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OCTOBER 2013

For You

Vol. 02 No. 06 • ISSN 0013-516X

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28
electronics for you Plus | October 2013 | Vol. 2 No. 6

68
Technology Focus Buyers’ Guide
Do You DIY? Microcontroller
Development
Boards

14 eStyle-Buyers’ Guide Editor : Ramesh Chopra

Windows 8 Hybrids and

Convertibles
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 First Look!
Portable Audio
Powerhouse
JBL charge has 12 hours of
playback time and seamless
Bluetooth connectivity
H arman India recently launched
JBL Charge, a portable audio
powerhouse, which is perfect for
house parties, family trips, picnics and
everyday use. It has over 12 hours of
playback time from a single charge, a
built-in USB port to charge mobile de-
vices on the go and seamless Bluetooth
connectivity.
The new Bluetooth-powered port-
able speaker packs a mean double
punch as its two drivers and built-in
bass port bring big performance,
while its 12-hour battery can charge
smartphones and tablets while on the
go. The JBL Charge speaker wirelessly
streams audio from any Bluetooth-
equipped smartphone or tablet, and
lets you enjoy unsurpassed portable-
audio performance from your mobile
devices and tablets.
With two 41mm drivers, a built-in
bass port, 2x5 watts of amplification and
digital signal processing, it delivers full-
range JBL sound with exceptional bass.
JBL Charge is offered in three vi-
brant colours—grey, blue and green,
and will be available in India from
October.
Price: ` 9990
8 October 2013 | Electronics For You
The Latest Home And Office Products
Budget Apple iPhone
The latest iPhone comes with a 10.2cm (4-inch) Retina display
and runs on iOS 7
T he day has finally arrived when
Apple has stepped beyond its
‘snobbish’ image of being an elite brand,
as the Cupertino-giant has launched
budget-friendly device iPhone 5C. As
rumoured, Apple iPhone 5C is launched
in a range of colours including blue,
green, pink, yellow and white.
Since it is the first budget device
from Apple, let us talk about
its price first. The iPhone 5C
will be priced at $99 for the
16GB model and $199 for the
32GB model on a two-year
contract in the US. However,
the unlocked version of the
device would be available for
$549. The company has made
all efforts to justify the price
with some really cool fea-
tures of the device. The latest
iPhone comes with a 10.2cm
(4-inch) Retina display. The
smartphone comes packed with an A6
chip and an 8MP iSight camera.
The iPhone 5C has been rendered a
single, hard-coated polycarbonate body
Biometric Pen Drive
Moser Baer Biometric pen drive weighs 13 gm and carries separate
public and private space on the disk
I n order to ensure data confidential-
ity and protection from data theft,
Moser Baer has come up with a unique
biometric pen drive dubbed Moser
Baer Biometric. The easily installable
biometric pen drive is designed to pro-
vide stronger data security, password
protection, strong user authentication,
file encryption and carries separate
public and private space on the disk.
The white-coloured drive has the
capacity of 16 GB and is compatible
with Windows ME/2000/XP/Vista/
MAC OS 9.0 or Linux Kernel 2.4.2. The
with a steel, reinforced frame thrown
in. The steel band also functions as
the smartphone’s multiband antenna.
The metal frame of the device is sup-
plemented with microfibre-lined cases.
The company is offering the consumers
a choice of six frames to choose from.
Other specs of the device include
new FaceTime HD camera and sup-
port for up to 13 LTE wire-
less bands. It runs on iOS
7, Apple’s latest operating
system. As far as the connec-
tivity is concerned, the new-
est iPhone offers support
for dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11
a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0.
According to Apple, iPhone
5C will offer 10 hours of talk
time on 3G networks, up to
10 hours of video playback
and up to 40 hours of audio
playback. The company has
also included some of the most popu-
lar iWork apps like Pages, Numbers
and Keynote for free with the device.
Price: $99 to $199 (on contract)
pen drive weighs 13 gm and comes
with two-year warranty.
Commenting on the launch, Deepak
Shetty, senior vice president,
domestic sales
and market-
ing, Moser
Baer, said,
“This is one of
our latest offering to our cus-
tomers to further strengthen
the security of the pen drives.
The product will help fight
cyber threats.” Price: ` 3149
www.efymag.com
Anritsu India Pvt Ltd
2nd & 3rd Floor, #837/1, Binnamangla 1st Stage,
Indiranagar, 100ft Road, Bangalore - 560038 INDIA
Tel: +91-80-40581300, Fax: +91-80-40581301
Email: Acin-sales@anritsu.com
Noida Branch Office:
Tel: +91-120-4211330-31-32
 First Look!
First Phone with
Urdu Language
Support
Nokia 114 comes with cloud-
accelerated Nokia Xpress
browser and easy swap
technology
N okia has come up with Nokia
114 budget phone, which has
Urdu language capability. Priced
at ` 2579, the phone is the first ever
phone to have the Urdu language
option in India. Nokia also said
that this is an effort to expand
the reach and benefits of mobile
telephony for the consumers.
According to reports online,
the newly launched Nokia 114
has the cloud-accelerated Nokia
Xpress browser. This browser
allows users to use up less data
by compressing websites on the
cloud. The data usage is less by
up to 90 per cent. In addition, the
phone, which has dual-sim ca-
pabilities, has also been given an
extended battery life by Nokia. It
provides 10 hours of talk time and
almost one month’s standby time.
The dual-SIM phone also has
Nokia’s easy swap technology, us-
ing which users can switch from
one SIM to the other easily and
quickly, without having to remove
the phone’s battery or turn the
phone off. This feature of the phone
can remember up
to five different
SIM cards, which
gives the user full
control over their
phone bills. Since
2008, Nokia is
the first mobile
phone maker to
have provided 11
Indian languages
on their phones.
Price: ` 2579
10 October 2013 | Electronics For You
The Latest Home And Office Products
Galaxy Gear Smartwatch
As of now, it is said to work only with Galaxy Note 3 but it is
being reported that Galaxy S4, S3 and Note 2 will be receiving a
software update for the smartwatch support
W e all were expecting Samsung to
surprise everyone at its recent
IFA press event, and that is exactly
or dismiss the notifications right from
the smartwatch. An interesting feature
is its smart relay feature, which click
what the company did. The company opens the notifications on your smart-
unveiled its first wearable computer phone as it is being pulled out. You can
technology—Galaxy Gear smartwatch
at the press event.
However, what
use the swipe-based interface or make
use of the Samsung’s S
Voice feature.
surprised us more Other specifica-
was the fact that tions include a 1.9MP
Galaxy Gear will shooter that works
work only with the Price: ` 25,000 to ` 30,000 (expected) with the Memogra-
company’s high-end pher feature. Users
smartphones. As can take pictures or
of now, it is said record quick videos
to work only with of relevant informa-
Galaxy Note 3 but it tion, which can easily
is being reported that Galaxy S4, S3 be shared online. Users can also make
and Note 2 will be receiving a software use of Voice Memo to record voice and
update for the smartwatch support. then let it transcribe into text.
Coming to the smartwatch, it can The Gear’s Auto Lock takes care of
show its users notifications that appear the smartphone’s screen at any time if
on the phone like messages, calls, e- the smartwatch is more than 1.5 me-
mails and other alerts. You can accept tres away from it.
Cost-Effective Laptop for
Small Businessmen
Lenovo’s ThinkPad Edge E431 laptop boasts Lenovo’s OneLink technology
L enovo India has announced the
launch of ThinkPad Edge E431
laptop complemented with Lenovo’s
built-in dual array microphone, which
enhances VOIP with advanced noise
cancellation. The machine is amplified
OneLink technology. This offers a with a large, intelligent 5-button Touch-
unique dock and power connector that Pad optimised for Windows 8. It is only
can transmit audio and 25mm thick, which makes it
video with a single con- one of the thinnest business
nection. The new laptop is notebooks available in the
powered by the third-gen- market.
eration Intel core processor, Ashok Nair, director of
Windows 8 operating sys- SMB, Lenovo India, said, “We
tem and optional NVIDIA are aggressively focusing to
GeForce discrete graphics. build our product portfolio
Built for small busi- to meet business needs. Le-
nessmen, the ThinkPad Price: ` 36,000 (onwards) novo ThinkPad Edge E431
Edge E431 can be equipped with 16GB is a cost-effective promise to the small
memory (maximum) and comes with a enterprise market in India.”
www.efymag.com
 First Look!
GizMo
ByTes
Lumia 1020 Coming to India
Nokia Lumia 1020 is coming to India
around 15th October. The phone was
unveiled about two months ago and has a
41MP camera, which is supposed to be the
best camera in the smartphone market right
now. It may be called Nokia 909 in India.
Sony Xperia Z1 Unveiled
Sony Mobile has unveiled Xperia Z1, a
new addition to its Xperia smartphone
line-up. The Z1’s standout features are
its in-built camera, detachable lenses, a
massive 20.7MP resolution camera and
12.7cm (5-inch) screen.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 T210
in India
Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 T210 is available in
India at ` 12,399. Interestingly, this is the
cheapest tablet in the company’s Galaxy Tab
3 series and has Wi-Fi connectivity, 1.2GHz
processor along with a 1GB DR2 RAM and a
17.7cm (7-inch) capacitative touch screen.
Microsoft Buys Nokia’s
Devices Business
Microsoft made an announcement recently
that it is going to purchase Nokia’s devices
& services division, license Nokia’s patents,
and also license and use the company’s
mapping service HERE.
Apple Developing TV
According to recent reports on the
Internet, Apple is working on a televi-
sion set and the company plans to roll out
high-definition television services. The
company has apparently been in talks
with the likes of HBO, Viacom, ESPN,
Disney, etc for its new endeavour.
Device to Cure Facebook Addiction
Facebook addiction is a common phenom-
enon these days. If you are one of those
who would like to get rid of this habit
then make use of the device called Pavlov
Poke which will shock you out of this so-
called Facebook addiction.
12 October 2013 | Electronics For You
The Latest Home And Office Products
World’s First Curved Screen LED TV
Edge-to-edge curved construction of the TV gives better
picture depth and feel to the viewers
T he world’s first curved screen
LED television, KDL-65S990A,
has been introduced by Sony and it
will be made available to the public
in October for $3999.
The television has a curved visual
panel along with the company’s well-
known Trilumi-
nous display col-
our system. This
provides accurate
pictures and deep
and vibrant col-
ours, enhancing
the viewers’ expe-
rience and pro-
viding a com- Price: $3999
plete cinematic experience.
“The gentle curve of this television
borrows from the screen technology
found in movie theatres, and provides
New Tablet with Dolby Digital
Plug technology
Acer Iconia A3 tablet reduces background noise and boosts
dialogue volume in a video or song
A
cer has announced Acer Iconia
A3 tablet. The company seems to
have gone on a spree of launches, with
many phones and desktop PCs being
announced.
The new tablet features a 25.6cm
(10.1-inch) screen and will support
a screen resolution of
1280×800MP. In ad-
dition, it will have a
1.2GHz Cortex A7
quad-core processor
along with a 5MP rear-
facing camera. The de-
vice will run on the
Price: $332 to $399
Android 4.2 Jelly Bean
operating system and will have 16GB
and 32GB variants.
According to reports, the company
is marketing the new tablets’ sound
an immersive experience that makes
viewers feel as if they are truly part of
the action and in the moment of the
scene they are watching,” Sacbee.com
quoted Mike Lucas, senior vice presi-
dent of Sony electronics home enter-
tainment & sound division, as saying.
The edge-to-edge curved con-
struction of the tel-
evision gives better
picture depth and
feel to the viewers
along with a wider
viewing angle,
which means that
the picture is the
same irrespective of the an-
gle from which you are watching it. In
addition, the colour clarity and detail-
ing in the television is also perfect with
Sony’s X-Reality PRO picture engine.
quality. Apparently, the Acer Iconia
A3 has Dolby Digital Plug technology,
which will create a 5.1-channel surround
sound experience when headphones are
connected. It will reduce the background
noise and will also have the capacity
to boost dialogue volume in a video or
song.
While Acer has not
announced when the
phone will be launched
in the US, it is known
that the Wi-Fi only vari-
ant of the phone will
be up for sale in the
Middle-East, Europe
and Africa from early October. It will
be priced at €249 ($332) with the 3G
model going up to €299 ($399) and be-
ing launched in November.
www.efymag.com
 Buyers’ Guide
Windows 8 Hybrids and Convertibles
Flexibility is the main benefit of Windows 8 hybrid tablets and convertible ultrabooks;
you can flip, fold, slide or detach the screen completely for use as a portable tablet. Also,
the battery life is usually quite good, with some models claiming as much as 10 hours.
However, the form factor and features need to justify the steep price of the model you buy
Uma gupta
T
he declining sales of PCs due to the growing popular-
ity of tablets have forced PC makers to come up with
a new breed of devices called hybrid tablets and con-
vertible ultrabooks. These devices are designed to provide
the portability of a tablet and the power of an ultrabook.
Thanks to Windows 8’s touch-friendly features, these touch-
based laptops double up as tablets by either completely
detaching the screen or sliding or folding back the screen.
Windows 8 has also enabled huge security improvements,
longer battery life and faster boot.
“New-age users are frequently switching between the
office and the road, the desk and the sofa, type and touch,
business and social life, work and pleasure, and desire a
device that adapts perfectly to this dynamic lifestyle. Con-
vertible PCs are versatile and deliver superior experience
in both modes—a great laptop experience in laptop mode
and a great tablet experience in tablet mode. Convertible
14 October 2013 | Electronics For You
PCs have the potential to become the next big ubiquitous
computing product,” says Saji Kumar, director–product
management, Acer India.
Hewlett Packard (HP), Lenovo, Dell, Acer, ASUS and
Samsung are the companies betting big on these laptops-
cum-tablets. The devices could be powered by processors
like Intel Core i-series (found in ultrabooks), netbook-class
Intel Atom or Nvidia Tegra.
Hybrids are basically two separate devices. These are
tablets that can be used with optional, detachable keyboards
to work as notebooks. More powerful than regular tablet
devices, these are ideal for those who need to frequently
type documents. Other hybrids are those where the tablet
snaps onto a keyboard dock to form a single laptop device.
“A Windows tablet can blend seamlessly in an office ecosys-
tem, thereby ensuring uninterrupted productivity. Depending
on the portability requirement, customers can select from three
tablet sizes of 20.3 cm (8 inches), 25.4 cm (10 inches) and 29.5 cm
(11.6 inches). These devices will have a distinct advantage over
their competition if they come preloaded with the complete
MS Office suite. Equipped with a suite of connectivity options
including micro HDMI/USB ports, they will deliver seamless
connectivity and enable better productivity,” shares Kumar.
Examples of hybrids include HP Envy X2 and Split
X2, ASUS Vivo Tab and Asus Transformer Book TX300,
Samsung Ativ PC Pro, Microsoft Surface, Lenovo ThinkPad
Helix and Acer Iconia W3-810.
Talking of convertible PCs, these are basically ultrabooks
that can transform into tablets. There are several variations
within this category. For instance, these include dual-screen
models, sliding-screen models, flip-screen models and
laptops with touchscreens. Examples are Dell XPS 12 (an
ultrabook that transforms to a tablet with a fluid flip-and-
fold motion with its premium flip-hinge design), Lenovo
IdeaPad Yoga 13 (which has four modes of use—standard
laptop mode, tablet mode, ‘tent’ mode and ‘stand’ mode),
Sony VAIO Duo 11 and ASUS Taichi.
Common screen sizes include 29.5 cm (11.6 inches), 31.8
cm (12.5 inches) and 33.8 cm (13.3 inches). In terms of pric-
ing, convertibles usually cost higher than hybrid models.
Buying criteria
Peter Chang, regional head of South Asia and managing
director for ASUS India, advises, “While buying a Windows
www.efymag.com
 Buyers’ Guide
Some Popular Models
Hybrids Convertibles
Acer Iconia W3-810 ASUS Transformer Book HP Split X2 Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro ASUS Taichi
(Model: TX300CA) (Model: XE700T1C-A01IN) (Model: TAICHI31-CX010P)

Price: ` 30,499
The Iconia W3 is Acer India’s
latest offering and claimed to be
the world’s first 21cm (8.1-inch)
tablet operating on Windows 8
OS. The Iconia W3-810 houses
the Intel Atom processor Z2760
and packs enough battery life for
up to 8 hours of 720p video play-
back. Matched with the larger
16:10 display, this tablet is ideal
for watching movies or getting
work done on the move.
Processor Intel Atom Z2760
Price: ` 91,999
The ASUS Transformer Book is a
33.8cm notebook with a detach-
able tablet that has a Full HD IPS
touch panel and 178-degree
viewing angle. It is powered by
an Intel Core i5 processor. Sepa-
rate storage has been provided
for the notebook and tablet with
a high-capacity hard drive and an
ultra-fast solidstate drive.
Intel 3rd generation i5-3337U
(1.7G,3M)
Price: ` 64,990
The HP Split x2 is a Windows
8 laptop-tablet hybrid,
powered by 3rd generation
Intel Core i3 or i5 processors.
The 33.8cm device has an HD
Diagonal LED-backlit touch-
screen display (1366x768).
With Beats Audio and dual
speakers, the HP Split x2 is
designed for great-sounding
audio.
3rd generation Intel Core i3 or i5
processor
Price: ` 75,490
Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro
lets you enjoy mobility and
convenience for instant con-
sumption on the go, including
Web browsing, communica-
tion, video and gaming. Simply
add its full-sized keyboard
and touchpad and you get the
heavy-duty performance, com-
patibility and creative capability
of a notebook.
Intel Core i5 3317U (1.70GHz,
3MB L3 cache)
Price: ` 139,999
Lid open, TAICHI is a powerful
notebook with a Full HD screen,
Intel Core processor and backlit
keyboard. Lid closed, TAICHI
is a light-weight tablet with
a slim, tapered profile and a
multi-touch Full HD screen for
intuitive fingertip control with
Windows 8. The 33.8cm dual
LED-backlit Windows 8 Pro
ultrabook comes with Full HD 
non-glare  TFT LCD display.
Intel Core i7-3517M  (1.9G, 4M)

Operating Windows 8 32-bit Windows 8 Professional — Windows 8 (64-bit) Windows 8 Pro

System
Display 21cm (8.1-inch), HD, 33.8cm Full HD IPS touch panel 33.8cm HD diagonal LED- 29.5cm Full HD LED 33.8cm dual LED-backlit TFT
800x1280 resolution, backlit touchscreen display (1920×1080) LCD display, Full HD, non-
high-brightness (350-nit) (1366x768 pixels) glare with touch function

Storage 32/64GB eMMC 500GB HDD 5400rpm with 128GBmSATA+500GBHDD 128GB solidstate drive 256GB SATA3 SSD
128GB SSD hard drive

Camera — A front HD webcam and a rear
Graphics Intel Graphics Media Ac-
celerator 3650 with 64 MB of
dedicated system memory
Memory 2 GB of LPDDR2 memory
Ports MicroSD Card reader, Micro
USB 2.0 port, Micro HDMI
port with HDCP support,
headphone/speaker jack
5MP camera
Integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 Intel Graphics Accelerator
4GB DDR3 1600MHz on-board
RAM
COMBO audio jack, 2x USB 3.0
ports, RJ45 LAN jack for LAN
insert, micro HDMI, docking
connector, mini Display Port,
SD card reader
1080p HD front-facing HP TrueVi- 2.0MP webcam (front), 5.0MP
sion webcam with integrated
digital microphone
Starts at 2GB RAM (1600MHz
DDR3L SDRAM)
MicroSD reader, combo audio
jack, 1x USB 3.0, 1x USB 2.0,
HDMI, SD card slot
5MP HD camera
webcam (rear)
Intel HD Graphics 4000 Intel HD 4000
4GB DDR3 system memory at 4GB DDR3 1600
1600MHz (on BD 4GB)
Micro HDMI, USB3.0, MicroSD Two USB 3.0, HDMI
multimedia card reader, head-
phone out/mic-in combo, dock
port, DC-in

Connectivity 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 Integrated BT 4.0 support (on 802.11ac+Bluetooth, Intel Centrino Advanced-N 802.11 b/g/n (WIDI), Bluetooth 4.0
WLAN+ BT 4.0 combo card) 802.11b/g/n+Bluetooth 6235, 2x2 802.11abg/n (up to
300Mbps), WiDi support (only
for Core i CPU), Bluetooth V4.0

Weight 500 gm with 2-cell battery pack Tablet: 950 gm (with polymer 2.2 kg (including keyboard) 888 gm (Wi-Fi model) —
battery), Dock: 950 gm (with
polymer battery)

8 convertible, display resolution and weight, followed by
computing horsepower, should be of primary considera-
tion. Further to that, as per your requirement and budget,
you may choose out of the options available in the market.”
The device should be light enough for use as a tablet.
The choice between flexible and detachable screens
makes a big difference. Models with the ability to flip back
their screen by a full 360 degrees are a bit inconvenient as
you still feel the keys on the back side when you hold the
device like a tablet. Also, these devices can be quite heavy
for use as a truly portable tablet.
Check whether the device is suitable for the tasks you want
to do—office productivity or multimedia tasks. Intel Core i
series processors offer ultrabook-class performance. Intel Atom-
powered devices are slower but the battery life is longer.
Solidstate drives are usually available with storage ca-
pacities that are likely to be sufficient for most users. 256 GB
is perhaps the highest-capacity SSD drive seen in consumer

16 October 2013 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

 Buyers’ Guide
TM

Some Popular Models

O
Peripherals for Industrial Automation
Convertibles
SSR / OPTO Interface Modules
Dell XPS 12 Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 Sony VAIO Duo 11
Model: SVD11213CNB

Input Output No. of Channe ls

24V DC, 15mA
24V DC, 15 mA 24V DC, 2A , 2.5A 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16
230V A C, 2A
Price: ` 84,390 (inclusive of all
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www.efymag.com Electronics For You | October 2013 17

 technology nEWS
Most happening, fact-filled current affairs from around the world
Scientists working on chip
to mimic human brain
Scientists from the Boise State Univer-
sity are working on a computer chip
that has the ability to mimic the human
brain. Despite its advancements and
the massive speeds at which computer
chips can function, none have come
close to what the human brain is capa-
ble of. The team of scientists working
on the project, including Kris Camp-
bell, Indian-origin Vishal Saxena and
Elisa Barney Smith, aims to develop a
type of computer architecture that will
work like a human brain.
The main component of the project
is memristor, a kind of resistor that has
been programmed to different levels
of resistance by the use of electrical
pulses. This resistor can remember the
value of the resistance even after the
power is removed.
Researchers close to
developing a ‘thinking’ chip
Researchers at the International Busi-
ness Machines (IBM) are close to
developing a silicon-based chip that
would think and process like a mam-
mal. The project, co-funded by the US
military and many other academic
organisations, is called Systems of
Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scal-
able Electronics (SyNAPSE).
The researchers have achieved a
big success and finally been able to
develop a complete neural networks
development package, which is capa-
ble of processing and responding to
any sensory input.
The team, including Dr Dharmen-
dra S. Modha, a research fellow at
IBM, and Rajit Manohar, VLSI expert
at the Cornell University, has said
that while the project does have mili-
tary applications ranging from un-
manned drones to facial recognition
surveillance, they are more interested
in the scientific and financial applica-
tions of this system.
20 October 2013 | Electronics For You
3D facial recognition
3D facial recognition tech
to catch criminals
Voice of Big Data (VOBD), which is
a US-based data analytics and busi-
ness intelligence solutions firm with
offshore office in India, said it would
launch ‘Facial Signature,’ its flagship
product, before the next quarter.
VOBD asserts that the firm would
be the first in India to launch a 3D
facial detection product that could aid
police and investigating officials to
recognise criminals by using the data
analytics tools.
“The product has already gained
recognition in the US and Indian
markets. Though we are yet to launch,
we have three clients in the US. In
India, we have helped a few police
stations to solve their cases within a
few hours,” said VOBD chief execu-
tive Srini Kishan. So far the company
has invested $200,000 in the project
and is aiming at investing $1,400,00
by March 2015.
The company stated that the Fa-
cial Signature is nearly 90 per cent
accurate and the algorithms involved
in this application can identify the
80 nodal points on a person’s face.
It will also be possible to identify
a person in a disguise or wearing a
‘burkha.’
A robot from China
set to land on moon
Chang’e-3 is the name of China’s en-
deavor to explore the rocky terrains
on moon. The unmanned robot is all
set to roll on moon’s surface at the end
of 2013. It marks the first of its kind at-
tempt in the series of Chang’e robots
designed to conquer the moon.
Learning from the past failed
attempts, Chinese engineers are
more cautious this time around and
unique, slow-landing technique has
been developed to place the bot on
moon’s surface safely. However, the
details are yet to be revealed. The bot
has successfully undergone the re-
search and construction stage and is
presently being tested for the launch.
The Xichange Satellite Launch Center
in Sichuan province has been nomi-
nated for the launch of the moon
explorer.
China is preparing to launch Chang’e-3
www.efymag.com
technology nEWS
Flying robots may soon clean your house
What if your house could be cleaned automatically, or you
had a vaccum cleaner that could work on its own? Well, this
may soon turn into a reality as Adrian Perez Zapata, indus-
trial design student at Colombia, has designed a system,
which cleans by itself using mini flying robots.
The 23-year-old has conceptualised an automated clean-
ing system, where flying robots will be cleaning your house.
Known as Mab, the system uses a number of mini-robots,

Adrian Perez Zapata’s automated cleaning system

which are fitted with cleaning solutions. Zapata’s system

has brought him amongst the 20 semi-finalists in the 2013
Electrolux Design Lab competition.
Zapata’s concept needs users to do minimum bit of
work. All one has to do is to put water and a particular
chemical into the robot’s spherical core. This is then spread
amongst 908 mini-robots, which can fly using propellers.
These robots are then set free in the house. They scan the
house and clean dirty surfaces using droplets of the liquid.
the mini robots are powered using solar energy.
The system can be scheduled to clean at particular times
or particular areas of a house. It can also be synced with
smartphones and controlled through them.

Wireless devices to communicate

without battery
A team of researchers led by Indian-origin Shyam Gollakota
from the University of Washington has devised a way for
wireless devices to communicate without the need for bat-
teries. Known as Ambient Backscatter, the technology uses
wireless signals like television and cellphone transmissions
surrounding us. According to reports, the wireless devices
communicate by reflecting these signals and exchanging
information through them.
Gollakota’s team has designed batteryless wireless de-
vices with attached antennae, which could detect, harness
and then reflect television signals. These signals were then
picked up by similar devices.
After further studies, this technology could turn out to
be highly useful, as it would eliminate the need for a power
source in wireless or network-related devices. This would
also lead to less requirement of human attention towards
such devices.

22 October 2013 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

 technology nEWS
Jeong-Yun and Christoph Keplinger demonstrate their ionic speaker
The devices apparently use the
wireless signals as both a source of
power and a medium for communi-
cation. Their usage could range from
wearable computers to smart homes.
Harvard engineers develop
stretchable speakers
A group of engineers from Harvard,
led by Jeong-Yun and Christoph
Keplinger, has developed a stretch-
able ionic speaker made of gel. The
speaker is transparent and can play
the entire audible sound spectrum,
that is, 20 Hz to 20 kHz. The engineers
have used a transparent piece of in-
sulating and stretchable rubber along
with a couple of layers of a hydrogel,
which is an ionic conductor. This ap-
paratus, in this case, has been attached
to copper electrodes.
According to reports, this is the
first device to prove that an ionic
apparatus can be used in order to
power conventional electronic de-
vices. The engineers believe that the
device could be attached to a TV to
eliminate the need for speakers. The
stretchable speaker is also almost
invisible. The idea of ionic conduc-
tors has many applications in the real
world. In fact, it can be used right
from the most basic electronics to
the complete artificial organs, which
would save many lives.
24 October 2013 | Electronics For You
Indian student designs UAV
Subhanjan Saha, a 21-year-old com-
puter-science student from Mahindra
Chandra College, has developed a
3×1m completely unmanned aerial
vehicle (UAV). His design is based
on basic materials but is highly ca-
pable of camera surveillance attack
and defense, weather forecasting and
much more.
He has already written to the De-
fense Research and Development Or-
ganisation (DRDO) and the Hindustan
Aeronautics Limited (HAL), and is
waiting for the authorities to fund the
upgradation of the drone.
The drone is currently equipped
with a pair of 180 degrees high-
definition cameras (each in the front
and back) and, once airborne, can
scan a 10-kilometre area. The vehicle
is totally remote controlled. Saha
explains that his drone runs on re-
Nymi bracelet, which identifies users through their heartbeat
chargeable batteries and is complete-
ly eco-friendly. It can be airborne for
an average stretch of 60 minutes and,
if funding is established, the design
can be further improved to make it
last longer.
Ultra-fast camera which
works like human retina
Photos and videos taken by modern
DSLR cameras are nothing close
to light-weight files. They quickly
add up to gigabytes of data, which
makes it difficult for the researchers.
However, engineers at the iniLabs, a
Swiss company, have come out with
a technology that borrows the image
capturing mechanics from the way a
human retina functions. Aptly called
the dynamic vision sensor (DVS), the
resulting technology is the prominent
aspect of this super-powerful and
ultra-fast camera.
The human retina works not by
actually capturing/recording all the
things that come to our view but by
spotting the change in movements.
This way the neurons can get rid of
tons of unnecessary data from the sur-
rounding, making processing sharper
and fast. The DVS technology works
the same way and records only motion
of the subjects. The new camera is able
to record hours of non-stop video con-
suming a very little amount of power
and using just a few megabytes for
storage of the same.
Bracelet that confirms
identity from heartbeats
A new device has been developed by a
company called Bionym, which identi-
fies users by reading their heartbeats.
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 technology nEWS
the device weighing 148 gm can be at-
EFY Top 100 Electronics and IT Companies in India
tached to the camera of a smartphone
For the last eight years Electronics For You (EFY) has been doing a to analyse the amount of albumin pre-
survey to find out the Top 100 electronics and IT companies in India. The sent in a person’s urine. According to
feature will be published next in EFY November issue. EFY evaluates the the authors, “This automated albumin
companies on the basis of their latest turnover (for year 2012-13 or 2012). testing tool running on a smartphone
We solicit your participation in the EFY Top 100 feature. If you are an could be useful for early diagnosis of
electronics/IT company and your turnover (for 2012-13 or 2012) is higher kidney disease or for monitoring of
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than ` 4200 million, please contact us so that we can consider including
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Contact at srabani.sen@efyindia.com or call 9899809240 for eye treatment
A team of doctors from the London
According to reports, the device, called lets only authorised apps and devices School of Hygiene and Tropical Medi-
Nymi, is a wireless wearable brace- receive data from Nymi. Further, the cine have come up with a solution for
let that confirms a person’s identity chip also ensures that your identity eye treatment that is an innovative,
through his heartbeat. can not be spoofed. Preorders for the low-cost smartphone solution.
It confirms the person’s identity device have started at $79, while ship- The researchers, led by Dr Andrew
independently and then shares the ping will start in 2014.
information with the required device,
like a smartphone or tablet using Detect kidney damage
Bluetooth. The device is a bracelet using smartphone
and needs to be put on the wrist. It As per a study published in Lab on a
has a metal sensor on the top, touch- Chip journal, scientists have invented
ing which with the other hand com- a portable device that can carry out
pletes a circuit through which the kidney tests and convey the data via
device records the user’s heartbeat a smartphone attachment. The device
signature. It takes about two minutes can greatly minimise the need for fre-
to calibrate at first, followed by a few quent visits to a clinic for people suf-
seconds every day. fering from diabetes and acute kidney
In addition, removing the device conditions, according to researchers Dr Andrew Bastawrous’ Eye-Phone for eye treatment
by force will break the authentica- from University of California, Los
tion. It has also been fitted with a Angeles (UCLA). Bastawrous, have used the smartphone,
dedicated cryptography chip, which As stated on medicalnewstoday.com, which comes with an add-on lens that
scans the retina and an application to
record the data while researching in
Snippets Kenya, which was the testing ground
for the pilot project.
Solar dryer to help prevent food wastage The technology called Eye-Phone,
Doctoral students Vaibhab Tidke and Shital Somany have designed a low-cost solar is very simple to use and cheap to
device that can store up to three tons of food every year for individual farmers with boot. Each Eye-Phone costs a few
an aim to prevent food wastage. The device is called the solar conduction dryer and hundred euros. The study titled
comes with the ability to provide cold food storage more widely than affordable today.
‘Nakuru Eye Disease Cohort Study,’
Novel app for long-distance lovers has already checked over 5000 Ken-
yan patients. It is hoped that it will
Now, sleep listening to your lover’s heartbeats even if they are miles away. Yes you
heard it right, researchers have recently developed a new app, Pillow Talk, that will let one day revolutionise access to eye
long-distance lovers listen to each others’ heartbeats. It is a package of a wristband treatment for millions of low-income
which picks up your heartbeats and transmits it via Bluetooth to the iOS or Android app. Africans who are suffering from
various eye diseases and blindness.
3D printed skimmers used for stealing Bastawrous says his Eye-Phone has
A recent report from Australia reveals that a gang of criminals from Romania are using proved its worth, and can easily and
the 3D printing technology to steal from ATMs. They have combined computer aided accurately diagnose ailments includ-
design (CAD) skills to create a natural looking reader casing that fits exactly as a real
one in an ATM.
ing glaucoma, cataracts, myopia and
long-sightedness.
Check efytimes.com for more news, daily

26 October 2013 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

 Technology Focus

Do You DIY?
Do-it-yourself (DIY) is the ultimate experience for geeks and techies! It challenges their
capabilities and helps expand their horizons. While DIY has been around in many fields since
time immemorial, we see it gaining popularity with the advent of online communities and
marketplaces. The new-age DIY culture makes it possible for tinkerers to realise any idea,
with components and know-how sourced from around the world.

of Nagasai Panchakarla, entrepreneur

H
Janani Gopalakrishnan Vikram Why DIY?
and co-organiser of a Bangalore-based
ave you ever seen lit- Jayakrishnan T., CEO of Asimov Ro- Internet of Things DIY group (IoT-
tle children, who have botics, is a robotics DIYer who later Blr). Nagasai feels that “DIY is all
just learnt to sit up, built a company around his passion. about creation. In order to create some-
grabbing a ball-point He feels that very few people go the thing, DIYers will come across a lot of
pen from their dad’s DIY route for cost-saving because questions for themselves
pocket, disassembling it and trying DIY costs time and for most and explore their own
to put it together again? Do you let potential… questions
them meddle, or do you grab that like what do I know,
pen, stash it back into what do I not know,
your pocket what resources do I
and walk have, who will work
off? Well, this with me and how
is the earliest to get things done
sign of the from constrained
do-it-yourself resources. This will
(DIY) craze in bring in the entre-
a person. Fos- preneurial mind-
tering it could set of converting
transform the imagination into
child into an in- a product that
novator, an entre- one loves.”
preneur or simply Ken Den-
a very resourceful mead, popu-
person with unend- larly known as
ing excitement all GeekDad Ken in the cyber-world,
lifelong! people and editorial director of Maker Media,
While DIY exists sor that is more valuable than feels that the biggest positive aspect of
IR sen
in almost everything money. Most people do it because they DIY projects is empowerment. People
from music and crafts to plumbing and are passionate about it. A lot of people should be connected to the things they
carpentry, it is especially interesting, walk down the DIY path to familiarise own and use, and helping people feel
developmental and community-ori- themselves with something they have empowered to make things themselves
ented in technical fields like electron- always been apprehensive of doing, helps them achieve those connections,”
ics and robotics. Here we attempt to or they do it to quickly get something he explains.
figure out what makes electronics DIY that is not readily available. Many a Nihal Kashinath, IoT enthusiast
so interesting and purposeful, how times, a DIY project might revolve and founder of IoTBlr, feels that DIY
people go about it (is there a standard around modifying or upgrading an results in democratisation of technol-
‘route’), what they need and where existing solution to satisfy a specific ogy and design, which is a wonderful
they get the stuff, what boards or com- need or to fix a problem associated thing. Anyone can create anything,
ponents they prefer, and how vibrant with the solution. and no one needs to be satisfied with
the community is in India. This resonates with the thoughts the products or specifications put forth

28 October 2013 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

 Technology Focus
White board discussion
by large-scale manufacturers, which,
for commercial reasons, would usually
cater to the lowest common denomina-
tor of their common market.
“With affordable electronics, 3D
printing, support of the DIY com-
munity, etc, soon everyone will be
able to make or modify things to
meet his specific requirements,” says
Kashinath.
“DIY projects have a psychologi-
cal connect with the task at hand. The
sense of achievement from making
something yourself cannot be repli-
cated in any other way. In addition,
people learn faster from ‘hands-on’
experience and the knowledge gain is
better than when watching somebody
else doing it. Besides, DIY enables
mass customisation and increasing
personalisation as consumers become
more demanding. This is a big motiva-
tion for DIY projects,” says Rajiv Bajaj,
head-Manufacturing, Autodesk India
& SAARC.
“It is amazing to see how indi-
vidual entrepreneurs and design en-
thusiasts are becoming manufacturers
themselves. This increasing affordabil-
ity and accessibility has facilitated the
rise of the ‘maker community.’”
A DIY trend may also be fostered
to promote new technologies, as we
can see from the example of the IoT-
focused DIY group. “The IoT presents
a new opportunity to the DIY commu-
nity. It is an entirely Greenfield area of
innovation where large organisations
and individuals or DIY groups have
30 October 2013 | Electronics For You
similar levels of ma-
turity. Platforms like
the Arduino, MSP430
Launchpad and Rasp-
berry Pi have democ-
ratised innovation and
reduced the barriers
to entry significantly,
so even a high-school
student with interest
can get started mak-
ing interesting projects
or devices. Let us not
forget that many great
companies started as
projects nurtured by
the DIY community. One often-
quoted example is the birth of Apple
and its close connection with the
Homebrew Computer Club,” says
Sayan Chakraborty, a core member
of IoTBlr, who is leading the effort
to set up a physical hackerspace for
the group.
Getting started—the first
steps
Bajaj explains how it is done: “Every
DIY effort starts with planning the
course of action. Like any other
planned activity, DIY projects start
with ideation followed by budget-
ing, procurement of materials, cost
management and finally execution.
The scale of the project simply defines
how much time and effort is required
at each stage before final execution. A
crucial stage of DIY is digital prototyp-
ing that is enabled by technology. The
benefit of prototyping is that it helps
to minimise errors and ensure desired
results at the project planning stage.
Any project that is evaluated well on
these parameters can be converted into
real objects.”
The steps, of course, vary from
person to person and project to project.
Randy Sarafan, technology editor, In-
structables, says, “I typically start with
a spark of inspiration, and then imme-
diately write it down (otherwise, I will
never remember it). This is preceded
by brainstorming, sketching, acquir-
ing parts and general pre-planning.
Some of the more complicated projects
might also have a more formal design
phase where the project is planned
out using design software. From there
I typically breadboard the circuit to
make sure that it works as intended.
Once I am happy with that, I build the
project, stopping at the end of every
new alteration to take a picture of the
process. Finally, when the build is
complete, I compile all of the pictures,
software and circuit diagrams and
write step-by-step instructions for
others to be able to learn from what I
have done. Even if I never iterate upon
the design and make a second version,
perhaps someone else can do that or
apply what I have learned to their own
efforts.”
Deciding what you need
“The barebones minimum set of tools
one might need would be a solder-
ing iron, breadboard, wire stripper
and multimeter. Beyond that, the
next big tool to invest in would be
an oscilloscope. In the last few years
prices of these tools have gone down
considerably, and you can now find
a pocket-sized digital scope for under
$100. This puts this tool well within the
reach of individual inventors,” sug-
gests Sarafan.
As for the software needed, Den-
mead says, “It all depends upon what
you are basing your build around. VEX
Robotics and LEGO Mindstorms EV3
have their own programming software.
Alternatively, if you’re building a ro-
bot using an Arduino brain, you’d use
The steps from idea to
product, the DIY way
 Conceptualise
 Brainstorm
 Sketch
 Assess parts, tools, materials
 Acquire these
 Design/plan steps
 Rough build/ breadboard
 Build (take photos of each step)
 Test
 Fine-tune
 Compile and upload all instructions
and pictures for the community to
improve upon
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 Technology Focus
Presentation
the open source programming tools
available for it.”
So when you choose components
for your project, remember Denmead’s
thumb rule: “Be aware of what you
need, and what’s available to fit that
need. You may not need the most
expensive item for your project, and
if you do your research, you can save
some cost.”
Acquiring the components
When it comes to acquiring the com-
ponents, you have the choice of either
buying them individually or going for
a kit. You could also opt to buy on foot
or order online (suggestions in box).
Acquiring individual components
in India can be quite tough, unless you
know where to go. The cost of compo-
nents can also be high, because most of
these are imported.
“Very few components get manu-
factured in India, so barring some
passive components, all others are im-
ported,” says Neena Chopra, director,
Kitsnspares.com, one of India’s leading
electronics DIY kit sellers.
In fact, cost is one of the major
stumbling blocks felt by Indian Ardui-
no users too. Priya Kuber, managing
director of Arduino India, says, “The
majority of Indian users, students and
prototypers have complained about
the high cost. Arduino as a project was
made to cost as much as a textbook in
Europe but when converted to Indian
rupees it costs slightly higher to the
Indian masses.”
However, Kuber shares a good
news too: “Arduino has decided to
32 October 2013 | Electronics For You
bring out official ‘made
in India’ boards soon!”
Overall, it appears
that in India, it is easier
and safer to buy kits.
There are kits available
for beginners as well
as experts. The range
includes specific pro-
jects as well as gener-
al-purpose ones, based
on specific boards.
Kits‘n’Spares has DIY
kits based on GSM, RF,
RFID, VLSI, etc.
Asimov Robotics also specialises in
DIY kits, with offerings ranging from
robot manipulators and humanoid
platforms to animatronics platforms
and virtual reality interfaces.
A third dimension—make
it yourself
While we wonder whether to buy on
foot or order online, several lucky in-
dividuals in the West are hardly both-
ered about the components, all thanks
to 3D printing!
“With the ability to manufacture
their own products, DIY manufactur-
ers can create adventurous, unique
products that were previously done
only by manual methods. Clearly, the
distance between the individuals and
the manufacturers is gradually elimi-
nated, by increasing the availability
and affordability of 3D printers. In fact,
the cost of 3D printers has dropped
significantly in the last few years. Now
almost anyone can own a 3D printer—
MakerBot Replicator 2 with about
$2200—to create a 3D object in the real
world,” says Bajaj.
The viability of 3D printing has
emerged in tandem with the advance-
ment and democratisation of 3D design
or CAD software, which allows users
to easily create a digital 3D model of an
object and optimise the design before
Resources for components
 AliExpress  Futurlec
 Element14  Kitsnspares.com
 ExploreLabs  SimpleLabs
anything has been built. The combina-
tion of these two technologies—3D de-
sign software and 3D printers—means
that it is easier for individuals to take
an idea for a product and turn it into a
physical object.
Although 3D printers are still quite
expensive in India, you might want
to co-invest in them with a DIY com-
munity. Plus, Bajaj feels, the prices are
likely to go down as the market grows.
Which board?
When deciding on the components
and tools needed, you are most likely
to face the question “which board to
use for my project.” Kashinath says,
“Among the group, members own
several types of boards—Arduino,
Raspberry Pi, Beagleboard, Stellaris,
MSP430, etc. We basically use whatev-
er serves our purpose for a particular
project. However, choosing the right
board (and hardware in general) is a
recurring challenge for us and we are
trying to develop a knowledge base
around it. Not sure how easy it would
be to keep it updated and accurate,
given the rate at which new and im-
proved board variants are coming
out.”
“There are many different boards,
each having strengths in different ar-
eas. There are significant differences
between what an Arduino is good for,
since it is a microcontroller, versus
what a Raspberry Pi is good for, as it is
a minicomputer that runs an operating
system. Because of these differences,
we tend to publish more Arduino/mi-
crocontroller projects as they are used
more commonly as part of a variety of
purposes,” says Denmead.
Sarafan appears to be an Arduino
fan too. “I am a fan of Arduino be-
cause it is the most user-friendly
and approachable. It has the same
limitations as something like a Rasp-
berry Pi, which also makes it more
approachable to a more generalised
audience. It is by no means the most
powerful piece of hardware, but it is
the most powerful in enabling abso-
lute beginners to hit the ground run-
ning,” he says.
www.efymag.com

