and very low weight, reliable, independent from noise and friendly nature to environment. TE devices also have challenges like low thermal power, low efficiency and high cost.

In this project the amount of heating/cooling is proportional to the power delivered to the TEC module. To regulate the voltage applied to TEC ,PWM technique is used. With PWM, power to the TE device is switched quickly ON and OFF at a constant frequency. This creates a square wave pulse of power with constant time period, the ON time or duty cycle is varied to create an average output Voltage that is required by the TE device to maintain the set temperature.

MOSFET is used as a switch for PWM function and four MOSFETS are used as H-bridge circuit to change the polarity of current flowing through the TE device according to cooling or heating of top surface of module.

Circuit Diagram and Working

Circuit diagram of the PID control action for cyclic heating and cooling of thermoelectric device is shown in Fig. 3. It is built around an Arduino Mega board, 16×2 LCD,4X4 keypad, temperature sensor LM35,MOSFETS and a few other components.

Arduino is at the heart of the circuit as it controls all functions. LM35 is a precision integrated circuit whose output voltage is linearly proportional to celsius temperature. It is rated to operate over a -55°C to 150°C temperature range. It has +10.0mV/Celsius linear-scale factor.

There are a wide variety of temperature sensor ICs that are available to simplify the broadest possible range of temperature monitoring challenges. A temperature sensor IC can operate over the nominal IC temperature range of -55°C to +150°C.Temperature sensor LM35 senses the temperature and converts it into an electrical (analogue) signal, which is applied to the MCU through an analogue-to-digital converter (ADC). The analogue signal is converted into digital format by the ADC.

LCD and keypad I/O devices are interfaced to arduino as shown in circuit and driver circuit is made by MOSFETs and transistors as shown in circuit. Sensed values of the temperature and setpoint temperature of the TE device are displayed on the LCD. required temperature set point and heating and cooling cycle times are entered through the Keypad.

The MOSFET Q5 functions as PWM to regulate the temperature of the thermoelectric cooler/heater. MOSFETs Q1,Q2,Q3,Q4 function as Bridge circuit to change the direction of the current flowing through the device. Transistors T1,T2 and T3 are used to drive the MOSFETs Q5,Q1&Q4 and Q2&Q3. LED L1,L2 and L3 indicate the conditions of PWM, heating and cooling operation.

Circuit Operation

Connect 10V 3A DC power supply to driver circuit and 9V battery to Arduino board. While switching On the system we have to enter the desired values of temperature, heating period and cooling period through keypad. To enter the temperature set-point press the character ‘A’ on keypad then, microcontroller displays the message as “enter the temperature set-point”, then enter the temperature value and press ‘#’ to enter the value. Similarly, enter heating time in seconds press ‘B’ and enter time in sec press ‘#’ and to enter cooling time press ‘C’ and enter time in seconds then press ‘#’. After completing the desired input values press ‘*’ to start the operation of the system.

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In this video, the presenter is going to give you a basic tutorial on schottky and zener diodes and what makes them special.

Courtesy: GreatScott!!

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Store up to 2TB in a flash drive

The world was surprised when thumb drives came with capacities greater than a gigabyte. What would you say now that Kingston has come out with terabyte-capacity USB flash drives?

Kingston’s DataTraveler Ultimate GT comes in 1TB and 2TB capacities, each priced at around a thousand dollars. If you need to backup large production files on the go or take along a 4K or 8K RAW video footage, it is definitely worth investing in.

USB 3.1 Gen 1 improves the performance by up to ten times while also providing better power management. This makes DataTraveler much faster than traditional external hard drives. A small footprint of 7.5×2.7×2.1cm3 and protective zinc alloy metal casing make the device handy and robust to carry along. Although made for USB Type-C ports, these flash drives also work with the USB 2.0 and 3.0 Type-A ports commonly found on PCs, tablets and other devices.

The high-capacity flash drive is ideal to use with Android devices that support USB OTG (On-The-Go). So users can quickly access, edit and transfer files without any performance lag. Apart from regular versions available for sale, the company provides the option to customise drives for orders greater than 100 units. You can design the casing, logo and other aspects, or pre-store some content on the drives.

Product: Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate GT 2TB; Company: Kingston; Website; Country: United States of America

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In electronics manufacturing, Integrated circuit (IC) packaging is the final stage of semiconductor device fabrication. In this process a tiny block of semiconducting material is encapsulated in a supporting case that prevents physical damage and corrosion.

