Can you imagine having screen directly on your eye like movie characters from the Terminator or Bionic Woman? Maybe not for having virtual crosshairs or zoom in on far-off scenes, but for more practical use like having virtual displays for visual aids to help vision-impaired people, holographic driving control panels and even as a way to surf the Web on the go.

The device to make this happen may be familiar. Engineers at the University of Washington have for the first time used manufacturing techniques at microscopic scales to combine a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.

There are many possible uses for virtual displays. Drivers or pilots could see a vehicle’s speed projected onto the windshield. Video-game companies could use the contact lenses to completely immerse players in a virtual world without restricting their range of motion. And for communications, people on the go could surf the Internet on a midair virtual display screen that only they would be able to see.

The prototype device contains an electric circuit as well as red light-emitting diodes for a display, though it does not yet light up. The lenses were tested on rabbits for up to 20 minutes and the animals showed no adverse effects. Read the rest of this entry »

Batteries are cheap, small and relatively safe way of having portable energy source. There are many types of batteries with different characteristics and uses. Probably many of you heard terms battery and cell referring to the same. But from technical perspective these are different things - cell is a single unit which houses a single chemical reaction and produces electricity, while battery is a pack of cells.

Nominal cell voltage and battery voltage

For instance single AA battery can be called a cell because this is a single unit where single chemical reaction generates voltage of 1.5V, but car lead-acid battery have six cells producing 2.0V each while all battery produces 12V. So first important thing to remember that single cell can produce specific nominal cell voltage that depends on chemical reaction, while battery voltage is a combined voltage of multiple cells connected in series (or parallel). Read the rest of this entry »

This is really great video about SMD soldering using simple and cheap equipment that most electronics hobbyist can find at home. This 9 min video tutorial prepared by CuriousInventor includes up-close shots of fine pitch soldering such SMD elements as 603 resistor, PLCC< 44 pin QFP, 208 pin fine-pitch QFP. Also there are few SMD desoldering tips disclosed.

If you go to AVR site and open an AVR application note AVR053 you will notice that there are different RC oscillators installed in to AVR chips during history. In table you can see tunable oscillator versions and their features.

Simply speaking each new version of oscillator introduces better features and improvements. But is it really truth? ChaN has made interesting research on these oscillator version. He simply tested output signal with fixed width and measured timing fluctuations of it. And he found out, that RC generator frequency slowly fluctuates during time. Of course RC oscillator fluctuations are not a problem as this type of clock source isn’t considered to be stable. In time critical applications it is better to use crystals. But most interesting thing is that newer versions of tunable oscillators were generating much more jitter than older ones.

In the picture you can see that chips introduced 2-3 years ago shows almost no noticeable jitter, while new ones give about 0.5% maximum. An it seems that significant jitter appeared from 4.0 RC oscillator version. It is hard to tel the reason why it is so. Probably it is a result of some kind of efficiency improvements,that resulted in bigger RC jitter. But this is only a guessing as Application notes do not tell anything about this issue.

You can read full article here. It is Japanese, so use Babelfish translator.

Have you missed a New Year party? Dont worry you can make it UP with these fun projects made of LEDs andother cheap materials. Joe Utson has compiled several LED and fiber optic projects the average Joe can create easily and get ready for the party. One of them is simple LED sign made of large perforated PCB board and 50 LEDs. You can form any sign or text that works great for parties:

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Embedded electronics technology has infiltrated almost every aspect of human life.  Embedded technology has changed the modern home and business.  It makes a business run faster and safer, producing more outputs at lesser cost.  It can integrate various devices in your home like your PC, TV, VCR and DVD player to maximize your audio-visual entertainment.

The Aviation Innovation

The aviation industry has also benefited much from the emergence of embedded technology.  Early in September, the world’s quietest helicopter was unveiled in Germany by an EADS company, Eurocopter.  After many years of research, the company has been able to come out with a helicopter that utilizes embedded electronics technology. Read the rest of this entry »

UASBASP is very nice programmer for Atmel AVR microcontrollers that works under multiple operating systems including Linux, Mac OS X, and windows. How to assemble this simple programmer read previous article in this site or go to original site of Thomas Fischl.

As it was mentioned mentioned USBasp has two available programming frequencies - high when jumper disconnected and low when connected. These frequencies are 375kHz and 8kHz. In order to use 375kHz speed, target MCU’s clock frequency has to be at least 1.5MHz - four times higher than SCK. If target is clocked with low speed oscillator like 32kHz then jumper has to be connected as it gives 8kHz SCK which is also 4*8kHz=32kHz.

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Embedded electronics refer to devices that can be ‘embedded’ into something. They are add-ons that increase the functionality of the device in which they have been integrated. Embedded electronics can do more and in the near future it can change the way people sell products and handle business.

The Importance of Technology in Business

To maximize profits and to increase production but, at the same time, to maintain a competitive price, industries from all sectors of the market rely on technology to reduce the cost incurred during business operations. Modern technology could maximize production and profit by freeing people from repetitive and laborious work and put them in places where their skills and intellect would matter. Technology makes it possible to mechanize and accelerate production, lower the cost, reinforce control mechanisms, speed up delivery, and make goods and services available to more people. These advantages also mean better, cheaper and safer products and services for the end users.

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Embedded systems for ocean applications are comprised of small, function-specific computers that are designed to operate in the rough environment of open water, to withstand both pressure and weather, and to use as little energy as possible. While development of such technology has been ongoing for a long time, research and implementation have been stepped up due to the increased demand for ocean-based monitoring and warning systems; this demand is a direct result of the 2004 tsunami disaster. Embedded systems are also being developed for purposes of tidal power generation as well as improvement of navigation systems aboard ocean-going vessels.

Embedded Systems for Disaster Prevention

One of the technologies that have been designed after the 2004 tsunami was a buoy that could detect disturbances or irregularities in the ocean currents; these irregularities could indicate an impending natural disaster so their early detection can significantly improve early warning systems.

The sea buoy, developed by Norway-based Nortek AS, takes measurements of wave heights and currents using acoustic Doppler technology. Apart from its sensors, each buoy is equipped with an embedded minicomputer which translates raw data from the sensors into meaningful information. The information collected is then sent out through acoustic underwater modems to the nearest receiving station.

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Original project by: Владислав Шаповалов

Such multi-purpose device is a nice example of of using microcontroller for combined tasks. The idea of radio-clock-thermometer came up when authors car audio head-end was stolen. He decided to use what’s left left from car radio and build something nice. So the project has started.

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