Beagleboard, a credit-card sized,
low-power, open hardware computer
maintained by Texas Instruments, is
another viable option for DIYers. You
can use it to experiment with Linux,
Android and Ubuntu, and start devel-
oping the solution in five minutes with
the included USB cable.
Citing network connectivity, mul-
timedia and community as the top
three factors that make Raspberry
Pi best suited for DIY projects, Eben
Upton, executive director of the
Raspberry Pi Foundation, explains,
“There aren’t many devices that let
you connect to wired Ethernet for
$35. Also, the chip we use in the Pi
was originally intended as a mobile
phone graphics accelerator, so people
wanting to do things that connect
to a screen, play video or render 3D
graphics find it ideal. We have sold
over 1.5 million Raspberry Pi’s, so
we have a massive community that
people can tap if they want help in
bringing their creation to life.”
Regarding the desirable features in
a Pi, he says, “I think a lot of people
in the DIY world would like analogue
input, more GPIOs and Wi-Fi. The
first two are served quite well by
connecting an Arduino via USB. As
for Wi-Fi, there are a lot of wireless
dongles you can use with the Pi. We
are considering to incorporate some
of these features on a future board,
Boards to consider
 Arduino
 Raspberry Pi
 MSP430 Launchpad
 Beagleboard
 Stellaris
 Telos B
 EFM32
Tools needed
 Soldering iron
 Breadboard
 Wire stripper
 Multimeter
 Oscilloscope
 A 3D printer (if you can afford it or
invest in it as a group)
www.efymag.com
Cellphone-operated land rover—a DIY project offered by
Kits‘n’Spares, New Delhi
but we need to be careful: Part of the
reason for the Pi’s very low price is
that we’ve been careful not to add
more than is absolutely necessary to
the board.”
Listing the top reasons for Ar-
duino’s popularity in the DIY world,
Kuber says, “Arduino is popular
because it was one of the pioneers in
the open source hardware domain. I
would credit the widespread popular-
ity to the fact that it has a great found-
ing team. They had all the elements to
make this project a success—a robust
hardware design, an experienced pro-
fessor taking care of documentation,
a software person to write an easy-to-
use IDE and an efficient manufacturer.
Furthermore, the active forums and the
hand-to-hand customer support have
brought Arduino this far. It invited
developers of all experience levels—
novices to professionals to hobbyists.
Every person working for Arduino
answers support queries in the mailing
lists, be it the CEO of Turin office, or
India office or the creator of Arduino
himself! If the problem goes too vast,
and if it is found to be common, we
would then point it to the forums.
As far as tutorials and workshops in
India are concerned, we are working
to organise them in a more hands-on
orderly manner.”
Kuber also discusses things on
DIY users’ wishlists: “People usu-
ally compliment the robustness of
Arduino. However, some of them
Technology Focus
want to take insurance
on the pins, which is
currently not provided.
Another complaint is
generally regarding the
IDE, but the people who
complain over that are
mostly advanced soft-
ware engineers. Con-
sidering the masses, the
most ‘wanted’ feature in
India at least is the drop
in price.”
Learn and
collaborate
There are excellent learn-
ing resources for DIYers these days
(see box on next page for online
resources). From step-by-step instruc-
tions to videos showing how to go
about a project, from basic conceptual
learning resources to discussion fo-
rums, you have several avenues for
getting your doubts cleared at any
stage of your project.
Concerning IoT DIY, Kashinath
says, “In terms of learning, obviously
the best entry point is a Google search,
as there are several tutorials, videos
and communities dedicated to IoT on
the Web. There are also some good
books on the subject and some course
material from universities teaching
IoT. In India, since many of our chal-
lenges are unique to us, the global
forums may not have the answers we
seek. So one of the best resources you
can get is a local group of enthusiasts
who can work and learn together. Most
cities should already have local groups.
If you are in Bengaluru, join IoTBLR.
If there is no such group in your city,
why not start one?”
Sarafan also recommends Google
search. “Honestly, I am partial to
Google image search. Simply search
for whatever you are trying to build
and throw the word ‘schematic’ at
the end. You should visually get lots
of useful information quickly,” he
explains.
Above all this, it is the ‘community’
that makes DIY possible—and the key
factor that sets today’s DIY scenario far
Electronics For You | October 2013 33
 Technology Focus

No DIYian is an Island
Like open source software, DIY is also greatly driven by the community—both online and physical. In fact, it is the community spirit
that has made DIY so tangible today
“I think the biggest positive aspect is the community that has grown
around DIY projects. It is not so much the individual projects being
generated by this new DIY resurgence that are particularly novel.
People have always pursued their passions, tinkered and innovated
unique solutions to their everyday problems. What is currently
so powerful about DIY projects is that these people are no longer
operating alone. Even if you are the only person in your town who
does this sort of thing, you can go online and connect with people all
over the world who think like you do. Collectively this community has
pushed innovation much further than people ever could have working
alone in their basement,” says Randy Sarafan of Instructables.
Being part of a community helps DIYers to collaborate with
like-minded individuals to build their projects faster and better.
Sometimes, it also becomes possible to combine modules into a
bigger solution. Moreover, since larger DIY solutions are often multi-
disciplinary, collaboration is indispensable since one person rarely
has all the skills required for the fruition of an idea.
While online communities are a great boon and beneficial
to people living in remote areas, it also helps to have physical
gatherings if there is a DIY group in your town. Sayan Chakraborty,
who is working towards setting up a physical hackerspace for
IoTBlr, says, “Meeting and working in person is very important
for the DIY maker/hacker community as we are mostly dealing
with physical things, whether it is electronic devices or artwork or
product designs. In addition, some of the skills and capabilities being
acquired and exchanged between the community members require
active participation and discussion while interacting with physical
devices at the same time.”
The IoT Bangalore, Computer Club of India, Jaaga and HasGeek
are some of the groups that are quite active in Bengaluru. These
groups run regular group buys for components or make runs to the
local electronics component market. In addition, there are constant
barters or donations to specific member projects.
“Our meetings are very informal and in the spirit of
the makerspace/hackerspace culture we actively encourage
collaborative learning. Interesting project ideas and implementations
are discussed openly and voted on. Teams are formed based on the
interest of the members. One of the key concepts we are dealing
with these days is the evolving 802.15.4 wireless standard. We
have had a session on the pros and cons of open standards (like
802.15.4) vs proprietary wireless standards. We have also had
a very fruitful session on hardware platforms ranging from the
well-known Arduino, MSP430 and Raspberry Pi to the relatively
less-known but extremely energy-efficient EFM32. We all come from
different fields and these sessions enable us to learn new things and
share ideas.”

ahead of the yesteryears.’ (See box ‘No ics/bartendro-a-cocktail-dispensing- fun and educative way (http://www.
DIYian is an Island.’) robot). What’s great is that many of spaceschool.co.in/?page_id=561).”
these projects start off as DIY efforts Regarding popular projects in his
The result and then turn into small-scale busi- group, Chakraborty says, “There are
Great products and often thriving com- nesses (for example, http://www. a number of interesting projects and
panies are born of DIY projects. There kickstarter.com/projects/tubecore/ we encourage people to form their
is no dearth of examples in this space. tubecore-duo, which just got funded).” own teams based on their interest or
Sharing his favourite Pi-based Kuber shares, “There is a new capabilities. Some of today’s popular
projects, Upton says, “The high- device called ArduSat. It’s an Ar- themes include automation for home,
altitude ballooning that Dave Ak- duino Satellite wherein Arduino users retail, medical, agriculture and loca-
erman has been doing in the UK can test their code in space (http:// tion tracking. My current favourite is
(http://www.daveakerman.com/) blog.arduino.cc/2013/08/12/ardusat- a pollution monitoring and reporting
remains my favourite, but there are successfully-launched-in-space/). It system that uses GPS location track-
lots of others, from the Siri-activated is exciting to know that now Indian ing and mesh networking between the
garage door opener (http://www. students would be able to have the nodes.”
raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic. same access to space! ArduSat has
php?f=63&t=25118&p=231345) to the tied up with Dhruva Space India and Guarding against pitfalls
Raspberry Pi bartender (http://www. we are partnering with them to teach The DIY scene is generally charged
kickstarter.com/projects/partyrobot- space-oriented experiments in a very with enthusiasm and positivity. De-
spite that, DIYers need to be aware of
Online learning resources the potential pitfalls and how to guard
their project against them.
 Electronics for You (www.electronicsforu.com)
 Make Magazine (http://makezine.com/) Denmead warns, “The biggest pit-
 Instructables (http://www.instructables.com/) fall is perhaps that sometimes doing a
 Arduino website (http://arduino.cc/) project yourself may not be the most
 Raspberry Pi website (http://www.raspberrypi.org/) economical way to achieve it.”
 Beagleboard (http://beagleboard.org/) “In India, DIY is more or less con-
 Popular Mechanics DIY (http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/how-to/) fined to academic interests and hence
 DIY (https://diy.org/)
it is highly constrained by the goals
 Adafruit (http://www.adafruit.com/)
and timelines. Another aspect is how

34 October 2013 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

 Technology Focus

Corporate DIY: Jet Fuel for Innovation

Industry leaders are encouraging a DIY culture amongst their employees. We took a peak at some of the DIY stuff displayed at ARM’s
recent tech fest and discussed how DIY helps a company grow...
ARM was all ablaze with excitement as it celebrated ingenuity and
innovation at the recently held Technofest 2013. Krishna Kumar
Ranganathan, principal engineer, ARM India, had some interesting
stuff on platform stabilisation and demonstrated a miniature
‘Segway’ kind of mobile device at the event. “I have a bigger
prototype at home and I am keen on building a cost-effective human
transportation device,” he said.
Another group of employees showcased a Smart Aquarium
project. Their product involved an Android app that could help one
remotely monitor an aquarium and program the feeding time.
“ARM has always encouraged employees to innovate and
explore the world of technology beyond their regular daily routines.
The company provides mbeds to employees to conduct their
projects,” says Ranganathan.
The mbed kit is a single-board microcontroller with associated
tools for programming the device. It is a rapid prototyping platform
that helps complete microprocessor-based system prototypes in a
significantly short period of time. The mbed project was initiated by
two ARM employees, and later became an official research project
within ARM. It is now run and maintained by ARM to help MCU
Partners provide their customers with the best way to prototype
designs using their microcontrollers. mbed began with NXP LPC
1768 (ARM CortexM3) but now includes NXP LPC11U24 (ARM
CortexM0) and FSCL Freedom Board (ARM CortexM0+). ARM also
collaborates with universities and high-schools and provides mbed
kits to students for learning and experiments.
Apart from mbed, if the employees need any other components
or software for their projects, ARM readily funds the projects if it is
satisfied with the purpose. For instance, DIY enthusiasts at ARM are
now working on building a robot that can navigate its way through
their office collecting coffee cups.
Ranganathan explains, “Let’s say I’m at my desk, and I need a
cup of coffee. I just have to go to the intranet and request a cup of
coffee. The robot will recognise my login and hence know where I
am. By default, it comes to my desk but I can also mention if I am
elsewhere in the office. The robot goes to the vending machine and
brings the cup of coffee that has already been prepared. The robot
is basically a smart mobile platform with wheels. The idea is that the
robot will navigate from place A to place B within the office avoiding
all obstacles and knowing the destination as well. It can also go
about collecting empty mugs.”
DIY enthusiasts team at ARM is also interested in adding video
conferencing capabilities to the robot.
Guru Ganesan, managing director of ARM India, explains, “DIY
projects benefit the organisation as well as the individuals. These
help individuals by encouraging them to think out of the box. Some
of these projects might actually enhance daily operations, which
is beneficial for the company. ARM has always encouraged such
employee-led innovation ideas that help them co-create for a shared
purpose.”

we perceive DIY for engineering prob-
lems. It may not be always possible to
build a big project from scratch to end
in DIY mode. Deterred by this thought,
people drop highly-technical projects
and go for simple ones. However, the
solution is to learn how to modularise
or segment a big project to be able to
take up a part of it in DIY mode,” says
Jayakrishnan.
He also feels that people should
get out of the mindset that DIY must
involve hardware development—
developing an algorithm or finding
solutions to mathematical bottlenecks
can also be DIY activities!
“I think the largest pitfall is that
you often think that if you have built
something and have it sitting in front
of you, people online would like it and
you immediately have a product for
sale. Building the prototype of a sin-
gular unique item is not necessarily the
same as designing a product for mass
market, nor does having an audience
mean that people will pay the actual
cost of production once the product
hits the market,” explains Sarafan.
Kuber adds, “India has a very
brilliant DIY community. But Indians
have to nurture their documenting
and publicity talents. A small desktop
experiment, if video-documented well
and uploaded to the correct social me-
dia with correct tutorial instructions,
would be a great gift to the spirit of
open source.”
DIY in India
“India has a long tradition of ingenu-
ity and a strong technical base. The
DIY/maker ethic is tremendously
strong here. We consistently see new
and exciting projects from India,” says
Denmead.
Sarafan says, “Having never been
to India, my observation of the DIY
community in India can only be based
on what I observe on Instructables.
However, that said, it seems to be
pretty vibrant. We run hundreds of
contests on our site every year for DIY
projects, and India ranks within the
top 10 countries throughout the world
in terms of the number of winners. I’m
also impressed by the number of chil-
dren from India who regularly contact
me for help in their electronics projects.
There seems to be a thriving DIY scene,
especially amongst younger people.”
That said, the people actually
getting their hands dirty have mixed
views on the Indian DIY ecosystem.
“DIY has never been big in India,”
moans Kashinath. “Not all schools can
boast of a ‘workshop’ where students
can get their hands dirty working
with metal, wood, electronics, etc.
There is no famous hobby shop that
promotes DIY either. As a result,
it just isn’t something that kids are
exposed to. Some TV channels and
schools today are leading the effort
in this, which is heartening to see. I
was lucky to have a workshop in my
school, and I do believe that it con-
tributed significantly to my present-
day interest in this area. That said,
it is promising to see how things are
evolving here. Information and ideas
are accessible globally, hardware and
prototyping costs are reducing, local
communities are forming and the mo-
mentum is increasing.” 
The author is a technically-qualified freelance
writer, editor and hands-on mom based in Chennai

36 October 2013 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

 test & Measurement
RPM Measurement: Sensors and
Techniques
Low-cost, high-value sensor options are available for revolutions-per-minute (RPM)
measurement applications. Most of these sensors provide simple, reliable and inexpensive
transducers for highly sophisticated control systems. Take a look at different types
of tachometers for RPM measurement, advanced sensor modules, and frequency
measurement and period measurement methods
T.K. Hareendran
D
etecting the stoppage of a
rotating shaft (zero-speed de-
tection) is significant in many
applications, for example, to determine
whether a conveyor has failed. Revolu-
tions per minute (RPM) measurement
is crucial when controlling or monitor-
ing the speed of motors, conveyors,
turbines, etc. RPM is a measure of the
frequency of a rotation. It annotates
the number of full rotations completed
in one minute around a fixed axis. It is
used as a measure of rotational speed
of a mechanical component. Advanced
electronics technology now offers low-
cost, high-value sensor options for
RPM measurement applications. Most
of these sensors provide simple, reli-
able and inexpensive transducers for
highly sophisticated control systems.
38 October 2013 | Electronics For You
RPM sensors
A sensor is essential
to sense shaft speed.
Typically, devices
used for this pur-
pose are shaft (ro-
tary type) encoders,
photoelectric (optical
type) sensors and
magnetic rotational
speed (proximity
type) sensors. All of
these sensors send
speed data in the
form of electrical
pulses. Shaft encod-
ers offer a high reso-
lution of typically 1-5000 pulses per
revolution (PPR) and clearly defined,
symmetrical pulses. Proximity sensors
provide medium (or low) resolution
sensing, depending on the number
of pulses measured per revolution.
Photoelectric sensors usually sense a
reflective target on the rotating shaft.
Magnetic rotational speed sensors use
various magnetic proximity measuring
principles to monitor the speeds of ma-
chine components in a range between 0
and 30,000 rpm.
In principle, RPM sensors convert
mechanical motion into electric pulses
with or without direct contact when
positioned near a turning rotor, gear,
shaft or other regularly moving de-
vice. The resultant output signals are
then fed to a digital counter, totaliser,
tachometer, or other monitoring and
control device.
Tachometers
The word ‘tachometer’ is derived from
the Greek words ‘tachos,’ meaning
‘speed,’ and ‘metron,’ meaning ‘to
measure.’ Tachometer is a device de-
signed to measure rotational or surface
speed either in contact or non-contact
way. Tachometers are widely used to
measure rotational speed of motors,
conveyor belts, and other moving or
rotating systems. RPM measurement
with a tachometer can simply be di-
vided into three popular methods:
Mechanical. In this method, revo-
lutions in the mechanical sensor are
electronically analysed in the instru-
ment. This good old method is still
commonly used for low resolutions
between 20 and 20,000 rpm. Mechani-
cal tachometers utilise the fact that the
centrifugal force on a rotating mass
depends on the speed of rotation.
Optical. Here rotation is transmit-
ted to the measuring instrument via
an infrared (IR) light beam/laser beam
coming from the instrument, which is
then reflected by a reflective tape on
the object.
As explained, traditional tachom-
eters require physical contact between
the instruments and the objects be-
ing monitored. Laser tachometer is
a powerful choice where this type of
direct-contact type measurement is
not workable for technical or safety
reasons. Laser tachometers work by
pulsing a laser beam against the ro-
tating element. The rotating element
will have one reflective spot, and the
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Andheri (W), Mumbai - 400 053.
T + 91 22 26740468 F + 91 22 26740465
E Nupoor.Charde@megger.com
W www.megger.com
tachometer measures the rate at which
the light beam is reflected back.
Stroboscopic. It has clear advan-
tages over other measuring methods
using mechanical or optical sensors.
According to the stroboscopic princi-
ple, objects are stationary in the eyes
of the observer when the frequency
of high-speed flashes is in synchro-
nisation with the RPM of the object.
A stroboscopic light source provides
high-intensity flashes of light, which
can be caused to occur at a precise
frequency. When this light source is
made to fall on an object with periodic
motion, it appears that the motion has
slowed down or stopped when both
frequencies bear a definite relation-
ship.
Stroboscopic tachometers employ
this effect for RPM measurement.
Mechanical RPM measurement is not
good for small objects. Although opti-
cal method is superior to mechanical
method, practically it is not always
possible to bond reflective tapes on the
objects. But with stroboscopic method,
it is always possible to measure the
RPM of even very small objects.
Sensor modules for
unique speed sensing
solutions
Today’s advanced sensor modules
(and sensing techniques) provide
simple and cost-efficient solutions for
rotational speed measurement in many
applications including automotive,
industrial and medical.
Variable reluctance speed sensor.
A variable reluctance (VR) sensor is
composed of a wire wound around
a cylindrical magnetic material, typi-
cally made of some type of ferrous
material that is referred to as a pole
piece. A magnet is attached behind the
pole piece, creating a magnetic field
through the pole piece and winding.
This magnetic field projects out from
the pole piece front, also known as
the sensor tip. When ferrous material
passes through and disrupts this mag-
netic field, a sine wave is generated.
The frequency of the signal is directly
proportional to the speed of rotation.
VR speed sensors are passive de-
vices that do not require any external
source of power to generate a signal.

40 October 2013 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

 test & Measurement
Fig. 2: AM4096 magnetic encoder chip from
Renishaw. All of the sensor and processing
electronics have been placed within the compact
silicon design. The rotation of a simple north/
south magnet is picked up by the AM4096’s
sensor and provides absolute positional
information output to an accuracy of better than
0.1 degree
Note that a variant of VR sensor is
available as inductive magnetic sensor.
It differs from the standard VR sensor
in that the magnet is not in the unit,
but in the object being sensed. Induc-
tive magnetic sensors are used when
the rotating device sensed cannot be
made of ferrous materials.
Magnetoresistive speed sensor.
Rotational speed measurement using
a magnetoresistive (MR) sensor is
achieved by counting ferromagnetic
marks, such as teeth of a passive gear
wheel or the number of magnetic
elements of a magnetised ring. Mag-
netoresistive sensors make use of the
magnetoresistive effect—the property
of a current-carrying magnetic material
to change its resistivity in the presence
of an external magnetic field. Although
inductive sensors can be used for this
task, magnetoresistive sensors have an
advantage that the output signal level
does not vary with rotation speed, as in
the case of inductive sensors.
42 October 2013 | Electronics For You
MR sensors are static and the out-
put signal is generated by the bending
of magnetic field lines according to
the position of the target wheel. As
bending of the magnetic field lines also
occurs when the target is not moving,
these sensors can measure very slow
rotations, even down to zero hertz (0
Hz). However, note that MR sensors
cannot directly measure rotational
speed, but are sensitive to the motion
of a toothed wheel made from ferrous
material (passive target, a sensor fitted
with a permanent magnet) or a rotat-
ing wheel having alternating magnetic
poles (active target).
RPM measurement
techniques
Frequency measurement and period
measurement are two widely accepted
methods for determining RPM. Fre-
quency measurement is better for fast-
moving devices such as motors and
turbines, while period measurement
is better for devices that move more
slowly, such as shafts. When using
frequency measurement as a method
of monitoring RPM, the key factor is
the number of pulses being sensed per
revolution (PPR). This method works
well with high-PPR sensors and works
poorly for low-PPR sensors.
When using frequency measure-
ment method, you can calculate the
RPM using this equation:
RPM = (Pulse Frequency in pulses/
sec)×(60 sec/min)/(Sensor pulses/
revolution) = Revolutions/Minute
This equation shows the relation-
ship between frequency and period as:
Frequency = 1/Period
When using period measure-
ment to monitor RPM, the RPM can
be calculated by using the equation:
RPM = 60/Pulse period x PPR
In addition, note that frequency
method is good for zero-speed detec-
tion. If you use frequency method
to monitor the RPM, you can know
the shaft has stopped when the
frequency being sensed drops to
zero. On the other hand, if you use
period method, the main issue is de-
termining how much time to allow
between pulses before deciding that
the shaft has stopped. Basically, this
method requires a little more complex
logic!
From printing to life care!
Rotational speed sensors are widely
used to monitor the speeds of machine
components, from printing and paper
machines to aircrafts, ships and wind
turbines. A tachometer can even find
uses in medicine to diagnose circula-
tory problems such as clogged arteries.
By placing a small, turbine-like device
called haematachometer in an artery
or vein, doctors can use a tachometer
to interpret the rate of blood flow from
the speed at which the turbine spins.
Nowadays, innovative rotational
speed sensor technology offers a wide
range of standard products for the
most varied applications, with suit-
able measuring systems and electron-
ics, as well as appropriate housings,
designs and connections. The design
trend is towards fabrication of tiny
chips, i.e., chips integrated with sen-
sor bridges, signal amplifiers, gain
controls, differential analogue line
drivers and digital interface circuits,
for contactless RPM measurement,
position control/sensing and rotating
angle measurement, etc. 
The author is a regular contributor to EFY
www.efymag.com
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 LED lighting
Not all LED Drivers Provide
‘Clean’ Light
LED drivers with a poor power factor reflect harmonics back to the mains. As the power
consumption of high-power LEDs used as light sources increases erratically, there is a risk
of ‘dirty electricity’ across the mains. To get to the root of this problem, high-power LED
drivers must come with power factor correction
Stephan Wegstein
I
ncandescent bulbs are essentially
ohmic resistors and consume sinu-
soidal current from the mains grid.
The power factor of these devices is
essentially ‘1.’ With LED lights, things
are somewhat more complex.
LEDs are semiconductors operated
with direct current. Their characteristic
shows a marked kink at approximately
3V. When the maximum value is ex-
44 October 2013 | Electronics For You
ceeded, the LED might be destroyed.
LEDs therefore require special drivers
that convert the mains voltage to a
constant direct current. This constant
current ensures that all LEDs in a chain
are lit at equal brightness—irrespective
of the threshold voltage.
Such LED drivers are, however, not
ohmic resistors, but instead consumers
with a power factor that tends to be far
below ‘1.’ This leads to the reflection of
harmonics back to the mains, resulting
in undesired reactive currents.
Pulsed direct current
causes problems
The above problem results from the
need to convert alternating current
into constant direct current. To do
this, the current must be rectified and
stabilised by a capacitor with sufficient
capacitance. The capacitor is charged
through the half wave to its peak value
and supplies energy until the next half
wave reaches the capacitor value.
If the voltage at the rectifier is
greater than that from the capacitor, a
brief high-amplitude current is gener-
ated during the respective half wave.
This current peak is much higher than
would be expected based on the power
rating. The resulting current is no
longer sinusoidal and includes a large
share of harmonics (the steeper the
edge, the higher the harmonic share).
This problem arises from the fact that
the alternating current needs to be
rectified at the input and smoothed
before it can be used further down the
line. If a converter is installed to gener-
ate the required constant current from
the high direct voltage, the situation
becomes even worse.
Pulse-width modulation
corrects power factor
Since it is expected that LED lighting
systems will replace other lighting
solutions across the board, corrective
measures must be taken in order to
ensure that the mains quality does not
deteriorate too much. EN 61000-3-2
standard therefore demands that LED
drivers rated 25W and higher come
www.efymag.com
 LED lighting
Fig. 1: With active PFC, the current consumption is controlled by pulse-width modulation to
near-sinusoidal shape
Fig. 2: Comparison of incandescent bulb and
LED driver with power factor of less than one
with power factor correction (PFC).
EnergyStar is even more explicit, pre-
scribing a power factor of 0.9 or better
for commercial drivers.
Without active PFC, it is, however,
only possible to reach values that are
significantly lower—around 0.5 or
even less, depending on the power
rating. AC/DC LED drivers therefore
need to be equipped with special PFC
circuits. Their principle is straight-for-
ward: instead of connecting the charg-
ing capacitor directly to the rectifier,
a pulse-width modulator is installed
between the two components. This
modulator ensures that the capacitor
is charged by several small-current
pulses during the half wave. The cur-
rent consumption is therefore more
or less synchronised with the mains
voltage and approximately sinusoidal
46 October 2013 | Electronics For You
(refer Fig. 1).
A well-designed PFC circuit in
some LED drivers increases the power
factor to a value of around 0.95, thus
exceeding the stringent EnergyStar
requirements as well as EN 61000
specifications. Although it is techni-
cally possible to achieve even better
values, the associated costs outweigh
the benefits.
While EN 61000-3-2 requires a
power factor of greater than 0.9 only
from 25W upwards, active PFC also
makes sense at lower power rates.
This becomes obvious if one consid-
ers that many circuits include a large
number of small- or medium-power
LED luminaires or consist of small lu-
minaire clusters with separate drivers.
Since ten 12W loads consume a total of
120W, mains network operators would
probably appreciate it if a proper
power factor correction was applied.
This is why some manufacturers offer
products with active PFC from as low
as 12W.
Relationship between
PFC and efficiency
Many people incorrectly believe that a
driver with a low power factor offers
poor efficiency. While such drivers
consume considerably more energy
from the mains than is required for
powering the LEDs, a large share of
this power is actually fed back to the
mains network. This share is thus not
lost, as would be the case with a low-
efficiency device. It is simply fed from
the ‘wrong’ side. This is probably the
reason why many people confuse the
power factor value with efficiency.
Fig. 2 compares the current con-
sumption of a 100W incandescent lamp
(red curve) with that of a 25W LED.
Both devices produce about the same
amount of light. The incandescent bulb
with a power factor of one consumes
a constant current of 0.45A from the
230V mains network. With an LED
driver of power factor one, the current
consumption would be around 0.11A.
At a power factor of 0.95, it would be
slightly higher. At a power factor of
0.25, the current consumption would
amount to 0.45A, which corresponds
to that of the incandescent lamp—the
actual LED output would, however,
only be 25W. The remaining 75W is
returned through the ‘wrong’ phase
back to the mains. The energy is thus
not lost and the reactive current is not
metered by the power meter.
For AC/DC drivers, active power
factor correction is, however, as im-
portant as high efficiency, especially if
one takes into account that billions of
such drivers will be connected to the
mains over the next few years. Power
factor correction is therefore not so
much geared towards keeping electric-
ity costs down, but helps maintain the
quality of the mains power by elimi-
nating harmonic interference.
Rapid pace of
development in the field of
power LEDs and drivers
For the foreseeable future, the industry
is focusing on solutions for the existing
infrastructure in residential and office
buildings. For LED luminaires, this
means that they must thus be dim-
mable with conventional TRIACs. This
creates a number of technical prob-
lems, since the leading or trailing edge
control of dimmers and PFC circuits of
drivers interfere with each other. Con-
ventional drivers can therefore not be
www.efymag.com
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 LED lighting
dimmed down to zero. the quality of the light
A function that allows plays a major role. While
dimming to 10 or 20 per cent daylight reaches a colour
is, however, not satisfactory, rendering index of 100, the
as conventional incandescent MegaZenigata achieves a
lamps can be dimmed to respectable 83. The Mega-
much lower levels. In addi- Zenigata is thus not only
tion, the colour temperature efficient but also offers a
of a dimmed incandescent light quality and a colour
lamp is shifted to much temperature close to that
warmer levels, while LEDs of natural light.
show no such shift. The 10
per cent brightness of an Summary
LED luminaire powered In the future, manufactur-
with a residual current is ers of LED drivers will co-
therefore perceived by the Fig. 3: Thermal image shows relatively homogeneous heat distribution in operate even more closely
eye as much higher, equiva- MegaZenigata (Image courtesy: Sharp) with LED chip producers
lent to about 35 per cent in order to take full advan-
brightness of an incandes- tage of the possibilities of
cent lamp. Dimming to lev- new lighting technology.
els below 5 per cent is thus While energy efficiency
even more crucial for LED and long service lives re-
lighting systems. main the main concerns,
In the recent past, LEDs quality of the light is also
have also been developed a major issue, since it de-
further at a rapid pace. Ini- termines how we perceive
tially, several individual 2W the light.
or 3W LEDs with separate The trend towards LED
housings were combined on lighting systems will bring
a PCB. Today, the trend is billions of new drivers into
clearly towards multi-chip Fig. 4: The new MegaZenigata from Sharp (left) contains 168 individual LEDs
combined in an array (in series and parallel) powered by approx. 38V DC and the global market over the
solutions. For this purpose, a constant current of 700 mA (Image courtesy: Sharp) next few years, which all
a number of small LED dies need to be connected to
are mounted on ceramic chips. The 25W MegaZenigata from Sharp: a total mains networks. Because they will all
ceramic substrate improves heat man- of 168 LEDs arranged over an area of produce harmonics and reactive cur-
agement across the entire LED array just below 2 cm2 (Fig. 4) are wired to rents, drivers need to have not only a
(Fig. 3). form an array. This array can then be high efficiency rating but also a good
In addition, such LED arrays re- mounted on the MegaZenigata, using power factor. Values around 95 per
quire much less space, and the entire a specially devised LED driver. cent should therefore be considered
luminous surface is covered by a phos- The LED driver provides a con- long-term guide values, even if they
phorus coating so that the multi-chip stant-current output of 700 mA up are not yet required by the relevant
LEDs appear as one single light source. to 42V, so that the MegaZenigata standardisation organisations. 
This facilitates the design of reflective produces 2600 lumens at 4000°K, cor-
and optical devices. responding to the luminous flux of a The author is vice president-marketing & sales,
This can be well illustrated by the 150W halogen spotlight. Of course, RECOM Lighting

48 October 2013 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

 the Internetof
things
News, views and development on the Internet of Things
“Engineers working on IoT devices have to
expand their thinking to the whole system,
even if they are not building it all”
Jim Tung, fellow, MathWorks Inc., speaks to Janani Gopalakrishnan Vikram about the complexity
posed by the Internet of Things (IoT), the mindset change required for engineers to handle it with
sophistication, and how model-based design can help in this
Janani Gopalakrishnan Vikram
What kind of complexity does the IoT
pose to engineers designing devices for
this era?
The IoT is an ecosystem of technolo-
gies working together to create dynamic
systems of physical devices and infor-
mation. These systems may do several
things like providing data, aggregating
data provided by multiple systems,
analysing the aggregated data to derive
useful information and trends, present-
ing the information and trends to users
in a timely manner on a range of plat-
forms, including Web, mobile devices
and desktops/laptops, and changing
the system’s own behaviour based on
the derived information and trends.
So the complexity of the IoT can
be seen in flexible and smart embed-
ded systems, and systems of systems,
that collect data and often solve spe-
cific problems locally; or in algorithms
needed to extract insight from the data
and build systems that operate and
adapt autonomously (these systems
may combine feedback control, com-
puter vision and machine learning, for
example, and may include algorithms
not yet imagined); and in deploying
algorithms quickly to where the data
resides so that analysis takes place
as efficiently and quickly as possible,
50 October 2013 | Electronics For You
whether the embedded processors and
FPGAs are in a local node, multi-core
server farms or the cloud, perhaps us-
ing computational frameworks such
as Hadoop.
What mindset change is required for
engineers to handle such complexity
in a more efficient way, without getting
flustered?
Engineers working on these sys-
tems of systems, or any of their compo-
nents, should understand—at least at
a high level—the requirements of the
system as a whole and the capabilities
of each of the subsystems.  Creating an
embedded system for a local device,
for example, is only one part of de-
signing an IoT system. If the engineers
don’t understand how the data gener-
ated by it might be used, they might
design an embedded system optimised
to a local problem, rather than the
whole challenge.  They have to expand
their thinking to the whole system,
even if they are not building it all.
Automating development tasks
such as code generation for embedded
systems or deploying algorithms into
a production IT infrastructure can also
reduce complexity in key areas. The
technology is well-proven, but often
requires a change in mindset to take
advantage of it.
IoT
How can model-based design help
here?
Models enable an engineer to think
at a higher level of abstraction, which,
in turn, makes it easier to conceptualise
the entire system. Simulating those
models enables the engineer to evaluate
and improve the system’s behaviour
across a wide range of scenarios, includ-
ing those that are difficult to replicate
in real life. Automatic code generation
means fast and robust implementation
to devices ranging from FPGAs and
microcontrollers, to SoC devices such
as the Xilinx Zynq, to rugged industrial
programmable logic controllers.
Model-based design (MBD) can
be done using tools like Simulink,
Stateflow and MATLAB. MATLAB
and Simulink can also connect directly
to popular low-cost and open-source
hardware such as Arduino and Rasp-
berry Pi, without the need for a code
generator. Tethering and targeting the
hardware support packages enables
makers and developers to create de-
vices of the future with today’s tools.
Since MBD provides capabilities for
simulating the behaviour of the physi-
cal system, and not just the algorithms,
it is very useful for developing algo-
rithms that require comparison to a ref-
erence model to assess the behaviour
of the system and detect anomalies.
www.efymag.com

