Electronics For You 2017-10

Nexte Issu

Contents e IoT of th t urity men sure • Sec Mea rs: d n esso ta c s e ro T P • e ance t of th • Figh h-Perform g Hig putin Com

OctOber 2017 Vol. 06 | no. 06 ISSn-2454-4426

Editor

: ramesh Chopra

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Printed, published and owned by ramesh Chopra. Printed at international Print-o-Pack ltd, C-4 to C-11, hosiery Complex, Phase-ii Extension, noida-201305, gautam budh nagar, uttar Pradesh, on the first day of each month and published from d-87/1, okhla industrial area, Phase-1, new delhi 110020. Copyright 2017. all rights reserved throughout the world. reproduction of any material from this magazine in any manner without the written permission of the publisher is prohibited. although every effort is made to ensure accuracy, no responsibility whatsoever is taken for any loss due to publishing errors. articles that cannot be used are returned to the authors if accompanied by a self-addressed and sufficiently stamped envelope. but no responsibility is taken for any loss or delay in returning the material. EfY will not be responsible for any wrong claims made by an advertiser. disputes, if any, will be settled in a new delhi court only.

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Is India Renewable Energised?

Smart World

83 Robots in manufacturing: Cost vs benefits 86 How green buildings pay off: Covestro case study 88 Automated irrigation: Stepping stone to productive farming 90 LoRaWAN will help us stay informed about our infrastructure in real time— Ashish Mathur, MD, JUSCO

rESEarCH & dEVEloPmENt

mumbai

Period Newstand Price Year (`) three 3600 two 2400 one 1200

Green TECHnology

18 INNOVATION: GeoOrbital wheel, Mesuit dual-SIM case, DigiBit, ZeTime smartwatch, Zing Night Light, Streamcam 28 AUTOMOTIVE: Convolutional neutral networks for autonomous cars (Part 1 of 2) 52 TECH FOCUS: The best chips for mobile devices 66 DESIGN: System design tricks for wireless communication 70 DESIGN: Ruggedise the hardware: Increase its life 77 INNOVATION: Sensy remote: Change TV channels with your smartphone

EVErYtHING YoU WaNtEd to KNoW aBoUt… 22 DRONES: FPV cameras for drones: An introduction 36 IMAGING: Image processing using MATLAB: Basic operations (Part 1 of 4) 74 NETWORKING: Internet of Things: The protocols landscape

INdUStrY 79 TEST & MEASUREMENT: Wireline test equipment: Moving on from copper to fibre optics 95 EVENTS: ELCINA-EFY Awards 103 MARKET SURVEY: SMT equipment: The Indian market outlook 107 INTERVIEW: Faud Khan, TwelveDot: “SME industrial systems could be compromised” 108 INTERVIEW: Sanjeev Chopra, Electropreneur Park: “To succeed, startups should have ideas…

OctOber 2017 | electrOnics FOr YOu plus

GUIdES 56 DO-IT-YOURSELF: Making PCBs at home photographically (Part 1 of 2) 115 eStyle DIY: Turn your Android phone into home security camera 116 eStyle BUYERS’ GUIDE: Smart cameras

Do-It-Yourself

118 121 124 128 130 131 133

Automatic drip irrigantion system Single-wire 4x4 matrix keypad using AVR 4x4x4 LED cube using AT89C2051 Bipolar power supply with adjustable regulators Triple power supply from USB How to play with light using LDR Better utilisation of radio spectrum with cognitive radio

NEWS 12 Tech News 91 Industry News 109 New Products 113 eStyle: First Look

EFy Plus DVD EFY+DVD: From design and simulation to utility software .. 82 EasyEDA 4.8.5: A next-gen PCB layout tool.........................I Scilab 6.0.0: A numerical computation tool for precision .....IV Proview SCADA: The first Open Source SCADA software ...VII

Regulars 08 Feedback: Your suggestions 10 Q&A: Things you wanted to know

www.eFYmag.cOm

Feedback Your suggestions

GREEN TECHNOLOGY I am an aspiring entrepreneur. I read the article ‘Green Technology: Why Should You Invest’ published in August issue and was quite impressed with the author’s vision in this domain. It would help me a lot if the author further shares his knowledge in this regard and guides me for future opportunities. Right now I am at a scratch level with a determination to work in this direction. But, actually I don’t know how to start off. Rohan Mehrotra Through e-mail The author Sanjay Banerjee replies: Thanks for your feedback! I appreciate your thoughts. You can keep following the green technology section to find more information about how to get started. I would also suggest you to go through the other sections of EFY, like Smart World, Research and Development and Industry information, for more insights. This can help you in aligning your thoughts to the goals even better.

MY SUGGESTIONS I would like EFY to act as a medium for consumer feedback to industries regarding servicing of their products. It is very easy to buy a product but costly and difficult to get it repaired, especially after warranty expires. Also, some manufacturers have very few service centres in big cities, so consumers have to travel long distances to get their products repaired. I wish big business houses establish a network of repair centre chains like super markets, where trained personnel repair different products under one roof at reasonable price. Since EFY has a strong industry connection, I feel an employment opportunities and placement offers section will be very useful to some of 8

october 2017 | electronics For You

From electronicsforu.com

Electronics Projects In ‘Dual-Laser Security System Using An Old Feature Phone’ DIY article published in April issue, please give more detail on the feature phone to be connected to the relay. Do we need only a dial pad module of the phone? Damilare EFY. An ultra-basic phone, Nokia 1600, was used during testing. However, any GSM phone with PCB dial pad will work with this project. You need a complete phone in working condition. In ‘Low-Cost LPG Leakage Detector’ DIY article published in January 2016 issue, how to connect a gas sensor or module? Ankit EFY. Six-pin gas sensor is easily available in the market. It can be directly inserted in the PCB in the space provided for it. However, please note that you cannot use a 4-pin gas sensor module directly. your readers. I like EFY from my college days. I learnt many things including the Internet of Things (IoT), Arduino and Raspberry Pi through this magazine. Thank you for providing such valuable information!

74xx series. Since 4xxx series ICs have different input-output (I/O) pin configurations, you will need to modify the program by configuring the I/O pins of Arduino as per the pin configuration of 4xxx series. The test circuit needs to be changed accordingly. Also, it requires only MATLAB 2014 version.

LOSSLESS COMPRESSION In ‘Lossless Image Compression using MATLAB’ DIY article published in February 2016 issue, I got following warning and error messages: “Warning: MATLAB has disabled some advanced graphics rendering features by switching to software OpenGL. Error in ImageCompression1> pushbutton2_Callback (line 110). Error while evaluating UIControl Callback” What could be the reason? Mansi Through e-mail The author Lalit Patil replies: This code was written in MATLAB 2013 version. The functionality is changed in newer versions. You might be using some higher version. Please try it with MATLAB 2013.

FM RADIO STATION K. Sitarama Rao Hyderabad

How can I extend the range of the ‘Short-Range FM Radio Station’ DIY article published in April issue?

DIGITAL IC TESTER In ‘Arduino Based Digital IC Tester Using MATLAB’ DIY article published in July issue, can we use ICs like 4xxx series? Also, can I use MATLAB 2012 version? Ashwani Kumar Through e-mail The author Shibendu Mahata replies: This program will work only for the

Ramakrishna Through e-mail The author Pamarthi Kanakaraja replies: In most cases, you can use transistors to amplify the RF signal from the transmitter side. The least expensive way to increase range is to use a bigger or higher antenna, or a more efficient directional antenna. www.eFYmag.com

Q&A

Things You WanTed To KnoW!

Ques. What is irDa? Please exPlain irDa Protocols. Pamarthi Kanakaraja

ans. Infrared Data Association, or IrDA in short, is a group of device manufacturers that developed a standard for transmitting data via infrared (IR) light waves. It provides specifications for the complete set of protocols for wireless IR communication. IR communication is an inexpensive and widely adopted short-range (1-3m) wireless technology. It is widely used in consumer electronics, automobiles, computers, medical devices, household appliances, commercial services, etc. IrDA-enabled devices can communicate and are bi-directional. IrDA is inexpensive, secure and fast (supporting speeds of up to 100Mbps and even more). The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model of IrDA protocol stack is shown in Fig. 1. Some of the specifications based on the OSI model are given below: Infrared physical layer (IrPHY). This specification is intended to facilitate point-to-point communication between electronic devices. It specifies the optical media interfaces for Serial Infrared (SIR) data transmission and is part of the first layer of the OSI model.

IrPHYv 1.2 IrPHYv 1.5

Fig. 1: IrDA protocol stacks

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october 2017 | electronics For You

Infrared link access protocol (IrLAP). This specification is part of the second layer of IrDA specifications. It lies on top of the IrPHY layer and below the IrLMP layer. It represents the data link layer. Infrared link management protocol (IrLMP). It is the third layer of IrDA specifications. It defines link management multiplexer and link management information access service. Transport protocol (TinyTP). This optional protocol specified in the fourth layer lies on top of the IrLMP layer. Infrared communication protocol (IrCOMM). The IrCOMM protocol specified in the fifth layer lets the infrared device act like either a serial or parallel port. Infrared Financial Messaging (IrFM). This protocol specified in the sixth layer is a wireless payment standard developed by the Infrared Data Association.

The MCPCB efficiently removes heat from integrated circuits (ICs). The metal base and thermally conductive dielectric layer act as bridges between ICs and heat-sinks. Aluminium is a popular base material. Metal cores in PCB base plates are typically 0.762 to 3.175mm thick. Etching solution. Etching is the process of using a solution/etchant to remove unwanted parts of a metal surface to create a design in the metal. Ferric chloride (FeCl3) etchant is commonly used for normal copper-clad PCBs. Aluminium reacts more violently with FeCl3 than copper. That is, hydrogen gas starts forming and aluminium heats up very quickly, which is a bit risky. Depending on the base material of the MCPCB, the etchant can be different. In theory, FeCl3 should work

Q2. What is McPcB? What etching solution is useD in McPcB? suresh nath sharma

a2. MCPCB. Short for metal-core printed circuit board, the MCPCB is a type of PCB with metal as its base material. That is, unlike common PCBs whose core materials are either composite epoxy materials (CEM-1 through CEM-5) or flame-retardant composite materials (FR-1 through FR-4), MCPCBs have metals—either aluminium, copper or steel alloy. Fig. 2 shows an MCPCB with aluminium base plate.

Fig. 2: An MCPCB

with aluminium MCPCB as the back side of the base metal (aluminium) is normally covered with a protective sheet for the purpose of etching. But, in practical, the sodium persulfate (Na2S2O8) etchant is found to work better. The complete homebrew etching process is available on http://www. rollitup.org/t/diy-making-your-ownmetal-core-printed-circuit-boards-forled-applications.646086/ Answers compiled by Sani Theo, technical editor. 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: [email protected]) and should include name and address of the sender www.eFYmag.com

Tech News Technology UpdaTes

Smart traffic signals help blind cross streets Smart traffic signals that are designed to improve the traffic flow could also help pedestrians with visual or other disabilities safely cross streets, or even catch a bus. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics

Smart traffic signals (Image courtesy: www.cmu.edu/)

Institute have begun a two-year project to develop a system that relays information from a user’s smartphone directly to the smart traffic signals. The signals could adjust their timing to accommodate users who need extra time to cross. “The smartphone can learn how fast the pedestrian moves, or if the user might have difficulty at certain intersections,” explained Stephen Smith, professor of robotics. “The intersection could extend the green in real time to give her the extra time she needs. And it might monitor the phone’s location so that it notices if she starts moving outside of the crosswalk.” Smith had previously led development of the Surtrac system of smart signals. The signals use artificial intelligence to monitor traffic; these can alter their timing to maximise the number of cars that can pass through an intersection and keep cars from idling needlessly at a stop light when no cross traffic is present. Development of the system for people with disabilities will initially involve a set of existing smart signals. The smartphones will need to be equipped with dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) radios to communicate with the signals.

Study weighs risks of drone-human collisions If drones are to take on tasks like package delivery and traffic management, these will have to fly over humans, raising the risk of drone-human collisions. And, these risks vary widely, researchers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University have found in a comprehensive survey. Using a crash test dummy, Virginia Tech researchers analysed the potential risk of head and neck injuries posed by three commercially available drones in various impact scenarios. The dummy was outfitted with sensors to measure acceleration and force during the different impacts. Researchers flew the three aircrafts at full speed into the dummy’s head at different angles. They also dropped the aircrafts onto the dummy’s head at various orientations. Acceleration and force measurements were used to estimate the risk of severe or life-threatening injuries, like a skull fracture. The smallest and lightest of the three drones, 12

october 2017 | electronics For You

To measure the risks of commercial drone use, researchers flew several models into the head of a crash-test dummy (Image courtesy: Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership/Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science) www.eFYmag.com

Tech News weighing just 1.2kg, presented only a 10 per cent risk of severe injury. The largest drone, weighing more than 11kg, presented a 70 per cent risk. The analysis—published in the journal Annals of Biomedical Engineering—suggests injury risks can be mitigated if drones are designed to fracture and break upon impact. “If you reduce the energy that’s able to be transferred to be head, you reduce the injury risk,” said doctoral student Eamon Campolettano. “The overarching goal for manufacturers should be to limit energy transfer.” While some smaller drones are already safe enough to take on commercial duties, the study was more about establishing a baseline for how to carry out risk assessments for drone-human impacts.

Zero-power skin patches capable of data transfer up to 2.8km University of Washington (UW) researchers have demonstrated almost zero-power devices that can transmit data across distances of up to 2.8 kilometres—enabling a vast array of interconnected devices.

medical devices that could wirelessly transmit information about a heart patient’s condition around the clock. The system has three components: a source that emits a radio signal, sensors that encode information in reflections of that signal and an inexpensive off-the-shelf receiver that decodes the information. When the sensor is placed between the source and receiver, the system can transmit data at distances up to 475 metres. When the sensor is placed next to the signal source, the receiver can decode information from as far as 2.8 kilometres away.

Three reasons why pacemakers are vulnerable to hacking The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently recalled approximately 465,000 pacemakers made by the company Abbott’s. The reason for the recall? The devices can be remotely ‘hacked’ to increase activity or reduce battery life, potentially endangering patients. James H. Hamlyn-Harris, senior lecturer, computer science and software engineering, Swinburne University of Technology, explains, “The qualities that make remotelyaccessible human implants desirable—namely, low cost, low-maintenance batteries, small size, remote access—also make securing such devices a serious challenge.” “Three key issues hold back cyber-safety: Most embedded devices don’t have the memory or power to support proper cryptographic security, encryption or access

The UW research team built this flexible epidermal patch prototype that successfully transmitted information across a 306sq.m (3300sq.ft) atrium (Image courtesy: Dennis Wise/University of Washington)

Until now, devices that can communicate over long distances have consumed a lot of power. The UW team’s latest long-range backscatter system provides reliable long-range communication with sensors that consume 1000 times less power than existing technologies capable of transmitting data over similar distances. It’s an important and necessary breakthrough toward embedding connectivity into billions of everyday objects. The sensors are so cheap—with an expected bulk cost of 10 to 20 cents each—that farmers looking to measure soil temperature or moisture could affordably blanket an entire field to determine how to efficiently plant seeds or water. Other potential applications range from sensor arrays that could monitor pollution, noise or traffic in ‘smart’ cities or 14

october 2017 | electronics For You

Embedded medical devices will continue to be vulnerable to cybersecurity threats. The pacemaker depicted is not made by Abbott’s (Image courtesy: REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch)

control. Doctors and patients prefer convenience and ease of access over security control. Remote monitoring, an invaluable feature of embedded devices, also makes them vulnerable,” he adds. Conventional cryptography suites (algorithms and keys used to prove identity and keep transmissions secret) are designed for computers, and involve complex mathematical operations beyond the power of small, cheap Internet www.eFYmag.com

Tech News of Things (IoT) devices used in medical devices. So someone with commercially-available equipment could send commands to the pacemaker, changing its settings and software. The ‘patched’ version will prevent this by allowing only authorised hardware and software tools to send commands to the device.

Defects in next-generation solar cells can be healed with light Researchers have shown that defects in the molecular structure of perovskites—a material which could revolutionise the solar cell industry—can be healed by exposing it to light and just the right amount of humidity. This finding by the team of researchers from Cambridge, MIT, Oxford, Bath and Delft could further accelerate the development of cheap, high-performance perovskite-based solar cells that rival the efficiency of silicon.

The concoction of light with water and oxygen molecules leads to substantial defect-healing in metal halide perovskite semiconductors (Image courtesy: Dr Matthew T. Klug)

Tiny defects in the crystalline structure of perovskites, called traps, can cause electrons to get ‘stuck’ before their energy can be harnessed. In their study, the researchers made a perovskite-based device, printed using techniques compatible with scalable roll-to-roll processes. Before the device was completed, they exposed it to light, oxygen and humidity. Perovskites often start to degrade when exposed to humidity, but the team found that when humidity levels were between 40 and 50 per cent, and the exposure was limited to 30 minutes, degradation did not occur. Once the exposure was complete, the remaining layers were deposited to finish the device. When the light was applied, electrons bound with oxygen, forming a superoxide that could very effectively bind to electron traps and prevent these traps from hindering electrons. In the accompanying presence of water, the perovskite surface also got converted into a protective shell. The shell coating removed traps from the surfaces but also locked in the superoxide, meaning that the performance improvements in the perovskites were now long-lived. 16

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A new approach to ultrafast light pulses Two-dimensional materials called molecular aggregates are very effective light emitters that work on a different principle than typical organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) or quantum dots. But their potential as components for new kinds of optoelectronic devices has been limited by their relatively slow response time. Now, researchers at MIT, the University of California at Berkeley, and Northeastern University have found a way to overcome that limitation, potentially opening up a variety of applications for these materials. The team found that the key to enhancing the response time of these 2D molecular aggregates (2DMA) is to couple that material with a thin layer of a metal such as silver. The interaction between the 2DMA and the metal that is just a few nanometres away boosts the speed of the material’s light pulses more than tenfold. In order for 2DMA materials to be useful in devices such as photonic chips—which are like semiconductor chips but carry out their operations using light instead of electrons—the challenge is to be able to switch them on and off quickly. With the metal substrate nearby, the response time for the light emission dropped from 60 picoseconds (trillionths of a second) to just 2 picoseconds. If used for signal processing, such as sending data by light rather than radio waves, this advance could lead to a data transmission rate of about 40 gigahertz, which is eight times faster than such devices can currently deliver.

World’s cheapest and portable ventilator unveiled India-based A-Set Robotics claims to have created the smallest and cheapest indigenous portable ventilator. Launched at AIIMS, New Delhi, this is the world’s first ventilator to have artificial intelligence algorithm. It is so small that it can be easily carried in the pocket. A-Set head and young scientist Diwakar Vaish shared that the ventilator is at least 50 times cheaper than conventional ventilators. Conventional ventilators cost ` 500,000 to 1.5 million each and sometimes even more. The A-Set ventilator, on the other hand, costs just ` 15,000-` 20,000. Also, it has a footprint that is 100 times smaller than conventional ventilators. It runs without use of oxygen cylinders, so running cost is almost nil. What’s more, its machine learning technology learns how the patient breathes. Thus, in case of no biological feedback, the ventilator can send in air as per previously learned values. The ventilator can be controlled by just a simple mobile application. Safety features include text messaging to the attendant in case of emergency, on-board light, diagnosis information relay to the manufacturers so that they can troubleshoot the problem and provide telephonic help, onboard buzzer to alert people around, and dual computers on-board so that in case one fails, the other one is always in standby to take over. www.eFYmag.com

innovation in every sphere of life

Janani Gopalakrishnan Vikram

Replace your bicycle’s front wheel with the GeoOrbital wheel to turn it into an electric bike (Courtesy: GeoOrbital)

Instantly turn your bicycle into an electric bike Convert your bicycle into an electric bike in a few minutes just by replacing the bicycle’s conventional front wheel with the GeoOrbital wheel. This wheel is made of an aerospace-grade aluminium unibody, which houses a brushless DC motor, a Li-Ion battery and a motor controller. It is surrounded by a flatproof tyre, which is made by filling a conventional tyre with special high-density foam. The kit includes a simple thumb-activated throttle that you can easily clip onto your handlebar. The GeoOrbital wheel is available in two variants, which vary in size, battery power, weight and range without pedalling. You need to pick the size that fits your bike. The battery is also easily replaceable, so you can always carry a spare along to replace when required. GeoOrbital works with any speed range, varied transmission components and in-hub brakes, different fork sizes and bike chain technologies. Also, as it does not interfere with your bike’s chain or rear wheel, you can get allwheel drive by using the throttle while pedalling. So, even after you have installed GeoOrbital, you can still pedal your bike like a normal one, if required. However, since GeoOrbital is heavier and offers more resistance than a normal wheel, the company suggests riding on a lower gear. The Cambridge-based company sells the product online and delivers worldwide. Company: GeoOrbital; Country: Unites States of America; Website: https://www.geoo.com/ 18

october 2017 | electronics For You

A smart case that runs Android on your iPhone All iPhone users love their iPhone but, unfortunately, not everybody loves the iOS! Those who are used to Android phones often find it very difficult to adapt to the iOS. Chinese company Jijia has developed a smart case called Mesuit that enables you to run an Android-based OS on your iPhone. Just slip on the case, install the associated app and you are ready to go. The Mesuit dual-SIM case is a fully-functional mobile device powered by Mediatek’s octa-core processor. Designed to fit iPhone 6/6S, this case connects to the phone through the Lightning port. It has its own SIM slot, 2GB RAM, 16GB storage capacity and a 1700mAH battery built into it. That means the iPhone user has an additional SIM slot, extra storage to transfer photos and videos from the phone into the case, and seven more hours of battery life. But more importantly, the device enables the user to run an additional operating system! Once you slip on the case and install the associated app, it starts running an Android-based OS called Mesuit OS 1.0 with an Apus Launcher. This lets you use the Android interface on the iPhone, and access and install Android apps through Google Play. You can also use two FaceThis case runs an Android-based OS on iPhone 6/6S book, WhatsApp and Instagram accounts simultaneously on the same phone. Priced at Rs 9990, the Mesuit case is available in India through Yerha.com. Company: Jijia; Country: China; Website: http://www.jijia.com (in Chinese); http://www.yerha.com/page/en/mesuit/

Get active while playing mobile games Mobile games are fun but these turn us into couch potatoes too. What if you had a mobile gaming system that responded to your physical movements—games that made you jump and jog? That is what inventor Colt Correa hopes to do with DigiBit. Amply funded on Kickstarter, Correa plans to start shipping the first orDigiBit is a body action driven mobile gaming system ders to certain countries by Novem- (Courtesy: DigiBit) ber this year. The DigiBit system consists of Your body becomes the game controller, small, wearable, sensor-fitted clip-ons and your physical movements move the that sync with your mobile phone uscharacters in the game. You can walk, ing Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). You jog, run, jump and dodge. This way you can wear these devices on your hands get a good share of fun and exercise! and feet with the provided bands, There are several exciting DigiBit or clip them on to your wristband, games like Air Hockey and FunnyWings. shoes or socks. For virtual reality An open development kit is also availa(VR) games, there is an additional ble, so you can develop your own games VR headset. using the Unity 3D game engine. Fitted with sensors and microconCreator: Colt Correa; Country: United trollers, these devices sense and calcu- States of America; Website: https://www. late your body motion in real time. kickstarter.com/projects/1039276273/ They beam this information to your digibit-is-wearable-active-fun-for-yourmobile device to control game actions. mobile-dev?ref=tag www.eFYmag.com

InnovatIon

Smartwatch with traditional mechanical hands Avoiding a smartwatch because you cannot do without the conventional hands of the clock? Well, MyKronoz’s ZeTime is just the right choice for you. Claimed to be the world’s first hybrid smartwatch with traditional hands and colour touchscreen, ZeTime has the best of both the worlds. A special technology has been used to work a hole into the TFT touchscreen to fit the mechanical hands. At the same time, the watch has all the makings of a great smartwatch. ZeTime uses a tech called ‘Smart Movement’ that enables the mechanical hands to function for up to 30 days on a single charge, allowing users to see the time even when the smartwatch screen is powered off. As a fully-functional smartwatch, ZeTime works for up to three days on a single charge. ZeTime has a three-axis accelerometer and an optical heart-rate sensor to monitor heart-rate, steps, distance, calories, active minutes, sleep and so on. It also alerts users to get on their feet when they have been inactive for too long. Like other smartwatches, ZeTime lets users view incoming calls, read social networking notifications, get calendar reminders and more. The watch syncs to your phone using BLE, enabling you to check the MyKronoz’s ZeTime is a smartwatch with mechanical hands too (Courtesy: MyKronoz) weather, play music, take photos or locate your phone by making it ring. The watch runs a proprietary operating system, while the app runs on Android 4.3+ or iOS 8.0. You can pre-order the product on Indiegogo, where the project got funded over 10,668 per cent in April 2017! Company: MyKronoz; Country: Switzerland; Website: https://www.mykronoz. com/eu/en/

Wearable, cloud-connected camera that uploads videos in real time Want to film your party, The camera has just a but without missing all the single button, which is used fun and action? Need to to start or stop recording. The document happenings at a app does everything else— protest rally, but can’t do such as turning the recording so openly? Well, Shonin’s light on or off, and altering the Streamcam wearable resolution. You can view, edit camera might be just what and share videos quickly and you need. easily. One of the thoughtful Streamcam is supfeatures by Shonin is that you A discreet camera that posedly the world’s first can edit the video without losinstantly uploads recorded cloud-connected wearable videos to the cloud ing the raw original footage, so security camera. It is celyou can go back and change (Courtesy: Shonin Inc.) lular, rugged, waterproof, or check stuff if needed. small and easy to use. Measuring This camera is just right for investijust 56x56x13mm3, it can be clipped gative journalists, who shoot videos to onto your dress, bag or vehicle. With expose crimes, only to have the cameras just a single button-click, it captures grabbed and damaged by the goons bewide-angle, high-resolution (720p) fore they get the chance to upload covervideo with audio, which is immediage. That risk is no longer there with ately pushed to the cloud through Streamcam, which instantly uploads all cellular or Wi-Fi link, or broadcast to recorded content to the cloud. You can Facebook Live. The device also has an pre-order the product now. expandable Micro SD slot, pre-loaded Company: Shonin Inc.; Country: with an 8GB card. Canada; Website: http://www.shonin.io/ 20

october 2017 | electronics For You

A smart night light that helps you move around and find stuff in the darkness (Courtesy: Team Zing)

Smart night lamp that stays alert when you are sleepy When everything from the kettle to the shower is getting smart, how can night lamps be left out? The Zing Night Light is one such interesting and intelligent gadget that bundles a lot of smart technologies like object location and automatic path illumination. It works with iOS, Android, Alexa and Google Assistant, and is equipped with Bluetooth Smart and Wi-Fi connectivity, smart motion sensors, battery backup, event indicators and more. Zing is made of energy-efficient LEDs that you can customise. It features automatic blue light reduction to help you sleep better. If you get up at night for a glass of water or to use the rest room, Zing detects the motion and gently powers its bottom LEDs up to 40 per cent intensity (configurable) to help you move around safely. After movement ceases, it returns to standby mode. When you connect multiple Zing lights together, these predict your path and automatically illuminate it. If the light senses any unusual or suspicious motion in the premises, it pushes notifications on your phone. Zing understands such behaviour by observing and learning your movement patterns over a course of 7-10 days. Zing connects to your phone and acts as a visual indicator for incoming calls and other smartphone events. If you forget where you placed your phone, fitness tracker, smartwatch or other Bluetooth-enabled device, you can use Zing’s Bluetooth object locator feature to find it. Zing has an even wider scope as it is built with open technologies and can interface with many home automation platforms. The team will start shipping pre-orders internationally by year-end. The light comes with appropriate sockets for each region. Company: Factory Method; Country: United States of America; Website: https://zing.fm/#/ www.eFYmag.com

drones

FPV Cameras For Drones: An Introduction

W T.K. Hareendran is founder and promoter of TechNode Protolabz—an electronics R&D Lab

hat pilots see while flying drones is the low-latency analogue video from a firstperson view (FPV) camera. FPV camera is a compact and lightweight module mounted on the drone that broadcasts real-time video back down to the pilot with the help of a dedicated video transmitter module. Here are the things to consider when equipping your drone with an FPV camera.

FPV system overview First-person view, also called video piloting, means flying the drone from the perspective of a true pilot by using an onboard video camera and wireless downlink. In the last couple of years, various vendors have started to sell kits that contain the minimum FPV system components needed to outfit a drone for FPV flight. First, let us go through the various components that you need to upgrade/build a drone for FPV use. Video camera. FPV cameras use either an inexpensive complementary

Fig. 1: FPV drone

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metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) or a bit pricey charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensor. The image sensor of the camera fundamentally affects its performance. Also note that a camera with a wide input voltage range offers flexibility when wiring the FPV system. Video transmitter. Video transmitter takes the analogue signal from the camera and sends it out through an omnidirectional antenna. As the video transmitter is typically designed to work in one of several frequency bands, usually a channel selector switch is provided on the transmitter to set the exact frequency for video signal transmission. Video receiver. Video receiver with an appropriate antenna is a vital component of the ground station. Output of the video receiver is fed to a portable video display (small-screen video monitor, or video goggles). Usually, standard lithium polymer (Li-Po) batteries are used as the power source for the video receiver and monitor in all ground stations.

FPV camera insights Image sensor. The image quality of CCD cameras is undoubtedly better than CMOS. However, CMOS cameras are cheaper than CCD, and provide good enough performance for most FPV applications. Latency. The time between a stimulus and the response is called latency. It reflects the processing speed of the camera. Faster processing lowers the latency, and an FPV camera with a latency of less than 40ms is a standard choice. Field of view. Expressed as an angle, it is a measure of how much the camera can see around. Usually, for FPV applications, having a wider field of view is better as it allows you to see more around you. However, this can sometimes show distorted images with curved horizons. TVL resolution. TV line (TVL) is a www.eFYmag.com

drones measure of the camera’s horizontal resolution. Cameras with a high TVL resolution can capture highly detailed images. Most FPV cameras work on analogue video, and that’s why the measurement is in TVL, rather than actual pixel counts common with digital video. Common TVL resolutions for FPV cameras are 20, 480, 600, 800 and 1000. Aspect ratio. There are two common aspect ratios to choose from, 4:3 and 16:9. While selecting, keep an eye on the native aspect ratio of your FPV monitor/goggles. This is crucial because if you have a 4:3 camera but 16:9 display, the image appears debased, and if you have a 16:9 camera but 4:3 display, the image appears crushed. Video encoding. PAL or NTSC? Actually, it’s not a big issue as both PAL and NTSC encoding standards are supported by most FPV gears. PAL offers higher resolution, while NTSC allows higher frame rate. So if you want to have good-quality pictures, consider PAL. WDR. The wide dynamic range (WDR) of an FPV camera dictates how well the camera can record details in very dark and very bright portions of the image. Nowadays most FPV cameras have wide dynamic range by default. OSD. An on-screen display (OSD) device overlays text/data onto the camera footage. So it can display highly useful information such as the flight speed, altitude, distance and battery status on the FPV display screen. MIC. Sound is a big part of the FPV flying experience, so if you have an FPV camera with built-in microphone you get many benefits. For example, you can hear the throttle response even when you are far away. IR filter/LEDs. As with almost all other camera types, FPV cameras have an infrared (IR) filter built into them to block out any infrared light from reaching the camera sensor. 24

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Fig. 2: An FPV camera module

starlight FPV camera, which has a very low lux sensitivity and hence can work in very low lighting conditions. As an alternative, you can try a standard FPV camera fitted with some infrared light-emitting diodes (IRLEDs) on its front side. There are some exceptional 3D FPV cameras, too. In principle, a 3D FPV camera is a perfect blend of two FPV cameras to make the illusion of an actual flight.

