Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
APRIL 2016
b i l e &
Flex
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Vol. 04 No. 12
YO Plus, many
ISSN 2454-4426
Pages: 132+8 UK 6; US $12
Nexte
Issu
Contents
rage
te Sto
d-Sta dustr
y
Soli rs In
Printe nder
3D rs U
Printe
3D 100,000
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april 2016
VoL. 04 | No. 12
ISSN-2454-4426
Interviews
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
Period Newstand Price
Year (`)
You Pay
(`)
Digital
(`)
Overseas
Digital Print 68 internet oF thinGs:
Plug-and-play sensors... are easier to use 69 Wireless:
While integration makes additional features
two 2400 1800 750 uS$ 15 and are more secure colm Prendergast, cheaper... you only take what you need
one 1200 960 280 uS$ 5 uS$ 120 director of iot technology, Analog devices rajiv Kapur, managing director, Broadcom india
please send payments only in favour of EFY Enterprises Pvt Ltd
Chip-LEvEL SERviCing the design for a frequency-converter EFY. For conversion of 50Hz AC
I am one of the oldest subscribers circuit and details regarding its usage. mains to 60Hz AC mains, it is not
to EFY and an electronics experi- sufficient to convert frequency
menter. The market is full of books Shatrajit Soraisam (50Hz to 60Hz) only. A 50Hz to
on software, programming and the Through email 60Hz frequency-converter-cum-
like. However, good, informative and power converter will suffice. Nor-
knowledgeable books/articles on chip- mally, we do not provide the whole
level servicing of PC motherboards for Corrections design including circuit, source
the benefit of electronics hobbyists/ex- code, etc in Q&A section due to
perimenters are not readily available. I In February issue, in Test & Measurement space limitation.
article, Oscilloscopes Available in The Mar-
request you to carry a series of articles ket table, an OWON oscilloscope has been We highly appreciate your feed-
on this relevant topic. listed. This is not sold by the firm in India. back and look forward to hearing
In Buyers Guide article under Benchtop from you in future, too.
A. Carvalho Power Supplies table, a MASTECH power
Through email supply has been listed that was discontin- In Things You Wanted To Know
ued around three years ago. Q&A section of January issue, un-
3D pRintER Mr Kwatra der Q4, it says ATmega8 cannot be
I am an electronics enthusiast. I MD, MetroQ used in Arduino Uno board. This is
request you to publish a project on wrong. Earlier, Arduino board used
In EFY+DVD section published in February
Arduino based CNC machine, XY- issue, 634-bit mentioned under Tizen SDK
ATmega8 as the microcontroller.
plotter or 3D printer. should be read as 64-bit. It can still use ATmega8 with ap-
Dinesh Kumar propriate bootloader. Of course, AT-
Surajit Paul Through email meg16 is a 40-pin microcontroller
Through email so it cannot be used.
On the cover page of February issue, un-
der Top-5 Do-It-Yourself, in the Plus-Minus Pramod Kumar
ZigBEE pRojECt
5V Supply from 12V Battery title, it should
I am an electronics student as well be 9V battery instead of 12V battery. Through email
as a hobbyist doing a project on trans-
Roy Verghese
mission of three different signals to a Through email pLuS-MinuS 5v SuppLY
computer using ZigBee. I request you In Plus-Minus 5V Supply From 9V
to publish relevant articles as soon as Battery DIY article published in
possible. February issue, 7805 used in the
provides the possibility of widening formation through Wi-Fi. You can use
technology? What kind access to information and artefacts any single-board microcomputer like
of projects can be made held in museums by allowing visitors Raspberry Pi B+, Samsung S3C6410 or
using it? What training who live far away to feel objects at any other ARM11 processors for this.
courses are offered in a distance, and to show the range of Microcontroller. If you only need a
this domain? artefacts that are currently in storage basic video feed, consider using motion
due to lack of space. JPEG to send data across the network.
nikhil lamba Entertainment. It can also be used Interface your camera with the micro-
to enhance the gaming experience. controller and run a Web server to send
ans. Haptics is the science of ap- Haptic based trainings and work- a series of JPEG images to a browser.
plying touch (tactile) sensation and shops assist engineers to learn about The quality and frame-rate are not so
control to interact with computer this technology in detail. You may great, but it lights on processing if the
applications. By using special input/ refer the following links for course camera outputs JPEGs. You may refer to
output devices (joysticks, data gloves structure, schedule and topics covered the article published in Electronics For
and other devices), users can receive during these trainings. You using the link given below:
feedback from computer applications www.skyfilabs.com/workshops/ www.electronicsforu.com/
in the form of sensations felt on a haptic-arm-arduino-workshop electronicsforu/circuitarchives/
hand or other parts of the body. www.robokart.com/index. view_article.asp?sno=1505&article_
In combination with a visual php?route=product/product&product_ type=1&id=924&tt=unhot
display, haptics technology can be id=391 This project is built around Wi-Fi
used to train people for tasks requiring https://lagunita.stanford.edu/ module MRF24WBOMA, PIC micro-
hand-eye coordination such as surgery courses/SelfPaced/Haptics/2014/about controller PIC18F4620 and a camera
and spaceship maneuvers. It can also www.i3indyatechnologies.com/ module using TCP-IP protocol. The
be used for games in which you feel as workshop/robotics-arm-development. camera captures live video from a
well as see your interactions with im- html remote location, which is transmitted
ages. For example, it could enable you There are no prerequisites for a wirelessly through the Internet and
to play tennis with another computer haptic training, but a basic knowledge can be viewed on a PC or laptop.
user somewhere else in the world. of information technology is desirable.
Both of you can see the moving ball Q3. What are the uses
and, by using the haptic device, posi- Q2. Which single-board and differences
tion and swing your respective tennis computer and microcon- betWeen ic uln2003 and
rackets and feel the impact of the ball. troller is ideal for real- ic uln2803?
You can do many projects using time audio-video stream-
this technology as per application. ing/surveillance? mahesh j. shetty
Some of these are given below:
Medical. Sense of touch and medi- prashant a3. Instead of using individual dar-
cal simulation may prove especially lington transistors, you can use an in-
useful for training. a2. Audio-video streaming/surveil- tegrated circuit (IC) specially designed
Military. For certain applications, lance systems play an increasingly for driving high-current loads from
for example, where terrain or texture important role for maintaining social TTL-level inputs. Most common ICs
information needs to be conveyed, security. With the development of of this type are ULN2003, which has
haptics may be the most efficient for information technology, especially seven darlington drivers in a 16-pin
communication. in embedded CPUs of open Linux DIP package, and ULN2803, which has
Assistive technology for the visu- systems, video conferencing, remote eight drivers in an 18-pin DIP package.
ally impaired. A visually-disabled monitoring and mass data-processing
person can feel things like maps that fields can apply embedded technology.
Answers compiled by EFY senior application engineer,
are displayed on the Internet and Single-board computer. The Nidhi Kathuria. Letters and questions for publication
also learn computing work by tracing hardware system includes a processor, may be addressed to Editor, Electronics For You,
D-87/1, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase 1, New Delhi
touchable mathematical courses. video-capture devices, audio jack for 110020 (e-mail: editsec@efy.in) and should include
Museum displays. This technology audio and a router to receive video in- name and address of the sender
Here are a few websites that can enlighten you on how to harness solar power
as a renewal energy source
Compiled by nira j sahay
thesolarplanner.com
If you are looking for
off-grid.info
information on how to select The website aims to be a
and install a home photovoltaic freesunpower.com great collection of useful
system, this is the place to start. This website provides information for people
Whether you are a student, tutorials on setting up a solar wanting to explore ideas
home owner, contractor or power system for producing related to the concept
installer, tutorials available on electricity from sunlight. of off-grid living. Solar
the site will walk you through These cover solar panels, energy plays a major role
the entire process. charge controllers, power in building an off-grid
inverters, storage batteries, AC system. You can use the
www.thesolarplanner.com/index.html generators, wires and cables, navigation section on the
meters and monitors, and right of the home page to
much more. Complete system find categories you are most
wiring diagram examples plus interested in. Be sure to
interactive online design tools check out the blog, which
are also featured with a point- now has 200-plus off-grid
and-click interface. The site discoveries and tutorials
works as the place to learn and from around the Web.
have fun with solar power.
http://off-grid.info/blog/how-to-solar-power-
www.freesunpower.com/index.php your-home-amazing-tutorial/
Jason Kim and Howon Lee with a 3D-printed tactile map with Braille
(Image courtesy: http://phys.org)
V
arious automation processes in the What drives are
industry need control of AC induc- Often in the industry, need arises for con-
tion motors using AC drives. Pre- trolling the speed of a 3-phase induction
sented here is a robust system for switch- motor. Deltas AC motor drives are able to
ing on/off, varying the speed and direction efficiently control motor speed, improve
of rotation of an industrial 3-phase induc- machine automation and save energy.
tion motor. We use here Delta AC motor Each drive in its variable frequency drive
drive for its operation. (VFD) series is designed to meet specific
Joby Antony is
A simple control panel is wired using application needs.
masters in computer an Allen Bradley PLC for demonstration. AC drives accurately control torque,
technology from the An extended Intouch wonderware SCADA smoothly handle increased load and
USA, and is currently
working as engineer-F can be developed similar to our earlier provide numerous custom control and
at Nuclear Inter- article published in May 2015 issue for a configuration operating modes. A VFD can
University Accelerator
Centre (IUAC), New PC based virtual control panel. be used to vary speed, direction and other
Delhi. He was also a An electrical motor is an electrome- parameters of a 3-phase motor. We use the
visiting scientist at
CERN, Geneva chanical device that converts electrical 2-wire method for controlling the speed
energy into mechanical energy. In case of and direction of the motor.
3-phase AC operation, the most-widely-used
motor is the 3-phase induction motor as this Working of a VFD
type of motor does not require any starting The first stage of a VFD is the converter,
device, being a self-starting motor. which comprises six diodes, which are
Akshay Kumar is a
B.Tech student at
Delhi Technological
University, New
Delhi, and currently
an intern at IUAC
GND. key.
Fig. 6: Pin-out connection diagram for VFD-M 2. Switch on the 3-
phase power supply. VFD-M programming
3. For programming There are two contacts, M0 and M1.
the VFD-M: Whenever M0 is closed, VFD goes
(i) Press Mode into run mode. If it is open, there is
(ii) On F60.0, press no rotation of the motor. M1 decides
Enter the direction of rotation. If M1 is
(iii) Click Mode open, it rotates in forward direction;
(iv) Select the appro- if closed, in reverse direction.
priate parameter using Parameters for the above mode
Up/Down keys avail- are set as:
able on the keypad. Pr.00 set to 01 (for controlling
(v) For example, for master frequency via potentiometer)
Pr0, select P 00.
(vi) According to the
manual, set the param-
eters for required mode
of operation
(vii) Press EnterEnd
Note: At any point,
Note. Multi-function input terminal M0 does
press Mode to go to the not have its own parameter designation.
previous step. M0 must be used in conjunction with M1 to
operate 2- or 3-wire control.
For motor running
from external con- Fig. 8: Two-wire operation: Only Pr.38 can be
Fig. 7: Controlling a digital keypad on Delta VFD-M trols, we have three set to 1
and O3 (outputs)
of PLC and control
O2 and O3 using
Ladder Logic. Fig.
4 shows a logic
defined for mode
01, that is, Pr.38 =
Fig. 13: Three-phase
01. O:0.0/2 is con-
induction motor nected to M0.