World’s first search
engine that finds
connected ‘things’
By indexing FTP and HTTP banners, Shodan lets users
search for and find any Internet-connected object. This
opens up opportunities to peep into refrigerators, theatres,
museums, homes and even other computers
Having read an article about how
somebody took a tour of Scottish
castles using video footages found
through Shodan (http://www.shodan-
hq.com), I too set about exploring
this computer-finding search engine.
I wanted to actually get a glimpse of
what was happening in the Sydney
Opera House, but had to satisfy my-
self with flashes of a museum in Japan
since the Opera House cams were
too well secured. I soon realised that
viewing CCTV footages was just the
tip of the iceberg. A lot more can be
done with Shodan, such as finding the
contents of other people’s connected
refrigerators, air-conditioners running
at a particular temperature, computers
running a software, mobile phones
using a specific app, anonymous FTP
servers, hosts affected by a new vulner-
ability and much more! More than that,
you can find a lot of information about
industrial control systems too.
Shodan is a hacker’s tool. It is a
search engine that lets you find specific
objects connected to the Internet using
a variety of filters. This means that
unlike traditional Web search engines
that help you find websites, Shodan
helps you find computers, routers,
cameras, phones, refrigerators, air-
conditioners, ovens, traffic lights, sen-
sors, locks and the increasing number
of other things that are getting ‘con-
nected’ of late.
Shodan’s indexing is based mainly
on banners, which is meta-data that
the server sends back to the client. This
can be information about the server
software, options supported by the ser-
vice, a welcome message or anything
www.efymag.com
else that the client would like to know
before interacting with the server.
For this reason, some also rightly call
Shodan a public port scan directory or
a search engine of banners.
While you can find a lot of things
with Shodan, your search also has to be
a little smarter, using the right search
inputs, service filters and options. With
proper filters, you can find devices
based on city, country, latitude/longi-
tude, hostname, operating system and
IP. The results show the IP and physical
location of each object found, the ser-
vices running on the object, and more
information. If the object is not properly
secured, and you are smart enough, you
can access its content too!
Exploits (http://www.shodanhq.
com/exploits), a variant of Shodan, lets
you search for known vulnerabilities
and exploits. You can search across Ex-
ploit DB, Metasploit, CVE, OSVDB and
Packetstorm with one simple interface.
Well, now you know why Shodan
is a tool for hackers. It is also a brilliant
aid for penetration testers, to find and
patch new vulnerabilities, and improve
the security of industrial systems,
sensor networks, etc. Shodan also pro-
vides official Shodan API documenta-
tion on how to access the search engine
from Python, Ruby or Perl, to add its
functionality to your programs too.
Call it the beginning of the Internet
of Things if you will, but it is scary. For
people who are already afraid of the
privacy issues arising out of the IoT,
Shodan is like supersonic fuel to their
bad dreams. 
The author is a technically-qualified freelance
writer, editor and hands-on mom based in Chennai
Read more about the Internet of Things at internetofthings.electronicsforu.com
Electronics For You | October 2013
internet of things
More use for thin air
University of Washington researchers recently
presented a technology called Ambient Back-
scatter wherein TV, mobile and other radio
frequency signals lingering in thin air can be
used as both a source of power and a means
of communication. Since this technology
does not require batteries, unlike other low-
power near-field communication technolo-
gies, it is believed to be ideal for devices of
the IoT era. For more information on this
technology, you may read the paper at http://
www.theengineer.co.uk/Journals/2013/08/14/
u/g/g/comm153-liu.pdf
Embedded licenses
Embedded licensing is a new concept that
ensures maximum returns from the smart
software developed for IoT devices. An embed-
ded license monitors two aspects of how the
software is used: by controlling access to the
software source code and by controlling how
the software-embedded hardware is used. It
protects software from IP theft, tampering and
reverse-engineering. Learn more about embed-
ded licenses from http://www.safenet-inc.com/
software-monetization/embedded-applications
Wondering what’s hot?
If you are looking for signs to decide what’s
hot and what’s not, so you can base your
own project on that, check out Github’s new
‘trending’ page at https://github.com/trend-
ing. The page showcases the top-25 trending
projects. The list is validated with a variety of
data points including stars, forks, commits,
follows, and page views, weighting them
appropriately.
51
 innovation
Swasthya Sanjivani: A Portable
Digital Testing Laboratory
Swasthya Sanjivani is an automated and, most importantly, affordable solution to blood and
urine testing with immediate confirmatory results. The system is basically a portable digital
testing laboratory that aims at addressing the lack of diagnostic facilities in rural areas. It
also consists of an electronic pill box, which reminds the patients about their medication and
appointment schedule. Find out more about it
Abhishek Mutha
I
ndia is the second-most-populated
country in the world. Its rural
and urban distribution of popu-
lation is 68.84 per cent and 31.16 per
cent, respectively, as per the Census
Report 2011. Well, nothing much can
be done about the growing popula-
tion apart from educating people. But
education, poverty and health in the
rural areas need more focus. Swasthya
Sanjivani—an innovative kit developed
at Manav Rachna College of Engineer-
ing (MRCE)—aims to eliminate lack of
healthcare facilities.
Trigger for innovation
There is a team of five behind
Swasthya Sanjivani—Manasvi Sihag,
Hardik Garg, Nikhil Dalmia, Prashant
Gupta and Pritam Singh.
Before delving into what Swasthya
Sanjivani is all about, let us look at
what inspired them to come up with
this solution and what exactly they are
trying to solve.
Moved by the fact that “One billion
people lack access to basic healthcare,”
the team decided to come up with a so-
lution. They conducted a survey in 23
different villages, which revealed that
these areas lacked adequate healthcare
facilities, and people could not afford
the current facilities because of lack
of money.
The team says, “Even if these people
get tested at small camps, they have to
travel to distant locations to get further
tests carried out, which puts a heavy
burden on their restricted earnings.
52 October 2013 | Electronics For You
Fig. 1: Inside the kit (Prototype)
What is Swasthya
Sanjivani?
Swasthya Sanjivani enables basic digital
literates at isolated centres to perform
tests prescribed by medical practition-
ers of repute at distant locations. These
expert doctors, through video confer-
encing, would be present all the time,
right from the time the patient enters
the centre till he leaves it with all the
answers concerning his health.
The system is basically a portable
digital testing laboratory. It also con-
sists of an electronic pill box, which
is provided to the patients to remind
them about their medicine and ap-
pointment schedule.
This project aims at addressing
the lack of diagnostic facilities at a
primary level, especially in rural ar-
eas. It could be termed as a cheaper,
effective substitute for telemedicine.
In telemedicine, the diagnosis can be
performed from a remote location but
it is an expensive process and demands
an accurate setup. Swasthya Sanjivani
is a simplified substitute as it requires
just the kit, Internet
connection, trained
technicians, and a
laptop or PC.
The direct ben-
eficiaries of this sys-
tem are patients of
anaemia, diabetes,
renal damage and
jaundice, people liv-
ing in unapproach-
able areas, people
below poverty line,
diagnostic centres and hospitals in
heavily populated areas, and clinics
into blood and urine testing.
System architecture
Swasthya Sanjivani has a three-tier
architecture comprising:
Tier 1: Laptop. A laptop acts as
the interface between the doctor and
the Swasthya Sanjivani kit. Video
conferencing connecting the doctor to
the patient is achieved through Skype
connection on the laptop.
Tier 2: Swasthya Sanjivani kit. This
kit is supplied to operators in rural ar-
eas. The kit ensures that patients get an
economical and on-the-spot blood and
urine testing system at their doorstep.
Tier 3: Web portal (SkyDrive). The
Web portal bridges the gap between
rural and urban areas. The patient can
be treated by a specialist doctor from a
distant location.
How does it work?
The Swasthya Sanjivani kit works on the
principle of colour-matching technique
that has been widely used for urine and
www.efymag.com
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 innovation
blood samples for years. The staff at ru-
ral centres can be technically trained to
use the kit, take photographs and send
these over to the expert centres where
these samples could be diagnosed.
The kit consists of a test-tube stand,
test tubes, camera, battery, motors and
chain drive. A burette is positioned
right above the test tube, with the help
of an external stand.
After the blood or urine sample has
been collected by the operator, he plac-
es the test tube with the sample in the
test-tube stand. The sample moves to-
wards the burette with the help of the
motor and chain drive, and positions
itself right under the tip of the burette
with the help of sensors. With the help
of the burette supported externally
with a stand, the operator mixes the
desired amount of a particular reagent
in the sample. This initiates a chemical
reaction in the test tube, which changes
the colour of the sample.
Diseases like jaundice, diabetes
and renal damage can be diagnosed
by such colour-changing tests. The
camera (attached on the left-hand side
of the system) captures a picture of the
chemically altered sample in the test
tube and feeds it directly to the laptop.
The colour generator, when pro-
vided with RGB values, generates the
colour of the sample. (Red, green and
blue (RGB) are primary colours and
any colour can be formed from the
combination of these three colours.)
This colour is communicated to the
doctor by the operator and the doctor
gives the feedback almost immediately
to the patient.
Electronic pill box
The electronic pill box has small slots
for distinct medicines. It is of great
help to poor, illiterate people for three
reasons: They can’t read the name of
the medicine, they often overlook or
neglect the medicines that they are
supposed to take, and most of the
medicines look the same to them.
This pill box helps patients to take
the right drug, right dose at the right
time. It connects to a PC/tablet via
USB. The installed software permits the
54 October 2013 | Electronics For You
Doctors’ take on Swasthya Sanjivani
“Swasthya Sanjivani is an innovative diagnostic test and alert system for diseases that
can be really beneficial for peripheral areas.”
—Dr Nisha Marwa, professor, Department of Pathology, PGIMS, Rohtak
“Test results performed by the kit completely match lab results.”
—Khem Chand, senior lab technician, Department of Pathology, PGIMS, Rohtak
“Swasthya Sanjivani is a ground-breaking innovation that will open new research
paradigms in the field of healthcare and prove to be a great help for people who are
devoid of even the basic healthcare services.”
—Dr Suresh Arora, chairman, Surya Orthopedic Centre, Faridabad
operator to easily customise the device LEDs. SMD LEDs are used to guide
to the patient’s medication regimen the user on medicines and schedules
and dosage timing. The medication in- as follows:
formation stored in the memory of the Medicines. LEDs placed below the
pill box initiates an audio-visual signal compartment of the medicine blink at
to remind the patient about different the scheduled time.
medicine dosages and his next appoint- Scheduling. LEDs use innovative
ment scheduled with the doctor. displays to indicate the various sched-
Components. The electronic pill ules that need to be followed.
box device is a portable embedded
hardware device that incorporates a Challenges faced
number of peripherals: “We have done image processing using
ATmega 328. Present on the Ar- Matlab tool. We made an executable file
duino Uno board, ATmega 328 micro- using Matlab, which runs on a Windows
controller IC is used to program the standalone application. Selecting pixels
electronic pill box. The Arduino board increases the accuracy of testing, which
is connected to the computer via a USB is presently not achieved by wavelength
port and can be programmed with the comparison,” informs the team.
desired medication and appointment On the kind of difficulties faced,
schedules through an app. they say, “Being engineers, it was very
Real-time clock. DS1307 real-time difficult for us to develop a system that
clock is serially customised using I2C is healthcare based. One needs to do a
protocol. It is used for medicine sched- research on even the most basic facets
uling and appointment by communi- of medicine and consult a doctor for
cating with a Windows 8 application. each and every change that one plans
Reminder buzzer. It is used to alert to make in the current system.”
the user about an appointment or time
to take the medicine prescribed. Similar products
in the market
The kit developers say, “There are defi-
nitely many fully automatic and semi-
automatic analysers available in the
market that can diagnose these diseases,
but they are expensive, immobile, and
require low temperature for operation,
specialised reagents to perform tests
and an expert technician to operate
them. With Swasthya Sanjivani we
plan to solve these issues.” The cost of
Swasthya Sanjivani kit is Rs 180,000. 
Fig. 3: Electronic pill box The author is a tech correspondent at EFY Bengaluru
www.efymag.com
 Embedded
Building An Advanced
Navigation System
GPS personal tracking devices and applications are
forecast to grow at a rate of 40 per cent—according to
ABI Research. Wearable electronics and the electronics of
things are the primary contributors to this growth
Car dashboard with GPS panel
Dilin Anand
L
ocation information has become
integral to our lives due to the
increased bearing that it has in
the evolution of ‘smart services.’ It
has been implemented in everything
from the smart meters in smart grids
to mainstream smartphones, motor-
cycles, cameras, wearable consumer
electronics, and all kinds of telematics
applications.
Wearable electronics, the Electron-
ics of Things and apps designed for
machine-to-machine (M2M) commu-
nication are significantly driving the
adoption of GPS functionality into
every device. It is so widespread that
spoofed GPS signals can have most
dire security implications.
56 October 2013 | Electronics For You
What is it?
In my interactions with junior engi-
neers, I found that everyone consid-
ered GPS to be the beginning and
the end of positioning technologies.
Well, it is not!
GPS belongs to the United States
Department of Defence (DoD). It is
obvious that the other mighty coun-
tries on Earth aren’t going to let the
USA have all the positioning fun, and
that is why we also have the Russian
GLONASS, the European GNSS, the
Japanese QZSS and our very own In-
dian IRNSS, amongst others. (For more
information on these, please refer the
box on next page.)
All these systems are basically a
network of very expensive satellites
orbiting our Earth. All of them emit
a signal to any navigation system re-
ceiver on Earth willing to hear them.
How the system works. The signal
transmitted by these satellites is essen-
tial to the functioning of the navigation
system, due to the electronic ephemeris
data that it contains. Receivers on the
ground collect this data from the satel-
lites, apply some algorithms to cover
for the signal travel time, and finally
calculate their location on Earth us-
ing trilateration. So, as you can see,
receiving the signal intact is of utmost
importance to the performance of this
system.
Major challenges
As mentioned at the beginning of this
article, GPS technology finds a very
wide variety of applications. However,
there are some problems that are com-
mon across the board.
The biggest problem—power con-
sumption. The problem of power con-
sumption is universal, to the point that
it feels more like a luxury specification
these days. Laptops looked pretty well
with their 4-hour battery life until the
new range of laptops with 12-hour
uptime came in. Now it is annoying
when a device battery dies in ‘just’
four hours.
GPS-enabled devices used to die
a quick death when GPS was actu-
ally switched on, due to huge power
required to keep listening to the satel-
lite and gathering data. Reducing the
power consumption not only increases
the battery life of existing devices but
also makes it more practical to add
GPS functionality to new application
areas such as wearable electronics and
remote sensors where battery life is
very important.
How to do it? One way is to go for
GPS modules with a reduced update
frequency. Higher update frequen-
cies cause the GPS module to gather
ephemeris data at a very fast rate and
subsequently also push out the NMEA
sentences pretty fast. This results in an
increased power consumption both by
the module and the chip, which has to
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THE POWER MANAGEMENT LEADER
 Embedded
the location precisely.
Important points to keep in mind
One alternative way to do this is
The three most important factors to be kept in mind are: to take useful information like satel-
1. Make sure to get a clean input signal with no jammers. This can be done by placing the
lite trajectories and earth elevation
antenna facing the satellites and not near jammers such as the camera/processor/memory/
or other transmitter. values from public databases, and
2. Make sure there is no thermal disturbance to the TCXO so that temperature post-process it on a remote server to
compensation works well. This can be done by making sure not to mount the TCXO near a calculate location.
heat source and make sure there are thermal breaks in any power and ground planes in the “By using a coarse-time navigation
PCB to prevent heat transfer from other components that use a lot of power. technique and leveraging information
3. Make sure to have a robust serial communication connection. It is amazing how such that is already available on the Web,
an old technology such as an UART can still be the cause of so many problems. such as satellite ephemeris and Earth
—Walter Rivera, Manager, Product Marketing and
elevations, we show that 2 ms of raw
John Hutson, Sr Manager, IC Design Engineering, Broadcom
GPS signals is enough to obtain a loca-
tion fix,” explains a paper on CO-GPS
process the gathered data to find out TTFF and power consumption of mo- built through the wonderful Microsoft
the current location. Modules with bile communication devices is to utilise CLEO project.
higher update frequencies perform the wireless network and offload most You might be thinking why GPS
better, but these are mostly used for of the work to the cloud. Nokia N95-1 is less preferable than your home net-
aerospace, defence or other highly is a pretty good example of this with work or Wi-Fi for receiving data. The
critical applications. Civilian applica- A-GPS functionality added to the de- reason is that GPS signals have a very
tions usually require just one module vice over a software update. This soft- low data rate. It is far more efficient
with 1Hz update frequency. ware update alone decreased Time To to piggy-back on the already utilised
The antenna size and type also af- First Fix (TTFF) for these phones by a data connection with your service
fect the power requirements of your big margin, making GPS functionality provider rather than spending a cou-
device. Typically, active antennae need on the device a feasible option. ple of minutes sweet talking with the
more power than passive antennae. To understand this, you need to GPS satellite to try and get it to reveal
Within active antennae, there are high- factor in the 30 seconds of full throttle where you are.
performance antennae that provide work that the GPS module has to do Accuracy. The accuracy of a GPS
a higher accuracy but are larger and usually, to simply acquire ephemeris module primarily depends on the GPS
more power consuming. Ultimately, it data from the satellite. Once this data module and the antenna. Active anten-
depends on the design engineer to bal- is received, the device has to go ahead nae are usually connected through a
ance the power requirements, device and do some heavy number crunching cable and have their own LNA, which
size and accuracy to create a successful to make sense of the data and calculate gives them better performance. On
product. One thing I learnt is that the
power consumption figures mentioned
in OEMV GPS cards do not include the
Role of various technologies
power consumed by the antenna’s low- Global positioning system (GPS). GPS is a space-based satellite navigation system that
noise amplifier (LNA). provides location and time information to any receiver that can understand its signals.
GPS modules can use multiple It requires unobstructed line-of-sight to at least four satellites, and is also undergoing a
modernisation effort powered by satellites named GPSIII.
channels at the same time to talk faster
World wide reference network (WWRN). WWRN, the AGPS server, delivers GPS orbit
with the satellites and gather ephemeris data that is valid for four hours. The data is sent through wireless communication networks
data faster. However, with more chan- from servers, and helps to eliminate the time to ‘acquire satellites’ directly. This technology
nels comes the problem of increased has helped to reduce the TTFF from minutes to mere seconds.
power consumption. Typically, the Global navigation satellite system (GLONASS). The Russian equivalent of GPS, it
design is such that more channels are currently has 21 satellites available in the skies. It greatly enhances the performance of GPS
used just for the initial fix, after which chips, which is why most modern devices have GLONASS support built-in.
Long-term orbit (LTO)4d. This technology delivers GPS data seven days in advance, and
the additional channels are dropped.
is used when the network might be unavailable for the next seven days. It builds on AGPS,
While checking around for the low- with the difference that the ephemeris data is available for seven days instead of four hours.
est power-consuming GPS module, The main takeaway here is that by downloading LTO data, a user outside the home network
I came across LSI CXD5600GF and can still get AGPS-like accuracy.
CXD5430 GNSS receivers from Sony Galileo navigation satellite system (GNSS). It currently has just four satellites up, with
that consume just 10 mW for the entire 26 more to go up by 2019. However, engineers can execute full testing with the current four
GNSS receiver LSI unit. satellites. This system also offers better positioning at higher altitudes and has an integrated
global search-and-rescue function that allows the user to send a distress signal to the
Decreasing time-to-first-fix. One
satellite even if he is out of range of the home network.
solution to considerably reduce both

58 October 2013 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

 Embedded

GPS Module Features

Feature Benefit Effect of increase Effect of decrease
Size Affects antenna choice Bigger modules allow for Smaller modules are used
and features, and is a bigger antenna, which more in wearable electronics
based on application size gives better lock time and and mobile computing where
accuracy size matters
Update Speed with which the High frequencies allow the Lower frequencies allow the
rate module recalculates and module to keep up with module to work with low power
reports NMEA data higher speeds, like when and reduced computing strain
flying
Power Depends on the perfor- Higher update rates and Low update rates. If the
mance expectation that bigger antennae can be power figure is really low, you
the device is tuned for used if lots of power is probably forgot to connect the
available antenna
Accuracy Depends on the accuracy High-accuracy modules Low accuracy is perfect for ACRYLIC CONFORMAL COATING
demanded by the ap- are required for highly home use as it is inexpensive
plication critical applications such as and decreases BoM
military and aerospace
Antennae Fundamental right of a Bigger antennae need more Smaller antennae are usually
GPS module power to be driven to them inexpensive and also fit for de-
by the LNAs vices bound by size limitation
Channels Channels are how the More channels mean more Fewer channels increase TTFF
module would receive power consumption but a a lot, one solution is to cut
ephemeris data from the faster TTFF down on channels after first fix
satellite
Extras New modules come with High sensitivity of even Magnetic sensors and acceler-
jamming detection and -156 dB, and availability of ometers might be available to
mitigation 60+ channels aid GPS lock

the other hand, passive antennae are
directly mounted on the PCB and are
more susceptible to noise coupling if
not correctly isolated. There are also
more expensive high-performance an-
tennae that are bigger and more power
consuming but deliver exceptional
accuracy.
For precision applications requiring
resolution in the millimetre range, it is
paramount that signals from satellites
at all heights virtually meet at exactly
the same point inside the antenna.
For this type of application, receivers
with multiple antenna inputs would
be required.
For most applications, it is easier to
buy a GPS antenna module from ven-
dors like SANAV, Johanson Technol-
ogy, Fastrax or GlobalTop. The choice
of component varies depending on a
lot of parameters like required attenu-
ation, power consumption, size and
connectors.
Application focused. One develop-
ment related to the Electronics of Things
concept is the fusion of sensor data by
combining together data from multiple
sensors in the device, like accelerom-
eters, gyros and magnetic sensors.
“Dynamic contextual awareness,
temperature monitoring and MEMS POLYURETHANE CONFORMAL
sensors work in concert to conserve COATING
power and boost performance. This
opens up a wide variety of use cases
for sports camera, asset tracking and
fitness devices,” explains Reuven
Samuel, senior product manager, loca-
tion marketing, CSR Sunnyvale.
Technology like dead reckon-
ing aids GPS navigation based on
algorithms that consider distance
and directional changes to boost GPS
accuracy even when a GPS signal is
not available. This is currently seen in
some of the latest automotive naviga-
tion systems.
When consolidating multiple func-
tionalities into a single system in a typ-
ical IoT concept, the biggest challenge
from an operating system perspective
is to be able to meet the resource
demands of the various applications
running on top of it.
“Multiple applications that at one
point ran on their own set of hardware

www.efymag.com Electronics For You | October 2013 59

 Embedded
resources will now need to share a
single hardware platform. In such a
situation, capabilities provided by the
foundation platform should be scal-
able. It should be able to accommodate
legacy applications and also allow
development of new applications in
conjunction with legacy applications,”
explains Thilak Kumar, regional engi-
neering manager, Wind River.
Tackling urban positioning. Get-
ting your GPS device to work in an
urban environment is difficult if you
are using a GPS module without a net-
work connection. The biggest challeng-
es with urban positioning are lack of a
direct line-of-sight due to tall buildings
How are components
developing for the future?
Newer components from vendors
use specialised low-power analogue-
to-digital converters and LNAs, and
electronics circuit PLLs. The designs
are also such that power supply and
clocks are controlled for each separate
block function. Some of the new chips
also do not require individual sensor
drivers as their CPUs have a sensor
control function to take care of it.
Advanced low-power technology
means never having to maintain full
power to achieve maximum perfor-
mance or turning the GNSS receiver
completely off to save power.

GPS spoofing
GPS spoofing is one way to dupe a GPS receiver and literally throw it off course. This is
done by emitting a counterfeit version of the signal emitted by a GPS satellite at a slightly
higher power. This causes the GPS receivers in the area to pick up the fraudulent signal,
which then goes on to make the module show a faulty position. It is very dangerous if it
messes up the navigation systems in a ship, plane or autonomous vehicle. Point to note,
this is different from GPS jamming, which is pretty boring compared to what spoofing does.

around you, and going indoors with
cuts in access to all satellites.
The tall buildings make it very
difficult for the GPS receiver to get
data from all the GPS satellites in the
area, which results in a longer TTFF. If
you are indoors, your receiver will be
unable to hear from a satellite unless
you are near a window—not really the
most favourable experience. How to
tackle this?
A-GPS is one of the best things
that have ever happened to position-
ing since GPS itself. It allows your
device to gather data from the WWRN
servers for four hours in advance.
Once you get this data on your phone,
your device no longer needs to con-
nect directly with the satellites for the
ephemeris data. Now you might think
that since there is only four hours
worth of data, you might need to go
out every four hours to get fresh air
and get the latest in ephemeris data.
Not needed. This is because A-GPS
sends data from the WWRN servers
through any wireless connection of
your device (such as telecom and
Wi-Fi).
“It breaks the old GNSS perfor-
mance vs power trade-off through
the fusion of a new high-performance
GNSS engine, advanced power man-
agement and a smart sensor interface
to achieve high-sensitivity hot-start
conditions for fast location fixes,” adds
Reuven.
Regarding the multiple choices of
satellite constellations that are avail-
able up there, “We recommend that
designers use multi-constellation
GNSS receivers that support as many
constellations as possible.  Multi-con-
stellation receivers support concurrent
operation and can either acquire or
track using a mixture of satellites from
any of the constellations supported. 
As new constellations become avail-
able, system designers do not have to
choose from selecting one constellation
or another. The best solution will sup-
port concurrent use of all constellations
supported,” explains Walter Rivera,
Manager, Product Marketing and John
Hutson, Sr Manager, IC Design Engi-
neering, Broadcom. 
The author is a tech correspondent at EFY Bengaluru

60 October 2013 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

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 on-chip interconnect
Optical Interconnect to
Silicon CMOS Chip
The article discusses how the performance of optical interconnect is better than of electrical
interconnect and how optical interconnection between high-speed VLSI silicon CMOS chips
can enhance their performance further
Kapil khare and dr rajib kar
“Optics may allow interconnects to con-
tinue to scale to match the processing
ability of future electronics chips, though
very low-energy optoelectronic devices and
novel compact optics will be needed.”
—David A.B. Miller, Fellow IEEE
T
he performance of silicon
CMOS chips is improving
because of reduction in the fea-
ture size of integrated circuits. We dis-
cuss here the current performance and
future prospects of interconnection to
high-speed VLSI silicon CMOS chips.
What is interconnect?
Electrical interconnection is a medium
through which electrical signal propa-
gates from source point to the destina-
tion point. In the current scenario, most
chips are made by using interconnect
wire. By using interconnect wire we
can integrate many circuits or devices
so that the signal can propagate from
one device to the other devices.
Interconnect is made by using
circuits like MOSFET and BJT, or
electrical parameters like resistance
(R), capacitance (C), inductance (L)
and conductance (G). Using electrical
interconnect leads to some problems
as the wires are connected through the
devices. The major problems are low
capacity and density, very high power
dissipation, induced crosstalk noise,
delay and bandwidth problem, and
timing uncertainty. This is because of
the coupling capacitance generated
between coupling nodes of two inter-
connect networks.
The basic general structure of on-
62 October 2013 | Electronics For You
Fig. 1: High-speed SiGe CMOS technology to integrate
analogue and digital on a single chip
chip interconnects is shown in Fig. 2(a).
It shows electrical components such
as R, L and C in a block connected to
another block, making the interconnec-
tion system. In a single CMOS silicon
chip there are many interconnect wires
but these are placed a minimum dis-
tance apart.
In Fig. 2(b), the effect of coupling
capacitor between the two networks
is shown. Minimum feature size of the
devices increases coupling between the
coupling nodes of the two interconnect
lines. Consider the situation in Fig. 2(b)
where the input of an inverter is close
to an interconnecting line. A parasitic
coupling capacitance (CC) exists be-
tween the two, so applying a voltage
pulse to one line will cause a change in
the voltage in the other.
There are three types of intercon-
nects: local, semi-global and global.
Local interconnects have a delay of
less than one clock cycle, while global
interconnects typically take longer
than one or two clock cycles. Local and
global interconnects are used for short-
distance communication. But for long-
distance communication, electrical
interconnects (local and global) fail to
give a good result. So the performance
is increased by using a newer
technology called ‘optical
interconnect.’
Interconnects may be
classified as ‘off-chip’ in-
terconnect and ‘on-chip’
interconnect. Off-chip inter-
connects deal with intercon-
nection of wires between two
and more external devices
and circuits. On the other
hand, on-chip interconnects
deal with interconnection of wires into
the internal circuitry of one particular
chip. Here, in this article, we will dis-
cuss only on-chip interconnection.
In the current scenario the per-
formance of electrical interconnects
has been improved by changing the
technology used to fabricate the wiring
layers on silicon CMOS chips.
What is optical
interconnect?
Optical interconnect is a medium
through which the signal flows in
the form of optical rays (light), the
medium being an optical fibre, wave-
guide, etc. Optical wires are capable of
much higher bandwidth of 10 Gbps to
100 Gbps. If we talk about the scaling
process in VLSI system—reduction in
the feature size of transistors—perfor-
mance of the wire used for electrical
interconnect has not improved sig-
nificantly because of induced noise,
delay and high power dissipation. So
to improve the performance of the sys-
tem, we will have to make the silicon
CMOS circuit’s performance much
better than the electrical interconnect’s.
Optical interconnect has the solution to
these limitations and can be used for
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 on-chip interconnect
communication between future CMOS
circuits.
As shown in Fig. 3, first the electri-
cal signal is converted into an optical
signal by using an optical modulator
imposed by laser or any optoelectron-
ics device like LED or photodiode. The
signal propagates through the optical
cable using waveguide. At the receiver
side, the photodetector receives the
optical signal and converts it into an
electrical signal and amplifies.
By using optics many physical
problems related to interconnects can
be solved. Optics may solve design
problems such as crosstalk noise,
bandwidth, isolation and impedance
matching, and also reduce problems
associated with long-distance com-
munication.
Need for optical system
Two important parts of an on-chip
optical interconnect are optical devices
h R, L, C h h R, L, C
l/k l/k
Fig. 2(a): General structure of interconnects
VOLTAGE PULSE
INTERCONNECT
+ guide from the cen-
V(t)
- Cc
+ +
Vin
- -
Fig. 2(b): Effect of coupling capacitor between two interconnect lines
ON-CHIP
TRANSMITTER
LASER
OPTICAL
MODULATOR WAVEGUIDE
DRIVER
ELECTRICAL
LOGIC CELL
Fig. 3: Block diagram of optical interconnect
64 October 2013 | Electronics For You
called ‘optoelectronics devices’ and
optical system called ‘medium.’ Here
we discuss some basic requirements of
an optical system for on-chip optical
interconnects. There are two broad cat-
egories of the optical system: ‘guided-
wave’ optical system and ‘free space’
optical system.
For guided-wave optical system,
one can use a thin optical fibre cable,
waveguide etc. An optical fibre having
a diameter of up to 10 µm can be used
for on-chip optical interconnect. It has
many advantages over other devices
such as:
1. No crosstalk inside the optical
fibre cable
2. Higher bandwidth, therefore it
can operate at a higher data rate
3. Reduced loss due to signal at-
tenuation
4. Small size and light-weight
In waveguide approach, one has
to use a waveguide having a diam-
eter of up to 10 µm for on-chip optical
h
interconnect system. Smaller optical
guides of the order of micrometre size
should have low enough loss so that
the propagation loss does not become
a big issue for the
chip. So for simplicity
we connect the wave-
tral area to the chip
to the edges. Whether
such guides could
handle the internal
Vout
on-chip interconnects
strongly depends on
the architecture.
The other ap-
proach is to use a ‘free
space’ system where
multiple light beams
RECEIVER
can go in and out of
the chips, usually in
PHOTO the form of arrays.
DETECTOR
So arrays of beams
go into and out of the
AMPLIFIER chip. Free-space ap-
proach can easily han-
ELECTRICAL
dle a large number of
LOGIC CELL arrays of beams. So
for high resolution
and focusing on the
scale of micrometre size, we use an
ordinary lens. Optical elements are fab-
ricated using lithographic patterning.
These can generate very large regular
arrays of spots from a single laser beam
and implement a variety of quite com-
plex regular interconnection patterns.
Requirement for
optoelectronic devices
As shown in Fig. 3, an on-chip optical
interconnect system consists of trans-
mitter driver circuit, optical channel
and receiver circuit. Here p-i-n pho-
todiodes and metal-semiconductor
metal (MSM) photodetectors work as
the receiver circuit and vertical-cavity
surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) and
quantum-well modulator work as the
transmitter for optical output. The pho-
todetector in the receiver part converts
optical energy into electrical energy. In
the next step, this electrical signal is am-
plified by the amplifier circuit. So MSM
photodetector gives a fast response and
excellent quantum efficiency.
Optical output devices and trans-
mitter circuits. Quantum-well modula-
tor and VCSEL are important devices
for the transmitter of on-chip optical
interconnect system. You can also use
an LED as the transmitter. It will make
the fabrication process easier than with
VCSELs and avoid some problems of
lasers. We discuss here quantum-well
modulator and VCSELs in short.
Quantum-well modulator. These
modulators are used in demonstrat-
ing actual dense interconnects to and
from silicon CMOS chips. They are
made in large arrays and require an
external beam. This requirement can
be considered as an advantage or
disadvantage of this system. The ex-
ternal beam is required to generate an
array and to separate the incident and
reflected beams. So we draw a setup
that can easily handle the one-master
laser beam. The single-master laser
beam can be diffracted into arrays of
equal beams by using a diffractive
beam generator. Additional master
laser beam allows centralised clocking
of the entire system. Modulators avoid
many of the problems of mode quality,
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 on-chip interconnect
wavelength stability, turn-on delay,
power dissipation, etc.
VCSELs. VCSELs have made pro-
gress recently, especially with the ad-
vent of an oxide confined structure that
promises to lower threshold currents.
Compared to quantum-well modula-
tors, VCSELs have seen less use yet in
systems with large arrays operating
with the silicon circuit.
Photodetector and receiver cir-
cuit. Detector is a very important
part for the receiver’s performance
as it converts optical energy into
electrical energy. For an on-chip opti-
cal interconnect system, the detector
should have a low input capacitance
if the receiver circuit is to be kept
small with not too large power dis-
sipation. Large capacitances mean
more sensitive amplifiers have to be
used, which introduce a noise that
degrades the performance of the
receiver circuit while also increasing
the power dissipation.
A better approach for optical inter-
66 October 2013 | Electronics For You
connect receivers is to make the physi-
cal capacitance of the photodetector
and its connection to the receiver cir-
cuit as small as possible. Small capaci-
tance leads to larger voltage swings for
a given optical energy, which leads to
better noise immunity and improved
gain stages. Smaller capacitance also
allows use of small, low-power-dissi-
pation transistors in the input stage.
To calculate the total capacitance, you
need to estimate the gate capacitance of
the transistor with which the detector
would be integrated. For 90nm CMOS
technology node the gate capacitance
of an NMOS transistor per unit transis-
tor width is estimated to be 2 fF/µm,
and for the 32nm node the correspond-
ing number is 1.2 fF/µm.
To sum up
We have seen various advantages of
the optical interconnect system over
the electrical interconnect. Optical
interconnects solve many of the prob-
lems arising in electrical interconnects
due to chip-to-chip delay, crosstalk
noise, bandwidth, interconnect wire
and system synchronisation. Optics
may reduce the power dissipation
in clock distribution; global on-chip
and off-chip interconnects improve
the timing. We have found that opti-
cal interconnects have a performance
that is competitive with or better than
electrical interconnects’ and can scale
to future interconnect needs.
In conclusion, optics is very prom-
ising for dense interconnects to silicon
chips. Overall, electrical and optical in-
terconnects, and the many existing and
emerging technologies in optoelectron-
ics and optics integrated with silicon
CMOS, are likely to play a substantial
role in solving major problems in scal-
ing interconnects for CMOS chips in
the coming decades. 
Kapil Khare is doing M.Tech in Microelectronics
and VLSI Design from NIT, Durgapur, West Ben-
gal. Dr Rajib Kar is an assistant professor in the
department of Electronics and Communication
Engineering at NIT, Durgapur, West Bengal
www.efymag.com
 buyers’ guide
Microcontroller Development Boards
Time-to-market is one of the most important parameters for any product’s success. It
matters most for first-of-a-kind products and the companies are putting in great effort to
reduce it. Design and prototyping is one of the largest phases in product development
and a lot of time could be saved here by using ready development platforms. The time
saved can help reduce time-to-market to a great extent and increase chances of the
product’s success
Ankit Gupta
T
ime-to-market is the time taken
from conception of a product to
its launch in the market. There
is no standard way to measure time-to-
market and the definitions for start and
end points of product development
period vary greatly from one organisa-
tion to another.
In some organisations, develop-
ment period starts when the product
concept is approved. Others consider
the start point when the project is
fully staffed. Similarly, end point of the
time-to-market period also varies from
one organisation to another. Those
who look at product development as
engineering consider the end point
68 October 2013 | Electronics For You
when engineering department trans-
fers the prototype to manufacturing.
Others consider shipping of the first lot
as the end point. High-volume indus-
tries often consider end point when a
certain production volume is reached.
Organisations even have different
approaches to reduce the time-to-mar-
ket. Some think that time-to-market
and product quality are opposing
attributes of a development process.
Time-to-market may be improved by
skipping certain steps of the devel-
opment process, thus compromising
product quality. These organisations
use highly structured development
processes such as phase-gate model
or Six Sigma, and often view product
development as a clearly defined
sequence of steps to be followed. Skip-
ping a step here means the quality has
been compromised, which eventually
increases time-to-market.
Other organisations operate more
aggressively, recognising that not all
steps need to be completed for every
project. Furthermore, they actively ap-
ply tools and techniques that shorten
or overlap steps, cut decision-making
time and automate activities.
The product design and manu-
facturing cycle has different phases
and the largest of them all is design
and prototyping phase. Organisations
use various techniques to save time
on each phase. One method is to use
development platforms to design and
develop the product and finally realise
the prototype. This saves a lot of time
as you can skip the basic setup for your
project.
As microcontroller is part of most
electronics products these days, we
will focus here on microcontroller
development boards and how they
speed up hardware and software de-
velopment.
Why development boards?
Development board is basically a
printed circuit board with circuitry
and hardware on-board to facilitate
experimentation with certain micro-
controllers. These boards can save you
from a lot of repetitive tasks. Imagine
you want to work on a microcontroller-
based project, but to be able to use a
microcontroller, you have to set up a
bunch of circuitry and hardware on
your breadboard each time. Obviously,
this is going to frustrate you, especially
www.efymag.com
 buyers’ guide
when there are portions that are going
to be the same every time, such as the
power circuit. Also, there are certain
hardware circuits such as pushbuttons
and LEDs that greatly aid in testing
and debugging. Having all of the hard-
ware and circuitry already assembled
makes experimentation and general
prototyping much easier.
If you build this basic setup your-
self with a general-purpose PCB or
breadboard, you can never be 100 per
cent sure about the connections. Every
time something does not work, you do
not know whether it is because of the
setup or the development you are car-
rying out. Thus a lot of time is wasted
debugging the issue.
Also, if you plan to use SMD chips
in the final product, building the basic
setup becomes very time-consuming.
You cannot build such a setup with
general-purpose PCBs and have to
design a dedicated PCB. A lot of time
is wasted due to the lead times for
manufacturing this PCB, sourcing
components and assembly before you
can really start with the development.
So it is better to use a suitable de-
velopment board with ready interface
and immediately start moving on
with your project. These development
boards can be used in multiple pro-
jects, so it is a one-time investment that
will not hit your budget much.
Typically, components of a devel-
opment board include:
1. Power circuit (typically, set up
to run from a 9V/12V power supply)
2. Programming interface (to pro-
gram the microcontroller through
computer)
3. Basic input circuitry, like buttons
4. Basic output circuitry, like LEDs
5. Input/output (I/O) pins access
(to be used for everything else such as
motors, sensors and LCD screens)
Which development board
to use?
Selection of the development board
mainly depends on the microcontroller
that you plan to use. You can also do it
the other way around; select the devel-
opment board first and then plan the
70 October 2013 | Electronics For You
project based on that microcontroller.
Selecting the right microcontroller
for your product application is itself
a challenging task. There is a huge
variety of microcontrollers available
in the market. DigiKey, for instance,
shows more than 15,000 different items
under ‘microcontroller’ search, and it is
almost impossible to find the one best
suited for you if you have not figured
out your requirement beforehand.
Some engineers jump to microcon-
troller selection even before the system
overview has been worked out, which
is definitely a bad idea. Engineers
should first work out the high levels of
the system, block diagram and flow-
chart and then select the microcon-
troller with the information available.
You can consider the following
points to select the right microcon-
troller:
Hardware interfaces required. Us-
ing the block diagram that you made
earlier, list out all the interfaces you
need for external hardware. First, fig-
ure out the communication interfaces
needed. This will narrow down your
choices. Communication interfaces
commonly inbuilt in microcontrollers
are Ethernet, CAN, USB, serial ports,
I2C, SPI and UART.
Next, determine the required
digital inputs and outputs, analogue-
to-digital converter inputs, PWM, etc.
This will further narrow down choices
for you.
Computing power. To decide on the
computing power needed, analyse the
architecture and requirements of the
software that will be burnt into the mi-
crocontroller. Check whether the soft-
ware has parts such as floating-point
mathematics, high-frequency control
loops that require more computing
power. Also check the subtasks and
how often they run. This will give you
an idea of the processing power re-
quired, which is actually indicated by
the clock speed of the microcontroller.
Within each CPU there is an elec-
tronic clock. The clock’s job is to create
a series of electrical pulses at regular
intervals. This allows the computer to
synchronise all its components, deter-
mining the speed at which it can pull
data from its memory and perform
calculations. When you talk about how
many gigahertz or megahertz your
processor has, you are really talking
about clock speed.
Architecture. If you have worked
out the hardware interface and com-
puting power requirements correctly,
you will automatically land up on
selecting the architecture of the micro-
controller for your project.
The architecture of a microcon-
troller refers to the philosophy of inter-
nal implementation. All architectures
are well-proven but one might work
better than the other for a particular
application. Decide on the architecture
based on the hardware interface and
computing power requirements as well
as the future requirements. Here con-
sider whether an 8-bit core would be
sufficient for future developments too,
or you need a better core. In any case,
the decision has to be made between
8-bit and 32-bit as 16-bit is not much
popular these days.
Memory. Flash and RAM are very
critical components of any microcon-
troller and it is important to make sure
that you do not run out of program
space or variable space. Using the
software architecture and the com-
munication peripherals included in
the application, you can estimate how
much Flash and RAM will be required
for the application.
Power. You will now have a list
of potential candidates that suit your
requirement. This is the right time to
examine the power requirements of
the part. If the device will be powered
from a battery, select a low-power mi-
crocontroller.
Cost. Do not forget to examine the
price per piece and minimum-order
quantities. Make a smart decision as
the price will greatly affect the overall
cost of the product.
Hardware and software tools. Fi-
nally, check the availability and quality
of development tools. Minimally, you
will need some sort of programmer to
load the program into the microcon-
troller. Here availability of the devel-
www.efymag.com

opment board is a plus. Selection of the
development kit nearly solidifies the
choice of the microcontroller.
The last consideration is to exam-
ine the compiler and tools that are
available. Most microcontrollers have
a number of choices for compilers,
example code and debugging tools. It
is important to make sure that all the
necessary tools are available for the
part. Without the right tools, the devel-
opment process could become tedious
and expensive.
By following the above points one
by one, you can arrive at the right mi-
crocontroller for your product. Once
you are done with the selection, you
can move ahead and select the devel-
opment board for the microcontroller.
For most popular microcontrollers,
you can purchase the development
board either from the manufacturer or
a third party. However, you have to be
careful while selecting a less common
microcontroller because its develop-
ment board might not be available.
Tables I and II give overview of some
popular microcontrollers from differ-
ent manufacturers.
Give preference to an official board
from the microcontroller manufacturer
as with it you will have at least the ba-
sics right. Some small manufacturers
also sell these boards but these are de-
signed without giving much attention
to the design guidelines.
Some popular development
boards
The Arduino family. Arduino family
Fig. 1: Arduino UNO board
www.efymag.com
buyers’ guide
needs no introduction. It is an
open source electronics prototyp-
ing platform based on flexible,
easy-to-use hardware and soft-
ware. It is intended for anyone
interested in creating interactive
objects or environments without
having much programming ex-
perience. Because of the simple
IDE and coding environment,
Arduino is a common choice for
engineers and non-engineers Fig. 2: Raspberry Pi
alike. The hardware of the vari-
ous boards in the family is completely SPI interface, serial TX/RX pins and
open source and designed around an PWM pins that can be used to control
8-bit Atmel AVR microcontroller, or a external hardware.
32-bit Atmel ARM. The boards come TI’s MSP430 LaunchPad. The
pre-burnt with a bootloader that allows MSP430 LaunchPad (Part No. MSP-
you to upload new code without the EXP430G2) is an easy-to-use Flash
use of external hardware programmer. programmer and debugging tool for
Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi has Texas Instruments’ MSP430G2xx series
recently gained huge popularity due to microcontrollers. It has lots of debug-
its small size, great computing power ging and interfacing features on-board
and low cost. The heart of the board for any development across MSP430
is a Broadcom BCM2835 system-on-
a-chip (SoC) that contains a 700MHz
ARM 11 chip and a GPU capable of
playing movies with BluRay quality.
The Raspberry Pi Foundation has al-
lowed overclocking up to 800 MHz.
The CPU power is comparable to that
of an old Pentium III with at least ten
times lower power consumption.
On-board hardware includes a
3.5mm audio jack, an RCA connector
for connecting analogue television sets
and also a modern HDMI interface for Fig. 3: MSP430 LaunchPad
transferring digital audio and video.
An RJ45 network connector is also microcontroller device. It has on-board
available and a dual USB type ‘A’ emulation for programming and de-
connector allows con- bugging and features a 14-/20-pin DIP
nection for mouse and socket, on-board buttons and LEDs,
keyboards. The operating and BoosterPack-compatible pinouts
system used is LINUX, that support a wide range of plug-in
with several distributions modules for added functionality such
already optimised to run as wireless and displays.
on Raspberry Pi. The OS The MSP-EXP430G2 LaunchPad
boots from the SD card. also comes with two MSP430 devices,
To interface with external with up to 16kB Flash, 512B RAM,
hardware, a complete 16MHz CPU speed and integrated
GPIO connector is pro- peripherals such as 8-channel 10-bit
vided, which has pins ADC, timers and serial communica-
with different functions. tion (UART, I2C and SPI). Free soft-
The device has seven true ware development tools such as TI’s
GPIO pins, I2C interface, Eclipse-based Code Composer Studio,
Electronics For You | October 2013 71
 buyers’ guide