Other things to consider Fig. 3: FPV transmitter and receiver modules

Fig. 4: FPV video monitor and goggles

Fig. 5: FPV on-screen display

Fig. 6: FPV camera with MIC and IR LEDs

However, there are some odd situations when you want to have an infrared-sensitive camera, especially at low light levels. So if you want to fly when it’s darker, look for a

In the market, you can find several FPV drones with cameras and video transmitters already installed, and video displays built right into the radio-controllers. However, by selecting your own airborne and ground station components, you can put together a much higher performing and flexible drone rig that grows with you as you move on to bigger ones. Well, here is some other practical information about the supporting components of an FPV camera. Radio frequency and channel. FPV transmitter frequency is the most important thing to consider. Nowadays most FPV equipment run on 5.8GHz, as it is allowed for FPV use in most parts of the globe. Also 5.8GHz antennae are much smaller, which makes 5.8GHz transmitters cheaper and easier to use. You can also use 2.4GHz band. However, since almost all radio-controlled (RC) equipment run on 2.4GHz, you will receive lots of interference in this band. Today, it’s common to find 32-channel (32CH) and even 40-channel (40CH) FPV transmitters. Having a multiple-channel FPV transmitter is useful when flying with other FPV pilots, as each pilot can fly on a different frequency and hence your FPV video will not interfere with theirs. Note that each transmitter has a frequency table that lists the channels, bands and corresponding frequencies. www.eFYmag.com

drones

Fig. 7: Nerdcam 3D FPV camera

Also, it is very important to ensure that the FPV transmitter is compatible with the FPV receiver, monitor or goggles. Fortunately, today’s 40-channel transmitters are compatible with almost all FPV receivers, monitors and goggles. Antenna. The type of antennae used can make or break an FPV system. Although the antenna that comes with the transmitter/ receiver will work well, you need to use a lightweight circularly polarised antenna to get a long range and clear reception. Else, go for the

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components that operate at the same voltage level, it will be easier for you to wire the system straight to a suitable LiPo battery supply. If the camera and other components need different voltages, or the airborne electrical system delivers a dissimilar voltage, it becomes necessary to use separate voltage regulator modules for each device. A wide variety of miniscule DC-DC step-up Fig. 8: FPV camera and transmitter setup (airborne) (boost) and step-down (buck) regulator modules are available for these purposes. type recommended by the radio Once you learn to handle diverse module manufacturer. components that make up a basic Electric power. Typically, video FPV, and build a functioning system transmitters and receivers operate with them, you are ready for your off 3.3V to 5V/12V DC supply. Many first ground test and maiden flight. FPV cameras also have the same Go, fly it! operating voltage range. By using

www.eFYmag.com

AUTOMOTIVE Part 1 of 2

Convolutional neural networks For Autonomous Cars

C V.P. Sampath is a senior member of IEEE and a member of Institution of Engineers India. He is currently working as technical architect at AdeptChips, Bengaluru. He is a regular contributor to national newspapers, IEEE-MAS section, and has published international papers on VLSI and networks

onvolutional neural networks (CNNs or ConvNets) used in machine learning are similar to neural networks. These are made up of neurons that have learnable weights and biases. Each neuron receives some inputs, performs a dot product and optionally follows it with a non-linearity. The whole network expresses a single differentiable score function from the raw image pixels on one end to class scores at the other, with a loss function (such as support vector machine/softmax) on the last (fully-connected) layer. Softmax function is just a generalisation of logistic function. It is used as a cost function for probabilistic multi-class classification, and by itself it is not a classifier. CNNs have revolutionised the patternrecognition computation process. Prior to the widespread adoption of CNNs, most pattern-recognition tasks involved hand-crafted features extraction followed by classification. With CNNs, features are now learned automatically from training examples. The CNN approach is especially powerful when applied to image recognition because convolution operation captures the 2D nature of images. By using the convolution kernels to scan an entire image, relatively few parameters need to be learned compared to the total number of operations.

CNN architecture

Fig. 1: Illustration of a ConvNet

Unlike a regular neural network, the layers in a CNN have neurons arranged in three dimensions: width, height and depth. Here, ‘depth’ refers to the third dimension of an activation volume, not to the depth of a full

Depth Height

Width

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neural network, which can refer to the total number of layers in a network. For example, input images in CIFAR-10 are an input volume of activations, and the volume has dimensions 32x32x3 (width, height and depth, respectively). Neurons in a layer will only be connected to a small region of the layer before it, instead of all of the neurons in a fully-connected manner. Moreover, the final output layer for CIFAR-10 would have dimensions 1x1x10, because by the end of the ConvNet architecture the full image will reduce into a single vector of class scores, arranged along the depth dimension. Every layer of a CNN transforms the 3D input volume to a 3D output volume of neuron activations. In the example shown in Fig. 1, the red input layer holds the image, so its width and height would be image dimensions, and the depth would be 3 (red, green, blue channels). Typically, CNN architectures comprise three types of layers stacked together: convolutional layer, pooling layer and fullyconnected (FC) layer. A simple ConvNet for CIFAR-10 classification has the architecture Input→ Conv→Relu→Pool→FC as detailed below: 1. Input [32x32x3] holds the raw pixel values of the image; in this case, an image of width 32 and height 32, with three colour channels R, G and B 2. Conv layer computes the output of neurons that are connected to local regions in the input, each computing a dot product between their weights and a small region they are connected to in the input volume. This may result in a volume such as [32x32x12] if twelve filters are used 3. Relu layer applies an element-wise activation function, such as the max(0,x) thresholding at zero. This leaves the size of the volume unchanged ([32x32x12]). 4. Pool layer performs a down-sampling operation along the spatial dimensions www.eFYmag.com

AUTOMOTIVE (width, height), resulting in a volume such as [16x16x12] 5. Fully-connected (FC) layer computes class scores, resulting in a volume of size [1x1x10], where each of the ten numbers correspond to a class score, such as among the ten categories of CIFAR-10. Each neuron in this layer is connected to all the numbers in the previous volume. Thus, CNNs transform the original image layer by layer from the original pixel values to the final class scores. Note that some layers contain parameters, while others don’t. In particular, Conv/FC layers perform transformations that are a function of not only activations in the input volume but also of neuron parameters (weights and biases). On the other hand, Relu/Pool layers implement a fixed function. Parameters in Conv/ FC layers are trained with gradient descent so that class scores computed by the CNN are consistent with labels in the training set for each image.

to be altered with the network architecture, and accelerated via GPU processing. The convolutional layers are designed to perform feature extraction, and are chosen empirically through a series of experiments that vary layer configurations. This model uses strided convolutions in the

Holistic neural network features  Saliency  Reduction, abstraction, induction, and abduction  Generality  Robustness  Self-repair  Novelty  Scale-free  Understanding

first three convolutional layers with a 2×2 stride and a 5×5 kernel, and a non-strided convolution with a 3×3 kernel size in the final two convolutional layers. The five convolutional layers are followed with three fully connected layers, leading to a final output control value which is the inverse-turning-radius. The fully connected layers are designed to function as a controller for steering, but by training the system end-to-end, it is not possible to make a clean break between which parts of the network function primarily as feature extractor, and which serve as controller.

Training and simulator

The first step in training a neural network is to select the frames for use. The collected data is labeled with road type, weather condition and the driver’s activity (staying in Output: vehicle control a lane, switching lanes, turning and Fully-connected layer so forth). To train a CNN to do lane Fully-connected layer Fully-connected layer following, data is selected where the driver is staying in a lane, while the Architecture for vehicle control rest is discarded. Convolutional feature map Then, the video is sampled at a In end-to-end learning system for 64@1x18 rate of 10 frames per second because self-driving cars, weights of the Convolutional feature map a higher sampling rate would include network are trained to minimise the 64@3x20 images that are highly similar, and mean-squared error between the Convolutional thus not provide much additional steering command output by the feature map 48@5x22 useful information. To remove a bias network and the command of either towards driving straight, the training the human driver or the adjusted Convolutional feature map data includes a higher proportion of steering command for off-centre 36@14x47 frames that represent road curves. and rotated images. Fig. 2 shows Convolutional After selecting the final set of the network architecture for vehicle feature map 24@31x98 frames, the data is augmented by control, which consists of nine layers, adding artificial shifts and rotations including a normalisation layer, five Normalised input planes to teach the network how to recover convolutional layers and three fully 3@66x200 Normalisation from a poor position or orientation. connected layers. The magnitude of these perturbations The input image is split into YUV Input planes 3@66x200 is chosen randomly from a normal planes and passed to the network. Fig. 2: CNN architecture for vehicle control distribution. The distribution has zero The network has about 27 million mean, and the standard deviaconnections and 250,000 tion is twice the standard deparameters. The first layer of viation that is measured with the network performs image Shift and CNN human drivers. Artificially normalisation; the normalrotate Synthesised image of road as would augmenting the data does add iser is hard-coded and not Network be seen from Library of recorded computed simulated vehicle test routes: undesirable artifacts as the adjusted in the learning steering videos and timeUpdate car command magnitude increases. process. Performing normali- synchronised steering position and commands orientation Fig. 4 shows a screenshot sation in the network allows Fig. 3: Drive simulator of the simulator in interacthe normalisation scheme 30

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www.eFYmag.com

AUTOMOTIVE tive mode. The simulator takes prerecorded videos from a forwardfacing on-board camera connected to a human-driven data-collection vehicle, and generates images that approximate what would appear if the CNN were instead steering the vehicle. These test videos are time-synchronised with the recorded steering commands generated by the human driver. Since human drivers don’t drive in the centre of the lane all the time, there is a need to manually calibrate the lane’s centre as it is associated with each frame in the video used by the simulator. The simulator transforms the original images to account for departures from the ground truth. Note that this transformation also includes any discrepancy between the human driven path and the ground truth. The transformation is accomplished by the same methods. The simulator accesses the recorded test video along with the synchronised steering commands that occurred when the video was captured. The simulator sends

the first frame of the chosen test video, adjusted for any departures from the ground truth, to the input of the trained CNN, which then returns a steering command for that frame. The CNN steering commands as well as the recorded human-driver commands are fed into the dynamic model of the vehicle to update the position and orientation of the simulated vehicle. In Fig. 4, the green area on the left is unknown because of the viewpoint transformation. The highlighted wide rectangle below the horizon is the area which is sent to the CNN. The simulator then modifies the next frame in the test video so that the image appears as if the vehicle was at the position that resulted by following steering commands from the CNN. This new image is then fed to the CNN and the process repeats. The simulator records the off-centre distance (distance from the car to the lane centre), the yaw, and the distance travelled by the virtual car. When the off-centre distance exceeds

Fig. 4: Simulator in interactive mode

Fig. 5: How the CNN sees an unpaved road. Top: Camera image sent to the CNN; bottom left: activation of the first-layer feature maps; bottom right: activation of the second-layer feature maps

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Fig. 6: Image identification in autonomous vehicles

one metre, a virtual human intervention is triggered, and the virtual vehicle position and orientation is reset to match the ground truth of the corresponding frame of the original test video. Fig. 5 shows how the CNN learns to detect useful road features on its own, with only the human steering angle as training signal. It was not explicitly trained to detect road outlines. CNNs are able to learn the entire task of lane and road following without manual decomposition into road or lane marking detection, semantic abstraction, path planning and control. A small amount of training data from less than a hundred hours of driving is sufficient to train the car to operate in diverse conditions, on highways, local and residential roads in sunny, cloudy and rainy conditions.

Image identification in autonomous vehicles To be able to identify images, autonomous vehicles need to process a full 360-degree dynamic environment. This creates the need for dual-frame processing because collected frames must be combined and considered in context with each other. A vehicle can be equipped with a rotating camera to collect all relevant driving data. The machine must be able to recognise metric, symbolic and conceptual knowledge as demonstrated in Fig. 6. Metric knowledge is the identification of the geometry of static and dynamic objects, which is required to keep the vehicle in its lane and at a safe distance from other vehicles. Symbolic knowledge allows the vehicle to classify lanes and conform to basic rules of the road. Conceptual knowledge allows the vehicle to understand relationships between traffic participants and anticipate the evolution of the driving scene. Conceptual knowledge is the most important aspect for being able to detect specific objects and avoid collisions. One current method of obstacle detection in autonomous vehicles is www.eFYmag.com

AUTOMOTIVE

Fig. 7: Obstacle detection test results: Input images (top), ground truths with black as positive (middle) and detected obstacles with orange as positive (bottom)

the use of detectors and sets of appearance-based parameters. The first step in this method is the selection of areas of interest. This process narrows down areas of the field of vision that contain potential obstacles. Appearance cues are used by the detectors to find areas of interest. These appearance cues analyse two-dimensional data and may be sensitive to symmetry, shadows, or local texture and colour gradients. Three-dimensional analysis of scene geometry provides greater classification of areas of interest. These additional cues include disparity, optical flow and clustering techniques. Disparity is the pixel difference for an object from frame to frame. If you look at an object alternately closing one eye after the other, the ‘jumping’ you see in the object is the disparity. It can be used to detect and reconstruct arbitrarily shaped objects in the field. Optical flow combines scene geometry and motion. It samples the environment and analyses images to determine the motion of objects. Finally, clustering techniques group image regions with similar motion vectors as these areas are likely to contain the same object. A combination of these cues is used to locate all areas of interest. While any combination of cues is attainable, it is necessary to include both appearance cues and threedimensional cues as the accuracy of three-dimensional cues decreases quadratically with increasing dis34

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tance. In addition, only persistent detections are flagged as obstacles so as to lower the rate of false alarms. After areas of interest have been identified, these must be classified by passing them through many filters that search for characteristic features of on-road objects. This method takes a large amount of computation and time. The use of CNNs can increase the efficiency of this detection process. CNN-based detection system can classify areas that contain any type of obstacle. Motion-based methods such as optical flow heavily rely on the identification of feature points, which are often misclassified or not present in the image. All the knowledge-based methods are for special obstacles (pedestrians, cars, etc) or in special environments (flat road, obstacles differing in appearance from ground). Convolutional neural networks are the most promising for classifying complex scenes because these closely mimic the structure and classification abilities of the human brain. Obstacle detection is only one important part of avoiding a collision. It is also vital for the vehicle to recognise how far away the obstacles are located in relation to its own physical boundaries.

Depth estimation Depth estimation is an important consideration in autonomous driving as it ensures the safety of passengers as well as other vehicles. Estimating the distance between an obsta-

cle and the vehicle is an important safety concern. A CNN may be used for this task as CNNs are a viable method to estimate depth in an image. In a study, researchers trained their network on a large dataset of object scans, which is a public database of over ten thousand scans of everyday 3D objects, focused on images of chairs and used two different loss functions for training. They found that bi-weight trained network was more accurate at finding depth than the L2 norm. With images of varying size and resolution, it had an accuracy between 0.8283 and 0.9720 with a perfect accuracy being 1.0. While estimating depth on singleframe stationary objects is simpler than on moving objects seen by vehicles, researchers found that CNNs can also be used for depth estimation in driving scenes. They fed detected obstacle blocks to a second CNN programmed to find depth. The blocks were split into strips parallel to the lower image boundary. These strips were weighted with depth codes from bottom to top with the notion that closer objects would normally appear closer to the lower bound of the image. The depth codes went from ‘1’ to ‘6’ with ‘1’ representing the most shallow areas and ‘6’ representing the deepest areas. The obstacle blocks were assigned the depth code for the strip they appeared in. The CNN then used feature extraction in each block area to determine whether vertically adjacent blocks belonged to the same obstacle. If the blocks were determined to be the same obstacle, they were assigned the lower depth code to alert the vehicle of the closest part of the obstacle. CNN was trained on image block pairs to develop a base for detecting depth and then tested on street images as in the obstacle detection method. The CNN had an accuracy of 91.46 per cent in twoblock identification. To be continued next month www.eFYmag.com

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imaging Part 1 of 4

Image ProcessIng UsIng maTLaB: Basic Operations

I Dr Anil Kumar Maini is former director, Laser Science and Technology Centre, a premier laser and optoelectronics R&D laboratory of DRDO of Ministry of Defence

Varsha Agrawal is a senior scientist with Laser Science and Technology Centre (LASTEC), a premier R&D lab of DRDO

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n this series of four articles, fundamentals as well as advanced topics of image processing using MATLAB are discussed. The articles cover basic to advanced functions of MATLAB’s image processing toolbox (IPT) and their effects on different images. Part I in this series gives a brief introduction to digital images and MATLAB followed by basic image processing operations in MATLAB including image reading, display and storage back into the disk.

Image processing Image processing is the technique to convert an image into digital format and perform operations on it to get an enhanced image or extract some useful information from it. Changes that take place in images are usually performed automatically and rely on carefully designed algorithms. Image processing is a multidisciplinary field, with contributions from different branches of science including mathematics, physics, optical and electrical engineering. Moreover, it overlaps with other areas such as pattern recognition, machine learning, artificial intelligence and human vision research. Different steps involved in image processing include importing the image with an optical scanner or from a digital camera, analysing and manipulating the image (data compression, image enhancement and filtering), and generating the desired output image. The need to extract information from images and interpret their content has been the driving factor in the development of image processing. Image processing finds use in numerous sectors, including medicine, industry, military, consumer electronics and so on. In medicine, it is used for diagnostic imaging modalities such as digital radiography, positron emission tomography (PET), computerised axial tomography

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(CAT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Industrial applications include manufacturing systems such as safety systems, quality control and automated guided vehicle control. Complex image processing algorithms are used in applications ranging from detection of soldiers or vehicles, to missile guidance and object recognition and reconnaissance. Biometric techniques including fingerprinting, face, iris and hand recognition are being used extensively in law enforcement and security. Digital cameras and camcorders, highdefinition TVs, monitors, DVD players, personal video recorders and cell phones are popular consumer electronics items using image processing.

MATLAB MATLAB, an abbreviation for ‘matrix laboratory,’ is a platform for solving mathematical and scientific problems. It is a proprietary programming language developed by MathWorks, allowing matrix manipulations, functions and data plotting, algorithm implementation, user interface creation and interfacing with programs written in programming languages like C, C++, Java and so on. In MATLAB, the IPT is a collection of functions that extends the capability of the MATLAB numeric computing environment. It provides a comprehensive set of reference-standard algorithms and workflow applications for image processing, analysis, visualisation and algorithm development. It can be used to perform image segmentation, image enhancement, noise reduction, geometric transformations, image registration and 3D image processing operations. Many of the IPT functions support C/C++ code generation for desktop prototyping and embedded vision system deployment. www.eFYmag.com

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imaging What is a digital image? A digital image may be defined as a two-dimensional function f(x,y), where ‘x’ and ‘y’ are spatial coordinates and the amplitude of ‘f’ at any pair of coordinates is called the intensity of the image at that point. When ‘x,’ ‘y’ and amplitude values of ‘f’ are all finite discrete quantities, the image is referred to as a digital image. Digitising the coordinate values is referred to as ‘sampling,’ while digitising the amplitude values is called ‘quantisation.’ The result of sampling and quantisation is a matrix of real numbers. A digitised image is represented as: ƒ(0, 0) ƒ(0, 1) ƒ(1, 0) ƒ(1, 1) ƒ(x, y) = .. .. .. .. ƒ(M–1, 0) ƒ(M–1, 1)

.... ƒ(0, N–1) .... ƒ(1, N–1) .. .. .. .. .... ƒ(M–1, N–1)

Each element in the array is referred to as a pixel or an image element.

Basic image processing commands in MATLAB In MATLAB a digital image is represented as: ƒ(x, y) =

ƒ(1, 1) ƒ(2, 1) .. .. ƒ(M, 1)

ƒ(1, 2) ƒ(2, 2) .. .. ƒ(M, 2)

.... .... .. .. ....

ƒ(1, N) ƒ(2, N) .. .. ƒ(M, N)

In this representation, you can notice the shift in origin. Reading images. Images are read in MATLAB environment using the function ‘imread.’ Syntax of imread is: imread(‘filename’);

where ‘filename’ is a string having the complete name of the image, including its extension. For example, >>F = imread(Penguins_grey.jpg); >>G = imread(Penguins_RGB.jpg);

Please note that when no path information is included in ‘filename,’ ‘imread’ reads the file from the current directory. When an image 38

Fig. 1: Grayscale image of penguins

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takes grey values of all the pixels in the grayscale image and puts them into a matrix F(256x256 elements), which is now a MATLAB variable on which various matrix operations can be performed. In case of RGB images, pixel values now consist of a list of three values, giving red, green and blue components of the colour of the given pixel. Matrix ‘G’ is a threedimensional matrix 256x256x3. If there is no semicolon, the result of the command is displayed on the screen. In nutshell, the imread function reads pixel values from an image file and returns a matrix of all pixel values. To get the size of a 2D image, you can write the command: [M,N] = size(f)

Fig. 2: RGB image of penguins

from another directory has to be read, the path of the image has to be specified. Semicolon (;) at the end of a statement is used to suppress the output. If it is not included, MATLAB displays on the screen the result of the operation specified in that line. ‘>>’ indicates the beginning of a command line as it appears in the MATLAB command window. Figs 1 and 2 show grayscale and RGB images of penguins, respectively. These images can be downloaded from the EFY website and stored in the current working directory. imread, imshow and imwrite functions in MATLAB are used to read images in MATLAB environment, display them on MATLAB desktop and write them to the current directory, respectively In case of grayscale images, the resultant matrix of the imread statement comprises 256x256 or 65,536 elements. The first statement

This syntax returns the number of rows (M) and columns (N) in the image. You can find additional information about the array using ‘whos’ command. ‘whos f’ gives name, size, bytes, class and attributes of the array ‘f.’ As an example, ‘whos F’ in our case gives: Name Size

Bytes

F

2359296 uint8

768×1024×3

Class Attributes

‘whos G’ gives:

Name Size

Bytes

Class Attributes

G

786432

uint8

768×1024

Image display. Images are displayed on the MATLAB desktop using the function imshow, which has the basic syntax: imshow(f)

where ‘f’ is an image array of data type ‘uint8’ or double. Data type ‘uint8’ restricts the values of integers between 0 and 255. It should be remembered that for a matrix of type ‘double,’ the imshow function expects the values to be between 0 and 1, where 0 is displayed as black and 1 as white. Any value between 0 and 1 is displayed as grayscale. Any value greater than 1 is displayed as white, and a value www.eFYmag.com

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imaging Various image Tools and Their CapabiliTies

Fig. 3: Image obtained with command imshow(G)

image tools

Capabilities

Pixel information

Displays information about the pixel under the mouse pointer

Pixel region

Superimposes pixel values on a zoomed-in pixel view

Measure distance

Measures the distance between two pixels

Image information

Displays information about images and image files

Adjust contrast

Adjusts the contrast of the displayed image

Crop image

Defines a crop region and crops the image

Display range

Shows the display range of the image data

Overview

Shows the currently visible image

Choose colormap

Shows the image under different colour settings

Fig. 4: Image obtained with imshow(F) command

less than zero is displayed as black. To get the values within this range, a division factor can be used. The larger the division factor, the darker will be the image. As an example, if you give the command imshow(G), the image shown on the desktop is given in Fig. 3. ‘imshow(F)’ displays the image shown in Fig. 4. ‘imshow(f, [low high])’ displays as black all values less than or equal to ‘low’ and as white all values equal to or greater than ‘high.’ The values in between are displayed as intermediate intensity values. ‘imshow(f, [ ])’ sets variable low to the minimum value of array ‘f’ and high to its maximum value. This helps in improving the contrast of images having a low dynamic range. The Image tool in the image processing toolbox provides a more interactive environment for viewing and navigating within images, dis40

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Fig. 5: The window that appears when using the image tool

Fig. 6: The Measure Distance tool under Tools tab is used to measure distances between the beaks of different penguins

playing detailed information about pixel values, measuring distances and other useful operations. To start

the image tool, use the imtool function. The following statements read the image Penguins_grey.jpg saved www.eFYmag.com

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imaging the imwrite function, which has the following syntax: imwrite(f, ‘filename’);

Fig. 7: The Overview tool shows the entire image in a thumbnail view. The Pixel Region tool shows individual pixels from the small square region on the upper right tip, zoomed large enough to see the actual pixel values

This command writes image data ‘f’ to the file specified by ‘filename’ in your current folder. The imwrite function supports most of the popular graphic file formats including GIF, HDF, JPEG or JPG, PBM, BMP, PGM, PNG, PNM, PPM and TIFF and so on. The following example writes a 100x100 array of grayscale values to a PNG file named random.png in the current folder: >> F = rand(100); >>imwrite(F, ‘random.png’)

When you open the folder in which you are working, an image file named ‘random.png’ is created. For JPEG images, the imwrite syntax applicable is: imwrite(f, ‘filename.jpg’, ‘quality’, q)

Fig. 8: Grayscale and RGB images shown together

on the desktop and then display it using ‘imtool’: >>B = imread(Penguins_grey.jpg); >>imtool(B)

Fig. 5 shows the window that appears when using the image tool. The status text at the bottom of the main window shows the column/ row location and the value of the pixel lying under the mouse cursor. The Measure Distance tool under Tools tab is used to show the distance between the two selected points. Fig. 6 shows the use of this tool to measure distances between the beaks of different penguins. The Overview tool under Tools tab shows the entire image in a thumbnail view. The Pixel Region tool shows individual pixels from the small square region on the upper right tip, zoomed large enough to see the actual pixel values. Fig. 7 shows the snapshot. Multiple images can be displayed 42

october 2017 | electronics For You

within one figure using the subplot function. This function has three parameters within the brackets, where the first two parameters specify the number of rows and columns to divide the figure. The third parameter specifies which subdivision to use. For example, subplot(3,2,3) tells MATLAB to divide the figure into three rows and two columns and set the third cell as active. To display the images Penguins_RGB. jpg and Penguins_grey.jpg together in a single figure, you need to give the following commands: >> A=imread(‘Penguins_grey.jpg’); >> B=imread(‘Penguins_RGB.jpg’); >>figure >>subplot(1,2,1),imshow(A) >>subplot(1,2,2),imshow(B)

The figure that appears on the screen after the third command is shown in Fig. 8. Writing images. Images are written to the current directory using

where ‘q’ is an integer between 0 and 100. It can be used to reduce the image size. The quality parameter is used as a trade-off between the resulting image’s subjective quality and file size. You can now read the image Penguins_grey.jpg saved in the current working folder and save it in JPG format with three different quality parameters: 75 (default), 10 (poor quality and small size) and 90 (high quality and large size): F = imread(‘Penguins_grey.jpg’); imwrite(F,’Penguins_grey_75. jpg’,’quality’,75); imwrite(F,’Penguins_grey_10. jpg’,’quality’,10); imwrite(F,’Penguins_grey_90. jpg’,’quality’,90);

Figs 9 through 11 show images for quality factors of 75, 10 and 90, respectively. You will note that that a low-quality image has a smaller size than a higher-quality image. The imwrite syntax applicable to TIFF images has the format: imwrite (g, ‘filename.tif’, ‘compression’, ‘parameter’, ……’resolution’, [colresrowres]) www.eFYmag.com

SCREENING

ULTRASOUND

imaging FormatVersion: ‘‘ Width: 1024 Height: 768 BitDepth: 8 ColorType: ‘grayscale’ FormatSignature: ‘‘ NumberOfSamples: 1 CodingMethod: ‘Huffman’ CodingProcess: ‘Sequential’ Comment: {}

Fig. 9: Image for quality factor of 75

Fig. 11: Image for quality factor of 90

Image information. File details including file name, data, size, format, height and width can be obtained using the command: imfinfo‘filename’

As an example, the command imfinfo(‘Penguins_grey.jpg’) gives the following information: ans= Filename: [1x50 char] FileModDate: ‘02-Aug-2016 09:24:12’

Fig. 10: Image for quality factor of 10

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FileSize: 100978 Format: ‘jpg’

Information fields displayed by ‘imfinfo’ can be captured into a structural variable that can be used for subsequent computation. The following example stores all the information into variable ‘K’: K = imfinfo(‘Penguins_grey.jpg’)

The information generated by ‘imfinfo’ is appended to the structure variable by means of fields, separated from ‘K’ by a dot. As an example, the image height and width are stored in structure fields K.height and K.weight. To be continued next month

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tech focus

The Best Chips For Mobile Devices

A Vertica Asthana is a technical journalist at EFY

system-on-a-chip (SoC) integrates digital, analogue and mixed signals, as well as RF functions into a single unit. It consumes less power, which makes it ideal for smartphones. Lower the power consumed by a chipset, higher is its efficiency. To ensure this, chipset technology has now reached 10nm scale, where key SoC manufacturers such as Qualcomm, Spreadtrum, Mediatek, Apple, Huawei and Intel are competing to outdo each other in chip performance and capture markets worldwide. However, 10nm is not the final limit. “It is predicted that 10nm technology will be used till the end of year 2017. Year 2019 will experience a new 7nm technology, while around 2022 5nm technology would be in the market,” says Jag Bolaria, principal analyst for embedded and servers at Linley Group.

and memory on a single chip. It is a successful integration of multiple domains such as device, design and application. As far as the device is concerned, several transistors are embedded into one single chip. This allows the chip to perform a wide range of functions through a single unit (chip). As the increasing number of transistors on the chip push its applications to a broader range, chip design is becoming complicated and challenging. The challenge could be related to the device, design or execution. SoCs comprise internal components such as microcontrollers/microprocessors, memory blocks, oscillators and phase-locked loops (PLLs) for timing, counter-timers/real-time timers, external interfaces such as USB, Ethernet and FireWire, analogue interfaces, voltage regulators and power management circuits.