Fig. 9: Ladder program for control When I:0.0/2
is set on, it puts the motor in run
Pr.01 set to 01 (external controls, Using the PLC mode. Now, even if I:0.0/2 is
via M0, M1) Programmable logic controllers switched off, O:0.0/2 remains on due
Pr.38 set to 01 (M0, M1 set as (PLCs) support digital input/output to the logic defined. It can only be
run/stop and fwd/rev) very effectively. So a PLC can also stopped by pressing I:0.0/2 again.
Set Pr.00 to 00 for controlling be used to control the operation of I:0.0/3 controls O:0.0/5, which,
master frequency using the digital a VFD, hence to finally control the in turn, is connected to M1, which
keypad, and 01 for controlling via connected 3-phase induction motor. decides the direction of rotation of
potentiometer attached as shown in Allen Bradley MicroLogix 1000 the motor.
first pin connection diagram. PLC is connected to Delta VFD-M 0:0.0/3 is the LED that turns on
Pr.38 should be set to 01 as and is programmed using Ladder when the motor is in run mode.
shown in above diagrams. programming using RS Logix. (Refer 0:0.0/5 is the LED that turns
Once all these parameters are to the article published in May 2015 on when the motor is running in
set, follow 2-wire mode operational for more details on this.) forward direction and turns off in
steps for running the motor. We connected M0 and M1 to O2 reverse rotation.
B
uilding your own IoT device is When a device sends out a signal, it
not as simple as it looks. The first is communicated via the mesh, from one
hurdle is in putting the hardware node to the other, until it reaches the end
together. Then comes the process of device. Thus, information is secure and a
faithfully transmitting messages over the strong signal is received by the end user.
distance you need the signal to travel. Let Low power consumption. A device
us not forget the time it takes to develop designed using this board is mostly in
your solution and the cost for it. sleep mode, awoken by signals only when
This innovation story introduces an it has work to do. The claim is that a coin-
Priya Ravindran
was working evaluation board that helps you get your cell battery combined with this boards
as a technical idea into a finished product quicker, and power management scheme will let you
journalist
at EFY until also lets you create an open access mesh use this board for about six months on a
recently network to send your data reliably up to single charge.
2km. The board in question is a Bluetooth Easily connected to existing setup.
Low Energy (BLE) and ANT based board As soon as a module like ANT comes into
by Atoll Solutions Pvt Ltd. the picture, the notion is that connecting
to this might need a lot of effort from the
BLE-ANT, a useful combination user. This is where BLE module steps in,
What makes this board special is the way letting you connect to even your smart-
it is put together, enabling faster time- phone easily. Of course, there is some
to-market and low-power solutions. The configuration you would need to do from
board contains Raytac module with Nordic your end, according to the application you
Semiconductor nRF51 chip, which offers choose, but the back-end is taken care of
support to BLE and ANT protocols. by the board.
The evaluation Enabling mesh creation. Generally,
board
when you communicate via Blue- Deep inside the board...
tooth, you can transfer data up to The board is built around Nordic Semi-
a maximum of 80m in open air, conductor nRF chip that comes in the
and about 18m in normal scenar- form of MDBT40 board, with support for
ios. With BLE-ANT combination, Bluetooth 4.0 and BT4.1 stack for BLE
you can create a mesh network and ANT modules. It is designed based
and connect up to 2km radius, on Nordic nRF51422 solution. A 2.4GHz
with all devices connected to this transceiver and an ARM Cortex 32-bit
mesh network. processor in the Nordic chip take care of
the functioning.
Along with this, the
Specifications of the board board contains an accel-
Size: 18mm10mm3.2mm erometer, ten configurable
Operating temperature: 0C to 70C general-purpose inputs/
Operational relative humidity: 10 per cent to 80 per cent outputs, three configu-
Operating voltage: 1.8V to 3.6V rable analogue-to-digital
Frequency band: 2400MHz - 2483MHz converter channels, one
Supported data rates: 2Mbps, 1Mbps and 250kbps
32-bit and two 16-bit tim-
Receiver sensitivity: -93dBm at BLE mode
Transmission power: -20dbm to +4dbm ers with counter mode,
and support for inter-
Low cost, low maintenance design everything from the radio fre-
Using this evaluation board will quency module to every component We developed this
board with an aim
result in reduced cost as the module on the board from scratch, putting in
to easily cater to a
can directly be connected to sensors. your time and effort for research and variety of applications.
To transfer data over longer ranges, development. It would easily put Keeping this in mind,
you need not have multiple repeat- you back by a month or two. we also customise the
ers to strengthen the signal, thanks While going in for manufactur- board in terms of size
to the mesh network. ing, there might be damages due to and specifications,
The only catch is the need to welding of buses onto the board. and deliver it to the customer. If users
have the necessary facilities to make
ensure that no node in the mesh If you still manage to get it right,
their own board, we also provide the raw
fails. For this, automatic diagnosis the size might be an issue, not to materials for the same.
can be scheduled once a week, mention power consumption of the Binoy Johnson, hardware technical
which will alert you in case of any complete design. leader, Atoll Solutions Pvt Ltd
problem. As most of the configura- The challenge is in getting the
tion happens via software, it is also components together within the re- circuit, software and a message to
easy to regularly update the entire quired dimensions, without affecting be transmitted over a long area. It
setup to make up for any glitches in the range of the individual wireless has already found its way to a few
the code. module, managing power efficiency projects. Vehicle-tracking systems
and providing battery backup. in cars have been implemented by
Why the board Enabling faster time-to-market. integrating global positioning system
On the face of it, one might won- With an inbuilt Cortex-M0 micro- with this solution. This proves to
der why you should buy a board controller, the board lets you create be very useful for safety purposes,
when you can put a system together your design easily, and provides tracking the exact location of the
yourself. Have a go at it and then the 32kb of memory to store your data, vehicle. With the protocols followed,
difficulties show up. If you purchase which is perfect for small applica- the transmitted signal is found to be
a Nordic chipset, you will need to tions. With the help of ST-Link/V2, reliable and faithful.
an in-circuit debugger and Another hot area of work is
programmer for the STM8 home automation. Especially as BLE
and STM32 microcontroller module enables connecting to your
families, you can easily smartphone easily, it is most com-
debug your program. The fortable for the user to stand in the
package is like a mini sys- hall and turn off the lights in a room
tem on a chip, letting you on the first floor.
connect via BLE port and This setup also comes in very
code according to the cho- handy while designing wearables
sen application. You can due to its compact size and low
simply load the firmware power consumption.
into the board and begin Meter monitoring is also a wor-
your task right away. thy mention.
The developers took about two
What you can do months to get this board working.
with the board Each board is priced at ` 1400. More
The board is a solu- details about the product can be
tion to any application found on the website www.atollsolu-
Debugging with ST-Link/V2 that requires a hardware tions.com
Part 1 of 8
L
aser is no longer confined to prem- ance and usage in contemporary battle-
ises of prominent research centres field weaponry. Technological advances
like Bell laboratories, Hughes Re- in optics, optoelectronics and electronics
search Laboratories and major academic leading to more rugged, reliable, compact
institutes like Columbia University, USA, and efficient laser devices are largely re-
as it was in its early stages of develop- sponsible for making these indispensable
ment and evolution. In the last five in modern warfare.
decades, after Theodore Maiman dem- Last one decade or so has also seen
onstrated the first laser in May 1960 at emergence of a new class of weapons
Dr Anil Kumar Maini
is former director, Hughes Research Laboratories, there has known as directed energy weapons
Laser Science and been explosive growth in industrial, medi- (DEWs) leading to enhanced global
Technology Centre,
a premier laser and cal, scientific and military applications of interest from scientists and engineers in
optoelectronics lasers. Application areas are continuing to DEWs development. Lasers, high-power
research and
development grow with every passing day. microwaves and high-energy particle
laboratory of Lasers have been used in various mili- beams have been exploited for DEW de-
Defence Research
and Development tary applications since the early days of velopment. These weapons, with the ex-
Organisation of development that followed their invention. ception of particle beam weapons (PBWs)
Ministry of Defence
There has been large-scale proliferation of and laser-induced plasma channel (LIPC)
lasers and optronic devices and systems weapons, generate streams of electromag-
for applications like range finding, target netic energy that can be precisely directed
designation, target acquisition and track- over long distances to disable or destroy
ing, precision-guided munitions and so on intended targets.
during 1970s and 1980s. After decades of research and devel-
These devices continue to improve in opment, DEWs are now becoming an
performance and find increased accept- operational reality. This has been possible
due to their unique characteristics that po-
Fig. 1: Archimedes
death ray concept tentially enable new concepts of military
operation and also because there has been
Shore
considerable progress over the past two
decades in developing relevant technolo-
gies such as power sources, beam-control
Mirror concepts and pointing and tracking tech-
niques. For these applications, lethal en-
ergy from a high-power laser or a source
Archimedes
heat ray of high-power microwaves or high-energy
particle beam is delivered to the targets
Mirror for causing either neutralisation of electro-
optic sensors onboard the target platform
or structural damage to the target itself.
DEWs
Mirror
A DEW system, with the exception of
LIPC weapons, primarily uses directed en-
ergy in the form of concentrated beam of
I, Ramesh Chopra, hereby declare that the particulars given above are true to the best of
my knowledge and belief.
Date: 29-2-2016
Ramesh Chopra
Publisher
Standardising
IoT STandardS And GroupS
N
o matter which company or ap- that they go through phases of forming,
plication area you talk about, the storming, norming and performing. I
Internet of Things (IoT) seems think something similar can be said to be
to be the trending buzzword. One of happening with the IoT, though it may
the next big things surely, but it is also be difficult to achieve a consensus as to
a very confusing domain. With many which of these earlier phases we are cur-
standards and overlapping member alli- rently in, he adds.
ances, it is not an easy arena to work in. It is for all to see that major organisa-
This article tries to provide some clarity tions are into multiple standards-framing
Priya Ravindran
was working on the standards aspect of the IoT. associations, not just one. It just goes to
as a technical show that we are in a highly-experimen-
journalist Should you be worrying about this tal phase and the winner is, as yet, un-
at EFY until
recently Without standards, the IoT will fail clear. The field is open and up for grabs,
to realise the full potential predicted but we can be certain that the winner is
for it, feels Martin Woolley, technical going to be backed heavily.
program manager at Bluetooth Special
Interest Group (SIG). It is said of teams The three major competitors
The three incumbents aiming to
become the standard for tomor-
rows IoT are Alljoyn, IoTivity
and Thread. Let us begin by try-
ing to understand what each of
these has to offer.
Alljoyn. Alljoyn is an open
source effort by AllSeen Alliance,
with the source code starting
off at Qualcomm and currently
with Linux Foundation. With
more than 170 members includ-
ing LG, Sharp, Haier, Panasonic,
Sony, Electrolux Sears, Silicon
Image, Cisco, TP-Link, Canary,
Two Bulls and Xiaomi, the group
has based this standard on the
client-server model where the
server/producer advertises the
devices capability and the client
accepts or ignores it.
