Battery anxiety is a modern day problem for many of us. Mobile phone and wearable technologies are getting developed rapidly, but battery issues seem to be neverending. As phones and wearables are getting thinner, there needs to be a trade-off between battery life and design. Scientists are searching for a way to make a battery that’s tiny yet capable of holding the charge for a long time. So, what’s the solution? Supercapacitor.
Scientists have been researching on the use of nanomaterials to improve supercapacitors that could enhance or even replace batteries in electronic devices. But it’s not an easy task. Considering a typical supercapacitor, it must be a large one to store as much energy as a Li-ion battery holds.
To tackle the battery issue, a team of scientists at the University of Central Florida (UCF) has created a tiny supercapacitor battery applying newly discovered two-dimensional materials with only a few atoms thick layer. Surprisingly, the new process created at UCF yields a supercapacitor that doesn’t degrade even after it’s been recharged/discharged 30,000 times. Where a lithium-ion battery can be recharged less than 1,500 times without significant failure.
So, what else makes the supercapacitor special apart from their tiny size? Well, let’s hear it from Nitin Choudhary, a postdoctoral associate who conducted much of the research :
If they were to replace the batteries with these supercapacitors, you could charge your mobile phone in a few seconds and you wouldn’t need to charge it again for over a week.
Supercapacitors are not used in mobile devices for their large size. But the team at UCF has developed supercapacitors composed of millions of nanometer-thick wires coated with shells of two-dimensional materials. A highly conductive core helps fast electron transfer for fast charging and discharging. And uniformly coated shells of two-dimensional (2D) materials produce high energy and power densities.
Nanowire Supercapacitor Made of Capacitive 2D WS2 Layers
Scientists already knew 2D materials held great promise for energy storage purpose. But until the UCF developed the process for integrating those materials, it was not possible to realize that potential. Nitin Choudhary said,
For small electronic devices, our materials are surpassing the conventional ones worldwide in terms of energy density, power density, and cyclic stability.
Supercapacitors that use the new materials could be used in phones, wearables, other electronic gadgets, and electric vehicles. Though it’s not ready for commercialization yet. But the research team at UCF hopes this technology will soon end the battery problem of smartphones and other devices. So let’s wait awhile, and at the end of this year maybe you’ll be using a new smartphone that can be charged in seconds and lasts for a week, who knows!
In partnership with DNA Electronics, Imperial College London researchers had developed a revolutionary USB stick that can detect HIV in the bloodstream.
In order to detect the virus, it’s enough to use a drop of blood. Then the USB stick generates an electrical signal that can be read by a computer, laptop or handheld device.
“We have taken the job done by equipment the size of a large photocopier, and shrunk it down to a USB chip” – Dr Graham Cooke, study author
This detection is useful for HIV patients for managing their treatment and to maintain their health. The longer the detection of HIV virus the harder to treat it, because antiretroviral treatment that is used for HIV may stop changing the status due to the resistance built by the virus to the medicine. This what the USB stick is working to solve, providing accurate results in a surprisingly short time.
To implement this, researcher had worked on “a novel complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) chip based, pH-mediated, point-of-care HIV-1 viral load monitoring assay that simultaneously amplifies and detects HIV-1 RNA”.
Conventional ways to test HIV may take several days, but this device is promising to give results in less than 30 minutes! In addition, the detection can be done remotely, which allows faster detection for patients by themselves, and for some areas that don’t have advanced lab tests.
“This is a great example of how this new analysis technology has the potential to transform how patients with HIV are treated by providing a fast, accurate and portable solution. At DNAe we are already applying this highly adaptable technology to address significant global threats to health, where treatment is time-critical and needs to be right first time.” – Professor Chris Toumazou, DNAe’s Founder, Executive Chairman and Regius Professor at the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Imperial College London
Partnering with DNA Electronics was a great step for the researchers since this company is using similar technology to develop devices for detecting bacterial and fungal sepsis and antibiotic resistance. Right now, researchers are now looking for possibilities to advance their work and to check the ability that the device can detect other viruses such as hepatitis.
Tiny Bar-Graph display provide a Red color, bright, easy to read display which is proportional to the force applied on the FLEX sensor surface. This Bar-Graph has 20 segments in single color and display Force applied on FLEX sensor. The Barograph force monitor is based on PIC microcontroller with 10 Bit resolution ADC. This high performance measurement provides unique capabilities and can be used in various applications. Each LED output provided with Solder- jumper for output set point, which can be configured for output control, alarm, Relay.
Force sensing resistors are polymer think film devices which exhibits a decrease in resistance with an increase in the force applied to the active surface. Its force sensitivity is optimized for use in human touch control of electronic devices. Flex Sensor to bargraph monitor using PIC16F886 – [Link]
Tiny Bar-Graph display provides a Red color bright, easy to read display which is proportional to the force applied on the FLEX sensor surface. This Bar-Graph has 20 segments in a single color and display Force applied on the FLEX sensor. The Barograph force monitor is based on a PIC microcontroller with 10 Bit resolution ADC. This high-performance measurement provides unique capabilities and can be used in various applications. Each LED output provided with Solder- a jumper for output set point, which can be configured for output control, alarm, Relay.