Features embedded in SoCs

Evolution in SoC technology

An SoC is equivalent to the motherboard of a computer system that comprises a GPU, CPU

Various manufacturers use different configurations inside their SoCs depending on the type of technology used. For instance, Nvidia Tegra 3 SoC, built using 40nm technology, Table I has only a GPU, memory controller and ChIpseTs for premIum smarTphones video out streams. On the other hand, system-on-chip manufacturer Technology Cpu memory Geekbench Geekbench 4.1 Qualcomm Snapdragon S4, fabricated us64-bit multitype 4.1 64-bit core ing 28nm technology, has LTE, GPE and core score single-core (no.) score WiFi all integrated in a single chip. Newer chipsets fabricated on 10nm Apple A11 Bionic Apple 10nm 6 LPDDR4 4061 9959 technology act as a high-end platform Samsung Exynos Samsung 10nm 8 LPDDR4 2015 6711 for highly efficient systems. At the same 8895 FinFET time, there are a few manufacturers Snapdragon 835 Qualcomm 10nm 8 LPDDR4 2065 6436 struggling to roll over to mid-level and HiSilicon Kirin 960 Huawei 16nm 8 LPDDR4 1859 6356 low-level smartphone segments with Mediatek MT 6799 Mediatek 10nm 10 LPDDR4 1579 3668 fabrication above 10nm. Intel Atom Z3580

52

Intel

22nm

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4

LPDDR3

1046

2515

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tech focus The extended memory—LPDDR2 4061 to LPDDR4—also 4000 adds value to the product (smart3000 phone). ARM’s 2065 big.Little architec2015 1859 2000 ture helps smart1579 phone chipsets 1046 1000 with battery-saving and powerful cores 0 such as HiSilicon Kirin Mediatek Intel Apple Samsung Snap960 MT6799 Atom Exynos dragon A11 835 Z3580 8895 bionic Kirin 960/950/920 System on chip Score as per Benchmarking Geekbench 4.0 64 bit single-core score and Samsung Exynos 8895. Fig. 1: Single-core CPU processing score for high-end SoCs of key players For instance, when a smart9959 phone user plays a 10000 game that requires a high clock speed, 7500 processing speed 6711 6436 6356 and memory, cores in the processor 5000 are divided into 3668 big and little cores. 2515 Now, load is as2500 signed to each of the cores simulta0 neously, avoiding Kirin Mediatek Intel Apple Samsung SnapGeekbench 4.0 64 bit multi core960 scoreMT6799 Atom dragon Exynos A11 835 Z3580 8895 bionic situations where System on chip Geekbench 4.0 64 bit multi core score the smartphone hangs or its batFig. 2: Multi-core CPU processing score for high-end SoCs of key players tery dies. Tables I and II show the number of cores, memory capacity and fabrication technology used in SoCs from various manufacturers. FinFET (Fin field-effect transistors) technology creates thin fin-like structures, which reduces energy consumption. Chipsets listed in Table I are fabricated on 10nm scale and use advanced memory type (LPDDR4) and features that make them ideal for high-end smartphone devices. SoC classification as per specifications helps users to understand the SoCs’ significance and parameters. Moreover, smartphone manufacturers can compare the performance of the latest and running SoC models and decide to invest accordingly. Other than FinFET, new technology upgrades include Vulkan API and VoLTE technology. Some manufacturers have also started integrating artificial intelligence (AI) features into their chipsets. Kirin 970 chipset is an example. Geekbench 4.0 64 bit multi core score

Geekbench 4.0 64 bit single-core score

5000

Upgrades in SoC technology As consumers demand highly efficient devices, “there are a few technology upgrades in chip fabrication to www.eFYmag.com

electronics For You | october 2017

53

tech focus Table II

soCs of affordable smarTphones system on chip

manufacturer

Xiaomi Surge S1

Xiaomi

Samsung Exynos 7870 Samsung

Cpu memory Geekbench Type 4.0 64 bit core single-core (no.) score

Technology

Geekbench 4.0 64 bit multi core score

28nm

4

LPDDR3

678

2416

14nm

8

LPDDR3

726

3603

Snapdragon 625

Qualcomm

14nm

8

LPDDR3

864

4165

Hisilicon Kirin 655

Huawei

16nm finFET

8

LPDDR3

824

3401

Mediatek MT 6750

Mediatek

28nm

8

LPDDR3

628

2485

Intel Atom Z2580

Intel

32nm

2

LPDDR2

1046

2515

Spreadtrum SC 9850

spreadtrum

28nm

4

NA

435

1273

5000

1250

4165

1046

4000 864

750

500

678

824

726 628

435

250

0

Xiaomi Samsung Snap- Kirin Mediatek Intel SpreadSurge Exynos dragon 655 MT6750 Atom trum 625 Z2580 SC9850 S1 7870 System on chip Geekbench 4.0 64 bit single-core score

Geekbench 4.0 64 bit multi core score

Geekbench 4.0 64 bit single-core score

1000

3603

3401

3000 2416

2485

2515

2000 1273 1000

0

Xiaomi Samsung Snap- Kirin Mediatek Intel Spreadtrum Surge Exynos dragon 655 MT6750 Atom SC9850 625 S1 7870 Z2580 System on chip Geekbench 4.0 64 bit multi core score

Fig. 3: Single-core CPU processing score for low-end SoCs

Fig. 4: Multi-core CPU processing score for low-end SoCs

improve thermal management and smartphones’ download speed for multimedia applications. Extra features embedded include artificial intelligence/camera connectivity and support for WiFi and Voice-overLTE (VoLTE) application requirements,” says Neeraj Sharma, head of Spreadtrum Communications. Steve Roddy, senior group director with Cadence Design System, shares that smartphones are going to cover a lot more dimensions than just taking selfies. Now, SoC applications can vary from the Internet of Things (IoT) to drones and security cameras. Efficient power management. Smartphone manufacturers target features like high-speed RAM, high-speed processor and multicore processor to offer a customer advan-

tage. As the evolving multimedia services require high-speed data, power optimisation with features such as upgraded RAM, processor speed and multi-core CPUs is important. Gated bus is a low-power-consumption technology used in SoCs. FinFET technology is being used by

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most SoC manufacturers. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 uses 10nm technology with FinFET process node. More the fabrication nodes are shrinked, faster the system-on-chip operates and lesser is the power required. The amount of voltage is also lowered due to thinner fabrication node, which has helped in reducing leakage in the chip due to planar processes by up to 50 per cent. FinFET technology not only cuts down the power consumption but it also enhances the performance. For instance, Qualcomm has been able to reduce the size of Snapdragon 835 by 35 per cent. The chip is also claimed to use 25 per cent less power than previous releases. Thus, the market for low-power-consumption technology is taking a step forward as it impacts the battery life and download speeds too. Peak download and upload speed. Huawei’s Kirin 970 SoC released lately features the maximum download speed (up to 1.2Gbps), while Xiaomi Surge S1 has the minimum speed (150Mbps). Vulkan API. Vulkan is one of the most important features for high-performance 3D graphics applications— for example, video games and interactive platforms. It is a low-level API that supports parallel tasking, thus reducing the CPU usage. Xiaomi Surge S1, Spreadtrum 9853 and Snapdragon 835 are amongst recently released chipsets that use Vulkan technology. Snapdragon 835 supports Vulkan also to increase multi-core CPU utilisation. VoLTE technology. VoLTE standard for mobile communication supports

SoCs: Technology and Fabrication Chips are tested for logical correctness and then sent to the foundry for fabrication. This process is called functional verification. Hardware verification is an important stage as complexity of the design increases with the number of applications. A hardware verification language has been developed in order to test SoCs. So errors, if any, can be identified during the verification process itself. Simultaneously, hardware elements are collected and passed through the logic synthesis process for performance check related to operating frequency and signal delays. After performance tests, the logical netlist is prepared, following which the initial physical routing is done. The netlist process helps in analysing the static timing modelling, simulation and other functions which are required to check key parameters such as frequency, power consumption, functional integrity versus electrical integrity, and, above all, power dissipation. After the verification test of physical layers and performance check, chips are sent to the foundry and later to the wafer fabrication plant to create SoC dies.

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tech focus

Fig. 5: LTE core network (Source: www.openet.com)

higher data capacity than 3G UMTS or 2G GSM. It assists in releasing the bandwidth as the packets are smaller in size and optimised. The iPhone 6s series and beyond, Microsoft Lumia 950 XL, OnePlus 5, OnePlus 3/3T and many more smartphones use the VoLTE technique. Other than VoLTE and Vulkan, chipset manufacturers are also including MEMS and VoWIFI.

Challenges The process of developing a compact solution increases the time to market as efforts to integrate multiple functions in a single IC increases the time to design and develop. The more the time taken, the less would be the shelf-life of the component. Besides, there is the SoC design challenge of crossdomain optimisation as many design complexities remain intact with IP reuse. After 10nm fabrication technology, manufacturers are now targeting 7nm. GlobalFoundries plans to launch 7nm in three stages of lithography, namely, Gen1, Gen 2 and Gen3, which are likely to complete by 2020. 7nm technology is claimed to reduce power consumption by 60 per cent and improve performance by 40 per cent. But its practical implementation is a complex task, which requires refined design techniques. The time-taking process of chip fabrication usually leads to lowering of the SoC’s shelf-life.

Market analysis The SoC market was worth $45.89 billion in the year 2016. It is expected to grow annually at a rate of 8.4 per cent from 2017 to 2025, reaching the size of $89.03 billion. The three leading SoC manufacturers together account for 68 per cent of the global market, with Qualcomm alone accounting for around 38 per cent. Besides, India is believed to be the fastest growing market due to surge in electronics device sales, which have helped to propel technologies such as 3G, 4G and LTE. Experts predict a growth of 25 per cent during 2015-22. www.eFYmag.com

electronics For You | october 2017

55

do-it-yourself Part 1 of 2

Making Pcbs at HoMe Photographically

H Ashok Kumar Singh is a senior IT professional. He has authored books for IBM, USA and takes keen interest in electronics and amateur radio

ere is a comprehensive guide to make your own PCBs at home using materials that are readily available in shops and online stores. While it addresses single-sided PCBs, it can be extended to create double-sided PCBs as well. The steps involved in making single-sided PCBs, in that order, are: 1. Create a schematic 2. Create a PCB layout 3. Create the artwork 4. Transfer the artwork onto the PCB laminate; let’s call this stage ‘artwork transfer’ or ‘exposing the PCB’ 5. Mask the area where you want to retain copper. This stage is called ‘developing’ 6. Remove copper from the PCB laminate where you don’t want it, e.g., tracks, etc. This process is called ‘etching’ 7. Remove the masking material to reveal the PCB 8. Drill holes to solder and mount components and accessories or sub-assemblies. This stage may not be required if the PCB is being prepared for surface-mount components 9. Tin the copper tracks to avoid oxidation of copper 10. Deposit some sort of protective material on the side of the PCB that contains cop-

per tracks, also called ‘solder side.’ This material does not allow solder to stick to the copper tracks other than where solder needs to stick, like component pads. This process is called ‘masking’ 11. Print the ‘silk screen’ on the components side of the PCB to mark the component references corresponding to the components in the schematic This article details steps 1 through 8 as these are sufficient for most applications and can be performed at home. However, your project circumstances and requirements will determine the steps that you need to perform. For example, if the artwork is already available, you may skip steps 1 and 2 and jump to step 3.

Step 1: Create a schematic

The prerequisite for this step is that the circuit for which you want to create the schematic is available along with component details like values, power rating and package details (size of the component, the spacing and layout of its connecting pins, etc). If that’s not the case, you may consider using some kind of simulation software like LT Spice or Proteus to draw the schematic and perform simulation on it. This may save you both time and money as: 1. Experimenting and reworking on a software simulated model is far less time consuming than procuring all the components that would be required for designing your circuit 2. You need not buy the components till you simulate and check (a) Components-side view of a finshed (b) Copper-side or solder-side view of everything theoretically homebrewed PCB using through-hole a homebrewed PCB using through-hole (c) A PCB using surface-mounted components components components to a large extent on the software. Fig. 1: Finished home-brewed PCBs 56

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do-it-yourself

Fig. 2: The full schematic

using some kind of software tool for drawing the schematic on the computer. As you will soon realise, there are several advantages to using this tool as it works well beyond merely as a drafting or drawing aid. Eagle CAD, in particular, is extremely useful as Fig. 3: The schematic zoomed-in view of the upper right side of the full schematic it helps you create great schematics and much more. Its free verIf the components are handy, sion has some limitations like the you may even use a general-purpose maximum PCB size (board size) of breadboard to quickly wire the 10x8cm2 and only two signal layers circuit and test it. So let’s say that you have the circuit for which we allowed. Even with these limitawish to create the schematic. At this tions, the tool is sufficient for most stage, you may want to consider constructional projects. 58

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Eagle comes with loads of goodies like a huge device library, several third-party libraries from manufacturers, built-in scripts that can perform many critical static checks, generate bill-of-materials and Gerber files that can be sent to a PCB manufacturing house, and much more. You can find loads of information and tutorials on YouTube and other web resources about Eagle CAD and similar software tools. Note that Eagle tool is used here for illustration purpose only, and you may use any other suitable tool of your liking, like Proteus. By now you should have a schematic like the one in Fig. 2. Here Fig. 3 is a close-up of the top right corner of Fig. 2. Eagle also provides a very useful feature called ‘electrical rule check’ (ERC), which can be used to test www.eFYmag.com

do-it-yourself schematics for electrical errors and warnings. You will be surprised to see the number of warnings and errors reported by the tool for the schematic that you prepared and thought was perfect.

Fig. 4: Hand drill and bit

Step 2: Create a PCB layout of the schematic

Fig. 5: 40-pin DIL header

You may choose to use either through-hole components or surface-mount components (see Fig. 1), or a combination of both. This step remains the same for both types of components, except that some extra precaution needs to be exercised for through-hole components. Many software tools like Eagle allow you to import all the components from the schematic created by you to the board layout view while concurrently validating the board layout view (aka board view) electrically against the schematic. In this view, the board boundary is displayed, with all the components placed outside it, to begin with. You can then start placing components within the board boundary by dragging them, one at a time. All the components show lines called ‘airwires’ to display the electrical connectivity between their pins and pins of other components they connect with. This ensures that you do not miss out on any electrical connection inadvertently. By the end of this step no ‘airwires’ should be visible and the board layout should be complete. Eagle also provides the design rules check (DRC) feature, which checks the board against a set of predefined design rules. You will find similar features in other tools as well. Tips, pitfalls and workarounds. If you use through-hole components, you need to drill holes for the component leads (step 8). A popular choice for drilling holes is a mini-push-type hand-drill machine as shown in

Fig. 4. The bit normally used to make through-holes in the PCB has 1mm dia. These drills are fine for 40-pin DIL header (Fig. 5) and drilling holes for components like resistors, capacitors and transistors, where a degree of misalignment is acceptable because Fig. 6: Messed up PCB pads you can handle it at the time of mounting components. However, it is very difficult to drill multiple holes perfectly in a straight line with exactly the same spacing (usually 2.54mm), like dual-line pins of an IC (see Fig. 13) or a header block (see Fig. 5), without any alignment error. And it is highly likely that you will end up in the situation shown in Fig. 6. You will notice that the drill hole almost consumes the entire component pad, leaving no copper on the pad to hold any solder to bind the track connected to the pad with the component lead. This happens for a number of reasons: 1. The quality and precision with which a hole can be drilled by the mini push-drill (shown in Fig. 4) leaves a lot to be desired. Typically, for PCB application the minimum prescribed speed is 25,000rpm, which may go up to 200,000rpm for multilayer microvias, whereas manually operated hobby mini push-drills operate at a very low rpm and wobble

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2. Most PCB laminates are made of fibreglass or glass epoxy, which are abrasive materials and wear away steel bits really fast. One solution is to use solid tungsten carbide bits, which last about ten times longer than steel bits. Unfortunately, these bits can’t be used with mini-push-drills as they are very brittle and break with the slightest change in the angle of contact 3. It is virtually impossible to keep the drill absolutely perpendicular to the PCB at all times while pushing the plunger of the drill axially up and down Commercial PCB manufacturing houses have appropriate manufacturing equipment that address the above three aspects. Eagle and most other software solutions use default parameters like pad diameter and shape (see Eagle default pad size and shape for jumpers in Fig. 7), which can be realised by commercial PCB making houses. For home brewing PCBs you need to work around these limitations. One way to do this is to use a bigger component pad size, but here is a trade-off: If you use very big pad size, you may end up having solder bridges across the component pads. If the pad size is too small, the drill hole may occupy the entire pad leaving no copper to solder on. What parameters you use is also a function of the component type. Here we consider three types of components: discrete twolegged components like resistors, capacitors, transistors and jumpers; connectors like header blocks that have single-in-line or dual-inline pins; and integrated circuits (ICs). These tips can also be used for other components with care and caution. For discrete two-legged components, examine Fig. 7 for the default pad size and shape used by Eagle for jumpers. Fig. www.eFYmag.com

do-it-yourself

Fig. 11: Header block recommendations: Octagon pad shape; pad diameter of 1.9304mm or 0.076 inch; pad drill size of 0.7mm or 0.02755906 inch

Fig. 7: Eagle default pad size and shape for jumper diameter of 1.6mm (0.063 inch) and drill size of 0.8mm (0.032 inch) Fig. 12: Solder bridges between the pads when you use larger size

Fig. 8: Recommended pad size and shape for jumper Fig. 13: Eagle default IC pad size and shape

Fig. 9: Eagle default pad size and shape for header blocks

Fig. 10: Header block recommendations: circular pad shape; pad diameter of 1.9304mm or 0.076-inch; pad drill size of 0.7mm or 0.02755906 inch

8 shows the recommended pad size and shape for jumpers. These specifications can also be used for through-hole components like resistors, capacitors and transistors. The recommended diameter is 0.1 inch and drill size is 0.032 inch. Drill size may be reduced to 0.027 inch. Though this drill size is really small, it creates a very small drill 62

october 2017 | electronics For You

Fig. 14: Recommended IC pad size and shape—pad diameter of 1.9304mm or 0.076 inch; pad drill size of 0.7mm or 0.02755906 inch

centre in the pad, which is very useful for positioning the drill bit precisely in the centre of the pad. Use either round or octagon shape for pads. For connectors like header blocks that have single-in-line or dual-in-line pins, refer to Eagle default pad size and shape in Fig. 9. Use the recommendations in Fig.

10 or Fig. 11. The two differ only in the pad shape. The recommendation is pad diameter of 1.9304mm (0.076 inch) and pad drill size of 0.7mm (0.02755906 inch). If you go overboard and use a larger pad size of 2.1844mm (0.086 inch) as shown in Fig. 12, you run the risk of having solder bridges between the pads. www.eFYmag.com

do-it-yourself

Fig. 17: Two views of header pins aligned perfectly with the PCB holes

Fig. 18: Kinsten board (left to right): White protective opaque sticker covering the presenstised side of the board, the PCB as seen from the component side and the presensitised surface revealed on peeling off the white sticker

next step depends on the technique you choose for developing the PCB. I have used various techniques and found the one using positiveFig. 15: Protective foil wrap of positive acting acting pre-sensitised PCB laminates presensitised PCB type PS1015 from Kinsten (15cm×10cm×1.6mm) the best. Its negativeacting pre-sensitised PCB variant requires a little different process for development. I chose the positiveacting board because it is easier to develop the artwork for it than for the negative-acting one. These boards can be bought online through many sources including Fig. 16: Header pins aligned perfectly with the PCB holes eBay and Amazon. Initially, I used single-sided glass-epoxy positiveFor ICs, see Fig. 13 for the acting pre-sensitised board from default values used by Eagle and Ever-Muse with excellent results Fig. 14 for the recommended IC pad (see Fig. 19). More recently, I used a size and shape. The recommended similar board, Kinsten type PS1015, pad diameter is 1.9304mm (0.076 which cost me around ` 250 apiece. inch) and pad drill size is 0.7mm The board specifications are: (0.02755906 inch). Finally, check for 1. Dimensions: 10x15cm2 electrical warnings and errors using the ERC and DRC capability of Ea2. Thickness: 1.6mm gle. Ensure that no airwires are left 3. Material: Paper phenolic (PP), at the end of this step. The outcome 1oz (35µm) copper foil, single side should be similar to Fig. 16. The 4. Exposure time: 6-10 minwww.eFYmag.com

Fig. 19: Protective foil wrap of Ever-Muse glassepoxy single-sided board (front and back)

utes using a 20W fluorescent lamp placed 5cm above the PCB or 60 to 90 seconds using UV exposure box I applied the process described in this article on the Kinsten PS1015 positive-acting pre-sensitised PCBs. The process will probably work as such with almost any similar board. It may need to be tweaked for optimal results if the board specifications are quite different. To be continued next month electronics For You | october 2017

63

design

SyStem DeSign trickS For Wireless Communication

T Saurabh Durgapal is working as technology journalist at EFY

he launch of Bluetooth 4.0 was a revolution. All of a sudden we had wireless transfer technology that consumed drastically less power while performing better in terms of range and capacity. As for Wi-Fi, we have the ever-trustworthy 802.11x standards with constant increase in speed over the years—802.11ah is an improvement over the earlier 802.11ad, which itself is under development. It can also penetrate walls and other barriers considerably better than previous Wi-Fi standards. For a holistic picture, we need to look at the improvements over the years. Increase in performance has been coming at the cost of exhaustive power consumption. So let us look at how power can be reduced in devices while increasing performance. Bluetooth 4.0 or Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) allow reduction in power without any compromise in performance.

Improving performance with lesser power

Fig. 1: Wireless charging

66

An area of significant improvement has been the usage of modules with powersaving features, especially when the system is idle. In such modules, standby power consumption typically ranges between 1.9mA and 5.7mA, which is ideal for battery-powered systems. Modules that go into sleep mode when wireless transmission is inactive provide the ability to power individual blocks on the board, like the transmitter or the DSP and, hence, help hugely in improving performance. Power consumption protocols in BLE consume only a fraction of the power purged by

october 2017 | electronics For You

Modules over the years When launched in 1990s, an ARM9 microcontroller handled the entire mobile phone. The processor was used at its full capacity, and the module in an embedded mobile system performed at less than 20 per cent capacity. Often the modules were shipped with only certain parts of the chipset connected to the external package, rendering its core unusable. While there is plenty of processing capacity left in wireless modules, most modules we have today are provided as black-boxes, with no insight into the internal operation to access the extra capacity. Which leaves a big question unanswered: Which modules are actually available as open to access the extra power?

earlier versions. This is not done by sacrificing on signal strength, but by altering the duty cycle. It is optimised for small bursts of data where continuous use actually makes the device consume more power. Transmitting via bursts does not cause loss in data but allows you to save power. This data is then transmitted via the antenna, which is another major player in wireless performance. A conventional finite ground coplanar waveguide, for example, can be modified to obtain wide-band response at desired frequencies. The receiver plays a big role. Wireless performance can be directly increased by increasing transmitting power, but that would not be productive. Increasing the transmitted power will get you longer range but could also lead to multichannel signal interference. Also, load on a mobile battery would cause it to be consumed in a matter of few hours. Sensitivity of the wireless receiver can, however, be increased to make a change in this regard. Theoretically speaking, increasing the sensitivity by 6dB doubles the range for reception. www.eFYmag.com

design

Fig. 2: Speed comparison

Improving the design. Optimising the communication receiver design leads to compromise on certain other parameters. A super-heterodyne receiver, for example, may require filtering signals between the antenna and the front-end mixer to prevent interference from unwanted sources. Here lies the problem. Once you introduce a narrow-band filter, a signal loss corresponding to receiver noise figure is also introduced. Adding a preamplifier could compensate for the filter, while lowering the noise figure. This, on the other hand, brings along its own set of inter-modulation problems, resulting in possible degradation of mixer performance. There is still a possibility to optimise key parameters like sensitivity and dynamic range. Since adding the preamplifier results in inter-modulation problems, it creates specific design challenges. Traditionally, high linearity and low noise in highfrequency applications was achieved by frequency applications that used gallium arsenide (GaAs) or indium phosphide (InP) gain blocks. This could become a serious problem in battery-powered or low-voltage applications because of high power dissipation. A more practical method is to improve the characteristics of the antenna and its installation to improve transmission efficiency of the overall system. Characteristics to be considered for antenna design include frequency of transmission, input impedance, antenna gain, polarisation and radiation pattern. Provision of detachable antenna in a receiver allows you to use different types of antennae for optimal reception. Considering the throughput. Throughput is another area to consider with wireless transmission—the higher the better. Subhas Kamble, portfolio manager communication and devices, product engineering services, Sasken, explains, “Higher throughput is addressed with newer technologies, and latency reduction increases performance.” Throughput is essentially synonymous with digital bandwidth consumption. Factors affecting throughput include analogue physical medium, available processing 68

october 2017 | electronics For You

www.eFYmag.com

design power of system components and module wireless technology end-user behavsupport iour. Transferred ESP 32 Wi-Fi and BLE data rate is often ESP 8266 Wi-Fi significantly lower CY8CKIT-049 Wi-Fi-ready than the maxidevelopment board mum achievable EMW 3165 Wi-Fi throughput, when nRF8001 BLE various protocol BM71 BLE overheads are Bluefruit EZ-Link BLE considered. RFM98W LoRa Kamble exSX1276 LoRa plains the significance of throughLE51-868 S SigFox put as the need of low data but high coverage in Internet of Things (IoT) and M2M communications. “LoRa and SigFox technologies address longer battery life and large coverage areas for lesser throughput solutions,” says Kamble.

various wireless modules

What is next in wireless Today’s wireless systems use non-chaotic wireless signals, ranging over satellite communications, GPS navigation, mobile phones and Wi-Fi devices. These have a well-defined period and frequency, which causes physical impediments with wireless signals in open spaces. A study done a couple of years ago proposed chaotic signals for overcoming some of the constraints faced by wireless devices to improve performance. An added advantage was that these allowed designing of low-power, low-cost and small-area electronic circuits. Chaotic signals are strongly modified by wireless physical media through which it propagates, but information transmitted by the signal is not modified. Chaotic signals are also unaffected by multipath effects, which is a major deterrent with most wireless transmissions. Controlling chaos. Being aperiodic, irregular, having broadband spectrum, easy to generate and difficult to predict over time makes chaotic signals a very lucrative solution in sonar and radar applications. A research at Xian University of Technology in China and University of Aberdeen in the UK has demonstrated how chaotic signals could create a reliable and efficient wireless communication system. However, initial conditions need to be ideal. The tiniest of mistakes could lead to circuits not encoding the information for transmission. With successful implementation of chaos theory, these can not only be beneficial with secure communication but also encode a binary source of information in an energy-efficient way. So maybe, we finally have a place where chaos is not all that bad. www.eFYmag.com

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design

Ruggedise The haRdwaRe, Increase Its Life

M Vertica Asthana is a technical journalist at EFY

cLaren-Honda, manufacturer of premium electric racing cars, recently started using silicon-carbide (SiC) power devices in inverters and on-board chargers, which increased their efficiency by 1.7 per cent while also reducing the cooling system size by 30 per cent. Thus, a change in the power component not only made their inverter compact but also rugged for use in electric cars. Similarly, gallium-nitride (GaN) power devices increase the reliability of low-power products. “Both SiC and GaN-based powerconversion devices are creating a difference and making the product rugged,” says Niranjan G., general manager (business development & technical marketing), ROHM Semiconductor.

External and internal ruggedness in hardware

Fig. 1: SiC and GaN market analysis (Image courtesy: www.pntpower.com)

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A hardware system needs to be electrically as well as physically rugged so that it can withstand harsh environmental conditions, electrical faults, component failures, mechanical faults, etc. For instance, for LED luminaires, designers select LED devices based on

october 2017 | electronics For You

the application requirements of lumens, life-time, intensity and colour temperature. Optical component selection is also based on the application. Power supply is designed keeping in mind the desired current, voltage, power input, total harmonic distortion (THD) and power factor. Mechanical part is based on the thermal dissipation of the luminaire as a whole. Besides, designers follow various manufacturing standards that are important from ruggedness point of view. LM79 standard is followed for LED luminaire performance test, and LM80 for LED evaluation. IPXX standards are followed for protection of LED luminaires and power supply from environmental conditions such as air, water, dust, physical contact and accidental contacts. IEC, EC, UL and BEE standards pertain to the quality of a hardware product. The hardware includes the PCB and components on the PCB. Be it an analogue solution, power solution, sensing solution or mobile solution, hardware must be well-built and rugged.

Analogue and power solutions There have been industrial upgrades in the quality of the PCB, power components and their hardware applications at electrical or physical level. PCB and improved substrate. The PCB is an essential element of a hardware as it provides the base or the platform to the circuitry. The PCB material is chosen based on the type of application. For instance, as a small power supply with less input and output current will dissipate very less heat, it can be built on an FR4based PCB, which costs very less. Hrishikesh Kamat, CEO of Shalaka Connected Devices, says, “Multilayer boards have been prepped up to 256 layers by tech giants.” As electronic devices shrink, PCBs are www.eFYmag.com

design becoming smaller and multilayer to support connectivity with several components at a time. Complexity of the circuitry is increasing and the technology is getting sophisticated. The average thickness of the PCB ranges between 0.5mm and 0.7mm, which, technology experts believe, will decrease further to 0.4mm or less. This will open up new possibilities in the wearables domain. Traditionally, PCB prepregs have been fibreglass or epoxy, but now substrates are available in several other materials too, such as resincoated copper, resin-coated film and liquid-crystal film. These prepregs maintain the signal integrity of a circuit and high-end processing at low costs. Thus, improved PCB substrate and reduced PCB thickness ensure high signal integrity and low output losses, resulting in a reliable and rugged hardware. Smaller, stronger, faster components. Silicon carbide is becoming the industry-leading technology in power conversion, contributing to the eco-friendly environment. ‘Trench-structure’ design contributes to the long-term reliability of components. Nowadays, these trenchstructure MOS devices are acting as alternatives to relays in automobiles (especially electric vehicles) due to their high current handling capability. Their other field applications include industrial automation equipment, solar power inverters, digital power supplies of large-scale servers in data centres and home appliances such as air-conditioners.

Fig. 2: Trench power MOS in SiC device (Image courtesy: patentimages.storage.googleapis.com)

For low-power and mediumpower applications, trench-structure devices provide many advantages: 1. Structural change lowers the drain-to-source resistance (RDS ON) and thus heat dissipation, making the end product efficient 2. Breakdown voltage and switching frequencies of trenchstructure MOSFETs and other components using SiC are generally higher than conventional FETs 3. Low on-resistance, high breakdown voltage, high current and high frequencies enable a compact and efficient cooling system 4. The compact size of the component helps in reducing the size and the cost of the PCB “Thus, silicon carbide reduces the overall system costs and helps in energy conservation by making efficient end-products,” says Niranjan. Chip resistor—no more laser cuts for accurate value. Niranjan

Ruggedised power inverters using SiC and IGBT in Power Applications Niranjan illustrates the example of rooftop solar systems for homes. Anyone can install a roof-top solar panel and generate energy to power different applications. Users can sell off the excess electricity generated to the grid and make money. Power inverters using trench SiC MOSFETs make the power system smart. Higher frequencies result in size reduction of components including magnetics. Reduced size of magnetic components makes the product reliable, efficient and compact. It also lowers the product’s bill-of-materials. In comparison to conventional FET devices, SiC devices help to cut power losses by 2 per cent, establishing themselves firmly in the market.