Table I: Microcontroller Series from Some Manufacturers

ATMEL Microchip Technology EPSON Semiconductor Freescale Semiconductor Infineon

8 Bit 32 Bit 8 Bit 16 Bit 32 Bit 4 Bit 8 Bit 16 Bit 32 Bit 8 Bit 16 Bit 32 Bit 8 Bit 16 Bit 32 Bit
AT89 UC3 PIC10 PIC24 PIC- SIC6x SIC6x SIC6x SIC6x Freescale Freescale Freescale Kinetis XC800 XE166 Infineon
Series Series and Series 32MX Family Family Family Family S08 S12 (MQX) Family Family XMC4000
PIC12 Series
Series
AT90 AT91 PIC16 dsPIC 68HC05 68HC12 Freescale 683XX XC 2000 TriCore
Series SAM Series Series (CPU05) (CPU12) Family Family
(ARM)
ATmega PIC18 68HC08 68HC16 MCF5xxx C166 Infineon
Series (CPU08) (CPU16) (Freescale Family XMC1000
Coldfire)
ATtiny 68HC11 Freescale M·CORE C167
(CPU11) DSP56800 Family
(DSP
controller)
ATxmega MPC500
MPC 860 (Pow-
erQUICC)

MPC 8240/8250
(PowerQUICC II)
MPC
8540/8555/8560
(PowerQUICC III)

IAR Embedded Workbench, and Open
Source tools like the MSPGCC com-
piler or Energia make it a complete
development platform.
STMicroelectronics’ Discovery. For
students and professionals who are
looking to start with ARM architecture,
this Cortex-M3 based system would be
a great choice. STMicroelectronics actu-
ally has come up with several different
development boards for virtually every
type of ARM microcontroller that it
offers. The one shown in Fig. 4 has fol-
lowing features:
1. STM32F051R8T6 microcontroller
Fig. 4: STM32F0discovery board
featuring 64kB Flash and 8kB RAM in Device, CAN, SPI, I²C and other I/Os.
an LQFP64 package PandaBoard. PandaBoard is a
2. On-board ST-LINK/V2 with low-power, low-cost, single-board
selection-mode switch to use the kit computer development platform based
as a standalone ST-LINK/V2 (with on Texas Instruments’ OMAP4430
SWD connector for programming and
debugging)
3. Board power supply through
USB bus or from an external 5V sup-
ply voltage
4. External application power sup-
ply: 3V and 5V
5. Four LEDs: LD1 (red) for 3.3V
power-on, LD2 (red/green) for USB
communication, LD3 (green) for PC9
output, LD4 (blue) for PC8 output
6. Two pushbuttons (user and
reset)
7. Extension header for all LQFP64
I/Os for quick connection to prototyp-
ing board and easy probing
mbed. The mbed platform provides
free software libraries, hardware de-
signs and online tools for professional
rapid prototyping of products based
on ARM microcontrollers. Hardware
of the latest mbed microcontroller
boards is based around an NXP micro-
controller, which has an ARM Cortex
M3 core running at 96 MHz, with
512kB Flash, 64kB RAM, as well as sev-
eral interfaces including Ethernet, USB Fig. 5: mbed with NXP LPC1768

72 October 2013 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

 buyers’ guide

Table II: Microcontroller Series from Some Other Manufacturers

NXP Semiconductors Renesas Electronics STMicroelectronics Texas Instruments Dallas
Semiconductor
8 Bit 16 Bit 32 Bit 4 Bit 8 Bit 16 Bit 32 Bit 8 Bit 16 Bit 32 Bit 8 Bit 16 Bit 32 Bit 8 Bit 16 Bit
LPC700, XA ARM7: LPC2100, 720 78K RL78 RX ST6 ST10 ST20 Family TMS370 MSP430 TMS320 8051 MAXQ
LPC900 Series LPC2200, Family Family Family Family Family Family Family Family (DSP) Family Family RISC
Series LPC2300, LPC2400 Family
Series
ARM9: LPC2900, H8/SLP M16C SuperH ST7 ARM7: STR7 C2000 Family
LPC3100, LPC3200 Family Family Family Family (ARM7TDMI)
Series
ARM Cortex-M0: 740 H8 V850 STM8 ARM9: STR9 Stellaris (ARM
LPC1100, LPC1200 Family Family Family Family (ARM966E-S) Cortex-M3)
Series
ARM Cortex-M0+ : R8C R32C µPSD ARM Cortex- Tiva C Series
LPC800 Series Family Family (8032) M0: STM32 F0
Family

ARM Cortex- 78K0R H8SX ARM Cortex- Hercules -

M3: LPC1300, Family Family M3: STM32 TMS570 (ARM
LPC1700, LPC1800 F1, F2, L1, W Cortex-R4),
Series TMS470M
ARM Cortex-
M3, RM4 ARM
Cortex-R4
ARM Cortex-M4: ARM Cortex-
LPC4000, LPC4300 M4: STM32 F4
Series

SoC. PandaBoard ES is a newer ver- with either traditional distributions,

sion based on OMAP4460 SoC, with
its CPU and GPU running at higher
clock rates.
OMAP4430 SoC on PandaBoard
features a dual-core 1GHz ARM Cor-
tex-A9 MPCore CPU, a 304MHz Pow-
erVR SGX540 GPU, IVA3 multimedia
hardware accelerator with a program-
mable DSP, and 1GB DDR2 SDRAM.
PandaBoard ES uses a newer SoC,
with a dual-core 1.2GHz CPU and
384MHz GPU. Primary persistent
storage is via an SD card slot, which
supports SDHC cards up to 32 GB. The
board includes wired 10/100 Ethernet
as well as wireless Ethernet and Blue-
tooth connectivity.
The device runs the Linux kernel,
Fig. 6: PandaBoard
Android or Mozilla Firefox OS. Op-
timised versions of Android and
Ubuntu are available from the Linaro
Foundation. Linaro has selected Pan-
daBoard as one of the hardware plat-
forms that it supports with monthly
build images.
BeagleBoard. BeagleBoard is a
low-power, open-source hardware,
single-board computer produced by
Texas Instruments in association with
DigiKey and Newark element14. It
was also designed with open source
software development in mind, and as Fig. 7: BeagleBoard
a way of demonstrating Texas Instru-
ments’ OMAP3530 SoC. Atmel STK600. It is a complete
OMAP3530 includes an ARM starter kit and development system for
Cortex-A8 CPU, a TMS320C64x+ DSP 8-bit and 32-bit AVR microcontrollers
for accelerated video and audio decod- that gives designers a quick start to de-
ing, and an Imagination Technologies’ velop code on the AVR with advanced
PowerVR SGX530 GPU to provide features for prototyping and testing
accelerated 2D and 3D rendering that new designs. The AVR device connects
supports OpenGL ES 2.0. Video-out to STK600 using an innovative rout-
is provided through separate S- ing and socket card sandwich system,
Video and HDMI connections. which routes signals from the device to
A single SD/MMC card slot the appropriate hardware.
supporting SDIO, a USB On- The system consists of a generic
The-Go port, an RS232 serial socket card, on which the AVR device
connection, a JTAG connec- is inserted, and a device-specific signal
tion, and two stereo 3.5 mm jacks for routing card, which routes signals
audio in/out are also provided. from socket pins to different functions

74 October 2013 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

 buyers’ guide
Fig. 8: Atmel STK600
on the STK600 main board dependent
on the device. The kit offers access
to all device pins, and several useful
hardware functions such as pushbut-
tons, LEDs and data Flash to create a
complete system for prototyping and
testing new designs.
Microchip’s PIC18 Explorer board.
This low-cost demo board is used for
evaluation of Microchip’s PIC18 MCU
families. PIC18 is the highest-perform-
ing 8-bit architecture and has three dif-
ferent families: standard PIC18, PIC18
Fig. 9: PIC18 Explorer board
J-series and PIC18 K-series. This single
development board supports dozens
of general-purpose PIC18 families
using various processor plug-in mod-
ules. PICtail daughter boards enable
many different accessory boards to
connect to PIC18 Explorer board for
a flexible and complete development
environment. It conveniently connects
to MPLAB PICkit 3, ICD 3 or REAL
ICE for in-circuit programming and
debugging. Other features include
alphanumeric LCD display, USB in-
terface for USB to RS232 communica-
tion, 25LC256 SPI EEPROM, crystal
oscillator, potentiometer (connected to
76 October 2013 | Electronics For You
10-bit A/D, analogue input channel),
analogue-output temperature sensor,
LEDs and RS-232 port.
Renesas’ RDK for RX63N (Part
No. YRDKRX63N). The Renesas
demonstration kit (RDK)
for RX63N (32-bit MCU)
is an evaluation and dem-
onstration tool for Renesas
RX63N microcontrollers. The goal
is to provide the user with a powerful
debug and demonstration platform
targeted at common applications. The
board also provides a useful platform
for evaluating the Renesas suite of
development tools for coding and de-
bugging, using the High-performance
Embedded Workshop (HEW) IDE as
well as programming the device using
the on-board SEGGER J-Link JTAG
debugger. The features are as follows:
1. 32-bit, 100Mhz RX63N MCU @
165 DMIPS
2. 10/100 Ethernet
3. USB host and device ports
4. 3-axis accelerometer from
Analog Devices
5. 128MB PCM serial Flash
from Micron
6. Stereo audio output and on-
board speaker
7. Analog Devices silicon mi-
crophone input
8. Temperature sensor from
Analog Devices
9. User pot and three switches
10. Micro SD card slot
11. 96×64 graphics LCD from
Okaya
12. Expansion headers
13. Dual Pmod connectors
14. LED simulated motor phases
15. USB or externally powered
16. Total Phase Beagle I2C/SPI
debug interface
17. Built-in SEGGER J-Link debug-
ger
18. Myriad of software, code exam-
ples, and demos
The Renesas demonstration kit for
RX63N is also the hardware platform
that is included in a special RX63N-
specific edition of Micrium’s book on
the µC/OS-III Real Time Kernel. The
book and board combo targets serious
Microcontroller boards
from other manufacturers
A lot of other manufacturers are also
coming up with budget-friendly good-
quality development
boards. Raspberry
Pi and Arduino
are the top
examples of the
boards that are
not really the
official boards
but have become highly popular. This has
motivated a lot of other manufactures also
to design and develop budget-friendly
development boards. KitsnSpares recently
came up with boards like Mango Pi and
Guava Pi that are compact, good quality
and budget friendly.
Mang o P i is a c o mp ac t P IC
development board with high-end features
and budget-friendly price tag. The board
is developed and tested by EFY LAB. The
main features of the board are as follow:
1. Budget-friendly 8-bit PIC microcontroller
(16F877A) development board
2. Can program up to 659 other PIC
controllers
3. Easy to test and debug programs
with on-board LED and LCD interface
4. On-board microcontroller can be
programmed with USB directly without the
need of external programmer
Fig. 10: Renesas’ YRDKRX63N board
programmers and college students
who need to understand and create
programs based on the time-saving
features of a real-time kernel. 
The author is a technical editor at EFY
www.efymag.com

Automated Test Application
Development Made Easy
with ATEasy
Marvin Test Solutions’ ATEasy is targeted at people engaged in the
development and use of automated test equipment. Here we discuss its
features, hardware and software specifications along with its workspace
environment, modules and applications. A 30-day fully functional, free trial
of ATEasy is included in the DVD accompanying this month’s EFY Plus
efy bureau
A
TEasy is a test executive and
a software development envi-
ronment for test and measure-
ment (T&M) applications. It contains
all the tools required to develop test
applications for automated test equip-
ment (ATE) systems and instrument
control applications.
ATE systems are used to perform
testing on one or more electronic prod-
ucts called units under test (UUTs)
such as components, boards and as-
semblies. Typically, these consist of a
computer/controller, several test and
measurement instruments and a test
application designed to control system
instruments in order to test the UUT.
The ATEasy integrated develop-
ment environment (IDE) allows users
to quickly develop automated test pro-
grams using a wide variety of hardware
and software assets including PXI, PCI
and GPIB as well as LabVIEW, C++
and .NET. ATEasy facilitates rapid ap-
plication development but it is greatly
focused on test development.
ATEasy has many built-in structures
that are object-oriented and allow devel-
opers to focus on building a test without
having to worry about certain detailed
implementations such as log reporting.
www.efymag.com
EFY Plus DVD
The ATEasy test executive pro- CONTROLLER
vides a highly intuitive graphical
INTERFACES (PC)
user interface (GUI) for execut-
IEEE-488
ing ATEasy test programs. The
ready-to-use GUI adapts to the VXI
test environment that it is linked
RS-232
to. It also frees the test developer STIMULUS OR
from detailed implementation RS-422 MEASUREMENT
INTSTRUMENTS (S)
that he would typically need to LPT
develop from scratch when using
other test platforms. ISA
SWITCHING
NETWORK
Why use ATEasy USB
for automated test PCI
systems? PCMCIA
An automated test system, also ADAPTERS
OTHER
referred to as automated test
equipment (ATE), is a collection
of instruments under computer
UUT (UNIT UNDER TEST)
control performing automated
test functions. Fig. 1 shows the
typical configuration of an ATE Fig. 1: Typical configuration of an ATE system
system. A computer provides
control over test and measurement hardware interfaces as well as com-
instruments by using hardware inter- puter programs, the PC has become the
faces. The instruments, such as meas- de-facto standard of the test industry.
urement, stimulus, switching, power The PC supports numerous interfaces
and digital instruments, are connected for controlling test instruments. These
to the UUT through an adaptor. interfaces include IEEE-488 (GPIB),
The most common computing VXI, ISA bus, PXI/PCI bus, LXI/
tool used in ATE applications is the TCP-IP, serial communication such as
PC. Due to its relatively low-cost RS-232/422/485 and USB. Software
computing power and availability of programs such as ATEasy allow the
Electronics For You Plus | OCTOBER 2013 1I
 EFY Plus DVD
computer to control test instruments
using any of these interfaces.
Test instruments include:
1. Measurement instruments to
measure electrical characteristics
2. Stimulus instruments to generate
electronic signals
3. Digital instruments to read and
write digital patterns
4. Power instruments using power
sources
5. Switching instruments to route
electrical signals to different points
The adaptor, also referred to as inter-
face test adaptor, routes signals from the
test system to the UUT, which is the tar-
get of the ATE. Under software control,
the computer performs test sequences
and procedures to determine whether
the UUT is performing according to its
specifications. The tasks required are
controlling the test instruments, routing
signals to various test points in the UUT,
and measuring UUT responses. ATEasy
provides all the tools required during the
development, debugging and integration
of test sequences and procedures.
Running on Microsoft Windows,
ATEasy provides a familiar GUI com-
bined with the flexibility of an object-
oriented programming environment.
Users of Microsoft Visual Basic or Visual
C++ will feel right at home. Supporting
any instrument, regardless of its inter-
face, ATEasy develops an ATE applica-
tion in a single integrated environment.
With specialised features designed for
testing and instrument control applica-
tions, it can also be used for data acqui-
sition, process control, lab applications,
calibration and any application requiring
instrument control. ATEasy supports
many instrument interfaces including
VXI, GPIB (IEEE-488), RS-232/422, PC
boards, PXI and LXI (TCP/IP).
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Components in
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II OCTOBER 2013 | Electronics For You Plus
WORKSPACE
(.wsp)
PROJECT
(.prj)
SYSTEM
PROJECT
(.sys)
DRIVER
(.drv)
BUILD
APPLICATION
(.exe)
Fig. 2: A workspace, its project file, program, system and
driver modules
ATEasy’s IDE is object-oriented and
data-driven. It automatically selects ed-
iting tools according to the type of the
object to be created or modified. This
feature simplifies programming as you
merely click an object and ATEasy au-
tomatically selects the appropriate tool.
Features
The ATEasy IDE includes tools for
creating instrument drivers, user
interface, tests, documentation, test
executives, report generation and
anything else you need to create T&M
applications—all with point-and-click
and drag-and-drop ease.
ATEasy contains a high-level pro-
gramming language enabling test en-
gineers, electronics engineers and pro-
grammers to develop and integrate ap-
plications of any scale—small to large,
and simple to complex. The ATEasy
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programming language allows
user-defined statements to be
used along with flow control,
procedures, variables and other
common items found in most
programming languages. It is
flexible and powerful, yet easy-
to-use and self-documenting.
Professional programmers
(.prj) will appreciate ATEasy’s pro-
gramming language offering
DLL calling, ‘C’ header file im-
port for DLL function prototyp-
ing, OLE/COM/ActiveX con-
trol support, .NET assemblies,
LabVIEW virtual instruments
or their libraries, function panel
instrument driver files (used
mostly by LabWindows/CVI),
multi-threading, exception han-
dling, and many more software
components and standards for
developing complex applica-
tions in a truly open system architec-
ture. ATEasy’s programming language
also contains many built-in program-
ming elements to simplify program-
ming, allowing non-programmers
to easily use ATEasy for application
development.
The unique design of ATEasy
provides a structured and integrated
framework for developing reusable
components and modules that you
can easily maintain and debug. These
components can be reused from ap-
plication to application, reducing
the time and effort of developing
and maintaining applications. The
developer is given a framework that
is especially designed for a T&M ap-
plication. The framework contains
predefined components designed for
interfaces (such as GPIB), instruments
control and drivers, system configura-
ELECTRONICS
INDUSTRY IS AT A
FETs and relays
www.efymag.com
 EFY Plus DVD
tion, test requirement documents and Hardware and Software Requirements
test executives.
In addition, the ATEasy IDE pro- ATEasy is a 32-bit Microsoft Windows application program designed and tested for
Windows operating systems. You must have Windows installed on your computer prior
vides a way to write, run and debug
to installing ATEasy.
applications in very short cycles as To install ATEasy you need the following minimum configuration:
required by instrument-based applica- 1. A 32- or 64-bit Windows system compatible with Windows 7, VISTA, XP, Windows
tions. The object-oriented environment Server 2003/2008, Windows ME, Windows 2000 and Microsoft Windows 98
makes editing of common tasks or ob- 2. Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher version
jects displayed in the IDE very similar 3. 43.2cm (17-inch) or larger monitor. At least 1024x768 resolution is recommended
to other object-oriented environments. for ATEasy application development.
4. TCP/IP or IPX/SPX network protocols and Windows2000 or newer version for
The similar functionality greatly re-
ATEasy licence server
duces the learning curve for ATEasy.
With ATEasy, multiple users can
edit the same file representing a driver
system or a program. Files contain
version information that allows users
to keep track of, and document, the
changes. In addition, all ATEasy docu-
ments can be saved to a text format
allowing comparison and merger of
changes between multiple users and
tracking of changes using version con-
trol software in a better way.

Workspace, applications
and modules
ATEasy applications are developed
in the IDE within a workspace file.
Workspace file contains the program-
ming environment and the last saved
layout of the IDE. It is not a part of the
application.
ATEasy applications are Windows
executable files created from project
files containing one or more modules.
Typically, a project file contains a sys-
tem, one or more programs, and one
or more drivers. The system, program
and driver are called ATEasy modules.
Each module contains sub-modules
such as forms, commands and proce- Fig. 3: Main window of the IDE with callouts to individual windows
dures, and is stored in a project file,
which may be inserted or moved be- Installing ATEasy tions will be displayed. Select ‘ATEasy
tween projects so that it can be reused Insert the EFY DVD in the DVD-ROM Software’ and then ‘Install ATEasy’
by other ATEasy applications. drive. The Setup program runs auto- to start ATEasy setup program. A
Fig. 2 shows a workspace, its pro- matically if your drive is set up to auto Welcome screen is displayed. Click
ject file, program, system and driver play. If Setup does not run automati- ‘Next’ to continue. The next screen
modules. The workspace file and its cally, select ‘Run’ from ‘Start’ menu shows the licence agreement. When
image in the IDE contains a list of files and when prompted, type: you finish reading it, click ‘Yes’ to
or documents and the state of IDE [drive letter]:\AExplorer continue (answering ‘No’ exits the
windows and their content. The IDE where [drive letter] is the letter as- Setup program). Enter your name
can load only one workspace at a time. signed to your CD-ROM drive. For and company name, and click ‘Next’
Typically, the workspace file contains example, type “D:\AExplorer” if letter to continue.
a list of one or more project files loaded ‘D’ is assigned to your CD-ROM. Enter the folder where ATEasy
by the IDE. A window showing several op- should be installed. Click ‘Browse’ to

www.efymag.com Electronics For You Plus | OCTOBER 2013 III

 EFY Plus DVD
contains full ATEasy functionality for
Installation types
30 days.
The Setup program allows you to select one of the following types of installations: The licence can be set up from
1. Compact: It uses minimal hard disk space but includes all the components required
‘ATEasy License Setup’ dialogue box.
to run and develop an ATEasy application.
2. Custom: It allows you to control which optional components are installed. This dialogue is displayed when start-
3. Full: It installs all the ATEasy components. ing ATEasy with no licence installed
4. License Server: It installs the ATEasy licence server used to provide ATEasy or from ‘About ATEasy’ item under
licenses to other computers running on the same network. ‘Help’ menu when you want to change
5. Run-Time: It installs the components required to run ATEasy, excluding the IDE that the licence. If you have purchased a
is used to develop ATEasy applications. subscription plan, you must register
6. Typical(default): It installs the most commonly used ATEasy components used to
to activate the plan. Subscription plan
develop and run an ATEasy application.
entitles you to free upgrades and un-
limited customer support. If you don’t
set up a new folder, or click ‘Next’ to You can now start ATEasy by have a subscription plan, you may reg-
accept the default entry of ‘C:\Pro- double-clicking the ATEasy icon on the ister to receive free ATEasy newsletter,
gram Files\ATEasy.’ Select the type desktop or by selecting ATEasy from product service packs, updated drivers
of Setup and click ‘Next.’ Select the the Start→Programs→ATEasy menu. and examples.
program folder where the icons and You can go through the books
shortcuts for ATEasy are to be stored. Licence, registration available online for more information
Click ‘Next’ when finished. The pro- and support on how to register the product and set
gram will now start installing. To use ATEasy, you must purchase a up a licence.
During the installation of ATEasy, licence from Geotest. Three types of For information on how to go
Setup may upgrade some of the Win- licences are available: about your first project on ATEasy, and
dows shared components and files. Single licence, network licence and create your own application and your
If prompted, restart Windows. Setup hardware key (USB or LPT version). first test program, commands, modules
may ask you to reboot after installation If you do not have a licence, you and external libraries, refer to the PDF
completes. Reboot in order to ensure can activate a 30-day trial version of manual ‘Getting Started With ATEasy’
complete installation. the ATEasy software. The trial licence available on www.marvintest.com. 

IV OCTOBER 2013 | Electronics For You Plus www.efymag.com

 www.osidays.com

Connect with
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Professionals Asia’s Leading
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EFY Enterprises Pvt Ltd, D-87/1, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase 1, New Delhi 110020; Phone: 91-11-26810601 (02/03)
 EFY Plus DVD
Deeds: One-Stop Solution for
All Your Digital Electronics
Design Needs
Deeds, short for ‘Digital Electronics Education and Design Suite,’ is a set of
educational tools for digital Electronics that adopt learn-by-doing approach.
Developed by the University of Genoa, Italy, this design suite comes bundled in this
month’s Electronics for You Plus DVD. We hope you find it as useful as we did
efy bureau
D
eeds was conceived by the
University of Genoa, Italy, as
a suite of simulators, tools and
learning material for digital electronics
design. It helps students acquire theoreti-
cal foundations, analysis and problem
solving capabilities all over the design
electronics domain, and practical syn-
thesis and design skills. Its approach is
characterised by the mantra of “learning-
by-doing.”
Deeds covers the following areas of
digital electronics:
1. Combinational logic networks
ranging from simple gates to decoders,
encoders, multiplexers and demulti-
plexers
2. Sequential logic networks from
a simple flip-flop to the slightly less
simple registers and counters
3. Finite-state machine design
and microcomputer programming (at
Assembly level) along with micro-
computer interfacing
4. Field-programmable gate array
programming
Tools and features
Simulators are integrated around
two HTML browsers: an HTML main
browser to navigate on the Internet,
where students can find lessons, exer-
cises and laboratory assignments, and
an assistant browser, which assists
VI October 2013 | Electronics For You Plus
by the Deeds en-
vironment. It is
mainly used to
connect to the
sites containing
the learning mate-
rial. The browser
supports all the
features that the
user can expect
to find, including
JAVA Virtual Ma-
chine, VBScript,
JavaScript and
XML support.
The assistant
HTML browser
Fig. 1: Assistant browser is opened, showing a page with a problem
has characteristics
assignment similar to those of
the main browser
students in their work. These brows- but it is customised to assist students
ers allow you to launch all the tools in their work. This browser is used
and also interact with them. Hence the to open lessons, exercises and labora-
browsers can now control editors and tory assignments. Similar to the main
simulators, and realise a true interac- browser, the assistant browser has
tion between theory and practical re- been conceived around the standard
sults. The main Web browser of Deeds, Microsoft WebBrowser component.
when activated, shows an HTML page All the objects visualised on a webpage
that allows you to connect to the Deeds can be made ‘active.’
website and to the ‘online’ learning There is a schematic digital circuit
material developed at DIBE (Univer- editor in addition to a component data-
sity of Genoa). sheet support. The software houses an
The main browser has been devel- interactive circuit animator (to experi-
oped around the standard Microsoft ment with components and simple net-
WebBrowser component extended works directly on the schematics), an
to support all the functions required interactive logic simulator (with a tim-
www.efymag.com
 EFY Plus DVD
ing diagram tracer to analyse events verter (to export
in the logic networks and to interact projects to other
step-by-step with the circuit) and a design environ-
finite-state machine editor/simulator ment tools) along
(the algorithm for which is described with an FPGA
using the ASM graphical editor). It ‘expert’ module
also contains a microcomputer board to export and
emulator (the board includes an 8-bit test projects on
CPU, ROM, RAM and the requisite FPGA boards. The
input/output ports) and an assembler/ FPGA extension
interactive debugger module. The introduces FPGA-
schematic editor lets you connect tra- based systems for
ditional logic circuits with sub-systems practice of digital
with the help of a finite-state machine design. New com-
editor and a microcomputer emulator. mands allow com-
Hence it is possible to experiment with pilation of a pro-
systems controlled by state machines ject onto an FPGA
and microcomputers with port inter- chip by export-
facing and low-level programming of ing it in VHDL to
embedded systems. an FPGA-specific
Digital circuit simulator d-DcS Fig. 2: An example of a circuit based on the microcomputer component EDA tool. (The
appears to the user as a graphical best part is that
schematic editor with a library of beginners to this
simplified logic components cus- concept can also
tomised to pedagogical needs and utilise this feature
not describing specific commercial as it doesn’t re-
products. As mentioned earlier, the quire knowledge
schematic editor allows you to build of VHDL lan-
simple digital networks composed of guage.)
gates, flip-flops, predefined combi- With micro-
national and sequential circuits, and computer emula-
custom-defined components, which tor d-McE, users
are defined as finite-state machines. can practise pro-
Simulation can be interactive or in gramming at As-
timing-mode. sembly language
In interactive mode, the student level. It function-
can animate the digital system in the ally emulates a
editor, thereby controlling its inputs board including
and observing results. This is the Fig. 3: View of the ‘Test on FPGA’ expert window, one of the new tools a CPU, ROM and
simplest way to examine a digital RAM, parallel
network and hence highly useful for state machines, which is user-designed I/O ports, reset circuitry and a sim-
beginners. with runtime display of relationships ple interrupt logic. The custom 8-bit
In timing mode, the behaviour of between state and timing evolution. CPU, named DMC8, is designed to
the circuit can be analysed by a timing Components produced by d-FsM can suite your educational needs, and is
diagram window, in which the user be directly used in d-DcS and inserted based on a simplified version of the
can define graphically an input signal into any digital circuit. These can also well-known Z80-CPU processor. The
sequence and observe the simulation be exported in VHDL language. A integrated source code editor enables
results. This mode is analogous to pro- general-purpose finite-state machine users to enter Assembly programs,
fessional simulation. software simulator helps students to which can be assembled, linked
Finite-state machine simulator enhance their design skills and also fa- and loaded in the emulated system
d-FsM allows graphical editing and cilitates transition from pedagogical to memory with a simple command.
simulation of finite-state machine professional field by introducing CAD The programs can be executed step
components using the algorithmic state methodologies. by step in the interactive debugger. In
machine paradigm. The tool allows In addition, the latest edition of the the debugger, as in professional tools,
local functional simulation of finite- software offers users a new VHDL con- the user can evaluate the contents of

www.efymag.com Electronics For You Plus | October 2013 VII

 EFY Plus DVD
Fig. 4: The Assembly code debugger
Fig. 5: The d-DcS Digital Circuit Simulator allows timing simulation of the
logic networks
all the structures involved in the hard-
ware/software system by stepping the
execution of programs.
Applications of the
software
Deeds was conceived as a learning
environment for students interested
in digital electronics. As such, it may
contain different technical subjects and
different pedagogical formats (lectures,
exercises, lab assignments, etc) deliv-
ered at different student levels. Deeds
can therefore be classified as a set of
tools that teachers can complete and
personalise to suit their pedagogical
needs by contributing to the lecture
space with their own material. A ma-
jor selling point is that teachers don’t
need a specific authoring tool because
the lecture space can be composed
VIII October 2013 | Electronics For You Plus
with just about containing text and figures of the
any HTML editor. assignments. Deeds allows students
Teaching lec- to check the correctness of solutions
tures. A lecture obtained manually and provides
based on Deeds graphical tools for editing the web-
appears as HTML page containing their reports, until
pages with text they are satisfied with their work
and figures. The and use Deeds to deliver the reports
look and feel of through the network.
the layout can be The use of Deeds also implies a
totally customised different approach to the structure
by the author. At of exercises. In fact, with the simula-
this level, a stu- tor, students may be tempted to skip
dent only ‘sees’ manual analysis. For effective use, the
a normal online teachers should target the exercises
book or a docu- more at the real understanding of
ment. But many issues than at the execution of repeti-
of the figures and tive, mundane tasks.
visual objects are Learning to design electronic sys-
active because tems. Development of digital design
they are connected projects is the field where Deeds can
to simulation and fully be utilised (which is why it is
editing tools of bundled in EFY Plus DVD). In fact, the
Deeds. finite-state machine, the interactive
For example, logic simulator and the microcomputer
let us suppose that board emulator work simultaneously
a theory presents in the simulation of a system, where
a certain digital standard digital components are con-
circuit, visualising trolled by the state machine and/or
its schematics in microcomputer board, which is the
a picture. When case with contemporary digital design.
the user clicks the The assignment consists of a functional
picture, Deeds im- description and a set of specifications
mediately launch- for the system that the students must
es the corresponding simulator, and design. This approach is meant to
opens that schematic together with an- replicate the features of a professional
other window (the assistant browser) environment within the guidelines
that contains step-by-step instructions suggested by the educational purpose
on how to explore or test the circuit of the project.
itself. Now users can utilise Deeds to
Such a procedure is equally useful download the assignment from a web-
for conveying concepts of simple com- page. Project development phases are
ponents or even complex networks. In guided by help and instructions sup-
the first case, the simulator allows you plied through the assistant browser.
to explore them interactively. In the The instructions provided are not
second case, signal tracing capabilities step-by-step and require intelligent
in time and data domains allow a thor- use of simulation tools and good user
ough test of the network. initiative.
Solving exercises. Traditional ex-
ercises aim to help understand theory A great learning tool
by applying it to simple cases and Deeds is a great learning tool for all
providing a feedback to the teacher you design enthusiasts. Its flexibility,
through the delivery of solutions. diversity and ease-of-use make it one
In Deeds system exercises, the exer- of the best tools in the market for any-
cises are presented as HTML pages, one interested in digital design. 
www.efymag.com
 construction

GPS Navigator
Table I
ijeet Ra
i NMEA Output Sentence
Abh
Option Description

Vineet Nayak GPGGA Time, position and fix type data

G
GPGSA GPS receiver operating mode, active
lobal positioning system systems highly accurate and efficient satellites used in the position solu-
tion, and DOP values
(GPS) is a wonderful technol- in recent years. All the mobile phones
GPGSV Number of GPS satellites in view, sat-
ogy that has made navigation these days come with an in-built GPS
ellite ID numbers, elevation, azimuth
receiver through which you can and SNR values
easily find out your current loca- GPRMC Time, date, position, course and
tion anywhere on the earth. The speed data. Recommended mini-
only thing required is an unob- mum navigation information
structed line-of-sight to four or GPVTG Course and speed information rela-
tive to the ground
more GPS satellites.
A GPS navigational device
is any device that receives GPS Table II
signals and processes them to Test Points
extract information for determin-
Test point Details
ing its exact location. Presented
here is such a GPS device with a TP0 0V, GND
tracking record system. It shows TP1 5V
the path traversed by you from TP2 Low when S1 pressed
the initial position, so you are TP3 Train of pulses (when GPS
never lost at unknown locations module is connected)
and can always come back to the
initial point. around microcontroller ATmega16
(IC1), 5V voltage regulator 7805 (IC2),
Circuit and working GPS module (connected at CON1),
Fig. 2 shows circuit of the GPS graphical LCD (GLCD1) and a few
Fig. 1: author’s prototype navigator. The circuit is built other components.
The circuit is pow-
ered by a 9V/12V
IC2 3
JACK
1
TP1 adaptor. Regulator IC2
DC IN C1 7805 C2
R1 R2
9V−12V 470u 0.1u 10 30 provides 5V regulated
2 680E 10K
25V LED1
POWER
Vcc AVcc supply for the circuit to
1 PB0 PA0 40
C3 2 PB1 PA1 39 operate. LED1 indicates
R3 10u 16V 3 PB2
470E 4 PB3
PA2 38
PA3 37
presence of power in the
GPS
5 PB4 PA4 36 circuit.
TP2 6 PB5 PA5 35
2062 7 PB6 PA6 34 Microcontroller IC1
S1 8 PB7 PA7 33
MODULE
9 RST
IC1
AREF 32
running at a clock fre-
Vcc
14 PD0 ATMEGA16 PC7 29 quency of 16 MHz com-
15 PD1 PC6 28
Tx 16 PD2 PC5 27 municates with the GPS
Rx 17 PD3 PC4 26
GND TP3 receiver modem via se-
18 PD4 PC3 25
CON1 19 PD5 PC2 24 rial protocol. Tx pin of
20 PD6 PC1 23
21 PD7 PC0 22
the GPS receiver is con-
11 GND GND 31 nected to Rx (PD0) pin of
17 16 15 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 XTAL2 XTAL1
microcontroller IC1. The
RST CS2 CS1 RS R/W EN D0 D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6 D7 12 13
18
VOUT VDD
2
GPS receiver continu-
19
LED A GLCD1 128X64 Vo
3 VR1 C4 XTAL1 C5 ously transmits data at
22p 16Mhz 22p
20
LED K
Vss
1
10K 1Hz update rate.
CONT
A 128×64-pixel,
TP0
KS0108-controller-based
Fig. 2: Circuit of GPS Navigator GLCD is used to display

www.efymag.com Electronics For You | October 2013 77

 construction
Parts List ously sends data via
Semiconductors:
USART to IC1 at 9600
IC1 - ATmega16 microcontroller baud rate. GPS data is
IC2 - 7805, 5V regulator initiated by a ‘$’ sign
LED1 - 5mm LED
GLCD1 - 20-pin 128×64 GLCD followed by National
(KS0108-controller-based) Marine Electronics
Resistors (all 1/4-watt, ±5% carbon): Association (NMEA)
R1 - 680-ohm
R2 - 10-kilo-ohm
output sentences.
R3 - 470-ohm Details are given in
VR1 - 10-kilo-ohm preset Table I.
Capacitors:
The microcon-
C1 - 470µF, 25V electrolytic
C2 - 0.1µF ceramic troller continuously
C3 - 10µF, 16V electrolytic captures and stores all
C4, C5 - 22pF ceramic
bytes for each NMEA
Miscellaneous:
CON1 - 4-pin connector output sequence.
S1 - Tactile switch The total bytes are
XTAL1 - 16MHz crystal oscillator then partitioned and
DC Jack - DC jack connector
GPS - GPS-2062 module sampled into a small
packet containing in-
formation about time,
efy Note date, longitude, lati-
Fig. 3: An actual-size, single-side PCB layout for the GPS navigator tude, altitude, speed,
The source code of this project is
etc. These values are
included in this month’s EFY DVD
regularly updated
and is also available for free down-
and displayed on the
load on www.efymag.com website.
GLCD.

the navigation data. Port pins PB0 Construction

through PB7 of IC1 are connected to
and testing
data pins D0 through D7 of GLCD1. An actual-size, sin-
Port pins PD2 through PD6 are used gle-side PCB for the
to provide control signals RS, R/W, GPS navigator circuit
EN, CS1 and CS2 to GLCD1, respec- is shown in Fig. 3
tively. Switch S1 is used to reset the and its component
navigator. layout in Fig. 4. As-
Working of the navigator is simple. semble the circuit on
Once powered on, the microcontroller the provided PCB to
stores the initial longitude and latitude minimise assembly
data. Then it continuously plots the errors. Use IC base for
changing latitude and longitude as you microcontroller IC1.
move around (refer Fig. 1). One divi- You can use a 9V/12V
sion change on the screen is equivalent adaptor or any other
to approximately 30 metres travelled. suitable DC source to
With the new latitude and longitude power the circuit.
position plotted on the screen, you To test the circuit
get a clear idea of the direction and Fig. 4: Component layout for the PCB for proper function-
path traveled by you. The display also ing, verify 5V power
shows various other information such Programmers Notepad. WINAVR is supply at TP1 with respect to TP0.
as current latitude, longitude, speed, a GCC–based compiler for AVR. Burn Reset to the system can be checked at
altitude, date, time and number of the program into the MCU using a TP2. The data transmitted by the GPS
satellites the GPS modem can capture. suitable programmer with FUSE BYTE modem can be observed at TP3 using
settings mentioned below: an oscilloscope. 
Software L fuse-0xef The author is a third-year B.Tech student of elec-
The software program is written in ‘C’ H fuse-0x99 trical engineering from College of Engineering &
language and compiled in WINAVR The GPS receiver modem continu- Technology, Bhubaneshwar

78 October 2013 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

 construction

Make Your Own USB

Data Acquisition System
o
sani the

Arun Dayal Udai and Sujit Kumar for precision and benchmarked with reader is familiar with basic ‘C’ pro-
various standards, and delivered as gramming and AVR programming

P
resented here is a data acquisi-
tion (DAQ) system that can be
used to interface six sensors
and four digital-to-analogue channels.
The acquired voltage levels can be dis-
played on a personal computer (PC).
The DAQ device may be calibrated
Fig. 1: Author’s prototype
an inexpensive USB DAQ product for
hobbyists and students.
Irrespective of our stream of en-
gineering or science, most of us do
programming and data analysis on
computers due to ease in data han-
dling, storage and manipulation.
This project may be
helpful for those who want
to develop an integrated
system that consists of a
DAQ and other system
circuitry in a single unit.
It would provide a greater
insight to the design and
development of a USB
DAQ system itself! The
article includes details of
circuit designs, software
development for user-in-
terface using C# and Lab-
View, printed circuit board
(PCB) development and
test results.
It is assumed that the
styles. However, best efforts have been
made to make the contents logical
enough to help even a beginner un-
derstand the project and tweak with
the codes.
DAQ systems
A DAQ system acquires data from a
sensor mounted on a physical system
and brings it to your PC.
Typically, the output from a sensor
is available in the form of a voltage
signal. For example, the output from
a commonly used temperature sensor
like LM35 is 10mV/°C under normal
environmental conditions, which var-
Table II
Test Points
Test point Details
TP0 0V, GND
TP1 5V
TP2 2.5V
TP3 Low when S2 pressed

Table I
Specifications of the Developed DAQ Device
Feature Specifications Remarks
Digital inputs/outputs (I/Os) 16 reconfigurable I/Os, Maximum: 40 mA Each of the 16 pins can be configured as input or output
Analogue inputs 6 (8-bit resolution), Maximum: 5V Can be extended up to 8
Analogue outputs 4 (8-bit resolution), Maximum: 5V, 0.45 mA Can be increased by adjusting the op-amp gains and using an external supply
Counters Any digital I/O can be used as counter To be implemented in PC software or by modifying the firmware
(Maximum: 4 MHz using external interrupt
on Port-D 0-3)
Interface GUI may be developed using any programming Developed and tested with NI LabView and Microsoft Visual C#
language with DLL interfacing
Driver for programming Libusb 1.0 (Free) (http://www.libusb.org/) Installs automatically on installing ATMEL Flip programmer (free)
Application programming ATUSBHID.DLL Free–required for communication
interface (API) driver
Upgrade Open source firmware written using LUFA Board can be reused for multiple purposes
Sampling frequency 9.6 kilo-samples-per-second with Generic One can use a different USB class with full-speed USB data transfer
USB HID implementation rate of 12 Mbps
Simply plug the device on the USB port and the software gets installed in Generic HID Class

www.efymag.com Electronics For You | October 2013 79

 construction
ies linearly with temperature. Hence it is being interfaced with. Same is the vice from a PC with a voltage signal, or
you can calibrate the measured voltage case with a pressure sensor, LVDT, etc. you may require a dynamically chang-
to the temperature of the surroundings You may also need to trigger a de- ing voltage level to drive a certain

OUTPUT INPUT
18 1
CON2
ANALOGUE

1 8 8 1
C1 R1 OUTA V+ V+ OUTA
R7
2 INA− IC3 OUTB 7 7
IC4 INA− 2 C4
OUTB
R3 R5
3 OPA2335 C2 C3 OPA2335
R2 INA+ INB− 6 6 INB−
INA+
3
R8
4 5 5 4
V− INB+ R4 R6 INB+ V−