Force sensing resistors are polymer think film devices which exhibit a decrease in resistance with an increase in the force applied to the active surface. Its force sensitivity is optimized for use in human touch control of electronic devices.
Suitable Force Sensor is FSR402 (sensitivity 0.2N-20N, Part no 12, see datasheet below)
Note: Board is provided with Trim-Pot for fine tuning of display.
Features
Supply 7.5 V to 18V DC (Direct 5V Input Possible)
Force Sensor (Flex Sensor)
Output Display 20 Color RED SMD LEDs
Compact Board with SMD Components
Supply input Header Connecter
On Board 5V Regulator
Onboard Trimpot to Calibrate The Display Range.
Solder Jumper on each LED for Output Control, Alarm, and Relay
When you are waiting for a very important letter to come, it’s really bothersome to go and check the post box again and again. The problem gets worse when you are not at home and anxiously thinking if the letter arrived or not. Well, now IoT or Internet Of Things is your savior.
Following this project by CuriosityGym, you can make your own smart IoT post box that sends you an email as soon as a letter is dropped into it.
The concept is not complicated at all. The idIoTware Shield has a set of RGB LED and an LDR. The RGB LED always emits white light and it’s received by the LDR. As soon as a letter is dropped, there is an interruption in light. The change in light intensity is sensed by LDR and processed by Arduino. Finally, ESP 8266 connects to IFTTT network and sends an email to a saved email ID.
idIoTware Shield For Arduino UNO
IFTTT: IFTTT is a free web-based service that allows users to create chains of simple conditional statements, called “applets”, which are triggered based on changes to other web services such as Gmail, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. IFTTT is an abbreviation of “If This Then That”.
This can be explained using a simple analogy: “If the battery is empty then charge it”.
Simply place the idIoTware shield on Arduino UNO and Connect the esp8266(01) module to the ESP-01 header on the top right, such that the antenna is facing outside (See the image given below). It’s important to connect a jumper to CH_PD pin on the shield.
Smart IoT Postbox using Arduino and IdIoTware Shield
To make an IFTTT applet, go to IFTTT.comand make an account. Then, you need to make an applet as “If Maker then Gmail“. So, select Maker by searching and add your Maker channel (in URL field). Now, search for Gmail and select it. Define whom to and what to mail. Finish your applet, and you are all set.
Finally, upload the code to Arduino UNO. Once the code is uploaded, place the Arduino with double sided sticky tape inside the post box. Don’t forget to insulate the Arduino from metallic body of the postbox.
Testing :
Power the Arduino from a 9V adapter and connect it to a serial monitor. Now post a letter in the postbox and you will see the message “New Letter!!” in the serial monitor. When you check your email you will find a mail saying the same.
educ8s.tv uploaded a new video on their youtube channel.
Hey guys, I am Nick and welcome to educ8s.tv a channel that is all about DIY electronics projects with Arduino, Raspberry Pi, ESP8266 and other popular boards. In this video we are going to learn how to use an RGB led with Arduino, a very interesting type of LED. As you can see I have connected this LED to an Arduino Uno and every second it changes its color. That’s very handy because we can use only one LED in our projects and produce many colors!
David Johnson-Davies designed a minimalist ATtiny85-based watch using 12 LEDs, arranged like a clock face, to show the time in analogue-style. He writes:
To show the time you press the button on the watch face, and the time is then displayed for four seconds. It lights one LED to show the hour, and flashes another LED to show the minutes to the nearest five minutes, like the hour and minute hands on a clock. If only one LED lights up you know that both hands are pointing to the same hour mark.
The PCB Rax is an easy to use, versatile printed circuit board holder for repair, prototyping , and assembly that can hold nearly any shape of circuit board. Check the details on the link below.
Not all circuit boards are rectangular. PCB Rax was designed to hold all kinds of different shaped circuit boards, from circles to christmas trees, and everything in-between. PCB Rax comes standard with 10″ connecting rods that can hold rectangular boards up to 9-1/4″ x 8″, and odd shaped boards up to 6-1/2″ x 8″. For larger projects the connecting rods can be replaced.
PCB Rax – A modular system for holding circuit boards – [Link]
Susanne Nell @ edn.com has a design idea on how to measure high dc currents.
To measure high levels of direct current for overload detection and protection, designers frequently use either a current-shunt resistor or a toroidal core and Hall-effect magnetic-field sensor. Both methods suffer from drawbacks. For example, measuring 20A with a 10-mΩ resistor dissipates 4W of power as waste heat. The Hall-effect sensor delivers accurate measurements and wastes little power, but it’s an expensive approach to simple current monitoring.