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says, “Thermo-mechanical stress causes resistor failure, so manufacturers are coming up with a techno-logy that allows solder application on the lateral side of the resistor chip.” Chip resistors’ solder area on their lateral side assists them to sit well on copper pads, avoiding short-circuit and open-circuit faults and breakage due to thermal and mechanical stresses. This helps the resistors to remain cracks-free for a long term. As far as the manufacturing of chip resistors is concerned, earlier laser cuts were carried out to adjust the resistor value. With that method, usually, the resistor value did not exactly match the customer requirement. Now the practice of laser cuts in resistors has been discontinued, which allows resistor values according to specifications. Thus, current flows much easily through a component without traces of burns. Change in the structure has increased the reliability and ruggedness of the chip resistor. Increase in the size of the SiC substrate. The size of the SiC substrate has increased from 5cm to 15cm. The increased size (15cm) is being used in countries like Germany since 2014. It helps in churning more number of different SiC electronics For You | october 2017

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design devices, reducing wastage from the leftover substrate. Hence, the reliability of a component extracted out of the substrate increases.

Sensing solutions and mobile solutions

Insights Ruggedised components: New SiC power devices with trench structure Ruggedised PCB: Reduced thickness and impregnation with new material Ruggedised mobile devices: MEMS sensors giving compact and rugged ADAS solution Ruggedised networking: Wireless networking protocols

meter in one system to give an error-free, compact solution, saving the large area which each of these functions used to cover through the driving circuitry and wire mesh. MEMS sensors make the hardware system of automobiles rugged as well as reliable. Kamat cites the example of sensor-based wheels, wherein MEMS sensors inform the driver about a fault in advance, preventing accidents. Automobile giant Tesla has converted its electric car system to sensor-based. Thus, while no use of fuel reduces the chances of pollution, the sensorbased technology ensures fast and reliable functioning. Talking about wearables, SOLI sensors are taking the market by storm. These sensors easily recognise 3D gestures expressed with the help of fingers and hands. LowFig. 3: Wide terminal configuration for high joint bandwidth application and small reliability size of SOLI sensors make these a reliable component for wearable devices. Networking protocols reducing the Fig. 4: The increased substrate size (15cm) helps in churning use of wired connecmore number of devices tions. Smart city, a project picking up pace worldwide, relies on the Internet of Things (IoT) wireless network system. Wireless system is believed to replace the LoRaWAN and NBIoT system. Thus, the use of sensor technology and wireless network has made it possible for the future technology to gear up and increase the bandwidth. Fig. 5: MEMS pressure sensors (Image courtesy: http://4al7et3fds5z3zj5fm3mbpds.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com) Low latency, high Smart applications, including mobile applications and their components, and networking applications and their hardware, have been customised at the embedded level. MEMS sensors. Kamat says, “MEMS sensors and nanotechnology are next-level technologies in the industry.” MEMS sensors are being used widely in mobile divisions, smart automation systems, imaging systems and microphone applications. Advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) in automobiles accounts for the largest market. It combines accelerator, gyroscope and speedo-

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bandwidth, long life-cycle and low power consumption make WiSUN a reliable network protocol that is easier for the enterprises to accept over time due to its fail-safe communication. Lithium-polymer battery replacing Li-ion battery. Since electric cars have become the next-generation vehicle, designers are focused on increasing the longevity and ruggedness of their batteries. Compact size and low weight are making lithium polymer batteries the future trend. Due to their large current-carrying capacity, these batteries can be charged several times without delay. This makes them a reliable input component of mobile phones. Kamat says, “Lithium polymer batteries supply a large current and are compact in size, which makes these affordable for smartphones.”

Testing the hardware ruggedness Hardware ruggedness testing includes testing of the hardware against extreme temperatures, shock and vibrations, and other environmental conditions. When a product is designed, it is passed through various harsh test conditions in order to confirm its quality and reliability. After design phase, the product undergoes test and analysis, where it is checked thoroughly for its electrical, mechanical and physical properties. Ruggedness is a critical feature for wearables, sensors, power supply devices and components. If manufacturers are careless during design and development phase, the end-product would neither be reliable nor be able to create its value in the market. www.eFYmag.com

networking

Internet of thIngs: The Protocols Landscape

T

he next era of computing is the Internet of Things (IoT), also known as the Internet of Objects. IoT refers to the networked interconnection of everyday objects, which are equipped with ubiquitous intelligence. A recent report by McKinsey Global Institute reported that the number of connected machines has increased by 300 per cent over the last few Prof. Anand Nayyar is years. By 2025, economic impact of the an assistant professor in the department of IoT is estimated to range from $2.7 trilcomputer applications lion to $6.2 trillion. Wikibon predicts that and IT at KCL Institute of Management the value created from the Internet will be and Technology, about $1279 billion in 2020, growing annuJalandhar, Punjab. He loves to work on and ally at a rate of 14 per cent. research open source The International Telecommunication technologies, cloud computing, sensor Union (ITU) defines the IoT as, “A global networks, hacking and infrastructure for the information society, network security enabling advanced services by interconnecting (physical and virtual) things based on existing and evolving interoperable information and communication technologies.” The scope of the IoT is increasing in diverse ways, as IoT-based solutions are extending to virtually all areas of everyday life, from smart homes to smart industrial production. And the evolution of Industry 4.0 has begun. The term ‘Internet of Things’consists of two words: Internet and things. The latter refers to various IoT devices with unique identities, which are capable of remote sensing, actuating and live monitoring of certain kind of data. IoT devices are also enabled for live exchange of data with other Fig. 1: IoT layered connected devices and applications, either architecture directly or indirectly, Application Layer Application Business Layer or collectService Application Middleware Layer Application Layer ing data Composition Layer from other Service Service Coordination Layer Management Management devices, Backbone Objects Network Layer processing it Network Layer Object Abstraction Abstraction Access and sending Existed alone Layer Application Objects Objects Perception Layer Edge it to variSystem Technology ous servers. 74

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The other term‘Internet’ is defined as a global communication network connecting trillions of computers across the planet, enabling information sharing.

IoT architecture As the IoT is capable of connecting billions of heterogeneous objects via the Internet, there is an emerging requirement for a dynamic layered architecture. Fig. 1 represents a standard IoT layered architecture. Objects layer. The first layer (perception layer) represents physical sensors of the IoT, which sense, collect and process information. Object abstraction layer. This layer transfers the data acquired by the object layer to the service management layer via secure channels. Data can be transferred using different technologies like 3G, 4G, GSM, UMTS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and ZigBee. Service management layer. This layer enables IoT application programmers to work with heterogeneous objects, irrespective of the hardware platform. Application layer. This layer enables high-quality smart services to fetch what the customers need. It covers smart homes, smart production units, transportation, smart healthcare-based biosensor equipment, etc. Business layer. This layer manages the overall IoT system’s activities and services. It is responsible for building the business model, graphs and flowcharts on the basis of data acquired at the application layer.

IoT protocols Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) have defined some of the most important protocols for the IoT. These are listed below. Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP). Created by the IETF Constrained RESTful Environments (CoRE) working group, CoAP is an Internet application protocol for constrained devices. It is designed www.eFYmag.com

networking end-to-end encryption. Being for use between devices on CoAP Environment a secure protocol, it sits on the same constrained network, REST Internet top of core IoT protocols and between devices and general connects the client to the nodes on the Internet, and beserver via a stream of XML tween devices on different constanzas. The XML stanza strained networks—both joined CoAP Server REST-CoAP has three main components: on the Internet. This protocol is Proxy CoAP Communication message, presence and IQ. especially designed for IoT sysCoAP Clients HTTP Communication Advanced Message tems based on HTTP protocols. Queuing Protocol (AMQP). CoAP makes use of the UDP Fig. 2: How CoAP works Developed by John O’Hara at protocol for lightweight impleJPMorgan Chase in London, mentation. It also makes use of AMQP is an application-layer RESTful architecture, which is Publish protocol for message-oriented very similar to the HTTP proSubscribe Publish middleware environments. It tocol. It is used within mobiles supports reliable communiand social-network-based application via message delivery Topics Subscribe cations and eliminates ambiguPublish assurance primitives like atity by using the HTTP get, post, most once, atleast once and put and delete methods. Apart exactly once delivery. from communicating IoT data, Broker Publishers Subscribers The AMQP protocol conCoAP allows secure exchange sists of a set of components of messages by using datagram Fig. 3: MQTT protocol architecture that route and store messagtransport layer security (DTLS) es within a broker service, protocol. with a set of rules for wiring MQTT protocol. Message Internet the components together. It queue telemetry transport Client enables client applications to (MQTT), a messaging prototalk to the broker and intercol, was developed by Andy Server act with the AMQP model. Stanford-Clark of IBM and This model has the following Arlen Nipper of Arcom in Server Gateway three components: 1999. It is mostly used for re1. Exchange. Receives mote monitoring in the IoT. Its Client Client messages from publisherprimary task is to acquire data based applications and routes from many devices and trans- Fig. 4: XMPP architecture them to‘message queues’ port it to the IT infrastructure. 2. Message queue. Stores messages MQTT connects devices and networks routing functions to small, cheap, until these can be safely processed by low-memory and power-consuming with applications and middleware. A the consuming client application devices in vulnerable and low-bandhub-and-spoke architecture is natural 3. Binding. States the relationship width networks. for MQTT. All the devices connect to between the message queue and the Extensible Messaging and data concentrator servers like IBM’s exchange Presence Protocol (XMPP). It is new MessageSight appliance. MQTT These components are connected a communication IoT protocol for protocols work on top of TCP to prointo processing chains in the server to message-oriented middleware based vide simple and reliable data streams. create the desired functionality. on XML language. It enables realMQTT protocol consists of three Data Distribution Service (DDS). time exchange of structured yet main components: subscriber, This IoT protocol for real-time maextensible data between any two or publisher and broker. The publisher chine-to-machine communication was more network entities. The protocol generates the data and transmits the developed by the Object Management was developed by the Jabber open information to subscribers through Group (OMG). It enables scalable, realsource community in 1999, basically the broker. The broker ensures secutime, dependable, high-performance for real-time messaging, presence rity by cross-checking the authorisainformation and maintenance of con- and interoperable data exchange tion of publishers and subscribers. via publish-subscribe methodology. tact lists. XMPP enables messaging MQTT protocol is the preferred Compared to MQTT and CoAP IoT applications to attain authentication, option for IoT-based devices, and is protocols, DDS makes use of brokeraccess control, and hop-by-hop and able to provide efficient informationwww.eFYmag.com

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networking

dissemination

DDS

less architecture and multithan a protocol. It is highly AMQP Broker Queues casting to bring high-quality scalable, has a low footprint Subscriber Publisher QoS to applications. DDS can and is a free-cum-open source be deployed in platforms rangsolution for device discovery Exchange ing from low-footprint devices and identification, device conPublisher Subscriber to the cloud, and supports figuration, autonomous device efficient bandwidth usage as functionality, secure firmware Subscriber Publisher well as agile orchestration of updates and connection of system components. devices from sensor to smart Fig. 5: AMQP architecture DDS protocol has two user interface. VSCP makes main layers: data-centric things interact at the applicaApplication 3 Application 1 Application 2 publish-subscribe (DCPS) and tion layer. It makes use of data-local reconstruction layer CAN, RS-232, Ethernet, TCP/ DLRL (DLRL). DCPS delivers the inIP, MQTT and 6LowPan. DDS Domain Receiver formation to subscribers, and VSCP uses an event Subscriber DLRL provides an interface to format and supports global Topic Topic data values Data Object DCPS functionalities, enabling unique identifiers for nodes, DataReader sharing of distributed data thus making a node identifiSender among IoT-enabled objects. able no matter where it is inReceiver Publisher Simple Text Oriented Messtalled in the world. Besides, Subscriber saging Protocol (STOMP). it includes a register model data values data values DataWriter This text-based protocol was in order to provide a flexible DataReader developed to work with mescommon interface for node sage-oriented middleware. It configuration and a model provides an interoperable wire for controlling the functionalNetwork format that enables STOMP ity of each node. VSCP does clients to communicate with not make any assumptions Fig. 6: DDS protocol architecture any STOMP message broker to regarding the lower level SEND enable easy and widespread system used to realise the SimpAnnotationMethod broker channel MessageHandler “/app” messaging interoperabilphysical interconnection SEND request destination:/topic/a channel ity among many languages, with the node. Therefore it ... “/topic” “/topic” StompBrokerRelay platforms and brokers. Like works with different transport MessageHandler WebSocket client messages AMQP, STOMP provides mesmechanisms such as EtherMESSAGE STOMP sage header with properties net, TCP/IP, wireless, Zigbee, MESSAGE response TCP channel destination:/topic/a Message and a frame body. Bluetooth, CAN, GPRS, RS... Broker However, STOMP does not 232 and USB. deal in queues and topics—it VSCP is event-based. Fig. 7: STOMP architecture uses a SEND semantic with a Every time an event occurs, it Button 1 Lamp 1 Lamp 2 ‘destination’ string. The broker is broadcast to all other nodes must map it onto something on the network. From there that it understands interon, each node decides on Node 1 Node 2 Node 3 nally, such as a topic, queue its own if the event received DM DM or exchange. Consumers then needs to be processed or not. subscribe to those destinations. The final decision depends Event on the node’s decision maSince those destinations are not Bus trix, which is made up of a mandated in the specifications, Fig. 8: VSCP operations number of ‘if condition>then different brokers may support action>lines’, where the condition> different flavours of the destination. some transactional semantics. One is evaluated based on the fields presSo, it’s not always straightforward to of the most interesting examples is port code between brokers. ent in the VSCP datagram broadcast RabbitMQ Web STOMP, which alHowever, STOMP is simple and to the network. lows you to expose messaging in a lightweight (although somewhat verbrowser through Websockets. This is a reprint of the article pubbose on the wire), with a wide range Very Simple Control Protocol lished in June issue of Open Source of language bindings. It also provides (VSCP). VSCP is more a framework For You magazine. 76

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InnovatIon

SenSy Remote: Change TV Channels With Your Smartphone

N Paromik Chakraborty is a technical journalist at EFY

owadays, with hundreds of TV channels to choose from, it is quite a task to remember channel numbers or know what is running on which channel at a time. Mobile applications that act as TV guides are available, but these are complicated to use, especially for the elderly. To overcome this shortcoming, innovators at Sensara Technologies have introduced a device that can turn your mobile into one consolidated remote for your TV, STB and other devices. The device is called Sensy Remote. Sensara initially developed their own TV guide mobile application called Sensy. However, soon they realised the common problem of people misplacing their remote control or using separate remotes for separate systems. Thus started their journey towards something new. After a couple of iterations, the team launched Sensy Remote in its current avatar— an Android- and iOS-capable, battery-powered, Bluetooth remote to control TVs, STBs as well as air-conditioners. It took the team just over a year to come up with the product, which they introduced in the market early this year.

The main challenge

Sensy front (top) and back (bottom) www.efymag.com

One of the most significant challenges during device development was to add support for STBs/remotes from the lesser known cable operators across the country. Replacement remotes for set-top boxes provided by local cable operators of different regions were hard to come by. Fortunately, help came from the common users of these STBs, who sent their

Technical features 1. 360-degree infrared coverage with 4x highpower 20kHz to 60kHz IR LED 2. Bluetooth connectivity with the smartphone 3. IR range of 4.6 to 6 metres (15 to 20 feet) with no obstruction; Bluetooth range up to 9 metres (30 feet) 4. Two AA-size batteries with expected life time of one year 5. Compatibility with over 100 DTH/cable operator STB remotes

remotes to the team. Developers utilised and integrated the pertinent services into their support database.

The science behind Sensy Sensy Remote is a Bluetooth-driven device that lets you control your TV and STB with the help of your smartphone. It automatically connects with your mobile device via Bluetooth, and receives commands to send infrared signals to the TV or STB. You can send these commands by using a mobile application developed by the company, called the Sensy app. The Sensy application is compatible with both iOS and Android. It stores and supports data for over a hundred DTH or STB brand settings. The application sends commands to Sensy Remote through BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy, also called Bluetooth Smart). The Sensy Remote has an integrated circuit (IC), which acts both as a microcontroller and a Bluetooth transceiver. Other major components in the circuit are a 16MHz crystal oscillator, a bulk capacitor, a p-channel MOSFET, and four LEDs that emit infrared signals to the TV or STB. In the circuit, the Bluetooth transceiver receives commands from the mobile application. The microcontroller interprets these commands and the channel electronics for you | october 2017

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InnovatIon selected on the application. With successful interpretation, infrared (IR) signals are generated, which are then emitted through IR LEDs. Adityanag Nagesh, co-founder, Sensara, adds, “The four LEDs installed on different sides of Sensy eliminate the need to place the unit in a straight line with the TV or STB in order to work. As long as you keep the remote within 4.6m (15-feet) distance from your device and there is no solid obstruction in between, the TV or STB can catch signals from Sensy irrespective of the position it is placed in The Sensy team (left to right): Anshul, Hormis, Aditya and Bharath the room.” The 16MHz crystal provides a clock to the microcontroller IC to 3. Long battery life with Bluetooth select channels and ongoing coordinate actions of the circuit. The Low Energy programmes from the mobile bulk capacitor avoids voltage drop 4. 360-degree infrared coverage application when IR LEDs are fired with a high 5. Device control from a distance of What’s next current during IR signal transmisup to 12 metres (40 feet) sion. Bluetooth’s low energy con6. No need to remember chanThe Sensy mobile application is sumption enables the entire circuit nel numbers; you can view and user-friendly with features like oneto run on two AA-size touch channel switching, batteries for a long time. voice control and search The p-channel MOSbased on genre, actor, Android/iOS FET in the battery path programme or language. phones avoids circuit damage Recently, it included supfrom wrong insertion port for air-conditioners of batteries. The circuit also, which is currently also supports on/off in Beta phase. Going foractions based on signals, ward, the Sensy developallowing users to switch ers plan to add support on or off their TVs and for even more devices. STBs using their smartThe biggest USP of 3V Power phone. the whole setup is that IC Antenna Supply Crystal (BLE & MCU) and Balun customers need not What you can expect purchase or upgrade 2AA Batteries with Sensy to a new hardware SEnSy rEMotE Constant Reverse for compatibility with 1. Control all major Current Driver Protection newer device additions. functions of your TV Bulk All the upgrades are and STB (on/off, volCapacitor managed through the ume control, channel IR LEDs software, so essentially control, etc.) the mobile application 2. Use your smartphone gets updated. as a single conThe Sensy Remote solidated remote for is priced at ` 1199, and supported appliances TV, STB, AC can be purchased from (TV, STB and AC)— Amazon’s e-commerce which reduces the site or the official Sensy possibility of damage Block diagram for TV/STB/AC control from the smartphone using Sensy Remote website. or loss of a remote 78

october 2017 | electronics for you

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test & measurement

Wireline TesT equipmenT: Moving On From Copper To Fibre Optics Fibre in telecom (Image courtesy: http://kinovo.gq)

A Vertica Asthana is a technical journalist at EFY

lthough wireless communication is in vogue across most industries today, wireline cables still play an important role in the telecom industry. With the goodold copper wires gradually losing their sheen owing to signal losses, much more efficient optical fibres are paving the way for development in the telecom market. And so is the case with test and measurement equipment as well.

The market scenario A few major test and measurement players such as Keysight, Rohde & Schwarz and National Instruments have gradually exited the wireline test equipment market either by discontinuing the manufacturing of these equipment or by selling their existing portfolio to a third party. On being asked about the reasons, these companies cite that wireline test equipment are becoming obsolete with industries switching to wireless technology. At the same time, there are companies which are now leading the show in wireline test and measurement. These include the likes of Anritsu, INVAS technology, VIAVI and EXFO. The wireline market is still active and con-

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stantly needs innovation—explained Neeraj Dhawan owner of INVAS Technologies. Google had set up Google Fiber division in the year 2009 in select units of the USA (Kansas City) to provide broadband Internet services, home phone services and television services. This was a major hit during the trial phase itself and was later launched in 2012. The service is active till date. Neeraj Dhawan, shared that one of the largest Indian telecom service providers is planning to provide 1Gbps speed in suburban areas of Mumbai using fibre optics, thus creating plenty of scope for wireline test equipment. “Copper wires are being replaced with these optical fibres by service providers like MTNL and Airtel,” said Dhawan. “Manufacturers are also coming up with upgrades in wireline test equipment,” added Madhukar Tripathi, senior manager, marketing and channel sales, Anritsu India.

What’s new? As the interest has shifted from copper wires/coaxial cables to fibre optics, test and measurement players have introduced electronics for you | october 2017

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test & measurement upgrades and even new equipment in the market. Dense wavelength-division multiplexing tester. Data-hungry applications like video-streaming demand increased bandwidth. Thus, dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) technology is gaining popularity in the market because it multiplies the data carrying capacity of optical fibre by 72 times using C band. The number of channels increases beyond 100 using L and S bands. Before DWDM came into existence, wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) and passive wavelengthdivision multiplexing (PWDM) were used. Now, DWDM has made its way into testing of metropolitan area network (MAN) and mobile backhaul applications. Experts explain that a single fibre can carry several hundreds of wavelengths. DWDM combines and then transmits multiple signals simultaneously at different wavelengths in a fibre. This increases the physical capacity of a medium. DWDM instruments thus smoothen the working of and services provided by optical fibres. Internet protocol tester. This is a new concept in the fibre optics field. As optical fibres are laid out over long distances, there is a high probability of data losses or errors in data packets, which may delay the process. If there is no testing for data efficiency, the fibre optics would be an expensive loss to customers. It is like having a LAN setup in a place where the user is not able to avail all the services smoothly due to the poor fibre optics connection or quality. Manufacturers are using IP tools to measure the 100Gbps speed. While in mobile applications, the speed has increased from existing 2Mbps to 10Gbps. IP testers relay exact issues and deformities in a network. These check networks mainly for 80

october 2017 | electronics for you

EXFO FTB-88100NGE 100GB Ethernet tester

EXFO FTB-5240S DWDM tester

MT9083B2 OTDR tester from Anritsu India

accuracy, latency and bandwidth. Basically, IP testers check the stress and reliability of an optical fibre due to high-speed data travel and network, respectively. These tests ensure minimal interruptions during voice-over calls or video chats. As optical fibres can support speeds up to 100Gbps, these can be stretched to major cities and long distances. Using these test equipment has become all the more crucial as the government has now come up with a set of protocols that follow international standards related to quality of optical fibre, interoperability issues and, above all, upgrading the speed of data carrier packets.

Optical time-domain reflectometer. Tripathi emphasises on the usability of optical time-domain reflectometers (OTDRs), which are used to detect faults or break-points in optical fibres. Over time, OTDRs have become compact and handheld devices for multiple applications. There is also a change in the source, display and control panel. Earlier, OTDRs used to support dual wavelength, but now these support four wavelengths at a time. Tier 2 fibre certification requires the use of OTDR for testing the performance and quality of the fibre length and linked components like cables, connectors and splices. There is also an upgrade in OTDR operation as it now supports the cloud. So engineers can locate faults in the fibre without any hassle or wastage of time. Dhawan cites a project where a centralised monitoring system gave the details of fibre health condition during Commonwealth Games in Delhi. This was done at Network Operation Centre (NOC), where digital map of Delhi was displayed on a big screen. Any breakage or degradation was graphically displayed on the map as well as coordinated through GPS, reducing the downtime of the networking. Dhawan claims that some giant service providers also have centralised monitoring systems in place. Optical spectrum analyser. Optical spectrum analysers are used during optical cable production and design. These have a spectral resolution of around 312MHz and perform scanning with full resolution in a second’s time. These are connected using the USB or Ethernet ports.

To sum up While wireless communication has become the buzzword, wireline technology continues to play a pivotal part, thus giving wireline equipment market plenty of scope to evolve and innovate. www.efymag.com

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From Design & simulation to Utility Software The following software, besides other, can be found in the DVD accompanying EFY Plus edition of this magazine Promotic 8.3.21 Promotic is an open source SCADA freeware developed by Microsys for visualisation and control of technological processes in industries. It can be used by colleges and universities for educational purpose. The software can be customised to the needs of customers. Being a SCADA tool, it has several choices for communication, including ODBC, ADO, DLL, TCP/ IP, HTTP and HTTPS. Developers have simplified the usage of this SCADA software so that users can work on it using several databases such as MySQL, Oracle, Access and dbase. This enhanced version includes a rich library of graphic items created using SVG, BMP, PNG and JPG formats.

Circuitmod 2.7 Believed to be the future of JAVA circuit simulator, this open source software tool extends the capacity of original Falstad’s JAVA simulator to chips, LED arrays and PIC programming. It simplifies circuits with features such as TTL and CMOS chips, LED matrix, analogue circuits and PIC programming.

Bodhi Linux 4.3.1 This Linux distribution is meant for minimalism, resource ef-

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ficiency and user choice. Users can make desired choices in their applications using features such as ePad (text editor), PCManFM (file manager), ePhoto (image viewer), Midori (web browser), Terminology (terminal emulator) and eepDater (system updater).

EmEditor 17.1.2 EmEditor text editor for Windows is generally preferred due to its lightweight, extensibility and versatility. It supports powerful macros, unicode and very large files. It is available on both 32-bit as well as 64-bit ground. The 64-bit version works around 16 to 74 per cent faster than 32-bit ground. Claimed to be the world’s fastest text editor for Windows, the EmEditor software is a boon to all—be it HTML designers, programmers or editors.

Chromium Chrome is an open source browsing tool that helps users with safe, fast and reliable setup on the Web. The site consists of design documents and testing information, which help users to build and work with the Chromium source code effectively. Chromium also helps testers with quality-related documentation. It claims to connect with any mem-

ber of the team in case of a security issue. Besides, it has separate sections on security, privacy and issue tracking.

Opera The Opera version 47.0 is believed to be an exceptional performer. From speed dialling to discover, stash to search or the new look segment, all have been enhanced in this version. Opera’s popular shortcuts page has been refreshed to make the work easier in this upgrade. With discover feature, you get fresh content/news directly from any region or country. Stash allows you to take a screenshot of the page you are visiting; you just need to click heart icon in the address bar to save the website in the stash area. Search option has been broadened by directly combining the address and search bars. Red UI elements in high-DPI issues are also fixed.

Atom Text Editor Atom is said to be a hackable text editor of this century. From opening a project to installing a package, choosing a theme for customising the styling to adding a snippet and learning keyboard shortcuts, it helps to execute all these functions.

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EasyEDA 4.8.5: A Next-Gen PCB Layout Tool

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asyEDA 4.8.5 is a boon for designers as it can be downloaded on the desktop, which makes it available even when offline. Earlier, EasyEDA was a Web-based PCB layout tool, which limited its utility. Be it analogue or digital design, this design and simulation software is easy to implement and use. It is by far the smartest PCB design software integrated with a cloud development technology. Version 4.8.5 adopts multiple strategies to ensure project safety by hosting client files on various servers globally. Software files are safe in the cloud system, as access is limited to authorised partners only.

Fig. 1: EasyEDA window (Image courtesy: http://i0.wp.com)

Theme of EasyEDA Imagine using the conventional PCB software that neither helps in simulation nor has an updated library! Besides, there is the monotonous work of track routing and re-routing according to the application requirements. You would be racking your brains until the layout is perfect. Moreover, if you have to search for a third-party vendor to get the PCB manufactured through Gerber files, ever wondered how much time the whole process might take? To make life easier for the designers, EasyEDA has built a hasslefree software that lets users design, compile, generate Gerber files and also get PCB manufactured using a single window.

Features of EasyEDA version 4.8.5 The original software was released in 2013. Its latest version 4.8.5 has www.efymag.com

Fig. 2: Footprint area (Image courtesy: https://easyeda.com)

upgrades related to component footprints, bill of materials (BOM) and a few new tools in addition to offline facility. Desktop version. Users can download the software online from EasyEDA official website as well as

other sources like SourceForge and use it on their desktop without any issues. There is an algorithm which the designer needs to follow. Else, the desktop version shows data sync conflicts. The user needs to click ‘Data sync Conflicts’ icon in order electronics for you Plus | october 2017

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Fig. 3: Create a BOM (Image courtesy: https://easyeda.com)

Fig. 4: Component search (Image courtesy: https://easyeda.com)

Fig. 5: Protractor (Image courtesy: https://easyeda.com)

Fig. 6: Switch tabs (Image courtesy: https://easyeda.com)

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to sync the data to the server and get help to generate Gerber files required for PCB manufacturing. Enhanced Footprint Manager. The schematic created by a designer is used to make the layout as well. Component footprints in the layout should be as per

component sizes in the schematic. The enhanced footprint manager helps designers with updated component packages from EasyEDA library. It checks the component packages automatically and informs the user if the package is: 1. Correct as per the circuit design 2. Available in the EasyEDA library If none of the above is true, Footprint Manager highlights the fault in red. An additional feature of ‘Zoom In’ and ‘Zoom Out’ is also provided in the latest version, which helps designers to visualise components in ‘Preview’ area. New ‘Part List’. This feature actively showcases different components in a list. So, designers can easily select a particular component. They can also get comprehensive details about the selected component. The package, value, tolerance and other description helps the designer to visualise the component and its features effectively. EasyEDA now also includes the feature to change the BOM expert location. Addition of tools like ‘Protractor.’ Designers would no longer be perplexed with angles as Protractor tool helps them to locate perfect angles at perfect locations. Switching between the various open tabs. Without any struggle, users can now switch between the various open tabs while working on the software, which helps them to avoid any confusion and complexities.

An easy tool for designers EasyEDA is a clever PCB design software with a vast updated library that helps to design cool schematics, simulate with SPICE and then import PCB files. The updated tools in EasyEDA version 4.8.5 save designers’ time and energy. www.efymag.com

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Scilab 6.0.0: A Numerical Computation Tool For Precision

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cilab open source software for numerical computation is used by engineers and designers for modelling, simulation and scientific research. Its latest version, Scilab 6.0.0, includes many interesting features like new core, new utilities, XCOS block diagram and news feed. In applications such as automation, robotics and stock exchange, which rely on extensive numerical computation, Scilab gives users precision results at no cost. It can perform various mathematical functions like usual engineering and mathematics, 2D and 3D visualisation, algorithms to solve the intricate data, data analysis and control systems study, signal processing and, above all, modelling of mechanical and hydraulic control systems. Apart from mathematical functionalities, Scilab can interconnect third-party technologies and applications.

