THE electronic jungle in the foreground is the breadboard, or first working model, of the new miniature four-binary module held by a Bulova Research and Development Labs engineer at Woodside, N.Y. All the elements of resistance and capacitance to the prototype jungle are contained in the tiny device to be used as a timer in space vehicle controls.
A few weeks ago we got a batch of LEDs– a sample order from a new vendor. These are 10 mm diffused white LEDs, much like the ones that we use on the Peggy 2 or in the LED Ghosties. On the surface, they look okay. But after lighting them up, we noticed something funny in a few of them that led us to discover their deep dark– or really, shallow and clear –secret.
I’ve tried my hand at quite a few different methods for circuit building — breadboard, perfboard, custom etching, even some boardless freeform wiring, but somehow, I never got around to using surface-mount parts (until now, that is). Understandably, many balk at the idea of soldering the infamously tiny SMD packages, but once equipped with the right tools, and a bit of patience, you too can solder your own teeny-tiny circuitry.
Most people with even the most fundamental knowledge of how computer chips work are familiar with binary logic — the system of ones and zeros that enable modern computing to occur — in which an input always results in a solid result (either a one or a zero). Now, a Boston-based startup is rewiring the basic concept of computation with a probability processor that deals in chance rather than binary logic, creating a chip that could speed all kinds of processes from flash memory in smartphones to better decision-making software for machines.
Lyric Semiconductor’s chip accepts probabilities as inputs instead of ones and zeros, and the output is also a probability — the odds that the two input probabilities match up. Rather than the usual NAND gates characteristic of conventional transistor schemes, the chips employ what are known as Bayesian NAND gates, named for the statistician Thomas Bayes whose field of thought is the basis for the idea.
The power output of solar panels can be boosted by 10 percent just by applying a big transparent sticker to the front. Developed by a small startup called Genie Lens Technologies, the sticker is a polymer film embossed with microstructures that bend incoming sunlight. The result: the active materials in the panels absorb more light, and convert more of it into electricity.
The technology is cheap and could lower the cost per watt of solar power. Also, unlike other technologies developed to improve solar panel performance, this one can be added to panels that have already been installed.
The polymer film does three main things, says Seth Weiss, CEO and cofounder of Genie Lens, based in Englewood, CO. It prevents light from reflecting off the surface of solar panels. It traps light inside the semiconductor materials that absorb light and convert it to electricity. And it redirects incoming light so that rather than passing through the thin semiconductor material, it travels along its surface, increasing the chances it will be absorbed.
This is actually not any sort of product or public project (!) – its something we designed to help me evaluate solar panels and how they act when charging batteries. Normally this requires a lot of multimeters and its a bit of a pain to do if you have to constantly change out panels. So we decided we would build a specialized tool that would assist us. Here is what we wanted!
Portable! Its hard to test solar panels inside
Ability to log to an SD card for long-term data analysis (to be added later)
Keep track of the solar panel voltage
Keep track of the battery voltage
Keep track of how much current is going thru the panel to the charger
This design is intended for ~6V panels, single Lithium Polymer cells and chargers. It can very easily be adapted to any kind of panel and charger, you’ll just need to adjust the resistor dividers and such!
Have designers of electronics elevated form above function? Most mobile phones, laptops, tablets and the like are just not designed to be dropped or handled too aggressively.
Yes. Companies also change power adapters, charging specs, standards, all to increase profit (shareholder duty, makes sense). Make sure to learn how to fix & mod things yourself
The race to replace copper wiring with optics in chip-to-chip communications reached a new milestone last week as Intel announced it had produced a system using silicon-based photonics to transmit data between printed circuit boards at 50 gigabits per second.
”We’re bringing silicon manufacturing to optical communication,” says Mario Paniccia, director of Intel’s Photonics Technology Lab. ”It changes the way in the future that we’re going to connect.” Until recently, optical communications was done using exotic semiconductors and other expensive components. Making such systems in silicon should lower their price and allow for easy integration into computers.
Some really interesting stuff going on, but how do you breadboard it?
This brief article from Ars Technica reports that semi manufacturers are reporting bigger sales for the first half of this year, vs. 2009.
The SIA reports a 50 percent jump in sales vs. 2009, which puts chip sales a bit above their previous 2008 peak—in other words, a return to the long-term growth trend, with 2009’s v-shaped fall-off and then recovery looking like a blip on an otherwise upwards-pointing curve.
The last time semiconductor sales tanked this hard, in the wake of the dotcom bubble, it took four years for them to rebound off their lows and make new highs. So the fact that the drop and then full rebound happened over the course of one year is quite remarkable.
However, one of the user comments to this article wisely points out that a lot of this may be due to pent up demand, as opposed to new demand from newer products, and that it will subside again. At the mention of pent-up demand, I can’t help but remember the ATMega328 drought that got everybody in a tizzy about 7 months ago. So what do you think?
Before solid state memories appeared and devastated the market for magnetic core, I had schemed to build my own computer using a surplus core stack I kept in my garage for years and years. But, the new darling of the era, the Intel 8008 caught my eye and these plans were long forgotten. But, in the back of my mind, I’ve always wondered if I had the “chops” to build a magnetic core memory that would actually work. I’m a pretty decent digital designer, but my analog skills are not as strong and, to be honest, the whole process seemed a bit funky. But, the bug to try bit me one day, so I set out to do a few experiments and find out if I could make it all work. Most of the components used to build these old memory systems, such as X/Y drivers and sense amplifiers have been obsolete, and virtually unobtainable for many, many years. But, with some creative substitutions, I’ve come up with a simple, one bit design that demonstrates all the basic principles of a working, coincident current, ferrite core memory.
Tired of paying exorbitant amounts for a simple analog pressure sensor? Well here is an easy smeasy way to make an incredibly cheap analog pressure sensor. This pressure sensor won’t be terribly accurate in terms of measuring precise weight or things of this nature, though it can be calibrated somewhat and if you choose to coat it in something like Plasti Dip some of the variables such as humidity and the like can be minimized. However, what this analog pressure sensor is best for is for creating things like bumper sensors that can read variable levels of pressure and various other touch / pressure sensor applications.
Printable catalog (PDF)