Low-cost current monitor tracks high dc currents – [Link]
Online circuit simulators are getting more popular day by day. Electronics hobbyists, as well as professionals, use circuit simulators often to design and check circuit diagrams. The best thing about online simulator is, you don’t have to install anything at all on your PC or laptop. All you need is a browser and a stable internet connection. Work from anywhere just by opening the online circuit simulator website and signing in to your account. Cool, huh?
Now the question is, which simulator should one use? Which one is the best simulator? Well, in one sentence, “there is NO best simulator“. It depends on your requirement and level of expertise. If you are just a beginner, then you need a basic and less complex simulator. But if you’re professional and very expert in this field, obviously you’ll need a complicated, multipurpose simulator.
Here I’ve listed top 10 online simulators based on their popularity, functionality, pricing, and availability of library parts.
EasyEDA is a free, zero-install, web and cloud-based EDA tool suite which integrates powerful schematic capture, mixed-mode circuit simulator and PCB layout in a cross-platform browser environment, for electronic engineers, educators, students, and hobbyists.
As EasyEDA is completely free, super easy to use, and feature-rich, it holds the first place.
Pros:
Huge and ever growing community
Parts library is quite massive
Very powerful simulator
High-quality PCB designing is possible
Designing circuit/PCB is free from any kind of hassle. Beginners can easily get started to EayEDA
EasyEDA is completely FREE
Cons:
Getting the simulation done is kinda difficult. You need to follow the guide.
Autodesk Circuits empowers you to bring your electronics project ideas to life with free, easy to use online tools.
A circuit/PCB designing tool and simulator developed by AutoDesk, empowering you to design the circuit, see it on the breadboard , use the famous platform Arduino, simulate the circuit and eventually create the PCB. You can program the Arduino directly from this software simulation.
Pros:
The output design is easier to interpret and will be a handy reference while making a real life connection
It can simulate Arduino
The library has plenty of parts
Cons:
Designing circuit is bit tougher than other simulators
PartSim is a free and easy to use circuit simulator that runs in your web browser. PartSim includes a full SPICE simulation engine, web-based schematic capture tool, and a graphical waveform viewer.
Pros:
This platform is pretty neat and easy to use
Large number of parts from vendors makes this a good choice for practical purpose
PartSim is entirely free to use
Cons:
Not so powerful simulator but ok for beginners
It has a lot of op-amps in library but other ICs lack
EveryCircuit is an online circuit simulator with a well-designed graphics. It’s really easy to use and has a great system of electronic design. It allows you to embed simulation into your web page.
Pros:
EveryCircuit is also available mobile platforms (Android and iOS)
Impressive animated representation of various dynamic parameters
It offers plenty of example and pre-designed circuits. Good for beginners
Extremely simple web platform that runs on any browser. The platform perfectly suits beginners who want to understand the functionality of simple circuits and electronics.
Pros:
The simplest one. Beginners won’t have to struggle with it
DC/AC Virtual Lab is an online simulator who is capable of building DC/AC circuits, you can build circuits with batteries, resistors, wires and other components.
DC/AC Virtual Lab has a pretty attractive graphics and components are real looking, but it is not in top fives because of limitation in parts library, incapability of drawing circuits and some other reasons.
CircuitsCloud is a free and easy-to-use simulator. It works good for both analog and digital. Beginners can easily use it but have to create an account first.
Pros:
CircuitsCloud is a free platform
Making circuit is easy here
Cons:
Simulation is not good. Doesn’t animate direction of current
Library doesn’t contain enough digital IC and MCUs
Circuit Lab is a feature-rich online circuit simulator, but it’s not free. It’s designed with easy to use editor and accurate analog/digital circuit simulator.
Pros:
This platform is well-built with fairly extensive library that is suitable for both beginners and experimenters
Simulated graphs and output results can be exported as CSV file for further analysis
Designing circuits is easy and pre-designed circuits are available
Cons:
This is not a free platform but you can use the demo for free
The simulation could have been better with interactive simulations apart from the graphical representation
TINA Design Suite is a powerful yet affordable circuit simulator and PCB design software package for analyzing, designing, and real time testing of analog, digital, HDL, MCU, and mixed electronic circuits.
TINA is a very sophisticated circuit simulator and a good choice for experienced persons. It’s not very easy for beginners and takes a while to get started. TINA is not free. But if you consider the performance, the price is negligible.
Pros:
This simulation program has sophisticated capabilities
Simulations are performed on company’s server, hence it provides an excellent accuracy and speed
Various types of circuits can be simulated
Cons:
This platform is NOT for beginners
Even if you are experienced one, initially you may face some difficulties
Tina Cloud is NOT a free simulator
Other Simulators
So, now you have a list of “Top Ten Online Circuit Simulators”, but this isn’t a final one. There are other online simulators which you may find as good for you. simulator.io, Gecko-SIMULATIONSetc. are some of them. I recommend you to try some of them before choosing one as perfect.
If you know another simulator worth included in the list, do share with us. Any suggestion is highly appreciated.
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