The service framework be-
hind Alljoyn aims at creating a
rich user experience by automat-
ing how a device connects to
this network. With the latest ad-
dition of a device system bridge
by Microsoft, even devices using
D
igital electronics rarely Espresso logic minimiser to efficient- manipulates the function iteratively
leaves you, no matter where ly reduce the functions in your elec- to give a closely approximated re-
you go. Right from the small tronic design. Instead of using the sult, eliminating redundancy. The
register in your controller to the traditional Karnaugh map method same result is optimised by factori-
multiplexer that routes the signals of min term reduction, the program sation and mapped onto basic cells
in your circuit, it is present in the technology library,
in almost everything you while dealing with field pro-
handle. The subject being grammable gate arrays and
a delight for some and a application specific integrat-
nightmare for the others, this ed circuits. This method of
article introduces a tool that minimisation turns out to be
helps make your digital logic efficient, using less memory
design experience easy and and computation time.
pleasurable. Have a look at You have options of per-
Logic Friday. forming a fast or an exact
minimisation. The former
Visualise your logic would give you a good
function in totality result that may not be truly
The logic of any combinato- minimal, while the latter
rial system design is always takes a significant amount
analysed for all possible input of time to give you the per-
combinations, the different fect result.
states its output can take, an Also, for functions with
expression for every possible multiple outputs, you can
output and, the most favourite Fig. 1: Designing with Logic Friday choose to jointly optimise
of all, the logic diagram. Logic (Image courtesy: www.ilovefreesoftware.com) the total number of product
Friday lets you ease over the terms or independently op-
process by simultaneously timise each min term. The
viewing and accessing four second is useful while map-
windows: functions, truth ping to gates, as you will
table, equations and gate end up with a simpler gate
diagrams. When you make a diagram, but might result in
modification in one window, a large number of terms in
the change is reflected in the the resulting function.
others automatically. Every
function includes a detailed The function explained
description, right from the as gates
number of inputs and outputs There is no digital electron-
to the number of min terms ics without a gate diagram.
that make it true. Universal gates NAND and
NOR help represent any
Espresso for efficient complex logic, and one
minimisation of the two will have to be
Logic Friday takes the help of Fig. 2: Manipulating equations specified as the type for
2
II APRIL 2016 | ELECTRONICS FOR YOU PLUS WWW.EFYMAG.COM
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efy dvd
T
he RapidSmith Project from
Brigham Young University,
USA, is a Java package that
contains the tools and applica-
tion program interfaces (APIs) for
providing a unique platform to
work out experimental ideas and
algorithms on modern Xilinx field-
programmable gate arrays (FPGAs).
The tool allows users to import
XDL/NCD, manipulate, place, route
and export designs among a variety
of design transformations.
As a tool based on Xilinx De-
sign Language (XDL), RapidSmith
provides a human-readable file
format equivalent to Xilinx pro-
prietary Netlist Circuit Description
(NCD). Through xdl executable,
RapidSmith can be used to modify Fig. 1: The wires available in a tile and the connection name in the tooltip message
designs at any point in ISEs design
flow or even create one from for designers as
scratch. Packages present in Rapid- more designs and
Smith allow parsing and exporting debugging could
of bitstreams at packet level, and be completed
representating frames and configu- within the stipu-
ration blocks in the provided data lated time.
structures. The latest release of the Moreover,
software, version 0.5.2, is bundled devices get bigger
with this months EFY Plus DVD. and bigger with
every generation,
The motivation behind thereby resulting
Project administrators, Christopher in no significant
Lavin and team, have described the improvement in
motivation behind the development FPGA implemen-
of RapidSmith in their document tation times. Fig. 2: Xilinx Virtex4 family supporting RapidSmith
titled Rapid Prototyping Tools for Although, the
FPGA Designs: RapidSmith. They target hardware is often available been developed as a rapid map-
felt that the compilation time as- for design-verification during much ping mechanism for design onto an
sociated with the FPGA design was of the development process, it often existing FPGA platform to perform
very high in comparison with what goes unused as there is no fast rapid design and debug cycles.
is required for software systems. A method for its proper utilisation This, in turn, provides a more in-
faster compilation process for FP- for verification during the design teractive development environment
GAs ensures improved productivity process. Therefore RapidSmith has for FPGAs.
I
n this article we introduce otic analysis methods including
Xyce, a SPICE-compatible
Some major analysis types in Xyce Harmonic Balance, Multi-Time
parallel electronic circuit Direct current, TRAN and alternating current PDE and Model-Order Reduction
simulator developed at Sandia Harmonic Balance methods are also supported.
National Laboratories, USA. The Multi-time PDE The modern code base. Xyce
software is capable of solving Model Order Reduction is a highly modular and flex-
extremely-large circuit problems Direct and adjoint sensitivity analysis ible tool, designed and written
on large-scale parallel computing Uncertainty quantification via Dakota from scratch in C++. It applies
platforms. Apart from being an abstract interfaces to easily de-
analogue electronic simulator, Xyce velop different analysis types, solvers
is used widely in general network and models.
systems such as neural networks and Xyce uses Trilinos solver library,
power grids. yet another open source development
Xyce is under continuous devel- from Sandia. This library helps in
opment since 1999 and is funded by the development and implementa-
National Nuclear Security Adminis- tion of robust algorithms and enables
trations Advanced Simulation and technologies with the help of mod-
Computing Campaign. It is released ern object-oriented software design.
under open source GPL licence from Trilinos also leverages from values of
version 6.0 onwards. The latest release other well-established libraries like
of the software, version 6.4, is incor- PETSc, Metis/ParMetis, SuperLU,
porated in the DVD accompanying this Aztec, the BLAS and LAPACK.
months Electronics For You Plus. A number of circuit-specific solv-
ers including KLU direct solver have
Key features been developed for Xyce.
Fig. 1: Diode clipper circuit netlist for DC
Being a state-of-the-art massively-par- sweep analysis Faster development time. For
allel circuit-simulating platform, Xyce each type of analysis in a SPICE
simulator offers the standard capa- SPICE-compatible. A canonical set based code, new device functions
bilities offered by competing com- of industry models including Berke- are created. The differential-algebraic
mercial and open source simulators ley Short-Channel IGFET model, equation formulation in Xyce allows
in addition to a variety of devices and Vertical Bipolar Inter-Company, all analysis methods to use the same
models specific to Sandias needs. Bipolar Transistor model and others device-load functions. This results in
Supporting large-scale parallel are supported. a faster development time for new
computing. With the help of Message Apart from this, many non-tra- devices and new analysis types.
Passing Implementation, Xyce can ditional models that support neuron Encapsulation between models
be run on serial, shared-memory and simulation and reaction networks and solver layers of the source code
distributed-memory parallel systems. have been developed. With the help is significantly improved as the de-
Special care has been taken by the of a powerful expression library, vice models using differential-
designers to provide optimal paral- behavioural modelling can be algebraic equation formulation are
lel efficiency in multiple processors performed. Verilog-A models can be nearly independent of analysis type.
by addressing the specific nature of incorporated with a model compiler.
circuit-simulation problems. Xyce Options for circuit analysis. What is new in the
has shown scalability up to hundreds Standard analysis techniques such latest version
of processors. as steady-state direct current operat- The latest release Xyce 6.4 has many
Device model support. Though ing-point analysis, transient analysis new features and enhancements.
Xyce is not developed as a deriva- and small-signal frequency domain Some of these are:
tive of SPICE, it is designed to be analysis are supported. More ex- Inclusion of new device mod-
4. Well-resolved time-
domain outputs can be
achieved with the help of
over-sampling capability
for Harmonic Balance
time-domain output,
which is newly intro-
duced in Xyce.
Improved interfaces.
Compatibility between
Fig. 2: Plot for DC sweep voltages Xyce and PSpice digital
behavioural models has
els. New device models have been been significantly improved in Xyce
included and already existing ones with support for DIGINITSTATE op-
have been enhanced. Some notable tion. Harmonic Balance output and
inclusions and enhancements are error handling during netlist parsing
as follows: have been significantly improved,
1. A new memristor device using too. Enhancements at output allows
Yakopcic model users to suppress the header and
2. Power Grid Generator Bus footer of standard-format output files.
model enhanced with support for Releasing the software under
reactive power limits open source. The first open source
3. MEXTRAM 504.11 with self- release of Xyce 6.0 was on No-
heating vember 5, 2013. By releasing the
Enhanced solver stability, per- source codes and binaries for public
formance and features. download, developers aim to foster
1. For reducing memory con- external collaboration and solicit
sumption and improving parsing feedback from the simulation com-
speeds for large circuits, netlist munity. They feel that new collabo-
parser has been significantly rators, new benchmarks and external
refactored. feedback can be a valuable starting
2. In order to improve time point for code improvements.
stepping for time integrators, Local Moreover, research is funded
Truncation Error criteria have been by the taxpayers money. So mak-
incorporated. History information of ing it open source is their social
signals is used for this purpose. responsibility.
3. Linear solver has been
improved with Kundert SPARSE The author is assistant professor, Department
linear solver. of ECE at SETCEM, Thrissur
VIII
8 APRIL 2016 | ELECTRONICS FOR YOU PLUS WWW.EFYMAG.COM
IntervIew
Internet of Things:
plug-and-play sensors...
Are easier to use
And Are More secure
As the Internet of Things (IoT) picks up pace to properly disrupt the market,
COLM changes behind the scene affect it in various ways. Let us take a look at
PRENDERGAST what these changes are and the role these play. Colm Prendergast, director
DIRECTOR OF IoT TECHNOLOGY,
ANALOG DEVICES of IoT Technology, Analog Devices, speaks with Dilin Anand from EFY
Q. What is driving efficiency in con- Q. How does data analytics work for whether the object is a human or an
nected automation systems? information collected as videos? animal. We have a family of proces-
A. Improving efficiency is the A. Information extraction happens sors known as the Blackfin line,
prime driver behind connected at the node itself in the case of media. which are signal processors with
automation systems. If it is a proac- Using our BLIP camera system we take an architecture designed for low-
tive maintenance system that you are video and images at video graphics power digital signal processing. Such
setting up, you need to be able to gain array resolution, and use that as source features are enabled by contextual
information from the data collected data on which occupancy informa- analysis of images.
and use that to change the behav- tion extraction is done at the node.
iour in the real world. You are using Once this occupancy information is Q. What are some interesting engi-
sensors, measurement, data analytics extracted, only those pieces are sent neering trends in this space?
and machine-learning techniques to forth for the next set of analytics. This A. A big trend is that the nature of
provide feedback in a preventative helps to ensure that the network is not our customer base is changing; soft-
maintenance system. overstressed with data. ware engineers are making decisions
on what hardware to chose. Hardware
Q. How should one start with setting Q. Any exciting imaging products systems are integrated to single chips
up a connected automation system? coming up in the IoT space? and they are outsourcing hardware
A. The flow is that you start A. Cameras! These have the entire development to ADI. This shows that
with the physical process, around analytics engine built into them, with the current IoT decision-makers are
which you build your data-collection occupancy detection and open ap- more software-centred due to the data
system. Once you get the system in plication program interfaces to enable science elements involved.
place, collect data and apply ana- developers to build on top of them.
lytics to it. Big Data analytics and Sensor integration is a trend, but Q. What challenges do you face while
machine learning can be done in the what is rising up now are plug-and- building tools for software engineers?
cloud, although increasingly there play sensors that are easier to use and A. Challenges with data science
is a trend towards moving analytics are more secure. These also support are due to the fact that it tends to be
to the network edge where smarter over-the-air/networks upgrades. This a very specialised field. So when we
devices can be more responsive to makes development pipeline easier build platforms for the IoT, the ques-
the systems being monitored. These and also lets a piece of hardware in the tions being asked are on how to make
systems provide the information field to be upgraded over time. Overall, data science easier, or how to enable
needed to implement the behavioural it signifies a shift of firms from being sophisticated data science tools for
changes for preventive maintenance. based on capital expenditure towards software developers.
being based on operating expenditure
Q. What are the main factors affect- since these can continue to add value Q. What is getting engineers to bring
ing evolution in this space? after a system has been deployed. more devices to the IoT paradigm?