Upon Completion of the slideshow, you will be able to understand the following points:

• Package Overview
• Through-Hole package
• Surface mount package
• Chip-Scale Package (CSP)
• Wire Bonded BGA
• FC-BGA
• Wafer Level Chip-Scale Package (WL-CSP)
• Advantages of WL-CSP IC

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5 Reasons to Update the Enterprise IoT Security Roadmap

In order for widespread IoT adoption to take hold, the industry needs to mandate minimum levels of security measures that protect from cyber intrusion across the boardAs the ever-growing Internet of Things becomes a staple in households across America through smart, connected devices, the risk of security breaches is a concept brought to the average consumers’ (at times, actual) frontdoor.

The growth in security concerns — ranging from the fear of an intruder virtually flipping a door lock to a hacker taking down a power grid — comes from increasing threats from obsolete systems and protocols that haven’t updated to meet the security requirements of the growing ecosystem of connected devices.Weaknesses in platform security could push existing smart home owners to uproot their whole system for a new one, or it could even prevent potential consumers from entering the smart home revolution. (Read More)

Improving Electoral Cybersecurity in Kenya

Kenya has a robust legal regime governing cybersecurity and hacking. The government’s executive cabinet approved a computer and cybercrime bill this year mandating penal consequences for a set of cyber-related offenses, including intentional unauthorized infiltration of a computer system and unauthorized interception of transmission of data over a telecommunications system. The statute also says that interference with a computer system that threatens national security, causes injury or death, or threatens public health and safety carries a fine of up to $20,000 or ten years in prison.

Several other statutes explore the relationship between cybersecurity and national security, focusing particularly on crime detection and counterterrorism operations. For example, Section 69 of the Security Laws (Amendment) Act empowers national security organs to intercept communications for the purpose of detecting and preventing terrorist activities. National security bodies also have wide-ranging surveillance capabilities, including direct access to Kenya’s telecommunications networks, and can monitor social media. (Read More)

Indian Govt Finalising Cyber Security Standards for Mobile Phones

Indian government is finalising cyber security standards for mobile phones, following concerns over rising cyber attacks and breach of financial and personal data at the hands of mobile phone companies.

“The products of all mobile manufacturing units must be security-compliant. There will be no compromise on this issue,” Union Minister for Information Technology and Electronics Ravi Shankar Prasad said at a summit on cyber and network security, organised by industry chamber Assocham.

Earlier this month, the Ministry for Electronics and Information Technology had asked 21 smartphone makers across the world — of which majority are Chinese — to share the security procedures they have undertaken to ensure security of mobile phones. (Read More)

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EspressoBin provides everything raspberry pi cannot! This board has a SATA port, 3X Gigabit LAN, and support for MPCI-E!! check out the review for more details!

Courtesy: Novaspirit Tech

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A proximity sensor is a sensor which is able to detect nearby objects with the help of emitting electromagnetic field or a beam of electromagnetic radiations without any physical contact.

It is commonly used on mobile devices to detect if someone is in nominal range. In smartphones an IR-based proximity sensor is used to detect the presence of a human ear. Once the user places his smartphone near ear, the display turns off resulting in low power consumption. Proximity sensor can also be used recognise air gestures and hover-manipulations.

There are four types of Proximity sensor:

1. Inductive Proximity Sensor

2. Capacitive Proximity Sensor

3. Ultrasonic Proximity Sensor

4. Optical Proximity Sensor

All the above types are explained in the slideshow given below:

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Have you ever Looked at the world from above? One thing that defines its beauty and grandeur is the movement down under. This movement, in technical terms, is called mobility. What our world needs today is Green Mobility

Trains, buses, taxis and trucks are always on the move, forming the networks that lead to the growth of cities and towns. Mobility and the supply chain are important to many businesses, to deliver goods and services. In fact, mobility has become the lifeline of human existence. Yet, it comes with its own hazards – living spaces can become noisy, congested, polluted and give rise to airborne viruses, which can impact human life for years to come. That’s the reason why alternate forms of fuel, power and mobility drivers are now being explored. Research dollars are being spent in these fields to drive growth and create new business lines that will take the automotive sector into new realms. And one domain that is showing the maximum promise in terms of delivering sustainable transportation and mobility is electric vehicles (EV).

Global trends in the Electric Vehicle (EV) segment

Growing business opportunities in green mobility, increased government understanding, reduced costs, higher demand and changing consumer habits are giving a fillip to the EV industry. As per industry trends and estimates, global EV sales are slated to touch 41 million by 2040 and constitute 35 per cent of new car sales. This could happen because of wider acceptance of the technology and allied industrial support.

