Electronics For You
November 2014 Issue
Vol. 46 No. 11
Technology Focus
Wireless Communication: Shattering Barriers
Wireless communication is perhaps most valuable in places where traditional means are cumbersome, too expensive or infeasible — under water, deep within the Earth, high above the tallest peaks, or even beyond the skies, in outer space. Can radio waves conquer these terrains? If not, what can?
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DIY: Project
Automated Plants Watering System During summers, most people are too lazy to water the potted plants on their rooftop gardens every day
Download source code
| DIY: Project
LED Scrolling Display Most outdoor LED displays and some indoor LED displays are built around individually-mounted LEDs
Download source code
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DIY: Tips & Technique
Remote Control of Webcam Through Internet Necessity is the mother of invention, and that’s how I could find a smart solution for controlling my webcam from a remote location where distance is no limit
Download source code
| DIY: Software
Signal Acquisition and Analysis Using MATLAB You can capture an input signal, observe its waveform and variation with time on an oscilloscope, but further processing of the signal is not feasible with it. When we need to digitise signals into samples and observe the waveform through plotting, we need a computer along with software
Download source code
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eStyle Buyers’ Guide
Headphones: The right one for you Shakespeare wrote, “If music be the food for love, play on.” Well, if you really want to enjoy music, you ought to have the right pair of headphones
| Career
VLSI Industry Offers Mostly Verification Based Jobs Today, VLSI devices are found everywhere around us. We find advanced VLSI chips in our cars, cell phones, household appliances, cameras, medical devices and many other places. This rapidly evolving sector offers exciting opportunities for those with strong fundamentals in electronic circuit design and hardware description languages, interest in VLSI design and verification and, more importantly, the skill to put know-how of VLSI concepts to practice
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Telecom Technology
SDH: An All-Purpose Digital Transport System SDH is a high-speed, high-capacity, synchronous digital transport system aimed at providing a simpler, flexible and an economic telecommunications network infrastructure that facilitates technical means to transfer large quantities of data between network nodes
| Defence Electronics
Smart Shells: The Electronics Behind Big Guns (Part 3 of 3) The first two parts of this article explained what big guns actually do and how, the crew protection systems and various fire control systems. This part talks about smart shells and anti-tank missiles
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Technology News
3D printers for astronauts Astronauts need 3D printers, despite their not-so-luxurious lifestyles. You must be wondering about the need of a 3D printer in an astronaut’s life
| Buyers’ Guide
EDA Tools For Circuit Design Using EDA tools to design is one of the best ways to ensure reliable circuits or systems in later stages of the design cycle. But are you confused by the numerous EDA software tools that you get for free in EFY Plus DVD? This article might help you to select the best ones for your use
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Embedded Design
Power-Efficient MCUs Elevating IoT and Embedded Applications Low power consumption, good peripherals and real-time signal handling are highly important for many embedded applications today. Demand for intelligent products and applications, especially Internet of Things, has given a huge boost to the use of low-power-consuming microcontrollers in the smallest of products and the smallest of applications
| Interview
"Some factors that make a wearable a success are its cost, current drain, size and range" Wearable electronics promises to be the most disruptive of all areas inspired by the Internet of Things. Marc Nadell, vice president, ecosystems, MediaTek, spoke to Dilin Anand from EFY and discussed how this segment is structured, and what it means for all the design engineers out there
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Interview
A segment where we see significant growth are solid-state drives Be it in mobile, removable or cloud, 40 zettabytes of memory will be the requirement in future, claims Dr Siva Sivaram, senior vice president, Memory Technology, SanDisk Corporation, as he talks to Abhishek Mutha of EFY. 2D NAND would take a back seat in the future due to its limitations and 3D NAND technology would be in the driver’s seat by 2020. In this interview, he talks about the significance and widespread use of Flash based storage solutions, upcoming new technologies and impact of solid-state drives
| Useful Websites
Repair and Troubleshooting Tips Fixing different electronic gadgets can become a challenge without proper know-how. Here are a few sites that will help you understand how to fix such devices
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EFY Plus DVD
Piklab: An IDE for PIC Microcontroller Through this article we explore the features of Piklab over its competitors and its ability to link with several toolchains. Piklab is available for Linux and Windows operating systems on the DVD accompanying this month’s issue of EFY Plus
| EFY Plus DVD
Lochmaster 4.0: Developers’ Tool for Strip Board Projects Young engineering minds always have a lot of innovative design ideas. Unfortunately, they might not always be able to materialise those in a PCB design because they take more time, consume more money and they cannot always reuse and redesign the board. As an ideal developer’s tool for freshers in electronics design, the Lochmaster helps in design, documentation and testing of project boards
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DIY: Software
Plotting with MATLAB MATLAB is a useful software tool for engineering and computational mathematics. It also plays a very important role in scientific and engineering plots
| EFY Plus DVD
This Month’s DVD Contents This month’s DVD brings to you design and compilation software from EDAUtils and ABACOM, along with a Tizen SDK to help develop Tizen web and native applications. Also enjoy the Arcade shooting through MissionX
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eStyle First Look!