A. Top factors affecting this space A. The ease of doing data science at
are low-power technology, advances Q. Please give an application ex- the cloud is an enabler. We are seeing
in sensing and measurement, closed- ample along with a chip that can be that many firms are moving analytics to
loop feedback, energy harvesting, used to implement it. the edge. We also see a need to enable
energy-independent sensors and low- A. One example use case would customers to more quickly build and
power signal processing. be a security alarm that can detect deploy their systems solutions.
Q. Broadcom recently released devices, instead of the complexity of A. Technology has been simpli-
chips for 5G Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Bluetooth pairing. fied enough to make it implementa-
Smart. Should the designer of an ble by everybody. For example, when
Internet of Things (IoT) product Q. How is this technology shaping Nike first came out with the shoe
consider a single standard wireless up for the automotive market? that has Bluetooth talking to your
chip or a multi-standard one? A. The reason it is now playing a iPhone, they came to us because this
A. Not only are these sleek de- role in automotive is because of mo- was a use case implementation that
vices becoming thinner and smaller, biles that are starting to adopt NFC. required us to invest in making sure
you can no longer take the radio of Computers and mobiles have picked it worked. We are constantly imple-
both, keep it separate and shield up Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and are now menting improved solutionssome-
it from each other. Also, no longer starting to pick up NFC. times in software and sometimes
are these being used one at a time; It is hard for other devices to hardwareto keep evolving the use
these are being used simultaneously. ignore the fact that these will have to of that technology.
That means you are on a Bluetooth communicate with a mobile or a com- The IoT is a great example. We
headset while you are also stream- puter. So, the de facto standard will be are pushing Bluetooth and Wi-Fi
ing something on Wi-Fi. one of these three. And automotive is standards and implementations to be
What chip vendors like us have picking NFC because an automobile IoT friendly, to consume lower power
done to stay ahead is to integrate can have multiple people sitting in it and be easier to use.
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on the same and NFC is more convenient.
silicon and invest in the radio Q. What is holding back the tel-
frequency (RF) side to make the Q. What exciting trends do you see ecommunications tower technology
co-existence simultaneous and non- in connected cars? in India?
interfering. While integration makes A. The most interesting trend is the A. Mobile backhaul is one of the
additional features cheaper, a key whole universe of Ethernet that had weaker links. You can throw more
point remains that you only take previously been outside the car. There users at the base transceiver station
what you need. The IoT application is a lot happening based on Ethernet, (BTS) and upgrade the BTS accord-
decides whether you need one or which includes video surveillance, ingly so as to not hit any bottlenecks.
two or more connectivity solutions. video conferencing, audio streaming In India, 90 per cent of mobile tow-
and data movement, among others. ers are still connected wirelessly. If
Q. What drives adoption of near The purpose is to leverage the you can wire-connect it, the capacity
field communication (NFC) in con- universe of Ethernet to give better is high, and it is not the bottleneck
sumer electronics space? vehicles. For example, the rear camera anymore. But there is a limit to how
A. NFC was earlier misunder- can be an Ethernet based camera. much you can connect with wire.
stood to be a payments topic. There We actually invented how Ethernet We keep complaining about call
is another use case of NFC, which is can be distributed over thin cables. It drops. This is actually one of the
called tap-and-share or tap-and-pair. is a standard now but we invented it. resulting effects of bottlenecks. It
Consider the following: I take my depends on implementation and in
phone and tap it on my TV, and this Q. Any other emerging trends you our case, a higher-capacity backhaul
simple tapping helps pair the two see in wireless communication tech? is needed.
T
he Union Budget 2016 has outlined various gov- provision of minimum alternative tax and no capital
ernment initiatives to transform India through the gains tax if such gains are invested in the notified
adoption of technology. These include allocation fund of funds envisage an environment in which
of funds for Indias digital connectivity initiative by startups will help to build the startup ecosystem in
pushing the panchayats and municipalities to upgrade this sector.
and develop digital The Union Budget
infrastructure, enhance 2016 also clearly high-
the use of IT infrastruc- lights the governments
ture and more. The agenda to transform the
Budget has also revised electronics industry. Var-
the electrification target ious provisions for the
from 10 per cent to 45 sector announced in the
per cent, which will lead Budget will, in the long
to increased demand for term, encourage domes-
electronics products and tic value-added manu-
IT hardware. facturing of electronics
The Budget also of- hardware and make it as
fers a very attractive cor- competitive as imports.
porate tax rate option for The announcements
new manufacturers at 25 are in line with Make in
The union minister for finance, corporate affairs and information and
per cent plus surcharge broadcasting, Arun Jaitley (holding a briefcase) along with the minister of
India initiative and work
and cess, provided the state for finance, Jayant Sinha on the left towards reducing trans-
company does not claim action costs. But what
profit linked or investment linked deductions. It should do industry experts make of all these initiatives?
also not avail an investment allowance and accelerated At the outset, we collated key policy amendments
depreciation. related to the indirect tax structure, that is, excise duty/
The Budget has lowered the corporate tax rate for countervailing duty (CVD), special additional duty
the next financial year for relatively small enterprises, (SAD) and basic customs duty (BCD) for the ESDM
that is, for companies with a turnover that does not sector. And we then solicited the opinions of industry
exceed ` 50 million (during the financial year ending experts, who generally feel that the Budget has largely
March 2015), to 29 per cent plus surcharge and cess. met the expectations of the ESDM sector due to the
This will help MSMEs working in this segment. number of changes in the indirect tax structure, which
In addition, favourable policies like a 100 per cent will promote the manufacture of IT hardware and mo-
tax holiday for three years in a window of five years, bile phones.
Manufacturers importing specified mobile The proposal to abolish excise duty on inputs,
parts/accessories like chargers, speakers, parts, components and sub-parts for the manufacture
headsets and batteries are now required to of chargers/adaptors, batteries and wired headsets/
pay the normal customs duty rate on import- speakers of mobile phones is a welcome move, and will
ing these products. The beneficial scheme for mobile eventually promote local manufacture of these compo-
phones has been altered to incentivise actual manu- nents. However, exemption from basic customs duty,
facturing of mobile phones from the parts/components CVD and SAD on chargers/adaptors, batteries and wired
level and dis-incentivise SKD manufacture of mobile headsets/speakers for mobile phones being withdrawn
phones. The intention appears to be to create a manu- will increase the cost of the mobile phones till the time
facturing ecosystem through a process of backward the companies manufacture these products domesti-
integration. Mahesh Jaising, partner at BMR & cally.Rajesh Agarwal, co-founder Micromax
Associates, LLP Buoyed by the success of mobile handset manufac-
This makes a strong case for making these products turing, where introduction of a differential excise duty
in India. Those who import will need to pay 12.5 per structure has led to the setting up of production facili-
cent excise duty and domestic makers will have to pay ties in India by several leading mobile handset vendors,
two per cent. Pankaj Mohindroo, national presi- both Indian and foreign, the government has widened
dent, Indian Cellular Association its scope to cover additional high-consumption products
The same way, as it was done for mobiles and in the Budget 2016-17. It would, however, be a chal-
tablets, a 10.5 per cent duty differential benefit has been lenge to supply locally manufactured inputs to domestic
created for those who manufacture/assemble these manufacturers of product categories brought within the
products locally viz-a-viz imports, which will attract the ambit of the differential excise duty structure due to
full 12.5 per cent CVD. zero CVD and the applicable BCD on their inputs (for
Regarding components, the obstacle for local non- ITA-1 inputs). Vinod Sharma, chairman, CII
manufacturers is that they will have to get the actual National Committee on ICTE Manufacturing and MD,
user certificate from the manufacturer of the charger or Deki Electronics Ltd
the wired headset locally. Only then will they be able This is basically done to improve the value chain
to supply at a rate excluding the excise duty. This is the of these products. The government has created almost a
only obstacle that has to be overcome. 26.93 per cent duty difference between imported prod-
This problem will not be faced if components are ucts and finished products that are domestically manu-
imported from outside, but only if these are manufac- factured. It has imposed customs duty, CVD and SAD,
tured locally. The local manufacturers will also have a which is not available in the case of imports. So if you
CENVAT overflow because they will be buying inputs. manufacture these products in India, all these three du-
So this amendment brings the direct benefit up to the ties are exempted. Now the only problem that the govern-
mobile accessory stage and does not encourage local ment should address is abolish CST for finished products,
component manufacturers. This needs to be addressed, due to which two per cent gets added to the cost.
even before the next budget, through an interim policy Further, this amendment creates an opportunity for
amendment. The government should provide some local component manufacturers. Today, when people
incentives for local components procurement. Local are importing finished products, the very survival of the
component manufacturers can supply electronic compo- component suppliers in India is under threat. But now
nents such as resistors, capacitors and some connectors there will be a huge demand for components within the
that are being made locally. In this budget, all these country; so component manufacturers should compete
components are allowed with zero import duty. and cater to that demand. Nitin Kunkolienker, VP,
Rajoo Goel, secretary general, ELCINA MAIT
The government is driving Digital India nent manufacturer will enjoy duty exemptions, while
initiative by exempting all earlier-applicable the CCTV manufacturer pays two per cent on output.
duty charges on DVRs and CCTV cameras. Nitin Kunkolienker, VP, MAIT
This will make products cheaper and more The situation in the case of digital video recorders,
affordable in the market, keeping in mind the con- CCTV cameras, set-top boxes, etc, is similar to that of
sumers perspective. This offers a bright opportunity for mobile phones. The government has abolished excise
existing industry players and encourages new entrants duty, which also includes the CVD as well as SAD on
to make their presence felt in this segment, and to cater parts used for manufacturing these items.
to the audience more efficiently. Manish Sharma, Further, the government has created a differential
president of CEAMA and MD, Panasonic India and duty structure. So if manufacturers of these products
South Asia claim CENVAT on finished products, they will have to
The change in the duty structure as proposed in the pay 12.5 per cent but if they do not claim CENVAT, then
Budget 2016 will encourage manufacture of consumer they only have to pay four per cent. That means an 8.5
premise equipment like modems, routers, digital video per cent advantage is provided to those who assemble/
recorders, STBs for the Internet and IP cameras. I expect manufacture these products here. This incentivises as-
investments of about ` 100 billion for the local produc- sembly of the product, which is good at this stage but
tion of these devices. I expect their prices will go down only for the short term, because the ultimate goal is to
by eight per cent in the first year, and by ten per cent in develop the entire ecosystem. To ensure that, compo-
a year-and-a-half. With the incentive on finished goods nent manufacturing needs to be incentivised.Rajoo
with respect to CCTV cameras, assembly of these will Goel, secretary general, ELCINA
begin to happen locally. As the pace picks up and scale Extending the benefit of concessional excise duty
develops, it will provide the necessary impetus for com- (at four per cent) to indigenous manufacture of specified
ponent suppliers to set up manufacturing units locally IT hardware described as consumer premise equipment,
as well, just like the industry from Taiwan migrated to which includes routers, broadband modems, set-top
China 15 years back. boxes for gaining access to the Internet and set-top boxes
Not only the components for CCTV cameras, but for TVs. Exemption to parts, components and accessories
also the sub-components used for manufacturing these thereof for use in the manufacture of these products.
components are exempt from duty. Hence, the compo- Mahesh Jaising, partner at BMR & Associates, LLP
A four per cent SAD has been imposed on populated PCBs used for the manufacture of personal computers
(laptops or desktops), and a two per cent SAD has been imposed on populated PCBs for mobile phones/tablets.