Countries like China, USA, Japan, the Netherlands and France are currently the prominent markets for investments in EV. The growth drivers in these markets are: increased collaborative IP sharing, stakeholder interest, funding, advocacy for the technology, development of infrastructure to support EVs in terms of adequate charging facilities, and continuous investments in R&D. Government policies are being driven to adapt to these changes, which is encouraging. And it is expected that the global mass markets will follow the trends set by the early-adopter countries. Industry bodies and early adopters have succeeded in delivering practicality, sustainability, safety and cost effectiveness to the EV sector, but it still needs support in terms of governance, which can help wider deployment and faster adoption.

China is now adopting the EV culture in a big way, supported by government initiatives like restrictions on the use of conventional fuel engine vehicles in certain major cities, a step taken in the public interest to reduce pollution. Allied industries like the manufacturers of batteries, components and electronic accessory manufacturers have been given tax holidays to catalyse this growth. These are bold moves that are expected to drive exponential growth in the segment, setting an example for others to follow. One major move made by China is in public transport. Today, more than 200,000 buses on China’s roads are electrically powered, and 20 per cent of all new orders annually are being equipped with EV features.

After the climate change conference held at Morocco in 2016, it is widely believed that EVs are the future for a sustainable transport system, and that’s why there is a global impetus to shift public transport systems towards optimal adoption of EVs. There is a consensus that by 2020, 20 million cars globally must be electrically powered — this is being championed under the Electric Vehicles Initiative (EVI). Prior to the Morocco convention, the Paris Declaration on electro–mobility and climate change focused on the fact that transport contributes almost 23 per cent to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and this is increasing at a faster rate than in most sectors. If the right steps are not taken in time, it could contribute to 50 per cent of GHG emissions by 2050. This will lead to rising temperatures and global imbalances. Are we ready to counter this trend?

Therefore, it is advisable for governments to invest in sustainable energy sources that can impact human life in a positive way. The steps that can lead to this transition are: a dramatic change in the transportation portfolio, with a set target to replace fossil fuel powered vehicles with EVs; investment in global research to understand the dynamics across temperature zones; incentives to manufacturing industries with EVs in their product portfolio; and creation and implementation of global agreements as well as policy frameworks to drive change.

There are various encouraging government initiatives, too, for this sector. The Indian government has set up a Green Urban Transport Scheme (GUTS) with an initial investment of Rs 250 billion. This will help propel green energy initiatives and infrastructure at the national, state and city levels, all of which will impact the EV market. Another promising policy initiative is the National Electric Mobility Mission – 2020, mandated under the FAME scheme.

The post GREEN MOBILITY FOCUS: Powering Automotives Globally appeared first on Electronics For You.

TOKYO, September 5, 2017 ― Renesas Electronics Corporation, today announced the latest update of its Renesas Synergy Platform, the first qualified, maintained and fully supported software/hardware platform that accelerates time to market, reduces total cost of ownership and removes the obstacles engineers face designing Internet of Things (IoT) products. The Renesas Synergy Platform consists of fully integrated software, development tools and a family of scalable microcontrollers (MCUs) with no upfront fees or back-end royalties – everything is included in the purchase price of the MCU device.

The Synergy Platform’s new release includes the Synergy Software Package (SSP) version 1.3.0, which integrates Express Logic’s NetX Secure Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Message Queue Telemetry Transport (MQTT) for NetX Duo. SSP v1.3.0 also adds Wi-Fi, LTE cellular and Bluetooth® low energy (BLE) wireless application frameworks that simplify adding or exchanging radio frequency (RF) modules in IoT devices. Low power management is enhanced by adding the Power Profile application framework to make it easy to use the Synergy MCUs’ complex low-power modes. The Synergy Platform also includes software and development tool support for three additional MCU groups – S5D5, S3A6, and S128. New low-cost S5D5 and S3A6 target board kits and S128 development kit further reduce development cost barriers.

SSP v1.3.0 integrates NetX Secure to safeguard connected IoT device communications over public networks and the Internet. Developers can easily deploy NetX Secure to authenticate the senders and receivers identity, and prevent eavesdropping and tampering with data sent across the network. NetX Secure uses the TLS protocol to achieve socket layer security while using the NetX Duo TCP/IP network stack. TLS provides security three ways: by establishing secret keys between the client and server, applying hashing algorithms to detect alteration or forgery of packet content, and remote host identity using digital certificates. The MQTT protocol enables lightweight machine-to-machine (M2M) communication across small IoT edge devices powered by MCUs. This combination of TLS and MQTT protocols ensures secure and efficient communication from edge to cloud.

