Electronics For You June 2012 Issue Vol. 44 No. 6 Technology Focus Ubiquitous Computing Getting Closer To A Distant Dream Ubiquitous computing is a subject we revisit every year because we are as curious as you to see how the dream is shaping up! Today, we find that the building blocks are all there as also a few successful demonstrations, but a lot of disparate issues need to be resolved before the jig-saw falls into place
Circuit Ideas Audible Logic Probe Using a conventional logic probe, it is difficult to determine what is happening at a point in a circuit above 50 Hz. The human eye isn’t able to perceive the change which is happening at such a fast speed—for instance, the flickering of a tubelight.	Circuit Ideas Relay Actuating Circuit with Millivolt Sensitivity Common electromagnetic relays with coil voltage of 5V, 6V or 12V can operate power circuits in the range of 250 to 300 volts and up to 20A. The actuating current of these relays is in the range of 50 to 100 mA.

Circuit Ideas Night Lamp From Scrap CFL Compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) are available in different shapes and power ratings. These consist of an electronic ballast circuit and a programmable-logiccontrolled tubelight. Most CFL manufacturers offer a guarantee of half a year on their product.	Circuit Ideas Smart Exhaust Fan Switch Exhaust fans in washrooms can be connected to the lighting circuit so that these switch on and switch off with the electric light. But as washrooms are sometimes used only for washing the face or hands, it is not always necessary to switch on the exhaust fan with the light.

Software Section Laser Demo in ‘C’ Here is a program to demonstrate the working of a laser. Laser is a device that creates a uniform and coherent light, unlike an ordinary bulb light. Many lasers deliver light in an almost perfectly parallel (collimated) beam, approaching a single wavelength. Laser light can be focused down to a tiny spot as small as a single wavelength. Download source code	Wireless LTE Features and Installation in India Long-term evolution (LTE) technology will change the way we connect and communicate. Read on to find out when and how

EFY Report Embedded Systems: India Takes Baby Steps Towards End-to-End Development India is developing its own embedded design market, moving away from being a strictly outsourced industry. This means that Indian designers and engineers will have to drive actual product innovation and move towards product ownership, which to some extent is already happening	Lighting LED Industry in 2011 and India The LED industry made about 100 billion LED chips in 2011 for a market that needs only 89 billion. That 12 per cent ‘oversupply ratio’ will worsen to 21 per cent in 2012 after LED makers add manufacturing capacity. This would mean further drop in prices of LED bulbs and tubes

Innovation Underwater Robot to Clean Tanks SaUsR underwater robot developed by Gridbots can clean water tanks without the need for draining the water tank completely	Information Technology QR Code: How Useful QR codes have been around for a few years. With the QR reader app in your smartphone,you might start getting QR codes in your fortune cookies soon

Interview Android is 18 Months Away From Embedded Space Bharat Shah, vice president and country manager, Janardhan Prabhakar, national sales manager, and Nigel Forrester, market development manager, Emerson Network Power (Embedded Computing) spoke with EFY’s Dilin Anand about the trends in industrial automation and company’s R&D in India	Buyers’ Guide Multifunction Printers A comparative test of inkjet and laser printers was conducted recently by International Consumer Research Testing (ICRT) where Consumer VOICE is an associate member. There were 22 models of printers from five brands: Brother, Canon, Dell, Epson and HP. The verdict and the buying guidelines follow

Buyers’ Guide DTH TV: What’s Available DTH set-top box and dish antenna are today capable of delivering much more than playing, pausing, rewinding and recording live TV. Ensure you pick the right system, steering clear of misleading claims and technical jargon	Construction Anti-Carjack System Consider this: A criminal stops your car by force and you are left with no option but to surrender the car. The criminal drives away your car, but about 60 seconds later the engine stops running on its own and won’t restart. Unable to use the dead vehicle, the perpetrator has to abandon it.

Circuit Ideas Simple Stereo Power Amplifier With 7905 79xx is a widely known series of low-cost, fixed-negative-voltage regulators. These integrated circuits are available with output current of 100-150 mA (L series), 0.4-0.5A (M series), up to 1A (standard series), etc.	Software Section JavaScript Based Morse Code Encoder Interface Morse code or international telegraphic code is an internationally accepted code that is used to transmit textual information as a series of dots and dashes. In Morse code, DIT denotes a dot and DAH a dash. The code was originally created by Samuel Morse. Download source code

Security Monitoring and Tracking Hackers’ Activities Using Honeynets To track hackers’ activities, a system or a networked environment is needed where at each place every activity is gathered, so that it can be analysed either in real time or offline. Honeynets have enormous capabilities to gather malicious data, control data flow and analyse malicious data	Tutorial Hall Effect Sensors: Big Things in Small Packages Hall effect sensors were first used as microwave power sensors. These now pervade everything from automobiles to computers to machine tools. Take a peek into the different types of Hall effect sensors

Test & Measurement Optimise Your Test System Smartly As higher targets are set to increase profits and decrease operating costs, test engineers are subjected to the ever-increasing stress of improving the efficiency of their testing operations and ultimately getting higher throughput for the same number of work hours. Read on to find out some simple ways to enhance your testing productivity	Design FPGA Design Flow Field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is a device that has numerous gate (switch) arrays and can be programmed on-board through dedicated Joint Test Action Group (JTAG) or on-board devices or using remote system through Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe), Ethernet, etc.

Technology The Third Dimension What drives the cogs of 3D? Read on find out the latest and the future in 3D technology	Career How to Get into FPGA The FPGa business is growing at a rapid pace and so is the technology. a bachelor’s degree in electronics, electrical or computer science and, of course, a good understanding of the topic is all it takes to launch your career in FPGa

Interview India is An Emerging Platform for Design Implementation Vasudevan Aghoramoorthy, vice president, Semiconductor and Systems, Wipro Technologies, spoke to Dilin Anand and Jalaja Ramanunni of EFY about Wipro’s presence in India, how local manufacturers are witnessing increased traction in the country and the latest projects they have been shaping for the industry	First Look! . Smart TVs . Cinema 3D TV . Multimedia Laptop . Cloud Router . 3D Projector . Convertible Tablet-Laptop . Keyboard for Ultra-fast Gaming . 2.1-channel Wood Speakers . GizMo ByTes

Construction RF-Based Multiple Device Control Using Microcontroller Here we describe how to control electrical and electronic gadgets from a remote location using radio frequency (RF) transmission. An RF interface is used instead of infrared (IR) to avoid the drawbacks of an IR interface. Download source code
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April 2013

Issue Vol. 45 No. 4