Import of populated PCBs by manufacturers not encourage buyers from sourcing it locally. How-
of mobile phones/tablets now attracts a two ever, those products that do not attract excise duty in
per cent duty. This will have a positive im- India may be incentivised to get their populated PCBs
pact on domestic manufacture of PCBs. How- assembled here. Benefits are not very quantifiable right
ever, companies that have already made investments in now; some more analysis has to be made. But yes, there
India, without factoring in the duty on the manufacture are some benefits and these will increase the business
of the above-mentioned products, will incur an addi- for EMS companies. Rajoo Goel, secretary general,
tional cost of two per cent. Mahesh Jaising, partner ELCINA
at BMR & Associates, LLP It is a good step. The government should complete-
Introduction of SAD on populated PCBs is use- ly discourage import of populated PCBs in the country.
ful. The only issue here is that the SAD that is paid Populated PCBs should be taxed to the highest level,
on populated PCBs is allowed to be adjusted over the and so should be the family of components, because
excise duty on the finished product. So it may or may there is a huge potential to assemble these in India.
BCD is being exempted on specified raw materials used in the manufacture of micro-fuses, sub-miniature fuses,
resettable fuses and thermal fuses. Further, BCD has been reduced to 2.5 per cent on neodymium magnets and
magnet resins used to manufacture brushless DC motors, subject to actual user conditions.
Reduction of BCD on specified capital goods Some specific recommendations of ELCINA, which
used in the manufacture of various fuses is were pending since many years, have also been ad-
a boost to component manufacturing and dressed this year, and this is one of them. Rajoo
will enrich the supply chain. M.N. Vid- Goel, secretary general, ELCINA
yashankar, president, IESA
BCD and SAD have been exempted for machinery, electrical equipment, other instruments and their parts
(except populated PCBs) used for the assembly, testing, marking and packaging of semiconductor
chips and liquid crystal display fabrication units, subject to actual user conditions.
By this, the government is hoping to create schemes like MSIPS to encourage the setting up of fabs
an environment that encourages the setting in India. This amendment is another positive gesture
up of fabs in India. Mahesh Jaising, by the government as it will reduce the capex costs
partner at BMR & Associates, LLP involved in setting up fabrication units. Nitin
The government has already introduced incentive Kunkolienker, VP, MAIT
Market Survey:
A
lthough many circuits for digi- the PCB upside-down. This places of downloading a program on to the
tal clocks have been published its decimal-point LED on top-left in- chip, because it uses flash memory
in Electronics For You, this stead of bottom-right so as to show and can be programmed with 5V sup-
circuit is a PIC microcontroller (MCU) the symbol of degree (o). Hence, we ply. PICkit2 programmer is used for
based easy-to-construct gadget, which use four separate common-anode downloading the hexadecimal code on
combines a clock with a temperature LED units instead of a combo LED to the chip. Cost of 16F73 is quite low.
indicator in the same display. The display component. Port pins in the PIC chip have
display uses four 7-segment common- The MCU choice is now for the greater power capability than those
anode LEDs. It shows the clock, and more convenient PIC chip from the in the 8051 family. So driving LED
in every minute for five seconds the low-cost 16F family. This is a 28-pin segments can be made by directly
display alternates to show the tem- chip with ports a, b and c, as well connecting the segments to the port
perature in oC. An alarm facility with as several internal peripherals like pins, without any buffer IC. Thus,
buzzer is provided. timer, ADC and UART. Most impor- component count is reduced.
Clocks precision is due to the tant advantage of PIC is the ease There are several analogue-to-
20MHz high-frequency crystal that digital converter input channels. Speed
is used with PIC16F73 chip. Second Test Points of conversion is as short as 20 micro-
displays decimal point blinks every Test point Details seconds. So it is easy to connect any
second. The display for temperature analogue signal and digitise the same
TP0 0V (GND)
uses three digits from the left and for displaying with LEDs. Here, the
TP1 +5V
the fourth digit just shows oC. For analogue signal is that of temperature.
this, the fourth LED is soldered on TP2 +3.3V Texas Instruments chip LM35 is a
L X1
1
~ BR1 +
3
1 IC1 3
7805 TP1
R2 R3 R5
R4
DB107_ 4 1.2K 1.2K 1.2K 1.2K
2
~ C5
1000u,35V
2
T3 T4
R1 T1 T2
BC558 BC558
10K BC558 BC558
N 3
GND C1
IC2 2 0.1u
C2
LM35 VO 0.1u
Vcc 1
1 VDD 20
MCLR
2 28 DISP1 DISP2 DISP3 DISP4
RA0 RB7
TP2 3 27 8 3 8 3 8 3 8 3
R8 RA1 RB6
CA CA CA CA CA CA
1.2K 4 RA2 RB5 26 CA CA
VR1
5 25
10K RA3 RB4 5 dp a 7 5 dp a 7 5 dp a 7 5 dp a 7
6 RA4 RB3 24
7
IC3 23
RA5 RB2
9
PIC16F73 22 10 g 6 10 g
ZD1 R6 R7 OSC1 RB1 b b 6 10 g b 6 10 g b 6
3.3V 10K 10K 10 OSC2 RB0 21
11 18 f e d c f e d c f e d c f e d c
RC0 RC7
12 17 9 1 2 4 9 1 2 4 9 1 2 4 9 1 2 4
RC1 RC6
13 RC5 16
RC2
14 RC4 15
RC3
8 Vss Vss 19
PZ1
PIEZO
BUZZER
TP0
C3 XTAL1 C4
S1 S2 15p 20MHz 15p
Fig. 2: Actual-size PCB layout for the alarm clock-cum-temperature indicator circuit
in a hex file. Using PICkit2 program- Carefully assemble the components shooting, verify the voltages are as
mer it can be entered into a fresh PIC and double-check for any error(s). listed in the test points table.
chip. Note that the configuration byte Use a proper IC base for the MCU. After powering on the circuit, a de-
is 52 hex. You use 42 hex if you want CON1 is a 2-pin connector used fault value will be displayed. Press S1
to protect the code from being copied. to connect a 9V battery. For trouble- to set the desired time. After setting the
time, press S2 to set alarm time. Now,
Construction and testing present time will be shown on the
An actual-size, single-side PCB of EFY Note display. The buzzer (PZ1) will sound
the circuit is shown in Fig. 2 and The source code of at the time set for the alarm.
its component layout in Fig. 3. As- this project is
semble the circuit on the PCB as it included in this Prof. K. Padmanabhan is an emeritus professor at
minimises time and assembly errors. months EFY DVD and Alagappa college of Technology, Guindy, Chennai
is also available for free
90 APRIL 2016 | ELECTRONICS FOR YOU
download at source. WWW.EFYMAG.COM
efymag.com
Do-it-yourself
BIS
WA
J
DAS IT
T
he project is based on low-
cost ESP8266 Wi-Fi module.
Currently, ESP8266 is gaining
popularity in the field of electronics
because it is low-cost, reliable and
easily available in the market. Most
documents related to this module
are in Mandarin (Chinese language)
and information provided in the
data sheet is not sufficient enough
for using ESP8266 for an applica-
tion. In order to fill the gap, people
from various countries have formed
an ESP8266 community forum,
which gives necessary details about
programming and other related is-
sues concerning this module. Fig. 1: Authors prototype
ESP8266 contains a built-in 32-
bit low-power CPU, ROM and RAM. PARTS LIST
It is a complete and self-contained Semiconductors:
Wi-Fi network solution that can MODULE1 - ESP8266 module
(Sunrom part no. 4255)
carry software applications as a IC1 - 7805, 5V voltage regulator
stand-alone device or connected IC2 - LM317 adjustable voltage
regulator
with a microcontroller (MCU). The IC3 - LM35 temperature sensor
module has built-in AT Command IC4 - LM358 operational amplifier
IC5 - HCF4094 8-stage shift and
firmware to be used with any MCU store bus register
via COM port. Salient features of IC6 - MAX3232 dual EIA-3232
ESP8266 are: driver/receiver
LED1 - 5mm LED
802.11 b/g/n protocol Fig. 2: ESP8266 module
Resistors (all 1/4-watt, 5% carbon):
Direct (P2P), soft-AP R1, R6 - 220-ohm
R2 - 330-ohm
Integrated TCP/IP protocol stack
Test Points R3-R5, R7, R8 - 10-kilo-ohm
Integrated PLL, regulators and VR1 - 10-kilo-ohm potmeter
power-management units Test point Details Capacitors:
C1 - 100F, 25V electrolytic
+19.5dBm output power in TP1 +5V C2, C4-C7 - 0.1F ceramic disk
802.11b mode TP2 +3.3V C3 - 1F, 25V electrolytic
Miscellaneous:
Supports antenna diversity (Voltage measured with respect to ground) S1-S3 - Tactile (push-button) switch
Integrated low-power 32-bit MCU LCD1 - 162 character module
SDIO 2.0, SPI, UART display
+5V +3.3V
TP1 TP2
4
15
16
QP0
16
A/VEE
K
VDD 5
4
QP1
RS
CON1 15
J1 OE
6
5
(712)V 1 IC1 IC2 QP2
EN R/W
3 3 2
R8 1
STR
7805 LM317 10K 7
6
2 QP3
D
2 C2 1 3 IC5 14
7
C1 CP QP4
D0
100u 0.1u 10 HCF4094
R1 QS2 13
8
QP5
D1
R2 220E C3 9 LCD1
330E 1u QS1
12
9
8 QP6 16X2
D2
3 GND
GND CON3 CON4
10
11
LM35
2 QP7
D3
IC3
RESET TXD
Vo 1 16
ADC
15 RXD
11
1
R3 R4 R5 2
Vs
D4
CH_PD GPIO4
3 14
10K 10K 10K GPIO16 GPIO5 16
12
4 13
C5 C6
D5
GPIO14 GPIO0
5 12 0.1u 5 VCC 2
GPIO12 GPIO2 0.1u
13
6 11 C2 VS+
D6
GPIO13 GPIO15
1 8 7 10 4 1
S1
S3
S2
VCC GND
14
OUT1 Vcc 8 9 C2+ C1+
D7
VDD
Vss
C7
VO
2 7 9 3
IN1IC4 OUT2 R2OUT C1 0.1u
BASE
1
LM358
3
3 10 IC6 T1IN 11
IN1+ IN2 6 OF
T2IN
MAX3232
5 4 3 2 1
9 8 7 6
4 5 CHILD BOARD 14
T1OUT R1OUT
12
GND IN2+
R7 13 7 VR1
10K
R1IN T2OUT 10K
6 R2IN 8
VS
C4 GND
R6 CON2
LED1
220E 15 DB9
5mm 0.1u
Fig. 3: Circuit diagram of the main board of the low-cost ESP8266 based Wi-Fi Web server
transmitting, other-
1 16
wise, voltage may be
RESET TXD
2 15
inaccurate.