“The functionality of the Synergy Platform continues to grow in value, serving embedded IoT developers with greater security, simple to integrate RF modules, and an ever-expanding full service software/hardware platform that accelerates time to market like never before,” said Peter Carbone, Vice President of Synergy IoT Platform Business Division, Renesas Electronics Corporation. “Each new SSP release enables our customers to innovate and differentiate, while tackling the most complex IoT applications.”

“With edge nodes and connected devices rapidly populating the IoT landscape, the need to put an end to security breaches of sensitive and confidential information has never been more critical,” said William E. Lamie, President, Express Logic, Inc. “We are thrilled to see Express Logic’s NetX Secure TLS and MQTT for NetX Duo inside Renesas’ Synergy Software. We believe that Synergy customers have the essential tools needed to quickly develop secure IoT device-to-cloud solutions.”

Wireless Application Framework Additions

The wireless application frameworks in SSP v1.3.0 enable developers to easily add, or swap RF modules from various suppliers into their projects by providing a set of uniform APIs that abstract low-level hardware details. This makes it easy for Synergy Platform customers to evaluate popular RF modules and quickly adapt to changes in availability of specific RF modules with minimum impact to application code. SSP v1.3.0 also makes the Wi-Fi application framework native to the SSP and adds new frameworks for cellular and BLE connectivity to cover the three key wireless IoT protocols. Synergy Tools simplify selecting RF module functions, configurations, and connections to the ThreadX® real-time-operating system (RTOS).

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Designers struggle to find the right mechanical and electronic design and simulation software. Innumerable meetings and brainstorming over alternatives eat into their time and energy. Worse, they end up buying the software, paying a hefty amount for it.

Thankfully, a saviour has emerged. FreeCAD is an open source mechanical CAD freeware that is as good as its paid counterparts. Its latest version, VER 0.16, is out in the market and ready to ease the work of designers.

A no-cost, easy-to-use tool

FreeCAD is a user-friendly tool with features of design, simulation and strength calculations for the product. Users need no prior training to be able to use it. After design, a mesh frame is created, which is followed by simulation (Fig. 1).

Consider the case when a designer is making metallic housing for an LED street-light. The designer needs to understand areas that would be under more mechanical stress or require more strength. He also needs to understand thermal management in the housing. Also, there will be calculations related to mechanical functions. The FreeCAD software comes handy here: It would first work on the design workbench, then mesh for strengthening the design, and finally simulation.

How it helps

The latest version of FreeCAD, 0.16, has some additional features:

Expression Support.

FreeCAD helps make models using Excel spreadsheet format, just like in CATIA. Called Expression Support, this helps designers to get the precise location of coordinates. FreeCAD works on the concept of workbench.

Sketcher Solver upgrade.

Sketcher Solver was introduced in the previous version (0.15), but in the new version (0.16) it makes sketch editing even faster and more stable than the previous version (Fig. 2).

Touchscreen 3D navigation.

This makes it easy to navigate. The designer can move the design in any direction with a single finger drag. So FreeCAD can be used without a mouse on a convertible laptop with touchscreen and pen, away from a desk.

New tools to reduce work stress.

Mechanical parts can have a regular or a discrete shape. Older versions of FreeCAD software did not take various shapes into consideration, making it a constraint for designers to work freely on any dimension.

New tools for connect, embed and cutout have been introduced in the latest version. Tools for shapes such as round, trunc, ceil and floor have also been included; version 0.15 featured shapes like parabola and hyperbola. Besides, new features have been introduced for toggle mode, continuous creation mode, speed up, duplication and mirroring (Fig. 3). Rectangles, wires and lines can now be subdivided, allowing all kinds of new shape combinations.

A new spreadsheet view tool allows users to place a range of cells from a spreadsheet on a Drawing page (Fig. 4).

Edit in real time.

You can see the 3D view in real time. This helps you visualise the actual dimension values of a shape. The new Finite Element Method (FEM) workbench allows cleanups, while Path workbench adds editing and import. So you can change the values in real time too. Edits made are saved immediately, helping you to conceptualise in a better way.

FEM workbench GUI

FreeCAD workbench consists of pre-processing, solving and post-processing.

Initially, geometry is modelled, then an FEM mesh created out of the geometry model. Load and support fixes are added to the model. Finally, the material is added.

The designer prepares a framework or skeleton of the design. Then he can use FEM to sort out problems like heat transfer, fluid flow or structural analysis. This is totally based on algebraic calculations.

Once the designer is sure of his designed product, he can give finishing touch to it. For example, in the case of a mechanical pulley system, once the freeware finds the design perfect as per calculations, the designer can define the places where the miscellaneous parts of pulley like nuts and bolts can be tightened.

Note.

To read manual, please visit this page. For installation manual, refer readme files.

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