Jive SBS Syndication Feed

FTDI replaces DB9 RS232 connectors with DB9-USB-RS232 modules

JGohlar — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 12:51:54 GMT

FTDI have launched replacements for the industry standard DB9 (DE9) RS232 connectors with their drop-in DB9-USB-RS232 modules.

Conceptually the idea is brilliant yet simple, removing the need to pull together a self-made connectivity bridge and replacing it with a neat, cost-effective module.

Feedback on their use in real applications would be useful.

element14 + Bloodhound @ Farnborough Air Show

laurenmarie — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:06:46 GMT

I had the chance to attend the Farnborough Futures day as an element14 enthusiast and student. Read below to hear about my experience :)

The supersonic car attracted hundreds of people to its marquee throughout the day for a chance to view the life-size model of the final design, and participate in several activity stations around the room.

#
Element14 is a stripe-sponsor for the car and the stand attracted lots of interest and questions, a great opportunity to promote our community’s profile and a proud addition to the Premier Farnell family’s commitment to innovation and inspiring the next generation of EDEs.
Within the Bloodhound tent was displayed a cut away EJ200 jet engine which will power the car, combined with a hybrid rocket engine and auxiliary power unit.
Also on offer were activity stations for young people, including the Bloodhound Driving Experience. The BDE, a Bloodhound arcade-game, gave children the chance to experience driving a supersonic car and educate them about all the factors one must consider when travelling at such high speeds. The children recorded their times on a leader board to try and one another and even the car’s real driver, Pilot Andy Green, had a go!
Also very popular was the kinect-4 station for children to make their own rocket cars. They had to make a frame and wheels with a paper body, and fire the car from an air pump to try and see how far it could travel. As well as teaching about energy transfers, the station involved Bloodhound engineers to work with the children to tackle design issues such as wheel-width, wobble and weight of the structure to get better results - real considerations for the full project as well.
Bloodhound aims to use the project to encourage more students to study STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, and maths) and works closely with partners to nurture the engineers of the future. Students were about to talk to professional engineers, interns and directors of the project, as well as sign-up to updates about the car.

For all those interested, please check out more details on the Bloodhound page.

If anyone would like to ask any question, please comment here and I'll get back to you!

Thanks,

Lauren

2010 National Championships

SamKavanagh — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:35:50 GMT

Well it has been a wild 30 days bookmarked by two National Championship’s that had me contesting 6 different races. If I was not on the road traveling to and from the events, I was at home trying to maximize my rest while squeezing out every last drop of energy I could in my training, in hopes of timing my peak perfectly.

The first National Championship was held in Bend, Oregon and was comprised of the road racing disciplines. While nerves dominated the hours leading up to each race, they were replaced with fast twitching muscle fibers at the sound of the start gun. After 55-km of racing, the Road Race was decided in the final 500-meters where I was able to execute a perfectly timed sprint, leaping free and clear of the field to become the 2010 Road National Champion. I followed up the Road Race the following day with a solo attack of the field in the Criterium Race, with 3-km of racing to go. I buried myself for the first kilometer of my attack, opening a 15-second gap. My competitors could not manage to reel me in, as I crossed the line with hands held high capturing my second National title.

The third and final race I contested at Road Nationals was the time trial. While I had visions of sweeping the weekend, my legs were beginning to pay a bit for my earlier efforts. Also, my competition included several of the world’s best in the time trial discipline. As I sped off from the start line, I settled in the adventure into the pain cave, almost relishing in the building burn in my legs as the kilometers whizzed by. Twenty-four kilometers later, I passed underneath the finish line banner at 40+ mph, legs on fire and eyes crossed in complete exhaustion. The top spot of the podium had slipped from my grasp on the long uphill, but I had clawed my way on the podium in a solid 3^rd place. With three races in the books and three podiums to remember them by, it was back on the road to Bozeman to prepare for Track National Championships.