ADC RXD
3
CH_PD 14 All digital input/
GPIO4
4
GPIO16 GPIO5
13 output (I/O) pins
5 12
are protected from
GPIO14 GPIO0
over-voltage with a
6 11
GPIO12 GPIO2
snap-back circuit con-
CON5 7 10
GPIO13 GPIO15 CON6
nected between the
8 9
VCC GND pad and the ground.
MODULE1 Snap-back voltage
ESP8266 MODULE is typically 6V and
holding voltage is
CHILD BOARD Fig. 5: Preferences window of Arduino IDE 5.8V. This provides
Fig. 4: Circuit diagram of the child board for the protection from over-
circuit shown in Fig. 3 through resistor R5 and push-button voltage and ESD. Output devices are
S2 is provided for manual reset. also protected from reverse voltage
mounted on the main board. Programing mode pin 12 (GPIO0) is with diodes. LED1 is connected to
CON2 is used for COM port in- connected to 3.3V through R3, and pin 11 (GPIO2). Pin 6 (GPIO12) is
terface for connecting the module to S1 is used to bring the module to connected to 3.3V through R4 and
a PC and the module is programmed programing mode. Pin 3 (CH_PD) is provided with a push-button (S3) for
using a USB-to-serial converter. If connected to 3.3V through R8. debugging purposes.
physical COM port is available on ESP8266 also integrates a general- Every supplier of Wi-Fi modules
the PC, USB-to-serial converter is purpose 10-bit resolution ADC (pin follows a different pattern for output
not necessary. 2). It is typically used to measure pin arrangment. So no standard
ESP8266 module has 16 pins. voltage from the sensor or battery. PCB pattern can be followed. Read-
Pin 1 (RESET) is connected to 3.3V It cannot be used when the chip is ers of EFY can design their own
T
his article aims to revive tures are built out of these cells.
Lisp programming language APPLICATION Basic data types that PicoLisp
for native, interactive and supports are numbers, symbols and
incremental microcontroller (MCU) lists. As a result, it is one of the
USER SHELL
program development by running a fastest Lisp dialects available, since
dialect of Lisp (PicoLisp) as virtual only fewer options are checked at
machine on the target. It also dem- VM LAYER runtime to parse a value.
onstrates the power of Lisp through PicoLisp in addition supports
execution of expressive Lisp pro- HARDWARE
an integrated database system. This
grams on a 32-bit MCU. is a huge advantage for embedded
Lisp offers a practical mathemat- Fig. 1: General MCU software system with a
system applications that require
ical notation to write computer pro- VM layer a convenient facility to perform
grams, mostly influenced by lambda data transactions.
calculus. It is still the most-favoured language for an MCU, there are Overall logical software structure
programming language for artificial many reasons to consider PicoLisp for running full-fledged PicoLisp
intelligence research. for programming MCUs. on the MCU is shown in Fig. 2. It
Dynamic languages like Lisp PicoLisp is constructed as a VM. shows the communication between
have been in existence as a ver- It is written in portable C and is eas- PicoLisp VM and various other mod-
satile tool for rapid application ily extendable. After much research ules in code base.
development. Many interesting, and programming to narrow down The code base remains highly
practical embedded solutions have on a Lisp implementation, PicoLisp portable across various platforms
been developed so far with such was chosen as a VM for the follow- and architectures simply by using
languages, supported as part of ing reasons: the following key principles:
a virtual machine (VM). Fig. 1 1. Dynamic data types and struc- 1. Code that is platform-independ-
shows the system architecture of a tures ent is common code and should
natively-programmable, digitally- 2. Formally homo-iconic be written in portable ANSI C as
controlled system. 3. Functional programming much as possible. PicoLisp itself
With the above architecture, it paradigm is a part of the common code sec-
is possible to write abstract, self- 4. An interactive REPL(read- tion and is written in this way.
adapting, middle-level drivers for eval-print loop) 2. Code that is not generic (mostly
hardware modules on the MCU. 5. Pilog, a declarative language peripheral and CPU-specific code)
This enables the possibility of plat- with semantics of Prolog in must still be made as portable
form-independent, native embedded PicoLisp as possible by using a common
software development. 6. Small memory footprint interface that must be imple-
Lisp is the second-oldest high- 7. Permissive, non-copyleft free mented by all platforms on which
level programming language (the software licence PicoLisp runs. This interface is
first being FORTRAN). Linked lists At the lowest level, PicoLisp pro- called platform interface.
are one of its major data structures. grams are constructed from a single 3. Platforms vary greatly in capabil-
A program written in Lisp is con- data structure called cell. A cell is ities. The platform interface tries
structed with lists. One of the most a pair of machine words, which are to group only common attributes
interesting properties of this lan- traditionally called CAR and CDR in of different platforms.
guage is its homo-iconic nature. Lisp terminology. These words can Platform interface is declared
Although projects like PICOBIT represent either a numeric value in inc/platform.h header file from
and ARMPIT Scheme already imple- (scalar) or address of another cell source distribution. It is a collection
ment a compact Lisp programming (pointer). All higher-level data struc- of various components like UART,
[src/platform/xmc4/platform.c] [src/platform/stm32/platform.c]
INTERFACE
PLATFORM
[inc/platform.h]
COMMON
NEWLIB STUBS,
CODE
SPI and timers. Each component for a file system. We also need to file system, XMODEM and termi-
has an identifier, which is a number implement stubs of code for file I/O nal support.
that identifies that component in support over SPI protocol. For the 3. If files /rom/autorun.l or /mmc/
PicoLisp. Generally, numbers are file system, we use FatFs FAT file autorun.l exist, these are ex-
assigned to components in their system module. ecuted. If one file is found before
natural order. For example, Port A Once all supporting programs are the other, it terminates further
will have identifier value 0, Port B in place, getting PicoLisp to run on execution of the other file and the
will have 1 and so on. the MCU is then fairly straightfor- context jumps to the next step.
Similarly, second SPI interface ward. On account of its small size, it If it returns after execution, or if
(SPII) of the MCU will probably can be easily embedded on an MCU files are not found, boot process
have an identifier value of 1. Pin in less than 256kB of flash. It can continues with the next step.
0 in Port 1 on Infineon XMC4500 also be easily compiled for a given 4. If boot parameter is set to stand-
will be called P1_0 in PicoLisp. architecture with a toolchain like ard and the shell was compiled
Similarly, pin 27 in Port B on Atmel GNU gcc. Currently, a Python based in the image, it is started. In the
AT32UC3A0256 will be called PB_27 build system called SCons is being absence of the shell, standard
(notice the single opening quote). used to compile the code base. PicoLisp server is started.
T
his simple radio frequency Address bits A0 to A7 of IC1 are
Circuit and working
(RF) based code lock incorpo- set to 11111111 via switch DIP1. Pro-
rates a pair of 433MHz ready- The circuit has a transmitter and grammed address and data are com-
made RF transmitter and receiver a receiver. The transmitter circuit bined and then transmitted together
modules. It is a remote-controlled shown in Fig. 1 is built around through 433MHz RF module (TX1).
and code-protected locking system. 433MHz RF transmitter module Address of the transmitter has to
The code is fixed, hence it is easy (TX1), encoder HT12E (IC1) and a match with the address of the receiver
to implement and requires very few other components. to successfully receive data.
less power. Signal transmission starts as Receiver circuit shown in Fig. 2
soon as you switch consists of 433MHz RF module (RX1),
on the circuit using decoder HT12D (IC2), 5V voltage
TP1 ANT.1 switch S1. HT12E regulator 7805 (IC3), transistors BC548
S1 R1
POWER 1M encoder IC1 gener- (T1) and BD139 (T2 and T3), two so-
C1 DIP1 C2
ON/OFF
15 16 18 100n
FOR 8WAY 100n ates eight address lenoid locks connected across connec-
DIP SWITCH
CON1 OSC2 OSC1 Vcc 1 1 16 TP2
bits and four data tors CON3 and CON4 and a few other
FOR A0
12V
17
DOUT
2 2 15 bits, and employs components. Coded signal transmitted
A1
14
TE 3 3 14 amplitude shift by the transmitter is processed by
ON OFF A2
keying (ASK) mod- decoder IC2 at receiver side. Address
DATA
GND
ANT
Vcc
13 4 4 13
AD11 A3
5 4 IC1 1 2 3 4 ulation. The code bits A0 to A7 of IC2 are set to 11111111
5 12
HT12E A4 5
6 3 12
AD10
6 6 11
TX1 is programmed using DIP switch DIP3.
A5 FOR 433MHz
7 2
11 7 7 10 TRANSMITTER
using address lines. If the received address bits match
8 1
AD9 A6
8 9
MODULE Data pins AD8 to 11111111, transmitted data will be
DIP2 8
FOR 4WAY
10
AD8
A7
AD11 are con- available across data pins (D8 through
9
DIP SWITCH GND
OFF ON nected to dual-in- D11) of IC2. Here, 11111111 is the fixed
TP0
GND
line package switch code but can be changed by altering
DIP2 to set data for the address bits as per requirement.
Fig. 1: Transmitter circuit of the RF based code lock transmission. Flashing of LED1 indicates that
a valid signal has
been received at
ANT.2 TP4 the receiver. It will
R3 3 IC3 1
DIP3
D1, D2 = 1N4007 DIODE
1K
LED1
7805 not flash if there is
C4 C3
RX1 FOR 8WAY 2 100u a mismatch of the
100n
433MHz RECEIVER DIP SWITCH 1 A0 18 25V addresses of IC1
Vcc
MODULE 16 1 R2 T1
2
A1 OSC1
16
47K BC548 and IC2.
15 2
3 15 R4 In this circuit
DATA
DATA
A2 OSC2
GND
GND
GND
ANT
14 3
Vcc
Vcc
Lid-Monitoring
SenSor Module
T.K. HAREENDRAN
I
f you need a lid-monitoring sen- when a toolbox is being opened or of two conductive elements (poles)
sor for an application, this is the tampered with, among other things, and a conductive free mass (rolling
circuit you have been looking which can be used in conjunction ball), encapsulated in the same case.
for. One application for such sensors with a microcontroller (MCU) based When the tilt sensor is oriented so
would be in the security market. For monitoring device. that that end is downwards, the
example, construction companies Here is a simple lid-monitoring mass rolls onto the poles and shorts
need more ways to combat tools sensor module circuit realised using these, acting as a switch throw.
theft. Construction toolboxes typi- an inexpensive mercury-free tilt Working principle of SW-520D tilt
cally remain on a construction site switch. The standalone roller-ball- sensor is shown in Fig. 2.
when the workers leave, making type tilt sensor senses tilt angle/ Rest of the circuit is based on a
these easy targets for theft. Lid-mon- movement, and its overall response misused LM393 (IC1) configured
itoring sensors can be used to detect is very fast. as a simple RC op-amp comparator
timer. In idle state, voltage is applied
Table I: Tilt Sensor and Circuit and working across the R1-C1 combination, pro-
Circuit Output A look at Fig. 1 will convince you ducing a typical RC charging signal
Tilt sensor/input Pin 2 of output socket
that the circuit diagram of the
lid-monitoring sensor module is PARTS LIST
socket (CON1) (CON2)
pleasantly simple. Admittedly, a Semiconductors:
Off/open High IC1 - LM393 comparator
roller-ball-type tilt sensor (SW-520D) D1 - 1N4148 signal diode
On/short Low
is used here. Such a device consists T1 - BC557 pnp transistor
LED1-LED3 - 5mm LED
Resistors (all 1/4-watt, 5% carbon):
R1, R4, R5 - 10-kilo-ohm
LED1 R2, R3, R6 - 1-kilo-ohm
CON5 R4 STATUS
R1 VR1 - 10-kilo-ohm preset
5V 10K
10K 1 OUT1 8 LED2 Capacitors:
Vcc
R2 POWER CON2 C1, C3 - 100F, 16V electrolytic
VR1 OUT2 7
2 IN1
CON1 1K Vcc C2 - 0.1 ceramic disk
10K A1 IN2 6
FOR TILT 3 OUT Miscellaneous:
IN1 A2 CON1 - 2-pin connector
SENSOR 4 5 GND
GND IN2 CON2-CON4 - 3-pin connector
A C1 R3
IC1 C2 CON5 - 2-pin connector terminal
B 100u 1K
0.1u RL1 - 5V, 1 C/O relay
16V LM393
- 5V DC regulated power
GND supply
Fig. 2: Tilt sensor and its working Figs 3 and 4: Proposed enclosure and its placement
Design Idea+
This circuit is ideal for applica-
tions sensing closure of an as-
sortment of different lids and/
or caps. Next example could
be to sense whether the gas-
filling lid and the gas cap of an
automobile are in place or not.