What’s new in Version 6.0.0 Scilab’s version 6.0.0, launched in February this year, is supported by most of the operating systems including 32-/64-bit Linux, 32-/64-bit Windows as well as Mac operating systems, while its syntax is supported by MATLAB. New features in Scilab 6.0.0 include: Rewrite of core. Rewriting of core is an added advantage for compatibility with MATLAB language. With this, the software is claimed to have refined grammar and language, which makes error handling easy, while simplified functions differentiate between characters such as single- and iV

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Fig. 1: Console (Image courtesy: upload.wikimedia.org)

double-quote delimiters. Use of commas has also been defined and explained. Bigger data sets can be manipulated without wasting system resources. This is possible with an upgraded memory management system, wherein memory usage is limited only by the machine. Command-line debugger. Designers can now write better scripts. To enhance script writing, the new version includes a debugger, which runs scripts step-bystep, lowering the chances of error and thus saving time. Coverage and profiling tool produces an HTML report for the time spent on each line. Language changes. The upgraded language syntax renders transparency and clarity. Cells, structures and syntaxes have also

been changed, making the new version far clearer than previous versions. This has improved the performance of Scilab, as clear syntaxes and commands leave little room for errors. Clear process speeds up command execution, saving time. XCOS. XCOS is a graphical editor to design hybrid dynamical models of either mechanical or hydraulic functions. The designed models can be loaded, saved, compiled and simulated at the same time on the XCOS. Thus, all the functions for modelling job are carried out using a single editor, which helps the user to come up with an error-free end-product in less time. Also, data structure feature is well-written and easy to execute. Newsfeed. This section prowww.eFYmag.com

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dvd Besides, in Scilab version 6.0.0, addition and subtraction of an empty matrix (a matrix having at least one dimension equal to zero) to a matrix returns an empty matrix. The zoom rubber box can now start/finish from points lying outside the axes bounds. Bug fixing can be viewed in the root of the installation.

To sum up

Fig. 2: XCOS (Image courtesy: www.freewarefiles.com)

vides news, tips and general information from the community and Scilab enterprises. Thus, un-

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like other software, Scilab helps to bridge the gap between the software and users.

Scilab 6.0 gives designers a complete solution to solve ordinary to complex differential equations using a set of commands. Derivative functions help them in computing the numerical derivative of a function. Users find Scilab far better than MATLAB because it is an open source software that lets users modify and use the source code as per their requirements. Transparency in data calculation and limitless options to customise are the other highlights of this software.

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Proview SCADA: The First Open Source SCADA Software

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roview SCADA is a powerful software for sequential control, supervision and data acquisition. Claimed to be the first open source SCADA software, it has been accepted globally. SSAB Oxelösund, the leading manufacturer of quenched and tempered steel, has the largest Proview installation. Ranging from raw materials to rolled plate, its entire production line is supervised and controlled by over 600 Proview systems.

Features Proview SCADA is a distributed system in which several computers are interconnected via a network such as Ethernet. Programming in Proview is possible using graphical PLC editor or a high-level language like C, C++, JAVA or FORTRAN. Other salient features of Proview SCADA include: 1. It is the only control system that can work in object oriented programs. Users can make the programming traditional and simple 2. The system is configured graphically, which helps to make the application simple, flexible and reliable 3. There are no limits to the number of inputs/outputs (I/Os), PLC programs, counters, loops, etc, and the PLC cycle loop is less than one millisecond 4. For connectivity, Proview SCADA supports different protocols, such as UDP or TCP sockets, via Ethernet and Siemens 3964R serially 5. As Proview operates on Linux and supports HLL, it is easier to implement on many I/O systems. It also supports Profinet, Ethernet www.efymag.com

Fig. 1: Proview application in tank control (Image courtesy: http://i.vimeocdn.com)

Fig. 2: Proview application in temperature control (Image courtesy: https://sourceforge.net)

Powerlink, Modbus TCP, a few USB I/O cards, etc

Version 5.5.0 vs Version 5.4.0 Proview’s latest version, 5.5.0 has some additional features as compared to the previous 5.4.0 version. Horizontal and vertical marker in

XY curve, table curve component, polynomial curve component, Xtt translations and redundancy are amongst the upgrades. Besides, new classes have been added. Horizontal and vertical marker in XY curve. Two horizontal marked lines are added in the graph, which electronics for you Plus | october 2017

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plays curves both in current node and mounted node. Redundancy. Proview SCADA implements a redundant system with two identical nodes: active and passive. The active node executes the PLC program, while the passive node receives the database and alarm for execution. The PLC thread in the passive node receives the packet and later Fig. 3: Demo for process control using Proview (Image courtesy: https://sourceforge.net) inserts the data in required objects. This complete communication is handled by rt_redcomm (redundancy communication). Classes. As the bandwidth is limited, only the data needed for redundancy is included. For instance, description strings will not change in runtime but acquire more space in the packet. So, these would be excluded. Fig. 4: Table/curve component (Image courtesy: https://sourceforge.net) Build and distribute. When the build node is are controlled by Trend properties. active, primary and secondary nodes (These can be connected to anaare built individually. When distriblogue signals.) ute node is active, both the nodes Table/curve component. With are listed. CompCurveTab it is easy to derive the value of ‘y’ in a curve for a speInference cific value of ‘x.’ Polynomial curve component. It Proview SCADA is by far one of is similar to CompCurveTab value, the most successfully used open but here the curve is specified with source SCADA software, which is a polynomial, which means for a quite popular in forums among specific value of ‘x’ on the curve, designers. Originally developed the user will obtain value of ‘y.’ by Swedish manufacturers, it Xtt tree window to view specific has become a full-fledged yet classes. It is a new window that dislow-cost solution. Viii

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83 Robots In Manufacturing: Cost Vs Benefits

88 Automated Irrigation: Stepping Stone To Productive Farming

86 How Green Buildings Pay Off: Covestro Case Study

90 LoRaWAN Will Help Us Stay Informed About Our Infrastructure In Real Time

robots in manufacturing: Cost vs Benefits

Automotive robots (Source: http://indianautosblog.com)

 Unlike human labour, robots can work three shifts a day, 365 days a year with very little down time

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utomobile and electronics manufacturing in India is getting a facelift with heavy investments in robotic solutions. Government initiatives like ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’ have given the trend a much-needed push. Amit Maheshwari, Sastra Robotics, informs, “With a budget allocation of ` 1200 billion for the electronics manufacturing segment, and incentives to manufacturers for automation, robotics has received the required attention and push.” Purushothaman, EPR Labs, explains, “Homegrown brands like Flipkart are using artificial intelligence (AI) powered robots in their warehouses. With thousands of www.efymag.com

new products being added every day, these AI empowered robots can segregate one brand of shampoo from another and easily categorise a new one based on its past learning from the environment and human interaction. AI-capable robots can cost as much as ` 4 million in the Indian market.” According to International Federation of Robotics, the investment in industrial robots in India will increase from 2126 units in 2014 to around 6000 units in 2019. Ongoing Industrial Revolution 4.0, embracing automation, data exchange and manufacturing technologies, are all set to change the game and reinvent factories and production units.

When is the right time to use robotics? According to Arjun Prakash, director, Effica Robots, there are three major reasons for manufacturing setups to invest in robotics: 1. Low efficiency due to too much labour dependence. On an average, robots replacing humans with the same cycle time tend to produce 25 per cent to 40 per cent more parts annually. This can be attributed to workers’ fatigue, rest breaks and absence from work due to sick leaves or festival holidays. Most robots can work three shifts a day, 365 days a year with very little down time (which is mostly for annual greasing electronics for you | october 2017

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smart world and preventive maintenance checkups). If maintained well, their parts don’t fail or wear out for almost a decade, and thus robots’ operational costs mainly include power costs and grease cost. 2. Under-utilisation of human resources. Robots can be used to executive repetitive tasks like loading and unloading of expensive CNC machines, freeing the human operators to take up value-addition jobs. 3. Excessive overheads. The actual labour cost is typically 1.5 to two times of what is paid to an employee. This can be attributed to the cost of supervisors and managers who are required to manage the labour, human resources staff, and other resources like break rooms, restrooms and cafeteria, in addition to expenses related to gratuity, bonus, insurance and perks provided to employees. “While investing in robotics, the first thing that comes to mind is the replacement of labour. However, in reality, labour costs are just a small part of the entire consideration,” explains Arjun.

Advantages of robotics in manufacturing According to The International Federation of Robotics, “Automotive sector is the most significant consumer of industrial robots, buying 40 per cent of the total global output. Since the beginning of this decade, sales to carmakers have increased at an average pace of 20 per cent a year.” Examples below show how manufacturing productivity increases after deploying robotics: 1. An automotive parts manufacturer manufactured 9000 parts per day using a forging press. The cost of the forging press was more than ` 10 million. When the manufacturer installed a robot to feed the press, the production immediately increased from 9000 to more than 12,000 parts per day. The cost of the 84

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robotic solution installed was about ` 2 million, whereas immediate direct savings from increased machine utilisation alone were equivalent to ` 3 million, considering 30 per cent performance boost of the ` 10-million press. Additionally, the manpower requirement reduced to less than one-third. 2. A pumpset manufacturer in Haryana wanted to increase the productivity of their CNC machines. At their manufacturing plant, parts 50,000

10,000 5000

1000

2014

2015

2016

India

North America

Japan

United Kingdom

2019

Estimated units of industrial robots in selected countries (Source: https://ifr.org)

were manufactured using three CNC machines, each costing ` 1.5 million. The manufacturer chose to replace nine workers with a single robot (costing ` 2.5 million) to feed all the three CNC machines, which increased productivity by 25 per cent. This increase in productivity alone translated to ` 1.125 million savings as the total cost of three CNC machines was ` 4.5 million. Also, the number of people required for three shifts reduced from nine to three, which added to cost savings. Return on investment in both the afore-mentioned cases was realised within two years.

Challenges in implementation “India is a slow adopter of robotics, primarily because indigenous robotics manufacturers don’t get basic parts like motors and certain MSME voice recognition sensors in the Indian market and they have to import these from Japan. This increases the cost of a basic robot from ` 300,000

to ` 600,000,” says Purushothaman. Also, despite the increasing utility of robots with AI integration, these are still very complex machines. “Highly skilled manpower is required to implement and maintain robots. This ‘skilled manpower’ is mostly provided by the robotics company, which increases the investment cost even further,” cites Arjun. “New-generation robots, called ‘cobots,’ come with an intuitive user interface and additional features, which allows any person to control them through a modern smartphone with very little training. But these cobots are more expensive and have just started entering the market. In India, their implementation is further limited due to lack of R&D,” he adds.

What does the future hold? According to Ajay Gadora, director, Ennovate Labs, “In India, use of robotics in the industrial sector is fast catching up, especially for tasks such as machine-level contingency monitoring and sharing the industrial workload without posing a threat to already existing manpower. Even the healthcare sector in India is rapidly adopting automation/robotics.” According to a research by BCG Group in the US, employing a human welder in a factory costs about $25 per hour, which drops to just $8 per hour for a robot, including installation, operating and maintenance costs. By 2030, the operating cost per hour for a robot doing similar welding tasks could plunge to as little as $2 when improvements in performance are factored in. So, “instead of viewing robotics as a technology that cuts jobs, we should rather embrace it as an opportunity helping us to focus on more strategic and creative tasks,” sums up Amit Maheshwari. —Nidhi Arora, executive editor, EFY www.efymag.com

smart world cost recovery

How Green Buildings Pay Off: Covestro Case Study  Covestro’s eco-commercial building consumes over 70 per cent less energy than conventional buildings

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ompanies that invest in green practices for their factories or buildings derive significant environmental as well as financial profits. Energy-efficient polymer material manufacturer Covestro India’s Eco-Commercial facility project at Greater Noida is a classic example of this. Green construction has enabled it to annually reduce over 70 per cent energy consumption and nearly 67 tonnes of greenhouse gas emission, while conserving natural resources. This case study shows how investing in green solutions led their LEEDPlatinum rated facility to achieve these feats.

The setup Covestro India underwent numerous transformations in terms of construction and infrastructure with major focus on optimising energy and resource consumption. Among the solutions embedded in the setup, the most significant were: 1. 56.7 kilowatt-peak grid-tied PV system with 210 watt-peak crystalline silicon solar modules and net-metering system 2. 75mm thick polyurethane foam (PUF) insulation for walls, roofs, slabs and ceilings 3. Roof rainwater storage 4. Wastewater treatment and 86

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specifications

Details

Area of facility

8094sq.m (2-acre) land, 883sq.m (9500-sq.ft) super-built area

Total project cost

US$ 4 million

Investment on eco-commercial technologies

` 11.7 million

Electricity savings by using solar grids

` 670,000 per year

Energy benefits due to PUF insulation

About 30 per cent

Expected ROI

11 years

lowers the energy consumption. 70,000 60,000 Conserving water 50,000 the smart way. Covestro 40,000 minimises water wastage by 30,000 installing low-flow fixtures 20,000 throughout the office prem10,000 0 ises. There is an arrange2012 2013 2014 2015 ment for storing rainwater Solar energy generation (KWH) Excess solar energy (KWH) Energy consumed (KWH) GHG emission avoided (KG) on the roof, which is regularly used for landscape Covestro’s total energy production, excess energy stored, irrigation. Complete volume GHG reduction data during 2012-15 of wastewater is treated at tertiary level for flushing and air20KLD sewage treatment conditioning make-ups. Through these Solar grids for renewable energy. two steps, the enterprise cuts down To generate electricity, Covestro installed PV systems with solar modules potable water use. It also has a 20KLD sewage treatment plant based on seon its 445sq.m building roof, which quential batch reactor technology. were further connected to a distribution grid and a net-metering system. The results The average energy generation capacity of the grid is 88 megawatt-hour Electricity savings and reduced per year. Electricity generated by the carbon footprint. The polyurethane solar system is distributed among the foam restricts the use of air-condioffice and factory facilities by the grid. tioners by 30 per cent. The overall The excess power is stored in the grid electricity savings using insulation and distributed throughout the facility coatings around the structures varies during night or during shortage of from 30 to 50 per cent. solar power. According to the data shared Insulation for energy-efficiency. by Covestro, their average yearly Covestro achieved energy-efficiency solar electricity generation is around in its building with the help of PUF 70,000 kilowatt-hour, of which up to material. PUF is a poor conductor of 1400 kilowatt-hour is excess unconheat, so any heat energy collected is sumed energy. not dissipated through PUF. LeveragUse of excess energy to power ing on this characteristic, Covestro their facility at night instead of structured the walls, facades, roofs drawing power from the utility leads and slabs with PUF. This cuts down to major savings of non-renewable the transfer of external heat to the energy source. Moreover, this has indoors, keeping the office space reduced yearly greenhouse gas emiscool. Reduced use of heavy-power sion by almost 67,000kg. cooling devices like air-conditioners Eventually, Covestro’s eco-com80,000

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smart world mercial building consumes over 70 per cent less energy than conventional buildings. Substantial water savings. Covestro treats 100 per cent wastewater onsite for irrigation and other nonpotable purposes. Water utilisation initiatives have enabled it to reduce water usage by up to 50 per cent. Controlled indoor conditions. Additional setup like optimised use of chiller machines, cooling towers and heat recovery system enables Covestro to maintain a consistently comfortable indoor temperature of 24 degrees celsius at a relative humidity of less than 55 per cent.

The final word While green constructions such as Covestro’s might require a high initial investment, the financial savings in operational costs and positive impact on the environment make them the way to go. —Paromik Chakraborty, technical journalist, EFY

Automated Irrigation: Stepping Stone To Productive Farming  Optimised conditioning of soil and crops can increase yield by 15-30 per cent

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utomation is finding its way to help farmers get the best out of their yards. Let’s take a look into how the agricultural community of India can benefit from sensor-driven automated irrigation setups. 88

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Automated irrigation system

Challenges in manual irrigation Irrigation is the process of applying the right amount of usable water at the right time to cultivation lands and plants to facilitate the yield of a good volume and variety of crops. There are numerous irrigation methods, but in all cases providing the right amount of water at the right time is the common difficult task in manual control. Under-application of water leads to numerous problems including increased salinity of soil or insufficient moisture content, which might result in wilting of plants, drying of crops, infertile soil due to high salinity or unsatisfactory crop yield. Over-irrigation, i.e., excessive water application, on the other hand, may lead to water-logging in soil for a long time or uneven moisture distribution. The result—incidences of crop rot, insects and pest manifestation, improper crop growth due to lack of essentials like oxygen and minerals, and so on. Additional problems include water wastage, unproductive effort and great loss of money.

Sensors finding their way into irrigation Strategically placed sensors and automated control system for irrigation

can make a great difference. The level of automation varies based on the user’s requirement. The technology can range from simple timerbased controls to Internet of Things (IoT)-driven smart irrigation. As regards application, sensors are used to read the moisture content and temperature of soil, as also weather conditions like humidity, rainfall and snow, and schedule the irrigation accordingly. Fertigation is another major area of application for sensors and automation. Levels of residual fertilisers, pesticides and other chemicals in the soil are detected by the sensors, based on which components of fertilisers and other chemicals are calculated and scheduled for addition. In electricity-deficient countries like India, automated systems can be applied to ensure sufficient amount of irrigation in a day, even if power availability is very poor. For example, if a one-hour-scheduled irrigation process is interrupted by a power cut within 30 minutes of action, the automated system will shut down by itself and resume the remaining 30 minutes of process as soon as electricity resumes. For areas where regular on-field surveillance is difficult to arrange, automated irrigation takes up the charge. GSM-enabled devices help in scheduling as well as remote control of irrigation activities on the field. An IoT-powered setup sends irrigation data to the cloud, from where it can be used for further analytics.

Benefits Substantial increase in crop yield and quality. This, of course, is the most vital benefit of automated irrigation. Optimised conditioning of soil and crops greatly influences the yield factor. While improvement in productivity varies, agri-owners can surely expect a yield increase between 15 and 30 per cent. Swapnil S. Ingole, country manager, Galcon Smart, says, “Autowww.efymag.com

smart world mated irrigation can easily increase yield by 30-40 per cent, provided fertigation schedules are properly maintained. A farmer who has been growing an average of 40-50 metric tonnes yield volume manually at best, can expect production of more than 100 metric tonnes with the help of automation. Additionally, optimised use of water and fertiliser greatly improves the quality of the crop or fruit. With higher yield and better quality of produce, one can ensure much better profits in the market.” Ingole shares the story of their customer Parmeshwar Raut, a landowner based out of Penur village in Solapur district of Maharashtra, who owns 110 acres of cultivation land. The area being large is very difficult to irrigate and maintain manually. Raut set up a centralised control system provided by Galcon to control the drip irrigation process for their cultivation land. The centralised drip irrigation system operates four pumps throughout the land and performs automated irrigation as per requirement. Since automating irrigation, based on yearly results, the farmer testified an average 40 per cent increase in profit due to increase in crop yield, decrease in fertiliser usage, reduced labour cost and decreased electricity usage. Save up to 30 per cent of water. Sensor-driven systems ensure that optimal quantity of water is used at the right time, based on the soil moisture content, humidity, rainfall, soil temperature and so on. As a result, automated irrigation can save up to 30 per cent of water usage. Reduced labour cost, effort and electricity. With automation, agroowners can save a lot of money, which they otherwise have to invest in manual labour for irrigation. A significant point to focus is erratic power availability. In locations where power is available only during odd hours of the day, hiring a labour for irrigation is not a good idea. www.efymag.com

Savings for farmers Satish K.S., founder & CEO, Flybird, shares how much money a small or medium-scale vegetable farmer with 2-3 crop rotations per year can save, based on the performance of one of their timer-based irrigation controller. Benefit

savings

Labour cost reduction

At least ` 150 per day. Considering 20 days of labour a month, a farmer can save ` 9000 every three months (one crop cycle).

Increased yield volume

Lower crop mortality and higher crop size or quality increases the yield by 15 per cent.

Optimised fertiliser and chemical use

Automated fertigation and chemigation can save 10 per cent fertilisers, 10 per cent weedicide and pesticide.

Lower electricity and water consumption, longer motor life

25-30 per cent of water and electricity can be saved. Pump motors also work better due to precise on and off system by automated controls.

Return on investment

System investments include controller, valves, cabling and installation—based on requirement. Return can be expected within 1-2 crop cycles.

Sensors and automation, on the other hand, resume action as soon as power is back in case the last session of irrigation didn’t complete. This ensures optimal irrigation throughout the day. Additionally, manual labour often uses powerdriven systems for irrigation, even when these are not required, wasting electricity. Lesser manual intervention implies fewer errors. Programmed systems distribute the right amount of ingredients at the right time based on environmental readings picked up by sensors using the right amount of power. The process is accurate—facilitating higher quality and quantity. Bengaluru-based irrigation automation solution provider Flybird Farm Innovations shares the example of its client Gangadhar, who is based in Kolkata and owns a 5-acre farm for grapes cultivation. Gangadhar faced following problems: 1. Power supply availability only for two hours during daytime and night each was impacting his daily routine as he had to be available in the farm, which was 2 kilometres away from his residence, during those odd hours 2. Uneven availability of water caused problems of over-irrigation as well as under-irrigation,

which affected the yield volume and quality The farmer used Flybird’s lowcost automation system, which included a two-valve irrigation controller. The system controls valves based on the moisture level and rainfall readings of the soil. It automatically turns on when electricity is available and turns off if power cuts off in the middle of the irrigation. It resumes function whenever the power resumes and completes the pending irrigation. Water volume is also accurately distributed as per the program. Spend less on fertilisers. Sensors detect the amount of fertiliser and chemicals in the soil. When necessary, the system automatically starts the fertigation process and continues until the required amount of fertiliser has been introduced. This prevents overuse of the product and reduces fertiliser usage by 10-30 per cent.

The final word An automated system is a big boon both to the agri-community and the national economy. Training and guidance for farm-owners and labourers are often arranged by the manufacturers, so practical knowhow is not a challenge. —Paromik Chakraborty, technical journalist, EFY electronics for you | october 2017

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smart world

LoRaWAN Will Help Us Stay Informed About Our Infrastructure In Real Time  Since its inception from TATA Steel, the Jamshedpur Utilities and Services Company (JUSCO) carries out all functions of urban development and infrastructure maintenance in the Steel City of India. In conversation with Paromik Chakraborty of Electronics For You, Ashish Mathur, MD, JUSCO, explains how the latest technology enables them to shape a smarter, greener and sustainable Jamshedpur Q. What smart technologies does JUSCO use to provide an efficient service to the citizens? A. We generate a single consolidated bill for all utilities like electricity, water, municipal contributions and property taxes for the convenience of citizens. The whole city is geographic information system (GIS) mapped, which gives us real-time information on any part of Jamshedpur at any time. Power distribution is completely managed through a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system. As a result, compared to the average 22 per cent power distribution loss throughout 90

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us about a possible choking of the drain, enabling us to take action before it overflows. Jamshedpur is already completely under the LoRaWAN network. The challenge is to develop products and sensors that can talk to this network and relay data to our integrated command centre at the other end of the network. A lot of research is under progress, and it may take 6-8 months for mass deployment of these solutions. Ashish Mathur, MD, JUSCO

the country, the total power loss in Jamshedpur stands at just 4 per cent. The JUSCO Sahyog Kendra gives us access to a rich repository of data, which we use to gain insight into higher complaint areas. We use connected technology to monitor which trash bin is getting full and should be taken out—saving a lot of manual effort and time in trash disposal and hygiene maintenance. Smart lighting is also a major action area to conserve electricity. In short, our focus is conservation of resources using technology in the smartest way possible. Q. How does LoRaWAN help in integrated city management? A. LoRaWAN will help us stay informed about our infrastructure in real time with the desired efficiency. For example, if we want to test the quality of the city-wide drinking water online, instead of sampling and testing in labs, sensors across the water outlets will measure water quality parameters and send this data in real time to the integrated command centre of our office through the LoRaWAN network. So we will be able to act immediately if required. This technology will help us in numerous other applications too. For instance, sensors on sewer drain covers will monitor the flow of liquid levels inside. When the liquid level crosses a certain threshold, a signal to our command centre will inform

Q. What are its advantages over other networks? A. A major parameter for choosing the LoRaWAN was its impact on battery life. Sensors and devices used across the city for major utilities will provide real-time online measurement, where functional loss due to drained battery is not feasible. Additionally, these devices will be used in areas where charging points will be obscure—for example, within pipelines, where devices may need to run on battery power for up to a year. So we had to look for a technology that uses little battery power, and LoRaWAN suited our requirement. In addition, we wanted to limit our capex and cost of usage. Here again, LoRaWAN was a good fit. Ease of use was another deciding factor. Q. How can India achieve the vision of sustainable cities? A. A big transformation may start from the thought process of bringing all the urban utilities like electricity, water distribution and public health under one umbrella. This will help to speed up services, put standardisations and accountabilities in place, and achieve an overall efficiency. We need to solve local issues at local level itself. The different stakeholders—municipal corporations, citizens, communities and service providers alike—need to come together and work as a team to make the whole process cost- and time-effective. If you want to share such case studies with EFY readers, please contact us at [email protected] www.efymag.com

Industry News Make in india

Global e-waste to grow at 4-5 per cent annually The global quantity of electronics waste (e-waste) is expected to touch 49.8 million tonnes by 2018 from the current level of 47.8 million tonnes, growing annually at a rate of 4 to 5 per cent, according to an ASSOCHAM-Sofies-Toxics Link joint study. The top three Asian countries with the highest e-waste generation

in absolute quantities are China (6.0 million tonnes), Japan (2.2 million tonnes) and India (1.7 million tonnes). In India, approximately 1.5 per cent of the total e-waste generated is recycled by formal recyclers or institutional processing and recycling, while another 8 per cent goes to landfills.

Wearable devices becoming popular Gartner, Inc. forecasts that 310.4 million wearable devices will be sold worldwide in 2017—an increase of 16.7 per cent from 2016. Of the $30.5-billion sales revenue generated by wearable devices, $9.3 billion will be from smartwatches. In all, 41.5 million smartwatches will be sold

this year. By 2021, the number will increase to nearly 81 million units, representing 16 per cent of total wearable device sales. Bluetooth headsets will account for 48 per cent of all wearable devices in 2017, with sales of 150 million units. Bluetooth sales will increase to 206 million units in 2021, meaning

Awards Super Plastronics wins India’s best electronics licensee award TV sets and other electronics manufacturer Super Plastronics, a Kodak brand licensee, has won ‘India’s Best Licensee Award’ at India Licensing Expo held recently in Delhi. Super Plastronics is one of India’s foremost original equipment manufacturers of CRT and LED TVs. It has three manufacturing plants in India located in Noida, Una and Jammu.

ELCINA-EFY Awards Please see page numbers 95 to 98.

Bluetooth headsets will remain the most sold wearable device through 2021. The growth in Bluetooth headsets is driven by the elimination of the headphone jack by major smartphone providers.

India gains momentum in biometric transactions According to the Voice of Asia report by Deloitte, India is one of the leading digital transaction players. It says that the government has managed to save ` 361.44 billion over the last two years by directly

transferring benefits via the Aadhaar Payment Bridge. In February this year, Gujarat became the first state in India to set up a cashless system in its foodgrain public distribution system. Aadhaar-enabled payment system was

installed in approximately 17,250 fair price shops. So people eligible for subsidised food grains under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) need to present only their Aadhaar numbers to collect the allotted rations.

Dell Foundation plans an incubator The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation is looking to set up an incubator for startups with solutions for the underserved and the unserved segments. The foundation is in talks with IIM-Ahmedabad’s

Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) for the same. The incubator will look at earlystage companies that offer financial inclusion, digital empowerment, job creation and services in other such

impact areas, according to Rahil Rangwala, the director for family economic stability at Michael and Susan Dell Foundation. The foundation will also offer seed funding to the startups.

C-DOT launches latest innovation WiDHWAN Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), India’s premier telecom R&D orgnisation, has added another www.efymag.com

feather to its cap with the launch of WiDHWAN, which has been exclusively designed to cater to the

recurring call drop issues in no-signal and low-signal network scenarios in places such as offices and homes. electronics for you | october 2017

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Industry news In a message on the occasion of C-DOT’s 34th Foundation Day and WiDHWAN launch, minister of communications Manoj Sinha called upon C-DOT to innovate and develop telecom products at reasonable costs for exporting to SAARC countries and other developing regions of the world. He said that in an era of M2M communications, Internet of Things, 5G, cognitive learning and hyper-speed networks, C-DOT has to play an important role in developing state-of-the-art telecom infrastructure at affordable rate for the common man. Also present on the occasion was secretary, Department of Telecom, Aruna Sundararajan, who said that at present 70 to 80 per cent of telecom equipment is imported in India, and C-DOT can play an important role in bringing down this huge import bill by developing cutting-edge telecom products in the country.

Calendar of Forthcoming Electronics Fairs/Exhibitions/Seminars/Events Name, Date and Venue

Topics

Contact address for details

TechXLR8 Asia October 2-4, 2017 Marina Bay Sands, Singapore

Festival of technology that brings together Asia’s telco and tech ecosystem to discover technologies that are enabling and shaping our connected future

TechXLR8 Asia Website: https://tmt.knect365.com/ techxlr8-asia/

37th Gitex Technology Week Oct. 8-12, 2017 Dubai World Trade Centre

Event covering augmented and virtual reality, smart cities technology, IoT and smart manufacturing

Website: www.gitex.com

Innovate! and Celebrate 2017 October 9-11, 2017 InterContinental San Francisco

3-day global conference celebrating innovation & entrepreneurship

Website: https://www.innovatecelebrate.com/

Taitronics Taipei October 11-14, 2017 Taipei, Taiwan

International trade fair for electronics and electronic components

Taiwan External Trade Development Council Website: http://www.taitra.org.tw/

Global Sources Consumer Electronics October 11-14, 2017 AsiaWorld-Expo, next to Hong Kong Airport

Showcase of consumer electronics, gaming and VR, components and smart living products

Website: www.globalsources.com

Open Source India October 13-14, 2017 NIMHANS Convention Center, Bengaluru, India

Asia’s annual convention to celebrate open source computing

Open Source India Website: http://opensourceindia.in/ osidays/

Hong Kong Electronics Fair (Autumn Edition) October 13-16, 2017 Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre

World’s leading electronics marketplace

Hong Kong Trade Development Council Website: www.hkelectronicsfairae.com

Global Sources Mobile Electronics October 18-21, 2017 AsiaWorld-Expo, next to Hong Kong Airport

Showcase of smartphones, tablets, wearables and accessories

Website: www.globalsources.com

BEL Academy for Excellence, advanced testing facilities set up at BEL

22nd World Electronics Forum (WEF) 2017 October 24-28, 2017 Angers, France

Meeting place for electronics industry leaders and federations from all over the world to discuss hot topics in the electronics sector, alongside showcase of IoT expertise and innovation

Website: http://wef-angers.com/

The ex-defence minister Arun Jaitley recently inaugurated an Academy for Excellence and two state-ofthe-art testing facilities (EMC test facility and near-field antenna test range) at the Bengaluru unit of Navratna Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL). The BEL Academy for Excellence is envisaged to address training needs of not only BEL employees but also its customers and vendors/partners, especially MSMEs/SMEs. Affiliated to national/international universities, it will also cater to skill development initiatives of the central government.