Track National Championships were held in Colorado Springs, Colorado at the Seven-Eleven Velodrome. Track racing is something near and dear to me. However, my expectations for this year were a bit mixed considering I had focused so much of my training on performing on the road. In order to reacquaint myself with the nuances of racing on the velodrome, I traveled to Colorado Springs a few days early. The few extra days proved to be critical in preparing my body and mind for the different demands of track racing and the ultimate outcome of racing.

The first event to be contested was the 4-km Individual Pursuit. This event demands precise pacing and an ability to push through constantly intensifying pain that culminates in complete exhaustion in the approximately 5 short minutes the race lasts. I had the goal of completing the race in just under 5 minutes, but when I woke in the morning to 15 mph wind gusts, I knew that was very unlikely. I was pleasantly surprised then to stop the clock in 5:04 on race day, setting a personal best in extremely windy conditions. This was merely seconds off my goal of sub 5 minutes, thus netting the bronze podium spot.

I contested two events the following and final day of Track Nationals, both of which are personal favorites. The Kilometer is said to be the most painful race on a bike. Lasting just over 1-minute, it is a 110% sprint from the word go and generally ends with the rider crossing the finish line incapable of applying force to the pedals let alone formulating a single thought. With heavy legs from racing the day before, I lit the afterburners and was quickly at record breaking speeds. Alas my tired legs could go only so hard for so long. As I limped my way around the track in the final 150-meters, I crossed the line a few tenths of second slower then the US record for my disability. Adding to my medal count for the year my time was good for the bronze medal. My final 2010 National Championship race was the crowd favorite, the Team Sprint. The Team Sprint consists of three riders on a team racing together in order to complete 3 laps on the track as fast as they can. My team was most certainly the team to beat and we did not disappoint, logging the fastest time of the day by over 5 seconds. In fitting fashion I concluded my National Championship racing on the top podium step with two of my teammates, as we slid on the National Champion Jerseys signifying we were the best in the business.

In 2010, I have contested 6 different National Championship races, representing a cross-section of cycling disciplines, as wide as the Montana winter is long. In doing so I have had the honor to climb the podium steps all six times, 3 of those trips to be crowned a National Champion, without a doubt this is my best season to date. All of this would not be possible without the loving support, encouragement and motivation you the Element 14 family have provided me. Sara, Amelia and I are extremely grateful.

Next stop on the calendar is the Para-cycling Road World Championship in Quebec, Canada mid-August where I plan to represent you all by showing the world there are no LIMBitations.

Microstick from Microchip

JGohlar — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:44:10 GMT

DM330013 is a neat little board for programming and debugging 16-bit devices , drawing in a lot and combining available resources from Microchip.

There are code examples given as well as 'getting started' & 'installations notes'.

Question is ....has anybody tried it yet and perhaps share with us how easy has it been to use.

Movement on China RoHS

gnevison — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 08:51:28 GMT

After several dormant months the Chinese government’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has issued a proposal, open to comments, on “China RoHS” that has been in force since March 2007.

In what could be a response to the EU proposing an open scope on RoHS (vote on the recast expected in October) “Electronic Information Products” will become broader and change to “Electronic and Electrical Products”.

The 6 EU-RoHS substances remain the same as do labelling requirements such as the Environment Friendly Use Period and packaging labels.

For a guide to China RoHS refer to the attached document:

Global MEMS applications and its market

Khua — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 08:53:50 GMT

Dear All,

Below is my article on MEMS published in EDN asia:

Global MEMS applications and its market

( 01 Jun 2010 )

By Kevin Khua, Technical Support Engineer, Premier Farnell Asia Pacific

Ever wonder why when your smartphone is turned to the side, the screen automatically adjusts from portrait to landscape view, or how the controller of your gaming console responds to changes in direction, speed and acceleration? Behind these user-friendly capabilities lie the microelectromechanical system (MEMS) accelerometer motion sensors—the critical enablers of such features, and one of the core elements which makes these smart phones and game consoles so popular.