R1−R8=47K C1−C4=100n 20 OUTB 1

OUTC

19 OUTD OUTA 2

18 VDD Vss 3

TP2
17 A0 REF 4

16 A1
IC2 AGND 5 IC5
TLC7226 NC LM336
15 WR DGND 6

14 DB0 DB7 7

13 8 R9
DB1 DB6
1K
12 DB2 DB5 9

11 DB3 10
DB4
S3
HWB
64
63
62
61
60
59
58
57
56
55
54
53
52
51
50
49
AVcc
GND
AREF
PF0
PF1
PF2
PF3
PF4
PF5
PF6
PF7
GND
Vcc
PA0
PA1
PA2

R10
1 PE6 PA3 48 1.5K
2 PE7 PA4 47
3 UVcc PA5 46
4 D− PA6 45 R11
L1 5
D+ PA7 44 4.7K
10u 6 43
UGND PE2
7 42
8
UCAP IC1 PC7
41
VBUS PC6
C5 9
PE3 AT90USB1287 PC5 40
1u 10 PB0 PC4 39
C6 C7 16V 11 38
PB1 PC3
100n 100n 12 37
PB2 PC2
13 PC1 36
PB3
14 PB4 PC0 35
15 PB5 PE1 34
16 PB6 PE0 33 R12 LED1
RESET

XTAL2
XTAL1
GND

S1 USER 470E
PD0
PD1
PD2
PD3
PD4
PD5
PD6
PD7
PB7
PE4
PE5

Vcc

R13
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32

220E
SJ1 = SHORTING
JUMPER

S2 TP3
R14
RESET R15 C8
220E 22p
4.7K XTAL1
TP1
SJ1 16MHz C9
22p

+5V R16
C10
0.47u DC EXT. + − 680E TP0
SUPPLY
CON3 USB CON5 ISP CON4 LED2 POWER CON1 DIGITAL 8

Fig. 2: Circuit of USB data acquisition system

80 October 2013 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

 construction
drive system, e.g., a linear servo motor.
You may also require to count an event
which is signaled by a voltage pulse,
such as in flywheel counters or robotic
shaft encoders.
Most of the commercially avail-
able DAQ systems come with all the
above-mentioned features of counters,
analogue inputs and outputs, digital
inputs and outputs, etc. However,
these systems are quite expensive and
come with a paid driver for interfac-
ing. Most of them can only be used
with the proprietary software of the
manufacturer.
This project is intended for those
who want to make their own sys-
tem for data acquisition due to the
limitation of their total project cost or
installation where one cannot use com-
mercially available DAQ (such as in a
nuclear or defense installation). The
author’s prototype is shown in Fig. 1.
Circuit and working
Fig. 2 shows the circuit of USB data
acquisition system.
AT90USB1287. The heart of the
system is a 64-pin ATMEL USB chip
AT90USB1287, which is an 8-bit mi-
crocontroller that can do USB com-
munication and take analogue input
through its eight 10-bit analogue-to-
digital converters (ADCs). It has 48
programmable input/output pins.
The microcontroller runs on a 16MHz
clock and has 128 kB of flash memory.
As the microcontroller does not have
any digital-to-analogue converter
(DAC) on its output pins, we required
an external chip for this purpose. We
used TLC7226 from Texas Instruments
(TI), which is an 8-bit DAC with quad
outputs.
Before finalising the design, ensure
that all the AVR hardware design
considerations mentioned in ATMEL
application note are met. You can eas-
ily get IC samples for academic and
research purposes, which the manufac-
turers always support.
TLC7226. This is a 20-pin dual-in-
line chip. You may refer to its data-
sheet from TI for more details. This IC
is driven by a reference diode LM336
82 October 2013 | Electronics For You
Parts List
Semiconductors:
IC1 - AT90USB1287
microcontroller
IC2 - TLC7226 quad DAC
IC3, IC4 - OPA2335 op-amp
IC5 - LM336 programmable shunt
regulator
LED1, LED2 - 5mm LED
Resistors (all 1/4-watt, ±5% carbon):
R1-R8 - 47-kilo-ohm
R9 - 1-kilo-ohm
R10 - 1.5-kilo-ohm
R11, R15 - 4.7-kilo-ohm
R12 - 470-ohm
R13, R14 - 220-ohm
R16 - 680-ohm
Capacitors:
C1-C4, C6, C7 - 100nF ceramic disk
C5 - 1μF, 16V electrolytic
C8, C9 - 22pF ceramic disk
C10 - 0.47μF ceramic disk
Miscellaneous:
L1 - 10μH inductor
XTAL1 - 16MHz crystal oscillator
S1-s3 - Tactile switch
CON1, CON2 - 18-pin bergstrip male
connector
CON3 - USB type-B connector
CON4 - 2-pin bergstrip connector
CON5 - 6-pin ISP/ICSP male
connector
SJ1 - Shorting jumper connector
to have a regulated voltage supply of
2.5V. So for an input ranging from 0
to 255 through parallel eight pins of
the microcontroller, the output varies
from 0 to 2.5V. As the output desired
is 5V, we have used a voltage ampli-
fier with gain set at ‘2.’ For voltage
amplification we used quad op-amp
OPA2335 from Texas Instruments,
which has zero drift and low offset
voltage of 5 μV.
Power supply. The circuit is pow-
ered from the USB port, which pro-
vides a voltage output of up to 4.5V.
If you need to connect the output pins
to a load larger than that supported by
your USB port (typically 500 mA per
port), use an external power source of
5V and remove the USB power jumper
(SJ1) shown in Fig. 6.
Connectors. Since the system
requires interfacing with an external
device for input and output, we have
used connectors for various purposes.
One 18-pin connector (CON2) is used
for analogue inputs and outputs, while
another 18-pin connector (CON1) is
used for digital inputs and outputs.
There is also a 6-pin connector for ISP
interfacing and a 2-pin shorting jumper
connector for power supply from the
USB port.
Specifications of the developed
DAQ device are listed in Table I.
Construction
Once done with the schematic of the
project, you need to mount the com-
ponents on the provided PCB. An
actual-size, double-side, solder-side
PCB track layout of USB data acqui-
sition system is shown in Fig. 3 and
component-side track layout in Fig.
4. The component layout is shown in
Fig. 5. The author’s assembled board
with input and output pin details is
shown in Fig. 6.
The original board routing and lay-
out design was done by the author on
a four-layered board with inner layers
supplying the power. Having continu-
ous copper layers in the inner layers
provided better stability to ADC and
DAC systems.
The board was built with a mix
of surface-mount device (SMD) and
through-hole technology (THT) com-
ponents as we could not obtain small
quantities of the discrete components
in SMD packages. You can choose to
use only SMD components to have
a compact design. You can also try
assembling the circuit on a double-
layered board to cut down the devel-
opment cost.
Firmware and
software design
The firmware was developed using
open source library ‘Lightweight
USB Framework for AVR,’ com-
monly known as LUFA. It requires
free compiler WinAVR GCC 2010 to
be installed in your PC. It is advised to
install AVR Studio 4 before WinAVR
as programming and compilation
are easier in AVR Studio. Now load
project file GenericHID.aps file (from
www.efymag.com or EFY DVD of this
month’s EFY Plus) into AVR Studio
environment. Compile the code to
generate the hex code.
Burning the hex code. Microcon-
troller AT90USB1287 comes with a
preloaded bootloader program that can
www.efymag.com

be used to burn a hex file through USB
using ATMEL Flip software.
Press S3 (HWB) button and S2
reset button simultaneously and then
first release S2 while S3 is pressed.
This will put the board into an inbuilt
bootloader programming mode. In
programming mode, the board can be
seen in device manager of the PC. You
Fig. 3: An actual-size, double-side, solder-side PCB track layout of
USB data acquisition system
Fig. 4: Component-side track layout
www.efymag.com
can load the hex code into the MCU
using ATMEL Flip programmer.
But to make a generic code run
with read and write support in flash
memory, you need to erase the entire
flash (default bootloader) and load
a new bootloader called ‘ATMEL
USB DFU Bootloader’ from ATMEL’s
website. This also enables the micro-
Fig. 5: Component layout
Digital
VCC
Fig. 6: The author’s assembled board with input and output pin details
construction
controller to run at its full speed of 16
MHz. You just need to make necessary
changes in the fuses to make it run
with external clock of 16 MHz (without
CKDIV8 fuse enabled). Now burn the
new bootloader using any ISP pro-
grammer by connecting the program-
mer to the ISP connector on the board.
User-interface program. After as-
Analogue
VCC
Electronics For You | October 2013 83
 construction
sembling the components on the PCB, and receives eight bytes of data to
you need to interface the board with and from the PC. Ports C and D of
the PC for data exchange. For that, you the microcontroller are connected to
have software that communicates with CON1 digital I/O pins. The first two
the physical hardware through USB in- bytes from the PC contain data for data
terface using its device driver dynamic direction registers (DDRs), namely,
link library (DLL). The graphical-user- DDRC and DDRD. The next two con-
interface (GUI) software was devel- secutive bytes, i.e., the third and the
oped using Microsoft Visual C# 2010. fourth bytes, contain the value that is
net and NI LabView Version 8.6 (2008). to be written to each port. Each bit in
The hardware developed has the the register DDRx and PORTx values
firmware loaded onto the flash mem- corresponds to a physical pin of the
ory of the microcontroller on the DAQ microcontroller’s ports C and D. For
board. To design the GUI program, example, to set the fourth and sixth
first you need to know how the firm- pins as outputs, you need to write to
ware in the board and the PC should the DDRx register a value equivalent
communicate. to the binary value ‘00101000.’ To
The firmware continuously sends set the fourth pin ‘high’ you need
to write to the
corresponding
PORTx reg-
ister a value
of ‘00001000.’
Writing ‘1’
at any other
place in the
PORTx regis-
ter will enable
the pull-up
at the cor-
responding
physical pin.
Fig. 7: GUI for DAQ device communication using C# program The pins are
Fig. 8: LabView VI for the DAQ device interface
84 October 2013 | Electronics For You
input pins by default.
The remaining four bytes are the
values for DAC outputs. These are
transferred to TLC7226’s parallel input
pins via port A of the microcontroller.
To write a value to the DAC output, se-
lect the DAC output by A0 (pin 17) and
A1 (pin 16) of the chip TLC7226, make
the selected pin active by lowering WR
pin (pin 15) of the chip, write the value
to data pins of TLC7226 (DB0 through
DB7) and finally make WR pin high
before exiting the write subroutine.
The firmware sends in the first six
bytes data collected from the analogue
input pins of the microcontroller. The
remaining two bytes sent by it contain
the pin status of 8-bit wide port C and
port D, respectively.
If you are not using the digital in-
put pins, the firmware can be modified
to read all the available eight analogue
inputs of the microcontroller. By re-
ceiving and sending ten bytes, the code
can be extended to use all the analogue
inputs without disturbing the digital
inputs. However, this reduces the
sampling speed.
All the analogue inputs are sam-
pled one by one and copied to the
send buffer. It is advised to con-
nect the unused analogue inputs to
ground, to make the sampling sta-
ble. You are requested
to go through the files
board.c and GenericHID.c
in LUFA101122\Demos\
Device\LowLevel\Ge-
nericHID folder of the
project for extensive refer-
ence. The codes are well
remarked for future modi-
fications. All the relevant
source codes are included
in this month’s EFY DVD.
As the microcontroller
has its own timers, the
code can be extended to
have a fixed sampling
speed for any real-time
application. Filters can
also be implemented in
the firmware itself for
noiseless sensing.
The software imple-
www.efymag.com

ments the ATMEL application note on
USB generic human interface device
(HID). It uses functions findHidDevice,
readData, writeData and closeDevice
defined in ATUSBHID.DLL. As shown
in the GUI screenshot, the software
connects to the DAQ board through
USB vendor ID for ATMEL (03EB in
hexadecimal) and product ID for the
microcontroller (204F in hexadecimal).
An 8-byte send-buffer is prepared
based on the settings of digital input/
output selections, their corresponding
values and analogue output values.
This is sent continuously through a
timer event in C# routine, within an
infinite loop in LabView scheme.
Similarly, the incoming eight bytes
are read to obtain the six 8-bit analogue
input values corresponding to the
voltage available at ADC pins and two
8-bit values for the input pin status.
The graphical user interface (GUI)
shows the various ADC inputs and
DAC outputs.
Fig. 7 shows the front-end GUI
screenshot of C# program output.
Fig. 8 shows the block diagram for
LabView VI, which generates a GUI
analogous to that generated by the C#
program. Additionally, it explores the
digital input and output capability as
well. LabView being a block-diagram-
based programming language, it
explains the functional implementa-
tion of the software very clearly. A
30-day evaluation version of the latest
LabView version can be freely down-
loaded from the Internet.
The C# program and the LabView
VI are used only to demonstrate the
correct functioning of the board. On
similar lines, you can develop your
own code in various other program-
ming languages. (Note that LabView
was not tested at EFY Lab.)
Testing and test results
Before getting started, using a multi-
meter you need to measure the USB
voltage that your system is supply-
ing. Save this value in the parameter
V_Max_USB of the program.
The developed prototype was
tested with various sensors like po-
www.efymag.com
construction
plots for the ADC and
DAC tests, respectively.
With Generic HID
mode of USB communica-
tion, the device runs at 9.6
kilo-samples per second,
which is good enough to
handle a situation where
the inputs and outputs
are dynamically varying.
Though the developed
DAQ device is quite basic
compared to the exist-
Fig. 9: Plot of ADC input voltage read by the DAQ device shown in
ing technology, it can be
software vs value measured using multimeter very helpful for everyday
use where one needs an
inexpensive device with
reasonably good reliability
and precision. It has the
potential to replace ad-
vanced DAQ devices like
NI USB 6008/6009 (which
it closely resembles to) in
smaller enterprises that
don’t have much stringent
demands and certification
requirements.
Troubleshooting.
If the software on your
PC doesn’t respond, first
Fig. 10: Plot of DAC output voltage set in software vs value
check the circuit for prop-
measured using multimeter er connections. You can
also try closing the appli-
cation and restarting it. If the problem
efy Note persists, check voltages at various test
The source code of this project is points as per Table II.
included in this month’s EFY DVD The author has uploaded on You-
and is also available for free down- Tube videos of this DAQ device being
load on www.efymag.com website. tested using C# and LabView interface.
You may watch the same for better
tentiometer, LDR and analogue ac- understanding.
celerometer. The sensed ADC output
shown by the software was found to Further application
be closely matching with the physical The board can be reprogrammed for
measurements. different purposes with different cus-
Similarly, the DAC outputs were tomised programs for the connected
tested physically using a digital mul- I/Os. 
timeter and found to be in agreement Arun Dayal Udai is an assistant professor at BIT,
with the desired voltage values set in Mesra, Ranchi, currently pursuing Ph.D from IIT
the software. Maximum variation from Delhi. He has keen interest in CAD, robotics and
the actual value was found to be within mechatronics, and has many papers published to
±0.02V. Apart from the ADC and DAC his credit in national/international conferences. Sujit
Kumar is a BE in electronics and communications
tests, the digital inputs and outputs engineering with interest in robotics and embedded
were found to be responding properly systems. Currently, he is an operations officer at
to the software. Figs 9 and 10 show the Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, Panipat, Haryana
Electronics For You | October 2013 85
 construction

Electronic Door Lock Abhijeet

Rai

Eshtaartha Basu But, it is easy to avoid home break-ins

by using a simple solution like the elec-

H
ome burglary incidents are other components.
tronic door lock presented here. With
on the rise. Homes without this circuit installed, the entry doorThe circuit requires 12V for driving
proper security measures in motor M1 and 5V for powering rest of
of your house can be unlocked only
place are particularly more vulnerable. the circuit. The mains power supply is
by entering a pre-decided password,
stepped down to 15V, 500mA by trans-
which helps to prevent unauthorised
Test Points former X1. This stepped-down AC
unlocking. The circuit is very simple
voltage is rectified by bridge rectifier
and can be assembled using readily
Test point Details
available components. BR1 and filtered by capacitor C1 before
TP0 0V, GND it is fed to IC1. Regulator IC1 provides
TP1 12V Circuit and working regulated 12V DC supply, which is
TP2 5V Fig. 1 shows the circuit of electronic further fed to IC2 to get 5V supply. The
TP3 High (when S1 through S3 pressed door lock. The circuit is built around glowing of LED1 indicates presence of
sequentially)
dual J-K flip-flop 74LS73 (IC3 and IC4), power in the circuit.
TP4 High for approx. one second (when regulators 7812 and 7805 (IC1 and IC2, The door opens when switches S1
S1 through S4 pressed sequentially)
respectively), 555 timer (IC6) and a few through S4 are sequentially pressed.
The password is
L X1
recognised using
BR1=1A
TP1
three flip-flops
230V TP2 and transistor T2.
IC1 IC2 3
AC BR1
1 3 1
7805
Flip-flop FF2 of
7812 R1
50Hz IC3 is operated in
2 2 680E
C1 C2 C3 toggle mode by
LED1
N
470u 0.1u 0.1u making J2=K2=1
35V
X1=230V AC PRIMARY TO (high).
15V, 500mA SECONDARY GND POWER
TRANSFORMER
When S1 is
pressed, a ground
TP3
pulse is provided
12

13

12

13

by the keypad,
11

11
4

4
9

8
Vcc

GND

Vcc

GND

which makes the

Q1

Q1

Q2

Q2

Q1

Q1

Q2

Q2
74LS73

output of flip-flop
74LS73
IC3
CP1 FF1

CP2 FF2

IC4
CP1 FF1

CP2 FF2
R1

R2

R1

R2

(FF2 of IC3) toggle

K1

K1
K2

K2
J1

J2

J1

J2

from logic 0 to 1.
This pulls up the
1

3
14

14

5
10

10

inputs of flip-flop
FF1 of IC4 to high,
thus making it also
R2
S1−S5= TACTILE SWITCH
100K
operate in toggle
9 1 16 8
mode.
EN2 EN1 Vcc VREF
IN1 R3 R4 When switch
13 GND 2 VR1
DIS 7
12 GND
L293D IN2
7
4 RESET
100K
33E 33E S2 is pressed, flip-
5 GND IC5 IN3
10 8 Vcc 6 C4 flop FF1 of IC4
GND IN4 IC6 TH
4
OUT1 OUT2 OUT4 OUT3
15 10u toggles from logic
555 16V T1 T2
3 6 14 11 3 O/P TRI
2 0 to 1, which, in
12V M1=12V DC T1−T2=BC547 turn, puts FF2
GEARED TP4 5
CV GND
1 S1 S2 S3 S4
M1 C5 S5 of IC4 in toggle
MOTOR 0.1u LOCK
mode.
TP0 PASSWORD KEYS GND When switch
Fig. 1: Circuit of electronic door lock S3 is pressed, flip-

86 October 2013 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com


Fig. 2: An actual-size, single-side PCB for the door lock circuit
Fig. 3: Component layout for the PCB
flop FF2 of IC4 toggles from logic 0 to
1. This provides a positive bias to the
base of transistor T2.
Now when switch S4 is pressed,
the emitter of T2 is pulled to ground
momentarily. At this point, transistor
T2 is driven into saturation. This clears
all the flip-flops and triggers 555 timer
(IC6) simultaneously.
Timer IC6 is configured in mon-
ostable mode. It provides an output
pulse of predefined width, which
simultaneously clocks flip-flop FF1 of
THE COMPLETE MAGAZINE ON OPEN SOURCE
www.efymag.com
IC3 and enables the H-bridge. This
rotates the motor for the predefined
period to unlock the door.
To lock the door back again, just
press switch S5. This triggers IC6,
which, in turn, toggles flip-flop FF1
of IC3, rotating the motor in reverse
direction for the same period of time.
Working of the project is simple.
When the keys are pressed in the se-
quence S1-S2-S3-S4, the door unlocks.
These keys can be connected to any
numbers on the keypad, thus making
Your favourite Magazine on
Open Source is now on the Web, too.
LinuxForU.com
construction
Parts List
Semiconductors:
IC1 - 7812, 12V regulator
IC2 - 7805, 5V regulator
IC3, IC4 - 74LS73, dual J-K flip-flop
IC5 - L293D H-bridge driver
IC6 - 555 timer
BR1 - 1A bridge rectifier module
T1, T2 - BC547 npn transistor
LED1 - 5mm LED
Resistors (all ¼-watt, ±5% carbon):
R1 - 680-ohm
R2 - 100-kilo-ohm
R3, R4 - 33-ohm
VR1 - 100-kilo-ohm preset
Capacitors:
C1 - 470µF, 35V electrolytic
C2, C3, C5 - 0.1µF ceramic
C4 - 10µF, 16V electrolytic
Miscellaneous:
CON1 - 6-pin connector
S1-S5 - Tactile switches for
4×5 keypad
M1 - 12V, 10rpm geared DC
motor
X1 - 230V AC primary to 15V,
500mA secondary
transformer
your password. To lock the door, just
press S5.
Construction and testing
An actual-size, single-side PCB for the
electronic door lock circuit is shown in
Fig. 2 and its component layout in Fig.
3. Assemble the circuit on the PCB to
minimise assembly errors. Take any
4×5 numeric keypad and connect five
of its keys to the PCB at CON1 (refer
Fig. 1 for connections). Please note,
pressing the right sequence of keys cor-
responding to S1-S2-S3-S4 is necessary
for unlocking the door .
To test the circuit for proper func-
tioning, verify 12V power supply
at TP1 and 5V power supply at TP2
with respect to TP0. Press S1 through
S3 sequentially and check high level
at TP3. Now press S4 and check the
output of IC6. It should be high for
a time period decided by the timing
components. 
The author is a third-year BE student at
Vidyavardhaka College of Engineering, Mysore
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Electronics For You | October 2013 87
 circuit idea

Voice Recorder and Playback System

edi
s.c. dwiv

Vivek Panchabhaiya Circuit and working have to vary VR1 to adjust for different
microphones. IC1 remains in recording

T
here are several types of voice Fig. 1 shows the circuit of voice record- mode as long as switch S1 is pressed
recorder and playback sys- er and playback system. The circuit and pin 27 of IC1 is grounded. Record-
tems available in the market is built around voice recording and ing stops after 20 seconds (selected by
but most of them are expensive and playback IC APR9301-V2 (IC1), volt- 52-kilo-ohm resistance in this case),
their circuits are also very complex to age regulator 7806 (IC2), npn transistor pin 25 of IC1 becomes ‘high’ and LED1
assemble. Here is a simple circuit for BC547 (T1), 8-ohm, 0.5W speaker (LS1), stops glowing.
recording and playback of voice mes- electret microphone (MIC1) and a few The recording time duration can
sages. You can leave a voice message other components. be increased or decreased depending
for your family or friends whenever IC APR9301-V2 is a high-quality on the value of resistor R1 as follows:
you go out, which they can hear by voice recording and playback IC. The
pressing the ‘play’ button. length of message recording depends Test Points
The circuit is built around a record- on the value of external resistor R1 Test point Details
ing and playback chip that supports connected to its pin 7. The operation
TP0 0V, GND
voice recording for 16 to 30 seconds modes are described below.
TP1 +6V
and reproduces it clearly. It can be Recording mode. When switch S1
used in different types of applications is pressed, LED1 glows to indicate that LED1 Glows when S1 pressed
such as door bells, railway announce- recording has started. Now you can
ment systems and automatic telephone speak close to microphone MIC1 in or- Parts List
answering devices. der to record your message. You may Semiconductors:
IC1 - APR9301-V2 voice recorder
and playback IC
TP1 T1 - BC547 npn transistor
LS1 = 8−OHM, 0.5W SPEAKER IC2
3 1 IC2 - 7806, 6V regulator
1 28 RECORD R2 7806 CON1 LED1 - 5mm red LED
NC VCCD
2 25 LED1 680E 9V Resistors (all ¼-watt, ±5% carbon):
NC /LED 2
TP0 C2 C1 R1 - 52-kilo-ohm
3 NC VCCA 15 100u
0.01u R2 - 680-ohm
4 16 25V
NC VCCA R3 - 15-kilo-ohm
GND 5 IC1 19 C7 VR1 10K R4, R5 - 10-kilo-ohm
NC AGC C6
6 24 0.01u 22u R6 - 100-kilo-ohm
/CE APR9301 NC
16V R4 10K
7 20 C5 VR1 - 10-kilo-ohm preset
OscR −V2 AnaIn
8 18 0.1u Capacitors:
R1 NC MicRef C3 R3
9 17 0.1u C1 - 100µF, 25V electrolytic
52K NC MicIn 15K
10 27 R6 R5 C2, C6 - 0.01µF ceramic disk
NC /RecL
100K 10K C3-C5 - 0.1µF ceramic disk
11 21 S1 REC
NU1 AnaOut C7 - 22µF, 16V electrolytic
LS1 12
VSSA NC 22
T1 Miscellaneous:
13 23 C4
SP+ /PlayE BC547 MIC1 LS1 - 8-ohm, 0.5W speaker
0.1u
14
SP− VSSD 26 S2 PLAY MIC1 - Electret microphone
CON1 - 9V DC connector
S1, S2 - Push-to-on switch
- 28-pin IC socket
- 9V battery or 9V adaptor
Fig. 1: Circuit of voice recorder and playback system

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1. 38 kilo-ohms for 16
seconds
2. 52 kilo-ohms for 20
seconds
3. 67 kilo-ohms for 24
seconds
4. 75 kilo-ohms for 30
seconds
Playback mode. When
switch S2 is pressed mo-
mentarily, the recorded
Fig. 2: An actual-size, single-side PCB for the voice recorder and
message plays from the
playback system start and can be heard
from speaker LS1.
Standby mode. Pin 6 of
IC1 is kept ‘low’ so that it
returns to standby mode
after the completion of
recording and playback.
If pin 6 is high, it will be
in power-down mode and
no recording or playback
is allowed and current
consumption is typically
less than 1 µA.
Fig. 3: Component layout for the PCB Working of the circuit
www.efymag.com
circuit idea
is simple. You can record your mes-
sage for the duration defined by resis-
tor R1 by keeping switch S1 pressed.
Once recorded, the message can be
played simply by pressing switch S2
momentarily.
Construction and testing
An actual-size, single-side PCB for the
voice recorder and playback system
is shown in Fig. 2 and its component
layout in Fig. 3. Suitable connectors are
provided on the PCB for connecting
the microphone and speaker. Assem-
ble the circuit on the provided PCB to
minimise assembly errors. Carefully
assemble the components and double-
check for any overlooked error.
The circuit is simple and doesn’t
need many test points to verify. Check
the correct power supply at TP1 with
respect to TP0. Press switch S1. If
LED1 glows, it implies IC1 is working
well. 
The author is a B.Tech in electronics and telecom-
munication from SRCEM, Gwalior
Electronics For You | October 2013 89
 circuit idea
and a few other components.
The sound is captured by micro-

Noise-Level Alarm s.c. dwiv

e d i
Petre Tzv. Petrov hypertension, heart disease, annoy-
ance, sleep disturbance and decreased
phone MIC1 and amplified by first-
stage high-gain transistor T1. Trimmer
potentiometer VR1 is used to adjust the
threshold level. the signal is amplified
again with second-stage transistor
T2. This amplified signal is rectified

N
oise is a serious environ- performance in schools. Sound-level by diode D1 and the charge is stored
mental problem that affects indicators like the one presented here in capacitor C10. Diode D1 should
us in our daily life. There is can help address this problem. This preferably be a small-signal Schottky
scientific evidence supporting that sound-level indicator monitors the diode such as BAT81, BAT82, BAT83,
noise exposure can cause hearing loss, sound level and indicates through an BAT85 or better. You can use 1N4148
LED when the level is above the preset and 1N914 also but the signal from the
Test Points value. input should be stronger.
When the voltage across capacitor
Test point Details Circuit and working C10 is high enough, transistor T3 con-
TP0 0V, GND
Fig. 1 shows the circuit of noise-level ducts and LED1 glows to indicate that
TP1 6V
alarm. The circuit is built around three the sound level is higher than the set
LED1 Glows when sound level above BC550 npn general-purpose transistors level. LED2 indicates power supply is
threshold
(T1 through T3), electret microphone available to the circuit.
LED2 Glows when battery connected
(MIC1), two LEDs (LED1 and LED2) Transistors T1, T2 and T3 should
be high-gain type, such
as BC550C, BC109C and
C2 R2 R12 R9 BC108C. For powering the
300E R5 CON1
100u, 16V 10K
1.8K C5 TP1 620E
1.5VX4
circuit, you can use 6V from
R1 R3 22u,16V
4.7K 680K
A BATT.1 four AA-size batteries or 6V
LED1
R7 B from a regulated wall adap-
C3
10u
330K D1 tor.
R13 C1 BAT83/ C6 C8
16V
T1 1N4148 100p
300E 10u
16V BC550
T2
T3
0.33u Construction
VR1
22K
BC550
R8
BC550 R10
620E
and testing
C4 C7
47K
C9 R4 10u R6 C10 220u
An actual-size, single-side
MIC1 1n 16V R11
TP0 20E 20E 10u
100K 16V LED2 PCB for the noise-level in-
16V
dicator is shown in Fig. 2
GND and its component layout in
Fig. 3. After assembling the
Fig. 1: Circuit of noise-level alarm circuit on a PCB, enclose it in

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 circuit idea
Parts List threshold of sound and
Semiconductors: adjust VR1 to the point
D1 - BAT83 or 1N4148 signal where LED1 starts glow-
diode
LED1 - 5mm red LED ing. For that, switch on
LED2 - 5mm green LED radio or TV set and set its
T1-T3 - BC550 npn transistor
volume to a level where
Resistors (all ¼-watt, ±5% carbon):
R1 - 4.7-kilo-ohm you want the warning to
R2 - 10-kilo-ohm start. Now adjust poten-
R3 - 680-kilo-ohm
R4, R6 - 20-ohm tiometer VR1 to the point
R5 - 1.8-kilo-ohm where LED1 starts glow-
R7 - 330-kilo-ohm
R8 - 47-kilo-ohm
Fig. 2: Actual-size, single-side PCB for noise-level indicator ing.
R9, R10 - 620-ohm To test the circuit for
R11 - 100-kilo-ohm
R12, R13 - 300-ohm
proper functioning, check
VR1 - 22-kilo-ohm potentiometer correct input supply at
Capacitors: TP1 with respect to TP0.
C1, C3, C4, C10 - 10µF, 16V electrolytic
C2 - 100µF, 16V electrolytic
LED2 also indicates the
C5 - 22µF, 16V electrolytic same. LED1 glows when
C6 - 100pF ceramic disk
the sound level is above
C7 - 220µF, 16V electrolytic
C8 - 0.33µF ceramic disk threshold, which can be
C9 - 1nF ceramic disk simulated with a radio or
Miscellaneous:
MIC1 - Electret microphone
music system. 
CON1 - 2-pin connector The author was a researcher and
BATT.1 - 1.5V×4 cells Fig. 3: Component layout for the PCB assistant professor in Technical
University of Sofia (Bulgaria), and
a lecturer and expert-lecturer in
a suitable case. Fix LED1, LED2 and After connecting the 6V power Kingdom of Morocco. Now he is working in the
potentiometer VR1 on the front panel. supply to the circuit, set the desired private sector in Bulgaria

www.efymag.com Electronics For You | October 2013 91

 circuit idea
Parts List

Visitors Counter dwivedi

Semiconductors:
s.c. IC1, IC2 - CD4026 counter
T1 - BC547 npn transistor
LED1 - 5mm red LED
DIS1-DIS2 - LTS543 common-cathode
7-segment display
Yugal Sethiya at the exit gate from the count at the
Resistors (all ¼-watt, ±5% carbon):
entrance gate. The system should be

P
R1 - 1-kilo-ohm
resented here is a simple counter installed on a door such that only one R2 - 10-kilo-ohm
R3, R4 - 100-ohm
that counts the number of visi- person can cross through at a time, R5 - 4.7-kilo-ohm
tors entering or exiting an audi- interrupting the light falling on the LDR1 - Light-dependent resistor
torium or any other place where you LDR sensor. Miscellaneous:
S1 - Push-to-on switch
have installed this circuit at the gates. CON1 - 2-pin connector
On receiving an interrupt from light- Circuit and working - 6V battery/6V adaptor
dependent resistor (LDR) sensors, the The circuit is built around popular
circuit increments the count and shows CD4026 counter ICs (IC1 and IC2), ohms in presence of bright light.
it on a 7-segment display. light-dependent resistor (LDR1), tran- In this circuit, the amount of light
With these units installed at the sistor BC547 (T1), common-cathode falling on LDR1 decreases as a person
entrance and exit gates, you can cal- seven-segment displays (DIS1 and crosses the entrance/exit gate and his
culate the number of visitors present DIS2) and a few other components. shadow falls on LDR1. Consequently,
in the room by subtracting the count The advantage of using CD4026 coun- the resistance of LDR1 increases to
ter IC is that it drives a 7-segment dis- provide a clock pulse to pin 1 of IC1
Test Points play without the need of a driver IC. through transistor T1. During this time,
Test point Details The resistance of LDR1 decreases LED1 stops glowing momentarily,
when the intensity of light falling on indicating that someone is entering or
TP0 0V, GND
it increases and vice versa. In dark or exiting the hall.
TP1 6V
absence of light, the LDR exhibits a ICI consists of a Johnson decade
TP2 6V (when S1 pressed)
resistance in the range of mega-ohms, counter and an output decoder that
LED1 Blinks when a visitor is detected
which decreases to a few hundred converts the Johnson code into a 7-seg-
ment decoded output
DIS1− DIS2 = LTS543 COMMON CATHODE 7−SEGMENT DISPLAY
for driving one stage
TP1
in a numerical dis-
LED1
DIS2 8 3
R3
DIS1 8 3
play. When it receives
1 CLK 16 100E
TP2
VDD
CC CC CC CC R4
100E
a clock at pin 1, it
R1 2 INH
RST
15
5 dp a 7 5 dp a 7
advances the count
1K
3 EN IN
UNG C
14 on display DIS1 by
LDR1 4 EN OUT IC2 c
13 10 g b 6 10 g b 6
‘one.’ Similarly, the
CD4026 count on the display
5 C OUT 12
b f e d c f e d c
6 f 11 9 1 2 4 9 1 2 4
advances by ‘one’
T1 e
BC547
with each person en-
7 g 10
a
tering through the
8 9
R2
Vss d
S1
gate. When the count
10K RESET reaches ‘9,’ one cycle
1 CLK
VDD
16 completes.
2 INH
RST
15 Carry-out pin 5
3 EN IN 14 R5 of IC1 is connected
UNG C
4.7K
− +
IC1
to clock pin 1 of IC2
CON1 4 EN OUT
c
13
6V CD4026 to cascade another
5 C OUT 12
b
counter. On the next
TP0
6 f
e
11
clock after count ‘9,’ it
7 g
a
10 goes high to provide a
8 Vss d
9 clock pulse to IC2, ad-
GND
vancing its counter by
one. Now IC1 starts
all over again.
Fig. 1: Circuit of visitor counter DIS1 shows the

92 October 2013 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com


Fig. 2: An actual-size, single-side PCB for the visitor counter
unit’s digit and DIS2 shows the ten’s
digit of the count. After completion of
each cycle, ten’s digit advances by one.
You can add more CD4026 counters
with 7-segment displays for further
extending the display to three digits,
four digits, etc. For this, you have to
connect carry-out pin 5 of each CD4026
to clock pin 1 of the next CD4026 as
shown in the circuit diagram. Pin 15
of both IC1 and IC2 are connected to
ground through resistor R5. A reset
switch (S1) is connected to 6V for
www.efymag.com
Fig. 3: Component layout for the PCB
resetting the display to ‘00.’
Construction and testing
An actual-size, single-side PCB for
the visitor counter is shown in Fig. 2
and its component layout in Fig. 3.
After assembling the circuit on a PCB,
enclose it in a suitable case. Fix LED1,
DIS1 and DIS2 on the front panel. Use
a two-pin connector for connecting the
power supply to the PCB.
This is a simple circuit and should
work immediately after assembly. To
circuit idea
check the circuit for proper function-
ing, verify voltage levels on various
test points as per the test point table.
Proper installation is very impor-
tant. Mount LDR1 on the gate such that
light falling on it is interrupted when
somebody passes through the gate. We
have used a fixed resistor here but, if
necessary, you can use a preset in place
of R2 for tuning the system to your
environment. 
The author is a hobbyist and M.Tech from Banaras
Hindu University (BHU)
Electronics For You | October 2013 93
 circuit idea
Earth Fault Indicator
D. Mohankumar
I
n mains-powered equipment, ex-
posed metal parts are connected to
earth wire in order to prevent us-
ers from contact with high voltages if
electrical insulation fails. Connections to
ground through earth connection also
limit the build-up of static electricity
when handling electrostatic-sensitive
devices. Earth in a mains electrical wir-
ing system is a conductor that provides a
low-impedance path to the earth to pre-
vent hazardous voltages from appearing
on equipment and hence the name.
Here is a simple tester to find wheth-
er the mains wiring is correct or not. This
tester can be used to check sockets peri-
odically before connecting appliances
like heater and electric iron. It indicates
the status of the mains wiring through
two LEDs as shown in Fig. 1.
Circuit and working
Fig. 2 shows the circuit of earth fault
indicator. The circuit is built around a
BC547 transistor (T1), two LEDs (LED1
and LED2), two 1N4007 diodes (D1 and
D2) and five resistors (R1 through R5).
The circuit takes advantage of the
voltage that appears across the earth
and neutral terminals. Neutral-to-earth
Test Points
Test point Details
Across TP0 and TP1 Around 230V AC
Across TP0 and TP2 4V AC (depends on the
load current and imped-
ance of neutral wire)
Parts List
Semiconductors:
LED1 - 5mm green LED
LED2 - 5mm red LED
D1, D2 - 1N4007 rectifier diode
T1 - BC547 npn transistor
Resistors (all ¼-watt, ±5% carbon, unless stated
otherwise):
R1 - 33-kilo-ohm, 1W
R2, R3 - 470-kilo-ohm
R4 - 470-ohm
R5 - 1-kilo-ohm
Miscellaneous:
CON1 - 3-pin connector for mains
94 October 2013 | Electronics For You
to light up the green LED (LED1) if
earth is correctly connected. The base
edi
s.c. dwiv
of T1 is connected to earth pin of the
mains supply through a network of
resistors R2 and R3 as shown in Fig. 2.
voltage as measured at the load for a Working of the circuit is simple.
single-phase circuit is a function of the The red LED (LED2) lights up if there
load current and the impedance of the is power in the socket and phase (L)
neutral wire. Various standards limit and neutral (N) lines are connected
this voltage drop in a branch circuit to correctly. Diode D2 protects the green
3 per cent (5 per cent total for feeder LED (LED1) from damage when the
and branch circuit) for a reasonable polarity changes. Resistors R4 and R5
efficiency of operation. Based on this, limit current through LED1 and LED2,
the neutral-to-earth voltage limit for respectively.
a single-phase 120V AC circuit is 3.6V When the mains wiring is proper, a
AC and for a single-phase 230V AC potential difference develops between
circuit 6.6V AC. the neutral (N) and earth (E) lines and
There is no additional power sup- transistor T1 turns on to light up the
ply used to operate this circuit. The cir- green LED (LED1). This indicates that
cuit is directly powered from the 230V the earth connection is perfect. At the
AC mains supply. The combination of same time, the red LED also glows, in-
diode D1 and resistor R1 reduces the dicating that the phase (L) and neutral
230V AC mains to a low voltage for the (N) lines are connected properly. In
circuit. A transistor switch is provided brief, if the phase, neutral and earth
connections are proper, both the red
and green LEDs light up. When the
earth connection is broken, the red
LED2 glows but green LED1 does not.
Construction and testing
An actual-size, single-side PCB for the
earth fault indicator is shown in Fig.
3 and its component layout in Fig. 4.
Fig. 1: Author’s prototype After assembling the circuit on a PCB,
enclose it in a suitable plastic case. The
INPUT = 230V AC, 50Hz circuit can be housed in an adaptor box
R1
with three pins (see Fig. 1).
R4
D1 33K,1W
470E
R5 To test the circuit for proper func-
1N4007 1K
tioning, check input supply at TP1
TP1 TP2
LED1
D2 with respect to TP0. Also check the
INPUT R2
L 470K 1N4007 voltage difference across neutral and
E
N
T1
BC547 earth pins as per the test point table.
CON1 R3 EFY note. As the circuit is oper-
470K LED2
ated directly from the mains voltage,
TP0
it should be assembled only by experi-
Fig. 2: Circuit of earth fault detector enced persons. To avoid lethal shock,
do not touch or trou-
bleshoot the circuit
when it is connected
to mains power. 
The author is an associate
professor at Government
College for Women, Thiru-
vananthapuram, Kerala, and
Fig. 3: An actual-size, single-side Fig. 4: Component layout for
PCB for the earth fault indicator the PCB a regular contributor to EFY
www.efymag.com
 do-it-yourself

Control Your Raspberry Pi Ankit G

upta

with Android Phone

The article talks about Raspberry Control app using which you can not only control your
Raspberry Pi with Android devices but also design a complete home automation system

Pooja Juyal nect flawlessly with Raspberry Pi and above work with a lot of ease. The
do amazing things. This article talks Android phone easily gets connected

R
aspberry Pi is a perfect play- about one such app called Raspberry to Raspberry Pi with just a touch of a
ground for DIYers as they Control and the procedure to get it button and you can perform all sorts
can solve a lot of real-world running on your Android device and of control functions. Once connected,
problems easily. This is evident from control Raspberry Pi through it. you can automate the whole house and
the visibility control appliances using your existing
of Raspberry Raspberry controller Android phone. All GPIO pins can be
Pi on all plat- Raspberry Control is one of the most monitored and controlled individually
forms. Even interesting Android apps for Raspber- to switch on/off various appliances.
Android and ry Pi, which is very simple to use and You can login and configure your
iOS apps are allows you to even design a complete Raspberry Pi for various applications
not left out. home automation system. This app has through the SSH connection terminal.
There are following functionalities: Multiple sensors can be monitored and
some wonder- 1. SSH connection terminal recorded for controlling functions and
ful apps that I 2. Control and monitoring of GPIO much more.
have recently pins of Raspberry Pi
come across 3. Temperature monitor using Connecting Android
on Android, DS18B20 sensor phone with Raspberry Pi
Fig. 1: Raspberry Control
home screen which can con- 4. Terminal emulator for remote Connecting an Android phone with
5. Remote pro- Raspberry Pi through this app requires
cess management certain software already installed on
6. Built-in Raspberry Pi. Follow below-mentioned
MJPEG stream steps to install these software on Rasp-
client berry Pi:
7. 1-wire and 1. If you already have an old ver-
I2C bus manage- sion (0.1) of Raspberry Control in-
ment stalled on Raspberry Pi, you first need
All the func- to un-install it. If you are installing it
tions mentioned for the first time, you can skip this step

Fig. 2: Download rpc_installer-2013-03-24.tar.gz

Fig. 3: Extracting the downloaded file Fig. 4: Installation of the downloaded software

www.efymag.com Electronics For You | October 2013 95

 do-it-yourself
and go to step 2. Version 0.1 did not of Raspberry Control software from ‘GPIO Control’
have the uninstaller, so it needs to be http://www.lukasz-skalski.com/ function on the
un-installed manually using the com- index.php/component/option,com_ Android device.
mands given below: phocadownload/Itemid,90/id,1/ If you select ‘no,’
$ rm -Rf $HOME/Raspberry_Control view,category/ it will be unavail-
$ sudo insserv -r 3. Using ‘cd’ command navigate able to control on
rpc_shellinaboxd to the location where you have down- the Android de-
$ sudo rm /etc/ loaded the file and extract the tar.gz vice (see Fig. 7).
init.d/rpc_ archive using the following command You may
shellinaboxd (see Fig. 3): want to change
Also remove $ tar xvzf rpc_installer-2013-03-24. the label of each
‘/home/pi/Rasp- tar.gz
Fig. 8: Changing labels
GPIO corre-
berry_Control/ 4. Now go to the extracted direc- for GPIOs sponding to your
core/rpc_export’ tory with ‘cd rpc_installer’ command
line form ‘~/. and run the installation script (see
bashrc’ file. Fig. 4):
Fig. 5: GPIO Control
2. Download $ ./rpc_utils --install (without
screen the latest version sudo!)
5. Rebooting the Raspberry Pi is
highly recommended after this instal-
lation.
6. The last step is to download and
install Raspberry Control (version 0.2)
application on your Android device
from Google Play.
Once all the setup is done, you can
immediately connect your phone to
Raspberry Pi and start playing around
with it. In the next section we describe
the various features of Raspberry
Control.