Assocham Green Energy Summit 2017 November 9-12, 2017 Bangalore International Exhibition Centre

World expo and conference on renewable energy

ASSOCHAM India

Big Data London November 15-16, 2017 Olympia, London, UK

The UK’S largest data and analytics event

Big Data London Website: http://bigdataldn.com/

CeBIT INDIA 2017 November 30-December 2, 2017 White Orchid Convention Centre, Hebbal, Bengaluru

Digital innovation show

Hannover Milano Fairs India Pvt Ltd Website: www.cebit-india.com

ELEXCON 2017 December 21-23, 2017 Shenzhen Convention & Exhibition Center, China

Annual expo for the electronics industry based in Shenzhen

ELEXCON 2017 Website: www.elexcon.com/elexcon/en

34th Chaos Communication Congress December 27-30, 2017 Leipzig, Germany

Annual cybersecurity conference organised by the Chaos Computer Club

Website: https://events.ccc.de/

CES 2018 January 9-12, 2018 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

World’s gathering place for those who thrive on the business of consumer technologies and where next-generation innovations are introduced to the marketplace

Consumer Technology Association Website: www.ces.tech

NEPCON Japan January 17-19, 2018 Tokyo Big Sight, Japan

Asia’s leading exhibition for electronics design, R&D and manufacturing technology

Reed Exhibitions Japan Ltd Website: http://www.nepconjapan.jp/en/

Electronics West February 6-8, 2018 Anaheim Convention Center, California, USA

North America’s largest annual design and manufacturing event

Electronics West Website: http://electronicswest. designnews.com/

India Electronics Week February 7-9, 2018 KTPO Convention Center, Bengaluru

With its 4 co-located shows—IoTshow.in, LEDasia.in, EFY Expo and EFY Conferences— India Electronics Week acts as a one-stop-shop for technology enthusiasts

EFY Enterprises Pvt Ltd E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.indiaelectronicsweek.com

Hero Electronix’s Tessolve goes on acquisition spree Hero Electronix, a part of the $5-billion Hero Group, has acquired two businesses—Malaysia’s Spectrum Integrated Technologies and the test lab business of Singapore’s Lynxemi. 92

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Industry news

Snippets Startups now a part of FDI policy

Indian government has unveiled a new foreign direct investment (FDI) policy framework that lists startups as a separate section. The framework spells out provisions that allow startups to raise foreign money from venture capital funds and other investors through instruments such as convertible notes. Startups can issue equity or equity-linked instruments to foreign venture.

Mentor India campaign gets fantastic response The premier think-tank of the government of India, NITI Aayog, has received a ‘fantastic response’ with over 5000 applications for the Mentor India Campaign—informed Ramanathan Ramanan, mission director, Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), recently at an ASSOCHAM event. Ramanan also said, “We are going to build a network of mentors across the country from every professional organisation which is capable of supporting, and this is going to be one of the largest mentoring networks across the country.”

DigitalOcean to ‘elevate’ Karnataka startups DigitalOcean, the cloud for developers, will provide cloud infrastructure and support to startups enrolled with the Karnataka Start-up Cell. The MoU was signed at the government’s ‘Elevate 100’ programme, which aims to support startups by providing a sum of ` 4 billion of government funds over a period.

SEMBCORP becomes owner of renewable energy business SGI Sembcorp Utilities has acquired IDFC’s remaining stake in Sembcorp Green Infra (SGI), for ` 14.102 billion. With this, Sembcorp has become the sole owner of SGI—one of the largest renewable energy players in India. SGI is present across seven states in India.

NXP India provides safety device to its female employees As part of its commitment to ensure security and safety for their women employees, NXP India has provided a safety wearable device called ‘SAFER’ to its female employees. The pendant was handed over to 90 women employees, who usually work late after 7 pm for various critical projects. The aim of this initiative is to ensure women feel safe at work and on their way home.

Infineon invests in fabless semiconductor company XMOS Infineon has invested in Bristol-based fabless semiconductor company XMOS that provides voice processors for IoT devices. “Through this investment, Infineon will further explore the high potential of voice control and is well positioned to address future use cases like speaker authentication or contextual awareness,” said Andreas Urschitz, president of the Power Management & Multimarket Division at Infineon.

Continued from previous page...

Calendar of Forthcoming Electronics Fairs/Exhibitions/Seminars/Events Name, Date and Venue

Topics

Contact address for details

Embedded World 2018 February 27-March 1, 2018 Exhibition Centre, Nuremberg, Germany

Trade fair for IT security for electronic systems

NürnbergMesse Website: www.embedded-world.de/en

26th Convergence India 2018 March 7-9, 2018 Pragati Maidan, New Delhi

International exhibition and conference on digital convergence

Website: www.convergenceindia.org

ELECRAMA March 10-14, 2018 India Expo Mart, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh

Flagship showcase of the Indian electrical industry ecosystem and the largest congregation of power sector ecosystem in the geography; brings together the complete spectrum of solutions that powers the planet

IEEMA Website: http://elecrama.com, http://ieema.org

SEMICON Taiwan, 2018 Taipei, Taiwan Sep. 12-14, 2018

Premier event in Taiwan for microelectronics manufacturing

Website: www.semicontaiwan.org/en

Since this information is subject to change, all those interested are advised to ascertain the details from the organisers before making any commitment.

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The acquisitions were made through Tessolve, a Hero Electronix Venture and a leading provider of engineering services. With these two acquisitions, and the addition of TES Europe’s India embedded systems business in 2016, Tessolve is now strongly positioned as a leading end-to-end semiconductor engineering solutions provider—from chip design, test and PCB engineering through embedded systems development.

Reliance’s UNLIMIT and IBM Internet of Things collaborate UNLIMIT, a business venture of Reliance Group, and IBM have announced a strategic collaboration that brings together UNLIMIT’s industryspecific Internet of Things (IoT) solutions with IBM IoT capabilities to unlock new value for businesses in India. IBM and UNLIMIT will co-create IoT solutions for specific industry verticals including automotive, insurance, utilities and industrial automation. They are also developing IoT solutions for implementation across Reliance Group companies.

Siemens and HP partner to advance 3D printing Hewlett Packard (HP) and Siemens are accelerating 3D printing for industrial production through an HP-certified Additive Manufacturing (AM) software module from Siemens. The new software module, Siemens NX AM for HP Multi Jet Fusion, is now available from Siemens PLM Software as an extension to Siemens’ end-to-end design-to-production solution for additive manufacturing. It will allow customers to develop and manage parts in a single software environment for their HP 3D printing projects, avoid costly and time-consuming data conversions and third-party tools, and improve their overall design-to-finished-part workflow efficiency. www.efymag.com

event

ELCINA-EFY

Awards felicitate excellence at the annual ceremony for 2016-17 Electronic Industries Association of India, popularly known as ELCINA, honoured the best in the electronics fraternity at the ELCINA-EFY 2016-2017 Awards on September 14, in New Delhi. By EB Bureau

Winners of the ELCINA-EFY Awards 2016-17

T

his year, ELCINA celebrated its golden jubilee, having completed 50 years of leadership in the domain. The coveted ELCINA Awards have been distributed for over four decades. And since 2010, the EFY Group has been a joint presenter of the awards, which are one of the most sought-after awards in the industry, with India’s leading firms keen in having one in their kitty every year. The day prior to the awards function witnessed passionate discussions, during which industry experts, veterans and head honchos brainstormed over the industry’s current status, the challenges faced, and what it needs to do to overcome them. The fraternity seemed confident about the growth of India’s electronics industry in the coming years, with the tremendous zeal shown by the entire community giving the much-needed www.efymag.com

boost to this industry. This glorious event attracted the electronics industry’s chief executives including Vinod Sharma, MD, Deki Electronics; Amrit Manwani, chairman, Saharsa Group of Companies; Pankaj Gulati, COO and VP, CDIL; Manish Sharma, president and CEO, Panasonic India; Hari Krishnan Puravankara, founder and CEO, Black Pepper Technologies, apart from other leading figures. It was also attended by senior government officials from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). Ajay Sawhney, secretary, MeitY, was the chief guest for the event. Epcos India, Bharat Electronics, Sasmos HET Technologies, Lava International, Intex Technologies, Panasonic, Lenovo India and Nucleonix Systems were the major winners of the ELCINA-EFY 2016-17 Awards. electronics for you | october 2017

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event Winners of the ELCINA-EFY Awards 2016-17 rEsEarcH & DEvElopMEnt

Exports Large scale 1st Prize : EPCOS India Private Limited, Kalyani (WB) 2nd prize : Bharat Electronics Limited, Bengaluru Certificate of Merit : Cosmo Ferrites Limited, Solan (HP) Medium scale 1st Prize

: Sasmos HET Technologies Limited, Bengaluru 2nd prize : Kaynes Technology India Private Limited, Bengaluru Certificate of Merit : Globe Capacitors Limited, Faridabad

Small scale 1st Prize 2nd Prize

: KWK Resistors India Limited, Bengaluru : Electronic Relays India Private Limited, Bengaluru Certificate of Merit : Anshuman Tech Private Limited, Pune

: : : :

Lenovo India Private Limited, Pondicherry CII Guardian International Limited, Cochin Lava International Limited, Noida Intex Technologies India Limited, Noida

SME 1st Prize

: Syrma Technology Private Limited, Chennai 2nd prize : Conformity Testing Labs Private Limited, New Delhi Certificate of Merit : Elin Appliances Private Limited, Solan (HP) Certificate of Merit : Sasmos HET Technologies Limited, Bengaluru

EnvironMEnt ManagEMEnt Large category 1st Prize 2nd prize 2nd prize

: EPCOS India Private Limited, Kalyani (WB) : Deki Electronics Limited, Noida : Lenovo India Private Limited, Pondicherry

SME category 1st Prize

: G.P. Tronics Private Limited, Kolkata

ExcEllEncE in innovation Certificate of Merit : Nucleonix Systems Private Limited, Hyderabad

EntrEprEnEurial ExcEllEncE 1st Prize

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2nd Prize 2nd Prize

: Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology, Thrissur, along with its industry partner Speedlam Electronics Materials Private Limited, Hyderabad : CT Control Tech (India) Private Limited, Bengaluru and its technology partner, NIO, Goa : Inxee Systems Private Limited, Gurugram and its technology partner, Sameer, (Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering & Research) Mumbai

Certificate of Merit : SFO Technologies Private Limited, Kochi Certificate of Merit : Star Link Communication Private Limited, New Delhi Certificate of Merit : Centre for Development of Telematics, New Delhi

BusinEss ExcEllEncE

Quality Large scale 1st Prize 2nd prize Certificate of Merit Certificate of Merit

1 Prize st

: Hari Krishnan Puravankara, founder and CEO, Black Pepper Technologies Private Limited, Bengaluru

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Large category 1st Prize

: Salcomp Manufacturing India Private Limited, Sriperumbudur (TN) 2nd Prize : MyBox Technologies Private Limited, New Delhi Specialrecognition for business excellence: Astra Microwave Products Limited, Hyderabad Medium category 1st Prize : Ind-Sphinx Precision Limited, Parwanoo (HP)

SPECIAL JURY AWARDS outstanDing contriBution to groWtH oF tHE ligHting & auto ElEctronics inDustry FIEM Industries Limited, Sonepat; J.K. Jain, CMD outstanDing contriBution to tHE proMotion oF invEstMEnts anD inDigEnisation in tHE EsDM inDustry Manish Sharma, vice president, Panasonic Corporation, and President & CEO, Panasonic India and South Asia ElEctronics coMpany oF tHE yEar Varroc Engineering Private Limited, Aurangabad; Tarang Jain, managing director ExEMplary liFElong sErvicE to tHE ElEctronics inDustry Dr Debashis Dutta, scientist ‘G’ Category and group coordinator – R&D, Ministry of Electronics & IT, Government of India ElEctronics Man oF tHE yEar Vinod Sharma, managing director, Deki Electronics Limited, Noida www.efymag.com

Manish Sharma, Panasonic receiving award for outstanding contribution by their company from Ajay Sawhney, secretary, MeitY

Vikram Desai, outgoing ELCINA president, welcoming Ajay Sawhney secretary, MeitY

Vinod Sharma, Deki Electronics receiving Electronics Man of the Year award from Ajay Sawhney, secretary, MeitY

Dr Debashis Dutta, receiving award for exemplary lifelong service to the electronics industry from Ajay Sawhney, secretary, MeitY

www.efymag.com

Vipin Tyagi receiving certificate of merit to Centre for Development of Telematics from Ajay Sawhney, secretary, MeitY

electronics for you | october 2017

Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology team receiving award for excellence research & development

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Ajay Sawhney, secretary, MeitY, addressing the audience at ELCINA-EFY Awards 2016-17

As always, this year too, awards were distributed across several different categories, including special jury awards. The categories were: exports, quality, environmental management, R&D, excellence in innovation, business excellence, entrepreneurial excellence, and the special jury awards. On the Electronics Policy 2.0, Sawhney talked about his past experiences, saying that he had been worried about the electronics industry when he joined MeitY, wondering back then what could be done to encourage manufacturing. So he will soon come back with a policy and strategy for the industry. “We have seen a reduction of imports in at least a few segments and an increase in exports for at least five or six major segments,” said Sawhney. He requested the industry for its insights and feedback, to understand what is going on in these segments, what policies are working and what are not, and where the government could help to make a bigger impact. Sawhney added that if the industry has any concerns or advice regarding the National Policy on Electronics, the government is willing to take a relook at it. He requested active participation from stakeholders to add value to the policy, and to make it better and more powerful. As the event progressed with eminent speakers getting an apt platform to express their views candidly, Ramesh Chopra, executive chairman, EFY Group and founder editor, Electronics For You, spoke proudly about the ELCINAEFY association that went back almost five decades. Expressing his gratitude, he said EFY and ELCINA are fortunate to have such a dynamic association. Rewinding to ELCINA’s beginning, Chopra said, “It started as an electronic component manufacturers’ association and now it is representing the entire electronics industry in India, especially the hardware sector.” He then elaborated on the journey, saying that ELCINA had been with the industry through thick and 98

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thin, ups and downs and always conveyed the views of the industry to the government, from time to time. He said that EFY considers itself fortunate to have partnered with ELCINA to present the ELCINA-EFY Awards from 2010 onwards. Before 2010, ELCINA had presented these awards on its own, while EFY had been presenting the Readers’ Choice awards, which were later discontinued. “There is no doubt in my mind that the industry could not have survived without ELCINA for such a long time. I salute all the present and past presidents, as well as the office bearers who have kept the industry motivated all along. I also want to salute all those who have remained with the industry through troubled times,” said Chopra. As the event progressed, the captains of the industry discussed the government’s role in the electronics industry. Vikram Desai, managing director, Desai Electronics, said, “Based on the views expressed here, we are truly convinced that the government does recognise and appreciate the concerns of the industry. The government is more than willing to support the Indian electronics industry and formulate a policy which is pro-industry, and promote the growth of the industry. It has also clearly expressed that the electronics industry has already experienced its worst phase and it’s high time that this should change. The future is very promising and bright. We all look forward to the roll-out of the revised national electronics policy — Electronics Policy 2.0 — which will mark the beginning of a new era in the electronics manufacturing sector.” Sharing his thoughts on the expansion of the electronics industry, Vinod Sharma, managing director, Deki Electronics, who also won the ‘Electronics Man of the Year’ award, said, “I want to contribute whatever I can back to the industry and to policy making. As an industry, we should make ourselves so strong that we do not sell only in India but are also able to sell globally. Because, I think we have the brains to succeed.” www.efymag.com

make in india Market Survey

SMT EquipMEnT: The Indian Market Outlook

I

n this era of digital disruption, electronic circuits and devices are vital catalysts for various applications in sectors ranging from consumer appliances to automotive to defence. According to the changing application requirement, electronic devices and printed circuit boards (PCBs) need to be developed in various shapes, forms and sizes. And, the entire processing life-cycle of an electronic device travels through the surfacemount technology (SMT) equipment from being a PCB to a finished electronic device. Technological advancements, combined with today’s high-speed production, complete process automation and stringent quality assurance standards, are driving forward adoption of SMT manufacturing equipment. This study analyses growth opportunities and current trends in the Indian SMT equipment market, including placement, inspection and soldering equipment, screen printers, as well as rework and repair equipment.

Sudeshna Das is director at ComConnect

Market opportunity As PCBs and electronic components become more miniaturised than before, manufacturers face the challenge of placing accurate deposits of small components on miniaturised boards. This, in turn, is fuelling the demand for advanced SMT equipment with a high degree of reliability and accuracy. According to a research report published by Markets and Markets, the global SMT market

Fig. 1: SMT equipment market segmentation

Total Surface Mount Technology (SMT) Equipment Market

SMT Placement Equipment

SMT Inspection Equipment

SMT Soldering Equipment

SMT Screen Printer Equipment

SMT Dispenser Equipment

Low-Speed Placement

Automated Optical Inspection (AOI)

Reflow Soldering

Manual Screen Printing

In-line Dispenser

Medium Speed Placement

X-Ray Inspection

Wave Soldering

Semi-Automatic Screen Printing

Off-line Despenser

High-Speed Placement

Solder Paste Inspection (SPI)

Selective Soldering

Fully Automatic Screen Printing

www.efymag.com

Methodology Information on the surface-mount technology equipment market was assimilated from various sources through secondary research. The findings were then analysed and verified through primary research by conducting extensive interviews with key industry experts. These senior professionals shared their insights on the following topics: 1. Market size 2. Market opportunities 3. Approximate growth rate 4. Market drivers 5. Market trends 6. Types of equipment in demand 7. Market challenges A trend analysis was done on the basis of their inputs.

will reach a turnover of $5.42 billion by 2022, growing annually at a rate of 8.9 per cent between 2017 and 2022. The market’s growth will be primarily driven by higher demand for miniaturised consumer electronics products and electric vehicles with advanced features for connectivity, entertainment and safety. The Indian SMT manufacturing equipment market will also grow along with the electronics manufacturing sector in the country. The Indian electronics market is anticipated to reach $400 billion in 2022, with domestic manufacturing climbing to over $100 billion. This burgeoning market presents an attractive opportunity to SMT manufacturing equipment suppliers. According to industry experts, since India still doesn’t have a mature electronics manufacturing services (EMS) industry, the best size estimate of the domestic SMT equipment industry would be 75-80 per cent of the electronics manufacturing industry. Asia Pacific typically dominates the global SMT equipment market. For instance, it contributed 42 per cent to the overall worldwide market in 2016. For India, industry experts expect the ‘Make in India’ campaign, key policy initiatives by the government, deepelectronics for you | october 2017

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make biotech in india six months due demonetisation congestive hearttofailure and other and GSTailments. related issues. cardiac Golden Gopher Magnetic Market drivers Biosensing system. This portable, low-cost and easy-to-use device EMS providers need an increasing detects biomarkers in human serum number of SMT equipment product and urine, astowell asthe heavy metals lines in order meet customer in lake water. Z-lab, this demand across Known differentasindustry vertihighly-sensitive sensororiginal is nowdesign in cals. In addition, many development for smaller, more manufacturers (ODMs) have alsoportUp to 20% – 80% respondents More than 20% – 20% respondents able models. started manufacturing, rather than Aspirin. For just Electronic designing equipment, in people order to Fig. 2: Expected growth rate of the SMT manufacturing equipment market in India who suffer migraines, clusovercome thefrom increasing competition ter headaches and other causes of from EMS providers. This will further chronic, excruciating head or facial drive the growth of the SMT equip100% 100 pain, market. the ‘take two aspirins and call ment 83% meAdoption in the morning’ is useof SMTmethod assembly lines 80 less.be Doctors have long associated will bolstered further by increasthe demand most severe, chronic forms of ing for higher-frequency, 60 Fig. 5: Endotronix wireless50% health 50% monitoring headache with sphenopalatine ganhighly integrated and smaller devices glion (SPG), electronics, a facial nerve bundle, in consumer automo40 but have not yet found a treatment tive, industrial automation, process that has a long-term effect on SPG. control, telecom, Internet of Things 17% 20 Electronic Aspirin is a patient(IoT), computing, storage, aerospace powered toolmarkets for blocking SPG3). and defence (see Fig. 0 signals at the first sign of a headThe demand for SMT devices Automotive – 100% Consumer electronics – 83% ache, involvessegment the permanent in the and automotive has Telecom equipment – 50% implant ofdue a small nerve-stimulating increased to their ability to Energy and power – 50% Aerospace and defence – 17% device inneeds the upper gum on the side meet the of critical systems of the head normally affected by with zero defects. The number of Fig. 3: Survey participants’ rankings of the major demand generating application verticals headache. Lead tip of the implant electronic components used in an Fig. 6: Golden Gopher Magnetic Biosensing system connects with the SPG bundle, and electric vehicle (EV) is more than when patient senses the onset in any aconventional vehicle, as the rooted entrepreneurship spirit, and of a headache, he oranshe placesmotor, electric vehicle has electric domestic demand in consumer a handheld remote controller on battery and other complex connecelectronics, telecom equipment, the cheek nearest to theutilisation implant. tions to ensure optimal automotive, aeronautics and defence Resulting signalsto stimulate SPGrole of power. Owing the critical and medical electronics verticals nerves and block pain-causing of electronic components in electric will fuel the growth. Moreover, neurotransmitters. vehicles, surface-mount devices are high-throughput and high-efficiency smart contact usedGoogle as these are safe and lenses. lighter, manufacturing initiatives, based on Fig. 7: Electronic Aspirin Google less has created smart occupy space and last contact over a Industry 4.0 and Smart Factory, will lenses made for people longer period of time. also spur this pace. who suffer from diabetes The consumer electronics segThe total market can be segand those who ment is transitioning fromsimmanual, mented based on the type of SMT ply weartoglasses. The analogue systems digitised and equipment and further sub-segmented technology is engineered automated control systems. With based on the technology used Soft (Fig. 1). contact lens encapsulates electronics to in take the of tears in aportthe increase usage smart Eighty per cent of the survey detects person’s eye and measure able devices and wearables, physiparticipants forecast that the Sensor Indian glucose in tears glucose levels. For people cal constraints on the PCB size are market for SMT equipment used in Chip and antenna power and who could wear glasses, the manifold. This give first-mover the electronics manufacturingreceive indussend information would be engineered advantage lens to manufacturers who try will grow at a rate of up to 20 to what companies invest in new SMTthe equipment that per cent per year (Fig. 2). However, say is ‘to restore theor eye’s support miniature-sized PCBs most of them also mentioned sudnatural autofocus.’ components. Feeder technology, den dip in the market over the last Fig. 8: Google’s smart contact lenses

implanted during a routine catheterisation procedure. It requires no leads or implanted batteries, 80% and sends data to a secure Web platform. The sensor is designed to improve the quality of life and medical outcomes, as well as lower 20% costs for those who suffer from

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www.eFymag.com www.efymag.com

make in india Major contributors to this report       

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A. Srinivasa Moorthy, director, design engineering, D4X Technologies L. Sampath, MD, EMST Marketing Praveen Madaan, country head, Juki India Sankar Narayanan, MD at Anvin Electronics, as well as GM, Accurex Solutions Shailendra Mathur, country manager, ASYS Group Suresh Nair, director, Leaptech Corporation Vishal Dahiya, GM, Panasonic India 100% 83%

80

67% 60

50% 40

20

0 Placement equipment – 100% Screen printing equipment – 83% Inspection equipment – 67% Soldering equipment – 50%

Fig. 4: Survey participants’ rankings of the major demand generating product segments

flexible gantries and high-accuracy optical encoder systems are examples of product innovations as a result of technological advancements. A majority of the industry experts indicated that set-top boxes were the most demand-generating product segment. Demand for SMT equipment is also high in telecom (including mobile handset manufacturing) and energy segments. Moreover, low-cost, lighting-specific SMT equipment have started making inroads into the burgeoning LED industry.

Equipment in demand Placement equipment represent the largest product segment within the SMT equipment market. Experts unanimously predict a steady demand in this segment attributed to the growth of SMT assembly lines to enable efficient electronics manufacturing practices and innovation related to product miniaturisation and complex circuits. For the same 106

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reason, soldering and printing equipment are also expected to experience decent demand (Fig. 4). Sixty-seven per cent of the experts emphasised the importance of online quality assurance during manufacturing. They indicated that the improved speed and flexibility of quality assurance procedures had generated demand for advanced SMT inspection systems including automatic X-ray inspection (AXI) systems and automatic optical inspection (AOI) systems. AXI equipment are expected to gain from the integration of computer tomography and intuitive programming. AOI equipment are expected to become more popular due to the use of machine-vision-based algorithms that enable easy programming, flexibility and enhanced ability to detect faults quickly while minimising false call rates.

Market pulse Industry experts believe that there are many advantages of using SMT equipment, such as lower manufacturing costs, higher component density, as well as simpler and faster automation leading to smart factories. These advantages coupled with emerging technological trends will shape the SMT manufacturing equipment market in India: Focus on precision. Technological advancements in SMT will largely focus on bringing precision into the manufacturing process to reduce defects, while optimising the use of assembly operations to improve productivity. Demand for one-stop solutions. There is an increased demand for integrated solutions to enable fully

automated control. Manufacturers are shifting from using individual SMT machines to integrated one-stop SMT assembly lines in order to get a competitive advantage. Shift to 0201 geometry. The Indian industry has moved straight to the 0201 geometry, leapfrogging the phase of making larger SMT products. Affordable equipment for small products. SMT equipment for small products are becoming affordable. This trend is already driving the market well. Demand for small ‘things’. The rapid increase in the use of smaller IoT devices (known as ‘things’) will drive the SMT market. Moreover, almost all the component vendors have migrated their processes to SMT to get the advantages of increased manufacturing speed, advanced complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology, and decreased interconnect widths in ICs.

Moving forward Worldwide, the SMT equipment market is primarily driven by the EMS industry. However, this industry has not matured enough in India compared to other Asian countries. Most of the Tier 2 and Tier 3 EMS vendors still act as assemblers (doing just PCB assembly job work) rather than making the entire ‘box build’ unit or executing the complete production of an electronic device. Transformation of EMS players from assemblers to ‘box build’ service providers will not only enhance the demand for SMT manufacturing equipment but also help EMS players to gain a competitive edge in the market. However, for this, EMS players need to develop three major capabilities: in-house supply chains (covering component engineering), design for excellence (DfX, where ‘X’ stands for cost, assembly, manufacturing, testing and the environment), and finally, test and repair capabilities. www.efymag.com

IntervIew Internet of Things

“SME InduStrIal SyStEMS Could Be Compromised” Faud Khan

chieF security analyst, twelvedot inc., canada

Small and medium-scale enterprises cannot choose to ignore top-class security for their Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). To help them guard against cyber threats, engineers need to develop suitable solutions by understanding the nature of attacks that IoT networks are vulnerable to. Faud Khan, chief security analyst at TwelveDot Inc., Canada, speaks to Rahul R. from EFY Group about the issues and developments in this space

Q. What aspects should engineers consider when developing secure solutions for sMe iot networks? A. The key aspect is both design and threat modelling. When developing the product concept at the design stage, engineers should look at incorporating security controls that minimise their products’ vulnerabilities to threats. The key element is technical analysis of ways and means through which the product could be abused by cybercriminals. Since the IoT comprises multiple layers, via the middleware layer, cloud and device layer, engineers should understand individual components of an IoT system and evaluate vulnerabilities accordingly.

Q. What are the likely attacks for sMe iot networks? A. We term the process of compromise as ‘weaponsing.’ A lot of IoT devices have inherent vulnerabilities to attacks. This makes it easier for cyber-criminals to compromise these systems and launch attacks such as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS). DDoS along with Denial of Service (DoS) is the most common type of attack on SMEs. The key to protecting data is to understand the basic security infrastructure and analyse how it processes the data collected. Once this is achieved, layers of different access controls should be deployed. Consider a scenario where the www.efymag.com

system is made to guard itself against scripting attacks. To accomplish this, engineers should test and validate the application and all server components. The code of the front end should be made secure. This holds true for databases as well. If a database takes SQL commands, engineers should ensure that external SQL commands cannot be injected into the system. Finally, database encryption should also be done at communication and storage layers.

Q. is there any international body that regulates iot security? A. Right now there is no regulatory council that guarantees security. Specific domains have their own security and safety protocols. This is true of the current aviation and nuclear sectors, which follow a group of closely-knit standards for their dayto-day activities. However, as far as consumer sector is concerned, there are no safety standards overseen by international regulatory forums. Nonetheless, the industrial sector is subjected to defined safety standards. Safety standards for industrial networks (IIoT) have to meet specifications laid out by governments.

Q. how do you view india’s level of preparedness? A. IoT-centric research in India is definitely moving along the right path. Research scientists and product companies have understood the underlying cyber-security factors. This

would definitely help the country at this juncture when it is starting to develop smart cities.

Q. talking of research, how should engineers build industrial systems such that security is incorporated from the chip level itself? A. Understanding the supply chain of the chip and other components is key to understating the risk for systems. Aspects such as potential compromises to the chip at the factory level need to be properly analysed and identified. Once chips are released, monitoring and run-time systems should be able to detect compromises before a system is developed on top of a chip.

Q. Finally, for sectors like healthcare that have societal impact, how should industrial systems be designed for maximum security? A. For healthcare, the approach is a tad different considering the fact that devices here have personally identifiable information (PII). Understanding your data at risk is key. Specifically, you must understand data collection, processing and storage for critical data. Access permissions within IoT networks should also be carefully developed and distributed to official sources. Besides, engineers should understand the usable life of data. If data is unnecessary or provides little value, it must be securely deleted. electronics for you | october 2017

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IntervIew Startups

“To Succeed StartupS Should have IdeaS That Can Be Monetised” Sanjeev Chopra Ceo, eleCtropreneur park

Electropreneur Park, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)-funded electronic system design and manufacturing (ESDM) incubation centre at the Delhi University campus, is built with the aim to accelerate the Indian ESDM startup ecosystem. As it gets ready for the fourth incubation season, Sanjeev Chopra, CEO, Electropreneur Park, shares with Paromik Chakraborty of Electronics For You their criteria for selecting startups and facilities for shortlisted startups

Q. how do you shortlist startups? A. The most important factor for a startup to succeed is to have an idea that is commercially viable and can be monetised. We evaluate applications based on multiple factors, including the product idea, completeness of the proposal, business plan, proof of concept and a basic product demonstration. At the end of the day, we look at startups that can monetise their products and might be able to create a unique IP. We also take into account which projects will be able to utilise our facility the most.

Q. how do the incubated startups benefit from the labs at electropreneur park? A. A big challenge faced by startups in their development phase is the time lost in building the prototype. Starting from planning the design to getting a PCB prototype made and then creating the mould, startups have to reach out to external service providers due to lack of infrastructure in their facility. This is where they spend a lot of time, money and effort, which they could otherwise invest in something productive. The main motive of our labs is to provide ESDM startups the facilities to do all of it under one roof without any distraction. 108

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Once an intended design is cleared and the first round of prototyping tried, a startup can easily create the second prototype within 48 hours—that too with minimal or no error if it has access to all the right equipment and facilities.

Q. are there any expenses to be borne by the shortlisted startups? A. There are no charges for startups to use any of our facilities. The cost structure will remain so for the five years tenure that is funded by MeitY. Once the funding is over, we will have to move forward on a self-sustained basis, and may have to revise the finances. Even for startups which exit the incubation, support for the next six months since their exit is free of cost. Thereafter, cost model may be revised, and will be communicated once a final call is taken. Exiting startups will also have access to our lab facilities and our assistance.