MEMS AND THEIR APPLICATIONS
MEMS technology is the integration of sensors, mechanical elements, actuators and electronics on a common silicon substrate through micro-fabrication technology. Often referred to as a system-on-a-chip (SoC), MEMS enables the development of smart products, conquering many market segments, ranging from solutions in automobiles, healthcare, mobile phones, biotech, consumer and more. According to Electronics Industry Market Research and Knowledge Network, the average annual growth of MEMS is more than 20 percent and is expected to reach over $10 billion in year 2010. In the next century, MEMS technology has been identified as one of the most promising technologies.

MEMS have many applications and are found in an increasingly large number of products. Some common areas of MEMS application include automotive, biotech and medical, and consumer electronics. MEMS is also used in BAW (Bulk Acoustic Wave) duplexers and filters, microphones, MEMS autofocus actuators, pressure sensors, MEMS pico-projectors and even MEMS gyroscopes.

MEMS COMPANIES
Worldwide, MEMS products are developed by a number of US and Asian companies such as STMicroelectronics (ST), Analog Devices Inc. (ADI), Hewlett-Packard (HP), Texas Instruments Inc. (TI), and Memsic. We now examine each manufacturer and their key MEMS products.

ST, one of the largest MEMS manufacturers overall, offers a wide array of choices of single and multi-axis gyroscopes with wide full-scale range, suitable for image stabilization in digital still camera and video camera, as well as for improved user experience in gaming application. ST also offers 3-axis gyroscope that accurately measures angular rates along three orthogonal axes. In addition, STM has also expanded its portfolio with next generation micromachined acoustic devices. The innovative MEMS microphone that incorporate Omron’s sensor technology enables significant improvement in sound quality, superior reliability, robustness and also cost-effectiveness for existing/emerging audio applications—in mobile phones, wireless devices, and handheld games. Importantly, MEMS microphone can be made smaller than the most compact ECMs (electrets condenser microphones) and are less susceptible to temperature variations, mechanical vibration and electromagnetic interference.

On its part, ADI offers both analog and digital omnidirectional MEMS microphones. Recently, ADI and Infineon Technologies have agreed to collaborate on the advancement of Next-generation Automotive Airbag Safety Systems. This ADI-Infineon collaboration will ensure alignment of the companies’ respective product roadmaps and interoperability of their sensors and chipsets. The collaboration will also accelerate the development of advanced airbag systems and provide safety system suppliers and OEMs’ access to a complete design platform that will enable a reliable, cost-effective and easy-to-use advanced airbag solution.

HP recently announced an inertial sensing technology that enables the development of digital MEMS accelerometers that can do the work of the high-end sensors. HP predicts that the technology will enable chips to be 1,000 times as sensitive as those high-volume products available in the market today. The sensor is based on HP’s MEMS technology, which was first commercialized in the company’s inkjet printer cartridges.

TI, meanwhile, has digital light processor (DLP) technology, which offers development platforms and chipsets to enable innovative applications that incorporate light processing and light steering needs. The company’s MEMS technology offers reliable single element analog mirrors for light steering applications, with highly reflective optical MEMS surfaces up to 9mm squared and simple drive requirements—making TI Analog Mirrors ideal choices for flexible system designs. TI Analog Mirrors can be used to precisely position and control laser light beams while enabling minimal loss of optical power, supporting a wide range of light beam steering applications in imaging and display, optical networking, free space optics, object detection and laser printing.

Another notable name, Memsic, has developed and brought to market a wide range of high performance accelerometers. With the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in the United States requiring Vehicle Stability Control (VSC) systems to be present on all cars, truck and busses destined for the US market by the year 2012, and the European Commission confirming that it will implement a similar requirement, millions of Memsic acceleration sensors have already been deployed into VSC equipped cars and trucks. Now engineering teams working to meet governmental VSC requirements can design next generation VSC systems with a fully automotive qualified, road-proven sensor technology with a Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI)-compatible interface.

LOOKING AHEAD
It’s clear that MEMS has taken root in a wide array of applications for our everyday lives. Among the key drivers for its popularity is its low cost and small form factor, which eventually result in more-compact, light-weight and cheaper end products.