Fig. 6: Actual-size PCB pattern of the lid-monitoring Fig. 8: Actual-size PCB pattern of the
Demand for such systems is
sensor electromagnetic switch increasing because gas-filling
lids and gas caps can remain
open due to carelessness of the
vehicle operator or of a service
attendant. Any potential arc or
spark in and around the gas
could ignite the fuel.
T.K. Hareendran is
founder and promoter
of TechNode Protolabz
Fig. 7: Component layout of the PCB shown in Fig. 6 Fig. 9: Component layout of the PCB shown in Fig. 8
CON5
FOR
I2C
Configurable
LED4
560E
560E
LED3
R6
R5
RS232 To TTL
1
SDA 2
3
4
SCL
LED2
560E
To I2C AdApToR
R4
4.7K
R3
PETRE TZV PETROV
4.7K
R2
R
560E
LED1
R1
S232 signals cover a much configurations. CON2
longer distance than standard is a single-line con-
12
10
TTL and I2C signals. Also, nector from which
8
6
4
2
RS232 signals have better noise im- RS232 signals can be
7405
IC2
munity. RS232 is a well-known stan- taken for interfacing
N2
N1
N4
N6
N3
N5
Vcc
GND
dard supported by many popular in- external circuits.
7
14
tegrated circuits (ICs) and therefore MAX232 (IC1)
is still widely used. Sometimes we is a dual driver/re-
11
13
1
9
3
want to send TTL and I2C signals ceiver that includes
10K
R8
S2
over a longer distance. This article a capacitive voltage
describes how these signals can be generator to sup-
extended through RS232 lines. ply TIA/EIA-232-F
10K
S1
R7
5
8
6
a single 5V supply.
ON
Fig. 1 shows the circuit of configu- It has two receivers
DIP2
OFF
1
4
rable RS232 to TTL to I2C adap- and two transmit-
tor. RS232 signals are available on ters compatible with
FOR TTL
the standard 9-pin connector, also RS232 signals.
2
3
4
5
6
1
CON3
1u,16V
There is a wide variety of configura- lent signals from
C2
tions available for RS232 signals on the interface are
10
14
13
5
R1IN
T1OUT
C2+
R2OUT
VS
C2
15
16
T2OUT
R2IN
PARTS LIST
T1IN
VS+
C1+
C1
N4, N5 and N6 of
Semiconductors: hex inverter 7405
11
2
12
6
16V
ON
C4
1u
OFF
R2-R3 - 4.7-kilo-ohm
R7, R8 - 10-kilo-ohm capable of driving 9 8 7 6
COMPORT
FOR DB9
5 4 3 2 1
C6, C7 - 0.33F ceramic disk S2 are used to manu-
Miscellaneous: ally check the signals
CON1 - DB9 COM port connector
2
3
4
5
6
1
RS232
0.33u
100u
16V
5V
C7
C5
OpenSourceForU.com
Follow us on Twitter@LinuxForYou
live streaming
Using Raspberry Pi
SOMNATH BERA
I
magine you are talking to your $sudo apt-get update After about 30 seconds, browse a
friend who works in another $sudo apt-get upgrade Web interface using a web browser,
country and at the same time you Install Motion. We use a fairly say, Mozilla Firefox, on the same
are streaming your plush drawing lightweight application known as computer or another computer
room images to him or her on the Motion, which is capable of access- on the same network, and en-
computer. For streaming images you ing the USB camera, getting images ter the IP address along with the
would need an Internet connection and streaming these via the built-in port number of your Raspi, say,
and then use of the port-forwarding Web server. Motion can also track http://192.168.123.100:8081
technique explained in this article. and trigger events when motion is If you can see the live-streaming
But, is it a big deal? Skype or a detected in video frames. video, it means everything is working
similar messaging program does the $sudo apt-get install motion fine on the network.
same thing through the Internet. The Plug in webcam. Plug in the
only difference is that the process pre- webcam and ensure that everything Port forwarding
sented here is simple and has mini- is working fine by typing lsusb com- Now, try to access the live-streaming
mum footprint or load on bandwidth. mand. The name of your webcam video from any other available
Port forwarding, or live stream- manufacturer should be visible on network using port forwarding. To
ing, allows the network to flow the terminal, which means Raspi enable this on your home broadband
contents of a defined port to the has recognised your webcam. router for Raspi on port 8081, follow
outside world. It allows network $lsusb the steps given below.
administrators to use one IP address Configure software. Now, basic A router provides the route be-
for all external communications on configurations are required in mo- tween the Intranet and the Internet.
the Internet. It is useful for home tion.conf file as follows: Most routers are set to work one way,
network users who may wish to run sudo nano /etc/motion/motion.conf although almost all routers have pro-
a Web server or gaming server Daemon = off to on vision to work both ways. The most-
on network. width 640 popular route set to operate is from
height 480 the Internet to the Intranet. For exam-
How to get started framerate 30 ple, you are watching a Web page and
You need a Windows or Linux Go to # Live Webcam Server sec- sending mail, and all traffic is from
computer with a camera and an tion and make the following changes: the outside world to the inside.
old mobile phone with an Inter- webcam_localhost = on to off In almost all router administration
net connection to live stream your webcam_port 8081 pages, there is port-forwarding facil-
video over the Internet. You can also webcam_quality 50 ity that helps create the traffic route,
use Raspberry Pi (Raspi) in place webcam_maxrate 15 (if you have which allows driving of contents from
of a computer. good bandwidth, you can make the Intranet to the Internet.
For testing live-streaming videos this 30) The router does not see which
using Raspi with Raspbian OS, use Start software. To ensure that computer to use for reverse traffic
Motion software and configure mo- Motion service actually starts as a flow; it only sees which port to allow
tion.conf file as explained below. daemon, change configuration set- for traffic flow.
Get the software ready. To start ting as given below. Open Advanced page (of your mo-
with, you should have a working $sudo nano /etc/default/motion dem or routers administration page)
Raspi on a local network with Inter- Change, value start_motion_ and click on Port Forwarding.
net access. daemon=no to yes Set the port (say, 8081, 8082,
Next, update Raspi using the Now, you can start Motion ser- 5678, 8083 and so on) and associ-
following commands. This ensures vice to stream webcam images by ate the IP address of Raspi. This port
that you have the latest software and typing the following command: will drive its contents to the Internet.
drivers installed. $sudo service motion start In our case, anyone can view the
I
n this article we describe how are used to create this software. To another set of four LEDs will glow
to create a game station entry limit the scope, this article does not to alert the user. Depending on the
card so that a player can enter deal with details of the hardware. tag number read by the program,
the game station only once using the number of times the card is
that card. Software program swiped by a particular player gets
A radio-frequency identification C# (or C sharp) program is used for displayed on the computer screen.
(RFID) reader, a few RFID tags, an coding on Microsoft Visual Studio LPC2138 board from Robokit is
ARM LPC2138 development board 2013 environment. The software used here for serial communication
as hardware and Visual Studio 2013 collects data from an RFID tag/card and to drive the LEDs for indication.
as the software programming tool in- through an RFID reader and writes Baud rate of serial communication is
stalled on a PC running Windows OS it to the COM port that is opened set to 9600. Note that, you can use
by C# program (a console any other board that has a mini-
application). The program mum of two UARTs, with first UART
can automatically detect interface to a PC and second to an
any passive RFID tag. RFID reader. Connect the board to
Transmit (TX) pin of a PC using USB-to-serial converter
the RFID reader is con- as shown in Fig. 1. Pin 19 (TXD0)
nected to RXD1 (pin 34) of and pin 21 (RXD0) of LPC2138 chip
LPC2138 chip (not shown are connected to receive (RX) and
here). When an RFID tag is transmit (TX) pins of USB-to-serial
swiped against the reader, converter, respectively.
data is first sent to LPC2138 Source code for LPC21XX
board. A set of four LEDs development board (arm_lpc2138_
on the board glows to in- rfid_0v2) and a test application for
Fig. 1: Board connection to laptop using USB and RFID
dicate detection of signals. the setup generated after building
reader connected to board If the card is swiped again the project, driver software (driver1_
ch340 and cp210x_vcp_windows) are
included in this months EFY DVD.
Price
` 15,999
GizMo ByTes
Wizikey launches Android app
MP-CL1 mobile projector from Sony Wizikey, a news tracking and analysis
Turns any surface into an hd theatre website, released its Android app on Google
Play Store. With the new app, you can track
This new projector from Sony has a no-lens structure, which makes it com- relevant news in less than five seconds,
pact and lightweight. You can project your favourite movies, TV shows, games compare and analyse with competition in
and home movies wirelessly, or via HDMI or MHL. The projector features less than 30 seconds on a curated database
1920720 HD (aspect ratio of 16:9) quality and auto-focus environment, any- of more than 150 news publications. It will
also help you get a quick trend analysis on
where you go. Simply choose the image size to suit the situation, with a flex-
your brand keywords and news coverage
ible screen size ranging from short throw for a 101.6cm (40-inch) image, up to
alerts in real-time.
a 305cm (120-inch) screen image when pulled back. Either way, you can count
on a bigger image at a shorter distance. Swachch Paryatan app to keep
MP-CL1 features laser technology that focuses a tight beam of light for heritage sites clean
every pixel of the image to maintain a sharp image from up close or far
The government of India has launched a
away. The sharp image remains in focus even on curved walls and other mobile app that will enable travellers to send
challenging environments. pictures of dirty spots at tourist places to
the authorities for immediate action as part
of Clean India Mission. The app has been
Price
Smartphone from Intex ` 18,500 made available for 25 heritage monuments
including Taj Mahal, Fatehpur Sikri,
Smartphone with a twist Humayuns Tomb, Qutab Minar and Red Fort.
The new smartphone from Intex allows
you to switch between apps without App to avail short-term loans
a hassle. Multi-tasking has been made To avail a short-term personal loan, you
easier with 1.3GHz quad-core processor need to log on to EarlySalary app through
combined with 1GB RAM, 8GB ROM your social media account of, say, Facebook
or LinkedIn, answer a few questions about
(includes memory used for the operating
yourself and upload your PAN number and
system and apps) and Android Lollipop
bank statements. Within ten minutes, the
5.1 with 3G to surf faster. credit would be underwritten digitally. With
The 5MP twist camera changes the Air purifier from these details, the company would be able to
conventional way you capture memories
with just a twistroll on to take perfect
Crusaders access your credit history, which would help
it determine whether to lend or not and fix
selfies. The smartphone has a 12.7cm For pure air and healthy living your credit limit.