Q. how do you help startups in establishing contacts with the industry? A. The Electropreneur Park project ensures easier availability of components, necessary mentorship and complete guidance to incubated startups. Many leading bodies of the ESDM scenario are associated with the project. IESA is a part of this association, bringing in a lot of

connections from the semiconductor industry. We have tied up with components manufacturers like Element14, who provide benefits like minimum order quantity waiver and discounted price to incubated startups. We also support startups in creating a network—by way of introducing them to more industry players, potential customers, competitors and mentors, or by sending them to events where they can connect for further business, approach for funding or make sales pitches.

Q. What support is provided to develop their skills in sync with the latest technologies? A. There is active participation from the industry to help out startups with the latest technology and skill development. CXOs and industry experts take out some time to introduce them to the latest technologies and business opportunities. Startups can seek guidance from them in case of any bottleneck in their product development. For instance, Infineon Technologies is helping out with some technical mentoring. We organise workshops on all angles of a business—technical, legal, management, financial and so on—to familiarise startups with the practical environment. Organisations like Cadence and HCL also support us. www.eFYmag.com

New Products Make in india

test & measurement Insulation tester Kyoritsu’s 3125A insulation tester features dielectric absorption ratio function, short-circuit current up to 1.5mA, open-circuit voltage range of 250V and Cat IV 300V/Cat III 600V safety rating. Other features of 3125A include insulation resistance up to 1TΩ, wide test voltage range from 250V to 5000V, noise filter for obtaining stable measurement, and large display with bar graph indication and backlight. Kyoritsu KEW India Instruments www.kew-ltd.co.in

True-RMS power clamps FLIR CM83 and CM85 are industrialgrade power clamp meters with advanced power analysis and variable-frequency-drive filtering functions to meet the needs of electrical troubleshooters. These meters feature Bluetooth technology to connect compatible mobile devices for remote viewing and sharing, and METERLiNK technology to wirelessly embed electrical readings into radiometric infrared images on compatible FLIR thermal cameras. FLIR Systems India www.flir.com

Clamp-on digital multimeter Kusam-Meco has introduced a new clamp-on digital multimeter in two models, 2754A and 2754A-T (Trms). These multimeters are auto-ranging and have a 4000-count display. Model 2754A is capable of average sensing www.efymag.com

while model 2754A-T allows true-RMS measurements. The measurement rate is 3 per second nominal. The meters can measure up to 1000A DC and 800A AC current; 400mV/4V/40V/400V/600V AC and DC; 400W/4kW/ 40kW/400kW/4MW/40MW resistance; and 500nF/5mF/50mF/500mF/ 3000mF capacitance. Kusam Electrical Industries www.kusamelectrical.com

Level gauges Gill Instruments has introduced liquid-level gauges that let users measure the level on a digital read-out or, using mobile app, for multiple tanks and multiple locations. Sensors help users to track all types of liquid inventory as per their industry-specific and optimal usage. Features include patented level-sensor technology, no manual intervention in pump control, dry-run pump protection and leakage detection, and 1% measurement resolution. Gill Instruments www.gill-instruments.com

tools & equipment PIC software development platform MPLAB Harmony 2.0, the fully featured firmware development framework for PIC32 microcontrollers, is now available as a free download from Microchip Technology Inc. The updated software platform enables users to create smaller and more efficient code. It also includes a new

Graphics Composer Suite, which adds tools for graphic asset utilisation management, image transformation including format conversion, compression and editing, a revised What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) engine for more accurate design-to-production GUI representation, and a new Display Manager for easy adoption of nonstandard displays. Microchip Technology www.microchip.com

IoT platform The latest update of Renesas Synergy software/hardware platform accelerates time to market, reduces total cost of ownership and removes obstacles that engineers face in designing Internet of Things (IoT) products. It consists of fully integrated software, development tools and a family of scalable microcontrollers (MCUs) with no upfront fees or backend royalties—everything is included in the MCU cost. Renesas Electronics Singapore Renesas.com

DC-DC converter tool With Maxim’s re-engineered EE-Sim DC-DC converter tool, power designers can create and simulate complex circuits with more confidence. Novices can create designs in just a few minutes, while experts wield a high degree of control over simulation parameters and visualisations. The tool lets users recompensate the circuit to accommodate changes to components; evaluate differences between similar design versions; and explore,

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New Products customise and interact with simulation results. Also, users can simulate or modify hardware-tested reference designs both online and offline. Maxim Integrated www.maximintegrated.com

Steel files Taparia Tools has introduced steel files in their hand tools product category. These files can be used for filing metals, wood and plastic in order to remove excess material from a work piece. The files are manufactured from high-carbon, high-chromium material and hardened with different variety of cuts such as bastard, second and smooth. Also, these come in various shapes and sizes. Taparia Tools www.tapariatools.com

Electric screwdrivers Himax offers electric screwdrivers that are easy to maintain, highly durable and ergonomically designed. These AC/DC and brushless mini screwdrivers are available in automatic and semi-automatic versions, with torque ranging from 0.2kgf-cm to 20kgf-cm. The RPM range is 100 to 1000, and the applicable screw size ranges from 1.0mm to 5mm. MSB Electronics Kalyan, Maharashtra

Components Power modules New SLLIMM-nano intelligent power modules from STMicroelectronics add new package options and features to accelerate development and simplify assembly of motor drives from very low power up to 300W. The 110

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3A and 5A modules contain state-ofthe-art 600V super-junction MOSFETs to maximise energy efficiency in equipment such as compressors, fans and pumps. A choice of packages with inline or zig-zag leads helps in space savings and required pin separation. STMicroelectronics www.st.com/ipm

Buck regulators Vicor has extended the Cool-Power 48V ZVS 20A buck regulator portfolio by releasing the PI352300-LGIZ (PI3523). The PI352x family offers 20A solutions complementing the previously released 10A 48VIN PI354x family, enabling scalable power options for 48V direct to pointof-load applications. The PI3523 is a 48VIN, 3.3Vout nominal buck regulator capable of supplying up to 22A. Vicor www.vicorpower.com

Fuses Littelfuse, Inc. has introduced a series of compact, fast-acting 500V AC ceramic body fuses with current ratings ranging from 1.6A to 12.5A. With a high interrupting rating of 5000A at 500V AC, the 514 series fuses are ideal for high-voltage AC power line protection in HVAC and industrial systems. Littelfuse Littelfuse.com

Sensor chip Allegro MicroSystems, LLC has released a new three-axis linear Halleffect sensor IC that provides 12-bit digital output proportional to the field strength present in each of the X, Y and Z axes. The quiescent output value

(zero magnetic field applied) is at mid-scale. The ALS31300 is preconfigured and available for use in a joystick mode that includes crouch capability or single-ended X, Y and Z modes. It has been designed specifically for gaming, electric metering, white goods and industrial applications. Allegro MicroSystems www.allegromicro.com

System-in-packages u-blox has announced the latest member of its ZOE M8 series of ultra-small GNSS systems-in-packages (SiPs). The ZOE M8B is said to be industry’s most power-efficient GNSS SiP for small battery-powered consumer devices. It combines superior performance with ultra-low power to deliver an optimised solution for portable and wearable devices targeting the fitness, health monitoring and personal tracker markets. u-blox www.u-blox.com

5W AC-DC converters RECOM has developed low-cost, 5W AC/DC converters in a tiny 2.5x2.5cm2 package, offering an impressive power density of 7.7W/inch³. The RAC05-K series AC-DC converters are specially designed for IoT and factory automation applications. Low no-load power consumption of only 75mW and excellent light load efficiency make these ideal for ‘always-on’ IoT systems. RECOM Power www.recom-power.com

Infrared LED for iris recognition Everlight Electronics has introduced an infrared LED for iris recognition, the NIR-C19M Series. The LED with a wavelength of 810nm exerts a clear contrast effect to read the iris pattern. The www.efymag.com

New Products recognition process is precise and quick with excellent heat dissipation. This makes the LED suitable for iris recognition applications in security surveillance systems (access control) and portable handsets. Everlight Electronics Everlight.com

Power devices ROHM Semiconductor India has introduced an array of power devices like SiCs, IGBTs and gate drivers that improve the conversion efficiency and contribute in reducing the cost of renewable energy solutions. These products meet the harsh condition of India’s rapidly growing power infrastructure. The trench SiC-based inverters can reduce power loss by as much as 2 per cent compared to conventional devices like IGBTs and Si MOSFETs, while contributing towards miniaturisation. ROHM Semiconductor India www.rohm.com

RS-485 transceivers Intersil, a subsidiary of Renesas Electronics, has announced two new high-speed, isolated RS-485 differential bus transceivers that provide 40Mbps bidirectional data communication for Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) networks. The ISL32741E offers 1000Vrms working voltage and 6kV of reinforced isolation, which makes it suitable for today’s most rigorous medical and high-speed motor control applications. The ISL32740E with 2.5kV of isolation and 600V RMS working voltage enables high channel density for programmable logic controllers (PLCs) in factory automation applications. Intersil www.Intersil.com

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Field device connectors Phoenix Contact offers IP20+ connectors for signal, data and power applications. The product range includes up to 65-pin signal connectors, up to 150A power connectors, and data connectors for copper cabling and fibre-optics cabling for networks and fieldbuses like Ethernet, Profinet, Interbus, Profibus, DeviceNet and CANopen. Phoenix Contact India phoenixcontact.co.in

misCellaneous Metal-to-polymer bonding material DSM has developed a new material for nano mould technology (NMT) that provides direct metal-to-polymer bonding in glass cellphones designed with metal frames. With the highest mechanical strength and glass transition temperature (Tg) of all polyphthalamides, this material matches PEEK in temperature and chemical resistance, while outperforming PEEK in stiffness at high processing temperatures. The material ensures excellent flow for sufficient filling of micro and nano pores, and superior crystallisation behaviour for exceptionally high NMT bonding forces. DSM Engineering Plastics (India) www.dsm.com

AADHAAR-enabled biometric device Matrix has expanded its time-attendance portfolio with the release of an AADHAAR-enabled biometric attendance system. COSEC VEGA FAXQ is claimed to be the first embedded Linux-based, AADHAAR-enabled biometric device registered on AEBAS server. The

device offers advantages in terms of connectivity, technology, usage environment and ease of use. It supports fingerprint as well as Mifare smart card as credentials. Matrix Matrixcomsec.com

PowerLED high-mast light system BINAY’s high-reliability PowerLED high-mast light is designed as a replacement for 400W metal-halide high-mast fittings. All parts of this system that may ever require maintenance are at an accessible level at the bottom of the mast. Only the reliable parts (LEDs) are at the top. Using DC bus technology, the system provides greater reliability as well as dimming option, thus saving even more power during lowactivity periods—for example, after midnight, lights can be dimmed to 50 or 60 per cent. The MaxFlood24000ES/48LVDC 150W luminaire provides the equivalent light output of one 400W metal-halide lamp (which has a total consumption of 480W with the ballast). Binay Opto Electronics www.binayLED.com

PMMA diffuser Volga Innovations has introduced a premium, white acrylic sheet that provides both high transmission and excellent lamp hiding capabilities. The diffusion comes from a combination of a very fine surface texture and special diffusing additives. Lumieo Frost can be thermoformed and fabricated like other standard acrylic sheets. Custom sizes are available. Volga Innovations www.volgain.com www.efymag.com

First Look Price ` 1999

estyle

Price ` 65,990

EFY BuREAu

Multifunctional Smartwatch

Sony High-Power Audio System

That doubles as a fitness tracker

Your perfect party companion

Ambrane’s ASW-11 smartwatch not only shows you the time but also doubles as a fitness tracker. Also, it is Bluetooth-capable and compatible with Android smartphones. With several advanced features, broad rubber strap and sleek touchscreen, the watch is an accessory worth flaunting. Truly multifunctional, it allows you to accept or reject calls, or snooze an alarm. You can also set call or message reminders, and create to-do lists to manage your hectic schedule. With a fitness tracker at the flick of your wrist, you can monitor your sleep patterns as well as steps in a day with pedometer, or hydrate yourself at work with alerts—which also include sedentary reminder for your inactive lifestyle. When not connected to your smartphone, the device works as a standalone digital watch.

With brilliant lighting options and 2000W audio output, Sony’s MHC-V90DW wireless audio system is truly a party machine. The large tower design of its speaker means that music can be heard in the best possible way. MHC-V90DW features a spreadsound generator (an open back-type cabinet), which supports the spread and distance of highquality music. To increase the range and spread of sound, front-facing mid-range angled speakers and tweeters are angled outward at 20 degrees. With a wave of the hand, various options can be controlled through gesture control. MHC-V90DW is also equipped with motion control feature to manage track selection. This smart technology can drive a smartphone’s motion with a simple left and right shake to change tracks, play and pause favourite tracks, and also manage the volume control. With the Sony Music Center and Fiestable mobile apps, the system can wirelessly (via Wi-Fi) synchronise with up to ten compatible speakers for an all-encompassing party experience.

Portable Bluetooth Speaker With blue LED ring light Zebronics has launched super-compact and stylish ‘Noble’ speaker. Compact enough to fit in the palm of your hand, the speaker plays loud and distortion-free music. Its battery is capable of up to 120-minute playback on a single charge. The metallic-finish speaker seamlessly pairs up with your mobile or any Bluetooth device. In addition, a built-in microphone allows you to make and receive calls at the press of a button. With a range of about 10 metres, the speaker is compatible with Micro SD card/AUX input. It also comes with built-in FM, making it ideal for outdoor entertainment.

Price ` 777

3D Writer A fun tool for arts and crafts enthusiasts PTron has introduced a three-dimensional (3D) writing pen that can handle crafting to drawing. A creative design gadget, it allows 3D sketching and tracing of shapes from templates to make larger architectural structures, appealing to individuals with passion for creativity and innovative technology. It will also be of interest to hobbyists, artists, designers and educational establishments as it allows creation of amazing 3D objects. The pen has an LED display screen and speed controller, and works in hot-melt extrusion moulding mode. It works over temperature range of 160 to 230 degrees Celsius (adjustable). The pen size is 187x44x30mm3 with a nozzle diameter of 0.7mm.

Price `1699 www.efymag.com

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Price DBS004: ` 1595

Price DBS005: ` 2995

first look

Portable Bluetooth Speakers

Capable of uninterrupted playback for up to 8 hours

Digitek has launched two premium Bluetooth speakers for audiophiles and music enthusiasts. A perfect blend of style and functionality, 6W DBS004 and 12W DBS005 make an ideal companion for sports activities, camping or pool parties. Super-portable, trendy and waterproof, the palm-sized DBS004 speaker is IPX5-enabled, which means it is water-resistant. Its built-in 600mAh Li-ion battery plays uninterrupted music for 3-8 hours with just 2-3 hours of charging. Built-in microphone supports hands-free call for 4-5 hours at a stretch and supports Bluetooth, AUX IN, TF card as well as FM radio. DBS005 packs big sound into an ultra-compact design and can easily connect with your smartphone, iPad, MP3/MP4 player or laptop. Other than TF card and FM radio, it also supports LINE IN and USB. Its built-in Li-ion rechargeable battery of 1500mAh promises playtime of 6-8 hours and call time of 4-5 hours. Both the speakers support Bluetooth 4.2+EDR, which has a range of up to 10 metres.

4G Smartphone

Selfie Camera Phone

Loaded with powerful performance With Full View display at an affordable price Mafe Mobile has launched a valuefor-money 4G smartphone, called AIR. The phone has a 10.2cm (4-inch) FWVGA (800x480-pixel) display, which offers a rich movie viewing and game play experience. Powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core Spreadtrum processor, 2GB RAM and latest Android 7.0 Nougat OS, AIR makes multi-tasking a breeze. You can watch movies, chat and play games without draining the device performance! Featuring a 5MP rear camera with LED flash and a 2MP front camera, AIR is equipped with a 2000mAh Liion battery with 10 hours of talk time and 22 hours of standby time. Internal memory storage is 16GB, which is expandable up to 32GB. Other useful features include GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi hotspot, gravity and proximity sensor, and FM radio.

Redefine the selfie experience with the revolutionary 24MP HD selfie camera of Vivo V7+ smartphone. An advanced Bokeh mode lets you blur the background with sharper contrast and visual appeal of the subject. The phone also renders an all-new gaming experience with its 18:9 Full View display. Further, the exclusive pure game mode allows users to play uninterrupted by cancelling incoming calls and messages. V7+ is said to be the first Snapdragon SDM450 phone to launch in India. It runs on Funtouch OS 3.2 based on Android 7.1. Powered by 4GB RAM and 64GB ROM, which is expandable up to 256GB, it allows smooth multitasking and easy operation. Exciting features for new-age customers include phone unlocking by facial recognition, smart screen split, eye protection mode and app clone (two separate user accounts to log into various applications).

Price ` 21,990 Price ` 3999

GizMo ByTes Access incompatible files on Android TV-supported devices If you download video content to play from external storage on Android TV and want something easy to use, then Paragon USB Android app is right for you. This app allows you to conveniently transfer files between Android devices and Windows or Mac-formatted (exFAT, NTFS, FAT32 or HFS+) USB flash drives. So you can watch HD and 4K video files from any USB storage device using Windows or macOS file system formats directly on your Android TV devices.   

Recreate scenes with video editing mobile app

Magic video maker and editor LIKE has launched a new magic effect that enables users to re-create stunt scenes in Iron Man without any cost. The developers named this amazing effect as ‘LIKE Rocket.’ Users only need to record a normal video and add effects via LIKE, and then magic scenes like flying in the air just like in Iron Man can be easily realised. With special effects such as LIKE Rocket, Ant Man and many more, anyone gets the ‘power’ to fly up and down in their video. The app allows creative talents to create even more stunning scenes than the movies within a few minutes. It is available on Google Play and iOS app stores.

Google payment app for India Search engine giant Google has launched a new digital payment app called Google Tez for the Indian market. In addition to English, the app supports seven Indian languages, and is available for both Android and iOS platforms. Google Tez links to a user’s bank account, like Apple Pay and Android Pay, and lets users transfer money, receive payments and pay for purchases.

The most powerful chip for smartphones launched Apple claims its A11 Bionic 64-bit, 6-core processor to be the “most powerful and smartest chip ever in a smartphone.” The chip features 4.3 billion transistors and its two performance cores are 25 per cent faster than the A10 chip, while the four high-efficiency cores are 70 per cent faster than A10. It also includes Apple’s second-generation performance controller, which handles multithread workloads 70 per cent faster than the current controller. The A11 Bionic powers the new iPhone 8 and iPhone X.

The prices, features and specifications are based on information provided to us, or as available on various websites and portals. EFY cannot vouch for their accuracy.

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www.efymag.com

do-it-yourself estyle

Turn Your Android Phone Into Home Security camera efy bureau

F

you can name your device, or those who do not Comparison of Home seCurity choose to keep audio ‘on,’ want to invest in apps for android deviCes select notification settings separate surveillance features manything alfred atHome ip Webcam and so on cameras and go through the Yes Yes Yes Yes 3. Once you have fixed the hassle of installation, config- Live streaming Yes Yes Yes camera screen, leave it ‘on’ uring a spare Android smart- Motion sensor and alerts Yes Sound recording No No No Yes for recording phone to serve the purpose Cloud storage Yes (Paid) Yes Yes Yes 4. Place the camera-phone in is the best option. You can Two-way talk Yes Yes Yes Yes the area you want to cover, use your smartphone to inensuring that the area has a vigilate your premises, alert iOS or Android Both Both Both Both power socket to charge the deyou during any unexpected Night vision No Yes Yes Yes vice and good Wi-Fi coverage. motion, or answer your door After setting up the camera and communicate with whoever is on Alfred. Alfred application setup the other end. The best part is that requires a valid Gmail account of the device, prepare your monitoring device—your regular phone or your home security applications are free user. You can add multiple camera and supported by almost all operating devices to your account—each device computer—as follows: 1. Download an appropriate applicasystems and devices, while the setup will require the application to be intion to this device. It may be the requires hardware you already have! stalled separately, but logged in with same application or a different the same Gmail account. What you need interface from the same vendor, deAtHome. Two separate apps pending on your original selection are required to complete the whole • Smartphone (or tablet) that you 2. Log in with the account used setup—the app to be downloaded will use as the security camera for the other device. Additional on the phone for recording is called • Device (another smartphone, steps for establishing a network computer or tablet) that you will AtHome Home Security, while anbetween the devices may or may other app used to view live streaming use to monitor the stream feeds not be required from the monitoring device is called and receive notifications 3. Now you will be able to view the AtHome Video Streamer—Monitor. • Suitable mobile application of streams on your mobile or comThe two devices can be connected your choice puter, whichever you have used with the help of a unique connection • Power source to keep the phone to setup the monitoring system. ID (CID) or a QR code. being used as security camera IP Webcam. IP Webcam is charged Tips quite popular. In addition to regu• Wi-Fi network at home lar features, it enables sensor data • Generally, rear cameras have betWhich application to use? acquisition and analytics in its ter resolution and quality. So it is advanced applications. advisable to use a rear camera as From an exhaustive list of available the main recording camera security apps for Android, you can seWhat you have to do • Fix the camera such that it covers lect one that suits your requirements: a bigger area. You may choose Manything. Besides common 1. Download the selected applicato use external lenses as well to features of live streaming, motion tion on your spare smartphone (or increase the field of view detection, alert notification, night tablet) and create a login account vision and two-way interaction, 2. Select the option to add a camera. • For any application related problem, restart the application or check Manything allows users to customise Once done, personalise security your network connection its functionality. camera settings. For example, www.efymag.com

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Buyers’ Guide estyle

Smart Camera To Secure Your Home

H

ome security cameras are becoming smart with in-built Wi-Fi connectivity, motion sensors, real-time streaming and so on. Also, in the market, there are numerous options to choose from, varying in price and features. In this article we list the must-have features for your security camera.

Paromik Chakraborty is a technical journalist at EFY

116

Features to look for For indoor use like in homes, the preferable mode of connectivity is Wi-Fi with dual-band support (2.4GHz and 5.0GHz). Dual-band compatibility ensures smooth and uninterrupted connection and streaming. While it is a must, the parameters mentioned below are equally important: Video quality and live streaming. Video quality of a security camera directly impacts the streaming data usage. A large number of products in the market offer 720p resolution, which is HD quality. Many products also offer 1080p video capture. However, higher the video quality, larger the storage space required. Data consumed for streaming will also be significantly higher and streaming speed may be slower, depending on the Wi-Fi connection. The battery will also be proportionately consumed. However, higher-resolution cameras provide the option to change the resolution settings as required. Go for a security camera with image quality between 1.3 and 2.0 megapixels. Sensorised security and image capture. Motion and audio

october 2017 | electronics For You

sensors allow the camera to inform users about unanticipated movement in their premises. Make sure that you choose a camera that gives minimal false positives—false alarms due to the motion and sound of an animal. Sensor-based security feature allows mobile-based notifications, specific image capture and also video highlight. So you can be alerted to check the live feed. Storage options. Higher storage is always an added benefit. Smart cameras usually come with a microSD slot. The higher the expansion supported, the better for you. MicroSD storage ranges from

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buyers’ guide 16GB to 128GB. Smart cameras are also capable of storing images on a cloud server. The storage limit over cloud depends on the subscription ratings set by the vendor. Look for both microSD as well as cloud storage options. However, before purchase, check streaming and storage security standards with the vendor. Field-of-view and zoom capacity. The lens’ field-of-view is the extent of area it can cover in a specific position. Larger field-of-view is always better and should be preferably 180 degrees. You can get decent options in lower field-of-view (within 120 degrees) as well, but these will have less coverage area. Make sure that zoom capacity is at least 21x. Audio support and night vision. Check whether the camera is audio-compatible, i.e., able to store audio along with video. An audio-compatible device will allow two-way interactions as well, so you can answer your door and interact with the person on the other side directly through your camera system. Night vision is beneficial for surveillance of your premises during night time. Mobile app control. Most smart cameras can be controlled remotely through a smartphone or tablet using mobile application. Check the interface for ease of use. Mobile applications also allow features like remote live streaming of videos, stored video access from anywhere via cloud and two-way interaction including audio. Some mobile applications even provide analytics.

Options in the market While the cost of a smart security camera varies depending on the features offered and the quality of the product, it usually lies bewww.eFYmag.com

tween ` 3000 and ` 7000 per unit. High-end devices can cost up to ` 18,000 a unit. Some of the smart security cameras available in the Indian market are mentioned below: D3D Fisheye Vision offers a 360-degree surveillance with 128GB SD card support, 720p HD video quality (streamable as well as accessible through cloud), two-way audio and surveillance through five angles. The product is priced at ` 3850. Sricam SP005 is a Wi-Fidriven, HD camera with basic features like motion detection and alert, horizontal and vertical rotation, two way-audio and 128GB memory expansion. It is priced at ` 3000. DIY Cam India’s E91i is an HD Wi-Fi camera with night vision, motion detection alert and 1MP image capture capability. It supports a 128GB SD card and cloud connectivity. The price is ` 4299. YI home camera is an affordable option at a price of just ` 2500. The camera offers 720p HD video, 111-degree field-of-view, two-way audio, anti-noise filter and more. It also comes in full HD (1080p) option, which costs around ` 5000. Samsung smartcam HD pro is a high-end, Wi-Fi-enabled, full HD (1080p) camera with all the important features including security notification, H.264 compression technology to reduce false alarms, 2MP image quality and 111-degree field-of-view with coverage up to 4.8 metres (16 feet). It costs as much as ` 18,000.

Last but not the least There are lot many affordable options available in the market. Compare all in terms of warranty period and subscription offers to get the best deal. electronics For You | october 2017

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Do-it-yourself

am bh Shu ain & S Go Theo i San

Automatic Drip irrigation SyStem VasaVi sai VPDK anD aruP sarKar

C

transistor is used to drive relay RL1. DC motor pump M1 is connected between the normally-open (N/O) pin and pole of the relay. If the soil is dry, i.e., the ground voltage is greater than the reference Circuit and working voltage, the microcontroller (ATmega16) gives a logic-1 output signal. Circuit of the automatic drip irThe transistor conducts to energise rigation system is shown in Fig. relay RL1 (as its pole pin comes in IC2 3 1 contact with the Vcc D0 GND 7805 VR1 10K R1 MOISTURE BATT.1 N/O pin) and the 680E 2 CON3 SENSOR motor turns on C1 YL−38 C2 LED1 470u 0.1u POWER with power supply 25V CON1 10 30 FOR R2 provided from the Vcc AVcc 220E 9V 1 PB0 PA0 40 battery. T1 2 PB1 PA1 39 BC548 3 PB2 PA2 38 When the soil 4 PB3 M1= 12V DC MOTOR PA3 37 5 is wet, i.e., soil PB4 PA4 36 PUMP 6 PB5 PA5 35 voltage is less RL1=12V, 1C/O RELAY 7 PB6 PA6 34 8 PB7 PA7 33 N/O IC1 than the refer9 RST AREF 32 14 PD0 ATMEGA16 PC7 29 ence voltage, the 15 PD1 PC6 28 N/C 16 PD2 27 logic-0 signal of PC5 M1 RL1 R3 17 PD3 PC4 26 the microcon10K 18 PD4 PC3 25 19 PD5 PC2 24 S1 troller turns the BATT.2 20 PD6 PC1 23 RESET 21 PD7 PC0 22 transistor, and 11 GND GND 31 C3 hence the motor XTAL2 XTAL1 CON2 10u FOR 16V 13 switches ‘off.’ 12 12V R4 The motor 220E pump status (‘on’ GND or ‘off’) and soil Fig. 1: Circuit of automatic drip irrigation system condition (‘dry’ or ‘wet’) are displayed on LCD1. 1. It has three Fig. 2 shows the author’s protosections: sensor, type with the moisture sensors emmicrocontroller bedded in the soil to be monitored. and water-pump motor circuits. The sensor circuit detects soil condition by measuring the soil voltage and comparing it with a reference Fig. 3: Author’s prototype indicating the motor status in wet soil condition voltage. A BC548 Fig. 2: Author’s prototype watering the plant in a flower pot Vss

1

VO

VDD

D7 D6 D5

LCD1

16x2 LCD

D4

5

R/W EN

4

15

6

RS

7

LED−

8

october 2017 | electronics For You

16

9

D1 1N4007

D3

10

D2

11

D1

12

D0

13

LED+

14

118

3

Here we present such an automated plant watering system that senses the moisture level of the soil and automatically switches the pump on when the power is ‘on.’