Not everything is rosy on the MEMS front, though. One challenge is the packaging due to the diversity of MEMS devices and the different environments they will each be exposed to. Packaging, combined with tests, can easily double costs. The search for standardized and cheaper packages that do not compromise the product’s performance has become MEMS designer’s primary focus. Currently across the globe, MEMS manufacturers are involved in a lot of R&D to strengthen their position in the packaging process and develop a new and specialized package for each new device.

There are significant improvements and engineering advances driving new understandings of what MEMS or SoC will mean for everyone as we move forward. These are challenging yet exciting times for design engineers indeed!

Драйверы светодиодов, решения для систем освещения и светодиодных экранов

Alexander — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 12:32:19 GMT

Решения компании Texas Instruments для ИС управления питанием, систем освещения и световых табло - помогут вам выполнить любой проект!

Пособие для решения задач в области проектирования освещения "Справочник типовых решений для светодиодов" представляет собой полезный инструмент, который поможет пользователю справиться с трудностями, возникающими при проектировании освещения. Разработчики, которым необходимы инновационные и доступные решения в области светодиодного освещения, смогут достичь требуемых результатов с помощью широкого ассортимента преобразователей AC/DC и DC/DC, драйверов светодиодов, устройств управления питанием, беспроводных и проводных интерфейсных и встроенных процессоров производства компании TI

Дополнительную информацию можно получить по ссылке: http://www.ti.com/ww/ru/analog/led/index.html

DIY Brain Machine: Use Open Source to "Ride Your Own Brain Waves"!

fustini — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 16:53:03 GMT

"You don't have to be a Buddhist monk to meditate, or a Sleeping Beauty to sleep well. Achieve these altered states of consciousness, and others, with this simple microcontroller device"

-Mitch Altman, MAKE: Volume 10, http://makezine.com/

The Brain Machine was designed by Mitch Altman of Cornfield Electronics (http://cornfieldelectronics.com/) following the wild success of his previous invention, the TV-B-Gone (http://tvbgone.com/).

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2007/05/hack_your_brain_make_vide.html

It is a perfect example of the power of open source hardware & software. He took the Adafruit MiniPOV kit (http://www.ladyada.net/make/minipov3/, designed with CadSoft EAGLE):

and hacked it to create something entirely new and wonderful:

The brain machine is just one of the many kits Mitch has designed for Make Faires and his hackerspace workshops:

https://www.tvbgone.com/cfe_mfaire.php

Here’s how it works as described in the MAKE Volume 10 article [PDF]:

http://downloads.oreilly.com/make/wp_brainmachine.pdf

Just like the TV-B-Gone, Mitch evolved the kit into a retail product which he calls Trip Glasses:

http://www.tripglasses.com/

Of course, it always fun & rewarding to make your own:

http://www.makershed.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=MSBM

My multi-talented coworker, Bonnie King (above), built the kit over the weekend and her brain machine caused quite a sensation in office on Monday!

Stay calm & solder on!

Drew

http://twitter.com/pdp7

RoHS could be ahead of schedule

gnevison — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 13:28:36 GMT

If the European Parliament, European Commission and Council of Ministers agree on the first draft

of the RoHS recast it could well be adopted before the end of the year.

If so, implementation could be earlier than expected with category 9 mid 2013 as opposed to 2014 and

industrial category 9 in 2016 rather than 2017.

Farnell and Texas Instruments Webinar – WINNERS!

AndreeaP — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 11:00:35 GMT

As promised, Farnell and Texas Instruments are giving away 4 development modules for 4 lucky attendees of the webinar we organized on July,8^th 2010.

We have randomly selected 4 people from the attendees list and we are very happy to announce that the 4 winners of the Texas Instruments modules are:

Anton	Veretenenko	Russia
Przemysław	Hołubowski	Poland
Stanislav	Egorov	Russia
Andrei-Lucian	Serb	Romania

Congratulations to all the winners! We will ship the developments kits by July, 31^st 2010.

For all our attendees that didn't win, join our future events and maybe you will be the next winner!