GPIO monitoring
and control Fig. 9: Remote session
Once logged in, press on the GPIO
symbol shown in Fig. 1. GPIO Control
screen will appear as shown in Fig.
5. You can use this panel to monitor
and control various GPIO pins. Here
BCM GPIO numbering scheme is used.
Fig. 6: GPIO numbering You can refer to Fig. 6 for the relation-
ship between physical
pin numbers and GPIO
numbering.
Now you can select
which GPIO should
be available in GPIO
Control function on the
Android device. You
can do it in ‘/etc/rasp-
berry_control/rpc.conf’
file under ‘GPIO_EX-
PORT’ section. If you
select ‘yes’ for a GPIO,
Fig. 7: Configuring GPIO availability for control it will be available in Fig. 10: Temperature monitoring

96 October 2013 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

 do-it-yourself
setup. This can also be done in the SSH connection 5V
TV control
same file under ‘GPIO NAME’ section terminal You can easily control
(see Fig. 8). You can start a terminal a TV with your An-
session on Raspberry Pi droid phone acting as
with your phone using the remote (refer Fig.
SSH (see Fig. 9). For that, 12). This function can
just press the symbol for be implemented with
‘Shell’ (Fig. 1) and enter a small circuit shown
the IP of your Raspberry in Fig. 13. Connect this
Pi. Also put the user- circuit to GPIO7 (BCM
name and password. GPIO number) as shown
You will be logged in to in the circuit and control
Raspberry Pi through a Fig. 13: IR circuit for remote control your TV.
remote session within
seconds. Process
monitoring
Temperature The process monitor
sensor panel shown in Fig.
Fig. 11: DS18B20 pin configurations
monitoring 14 can help you view
The system can monitor and control various
and graph temperatures processes running on
remotely sensed by pro- Raspberry Pi. You can
grammable resolution stop/run any process
1-wire digital thermom- that you like. The panel
eter DS18B20. It com- also shows the CPU and
municates over a 1-wire memory usage per pro-
bus that by definition re- cess for convenience.
quires only one data line
for communication with Last but not the
a central microproces- least
sor. The DS18B20 digital Fig. 14: Process monitoring panel The functionalities men-
thermometer provides tioned above are more
9-bit to 12-bit Celsius temperature than enough to implement a home
measurements and has an alarm func- automation system controlled by your
tion with non-volatile user-program- Android phone. To add even more to
mable upper and lower trigger points. it, there are functions like live camera
(Refer Fig. 11 for pin description.) feed and I2C interface also implement-
The moment you connect this sen- ed. The settings are simple and can
sor to GPIO4 (BCM GPIO numbering), easily be configured. 
it will reflect in the panel shown in Fig.
10 and the current temperature will be The author is working as an assistant manager at
Fig. 12: TV control indicated. Samtel Avionics & Defence Systems

EFY Group’s
New Initiative

EB Times
This 8-page monthly B2B Newspaper is a resource for traders, distributors,
dealers, and those who head channel business, as it aims to give an impetus to
channel sales

www.efymag.com Electronics For You | October 2013 97

 do-it-yourself

Displaying Raspberry Pi’s IP Address

Here is a simple project that displays on an LCD the IP address allotted to
your Raspberry Pi operating headlessly. The programming language used is vivek panc
habhaiya

Python, which is the official language for Raspberry Pi and is very easy to learn

Somnath Bera LCD TV with Raspberry Pi to con- where the IP address allotted to the
nect to the network, which is a huge Raspberry Pi and the current time

F
or those who like to run their inconvenience. are displayed on a 16×2 LCD. The
Raspberry Pi always in head- To overcome this problem, programming language used is
less mode, it becomes really presented here is a simple project Python, which is the official language
annoying to guess the IP address al- for Raspberry Pi
lotted to Raspberry Pi every time and is very easy
they want to connect to an unknown to learn.
dynamic host configuration protocol
(DHCP) network. This IP address is Circuit and
required to remotely access Raspber- working
ry Pi using secure shell (SSH). Also, Fig. 2 shows the
for a DHCP network this address will pin description of
be different every time. So either you GPIO connector on
guess the IP address or buy a small Raspberry Pi. The
GPIO connector has
pins with different
functions. The de-
Fig. 2: Pin description of GPIO connector on Raspberry Pi vice has seven true

PIN 26
PIN 24
PIN 22
PIN 18
PIN 16
PIN 12
14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4
D7 D6 D5 D4 D3 D2 D1 D0 EN R/W RS
PIN 2 2 15
VDD A/VEE
R1 560E
PIN 6 3
VO
16
1 K
Vss

R2 560E
LCD

Fig. 1: Author’s prototype Fig. 3: Wiring diagram for connecting the GPIO of Raspberry Pi to the 16x2 LCD

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98 October 2013 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

 do-it-yourself
Software
First, you have to in-
stall Python develop-
Fig. 4: Installation of Python-dev ment toolkit (required
for RPi.GPIO) using
the following com-
mand (see Fig. 4):
$ sudo apt-get
Fig. 5: Rpi-GPIO installation install python-dev Raspberry Pi Camera
Similarly, install for Raspberry Pi
Python libraries by
writing the follow-
ing command in the New
Launch
terminal as shown in
Fig. 6: Command for viewing source code in nano editor Fig. 5:
$ sudo apt-get
install python-rpi.
gpio
After installations,
Fig. 7: Running the code download the source
code (iptalk.py) and
move it to a directory RS Stock No. 775-7731
of your choice. You
can see the source Raspberry Pi
code in nano text edi- Model B
Model A
Fig. 8: Setting the date and time tor using the follow-
ing command:
efy Note $ sudo nano iptalk.py
Now you can run the code using
The source code of this project is
the below-mentioned command as
included in this month’s EFY DVD
shown in Fig. 7: RS Stock No. 756-8317 RS Stock No. 756-8308
and is also available for free down-
$ sudo python
load on www.efymag.com website.
iptalk.py
GPIO pins, I2C interface, SPI interface, You can set the date and time by Available on
serial Tx/Rx pins and PWM pins that writing the following command as Next Day Delivery
can be used to control the external shown in Fig. 8:
hardware. sudo date --set “23 APR 2012 16:01”
Fig. 3 shows connection of Rasp- Now the last task is to make this www.rsindia.com
Toll Free: 1800-180-7746
berry Pi’s GPIO to the 16x2 LCD for work on every boot. For that, open
displaying the output. Only four data ‘etc/rc.local’ file using the below
pins are used for writing on the LCD command: RS Components &
panel. Either the first four or the last $ sudo nano /etc/rc.local Controls (India) Ltd.
four data pins are to be used. In our Copy the following line in the be-
case, the second set of data pins (pin ginning of this file:
D4, D5, D6 and D7) are used. sudo python /where–your–file-is/
Working of the project is simple. iptalk.py
When you switch on the Raspberry Pi Save it (Cntrl+o), exit (Cntrl+x) and
board, it starts booting up and fires the reboot your Raspberry Pi. Now every
small Python program. The program time you boot your Raspberry Pi, it
determines the IP address of Raspberry will show the IP address of the device Find out more
Pi and writes it down on the first line along with the time.  useful resources on
of the LCD panel. Once the IP address
The author is an avid user of open source soft-
Raspberry Pi at,
is known, you can easily access it using ware. Professionally, he is a thermal power expert
SSH. The second line of the LCD shows and works as an additional general manager at www.designspark.com
the current time. NTPC Limited

www.efymag.com Electronics For You | October 2013 99

 useful websites

Microcontroller-Based Projects
Microcontrollers have always been a topic of interest for engineers. This month we have listed
a few websites here that can be helpful if you are interested in microcontroller-based projects

Electronicsforu.com
Electroicsforu.com serves as a storehouse of information for the electronics and technology industry.
It brings you the latest news, information about new products and a Web search covering not less than
50,000 electronics websites. Not to forget the hugely popular EFY tested circuits, reproduced from
Electronics For You magazine! There is also an MCU projects section.

www.electronicsforu.com/newelectronics/microcontrollers/

ElectroFriends.com
This is a one-stop educational site for all electronics and computer engineering students.
It has a collection of microcontroller and basic electronics projects. The site includes
projects and tutorials for computer engineering students as well. You can also submit your
own projects and articles related to electronics and computers. The site has a community
page at facebook.com.

http://electrofriends.com/category/projects/microcontrollers/

EngineersGarage.com
Engineersgarage is a rich resource for engineering students. It has many sections covering ‘how-to’
articles, invention stories and a forum. There is also a dedicated section on microcontroller projects.
This section of EG Labs brings you interesting projects based on 8051 microcontroller. These 8051
projects can serve as a good reference for final-year electronics engineering projects.

www.engineersgarage.com/microcontroller/8051projects

eeweb.com
Co-founders Joe Wolin and Cody Miller formed Aspen Labs, LLC in 2007 with an aim to create
a business media company that will focus on the needs of engineers. In 2010, they partnered
with Digi-Key Corporation and launched eeweb, a premier electrical engineering community for
hardware designers. The site has many useful information along with projects related to MCU.

http://www.eeweb.com/projects/browse/microcontroller

best-microcontroller-projects.com
If you are looking for microcontroller projects and resources then this is a useful site for you. Here
you can find microcontroller tools projects and tutorials designed by John Main, a professional
electronics design engineer based in the UK. Each project includes source code, description and
schematics which you can use as a basis for starting your own projects or just use them standalone.

http://www.best-microcontroller-projects.com/microcontroller-project-ideas.html
100 October 2013 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

UPC/EAN and Code 39
Barcode Generator
Sridhar Bukya
P
resented here is a program that
generates both UPC/EAN/IAN
and Code 39 barcodes using
JavaScript.
Barcode is an optical machine-
readable representation of data relating
to the object to which it is attached.
Barcodes are of various types and
are used in various places. Earlier,
barcode was a one-dimensional (1D)
code of variable sizes, used to encode
information that can be directly fed to
a computer terminal with the help of
barcode readers, without any physical
contact with the item. Now you can
Fig. 1: Typical UPC barcode
Fig. 2: Program output
www.efymag.com
also find two-dimensional (2D) codes
used in many places.
Matrix code, also termed as 2D
barcode or simply 2D code, is a two-
dimensional way to represent infor-
mation. These codes have information
encoded in both horizontal and vertical
directions. Quick response (QR) code is
one of the examples of 2D codes. (For
more details about QR code, please
refer to a software article published in
EFY Sep. 2012 issue.)
2D barcode is similar to linear or
1D barcode but can represent more
data per unit area.
UPC/EAN/IAN barcode
Universal Product Code (UPC), Euro-
pean Article Number (EAN) and Inter-
national Article Number (IAN) are 1D
barcodes. These codes have informa-
tion encoded in only one horizontal
direction; there is no information in the
vertical direction.
UPC barcode. There are different
types of UPC codes including UPC-A
and UPC-E codes. Each UPC-A bar-
code consists of a scannable strip of
black bars and white spaces, above a
sequence of twelve numerical digits. A
typical UPC barcode for ‘12345678999’
is shown in Fig. 1.
EAN-13.
EAN-13 bar-
code, original-
ly European
Article Num-
ber but now
renamed Inter-
national Arti-
cle Number, is
a 13-digit (12
for data and
one check)
barcoding
standard that
is a superset
software section
o
sani the
of the original 12-digit UPC system
developed in the United States. EAN-
13 barcode is defined by the standards
organisation GS1.
EAN-13 barcodes are used world-
wide for marking products often sold
at retail point-of-sale. The numbers
encoded in EAN-13 barcodes are
product identification numbers. All
the numbers encoded in UPC and EAN
barcodes are known as Global Trade
Item Numbers (GTINs), and they can
be encoded in other GS1 barcodes.
Structure of EAN-13. EAN-13 bar-
code is a numeric-only code, divided
into three parts: first six digits come
under one slab, next six digits come
under another slab and the last digit
is the parity digit. The first digit is
placed before the barcode and in the
last ‘>’ symbol is used to notify the
scanner that it is the last digit, so that
the scanner can end the scanning
process and begin processing the data
bars.
Code 39 barcode
Code 39 is a general-purpose code
widely used worldwide. It is also one
of the examples of 1D barcode. Code
39 is widely used in many industries
and is the standard for many govern-
ment barcode specifications, includ-
ing the US Department of Defense.
It is defined in American National
Standards Institute (ANSI) standard
MH10.8M-1983.
Structure. Code 39 is an alphanu-
meric bar code that starts and ends
with an asterisk (*). This barcode was
used to encode data of various articles
and packages till recently.
More information on these
barcodes can be found on http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_39
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Universal_Product_Code websites.
Electronics For You | October 2013 101
 software section
Fig. 3: Generating EAN-13 and Code 39 barcodes
Software program
The program UPCEANC39.htm is
coded in JavaScript and generates
barcodes for UPC, EAN and Code 39
using various JavaScript functions.
This application requires JavaScript
plug-in, which has to be initialised or
installed. You also need Internet Ex-
plorer browser in your system. If you
102 October 2013 | Electronics For You
have the plug- efy Note
in installed but
The source code of this project is
currently dis-
included in this month’s EFY DVD
abled, you will
and is also available for free down-
get a warning load on www.efymag.com website.
message like
“Click on the used to get the input characters from
light-yellow bar the user.
above, choose When you run the code, you will
‘Allow Blocked get the program output as shown in
Content...’” Fig. 2.
Here you need Enter the code, say, ‘123456789222,’
to click ‘Yes’ op- and ‘EFY Enterprises.’ Now press ‘Dis-
tion. Now you play’ button to get the EAN-13 code
should see the strip of bars and digits as shown in Fig.
application run- 3, where the last digit ‘1’ on the right-
ning, or else install the plug-in from the hand side is the checksum.
Internet or a genuine CD/DVD. To generate Code 39 barcode, enter
Main functions used in the source the same digits below as shown in Fig.
code are: 3. Code 39 barcode is generated with
1. BarCodeGenerator( ): It is used to ‘*123456789222*’digits just below the
generate the barcodes. strip bars. 
2. EAN13Generator.method( ): It is
The author is a B.Tech in electronics and com-
used to calculate the checksum of the munications engineering. He likes coding and has
EAN-13 barcode. keen interest in space technology (satellite com-
3. getCode39Value(inputchar): It is munications) and mobile communication
www.efymag.com
 software section

Finding the Day of the Week in ‘C’

for a Given Date sani the
o

Dushyant Chauhan

G
enerally, a novice starts
programming with ‘C’ lan-
guage—the most trusted lan-
guage in the embedded field. ‘C’
language is quite easy to learn, robust
and faster than other higher-level lan-
guages like Java and gives immense
scope and flexibility due to its very
basic nature.
Presented here is a utility program
written in ‘C.’ This program is mainly
meant for students and hobbyists who
are new to ‘C’ and want to understand
its basic concepts.
It often happens that we need to
know the day of the week for any past
or future date. If you have a wall or
table calendar, you can easily find that
4th March, 2012, fell on Sunday. This
program exactly does the same and in-
form what was the day on a given date.
The program is rather simple,
and uses the concepts of ‘if,’ ‘for’ and
‘switch’ loops and some other simple
‘C’ functions. The compiler used is
Turbo C++ V3.0, which is easily avail-
able on the website and can be used
by students and professionals alike.
There is a ‘time.h’ header file available
Fig. 1: Screenshot of the program output
Fig. 2: Screenshot of the input date given by
the user
Fig. 3: Screenshot of the final program output
efy Note
The source code of this project is
included in this month’s EFY DVD
and is also available for free down-
load on www.efymag.com website.
on the Internet for ‘C’ programming,
using which you can easily find date
and other time related functionalities.
This program has been made without
using the time.h header file so that the
logic is exploited to the maximum. For
details of the time.h header file, you
can visit the links given below:
http://www.cplusplus.com/refer-
ence/ctime/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_
date_and_time_functions
Program testing
The program (calendar.c) was tested
on a Windows XP machine as follows:
1. Install Turbo C++ V3.0 on your
system
2. Copy the calendar.c code into
your system from EFY DVD of this
month’s issue
3. Click the TC.exe file in ‘bin’
folder. Compile the calendar.c code. The
output will be as shown in Fig. 1. You
should enter the input as per the format
given on the screen (refer Fig. 2). The fi-
nal output should be as shown in Fig. 3.
The author is a B.Tech in electrical and electron-
ics. Currently he is a senior software engineer
(testing) at iGATE Global Solutions, Noida. His
interests include embedded systems and Linux
operating systems

calendar.c
#include<stdio.h> if(((year - ref_year)%4) == 0) {
#include<conio.h> { return 0;
lp_yr_flg=1; }
int correct_date_calc(int day, int }
month, int year) } else if(((month == 1) || (month ==
{ 3) || (month == 5) || (month == 7) ||
const int ref_year=2012; if(month>12 || month<1) (month == 8) || (month == 10) || (month
int lp_yr_flg=0; { == 12)) && (day>31 || day<1))
return 0; {
if(year<=2012) } return 0;
{ }
if(((ref_year - year)%4) == 0) if((lp_yr_flg==1) && (month==2) &&
{ (day>29)) else if(((month == 4) || (month ==
lp_yr_flg=1; { 6) || (month == 9) || (month ==11)) &&
} return 0; (day>30 || day<1))
} } {
return 0;
else if(year>2012) else if((lp_yr_flg==0) && (month==2) && }
{ (day>28))

www.efymag.com Electronics For You | October 2013 103

 software section
return 1; for(day_dec=no_of_days(month_dec, month, year);
} year_dec); day_dec>=1; day_dec--)
{ clrscr();
int leap_year_calc(int year_lp) if(year_dec==year_bef && month_ if(crct_date_flg == 0)
{ dec==month_bef && day_dec==day_bef) {
const int ref_year=2012; { printf(“Date Entered is an Invalid
int lp_yr_flg=0; return day; Date!!”);
} getch();
if(year_lp<=2012) }
{ day--;
if(((ref_year - year_lp)%4) == 0) clrscr();
{ if(day==0)
lp_yr_flg=1; { if(crct_date_flg==1)
return lp_yr_flg; day=7; {
} } if(year <= ref_year)
} } {
} day_date = bef_ref_date(day, month,
else if(year_lp>2012) } return 0; year);
{ }
if(((year_lp - ref_year)%4) == 0) switch (day_date)
{ /*This Function calculates the day when {
lp_yr_flg=1; the date given by user is after the ref- case 1:
return lp_yr_flg; erence date*/ printf(“\nThe day was Monday”);
} int aft_ref_date(int day_aft,int month_ break;
} aft,int year_aft) case 2:
{ printf(“\nThe day was Tuesday”);
return 0; break;
} int day_inc, year_inc, month_inc=1, case 3:
day=1, month_day_lim; printf(“\nThe day was Wednesday”);
break;
int no_of_days(int month, int year) for(year_inc=2012; year_inc<=year_aft; case 4:
{ year_inc++) printf(“\nThe day was Thursday”);
int day=0; { break;
int leap_yr = 0; for(month_inc=1; month_inc<=12; case 5:
month_inc++) printf(“\nThe day was Friday”);
leap_yr = leap_year_calc(year); { break;
month_day_lim = no_of_days(month_ case 6:
if((month == 1) || (month == 3) || inc, year_inc); printf(“\nThe day was Saturday”);
(month == 5) || (month == 7) || (month break;
== 8) || (month == 10) || (month == 12)) for(day_inc=1; day_inc<=month_day_ case 7:
{ lim; day_inc++) printf(“\nThe day was Sunday”);
day=31; { break;
return day; if(year_inc==year_aft && month_ }
} inc==month_aft && day_inc==day_aft) }
{
else if((month == 4) || (month == 6) return day; else if (year > ref_year)
|| (month == 9) || (month ==11)) } {
{ day_date = aft_ref_date(day, month,
day=30; day++; year);
return day;
} if(day==8) switch (day_date)
{ {
else if((month == 2) && (leap_yr == day=1; case 1:
1)) } printf(“\nThe day is Sunday”);
{ } break;
day=29; } case 2:
return day; } return 0; printf(“\nThe day is Monday”);
} } break;
case 3:
else if((month == 2) && (leap_yr == printf(“\nThe day is Tuesday”);
0)) void main() break;
{ { case 4:
day=28; int day, month, year, day_date, crct_ printf(“\nThe day is Wednesday”);
return day; date_flg=0; break;
} return 0; const int ref_year = 2012; case 5:
} printf(“\nThe day is Thursday”);
printf(“\nPlease enter the input as break;
/*This function caculates the day when per the format\n\n “); case 6:
the date given by user is before the printf(“\nThe day is Friday”);
refernce date*/ printf(“\nEnter the Date in DD format: break;
int bef_ref_date(int day_bef,int month_ “); case 7:
bef,int year_bef) scanf(“%d”,&day); printf(“\nThe day is Saturday”);
{ break;
printf(“\nEnter the Month in MM for- }
int day_dec,year_dec,month_dec=12,day=1; mat: “); }
scanf(“%d”,&month);
for(year_dec=2012; year_dec>=year_bef; getch();
year_dec--) printf(“\nEnter the Year in YYYY for- clrscr();
{ mat: “); }
for(month_dec=12; month_dec>=1; scanf(“%d”,&year); }
month_dec--) 
{ crct_date_flg = correct_date_calc(day,

104 October 2013 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com


Instrumentation Engineering:
A Vast Field That’s Growing
Today the environment, be it in any field, is fast-changing. Had it not been for
Instrumentation engineers, we might have remained in the ‘Dark Age’ of electronics.
Because without the instruments we have today to verify things, we would have been
stuck with imperfect communication technology. Let us find out the scope for a career in
Instrumentation in India
(Image courtesy: www.karunya.edu)
Abhishek Mutha
T
he instruments we see today
were either non-existent or
worked very differently ten
to fifteen years ago. It would not be
wrong to say that the field of instru-
mentation is a superset of the fast-
changing fields of electronics, infor-
mation technology, measurement and
electronic communication. Basically, it
is a multi-disciplinary stream.
Instrumentation engineering is
loosely defined because the required
tasks are very domain-dependent. For
instance, a biomedical instrumenta-
tion expert has very different concerns
www.efymag.com
from a rocket instrumentation expert,
though both might have some common
concerns such as selection of sensors
based on various parameters.  are sound in fundamentals and have
“Instrumentation has been the fun-
damental engine for catalysing R&D in
India. Segments like communication,
aerospace and defense, industrial, com-
puters and semiconductors, education
and academia, and general-purpose
electronics also use instrumentation
to validate their devices, designs and
deployment,” informs Jyotsna Kukreti
Dobriyal, HR operations, Agilent Tech-
nologies India.
“New concepts of instrument-
aware systems have opened this do-
Career
main even further. Engineers at any
level, whether it is design, valida-
tion or software development, need
proper knowledge of test methods.
This domain is growing in India,”
she adds.
Hemant Kamat, chief technology
officer, Shalaka Technologies, too be-
lieves that instrumentation is a very
important aspect of manufacturing
industry. “Instrumentation is applied
in R&D, process, manufacturing and
quality departments of manufactur-
ing organisations. It is also important
in building management systems—a
market that is growing significantly in
India,” he shares. 
Scope, roles and
responsibilities
Unlike services vertical, instrumenta-
tion industry is not manpower-inten-
sive. However, it requires talented
individuals that have specific skills in
measurement science and engineer-
ing, believes Jyotsna. “Those who
specific knowledge of measurement
systems will find multiple career op-
tions within this industry,” she says.
With the increasing demand for
electrical power and developments
in audio and video communication
systems and the automation industry,
electrical/instrumentation engineers
have become vital to the society to-
day.
“Industries such as textile, phar-
maceutical, paper, metallurgy, au-
tomotive, marine, locomotive and
Electronics For You | October 2013 105
 Career

Task & responsibilities of an instrumentation engineer

 Develop concept designs and feasibility studies
 Design or update specifications and designs of electrical systems and equipment
 Design ways to generate and manage electricity
 Devise ways to control processes using automation techniques and computers
 Examine safety aspects of the planned work
 Plan manufacture or use of equipment and appliances
 Oversee testing of new systems and correction of faults
 Supervise the installation and maintenance of systems and equipment
 Design new control systems, and develop, maintain and modify existing systems
 Work collaboratively with design engineers, operation engineers, purchasers and other
internal staff
 Contact clients, suppliers, contractors and relevant authorities
 Project management within cost- and time-constrained environments
 Write computer software
 Develop new business proposals
 Liaise with clients, suppliers, contractors and relevant authorities, e.g., the Nuclear
Decommissioning Authority
 Understand and ensure compliance with health and safety regulations and quality
standards of the country in which work is undertaken

aerospace also require instrumentation gramme after completing your post-

engineers,” says Kamat.  graduation. Besides basic sciences and
Instrumentation engineering com-
prises design and development of
more efficient electrical machinery,
control equipment and power sys-
tems for generation, transmission and
distribution of electrical energy, and
telecommunication. Instrumentation
technicians perform operations like
commissioning, installation, calibra-
tion, maintenance and repair of com-
plex measurement and control systems
used in a variety of process control
operations. Those willing to make a
career in this field should have a sound
knowledge of measurement and con-
trol principles of pneumatic and elec-
tronic instruments theoretically as well
as practically. Tasks and responsibili-
ties of instrumentation engineers vary
from company to company (please see
the box).
Qualification required
A BE or B.Tech degree is desirable.
However, a diploma course in instru-
mentation engineering after passing
10th standard will be sufficient for
becoming a junior engineer. Even
10+2 passouts in science stream with
physics, chemistry and mathematics
as main subjects are hired. If research
interests you, enroll in a Ph.D pro-
regular engineering subjects, micro-
wave communication, radar and tel-
evision engineering, microelectronics,
computers, and communication and
control systems are taught at gradua-
tion level. 
“Instrumentation engineers can be
science graduates in physics, chemis-
try and geology, engineering diploma
holders or graduates in electronics,
instrumentation and electrical engi-
neering. Mechanical and chemical
engineers with exposure to electron-
ics can also qualify for the job,” says
Kamat.
Other areas where aspirants could
look to develop their skills are intelli-
gent controls, sensor network, speech
processing, monitor control and digital
signal processing to name a few.
Nature of the job
“There are many entry-level roles in
the field of instrumentation engineer-
ing. Prominent among them are sales
engineer, application engineer, service
engineer and marketing engineer,”
informs Jyotsna.
Jyotsna explains, “Sales engineers
identify customer requirements and
position the right product and solution
from their portfolio to best align with

106 October 2013 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

APPOINTMENT
We are looking for
Marketing Professionals with a
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
in the field of Active/passive
Components
We are one of the most dynamic and fastest growing, multi-million
dollar company engaged in supplying electronics components.
We are ISO 9001 : 2008 certified with more than 20 years of
experience in the market.

OUR VISION:
To be a dominant and aggressive components supplier in the field of Automobiles/EMS/SMPS/
UPS/Controllers/Testing and Measuring Instruments/Telecom/Medical Instruments/LED Lighting.

For our ambitious growth plans, we are looking for Senior marketing professionals / Business
partners across various segments and verticals in active and passive components. We have
requirements at the following locations:

WE WANT SENIOR MARKETING HEAD :

• North (to be based in Delhi) • West (to be based in either Mumbai or Pune)
• South (to be based in either Bengaluru or Chennai) • East (to be based in Kolkata or around)

QUALIFICATION & EXPERIENCE:

Candidates must be engineers with an experience of at least 10 years in selling active and passive
components Experience in MNCs will be an advantage, the candidate can bring in his experience
in sourcing as well as selling to customers.

RESPONSIBILITY:
The Candidate will be responsible for ensuring the best sourcing (purchase) across the world and
selling them throughout the world using his/her contacts. Additionally, the candidate will be
responsible for building a team and leading from the front.
The candidate must be prepared to travel across the globe for sourcing as well as selling the products.

REMUNERATION:
Absolutely the best in the industry. Revenue – profit sharing arrangements can also be worked out.
Interested candidates can send in their resume at
hrdpower13@gmail.com, fifthgen.products@yahoo.in
 Career
the customer’s measurement needs.
They also manage and grow customer
base for the company. An application
engineer has in-depth knowledge of
measurement techniques and products,
and is responsible for demonstrat-
ing and applying solutions, mostly
on-site at the customer’s place. This
enables sales and increases custom-
ers’ confidence in the company and its
capabilities.”
“Marketing engineers execute all
marketing-related initiatives to en-
hance sales activities. They are respon-
sible for introduction of new products
and technology in the marketplace and
constantly assessing customer needs.
Service engineers provide post-sales
repair and calibration support to the
end-users and help maintain their
product uptime and precision,” she
adds.
Other opportunities are in the
areas of automation and control,
plant maintenance, instrumentation
design, sales and marketing, service
engineering and R&D (DRDO, ISRO
and DAE).
“Instrumentation engineers may
be required to travel extensively and
frequently to remote areas for equip-
ment installation or maintenance of
already installed equipment,” informs
Kamat. “R&D and design requires a
deep insight into analogue electronics,
which is a rare skill these days in fresh
Top institutions for instrumentation engineering
 Most of the IITs and NITs
 Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani
 Rashtreeya Vidyalaya College of Engineering
 Vellore Institute of Technology
 PSG College of Technology
 International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore
 Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology (NSIT)
THE COMPLETE MAGAZINE ON OPEN SOURCE
108 October 2013 | Electronics For You
Job prospects (Courtesy: http://education.sulekha.com/)
 Instrumentation engineers find jobs in R&D units in both private and public sectors.
 Opportunities are available in heavy industries such as steel plants, thermal power
stations, refineries, fertiliser plants and cement plants. Instrumentation engineers are
also employed by defense establishments.
 Career avenues are available in management, sales and technical projects.
 Top employers for instrumentation engineers in India:
(a) Private sector: UltraTech Cement, Alchem International, A.R. Software, HCL Infosystems,
TCS, Infosys, Accenture
(b) Public sector: Railway Recruitment Board, Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), Bharat Heavy
Electricals Ltd (BHEL), National Fertilisers Ltd (NFL), Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL)
graduates from Indian universities,” bedded systems for instrumentation.
he adds.  We have a comprehensive assimilation
programme for experienced newly
Skills & training hired as well as freshers.”
“Apart from a training in electronics Talking about the training at Agi-
(digital and analogue), instrumentation lent, Jyotsna shares, “Post the initial
engineering aspirants should undergo company- and business-related orien-
training in handling, calibration and tation, the programme is customised
field diagnostics of instruments in vari- to the new hired. Freshers go through
ous domains,” informs Kamat. Gener- a three to six months long programme
ally, this training is provided by the where they get trained in measure-
employers to graduate trainees. ment science principles, products,
“Instrumentation engineers need technology and processes by subject
to be strong in analytical and logical matter experts. In addition, they get
skills apart from being competent in an opportunity to shadow a senior at
their core area of academic training,” work for a set period of time so that
Kamat says.  they can get first-hand experience of
Talking about the training provid- the job.” 
ed at his company, Kamat says, “Being
an embedded systems service pro- Pay package
vider, my company imparts training Typically, the pay package depends
in fundamental concepts of embedded on various parameters such as the
systems, microcontrollers and digital size and origin of the company, criti-
signal processors and design of em- cality of the job profile and location.
However, a fresh graduate may expect
anywhere from ` 20,000 to ` 24,000 per
month, informs Kamat.
“As with any other industry, pay
packages are competitive, and in line
with the candidate’s qualifications
and previous experience,” shares
Jyotsna. 
The author is a tech correspondent at EFY Bengaluru
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 industry nEWS
 corporate news  new ventures  calendar  new appointments
Government may impose
duty on electronic goods
A government committee is contem-
plating to impose basic customs duty
on selected electronic hardware goods.
These electronic items are not there in
the obligatory zero customs duty list
under World Trade Organisation’s
information technology pact signed
in the year 1996. The panel, which is
headed by J. Satyanarayana, secretary,
DeitY, is planning to modify the in-
verted duty structure in the electronic
hardware sector.
The committee members also in-
cludes Commerce Ministry officials. The
government is planning to take this step
with a view to promote domestic manu-
facturing of electronic hardware. Local
manufacturing is facing problems due
to the inverted duty structure.
` 300 bn investment
proposals for electronic
and IT sector
In the last six months, the Union gov-
ernment has received investment pro-
posals to the tune of ` 300 billion for
the electronics and IT industry apart
from 15 proposals for establishing
electronics clusters.
“The government has already re-
ceived 15 proposals to set up electronics
clusters, out of which six have been ap-
proved and some of these have already
started setting up these clusters,” Busi-
ness Standard quoted Ajay Kumar, joint
secretary, DeitY. “In last six months, the
government has received investment
proposals for around ` 30,000 crore for
the industry,” he added.
According to the new Electronics
Policy, 2013, the government would
incur 50 per cent of the cost of the
project with a ceiling of ` 500 million
for each 100 acres of land so that this
incentive by the government will boost
the establishment of electronics manu-
facturing clusters.
www.efymag.com
In Focus
Freescale appoints Satinder Sohi as India director
Freescale Semiconductor Inc. has appointed Satinder Sohi as the director for its
operations in India. The role of Sohi will involve leading Freescale’s R&D centres in
NOIDA, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
Genius appoints Gaurav Mathur as country business head
Genius India announced the appointment of Gaurav Mathur as the country
business head. Mathur would be responsible for driving the company’s growth,
through greater market penetration and strengthening the brand equity.
Awards
Vishay India declares distributor awards
Recognising the contribution of its outstanding distributors, Vishay Intertechnology
India declared the Distributor Awards for 2012. The winners of this year’s awards
included Elektronika Sales Pvt Ltd, WPG Electronics, Arrow Electronics, Inc., and
Future Electronics.
The government of India has al- the decision after reviewing propos-
ready approved three projects to the als from two consortia and the final
tune of ` 2 billion under the electronic decision will be taken soon. According
manufacturing clusters (EMC) scheme. to reports, government has already
The proposals were received from received two proposals worth ` 263
ELCINA and MPSEDC. billion and ` 252 billion to set up
semiconductor facilities at Noida in
Two semiconductor fabs get Uttar Pradesh and Prantij in Gujarat,
Cabinet’s initial nod respectively.
The Union Cabinet has given an initial “The Cabinet has given in-principle
approval to set up two semiconductor approval for setting up of semiconduc-
wafer fabrication (fab) manufacturing tor wafer fabrication manufacturing
facilities in the country. However, the facilities,” Information and Broadcasting
Cabinet would now seek proposals minister Manish Tewari told reporters
from more chip manufacturers before after a meeting of the Cabinet, chaired
giving the final nod. The Cabinet took by PM Manmohan Singh.
World PCB market grew
1.7 per cent in 2012
The world market for PCBs
reached nearly $60 billion in
2012, with 1.7 per cent real
growth over 2011, according to
IPC’s World PCB Production Re-
port. Asia is the largest producer
of PCBs with 90 per cent share of
world’s PCB production. China
is the No. 1 producer of PCBs
with 42.8 per cent share, Japan is
Semiconductor fabrication plant a distant second with 16 per cent.
Electronics For You | October 2013 109
 industry nEWS
South Korea also had a great year in
2012 and it moved to the third place sur-
passing Taiwan. The United States held
onto its fifth rank with just under 5 per
cent share. Vietnam is the newest addi-
tion to the Top-10 list of PCB-producing
countries, with just under 1 per cent.
Among the PCB categories covered,
rigid flex saw the highest growth in 2012.
High growth was also seen in the mar-
ket for high-density interconnect (HDI)
microvia boards, and 97 per cent of its
production was done in Asia and only
1.4 per cent was made in North America.
India amongst lowest
e-waste generating nations
India is one of the few countries gen-
erating the lowest quantity of e-waste.
According to a report prepared by the
United Nations Environment Program
(UNEP) titled ‘Recycling from e-waste
to resources,’ India’s annual e-waste is
less than 0.15 kg for every individual.
This is an encouraging statistics and
only a few other countries are in the
same league of e-waste from personal
computers, Jayanthi Natarajan, Envi-
ronment minister, revealed in Rajya
Sabha recently. Jayanthi further added
that the Ministry of Environment and
Forests (MoEF) has duly been notified
when the new e-waste rules came up
in May 2011. The rules had been put to
effect since May 1, 2012.
FPD TV market to grow to
$6.39 billion by 2015
Digitisation of broadcast, reduced re-
placement cycles and increased afforda-
bility is driving the growth in the Indian
flat panel display (FPD) TV market.
FPD TV market in India is estimated to
grow to $6.39 billion by 2015 according
to a report by Frost & Sullivan.
Advent of Internet-ready and smart
TVs has altered the characteristics and
dynamics of the TV market, which
is witnessing a paradigm shift from
cathode ray tubes (CRT) TVs to liq-
uid crystal diode (LCD) TVs to light
emitting diode (LED) TVs to smart/
high definition (HD) TVs. The FPD TV
market comprises LCD, LED, Plasma,
3D and smart TVs.
110 October 2013 | Electronics For You
Calendar of Forthcoming Electronics
Fairs/Exhibitions/Seminars/Events
Name, Date and Venue Topics to be covered Contact address for details
Electri Expo Usage of energy-efficient John Sudheer, Hyderabad International Trade
October 3-5, 2013
HITEX Exhibition Centre, Hyderabad
products
Expositions Limited, Izzat Nagar, Hyderabad
Fax: (040) 23112124, Phone: (040) 23112121
Electronics Rocks 2013 A platform for India’s Arun Singh, Electronics For You
NIMHANS Convention Center electronics design D-87/1, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase 1, New Delhi
October 5-6, 2013 engineering community Fax: (011) 26817563; Phone: 26810601/2/3
Bengaluru E-mail: efyenq@efyindia.com
Web: www.efyawards.com
TAITRONICS 2013 Cloud and IoT industry Cindy Wu Taiwan External Trade Development
October 8-11, 2013 Council, Exhibition Department
TWTC Nangang Exhibition Hall Phone: 886-2-27255200 Ext.: 2867
Taipei, Taiwan Web: www.TAITRONICS.org,
http://www.cloudtaiwan.com.tw
Electronic Asia 2013 Sourcing for components, Hong Kong Trade Development Council
October 13-16, 2013 assemblies, electronics Harbour Road, Hong Kong, Fax: (+852) 28240249
Hong Kong Convention &
Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong
production, display
technologies and solar
Phone: (+852) 1830668, E-mail: hktdc@hktdc.org
Web: www.hktdc.com
photovoltaic technologies
SmartCards Expo The modern tools and trends Amit Raushan, Electronics Today, Andheri West, Mumbai
October 16-18, 2013 associated with smart cards Fax: (022) 26730547, Phone: (022) 26730869
New Delhi
OSI Days Asia’s mega Atul Goel
November 11-13, 2013 open source convention Open Source For You
NIMHANS Convention Center D-87/1, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase 1
Bengaluru New Delhi; Fax: (011) 26817563
Phone: 26810601/2/3
E-mail: osidays@efyindia.com
IPC Conference on Solder IPC conference on solder and Anna Garrido
and Reliability reliability will include IPC Director of Marketing and Communications
November 13-14, 2013 presentations addressing Phone: +1 847-597-2804
Costa Mesa, California, USA strategic considerations E-mail: AnnaGarrido@ipc.org
related to solder alloys, Web: www.ipc.org/solder-reliability-conference
defects, risk mitigation
processes and data analysis
EFY Expo - Western India Edition Complete electronics Arun Singh
November 21-23, 2013, Mumbai ecosystem, including innovation, Phone: +91-8800094213
Bombay Convention & Exhibition
Centre, Mumbai
manufacturing, product design E-mail: efyexpo@efyindia.com
and product sales
INTEROP Conference and exhibition Salil Warior, group project firector
November 27-29, 2013 designed to empower Phone: 022-6172 7413; Mobile: 099875 80188
Bombay Convention & Exhibition information technology E-mail: salil.warior@ubm.com
Centre, Mumbai professionals
IFSEC India South Asia’s largest security Pankaj Jain, project director
5-7 December, 2013 exhibition Phone: 011-23233975/76/78
India Expo Centre, Greater Noida E-mail: pankaj.jain@ubm.com
Source India 2013
December 10, 2013
Conference, mini exhibition
and buyer-seller meet for
ELCINA Electronic Industries Association of India,
New Delhi
Chennai Trade Centre
Nandambakkam, Chennai
electronics industry
Phone: +91-9911445890, +91-9911445896
E-mail: rajesh@elcina.com, umesh@elcina.com
Web: www.sourceindia-electronics.com
China Sourcing Fair: A platform for Chinese Global Sources
Electronics & Components suppliers to showcase their E-mail: visit@chinasourcingfair.com
December 12-14, 2013, New Delhi electronics products
LED Expo Dedicated to science, Mex Exhibitions Pvt Ltd
December 19-21, 2013 technology and application of 9, LGF, Sant Nagar, East of Kailash, New Delhi
Pragati Maidan LEDs and solid-state lighting Fax: (011) 41071644
New Delhi Phone: 011-46464848
E-mail: gaurav@themediaexpo.com
2014 International CES Connects the industry and Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)
January 7-10, 2014 enables CE innovations to 1919 South Eads Street, Arlington, VA 22202 USA
Las Vegas, USA grow and thrive Fax: (703) 907-7601, Phone: 866-233-7968 (U.S.)
+1 301-631-3983 (outside U.S.)
E-mail: CESinfo@CE.org
ELECRAMA-2014 The world’s largest power 204, Swiss Complex, 33, Race Course Road, Bengaluru
January 8-12, 2014 transmission and distribution Fax: (080) 2220 1317, Phone: 080-2220 1316/1318
Bangalore International Exhibition biennial confluence E-mail: bangalore@ieema.org
Centre (BIEC), Bengaluru Web: http://www.elecrama.com
Electronics For You Expo 2014
February 2014
An expo covering the
complete electronics
Arun Singh, Electronics For You
D-87/1, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase 1,
Pragati Maidan ecosystem, including New Delhi 110020, Fax: (011) 26817563
New Delhi innovation, manufacturing, Phone: 26810601/2/3, E-mail: efyenq@efyindia.com
product design and Web: www.efyexpo.com
product sales
www.efymag.com
 industry nEWS
PC shipments in 2013. Data suggests
Calendar of Forthcoming Electronics
that the number of tablets shipped in
Fairs/Exhibitions/Seminars/Events the fourth quarter of 2013 will be some-
Name, Date and Venue Topics to be covered Contact address for details where around 84.1 million units. PC, on
the other hand, will remain at 83.1 mil-
Japan IT Week A business point for both Electronics and Computer Software Export
May 14-16, 2014 IT solution providers and Promotion Council, New Delhi lion units. The IDC also reported that
Tokyo Big Sight, Japan IT system managers Phone: + 91-11-47480000
E-mail: vgupta@escindia.com the shipping of smartphones is going to
csrawat@escindia.com pass 1.4 billion in 2013.
Web: www.escindia.in
Further, the data showed that on
Look up under ‘Events’ section in www.electronicsforu.com for a comprehensive list an yearly basis, a total of 227.3 mil-
Since this information is subject to change, all those interested are advised
lion units of tablets are expected to be
to ascertain the details from the organisers before making any commitment. shipped in the country. The report has
also mentioned that the overall market