(5-inch) display with a resolution of
480x854, This air purification system Fabric mobile app for
2200mAh is based on the principal of developers on the go
lithium-ion photo-catalytic oxidation using Twitters Fabric mobile app makes life
battery with a UV, along with 0.3 micron, easy for app developers, as they no longer
standby time high-grade, high-efficiency par- need to rely on desktops and laptops for
of 275 hours, ticulate air and carbon filters to updates and health of their apps. The
neutralise dust, pollen, allergen, app uses push notifications if something
GPS, Blue-
is critically affecting ones app without
tooth 2.0 and smoke, odour, bacteria, virus,
Price sending tedious emails about the issues.
` 5199 many other other micro-organisms and toxic It helps keep all critical data in a single,
features. It gases such as formaldehyde. intuitive dashboard. Users can adjust the
comes in It features a washable EPS frequency of notifications and even select a
black and elementary filter, photo-catalyst mute button if they choose to, and can read
white col- filter, UV lamp and negative and write comments on issues from within
ours. ions, among others. the mobile app.
The prices, features and specifications are based on information provided to us, or as available on various websites and portals. EFY cannot vouch for their accuracy.
Selecting An Appropriate
Rooftop SolaR SyStem
I
ndia is blessed with abundant sunshine els with heavier output of 150W to 300W
for most of the year. Switching to solar or even more.
energy is therefore an extremely logical These are of the following two types:
option. Solar energy is more economical Crystalline-silicon panels. These include
and environment-friendly as compared to monocrystalline and multi-crystalline pan-
non-renewable sources of energy like coal els. The former produce higher amount of
and petroleum. The government of India power and are costlier than the latter.
has launched training programmes, framed Thin-film panels. These are used in
solar net-metering guidelines as well as building integrated photovoltaic applica-
Ruchira Prasad
was working announced other incentives to promote the tions, where these become a part of the
as a senior use of solar energy. building structure.
correspondent at
EFY until recently Selecting the right product is critical for
the smooth running of daily operations. Factors that determine price
This guide will assist you in making an Price of a solar panel can vary from ` 30/
informed decision. kW to ` 60/kW. An imported module can
cost about ` 40/kW to ` 45/kW. Good ones
What solar panels are manufactured in India can cost ` 30/kW
Solar panels (also called photovoltaics) are to ` 32/kW (for bulk transactions). Retail
primarily rectangular silicon devices that price of a module producing 3W - 40W
can convert light into electricity. These com- may vary between ` 60/kW and ` 90/
prise several solar cells, which are spread kW and modules producing 50W - 300W
over a large area that can work together to between ` 55/kW and ` 60/kW.
offer sufficient power for it to be deemed Price of solar panels varies according to
useful. Efficacy of solar panels depends on type, wattage, brand and testing standards,
how well these face the sun. as explained below.
Solar cells are available in all sizes, Type. Thin-film panels cost less than
colours and power ratings. Applications that crystalline silicon panels.
require minimal amount of power (20W to Wattage. Panels that have a higher
40W) include solar lamps, lanterns, torches power output have a higher price as these
and so on. Rooftop installations require pan- produce more electricity.
*Bloomberg defines a Tier 1 solar manufacturer as one who has provided products to five different projects, which have been financed non-recourse by five different
(non-development) banks in the past two years
A
s PC monitors become The external TV tuner box can
larger, cheaper and of better
Things you need easily be installed by connecting to
quality, many people are An old computer with at least 10GB your computers USB port, but the
moving from the traditional TV of free hard drive space and a connection is slower, giving you a
set to a multi-use computer. With reasonably fast processor; more lower-resolution image.
storage room if you plan to record
TV-streaming services, on-demand your favourite shows
Install the TV tuner software.
content and TV tuners getting Install the software that comes with
A TV tuner or USB based tuner box
popular, you can have all your your tuner onto your PC. The soft-
media in one place by turning your ware will allow you to control the
PC into a TV. computer screen a TV signal. This channels and volume through a re-
Now, you do not have to choose can be done using a number of mote control. It could even enable
between your link to the World devices. Which one you choose will you to record live TV shows on
Wide Web and your favourite tel- depend on how much you want to your computers hard drive. Insert
evision series. With a few devices, spend and the quality of your PC. the disc provided with your hard-
you can turn an old computer into Next, choose between a TV tuner ware and follow the instructions to
a new TV. It will not only save you card (with or without a graphics properly install the software.
money, but also reduce needless card, depending on your computers Channel surf. You are now
electronic waste. But how do you capabilities) and an external TV ready to surf TV channels on your
go about turning a PC into a TV? tuner box. The TV tuner card needs computer screen since you now
Let us find out. to be installed by a professional, have legal access to TV shows
Feed the TV signal. Physically so it will provide you with a clear that cannot be streamed on the
install your hardware to give your connection to most TV channels. Internet.
Eita Technologies ............................................. 125 Digi-Key Electronics ............................................ 3 Progressive Engineers .....................................116 Janice industries ............................................... 125
NIMBUS TECHNOLOGIES .............................. 126 Element14 India Pvt Ltd ....................................... 1 Systellar Innovations .........................................118
Techno Power .................................................. 125 LWI Electronics Inc. ........................................... 23 Optics & Optoelectronics WAA MALL LLP ................................................ 122
Microchip Technology Hong Kong Ltd ................ 59 Binay Opto Electronics Pvt Ltd ..................... 14, 15
Batteries & Power Supplies Mouser Electronics (India) Private Buljin Elemec Pvt Ltd ....................................... 124 Test & Measurement Equipment (Including
BB Battery India Co. Pvt Ltd .............................. 21 Limited ............................................................... 7 Indicators & Monitors)
Digital Promoters (I) Pvt Ltd ............................. 124 PCBs, Assemblies & Sub Assemblies CM Envirosystems Pvt Ltd ................................. 33
Renesas Electronics India Pvt Ltd ...................... 39
Kandhari Photo Electronics P Ltd .................... 125 Circuit Systems India Ltd ................................... 33 Dinteck.............................................................. 125
S.M. Semiconductors ....................................... 125
Minmax Technology Co. Ltd ............................... 41 Sahasra Electronics Pvt Ltd .............................117 FLIR Systems India Pvt Ltd ........................ 81, 121
SMD Electro Components ................................ 121
Mornsun Guangzhou Science & Technology Sunanda Enterprises ....................................... 124 Good Will Instrument Co. Ltd ........................... 130
ST Microelectronics Marketing Pvt Ltd ............... 29
Co. Ltd ............................................................... 9 Keysight Technologies India Pvt Ltd ................. 2, 5
National Controlling & Equipments ................... 124 Plugs, Sockets & Connectors Meco Meters Pvt Ltd............................... 53, 55, 57
Display Systems
Piyush Electronics & Electricals (P) Ltd............ 121 Anand Enterprises ........................................... 124 NANJING GLARUN ATTEN Technology
Electronic Assembly ........................................... 32
Sakthi Accumulators Private Ltd ...................... 125 Auro Controls ....................................................116 Co. Ltd ............................................................. 27
KAMS Enterprises ............................................ 125
Shavison Electronics Pvt Ltd .............................113 SIGLENT Technologies Co. Ltd .......................... 35
Srishti Electronics ............................................ 124 Reseller and Distributors Tektronix India Pvt Ltd ...................................... 132
Industrial & Manufacturing Equipment
AqTronics Technologies Pvt Ltd ......................... 19
Furukawa (Thailand) Co. Ltd .............................. 51
Cabinets, Enclosures & Accessories Arrow Electronics India Pvt Ltd............................11 Training and Certification Institutes
Indium Corporation ............................................. 81
Shrey Plastic Moulders .................................... 124 Digi-Key Electronics ............................................ 3 CADD Centre Training Services
Indus Robotics & Automation Research
SPM Electronics And Systems ......................... 126 Element14 India Pvt Ltd ....................................... 1 Private Limited ................................................115
Universal Electronic Agencies ..........................118 Pvt Ltd ............................................................116 LWI Electronics Inc. ........................................... 23 ERT Tech.Services ........................................... 124
Max Technology & Co. ....................................... 37 Mouser Electronics (India) Private Limited ........... 7 I 3 Technologies.................................................. 45
Alcon Electronics Private Ltd .............................. 17 IT Products Safety & Security Products Transformers
AqTronics Technologies Pvt Ltd ......................... 19 MathWorks ........................................................ 47 Schurter Electronics (I) Pvt Ltd ..........................119 Jai Mata Electronics ......................................... 124
CADD Centre Training Services Private Limited ................................... 115 Kandhari Photo Electronics P Ltd ..........................................................125 Shavison Electronics Pvt Ltd (www.shavison.com)............................... 113
Circuit Systems India Ltd ........................................................................33 Keysight Technologies India Pvt Ltd (www.keysight.com) ....................2, 5 Shrey Plastic Moulders (www.shreyplasticmoulders.com)....................124
CM Envirosystems Pvt. Ltd......................................................................33 Kits N Spares ...........................................................................................25 SIGLENT Technologies Co. Ltd...............................................................35
Design in India .........................................................................................32 LED Expo .................................................................................................45 SMD Electro Components (www.smdelectro.com) ...............................121
Digi-Key Electronics (www.digikey.com)....................................................3 LEDAsia.in ...............................................................................................31 SPM Electronics And Systems (spmelectronics.com) ..........................126
Digital Promoters (I) Pvt Ltd...................................................................124 LEDbazaar.in............................................................................................87 Srishti Electronics (www.acedigital.co.in) ..............................................124
Dinteck ...................................................................................................125 LWI Electronics Inc. (www.livewireinfo.com) ...........................................23
ST Microelectronics Marketing Pvt Ltd ....................................................29
EB Corporate .........................................................................................127 Martin Electronic Devices & Instruments...............................................123
Sunanda Enterprises .............................................................................124
EFY Group: IEW 2017 .......................................................................70, 71 MathWorks ...............................................................................................47
Systellar Innovations (www.systellar.in)................................................. 118
EFY Group: Subscription Form ...............................................................67 Max Technology & Co. (www.maxtechnoloindia.com) ............................37
Techno Circuit Systems .........................................................................126
EFY Group:3 people ..............................................................................120 Meco Meters Pvt Ltd (www.mecoinst.com) .................................53, 55, 57
Techno Power (www.technopowersystems.com)..................................125
EFY Group:iotshow.in ...........................................................................131 Microchip Technology Hong Kong Ltd. (www.microchip.com) ................59
Eita Technologies ..................................................................................125 Minmax Technology Co. Ltd (www.minmax.com.tw)...............................41 Tektronix India Pvt Ltd (www.tektronix.com)..........................................132
Electronic Assembly (www.lcd-module.de)..............................................32 Mornsun Guangzhou Science & Technology Co. Ltd. ..............................9 Times Internet Limited ...........................................................................109
Elektro Power Systems..........................................................................126 Mouser Electronics (India) Private Limited ................................................7 Universal Electronic Agencies (www.easternradio.co.in) ...................... 118
Element14 India Pvt Ltd.............................................................................1 NANJING GLARUN ATTEN Technology Co. Ltd. ...................................27 WAA MALL LLP .....................................................................................122
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