Fiber Optical Solutions

suntelecom — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 14:35:03 GMT

SUN Telecom Taiwan Founded in 1989, As a well known brand in China and Taiwan, we have sell our products to more than 70 countries worldwide. SUN Telecom provide total solution for fiber optic communication and FTTx Main products :GEPON OLT ONU ONTPLC SplitterFiber Optic Test Equipment (Light Source & Power Meter)OTDRsHand Held OTDROptical SwitchFusion Splicer And Fiber Cable EnclosureFiber Optic Distributing Box (ODF)Ethernet to Fiber Optic Media ConverterSFP Transceiver and Media ConverterAudio / Video / Data Fiber Optical Media ConverterAV (A/V) over Fiber Media Converterfor CCTV Surveillance and Security SystemFiber Optic Connector Polish Machine and Tool KitsSMA905 Fiber Optic Connectorfor High Power Laser Plastic Optical Fiber Cable Toslink / Fo5 / SMISMI / MOST / HFBR Connector for Industry Auto ControlArmored Flexible Optical Fiber Cable PatchcordFiber Optics Connectors and PatchcordsFiber Optic CableFiber Optic AttenuatorFiber Optics CouplerWDM and CWDM DWDMhttp://www.suntelecom.com.tw/ http://www.suntelecommunicaton.cn/

Freescale 's new Xtrinsic sensing solutions

PBrunner — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 07:34:49 GMT

Blog Six: “Fresh Thinking” ; by Rick Pirret

Amy_Fluke — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 00:44:44 GMT

The Dark Ages and the Renaissance were, for me, abstractions from long-forgotten textbooks. Yet, here in the Church of St. Croce, tangible evidence of the Florentine rebirth of art and science is all around me. To my right is the tomb of Michelangelo, sculptor of David. Next to that is a memorial to Dante, author of The Divine Comedy. Further up on the right are the tombs of Machiavelli, author of The Prince and Rossini, composer of the William Tell overture. To my left is the tomb of Galileo, arguably the brightest light of them all.

Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642), an astronomer, physicist and mathematician, is the father of modern science. He expressed his natural observations mathematically, and found real-world applications for his discoveries. Galileo did a lot of Fresh Thinking in his lifetime, none more profound than his work on the Solar System.

Galileo advanced a notion of Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus that the earth orbits around the sun. Based only on his observations of the heavens, Galileo promoted this concept of heliocentrism for twenty years, leading to his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems in 1632. This contradicted the geocentrist doctrine of the Catholic Church. A Papal inquisition of 1633 forced Galileo to denounce his concept and placed him under house arrest for life. Banished to an obscure location in the back of the church in 1642, Galileo’s remains were relocated in 1737 to the present place of honor near the front entrance. Galileo paid a price for his Fresh Thinking, but in the end, we all benefited from his intellectual integrity.

Today, Fluke is doing some Fresh Thinking around the maintenance of rotating machinery. Conventional wisdom calls for long-term observation by specially-trained technicians with expensive vibration analysis instrumentation to troubleshoot rotating machinery. The Fluke 810 Vibration Tester is designed for maintenance techs that need to quickly ascertain mechanical equipment condition, to understand the root cause of any problem, and to take cost-effective corrective action right now. Using proprietary algorithms an Onboard Info feature and a powerful user interface, the new Fluke 810 helps you quickly identify root cause (e.g., bad bearing, misalignment, unbalance or looseness), to determine its location, and to determine how severe the problem is, all without reliance on prior machine history.

To see how the Fluke 810 can help you eliminate guesswork, maximize uptime, control maintenance costs, and minimize spares inventories, download the 810 Application Note: http://support.fluke.com/find-sales/Download/Asset/3672666_6126_ENG_A_W.PDF

Bio: Rick Pirret recently retired from Fluke following 30 years in product design and marketing. Previously, he was with Bell Labs for 10 years in product and facility design. Rick studied mechanical engineering at Cornell and Stanford, and completed an MBA at Seattle University. Over the years, hobbies have included scuba diving, white water canoeing, flying, motorcycling, and bicycling. More recently, Rick likes to be outdoors in the Cascades Mountains or on-track in a BMW.