Snippets for the smart connected devices is

expected to grow by 27.8 per cent year-
on-year in 2013.
NIELIT centres in north-east
The government of India is making efforts to fast track the process of establishing Taiwanese company set to
centres of National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT) in
north-east India. According to DeitY, about 15 centres have already been established in
invest ` 500 million in India
the north-east region to improve ICT training and education. With the current happenings in the
Indian electronics industry and a boost
Emerging ICT centres from the government side, internation-
The Department of Information Technology seems to be highly ambitious regarding al electronics manufacturers are show-
its plans meant for Tier II cities. ICT group seems keen on developing Mangalore and
other six cities as upcoming ICT centres in Karnataka.
ing interest in investing in the country.
Taiwan-based power backup provider,
Delhi-NCR to produce 50,000 metric tonnes e-waste CyberPower Systems Inc. has revealed
According to ASSOCHAM’s recent study on ‘E-waste in India by 2015,’ India’s capital its plans to invest ` 500 million in the
city and the NCR region will possibly generate e-waste of about 50,000 metric tonnes country. The company aims to sell its
annually by the year 2015, which will be much higher than the existing level of 30,000
products including high-end UPS, USB
metric tonnes annually.
car chargers and solar chargers.
IIT Kanpur gets centre of excellence Accordind to an IANS report, Mi-
IIT Kanpur will now have the National Centre of Excellence on large-area flexible chael Ho, president, CyberPower, said,
electronics. The setting up of this centre is a part of the National Policy on Electronics. The “We plan to invest ` 500 million over
centre is aimed at bridging the gap between Indian and global electronics industry. time to strengthen and expand our
Agilent Digital & Wireless Test Symposium 2013 presence in the Indian market.”
Agilent Technologies’ Digital & Wireless Test Symposium 2013 (ADWTS’13), which was
held on September 3 and 5 at Bengaluru and Hyderabad, respectively, had provided a India, Japan to set up JWG
great opportunity to witness first-hand latest revolutionary technologies, view real world to boost IT, electronics
product demonstrations and presentations, and communicate with applications experts India and Japan have already been
and industry experts.
brainstorming together on ways to
work mutually to benefit the IT and
Biometrics market to ID projects, UIDAI projects, employee electronics industries. Taking a step
generate $2 bn by 2018 benefit schemes are the major contribu- ahead, the two nations have now
As per India Biometrics Market Fore- tors to this rise in demand of biometric planned to set up a joint working
cast & Opportunities, 2018, the bi- systems in India. group (JWG), which will work to
ometrics market in India is supposed facilitate investments and improve
to generate revenues to the tune of $2 Tablet shipments to outdo cooperation in information technology
billion by the year 2018. PC in fourth quarter of 2013 and electronics sector.
Demand for biometric systems in Research conducted by market research Commenting on the move, the
India is higher compared to most of the firm IDC says that tablet shipments trade and industry ministers of the
developed nations in the world. will outnumber the total number of PC two countries said in a joint statement,
The initiative taken by the govern- shipments in the next (fourth) quarter “Steps have been taken to form a joint
ment of India with respect to identity of 2013. The firm also said that the working group for greater cooperation
of citizens such as e-passports, national tablet shipments will go above annual in the IT and electronics sector.”

Check efytimes.com for more news, daily

www.efymag.com Electronics For You | October 2013 111

 EFY report
The Battery Market in India
The government has started encouraging green environment policies as it is now
the need of the country. If these policies get implemented, people will need to switch
from sealed lead-acid batteries to Li-ion batteries; currently sealed lead-acid batteries
account for 90 per cent of the market
Uma Gupta
T
he overall battery market
in India is worth more than
` 250 billion. It has been grow-
ing by at least 20 per cent year-
on-year for the last few years. But
the overall organised battery mar-
ket is estimated at approximately
` 120 billion only. Here we review the
Indian battery market by dividing it
into two broad categories application-
wise: batteries for industrial applica-
tions and dry-cell batteries.
Batteries for
industrial applications
Batteries find multiple usage in differ-
ent industrial segments.
Sunil Bhatnagar, director-marketing,
Artheon Electronics, shares, “Applica-
tion-wise, the demand is mainly coming
from electric vehicle, telecom and solar
112 October 2013 | Electronics For You
segments. The demand from solar seg-
ment is getting stronger as very high
targets are set in the Jawaharlal Nehru
National Solar Mission. The growing
demand for solar lanterns (CFL and LED
based) is driving the demand of batter-
ies in this segment. Telecom segment
has come out of a period of lull after
two-three years and is forecast to see a
good demand this year.”
According to Bhatnagar, in electric
vehicle segment, the battery demand
is growing for four-wheelers but the
two-wheeler segment has slowed
down due to withdrawal of incentives
by the government, though the battery
replacement requirement for old elec-
tric vehicles is still good.
“UPS segment is addressed by
valve-regulated lead-acid (VRLA) and
tubular batteries. Solar segment largely
uses tubular batteries, except for solar-
based LED and CFL lighting systems
that use small VRLA batteries like 6V,
4.5Ah and 12V, 7Ah. Indian manufac-
turers are addressing these markets
adequately,” says Biju Bruno, manag-
ing director, Greenvision Technologies.
“Indian manufacturers are getting
ready for upcoming high demand for
batteries. The demand would increase
at a very fast pace as China is now
not very competitive in battery pric-
ing. Strengthening of dollar has made
things worse for Indian battery import-
ers,” informs Bhatnagar.
SMF VRLA ruling the market
In year 2012, the Indian market for
SLA batteries was worth around ` 220
billion. Of this market, automotive seg-
ment accounted for 60 per cent (` 132
billion), UPS and inverters 20 per cent
(` 44 billion), telecom 15 per cent (` 33
billion) and other segments including
solar power, e-bikes, bio-gas and wind
power 5 per cent (` 11 billion). Exide,
Amara Raja, Rocket, HBL, C&D, Pana-
sonic and Leoch accounted for a major
chunk of the market.
“Sealed maintenance-free (SMF)
VRLA batteries are ideal if one is look-
ing for ‘fit and forget’ type of batteries.
These batteries are extremely good for
solar lanterns, telecom, IT and ITES,
security and automation applications.
The technology is proven and best
suited for a host of applications. New
technologies like fuel cells and ultra-
capacitors are also emerging but these
have their own limitations and are yet
to prove themselves,” says Bhatnagar.
Hiren Pravin Shah, general manager,
Panasonic India, Industrial Device Divi-
sion, informs, “Currently, SMF VRLA
batteries are being used in all major stor-
age and backup applications like automo-
tive, UPS and inverters. That’s because
www.efymag.com

it’s a proven technology in terms of field
performance, quality, reliability and cost-
to-performance ratio (best output power
or capacity vis-a-vis the cost paid). The
total cost-of-ownership (TCO) of VRLA
batteries makes these the most preferred
solution over DG sets and other options
as return-to-investment recovery is fastest
for VRLA batteries. The only limitation
is that abusive conditions of use in India
reduce the life of these batteries.”
“Within VRLA, there are several
technologies, and performance of the
battery depends on many factors like
design and construction of the bat-
tery,  materials used for the positive
and negative plates,  grid and mesh,
process and manufacturing technol-
ogy, and valves,” he adds.
“SMF VRLA batteries are conveni-
ent to use and transport compared to
conventional flooded batteries. For
UPS applications, it is the dominant
battery type. In small solar LED light-
ing systems, lithium-ion batteries are
replacing SMF VRLA, but their num-
bers at the moment are not large due
to their high cost. We will see variants
of VRLA battery like tubular gel and
flat-plate gel batteries,” informs Bruno.  companies like Panasonic (which doesn’t
Manufacturing in India. There are
only a few big manufacturers of SMF
VRLA batteries in India. At the same
time, the domestic battery demand is
expected to rise further. Apart from
that, a lot of exports would take place
due to environmental concerns in
other countries. India is now exporting
to many countries including the UK
and the USA apart from the African
continent.
Talking about manufacturing
ecosystem, Bhatnagar shares, “India
is very conducive to battery manufac-
ture as the country has environmen-
tal systems and procedures in place
and the manufacturers are putting a
lot of thrust on ETP equipment.”
Shah says, “We have seen the emer-
gence of many VRLA battery manu-
facturers in the last five years. Even
the existing manufacturers are further
expanding their capacities. India has
the best manufacturing environment
due to the huge local demand. SMF
www.efymag.com
Major contributors to this report
Biju Bruno, Hiren Pravin Shah,
managing director, general manager,
Greenvision Technologies Panasonic India
VRLA batteries need to be charged and
stored under recommended conditions,
and it’s a challenge to geographically
transport the batteries across India. So it
makes sense to not only produce these
batteries but also have multiple ware-
housing/charging stations.”
“The demand potential for SMF
VRLA batteries is very large in India.
Infrastructure growth rate makes the
demand-supply gap even wider. The
demand for electricity is increasing but
the supply is limited. The most cost-
effective solution is VRLA battery. That
creates a huge market for VRLA. So even
though there are several local makers,
manufacture in India) will continue to do
good business,” he adds.
“There is a good scope for India to
emerge as a VRLA battery manufacturing
destination as manufacturing in China
is becoming expensive due to currency
appreciation and increased labour costs.
Most of the raw materials are available in-
digenously and hence the dollar apprecia-
tion would be beneficial to manufacturers
looking to export,” adds Bruno.
Technology trends. Technology is
improving with time. Batteries pass
through many rough conditions like
poor power quality while charging, deep
discharge in some applications and use
under ‘partial state of charge’ condition.
Manufacturers are accordingly changing
the recipe of the plates to match the new
expectation or usage pattern.
“With regards to lead-acid bat-
teries, manufacturers are working on
variants using gel that will operate
better in solar and UPS applications
where high temperatures and deep
EFY report
Sunil Bhatnagar, S.S. Kandhari,
director-marketing, managing director, Kandhari
Artheon Electronics Photo Electronics
cycling are involved. We ourselves are
working on flat-plate gel batteries that
will be ready for the market by Febru-
ary next year,” shares Bruno.
“Panasonic is focusing on longer-life
batteries (especially for Indian condi-
tions), special designs for batteries to be
used for solar/windmills applications,
and electric vehicle batteries for specific
customers. We are looking at extending
the average life of batteries from 3-3.5
years to five years or more,” shares Shah.
Roadblocks. In India the main
issue is availability of pure lead as
there is only one producer of lead
and most of the pure lead is im-
ported. Another major component of
SMF VRLA batteries is AGM separa-
tor. Unfortunately, there is not even a
single AGM separator manufacturer
in India, so it also is fully imported.  
Bruno feels that the only roadblock
for the battery industry is the overall
economy. “I hope that the government
does something fast to improve senti-
ments. As such, the industry is well po-
sitioned since demand is consistent and
growing. However, for this demand
to continue, it is important that the
economy doesn’t tank and consumer
sentiments remain positive,” he says.
“For Panasonic, the biggest chal-
lenge today is the service, logistics and
charging infrastructure, especially be-
cause our strategic partners are located
all over India. We are progressing and
setting up the right system to clear all
the bottlenecks. Also, in the near future
we will set up testing, analysis, and
pre- and post-installation support sites.
Plus, we will have regular health check
and monitoring systems for all our
Electronics For You | October 2013 113
 EFY report
groups, batteries included, indicating
Dry cell types
an inherent potential for growth. Since
1. Carbon-zinc. These are primary (non-rechargeable type) dry cells. dry cell batteries are the cheapest source
2. Alkaline. These dry cell batteries use the zinc-manganese dioxide chemistry. Most of power, consumption is expected to
alkaline batteries are non-rechargeable type, although some are designed to be recharged. increase over time. Besides, growing
Compared to zinc-carbon batteries, alkaline batteries have a higher energy density and income levels, changing lifestyles and
longer shelf-life, with the same voltage. These use an alkaline electrolyte of potassium hy-
increased need for convenience have
droxide, instead of the acidic ammonium chloride or zinc chloride electrolyte of zinc-carbon
resulted in proliferation of battery-
batteries. Alkaline batteries are used in many household items such as MP3 players, CD
powered gadgets such as remote con-
players, digital cameras, pagers, toys, lights and radios, to name a few.
3. Portable rechargeable. These include several sealed ‘dry cell’ types, which are useful in trols, torches, toys, clocks, cameras, FM
applications such as mobile phones and laptop computers. Cells of this type (in the order radio sets and portable music systems,
of increasing power density and cost) include nickel-cadmium (NiCd), nickel-zinc (NiZn), Kumaraswami informs.
nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) and lithium-ion (Li-ion) cells. Risks. Carbon-zinc batteries do not
— Based on a post on Wikipedia face any serious threat from alkaline
and rechargeable batteries because
key customers. In the mid term we are D-size batteries (the more expensive these are items of recurring use, pro-
also considering serious investments among various sizes of batteries), viding portable energy at an affordable
in India, to become a leading player in which had to bear the highest impact cost. Organised players are adequately
energy solutions by 2016,” shares Shah. of the cost push, Kumaraswami says. protected against competition from im-
Torches now use LED bulbs, which ports due to their brand equity, quality
Dry cell batteries consume only one-third of the power and extensive distribution setup.
Dry cell batteries are consumed pre- consumed by conventional torches In any case, all the three organised
dominantly by economically weaker using incandescent bulbs. This change players have presence in alkaline and
sections of rural India as an alternate in technology is also resulting in lower rechargeable segments and may be
and portable source of energy for light- offtake of D-size batteries. able to participate if the market pro-
ing, entertainment, safety and security. There is, however, an increase in vides indication of an opportunity.
In fact, the price-sensitive rural market demand for AA-/AAA-size batteries A tangible threat to battery consump-
accounts for as much as 65-70 per cent due to miniaturisation of transistors, in- tion lies in making the product unafford-
of the demand. creased use of consumer electronic prod- able to poorer segment of the economy
Size of the dry cell batteries market ucts such as cameras, electronic toys, as seen in the recent past. Weakening of
in India is estimated at 2.5 billion pieces remotes and quartz clocks, and more the rupee continues to put pressure on
by volume and ` 12.5 billion by value. importantly growth of newer devices raw material prices. Also, some of the
Within the industry, carbon-zinc batteries like new-generation LED flashlights. raw material prices are showing signs of
(which are non-rechargeable) account for Technology. In India, carbon-zinc hardening. Apart from that, the overall
97 per cent of the market, while alkaline batteries have maintained leading share inflationary trends have also been put-
and other varieties of batteries account in the primary (non-rechargeable) bat- ting pressures on operating costs. These
for the rest, according to Subramania tery market for decades due to their are areas of concern. Fortunately, the
Kumaraswami, secretary, Association of lower production costs. The demand for market is used to an inflationary environ-
Indian Dry Cell Manufacturers. alkaline batteries is forecast to grow in ment, where all producers have to pass
There are only three manufactur- the global market on account of their bet- on adverse impacts faced by them.
ers in the organised sector, producing ter performance and a closing price gap
carbon-zinc dry cell batteries. The with carbon-zinc batteries, particularly Li-ion batteries
demand for alkaline, rechargeable and in AA and AAA varieties. However, the ‘Dry cell’ portable rechargeable batteries
other varieties is met through imports. Indian market will continue to be driven (in the order of increasing power den-
Industry status. The battery market by lower-priced carbon-zinc batteries. sity and cost) include nickel–cadmium
went through some significant volatil- Opportunities. Consumption of (NiCd), nickel–zinc (NiZn), nickel metal
ity over the last five years. The indus- batteries is driven by growth in the off- hydride (NiMH) and lithium-ion (Li-
try experienced adverse impact of the take of end-use appliances. A growing ion) cells. Li-ion accounts for the largest
unprecedented rise in input material need for portable power and the ad- share of the dry cell rechargeable mar-
costs. These adverse impacts had to be vent of a number of battery-operated ket. NiMH has replaced NiCd in most
passed on to the consumer. The price- gadgets catalyse consumption. Since applications due to its higher capacity,
sensitive consumers reacted adversely these address everyday use, batteries but NiCd continues to be used in power
to these price increases and resorted have enjoyed non-cyclical demand. tools, two-way radios and medical equip-
to reducing or deferring consumption. India has a low per capita con- ment. NiZn is a new entrant on the block.
This resulted in a market de-growth of sumption across a number of product Mobile gadgets like cellphones and

114 October 2013 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com


laptops need a portable power source to
work unplugged. Packing more power
in a small area is a key requirement
in every consumer product today. As
laptops, tablets and cellphones shrink in
size and weight, without compromising
on the quality of audio, graphics, etc,
these need batteries which are thinner
and lighter with higher power densities.
Li-ion battery packs are much lighter
and smaller than other battery chemis-
tries, making them highly suitable for
such applications.
Indian scenario. Despite being the
second largest user of mobile phones
in the world (which makes India a big
consumer of Li-ion batteries too), India
meets all of its Li-ion battery require-
ment through imports.
“There is no manufacturing facility
in India till date to serve Li-ion cell in the
commercial market. There are a few as-
semblers of Li-ion battery packs who im-
port basic Li-ion cells from China, Korea
and Japan. Li-ion battery pack assembly
is done in India for the following prod-
ucts: mobile phones and tablets; hand-
held terminals like ticketing machines
with printers, punching machines, credit
card swipe machines, energy meter read-
ing instruments and point-of-sale (POS)
terminals; solar lanterns and other solar
lighting applications; and vehicle track-
ing systems and weighing machines,”
informs S.S. Kandhari, managing direc-
tor, Kandhari Photo Electronics.
Li-ion battery production is a very
difficult and complex process, which
needs a very clean environment as any
kind of contamination may affect the
battery’s performance. Low-quality
or duplicate Li-ion batteries being im-
ported greatly harm the electronics. So
there is need to promote use of stand-
ard and original batteries.
Kandhari informs, “Basically, there
are two segments in assembly of Li-ion
battery packs and two different catego-
ries of manufacturers. In consumer sec-
tion, there are a large number of mobile
phone and tablet battery assemblers but
only a few of them are doing quality
business, i.e., using quality/branded
cells and quality protection circuits for
Li-ion battery pack assembly. Others
www.efymag.com
EFY report
are doing cheap business Li-ion cells and protection
and compromising on the PCBs they totally depend
quality of batteries by us- on imports. Also, small as-
ing B-grade unbranded semblers who don’t have
cells and circuits. any battery knowledge
“In industrial section, and testing facility to check
there are very few as- the battery are ruining the
semblers who have deep 3.7V, 850mAh Li-ion battery market by duplication and
knowledge about the bat- creating cheap competition
tery and its controlling PCB nature, in the market,” adds Kandhari.
and better assembly and testing equip- Future outlook. Kandhari says,
ment. Li-ion battery being dangerous “The government has started encour-
in nature, it is necessary to use cells of aging green environment policies as
a reputed brand and proper protection it is now the need of the country. If
circuits.” these policies get implemented, peo-
Home-grown mobile phone manu- ple will need to switch from sealed
facturer Maxx Mobile is one company lead-acid batteries to Li-ion batteries;
which is going to produce its own currently sealed lead-acid batteries
batteries. The company had invested account for 90 per cent of the market.
around ` 4 billion in setting up two “Being light-weight, small-size and
units at Haridwar to produce mobile high-capacity, Li-poly battery is widely
phone batteries and feature phones. used in electronic gadgets like iPods,
But operations were stopped approxi- tablets and mobile phones. In fact, in the
mately two years ago, when a handset future, we can expect Li-poly batteries
import duty of 1.34 per cent made do- to grow faster than Li-ion batteries.
mestic manufacturing unviable. How- “The scope of a new battery tech-
ever, now that the scene has changed, nology called LiFePO4 (lithium-iron
with the government’s decision to phoshate ) is also very big because of
levy seven per cent customs duty on its following features:
handsets priced above ` 2000, Maxx is  1. Longer life of up to 2000 cycles (as
returning to produce its own products. against sealed lead-acid batteries’ only 300
Opportunities and threats. Big cycles and Ni-MH batteries’ 500 cycles)
opportunities exist as customers need 2. Higher capacity and voltage (one
to change over from sealed lead-acid can install many single cells in series and
batteries to Li-ion batteries due to en- in parallel, and the battery can fully dis-
vironment issues. charge)
“As green energy is now preferred, 3. More powerful (high discharge
there will be no alternative for sealed current, 2C continuous, 5C pulse for
lead-acid battery users but to shift to normal cells and 25C for special design)
Li-ion in small (like torches and solar 4. Safer (the battery never explodes
lanterns) as well as large applications. and is stable in high temperatures, so
Also, nowadays all high-standard and no temperature controller is needed)
basic consumer gadgets like tablets, 5. Lighter and smaller
smartphones and laptops run on Li- 6. Most environment-friendly
ion or Li-poly batteries due to their among lithium batteries (no lead or
light weight and compact size,” shares cadmium used)
Kandhari. 7. Rechargeable by solar power also”
However, to capitalise on this op- However, Li-ion and Li-poly bat-
portunity, it is important to remove some tery manufacturing can be started in
roadblocks. “Currently, government India only if the government provides
policies, taxes and duty structure do not support for basic raw material and
favour manufacturing in India. Policies subsidies required for manufacturing
are only in books and there is no imple- of Li-ion and Li-poly batteries. 
mentation. Surge in dollar price is a ma-
jor cause of concern to assemblers, as for The author is a freelance editor
Electronics For You | October 2013 115
 new products
Recently introduced in India, From near and far
Components
16-bit microcontrollers
Renesas Electronics Corporation, a
premier provider of advanced semi-
conductor solutions, has launched
the new RL78/F13 and RL78/F14
16-bit microcontrollers (MCUs) that
contribute to enhanced development
efficiency, reduced system costs, lower
system power consumption and im-
proved functional safety features for
automotive control systems.
The new MCU series consists of
a total of 91 products, including 60
products in the RL78/F13 group and
31 products in the FL78/F14 group.
The RL78/F13 MCUs are designed for
use in an extensive range of automo-
tive applications; from body control
systems, such as power window and
side mirror control to automotive mo-
tor control systems, such as electric
water pumps and cooling fans.
The RL78/F14 MCUs support the
body control system applications,
such as BCM (body control module)
and HVAC (heating, ventilation and
air-conditioning) control that require
especially large memory capacities.
Renesas Electronics India Office, Bengaluru
Fax: (080) 67208777
Ph: 67208700
E-mail: contact.india@renesas.com
Web: http://sg.renesas.com/india/office/
4G LTE module series
Swiss company U-Blox, a leading
provider of wireless and positioning
integrated circuits and modules, has
116 oCTOBER 2013 | Electronics For You
introduced the TOBY-L1 4G LTE mod-
ule series, a new line of ultra-compact
LTE modules. TOBY-L100 and TOBY-
L110 are ideally suited for tablets, mo-
bile routers and set-top boxes as well
as high-speed M2M applications.
TOBY-L1 LGA modules measure
only 24.8×35.6×2.6 mm, allowing for
easy mounting on any application
board. The module supports USB 2.0
as well as firmware update over the
air (FOTA).
TOBY-L1 series delivers ultra-fast
data rates. Its key features include
LTE Cat 3, 100MBps download speed,
50MBps upload speed, easy migra-
tion from the U-Blox UMTS, CDMA
and GSM modules, a nested design
concept, and an extended temperature
range of -40 to +85°C.
The series is optimally suited for
industrial (M2M) applications, such as
remote access to video cameras, digital
signage, tele-health functions, vehicle
infotainment systems, and security and
surveillance systems.
U-Blox, India, Bengaluru
Ph: (080) 40509200
E-mail: murali.thandavamurthy@u-blox.com
Web: www.u-blox.com
Bay Trail tablet processors
Intel has launched the Intel Atom
Z3000 processor (Bay Trail) for tablet
devices. The new processors report-
edly bring 2x boost to the CPU per-
formance and a 3x boost to the GPU
performance over the earlier Clover
Trail processors. They are based on
the next-generation 22nm Silvermont
architecture.
The company also said that new
hybrids and tablets based on the An-
droid operating system would be avail-
able later this year. Manufacturers like
Acer, ASUS, Lenovo and Toshiba will
be unveiling these devices in the fourth
quarter of 2013. The cost of tablets be-
ing run on the Bay Trail processors is
going to be low. They will start from
around $199.
“What we have delivered with our
Bay Trail platform is an incredibly
powerful SoC that delivers outstand-
ing performance, long battery life, and
a great experience for the way people
use these devices today. It is an in-
credible leap forward,” Gizbot quoted
Hermann Eul, corporate vice president
and general manager of Intel’s mobile
and communications group, as saying.
Both quad-core and dual-core
processors will be available in the Bay
Trail series. In addition, the Intel HD
graphics will still be in use along with
support from Direct X 11, OpenGL ES
3.0, HDMI 1.4, DP 1.2, eDP 1.3.
Intel Technology India Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru
Fax: (080) 5202460
Ph: 5075000
Web: www.intel.com
Zero-drift operational amplifier
Linear Technology has introduced
LTC2057, a high-voltage, low-noise,
zero-drift operational amplifier that
offers precision DC performance over
a wide supply range of 4.75V to 36V
or 4.75V to 60V for the LTC2057HV.
Offset voltage and 1/f noise are sup-
www.efymag.com

pressed, allowing this amplifier to
achieve a maximum offset voltage of
4μV and a DC to 10Hz input noise
voltage of 200nVP-P (typ).
The LTC2057’s self-calibrating cir-
cuitry results in low offset voltage drift
with temperature, 0.015μV/°C (max),
and zero drift over time. The amplifier
also features an excellent power supply
rejection ratio (PSRR) of 160dB and a
common mode rejection ratio (CMRR)
of 150dB (typ).
The LTC2057 provides rail-to-rail
output swing and an input common
mode range that includes the V– rail.
In addition to low offset and noise,
this amplifier features a 1.5MHz (typ)
gain-bandwidth product and a 0.45V/
μs (typ) slew rate.
Wide supply range, combined with
low-noise, low-offset, and excellent
PSRR and CMRR make the LTC2057
and LTC2057HV well suited for high
dynamic-range test, measurement and
instrumentation systems.
Linear Technology India, Bengaluru
Ph: (080) 40124610
E-mail: indiasales@linear.com
Web: www.linear.com
USB port power controllers
Microchip Technology Inc., a leading
provider of microcontroller, mixed-sig-
nal, analogue and Flash-IP solutions,
has expanded its programmable USB
port power controller portfolio with
the three-member UCS100X family.
These new power controllers offer ad-
vanced USB-based charging capabili-
ties for designing host devices, such as
laptops, tablets, monitors, docking sta-
tions and printers as well as dedicated
AC-DC power-supply and charging
products, such as wall adaptors.
The new USB port power control-
lers—the UCS1001-3, UCS1001-4 and
UCS1002-2—offer high current and
priority charging for smartphones and
tablets. The UCS100X have also added
support for active cables, such as the
Apple Lightning connector, along with
12W charging. The UCS1002-2 features
a built-in current sensor that can report
on the amount of charging current.
This allows a system to optimise its
www.efymag.com
charging current and appropriately
allocate power.
Additionally, the UCS100X can sup-
port future USB product designs via a
flexible method for detecting and creat-
ing charging emulation profiles. This
allows designers to update their systems
as new products are introduced to the
market, while providing compatibility
with a wider range of existing products.
Microchip Technology Inc., New Delhi
Fax: (011) 51608632
Ph: 41608631
E-mail: www.microchipdirect.com
Thin-film chip resistor arrays
Vishay Intertechnology Inc. has
launched Beyschlag ACAS 0612 pre-
cision resistor array, which is ideally
suited for precision analogue circuit,
voltage divider, feedback circuit and
signal conditioning applications that
require extraordinarily stable fixed
resistance ratios.
With Beyschlag ACAS 0612, Vishay
enhanced its ACAS 0612 precision thin-
film chip resistor arrays with tighter
absolute TCR down to ± 10 ppm/K
relative TCR down to ± 5 ppm/K, and
relative tolerance down to ± 0.05 per
cent for automotive, industrial and tel-
ecommunications applications.
The device delivers stable perfor-
mance for automotive electronics, in-
cluding engine control units; gear box
controls; information, safety, power
new products
supply, body electronics, and braking
systems; industrial electronics, such as
energy management, measurement con-
trol, steering technology, sensors, scales,
and bridged and precision amplifiers;
and telecommunication base stations.
Vishay Components India Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru
Fax: (080) 25584291
Ph: 25586277
E-mail: business-asia@Vishay.com
Web: www.vishay.com
Tools & Equipment
All-in-one rework station
Den-on Instruments Co. Ltd, Japan,
has launched an all-in-one rework
system model, RD500V series. RD500V
series is suitable for stable, safe rework
of large or small boards and large or
small sensitive components.
It is a semi-automated single mo-
torised Z-axis placement and reflow
station for all types of components
rework. The machine uses a high
3-point heating system with an ad-
vanced computer control technology
designed for safe lead-free and eutec-
tic rework application.
Its three-stage heating system pro-
vides 5.6kW overall thermal output for
sufficient thermal capacity and control
to execute precise profile on small to me-
dium sized boards up to 500×700 mm.
Each system comes complete with
a trouble-free controller, Internal flash
memory hard drive, and no hard drive
or separate computer is necessary.
RD-500V’s full vision optics with
a 2MP high-definition video camera
and five separate thermocouple inputs
make it the ultimate solution for safe,
repeatable removal, alignment, place-
ment and soldering of BGAs, CSPs,
ultra-fine-pitch QFPs, QFN, 01005
Electronics For You | oCTOBER 2013 117
 new products
and other delicate components, heat-
sensitive and expensive SMDs.
Qmax Test Technologies Pvt Ltd, Chennai
Fax: (044) 24509632
Ph: 24509627
E-mail: sales@qmaxtest.com
Web : www.qmaxtest.com
Automatic application
program generator
GOEPEL Electronic has introduced an
automatic application program genera-
tor based on the ChipVORX technol-
ogy for design validation and test of
FPGA integrated high-speed I/O for
FPGA embedded instruments.
Users can now evaluate transmis-
sion channel quality by utilising bit
error rate tests (BERT). This provides a
graphical evaluation per dynamic eye
diagram to support design validation.
The new generator is another op-
tion in the integrated JTAG/boundary
scan software platform System Cas-
con, enabling automatic generation of
complete application scripts for FPGA
embedded HSIO test instruments.
GOEPEL Electronic India Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru
Ph: (080) 65695605
Mobile: +91-9980881166
E-mail: s.cherukupalli(at)goepel.com
Web: www.goepel.com
Computer modules
Toradex has launched Apalis T30 2GB
V1.0C and Apalis T30 1GB V1.0A,
which are an extension of Apalis com-
puter module product family.
Apalis T30 2GB V1.0C features 2GB
of DDR3L RAM and increased 8GB of
eMMC Flash, which is four times the
Flash capacity of its predecessor Apalis
T30 2GB V1.0B, making it more ideal
for a wide variety of applications.
118 oCTOBER 2013 | Electronics For You
Along with higher Flash capac-
ity, V1.0C also offers IEEE 1588 preci-
sion time protocol (PTP) supporting
real-time Ethernet. The IEEE 1588 PTP
allows synchronisation of devices con-
nected to an Ethernet network with a
high level of accuracy.
Apalis T30 1GB V1.0A comes with
a smaller memory footprint offer-
ing 1GB of DDR3L RAM and 4GB of
eMMC Flash.
Toradex System (India) Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru
Ph: (080) 41119096
Web: www.toradex.com
Test & Measurement
Compact broadband
amplifier
Rohde & Schwarz has launched the
R&S BBA150 broadband amplifier
with two frequency ranges from 0.8
GHz to 3.0GHz and 2.5GHz to 6.0
GHz. The amplifiers, which have
been optimised for high frequencies,
deliver high output power, and are
still compact and light-weight.
The modularity of the amplifiers
makes it possible to configure complete
systems flexibly to meet user require-
ments. The amplifier design yields
from 15W to 200W of output power.
The broadband amplifiers feature out-
standing mismatch tolerance and can
handle both short-circuit at the RF end
and an open RF output. This reduces
both downtime and costs.
Rohde & Schwarz India Pvt Ltd, New Delhi
Ph: (011) 42535400
E-mail: sales.rsindia@rohde-schwarz.com
Web: www.rohde-schwarz.com
Vector network analysers
Anritsu has expanded its VectorStar
family of vector network analysers
(VNAs) with the introduction of the
MS4640B series. These Network ana-
lysers feature a number of new cutting-
edge measurement capabilities, includ-
ing PulseView, which provides pulse
profile, point-in-pulse and pulse-to-
pulse measurements of S-parameters,
and DifferentialView for true mode
stimulus S-parameter measurements.
The MS4640B series helps engineers
address the challenges associated with
testing and characterising components
and sub-systems designed for radar and
today’s high-speed serial applications.
VectorStar VNAs are available in fre-
quency ranges from 70kHz to 20, 40, 50
and 70GHz and as broadband systems
from 70kHz to 125GHz.
Anritsu India Private Limited, Bengaluru
Fax: (080) 40581301
Ph: 40581300
Web: www.anritsu.com
SECURITY SOLUTIONS
IP-based surveillance solution
Matrix Comsec, a leading manufac-
turer of enterprise security solutions,
has introduced an IP-based surveil-
lance solution, SATATYA NVR400,
strengthening its portfolio of video
surveillance products. This technically-
advanced SATATYA NVR400 allows
scalability from 4 to 16 video channels
and recording flexibility from full HD
to D1 for crystal-clear images.
It allows sequencing of cameras in
different layout formats and facilitates
simultaneous live view and playback on
a single window to simplify monitoring
needs. This NVR, along with recording
and monitoring, identifies irregularities
and sends prompt notifications with
event details in the form of SMS and
e-mail to prevent any major losses. To
safeguard the data, it allows perform-
ing scheduled or manual backup on a
network as well as on USB.
The search is made efficient by date,
time, recording type, event and alarm-
based, leading to hassle-free playback.
MATRIX COMSEC, Vadodara
Ph: +91 2668 263172/73
Web: www.MatrixComSec.com
www.efymag.com
 interview

Challenge of getting everything to go

faster hasn’t eased up a bit
Teledyne LeCroy provides oscilloscopes, protocol analysers and
related test and measurement solutions that enable companies
across a wide range of industries to design and test electronic devices
of all types. Headquartered in New York, it has sales, service and
development subsidiaries in the US and throughout Europe and Asia.
Conrad J. Fernandes, vice president, Asia-Pacific, Teledyne
LeCroy, recently spoke to Ashwin Gopinath of EFY about the
challenges facing T&M players today, especially when dealing with
faster devices.
Conrad J. Fernandes
vice president, Asia-Pacific, Teledyne LeCroy

Q
What are the major challenges facing T&M players
today? How are you trying to overcome them?
One would be the traditional challenge, where we need
everything to go faster. That challenge hasn’t eased up a bit.
The growth in cloud computing and the need for data rates
to go from gigabits to hundreds of gigabits and beyond have
only served to create similar challenges all throughout.
Different manufacturers have taken different approaches
to tackle this problem and make devices faster. For instance,
there is a technology called digital bandwidth interleave.
This technology allows any silicon implementation of an
amplifier to go twice as fast, by interleaving them. Digital
bandwidth interleave involves additional hardware, calibra-
tion and digital signal processing at the back end to recover
the signal input by the oscilloscope user.
gone upwards for a steady while now. Another thing that
is becoming more possible is vertical resolution. Our main-
stream oscilloscopes are moving up in vertical resolution
and what comes with that is increasing vertical accuracy and
lower vertical noise.
All these features allow you to get much better repre-
sentations of signals. They are enabling the emergence of a
whole new realm of analysis—stuff that wasn’t previously
feasible. For example, oscilloscopes have been able to do fast
Fourier transforms (FFTs) for a long time. They’ve been kind
of a poor man’s approach to spectral analysis; the spectrum
analyser has much greater spectral resolution and accuracy,
but as you increase the resolution of the analogue-to-digital
converter in a test instrument it becomes much more able to
perform some of that analysis.

Q
What is the biggest challenge to packing faster signals
into smaller time periods?
The world used to be full of square waves. Digital sig-
nals were all square waves. These days, nothing is really
square. The top section isn’t flat, the bottom isn’t a zero and
the edges aren’t perfectly straight. In fact, not only do they
have timing issues but they also move around in time.
This jitter becomes very important as you try and pack
faster and faster signals into a smaller period of time. Any
timing uncertainty, i.e., jitter, creates significant challenges.
Hence not only do we need to measure but also characterise
jitters and determine where these are coming from. This
means that instruments with very, very high timing resolu-
tion can help with the above issues.
I don’t think that the day is getting closer when a spec-
trum analyser will be replaced with an oscilloscope. But I do
think that we can give the designers much better tools than
what we’ve been able to, as this is the age of increased verti-
cal resolution and reduced noise in the circuit.
Q
How critical is maintaining signal integrity when signals
are getting really fast?
As high-speed signals need to be routed into more and
more compact and sometimes less friendly environments,
signal integrity measurements and techniques become even
more important. So we’ve seen things like network analys-
ers being used to ensure the integrity of PCBs. Our signal
integrity network analyser has found some really interesting
applications there.
As the aforementioned high-speed signals move through

Q
How is test instruments’ accuracy improving at higher
speeds?
the boards, you need to manage the impedance of the boards
very carefully. SPARQ, which stands for s-parameters Quick,
We are seeing a couple of interesting things going on. provides s-parameters for printed circuit boards much faster
Speed is increasing all the time. Timing resolution has also than what is possible with the use of network analysers.

www.efymag.com Electronics For You | October 2013 119

 interview

Q
What is the biggest challenge to characterising PCBs
for high speeds?
Traditionally, it’s been done with a number of tools
including network analysers and then time-domain reflec-
tometry systems based on oscilloscopes. These are very
powerful tools because you can measure impedances on
controlled buses, but they are extremely fiddly to use and,
not to mention, get accurate measurements out of.
Our team took the basic capabilities of our very high-
speed sampling scopes and pulse generators and integrated
all of them into an automated system. With the enhanced
speed of getting the required parameters, we took a lot of
the burden off the designers and allowed them to get the
information they want much faster.

Q
Now that we have Internet-enabled oscilloscopes, what
are the security issues in test and measurement?
Well, these days, most of the oscilloscopes can be hooked
up to the Internet. While that creates a lot of opportunities
to be more creative, it also poses new challenges. I would
say, network security for those instruments is really no dif-
ferent from the network security for a PC connected to the
Internet. A related challenge is to protect these instruments
from viruses or infections.