.Motorola Launches the Stylish Moto 360 .The Smart LG G3 Stylus Debuts in India .Android Tablet from Lenovo .Bluetooth Speakers, Headphones from Bose .GizMo ByTes
| Industry News
MSIPS gets extended The benefits from the Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme (MSIPS) may get extended till 2020
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EFY Plus DVD
Create an Electronics Product Using sPlan sPlan Windows based electronic design automation tool (EDA) is one of the least-complicated software available for developing circuit schematics, and thus a great choice for getting started with circuit design
| DIY: Circuit
Monitor for 6V/12V Batteries Rechargeable batteries of 6V and 12V are used in a large number of applications. It is imperative that these are maintained properly to get maximum life out of them. Further, their permissible number of charge-discharge cycles must be fully utilised
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DIY: Circuit
Simple Low-Power Audio Amplifier The small-signal amplifier is generally referred to as a voltage amplifier because it usually converts a small input voltage into a much larger output voltage
| DIY: Circuit
Laser Based Security Lock Presented here is a security system that uses an inexpensive laser torch which is usually available with a key ring
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Technology Focus
Wireless Communication: Evolving to Meet Ever-Changing Needs Wireless communication is a constantly-evolving space. Thus, it is important for the designers to be aware of the changes to the existing and new/upcoming standards so that they can incorporate the best-suited technology in the best possible way
| Industry Focus
Indian Security Market Shifting to IP Based Surveillance The Indian market for security equipment and services has unveiled a steady growth over the last couple of years, according to research and industry experts. Government demand, initiatives, regulations and the ongoing boom in the real-estate sector are the top factors fuelling this market in India. Additionally, rising awareness about the security breaches across the nation is catalysing the adoption of security equipment and services
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New Products
IGBT power module Vishay Intertechnology Inc. has introduced four new IGBT power modules, designed specifically for string solar inverters and medium-power-range uninterruptible power supplies (UPS)
| DIY: Circuit
Power Amplifier for FM Transmitter If you have an FM transmitter in the range of 88MHz to 108MHz with power output in the range of 200mW to 500mW, here is an amplifier circuit which is capable of amplifing the existing power level to 4 to 5 watts
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Event
Electronics Rocks 2014: A Conference That Truly Rocked! For those of you who missed this year’s show, we bring to you a post-show report on all that happened at Electronics Rocks 2014–the design engineers’ conference and expo that witnessed 4000+ registrations
| Viewpoint
Building a Strong Manufacturing Sector in India Prabhu S. Deodhar, chairman of APLAB group of companies, is president of India China Economic & Cultural Council in New Delhi since 2003. In 2008, he published a report titled ‘Rapid Growth of SME Sector in China’ after 18 months of study in seven cities of China. He also published a report on China’s industry-friendly taxation policy
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Manufacture
How SMEs Leverage Outsourcing for Growth The success of China's export industry is attributed to its small and medium electronics manufacturing companies for integrating outsourcing into their business model. This enabled them to create a cost-effective product by leveraging the capabilities of partners through outsourcing
| Innovation
Be Safe With B-Safe This low-cost, easy to install and operate GSM-based intrusion detector and alarm system by PLUTO is a great solution for warehouse and even home security issues in rural areas
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Test & Measurement
Automated and Portable Test Solutions for RF Devices With recent developments in technologies like MIMO, femtocell and LTE, the RF device testing is reaching new dimensions. Read on to find out what’s new in this field
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Issue...
Smart Lighting
LED Lighting
Programmable Power Source
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