Q
What kind of change do you see with the adoption of
new 802.11ac wireless standard?
The 802.11ac will double both data rates and RF band-
widths for designers in this market. As a result, we expect
to see increased demand for high-speed serial data test so-
lutions, and oscilloscopes with bandwidths in the 10+ GHz
range. We also believe that the modulation schemes used
will make jitter measurements increasingly critical.

Q
EDA on cloud has suddenly found a lot of interest in the
electronics industry as EDA vendors try to move analy-
ses to the cloud. Are T&M players looking forward to
something similar?
We are very interested in the ability to compare simula-
tion results and real-world measurement results. With the
explosion of data, we see it becoming more challenging, but
at the same time, more valuable. If you can navigate the
challenges there, you can really shorten the design cycle,
which is what a lot of T&M is all about.

Q
How is the T&M world evolving in terms of ease of use?
I think there’s always something interesting coming
out in the T&M world. Test equipment are not only be-
coming faster and more powerful but also more intuitive.
So designers are more likely to pick up a new instrument
and understand it quickly. I also think that they are gain-
ing more insight into the workings of the circuit because
of the kinds of tools and intelligence that are built into the
instrument. 
(The complete interview can be read at electronicsforu.com)

120 October 2013 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

 interview

Bluetooth low energy is

easy to design with...
Cypress Semiconductor designs and manufactures mixed-signal,
programmable solutions, USB controllers as well as SRAM
memories. Its USB controllers product portfolio includes the
high-performance West Bridge solution that enhances
connectivity and performance in multimedia handsets,
PCs and tablets. The company serves numerous
markets including consumer, mobile handsets,
computing, data communications, automotive,
industrial and military.
Badrinarayanan Kothandaraman, executive
vice president, DCD administration, Cypress
Semiconductor, spoke to Dilin Anand and
Abhishek Mutha of EFY about challenges in
designing wireless products, ways to overcome Badrinarayanan Kothandaraman
them, and working with wireless USB Bluetooth executive vice president, DCD Administration,
Cypress Semiconductor
4.0 and other exciting developments

Q
When devices are wireless, design and testing present
an array of new and varied challenges to the test engi-
neers. How do you manage these challenges?
First of all, there is a lot of design for testability that we
need to build into the chip. We need to have built-in self-
test, where the chip is capable of testing itself. Testing RF is
always tricky. We also do what is called system validation
testing, which is done completely prior to silicon (pre-
silicon) validation.
System validation has a lot of corner cases like ‘how this
chip would interface to the external world?,’ and we do it
with all kinds of interference, which is called interoperabil-
ity testing. Only when testing with all interference, tweaking
of firmware, algorithm tuning with respect to frequency
hopping and so forth are done, we are in a position to deal
with it. We will not even make the chip or see silicon on the
chip until we do pre-silicon validation.
But no matter what we do, the problems cited by all
customers are different because it is proprietary, and there
is no standardised way of designing the antenna, for ex-
ample. Considering the Bluetooth low energy, it is easy to
design with since it is combined in the chipset itself. But
the dongle design is always tricky since everyone wants
the smallest dongle. So we haven’t found many issues in
routine testing on automatic test equipment but more im-
portantly the issue is always on interoperability, which is
interference and validation.
Q
How difficult is it to integrate low power, reliability and
interference immunity into wireless products? What are
the design challenges faced?
Integrating analogue and digital into the same chip is
always a design challenge. Substrate noise is also a very big
challenge. On the other hand, with the latest and greatest in
technology, CMOS low-power RF is a possibility right now.
Consider the WirelessUSB NL chip, which consumes
only about 15 milliamperes in both TX and RX communica-
tion. Power is not that much of a concern. However, interfer-
ence is an important factor to be considered as there is a lot
of it. To deal with it, there is a technique called ‘frequency
hopping’ to move from one frequency to another. Then
there is another technique called ‘direct sequence spread
spectrum,’ where the transmitted signal will have a higher
bandwidth in order to be more robust.
Q
Could you elaborate on wireless USB and its applica-
tions? Is there any alternative to it?
Wireless USB is primarily in the proprietary 2.4GHz
space, which can be thought of as something similar to a
wireless mouse with a dongle. We are into devices such as
mice, keyboards, remote controls and even toys. These are
all proprietary protocols that are not yet standardised. How-
ever, we are migrating towards what is called Bluetooth low
energy (BLE).
BLE is fortunately a standard space technology, which

www.efymag.com Electronics For You | October 2013 121

 interview
means that the dongle would no longer be required. So what
happens is that the BLE mice would directly communicate to
the combo radio chip sets inside laptops (for example), thus
eliminating the requirement for USB.

Q
How can design engineers incorporate wireless USB
solutions into their designs? How will it help them?
If a design engineer wants to connect something to a PC
wirelessly, all he needs to do is incorporate a couple of chips
at each end. Let us consider he is transferring data through
UART and wants to get work out of wireless UART. He
could use an MCU to convert UART into a serial peripheral
interface (SPI) and then the radio chip will take that SPI data
and transmit it to a dongle at the other end, for example,
that has an MCU incorporated into it. This MCU will con-
vert the RF into USB, which can be plugged into the PC and
straightaway the data will be accessible on the PC. It is very
easy to add wireless connectivity to any peripheral because
it’s not a standard. But note that transfer at high data rates is
not feasible. That’s the limitation of this technology.

Q
You mentioned that Bluetooth 4.0 would not require a
dongle. Why is this not possible in previous versions?
It is possible in previous versions too but Bluetooth 3.0 is
much more power-hungry. The throughput of Bluetooth 4.0
is 0.3 Mbps, so it is not designed for data-intensive applica-
tions but only for transfer of control signals and low power.
The connection efficiency is maximised in 4.0 version. Even
in sleep mode, it operates 99 per cent of the time.

Q
What is the most exciting development in USB control-
lers space that would interest system designers?
The important thing today is USB 3.0, where the speed
of data transfer is about 5 Gbps. But we need to apply this
to the peripheral device segment in the USB. What I mean
by peripheral devices is that if you consider any device like
a camera, we can add USB 3.0 connectivity to it. A chip like
FX3, which is a very flexible USB 3.0 peripheral controller,
will be embedded in the camera (machine-vision camera,
for example), which will enable the ‘fat’ data pipe to be
directly connected to the PC transferring large amounts of
video data.
For example, on one side we can connect this peripheral
controller (FX3) to the PC and on the other side we can con-
nect it to generic programmable interface (GPIS). GPIS can
be a parallel interface capable of hooking up to any kind of
image sensor. At the end of the day, the data transfer has to
come from an image sensor if it is video data.
The image sensor has basically a parallel stream of
data. With a few firmware programmable modifications,
we can make the FX3 chip connect immediately to the sen-
sor and have data flow from the image sensor to the PC in
a matter of minutes, enabling video streaming on the PC
seamlessly. 
(The complete interview can be read at electronicsforu.com)

122 October 2013 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com


Getting EFY in Singapore
My sincere thanks to EFY team for test-
ing and evaluating my project success-
fully and publishing it in September
issue. At present, I am in Singapore, so
can you please tell me where I can get
EFY copy in Singapore?
M. Kathiresan
The author
EFY: Currently, we do not have any
outlets in Singapore. You can visit
www.efymagonline.com to buy an
online copy of the magazine.
Downloading Source
Codes of Projects
I purchase EFY from a book store. How
can I download from your website
source codes of projects published in
EFY?
Ramesh K. Pandey
Through e-mail
EFY: You can download the source
codes from www.efymag.com web-
site free of cost. You need to click
‘Previous Issues’ button and then
provide month and year of the partic-
ular EFY issue featuring the project of
your interest (see screenshot below).
Clicking ‘Search’ button will open
the next page, where you can browse
and select the ‘Download Source
Code’ link given under the title of
Letters
‘Spot An Error’ Award Winners
In circuit idea ‘Solar Charged Emergency Light and Fan’ published in Sep-
tember issue, the value of resistors R10 and R13 in the parts list should be 22
kilo-ohms instead of 10 kilo-ohms.
Siddharth Kaul
 In article ‘Which Wireless Technology Should You Use’ published in Sep-
tember issue, on page 46, HSDPA is wrongly defined as ‘high-speed download
packet access’ instead of ‘high-speed downlink packet access.’
Madhuram Mishra
 In circuit idea ‘Moisture Monitor for Plants’ published in August issue, S1
should be an on/off switch instead of push-to-on switch.
Tuhin Mal
 In construction project ‘Variable Bench Power Supply with LCD and Moni-
tor Display’ published in August issue, please note the following corrections:
(i) In Fig. 4, 4700µF electrolytic capacitor (C5) should be replaced with
larger capacitance value. Also, a 0.1µF ceramic capacitor should be included
at the output of ICs LM7805 (IC3) and 7812 (IC4). The present PCB may have
limitations to use a high-valued capacitor, in which case you may want to put
a higher voltage transformer. However, using a higher voltage transformer will
increase the input voltage to the regulator, resulting to dissipate more power
and therefore needs larger heatsink!
(ii) In Fig. 5, pins 2 and 3 of DB9 connector should be connected to pins
14 and 13 of IC7, respectively. On the TTL side, pins 11 and 12 should be con-
nected to pins 3 and 2 of IC1, respectively.
Dr Ramkumar Ramaswamy
the particular project. EFY DVD
I could not install and run the Altium
VLSI Design Course Designer software given in the EFY
I am pursuing B.Tech in electronics & DVD, August issue. Do I need Internet
telecommunications and like EFY very connection for installation, and what
much. I want to know whether EFY will be the user ID and password for
conducts online short-term courses on running the software ?
VLSI design. Joydep Poddar
Mukul Kumar Through e-mail
Patna EFY: We have checked the mentioned
EFY: Thanks for the feed- software in the DVD but found no
back and your interest in problem. You do not need Internet
EFY courses. Presently, we connection for its installation. Also, you
don’t have online course on do not need user ID and password for
VLSI design. running the software.

From electronicsforu.com: Circuits Renewable Energy

Projects
Wi-Fi Embedded Webcam published in September issue is a nice article. Can you
please let me know which tools are used to design both schematic and PCB layout? I have been reading EFY since last two
Ravikiran D. Borse years. Would you please suggest me any
EFY: Thanks for the feedback! Both schematic and PCB layout are designed projects based on renewable energy.
using gEDA software, an open source EDA tool. Balajidevendran
 I could not find detail on MRF24WBOMA Wi-Fi module used in Wi-Fi Em- Tamil Nadu
bedded Webcam construction project. Please give a link. EFY: We have published many solar-
Zahi based projects in earlier issues. The
EFY: Microchip provides only data sheet for MRF24WBOMA which can be recent projects published in 2013 are:
downloaded from www.microchip.com website or Google search. Mirochip 1. Hybrid Solar Charger, September
provides TCP-IP stack but lacks detail supporting document on Wi-Fi module.
2. Solar Charged-Emergency Light
However, there are some similar macros and routines available on their website
and Fan, September
for reference.
3. Smart Solar Charger, January

www.efymag.com Electronics For You | October 2013 123

 Qs&As
Q1.Please help me find a good
electronics circuit simulator
freely available on the Internet.
Prashant
Through e-mail
A1. Hundreds of good-quality circuit
simulators are freely available
on the Internet. If you are new to circuit
simulation, choose one that is simple
and easy to learn. Otherwise, your inter-
est will die by the time you learn all the
complex features and become ready for
your first circuit simulation.
Simulation modeling allows de-
signers and engineers to avoid re-
peated building of multiple physical
prototypes to analyse designs for new
or existing parts. Before creating the
physical prototype, users can virtually
investigate many digital prototypes.
Electronic circuit simulation uses
mathematical models to replicate the
behaviour of an actual electronic de-
vice or circuit. Simulation software al-
lows modeling of circuit operation and
is an invaluable analysis tool.
While there are mostly analogue
electronics circuit simulators, popular
simulators often include both analogue
and digital simulation capabilities. This
means that any simulation may contain
components that are analogue, digital or
a combination of both. An entire mixed-
signal analysis can be driven from one
integrated schematic. So it is best to se-
lect a mixed-signal simulation tool.
At EFY Lab, we use gEDA project.
Within the gEDA Project tool chain
there are two analogue circuit simula-
tors: ngspice and gnucap.
ngspice is a clean-up of classical
SPICE 3f5 for the Linux platform. It is
fully functional, and includes XSpice
extensions and CIDER framework.
gnucap is a new circuit simulator
written from the ground up. It offers
the ability to perform event-driven as
well as continuous-time simulations.
But if you are new to circuit simu-
lation, I would recommend Qucs. Qucs
is an integrated circuit simulator,
which means you are able to set up a
circuit with a graphical user interface
(GUI) and simulate the large-signal,
small-signal and noise behaviour of the
124 October 2013 | Electronics For You
Qucs circuit simulator
circuit. After simulation has finished,
you can view simulation results on a
presentation page or window. Qucs
is easy to learn and very user-friendly
compared to other tools.
Q2.There are lots of antistatic bags
available in the market. How
do they differ from one another? tributes of black poly bags but add a
Yashoda
Through e-mail
A2. The capabilities of different
kinds of bags are explained
below:
Pink poly bags (dissipative poly
bags).These bags dissipate a static
charge to ground that keeps charge
from building up on the package. The
material is also antistatic, suggesting
that it will not charge up by tribo-
charge. The material’s resistivity is in
dissipative range and is usually about
109 to 1011. Unfortunately, these bags
have no shielding ability. A static field
or discharge occurring outside the bag
will easily penetrate the bag and dam-
age the electronics inside.
Black conductive poly bags. Black
poly bags are highly conductive with
surface resistivity of about 103 to 104.
These dissipate the charge very quickly
but, unfortunately, this fast dissipa-
tion also creates the possibility of
spark on their surface. As the material
is conductive, it does provide some
small measure of shielding. However,
there is no plastic layer (dielectric) to
isolate the device inside the bag. The
charge may be transferred through the
volume of the material to the device in-
stead of around the material to ground.
Shielding bags. Shield bags have
both the dissipative and antistatic at-
metal shield and polyester dielectric
to stop static from entering the bag.
Shield bags generally stop 97 per cent
of a 1000V static pulse, applied to the
outside of the bag, from reaching the
inside. Pink poly bags stop only about
10 per cent and black poly bags about
30 per cent.
Moisture barrier bags. Moisture
barrier bags have dissipation, antistatic
and static shielding properties together
with moisture vapour barrier. The
moisture barrier protects moisture-
sensitive items and improves long-
term storage.
Then there are other products like
pink bubble bags, antistatic foam and
antistatic boxes, which are generally
used in packaging for improving the
reliability of the equipment in the field.
Answer compiled by EFY technical editor, Ankit
Gupta. Letters and questions for publication
may be addressed to Editor, Electronics For You,
D-87/1, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase 1, New
Delhi 110020 (E-mail: editsec@efyindia.com) and
should include name and address of the sender
www.efymag.com
 electroons
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“He is the tallest man in our town and is popularly “Stop doing ordinary pooja... why don’t you
known as mobile tower man...” try some Internet-based pooja...”

“Don’t give supplement with the magazine.

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the real temple...” with every magazine...”

www.efymag.com Electronics For You | October 2013 125

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 information technology

Broadband over Power Lines

Broadband over power lines (BPL) technology is a union of two applications in a single
system. It uses the existing power grid hierarchy comprising a network of different
transmission lines to carry high-speed digital data over a broad range of frequencies
without causing any unreasonable significant interference. Thus, BPL holds great promise
as a ubiquitous broadband solution that would offer a viable alternative to existing
broadband technologies

Dr Rajiv Kumar Singh

D
OPERATION
espite the proliferation of INTERNET
AUTHEN- SUPPORT
SYSTEM
TICATION
broadband Internet technol- BACKBONE, PSTN OPERATION & CENTRE
2G, 3G, 4G MAINTENANCE
ogy in the last few years, CENTRE
many regions of the world, particularly BILLING
CENTRE

EXTRACTOR
rural and low-income areas, still do WI-FI

REPEATER
INJECTOR
ANTENNA
not have access to broadband services.

Huge costs involved are the main ob-
stacle to creating new infrastructure
in such areas for existing broadband
wired or wireless technologies like
digital subscriber line (DSL), cable and
satellite. But if broadband could be
served through electric power lines,
there would be no need to build a new
infrastructure for last-mile access. So
wherever electricity is available, there
could be broadband.
In this perspective, broadband over
power lines (BPL) technology seems to
emerge as a new business prospective
for established telecom operators, util-
ity companies and system manufactur-
ers to provide high-speed broadband
services that can cover each and every
home or office due to almost omnipres-
ence of power lines. With no need for
new wiring or major infrastructure
deployment, BPL creates an alternative
broadband solution that could lead to
lower prices for broadband consum-
ers. Thus it is hoped that BPL has the
potential to become an effective means
for last-mile delivery of broadband
services and may offer a competitive
alternative to other high-speed Internet
access technologies.
BPL building blocks
BPL is a power-line communication
technology that allows high-speed
POWER PLANT
TRANSMISSION
LINES
SUBSTATION
HIGH VOLTAGE TRANSMISSION
Fig. 1: BPL building blocks
digital data transmission over utility
power lines. By utilising the combi-
nation of technological principles of
radio, power engineering, electromag-
netic compatibility, networking and
modem technology, it offers instan-
taneous access to high-speed Internet
from in-house electrical outlet. In order
to access broadband services, subscrib-
ers need to install a modem that plugs
into an ordinary wall outlet.
BPL systems use the existing
electrical power lines as a transmis-
sion medium to provide high-speed
telecommunications capabilities by
coupling radio frequency (RF) energy
onto the power line. In order to carry
high-speed data, BPL uses radio spec-
trum ranging from high-frequency
(3-30 MHz) to lower portion of very
high-frequency (30-300 MHz) allocated
to other over-the-air communication
services. Because the electric current
COUPLER
WI-FI
ACCESS POINT
TRANSFORMER
BYPASS BOX
ACCESS BPL IN-HOME BPL
MEDIUM VOLTAGE LOW VOLTAGE
(50 Hz) and RF (typically 2-80 MHz
for BPL) have different frequencies,
the two don't interfere with each other.
There are two predominant types
of BPL communication configurations:
Access BPL systems that couple RF
energy onto medium-voltage (MV)
and low-voltage (LV) power lines; and
in-home BPL networks, which use ex-
isting electrical outlets available within
a home or office for the provision of a
local-area network (LAN). A typical
BPL network set-up is shown in Fig. 1.
The existing three-tiered power grid
hierarchy, which comprises HV, MV
and LV transmission lines, is exploited
to carry the high-speed digital data over
a broad range of frequencies without
causing any significant interference to
the rightful incumbent users of those
frequency bands. The electricity is
generated from power plants (thermal,
hydro, nuclear, wind turbines or solar),

142 October 2013 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com


which is synchronised three-phase, off-
set by 120-degree, AC power of the or-
der of thousand volts at the line rate of
50 cycles per second. Three phases are
chosen to get nearly peak value at any
given instant, which results in a good
compromise between cost and perfor-
mance. More phases could be used but
this implies more cost with only a slight
improvement in performance.
The AC power generated is now
ready for its journey to the customers.
As mentioned earlier, a three-tiered
hierarchy is used to transmit this AC
power to distant end-users. Power
transferred over lines is given by the
product of voltage and carrying current.
For a given line resistance, which
depends on the line material and line
length, the power loss is given by the
product of line resistance and square
of the carrying current. So in order
to reduce power loss in the lines and
transfer maximum generated power to
long-distant end-users, current must
be made as small as possible and volt-
age as large as possible. That’s why
transmission substations located next to
power plants use large transformers to
step up generator output voltage, thus
allowing megawatts of power transmis-
sion over distances of 400 km or more.
At power substations, voltages are
stepped down and lines branched out
to cover larger areas. This is performed
successively, transforming and branch-
ing out from extremely high voltage
(typically 345 to 785 kV) to HV (typi-
cally 115 to 230 kV), and then from HV
to MV (typically 2.4 to 69 kV), and fi-
nally from MV to LV (typically 120V to
600V) for delivery to homes or offices.
HV lines transmit power over dis-
tances that are tens of kilometres, but
are very noisy and not used to carry
broadband signals. Such a high voltage
contains infinite number of harmonic
components, and if it spikes at the
frequency of the RF used to transmit
data, it will cancel out that signal and
the data transmission will be dropped
or damaged en-route.
MV lines are capable of transmit-
ting power over a few kilometres,
while LV lines cover only a few hun-
www.efymag.com
information technology
dred metres. MV and LV lines are pre-
ferred for use in BPL data transmission
because of their low noise level.
In order to use MV/LV lines for
broadband services, BPL systems are
designed to operate in the frequency
spectrum range of 2 to 80 MHz. BPL
signal may be injected onto power lines
between two phase conductors, between
a phase conductor and the neutral con-
ductor, or on a single phase or neutral
conductor. The BPL signals are injected
into and extracted from MV/LV lines
through inductive or capacitive couplers.
Injector is a device that aggregates
user data onto the power lines and pro-
vides an interface between power line
and BPL operation support system that
is connected to the Internet backbone.
Concentrator provides an interface
between power lines carrying the BPL
signal and the households.
In inductive coupling, BPL signal
couples onto the line by wrapping induc-
tors around the line. On the other hand,
capacitive coupling uses a capacitor for
coupling and the signal is modulated
onto the line voltage. Inductive couplers
are known to be rather lossy, but since
they require no physical connection to
the network, they are safer to install on
energised lines than capacitive couplers.
Since HF signals have the rare abil-
ity to support long-distance point-to-
point communications due to line noise,
signal attenuation and limitations on
the amount of signal power that can be
injected onto power lines without caus-
ing unreasonable interference for other
spectrum users, repeaters are required
in between the transmission and recep-
tion ends. This can be done by using
MV couplers to couple the broadband
signal off the MV line so that it can be
regenerated, if necessary, and amplified
before being fed back onto the MV line
through another coupler.
The distribution transformers that
change voltage levels between MV and
LV lines are particularly harsh on the
weak broadband signal. These trans-
formers, due to their high inductance,
act as low-pass filters and appear as
open circuits for the passage of high-
frequency BPL signals. This implies
BPL can be deployed
either as end-to-end BPL
or as hybrid BPL. The end-
to-end BPL system uses
both the access BPL and
the in-house BPL while in
hybrid BPL, the bypass
box does not couple the
broadband signal to/from
the LV line but converts it
to/from a wireless format
and delivers it to the
wireless access point
that BPL signals going between MV
and LV lines need to bypass the trans-
formers. Typically, a bypass box can
be used, which may consist of coupler
and built-in repeating functionality.
Connectivity to the backhaul net-
work (Internet, PSTN, UMTS, 2G, 3G,
4G, CDMA, WiMAX, etc) is provided
through the operation support system
(OSS) coupled to an MV distribution
line. The OSS converts data formats,
aggregates and concentrates uplink
data streams, provides routing func-
tionality, helps allocate bandwidth and
resources, generates billing and charg-
ing data, and provides various back-
haul Ethernet interfaces to fibre-optic
or wireless connections. It consists of
various servers like authentication
and authorisation server, dynamic host
control protocol server, domain name
system server and billing server to
perform the required back-end tasks.
BPL can be deployed either as end-
to-end BPL or as hybrid BPL. The end-
to-end BPL system uses both the access
BPL and the in-house BPL, i.e., power
lines are used all the way from the
power substation to the end user. In
this case, BPL signal can either bypass
the MV/LV transformer or go through
the transformer (Fig. 1).
In hybrid BPL, the bypass box does
not couple the broadband signal to/
from the LV line but converts it to/
from a wireless format and delivers
Electronics For You | October 2013 143
 information technology
RADIATED WAVE RADIATED WAVE
SOURCE
COUPLER
MV WIRE LV WIRE
GUIDED COUPLER FIELD
WAVE
GROUND PLANE
Fig. 2: BPL electromagnetic model
it to the wireless access point (AP)
located on the pole (Fig. 1).
For end-to-end BPL, bypass boxes
and LV couplers must be installed on
all LV lines, and in-house BPL modems
are required. For hybrid BPL, bypass
boxes with wireless conversion boards,
wireless APs and existing standard
wireless user modems are required.
Architecture and
standards
Based on seven-layer open system
interconnection model defined in ISO-
7498, BPL systems are designed to
work on a two-layer architecture com-
prising physical (PHY) and medium
access control (MAC) layers.
The PHY layer defines electrical
and physical specifications for devices,
i.e., relationship between a device and
a physical medium. It includes all the
electrical power line distribution system
and the in-home electrical wiring down
to the wall sockets. The major functions
of PHY layer include establishment and
termination of a connection to a com-
munication medium, communication
flow control, modulation and coding.
MAC layer, consisting of MAC
lower sub-layer and logical link control
layer, provides an interface between
PHY layer and higher layers for con-
nection to physical media.
At initial stage, manufacturers of
BPL systems have developed their own
proprietary solutions for injectors, re-
peaters, extractors and couplers. These
solutions have been implemented in a
variety of system architectures, which
feature different modulation tech-
niques and designs at PHY, MAC and
LLC layers. Such systems have raised
144 October 2013 | Electronics For You
incompatibility issues.
In order to combat
COUPLER c h a nnel impairments
(noise, multipath, strong
channel selectivity, non-lin-
GUIDED
ear channel characteristics),
WAVE a number of different tech-
nologies at PHY layer have
been employed that range
from spread spectrum to
orthogonal frequency-divi-
sion multiplexing (OFDM).
OFDM is a type of frequency-division
multiplexing system that provides
better channel throughput, better spec-
trum efficiency and robustness against
frequency selectivity because all of the
underlying sub-carriers are orthogonal
to one another.
There are numerous modulation
and access design techniques that can
be used in association with OFDM.
These include binary phase-shift keying
(BPSK), quadrature phase-shift key-
ing (QPSK), 16-quadrature amplitude
modulation (QAM) and 6-bit, 64-con-
stellation QAM. Various forward error
correction codes are also used.
Since BPL access networks oper-
ate in a shared transmission medium
where subscribers compete to use the
same transmission resources, MAC has
been designed for point-to-multipoint
applications and is based on collision-
sense multiple-access with collision
avoidance (CSMA/CA). MAC layer
also describes how secure communi-
cations are delivered, by using secure
key exchange during authentication
and encryption (using advanced en-
cryption standard or data encryption
standard) during data transfer.
In order to streamline the function-
ality of BPL systems, Open Power line
communication European Research Al-
liance, European Telecommunications
Standards Institute, Universal Power-
line Association, European Committee
for Electrotechnical Standardization,
HomePlug Powerline Alliance and
Institute of Electrical and Electron-
ics Engineers (IEEE) have developed
standards for BPL systems.
The IEEE has constituted IEEE P1675
‘Standard for Broadband over Power
Line Hardware,’ IEEE P1775 ‘Powerline
Communication Equipment—Electro-
magnetic Compatibility (EMC) Require-
ments—Testing and Measurement
Methods’ and IEEE P1901 ‘Draft Stand-
ard for Broadband over Power Line
Networks: Medium Access Control and
Physical Layer Specifications.’
HomePlug Powerline Alliance has
developed in-house BPL specifications:
HomePlug 1.0 for speeds up to 14
Mbps and HomePlug AV for speeds
greater than 100 Mbps.
BPL issues
Interference issues. Most BPL systems
are designed to operate in the fre-
quency spectrum from 2 to 30 MHz,
but occasionally up to 80 MHz, using
MV and LV power distribution net-
work lines. The frequency spectrum
from 2 to 30 MHz constitutes a limited
natural resource that includes the HF
band (3 to 30 MHz), which is being
used for many decades by shortwave
radio stations, military, aviation agen-
cies, etc. Above the HF band, the fre-
quency spectrum from 30 to 54 MHz
is reserved for use by public service
and business communications. The
spectrum from 54 to 80 MHz hosts
television channels (channel numbers
2 to 5) with a small segment used for
some other emergency services.
However, because BPL uses some
of the radio frequencies used for over-
the-air radio systems, mutual interfer-
ence is a major problem. In order to
mitigate interference at some specific
frequency, OFDM may be used as it
has the ability to notch these specific
frequencies.
Moreover, power lines are
unshielded and act as radiating anten-
nae for the signals they carry, resulting
in interference with communication
systems of broadcast radio, military,
aviation agencies, etc.
Electromagnetic fields associated
with access-BPL system are shown
in Fig. 2 and can be categorised as
guided mode, coupler fields and ra-
diation mode. Guided mode serves
to transport signal energy along the
line. Signal energy decays rapidly in
www.efymag.com

directions perpendicular to the line but
slowly along its length. Coupler fields
are associated with the coupler itself
rather than the power line. Radiation
fields are considered to be a source of
interference because these fields decay
relatively slowly.
Interference associated with BPL can
be broadly categorised into two groups:
near-field (0.62(D3/λ)1/2<r<2D2/λ) ra-
diation and far-field (r>2D2/λ) radiation,
where ‘r’ is the distance from the radia-
tor, ‘D’ is the largest linear dimension of
the radiator and ‘λ’ is signal wavelength.
Near-field effects persist along the entire
length of the wire and may cause seri-
ous interference issues. Far-field effects
can be quite troublesome because iono-
spheric propagation of HF radiation can
travel thousands of kilometres. In order
to reduce these radiations, a balanced
configuration of two MV wires driven
differentially and spaced appropriately
can be employed.
Power line noise. MV/LV power
lines are inherently very noisy due to
changing nature of the load connected
to power lines, number and types of
line branches, length of line branches,
type of power line equipment con-
nected (such as capacitor banks and
transformers), and impedance mis-
match caused by unterminated stubs
and line branches. In addition, on/
off switching of capacitor banks used
to correct power factor and switching
power supplies often introduce noisy
harmonics into the line.
Unlike twisted-pair (used in DSL)
or shielded coaxial cable, power lines
have no inherent noise cancellation
mechanism. In order to cope up with
noisy environment of power lines,
OFDM along with a number of chan-
nel interference noise ratio based
modulations such as QAM, BPSK and
QPSK may be a solution. OFDM is
very robust against frequency selectiv-
ity but any time-varying characteristic
of the channel limits system perfor-
mance. Time variations deteriorate
the orthogonality of the sub-carriers,
resulting in inter-carrier interference.
To eliminate inter-carrier interference,
a guard time is inserted with a length
www.efymag.com
information technology
longer than the duration of the impulse
response of the channel. The insertion
of guard time has the penalty of a loss
in the signal-to-noise ratio that further
increases the bandwidth requirement.
Bandwidth issues. Each distribu-
tion transformer feeds power to 10 to
50 houses/offices. Since bandwidth
to the transformer is limited and the
same power line is shared by all these
houses, there is scarcity of bandwidth
available to each customer. Moreover,
BPL is a contention-based system
(CSMA/CA), which again imposes
additional challenges. Similar to DSL,
speeds (bit-rates) of BPL systems avail-
able to customers are also dependent
on the distance between the supplying
substation and the customer’s home.
Security issues. BPL signal propa-
gates in a LAN-like manner, which
makes detection and interception of
neighbouring transmissions simple. So
in order to prevent interception of legiti-
mate customers’ data by unauthorised
intruders, strong authorisation, authen-
tication and data encryption algorithms
such as DES and AES should be used.
BPL in a nutshell
BPL technology is a union of two ap-
plications in a single system, holding
great promise as a ubiquitous broad-
band solution that would offer a viable
alternative to cable, digital subscriber
line, fibre and wireless broadband
solutions. Additionally, it offers the
ability to employ intelligent power line
networks that make use of supervisory
control and data acquisition devices.
As standardisation, interference miti-
gation and improvement in technology
are on their way, the future of BPL
looks very bright. 
The author is a junior telecom officer at Bharat
Sanchar Nigam Limited, currently working in
Ludhiana, Punjab. He holds Ph.D in electronics
engineering from Indian Institute of Technology,
BHU, Varanasi, and has authored and co-authored
several research papers in peer-reviewed national/
international journals including IEEE and confer-
ence proceedings. His current research interests
include wired and wireless technologies for high-
speed Internet access; use of renewable energy
sources; and analysis, design and simulation of
high-power high-frequency microwave devices and
systems for communication purposes
Electronics For You | October 2013 145
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February Automotive Electronics Power Sector Electronics Hand-held Multimeters EFY Expo, New Delhi Simulation for T&M

March Wearable Technology Connectors and Terminals Digital Storage Oscilloscopes EFY Awards, Bengaluru Electro-medical T&M

Temperature-controlled Solder- • China Electronics Fair, Shenzen

April Telemedicine/Health Monitoring Industrial Automation Geological T&M
ing Stations • NEPCON China, Shanghai

Tool-Kits (including Smart Global Digital Surveillance Forum,

May Extreme Temperature Electronics Rooftop Solar Systems —
Tweezers) Bengaluru

New Technologies in the filed of

June Transistors and Diodes Anti-Static Material CommunicAsia 2013, Singapore T&M in RF & Wireless
Energy

Ten Interesting Devices for Special

July Independent Design Houses RFID Modules KE Show 2013, Jiangsu, China T&M of high-speed memory
Needs

August Innovations for the Social Cause SMD Components Signal Generators Solarcon India, Bengaluru T&M of LTE

EDA Tools for PCBs and

September Wireless Charging Aerospace and Defence Equipment Renewable Energy Expo, Delhi Software-centric T&M Methodologies
Simulation

October The Growing DIY Phenomenon Batteries (SMF, VRLA, etc) Microcontroller Boards Electronics Rocks 2013 Big Data in T&M

IFSEC India, New Delhi

Temperature-controlled
November Micro-satellites EFY Top 100 Electronics Companies OSI Days 2013, Bengaluru T&M During Design
De-soldering Stations
EFY Expo, Mumbai

Electronics at the Bottom of the

December LED Lighting Hand-held Digital Microscopes — Increased role of FPGA’s in T&M
Pyramid

146 October 2013 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

 advertisers’ & organisation index

Client name Page No.
Acumen Measurement & Consultancy Pvt Ltd......................................141
Agilent Technologies India Pvt. Ltd................................................. Gatefold
Allegro Micro (www.allegromicro.com).....................................................47
Amptronics Systems Pvt Ltd...................................................................130
Anand Enterprises(www.anandenterprises.org)....................................139
Anritsu India Pvt Ltd (www.anritsu.com).....................................................9
Arham Electronics & Electricals (Nimra Products).................................139
Arihant Impex (www.golecha.com).........................................................139
Aura Emergency Systems......................................................................137
Avago Technologies..................................................................................43
Azure Shipra Krishna..............................................................................139
Binay Opto Electronics Pvt Ltd (www.binayLED.com).............................22
Bose Electronics.....................................................................................137
Buljin Elemec Pvt Ltd (www.flexiblepcb.com)........................................137
Caron Technologies................................................................................138
Chhabra Electronics................................................................................139
Cirkit Electro Components P Ltd............................................................131
Digi m2m Solutions India Pvt Ltd............................................................126
Digi-Key Corporation (www.digikey.com)...................................................5
Digital Promoters (I) Pvt Ltd (M).............................................................137
DREDO...................................................................................................130
DSM India Private Limited .....................................................................131
Eashtech Embedded sulution.................................................................137
Eclat International (www.eclat-international.in)......................................134
EDOM.......................................................................................................73
EFY Expo West’13..................................................................................132
EFY Expo’14 India....................................................................................55
EFY Group iPad........................................................................................75
EFY Group: EFY Subscription Form........................................................18
EFY Tech Center....................................................................................... 11
efytimes.com...........................................................................................136
Eita Technologies....................................................................................139
eleb2b.com......................................................................................120, 122
Electronics Rocks...................................................................................128
Elektro Power Systems...........................................................................138
Element14 India Pvt Ltd........................................................................1, 97
Elnova Ltd (m) (www.elnova.com)..........................................................139
advertisers’ index
Client name Page No.
EMS Technologies (www.peters.de).........................................................59
Emsoniq Telecom Pvt. Ltd......................................................................140
Evergreen Solar Systems (www.evergreensolar.in )..............................137
Exide Industries Ltd (www.exide4u.com).................................................45
FLIR Systems (www.flir.com)....................................................................39
Good Will Instrument Co. Ltd (www.goodwill.com.tw)...........................148
Goodwin Electronics Pvt. Ltd..................................................................138
GSR Infocom Pvt. Ltd.............................................................................139
Guna Power Systems.............................................................................138
Gurukirpa Electronics (www.gurukirpaelectronics.com).........................137
Indo Powersys Pvt. Ltd...........................................................................138
Indus Industries.......................................................................................128
International Rectifier Hong Kong Ltd (www.irf.com)...............................57
ISOFT........................................................................................................81
J K Power Guard.....................................................................................138
Jaydeep Industrial Corporation...............................................................138
Kandhari Photo Electronics P Ltd...........................................................141
Key Operations & Electrocomponents Pvt Ltd.........................................69
Kits N Spares............................................................................................21
Laxmi Electronics....................................................................................138
Lzen Electronics (India)..........................................................................140
M.S Electronics (www.essmaups.com)..................................................138
Madhu Subtronic Components Pvt. Ltd. Ltd............................................35
Max Electronics.......................................................................................140
Max Technology & Co. (www.maxtechnoloindia.com).............................37
Maxim Integrated (CM Media)..................................................................41
Megger India Pvt ltd (www.megger.com/in).............................................40
Microchip Technology Inc. (www.microchip.com).....................................49
Miracle Electronic & Devices Pvt Ltd (www.toroidal.com)........................93
Mornsun Guangzhou Science & Technology Co.Ltd...............................63
Mouser Electronics (Hong Kong) Ltd ......................................................13
National Controlling & Equipments.........................................................141
NEPCON Japan........................................................................................23
NI Systems (India) Pvt Ltd (www.ni.com)...................................................4
Ossian Agro Automation Private Limited ...............................................141
Perfect Radios........................................................................................140
Perfect Systems......................................................................................139
Client name Page No.
Power Palazzo Pvt Ltd (www.powerpalazzo.com).................................107
Precision Mastech Enterprises (Hong Kong) Ltd...................................129
Progressive Engineers............................................................................130
Propress Instrumentation & Solutions Pvt. Ltd.........................................65
Pyrotech Electronics Pvt Ltd (www.peplectronics.com).........................130
Radiant Electronics.................................................................................141
Raj Electronics........................................................................................140
Recom Asia Pvt Ltd...................................................................................65
Renesas Electronics Singapore Pte.Ltd...................................................61
Renesas Technology................................................................................27
Rhydo Technologies P Ltd (www.rhydo.com).........................................127
ROHM Semiconductor..............................................................................67
RS Components & Controls (I) Ltd (www.rsindia.com)............................99
S K Metal Works (www.skmetals.com)...................................................141
S.M Semiconductors...............................................................................141
Salasar INC.............................................................................................141
Sanjay Electronics..................................................................................138
Scientech Technologies Pvt Ltd (www.scientech.bz)...............................15
Scientific Mes Technik Pvt Ltd (M) (www.scientificindia.com)..................19
Shavison Electronics Pvt. Ltd. (www.shavison.com)...............................17
Shree Archi Embedded Solution.............................................................141
Shrey Plastic Moulders (www.shreyplasticmoulders.com)....................141
SMD Electronics Pvt.Ltd.........................................................................140
Srishti Electronics (www.acedigital.co.in)...............................................137
ST Microelectronics Marketing Pvt. Ltd....................................................31
Super Technologies..................................................................................25
Supreme Components International Pte Ltd............................................69
TekBrains Pvt. Ltd...................................................................................140
Tektronix India Pvt Ltd. ...........................................................................150
Texas Instruments (India) Pvt Ltd...............................................................7
The Motwane Manufacturing Company Pvt Ltd.......................................29
Toradex Systems (India) Private Limited (www.toradex.com)...............149
Trade Corp..............................................................................................135
TTL Technologies Pvt. Ltd........................................................................53
Unipar Energy Systems Pvt Ltd..............................................................140
Page numbers subject to final dummy corrections

Organisations Covered in This issue

Organisation Page No.
A.R. Software ................................................... 108
Accenture ......................................................... 108
Acer .............................................................. 12, 14
Agilent Technologies India ................................ 105
Alchem International ......................................... 108
Apple............................................................... 8, 12
Arduino India ...................................................... 32
ARM India ........................................................... 36
Artheon Electronics ...........................................112
Asimov Robotics.................................................. 28
Association of Indian Dry Cell
Manufacturers..................................................114
ASUS .................................................................. 14
Organisation Page No.
Autodesk India & SAARC ................................... 30
Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS)
Pilani ............................................................. 108
Broadcom ........................................................... 60
CSR Sunnyvale .................................................. 59
Cypress Semiconductor ................................... 121
Dell ..................................................................... 14
Greenvision Technologies .................................112
Harman India ........................................................ 8
HCL Infosystems .............................................. 108
Hewlett Packard ................................................. 14
Infosys .............................................................. 108
Instructables ....................................................... 30
Organisation Page No.
International Institute of Information Technology,
Bangalore ...................................................... 108
Internet of Things DIY group (IoTBlr).................. 28
Kandhari Photo Electronics ...............................115
Kitsnspares.com ................................................. 32
Lenovo India ................................................. 10, 14
Maker Media ....................................................... 28
Manav Rachna College of Engineering .............. 53
MathWorks Inc. ................................................... 50
Microsoft.............................................................. 12
Moser Baer ........................................................... 8
Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology (NSIT).... 108
Nokia ............................................................ 10, 12
Organisation Page No.
Panasonic India .................................................112
PSG College of Technology .............................. 108
Rashtreeya Vidyalaya College of Engineering.. 108
Raspberry Pi Foundation .................................... 33
Samsung ...................................................... 10, 14
Shalaka Technologies ....................................... 105
Sony ................................................................... 12
TCS .................................................................. 108
Teledyne LeCroy ................................................119
UltraTech Cement ............................................. 108
Vellore Institute of Technology .......................... 108
Wind River .......................................................... 60

www.efymag.com Electronics For You | October 2013 147

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