2

onventional irrigation method wastes a lot of water, leading to a high cost of electricity to run the pumpset for irrigation. Automation can help save water, electricity as well as human efforts. This can be achieved with the help of a single soil-moisture sensor and an AVR microcontroller.

www.eFYmag.com

Do-it-yourself Software The software was developed using four tools: CodeVisionAVR, Proteus, SinaProg and PCB Wizard. CodeVisionAVR. The coding and hex file were generated using the Evaluation version of CodeVisionAVR tool. In CodevisionAVR, T1 open a new project and select ‘Target AVR Chip’ as ATmega. Select the ATmega16 chip with RL1 8MHz clock frequency, followed by output port as Port B0. Then select ‘ADC Enabled’ option and set voltage referFig. 4: Proteus simulation without DC motor ence as AREF pin with circuit programmer for Atmel AVR 1000kHz clock. Next, select ‘Enable controllers, similar to AVRuPro+ Alphanumeric LCD Support’ option board. It consists of an ATMega88 followed by Port C (PC0-RP6) with or an ATMega8 and a few passive 16 characters. components. The programmer In ‘Program’ menu, select ‘Genuses a firmware-only USB driver, erate, Save and Exit’ option. Save requiring no particular USB controlthe file three times with the same ler. It is used along with SinaProg name but different extensions as software to burn the hex file into indicated by the software. In the the controller. coding window, start code within SinaProg. SinaProg software the while loop to read the sensor is used to burn the hex code and output signal at AD0 pin of the set fuse bits for the AVR microconmicrocontroller. Next, put a conditroller. It is a good software tool for tion if reference voltage 2V is greater hobbyists and experimenters alike. than or equal to the sensor signal. Connect the AVR USB programmer Then build the entire project file to such as USBasp to your PC. Load produce the hex file. the hex code, select the device Proteus. Open Proteus simulaprogrammer and set the fuses tion tool, create a new file, then (Int.2MHz) as shown in Fig. 7. open the library and select the PCB Wizard. PCB Wizard is required components (Fig. 4). To used to design the circuit board. simulate the code, double-click Open the tool and select the the controller (U1) and insert the required components from the hex file. Simulation runs when the PCB component gallery. (You can sensed voltage is higher than the also use any other PCB designreference voltage (2V). The LCD ing tool such as open source shows that the soil is dry and the software gEDA.) motor is ‘on.’ When the sensed voltage is less than the reference voltConstruction and testing age, the LCD shows the soil as ‘wet’ and the motor as ‘off.’ An actual-size PCB layout of the USBasp. USBasp is a USB inautomatic drip irrigation system www.eFYmag.com

Parts List Semiconductors: IC1 - ATmega16 microcontroller IC2 - 7805, 5V voltage regulator LED1 - 5mm LED D1 - 1N4007 rectifier diode T1 - BC548 npn transistor Resistors (all 1/4-watt, ±5% carbon): R1 - 680-ohm R2, R4 - 220-ohm R3 - 10-kilo-ohm VR1 - 10-kilo-ohm preset Capacitors: C1 - 470μF, 25V electrolytic C2 - 0.1μF ceramic disk C3 - 10μF, 16V electrolytic Miscellaneous: LCD1 - 16x2 LCD module CON1, CON2 - 2-pin terminal connector CON3 - 3-pin berg strip female connector S1 - Tactile switch RL1 - 12V, 1C/O relay M1 - 12V DC motor aquarium pump BATT.1 - 9V PP3 battery BATT.2 - 12V battery/12V DC, 1A power supply - 40-pin IC base for IC1 - Heat-sink for IC2 - YL-38 and YL-69 moisture sensor

is shown in Fig. 5 and its components layout in Fig. 6. After assembling the circuit, enclose it in a suitable box. First, program the microcontroller with the hex code and place electronics For You | october 2017

119

Do-it-yourself

Fig. 5: Actual-size PCB layout of automatic drip irrigation system

it on the PCB. Connect the moisture sensor to the circuit, ensuring that Vcc, GND and D0 pins are properly connected. Note that the moisture sensor includes YL-38 and YL-69 modules. YL-38 is basically a driver and isolator for YL-69 moisture probe (Fig. 8). YL-38 has four pins (Vcc, GND, D0 and A0) on one side, and two pins on the other side, which are used to connect the prongs/probes (YL-69) that are to be inserted into the soil. D0 pin is used for digital output and A0 pin (not used in this project) is used for analogue output. The module also has a potentiometer to calibrate the sensitivity of the sensor. Connect a 9V battery to the circuit. Regulator IC 7805 provides regulated 5V output to run the circuit. Note that you can also use a 12V DC power supply depending on your motor pump. During testing at EFY Lab, a 12V DC supply was used for the water motor pump. To test the project, insert the sensor probe into the soil. Switch on the power supply to the circuit. If the soil is dry, the motor will automatically turn on and the LCD will show ‘Dry soil, Motor on’ message. You can further extend this 120

october 2017 | electronics For You

Fig. 6: Components layout for the PCB

Fig. 8: Prongs with driver

Fig. 7: SinaProg window

project to make a practical drip irrigation system. Typically, a drip irrigation system requires some special

efy Note

The source code of this project is included in this month’s EFY DVD and is also available for free download at source. efymag.com

components and control systems. For example, you may need distribution lines (both large- and smalldiameter pipes and pipe fittings), electronic or hydraulic control valves, poly fittings and accessories (to make connections), emitters, drippers or spray heads depending on the design and application. Vasavi Sai VPDK (left) is an editorial member of International Journal of Information Technology. His interests include LED fabrication and designing, embedded systems, home automation, VLSI and FPGA. He has published research papers in international journals. Arup Sarkar (right) is co-founder of briefbay.com website

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Fig. 1: Block diagram of single-wire 4x4 keypad www.efymag.com

4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

TP0

RS D1 D2

TP3

3

2

D7

VDD

D6

D5

D4

D3

16x2 LCD

LCD1

VO

Vss

1

XTAL2

13 12

XTAL1

40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 30 31

PA0 PB0 PA1 PB1 PA2 PB2 PA3 PB3 PA4 PB4 PA5 PB5 PA6 PB6 PA7 PB7 IC2 PC7 RST PC6 ATMEGA32 PD7 PC5 PD6 PC4 PD5 PC3 PD4 PC2 PD3 PC1 PD2 PC0 (TXD)PD1 AVCC (RXD)PD0 GND GND

AREF

Vcc

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 11

R18 1K

VR1 1K 10

32

TP4 C3 120p

R16 S16

R15 S15

R14 S14

R13

S13

R4

S4

R3

R2

S2

S3

R1

S1

R19 1K

TP2

R12 S12

R11 S11

R10 S10

R9

S9

R5

R6

R7

R8

S6

S7

S8

BR1 1A

R1 − R16 = REFER TABLE − I

GND

C2 10u 16V

C1 1000u 35V

2

IC1 7805

LED1 POWER

R17 180E

N S5

4x4 KEYPAD

X1

MICROCONTROLLER ATMEGA 32

L

POWER SUPPLY

S17 ON/OFF SWITCH

16x2 LCD

TP1

1

Complete circuit diagram of the single-wire 4x4 matrix keypad using AVR is shown in Fig. 2. It is built

A/VEE

D0

EN R/W

K

R20 220E

3

Circuit and working

around step-down transformer X1, 16 pushbutton switches (S1 through S16), 16 resistors (R1 through R16), a 5V regulator 7805 (IC1), an ATmega32 microcontroller (IC2), an LCD (LCD1) and a few other components. It has three sections: power supply, display and keypad. Power supply. The 230V AC mains is stepped down by a 230V AC primary to 9V, 250mA secondary transformer (X1), rectified by a bridge rectifier module (BR1) and filtered by capacitors C1 and C2. The voltage is regulated by 7805 regulator IC. LED1 glows to indicate the presence of power in the circuit. The regulated 5V DC powers the microcontroller and LCD1. You can also use a 9V AC mains adaptor to drive the circuit. Switch S17 is used to power the circuit. Connect switch S17 to 9V if you do not use transformer X1. Display. The project uses a 16x2, Hitachi HD44780-con- Fig. 2: Circuit diagram of single-wire 4x4 keypad X1 = 230V AC PRIMARY TO 9V, 250mA SEC0NDARY TRANSFORMER

T

his tutorial demonstrates a different way of interfacing a 4x4 matrix keypad with ATmega32 AVR microcontroller. Keypad is one of the most important input devices used in electronics projects. It is one of the easiest ways to give commands or instructions to an electronic system. But when designing a traditional matrix keypad, you require more number of input/ output (I/O) pins. For example, if you are developing a 4x4 keypad of 16 keys, you require eight digital I/O lines of the microcontroller device. This project uses only a single analogue pin to achieve the same goal, so the remaining pins are available for other purposes. Fig. 1 shows the block diagram of the single-wire keypad with liquidcrystal display (LCD). The system consists of a 4x4 keypad that inputs data to the microcontroller through a single wire, ATmega32 microcontroller for processing the received signal, power supply section and a 16x2 LCD for displaying the keys.

230V AC

NitiN KisaN Khaire

16

Single-Wire 4×4 Matrix Keypad Using AVR

15

Do-it-yourself

. S.C Di e v i Dw

electronics for you | october 2017

121

Do-it-yourself trolled LCD module (LCD1) for display. Typically, a 16-character, 2-line LCD module has eight data lines (D0 through D7) for data transfer. In this project only four data lines (D4 through D7) are used for data transfer. Data lines D0 through D3 are disabled. Data transfer between HD44780 and the microcontroller completes after the 4-bit data is transferred twice. Port-D pins PD0 through PD3 of the microcontroller (IC2) are connected to data lines D4 through D7 of LCD1. LCD1 control lines, i.e., read/write (R/W), register-select (RS) and enable (EN), are connected to PD5, PD4 and PD6 of IC2, respectively. Keypad. A total of 16 pushbutton switches are used and arranged in a 4x4 keypad matrix on the PCB. One terminal of each pushbutton is connected to common ground, while the other terminal is connected to resistors R1 through R16 in series. Refer Fig. 2 and Table I for details. In this project, we use the voltage divider circuit principle for identification of each key/switch pressed. Here, 1-kilo-ohm resistor R19 is fixed and connected to 5V power supply as shown in Fig. 2. When you press any pushbutton switch, the corresponding resistor, which is connected in series with the pushbutton, comes in picture to form a voltage divider circuit. As a result, you get a variable voltage at pin 39 (PA1) of IC2, which is analogue-to-digital converter channel-1 pin or ADC1 pin of the microcontroller. Voltage obtained at ADC1 pin is given by the relationship: Vout=Vin×{Ri/(R19+Ri)} R19 has a constant value of one kilo-ohm and Vin is also a constant value of 5V. Ri value is decided when you press any of the pushbutton keys from the keypad. It can be any of the resistors R1 through whose values are listed in Table I.

Software program To work with Atmel AVR microcontroller using ‘C’ programming lan122

october 2017 | electronics for you

Resistor Value in expected at pa1/adC1 ohms (Volt)

adC count value

R1

100

0.455

93

R2

200

0.833

171

R3

300

1.154

236

R4

400

1.429

293

R5

500

1.667

341

R6

600

1.875

394

R7

700

2.059

422

R8

800

2.222

455

module, LCD1 and keypad using ‘C’ program. Working is very simple as all pushbuttons or switches are connected to only one pin of the microcontroller (ADC1). The program reads the input switches through ADC1 pin periodically. After decoding the ADC value, the corresponding switch number/value is displayed on LCD1. Hysteresis approach is used for each pushbutton to analyse the ADC value, and based on that value, the program detects/ decodes the pushbutton being pressed. The decoding is done using following functions:

R9

900

2.368

485

Display_Key_on_LCD (unsigned long ADC_

R10

1000

2.500

512

value)

R11

1100

2.619

536

R12

1200

2.727

559

R13

1300

2.826

579

R14

1400

2.917

597

R15

1500

3.000

614

R16

1600

3.077

630

Table I

ResIsToRs and CoRRespondIng adC Values

guage, you need two software tools: AVR Studio and WinAVR. Both of these tools are freely available for download from the Internet. The program for the microcontroller is written in ‘C’ language using AVR Studio 4. ‘C’ program functions. Functions are written for the ADC Parts List Semiconductors: IC1 - 7805, 5V voltage regulator IC2 - ATmega32 microcontroller - 1A bridge rectifier BR1 LED1 - 5mm LED Resistors (all 1/4-watt, ±5% carbon): R1-R16 - Refer Table I R17 - 180-ohm R18, R19 - 1-kilo-ohm R20 - 220-ohm VR1 - 1-kilo-ohm preset Capacitors: C1 - 1000µF, 35V electrolytic C2 - 10µF, 16V electrolytic C3 - 120pF ceramic disk Miscellaneous: CON1 - 2-pin terminal connector LCD1 - 16×2 LCD module HD44780 - Pushbutton switch S1-S16 - On/off switch S17 X1 - 230V AC primary to 9V, 250mA secondary transformer - 230V AC mains power supply

// This function prints the key pressed on the LCD after decoding the ADC value DisplayKeyPressed()

// This function executes every 100 msec ReadKey()

// This function is used for acquiring ADC value on ADC1 pin Compiling and programming. AVR Studio is an integrated development environment that includes an editor, assembler, etc. WinAVR is a GCC-based compiler for AVR. It also includes a program called Programmer’s Notepad that can be used to edit and compile ‘C’ programs. WinAVR setup file is available at http://winavr.sourceforge.net/ Remember to install AVR Studio before installing WinAVR. First, launch AVR Studio from the desktop. You need to create a new project for the main.c code. Next, click ‘Build→Rebuild All’ to compile the ‘C’ code. If there is no error message, a file called Single_wire.hex will be generated. This file contains the machine code that is ready to be programmed into the ATmega32 microcontroller. The file is stored in sub-folder ‘\ default’ of your project. If there are error messages, check your ‘C’ code. Most often these are caused by some typo or syntax errors. www.efymag.com

Do-it-yourself

Fig. 3: Actual-size PCB layout of the single-wire 4x4 keypad

Fig. 4: Components layout for the PCB

Burn the hex code into the chip using any standard AVR programmer. At EFY Lab, we used ProgISP programmer to burn the hex code into the AVR microcontroller. Fig. 5: Message on the LCD when the circuit is powered on

Construction and testing An actual-size PCB layout of the single-wire 4x4 keypad is shown in Fig. 3 and its components layout

efy Note

Fig. 6: Message on the LCD when pushbutton S13 is pressed www.efymag.com

The source code of this project is included in this month’s EFY DVD and is also available for free download at source. efymag.com

in Fig. 4. After assembling the circuit, enclose it in a suitable box. Connect the secondary of transformer X1 to connector CON1 and primary to the AC mains via power cord. Mount LCD1 on the PCB and put the assembled PCB in a small cabinet. Fix switch S17 on the front side of the cabinet to switch on the circuit. Testing is relatively simple and user-friendly. When you connect 9V power supply to the circuit via switch S17, LED1 glows, indicating the presence of power supply in the circuit. Wait for initialisation of LCD1 and microcontroller IC2. If everything is fine, you will see ‘No Key Press’ message on the LCD, as shown in Fig. 5. You can press any pushbutton. The corresponding value is displayed on the LCD. Fig. 6 shows the message on the LCD when pushbutton S13 is pressed. First, check proper power supply at test point TP1 with respect to TP0. The voltmeter should read 9V-12V. Next, check the voltage at TP2, which should be 5V. If you don’t get 5V, either 7805 is faulty or there is some connection problem (short or open) in the circuit. At TP3, check 5V supply for LCD1. Vary LCD1 contrast control by turning the preset (VR1) wiper right or left till you get text characters displayed on LCD1. Now, press switch S1 and check the voltage between TP4 and TP0. It shall be approx 0.455V. Repeat the same steps for all the keys by referring to Table I. Nitin Kisan Khaire has many years of experience in product development and software validation. He has worked for engraving machine development using CPLD, FPGA and microcontrollers

electronics for you | october 2017

123

CON1 L FOR X1

D2 1N4007

12V GND

C5 33p

XTAL1 11.0592MHz

C4 33p

C1 1000u 35V

2

IC1 7805

3

5

4

11

9

8

7

6

3

2

XTAL1

XTAL2

P3.7

P3.5

Vcc

P1.3

P1.4

P1.5

P1.6

P1.7

GND

P1.0

P1.1

P1.2

AT89C2051

P3.4

R5 8.2K

IC2

P3.3 (INT1)

P3.2 (INT0)

P3.1 (TXD)

P3.0 (RXD)

RST

16V

16V

1

C3 10u

C2 100u

10

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

RNW1 10K

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Fig. 2: Circuit diagram of 4x4x4 LED cube using AT89C2051

N

0

12V

D1 1N4007

1

R4 10K

T4 BC547

R3 10K

T3 BC547

R2 10K

T2 BC547

R1 10K

T1 BC547

LED7

LED4

LED10

LED5

T

A

B

LED13 LED17

S

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Q

LED11

LED6

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D

LED25

LED14 LED18

LED8

LED3

E

LED29

LED22

LED15

LED9

F

G

LED37

H

LED41 LED45

I

LED53

K

LED49

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LED46 LED50

LED38 LED42 LED30 LED34

LED26

LED33

LED44 LED47 LED40

LED31 LED35

LED23 LED27

LED19

IC3 74HC154

L

M

LED56 LED59

LED54

LED36 LED39

STAGE3 LED24 LED28 LED32

LED16 LED20

STAGE2 LED12

A1

STAGE1

A3

LED2

23

A0

22

A2 21

october 2017 | electronics For You 20

124 E2

Fig. 1: Author’s prototype E1

Circuit and working 18

Fig. 1 shows the author’s prototype of the 4x4x4 LED cube. The complete circuit is shown in Fig. 2. It is built around an AT89C2051 microcontroller (IC2), a 4-to-16 decoder 74HC154 (IC3), four BC547 transistors (T1 through T4) and a few other components. The power supply section is built around a LED1

T

his 4x4x4 LED cube for use in science laboratories is very easy to assemble. Its LEDs light up in different patterns, creating mesmerising lighting effects. 19

X1 = 230V AC PRIMARY TO 12V − 0− 12V, 500mA SECONDARY TRANSFORMER

Pamarthi KanaKaraja

230V AC

LED63

N

O

LED64

LED60

LED57

LED61

LED62

LED55

LED58

LED52

LED51

STAGE4 LED43 LED48

4×4×4 LED CubE Using AT89C2051

1 Y0 2 Y1 3 Y2 4 Y3 5 Y4 Y5 6 7 Y6 8 Y7 9 Y8 10 Y9 11 Y10 13 Y11 14 Y12 15 Y13 16 Y14 17 Y15

P

. S.C Di ive w D

Do-it-yourself

GND

12

Vcc 24

www.eFYmag.com

Do-it-yourself step-down transformer (X1), two 1N4007 rectifier diodes (D1 and D2) and a 5V regulator 7805 (IC1). The cube uses 64 green LEDs to make a 4 rows×16 columns structure. All the LEDs are wired to

74HC154 decoder and AT89C2051 microcontroller. AT89C2051 is a 20pin MCS-51 family controller having only two input/output ports. To control individual LEDs for different display patterns, the 4 rows First Layer

Negative Positive

Second Layer

(a)

(b)

Fig. 3: Tips for soldering: (a) Placement of LEDs on the template, and (b) Bending/pulling the negative lead

Fig. 4: Final structure of the 4x4x4 LED cube

are controlled by BC547 transistors (T1 through T4). Port pins P1.0 through P1.3 control row transistors T4 through T1, respectively, and pins P1.4 through P1.7 control decoder IC3 with the help of the software program. First, using a button cell battery or multimeter in diode mode, check each LED for proper working. This may sound tedious but, in the end, it will safeguard your project! Cube construction. Construct LED layers from the topmost layer

Fig. 5: Actual-size PCB layout of the 4x4x4 LED cube

126

october 2017 | electronics For You

(first layer) down towards the base layer (fourth layer) on the PCB. Take a template, preferably a cardboard with holes as shown in Fig. 3(a). Hole-tohole distance is about 25.4mm. The cardboard helps in holding the LEDs during lead soldering. Insert 16 LEDs into the holes and bend the negative (cathode/shorter) leads 90º outwards using needlenose pliers. Solder negative leads of all the LEDs in the first layer. Next, solder positive leads of all the LEDs in the first layer to the positive leads of the LEDs in the second layer as shown in Fig. 3(b). Connect the subsequent layers in this manner. Solder positive leads of all the LEDs in the fourth layer to the PCB board. The final structure of the 4x4x4 LED cube is shown in Fig. 4.

Software The circuit is controlled using the software program loaded into the internal 2kB memory of AT89C2051. The program implements all the required functionalities. It is written in embedded C programming language and compiled using Keil µvision 4 IDE. The code has five loops (stage1, Parts List Semiconductors: IC1 - 7805, 5V voltage regulator - AT89C2051 microcontroller IC2 IC3 - 74HC154 decoder T1-T4 - BC547 npn transistor D1, D2 - 1N4007 rectifier diode LED1-LED64 - 5mm LED Resistors (all 1/4-watt, ±5% carbon): R1-R4 - 10-kilo-ohm R5 - 8.2-kilo-ohm - 10-kilo-ohm resistor network RNW1 Capacitors: C1 - 1000µF, 35V electrolytic C2 - 100µF, 16V electrolytic C3 - 10µF, 16V electrolytic - 33pF ceramic disk C4, C5 Miscellaneous: X1 - 230V AC primary to 12V-0-12V, 500mA secondary transformer CON1 - 3-pin connector CON2 - 16-pin connector - 4-pin connector CON3 XTAL1 - 11.0592MHz - 230V AC mains - 20-pin IC socket - 24-pin IC socket - Head-sink for IC1

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Fig. 6: Components layout for the PCB

stage2, stage3, stage4 and stage5) for demo purpose to show how you can control the 4x4x4 LED cube. You can include many more loops to create amazing lighting effects and patterns. The hex code generated by the compiler is programmed into the

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microcontroller. At EFY Lab, ProgISP programmer was used to program the IC.

Construction and testing An actual-size, single-side PCB for the 4x4x4 LED cube using

efy Note

The source code of this project is included in this month’s EFY DVD and is also available for free download at source. efymag.com

AT89C2051 is shown in Fig. 5 and its components layout in Fig. 6. After assembling the circuit on the PCB, connect CON2 to row LEDs and CON3 to column LEDs using external wires. Testing is relatively simple and user-friendly. When you connect 230V AC mains power supply to the circuit, the LED cube automatically starts glowing with lighting effects.

Pamarthi Kanakaraja is an assistant professor in Usha Rama College of Engineering and Technology, Andhra Pradesh

electronics For You | october 2017

127

Do-it-yourself . S.C Di e v i Dw

Bipolar power Supply With Adjustable Regulators Petre tzv Petrov

L

M317T and LM337T ICs are well-known, low-cost adjustable voltage regulators capable of delivering up to 1.5A current output with power dissipation of up to 20W. LM317T produces a positive output voltage, while LM337T produces a negative output voltage. It is useful to have a bipolar power supply with LM317T and LM337T producing symmetrical output power. However, adjusting both output voltages simultaneously is an issue. The usual solution is to build a tracking voltage regulator with operational amplifier, which tracks the positive or negative output of

X1 = 230V AC PRIMARY TO 18V−0−18V,1A SECONDARY TRANSFORMER

the power supply. But here power supplies and other parameters of the operational amplifier can be limiting factors for the required power output. Another solution is to use a stereo potentiometer (potmeter) to adjust both the output power supplies simultaneously. Goodquality stereo potentiometers have small differences (of about ±5%) between the two outputs. If this difference is too large, you may use additional potentiometers to adjust the output voltages to exactly the same value. Here we present the circuit of a bipolar power supply with LM317T

C7 0.33u

C4 10n C5 2200u 40V

18V INPUT 230V AC 50Hz

1

0 2

18V N

IC1 LM317T

3 R1 1.2K

D1 1N4001

X1

L

GND

~

+

BR1 1A _

~

D2 1N4001

4

Circuit and working Circuit diagram of the bipolar power supply with LM317T and LM337T is shown in Fig. 1. It is built around an 18V-0-18V step-down transformer (X1), 1A bridge rectifier (BR1), variable positive-voltage regulator LM317T (IC1), variable negativevoltage regulator LM337T (IC2), eight 1N4001 diodes (D1 through

D5 1N4001 2

R3 120E

1

C1 10n

and LM337T adjustable regulators. The circuit provides the facility to adjust output voltages more precisely with individual potentiometers. Also, output voltages can be adjusted from near-ground levels, not from the typical ±1.25V.

VR1 100E

C9 0.1u

C11 0.1u

C13 100u 25V

D7 1N4001

VR2(A) 1K

V3 GND V4 V2

3

C2 10n

C3 10n

VR2(B) 1K

D4 1N4001 C10 0.1u

D3 C6 2200u 40V

C8 0.33u

VR3 100E

1N4001 R2 1.2K 2

IC2 LM337T

C12 0.1u

C14 100u 25V

R4 120E

1

V1

CON1 OUTPUT

D8 1N4001

3

D6 1N4001 VR2 = VR2(A),VR2(B) = 1K STEREO POTMETER

Fig. 1: Circuit of the bipolar power supply with adjustable regulators

128

october 2017 | electronics For You

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Do-it-yourself

Fig. 2: Actual-size PCB layout for the bipolar power supply

D8) and a few other components. The 230V AC mains is fed to the primary coil of transformer X1. You can choose the transformer as per your maximal output voltage and current requirements. Here, transformer X1 is used to produce regulated output voltage up to ±15V. Bridge rectifier BR1 should be rated at least 1A. Main filtering capacitors C5 and C6 should be at least 2200µF, 40V. The unregulated positive voltage is applied to pin 3 of IC1, while the unregulated negative voltage is applied to pin 2 of IC2. Regulated power supply section includes LM317T, LM337T and stereo potmeter VR2(A)+VR2(B) for simultaneous adjustment of the output voltages. The output voltage of LM317T normally starts from around 1.25V and that of LM337T from around -1.25V. Here, D1 and D2 create positive reference voltage of around +1.3V, which is used as the offset for IC2. Also, D3 and D4 create negative reference voltage of around -1.3V, which is used as the offset for IC1. That is why output voltages V3 and V4 can start from almost ground levels. If you need better stability, use reference diodes for 1.2V, such as LM385-1.2, instead of ordinary diodes D1 through D4. Diodes D5 through D8 protect regulators from www.eFYmag.com

Fig. 3: Components layout for the PCB

reverse voltages. Heat-sinks. Mount IC1 and IC2 on appropriate heat-sinks that have thermal resistance value of less than 4°C/W. The maximal power dissipation can go up to 10W if you need output current above 0.5A at the lowest output voltages. When calculating the required heat-sink size, consider that the maximal power dissipation of LM317T and LM337T in TO-220 package is 20W, junctionto-case thermal resistance is 4°C/W and maximal junction temperature is +125°C.

Construction and testing An actual-size PCB layout for the bipolar power supply is shown in Fig. 2 and its components layout in Fig. 3. After assembling the circuit on the PCB, connect the secondary terminals of transformer to points marked X1 in the PCB. Fix potmeters VR1 through VR3 on the front side of the cabinet so that you can adjust the voltages easily. For testing, connect the circuit to 230V AC mains. Next, at the output connector, connect load resistors of 33 to 51 ohms with power dissipation of at least 10W (preferably above 20W). Set wipers of VR1 and VR3 to their middle positions. By varying stereo potmeter VR2(A)+VR(B), adjust the output voltage to the required voltages,

Parts List Semiconductors: IC1 - LM317T positive-voltage regulator IC2 - LM337T negative-voltage regulator BR1 - 1A bridge rectifier D1-D8 - 1N4001 rectifier diode Resistors (all 1/4-watt, ±5% carbon): R1, R2 - 1.2-kilo-ohm R3, R4 - 120-ohm VR1, VR3 - 100-ohm potmeter VR2 - 1-kilo-ohm stereo potmeter Capacitors: C1-C4 - 10nF ceramic disk C5, C6 - 2200µF, 40V electrolytic C7, C8 - 0.33µF ceramic disk C9-C12 - 0.1µF ceramic disk C13, C14 - 100µF, 25V electrolytic Miscellaneous: X1 - 230V AC primary to 18V-0-18V, 1A secondary transformer CON1 - 5-pin connector - Heat-sink for LM317T and LM337T

e.g., around ±10V. Vary VR1 and/ or VR3 in case further adjustment is required in the output voltage. Now if you connect and disconnect the loads, output voltages V3 and V4 should change slightly around the initial value of ±10V.

Petre Tzv Petrov was a researcher and assistant professor in Technical University of Sofia (Bulgaria) and expert-lecturer in OFPPT(Casablance), Kingdom of Morocco. Now he is working as an electronics engineer in the private sector in Bulgaria

electronics For You | october 2017

129

. S.C Di ive Dw

Do-it-yourself

Triple power Supply From USB A. SAmiuddhin

N

owadays, most portable electronic gadgets are powered by USB adaptors. These adaptors have 5V, 1A to 5V, 2.1A output, which is enough to power low-power circuits of different voltages while testing a prototype. This is done either by using charge pumps or suitable converters. Presented here is the circuit to derive three voltages (3.3V, 5V and 12V) from a USB adaptor.

Circuit and working

As shown in Fig. 1, the circuit is built around low-dropout voltage regulator LP2985-3.3 (IC1), monolithic DC-DC converter MC34063A (IC2) a Schottky diode 1N5819 (D1), 22µH inductor (L1) and a few other components. Here, MC34063A is configured in boost converter mode. IC2, inductor L1 and diode D1 form the 1 5 Vin Vout C1 boost converter C3 1u C2 2 GND IC1 C5 2.2u 16V to convert 5V 470u,16V LP2985−3.3V 4 0.01u 16V 3 ON/OFF BYPASS into 12V. Any D1 readily avail1N5819 able inductor L1 R3 can be used in 22u 3.3V CON1 180E 5V R2 place of L1. ReFOR USB 12V 5V 33K 6 1 SC Vcc sistors R1 and GND IC2 8 SE 2 DRI R2, along with CON2 MC34063A 3 7 FOR C6 IPK TC 1.25V reference GND OUTPUT 330u R4 4 5 GND FB R1 35V voltage of IC2, 0.2E 3.9K are used to C4 set the output 330p GND voltage using the relationship Fig. 1: Circuit diagram of triple power supply from USB given below: Vout=1.25[1+(R2/R1)] Resistor R4 turns off the switching cycle when the peak current of the internal switch goes beyond the limit. Capacitor C6 smoothens the ripple produced during every switching cycle. IC1, Fig. 2: Actual-size PCB layout of the triple power supply a fixed-output and lowdropout regulator, converts 5V into 3.3V. Capacitor C2 bypasses ripples to ground. Capacitors C3 and C5 act as buffers. Thus, all three voltages (3.3V, 5V and 12V) are available at CON2. Jumper wires can be used at CON2 to power external circuits. Fig. 3: Components layout for the PCB 130

october 2017 | electronics For You

Parts List Semiconductors: IC1 - LP2985-3.3 voltage regulator - MC34063A DC-DC converter IC2 D1 - 1N5819 Schottky diode Resistors (all 1/4-watt, ±5% carbon): R1 - 3.9-kilo-ohm R2 - 33-kilo-ohm R3 - 180-ohm - 0.2-ohm R4 Capacitors: C1 - 1µF, 16V electrolytic - 0.01µF ceramic disk C2 C3 - 2.2µF, 16V electrolytic C4 - 330pF ceramic disk C5 - 470µF, 16V electrolytic - 330µF, 35V electrolytic C6 Miscellaneous: CON1 - USB-A type connector CON2 - 4-pin berg strip male connector L1 - 22µH inductor - USB cable - 2.5mm header female/ female jumper wires

Construction and testing An actual-size PCB layout of the triple power supply from USB is shown in Fig. 2 and its components layout in Fig. 3. After assembling the circuit on the PCB, enclose it in a suitable plastic box with CON1 fixed at the rear side and CON2 at the front side of the box. IC1 should be placed on solder side of the board. Use USB-A type connector as CON1. After assembling the PCB, connect the USB to a laptop. Now your power supply circuit is ready to use. Note. 1. The maximum current for 3.3V and 12V depends on the current provided by USB port. 2. Since 5V is directly available from the USB, keep the overall current of this circuit below 20-25 per cent of the maximum current of the USB from which the circuit is powered. A. Samiuddhin is B.Tech in electrical and electronics engineering. His interests include LED lighting, power electronics, microcontrollers and Arduino programming

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Pr Bh eet Sa akta i ni th & eo

How To Play wiTH ligHT Using Ldr T.K. Hareendran

I

ments to determine the mathematical relationship between the LDR’s resistance and lux values by following the steps given below: 1. Insert the LDR into a breadboard so that the flat top of the LDR is parallel to the ground plane 2. Connect your digital multimeter (with its knob turned to the resistance range) to the two leads of the LDR 3. Place the sensor of the lux meter (Fig. 2) near the LDR 4. While ensuring that the same amount of light falls on the LDR and sensor, note down the LDR’s resistance and lux values in lux meter. Repeat this process for several different light and lux levels ranging from very dark to very bright light 5. Finally, transfer your findings to a spreadsheet and plot resistance as a function of light. Typically, the Epoxy resin Hermetical Circuit package package symbol graph of LDR resistance as a function Fig. 1: LDR packages of light looks as shown in Fig. 3 CdS LDRs exhibit sensitivity curves that closely match the sensitivity of the human eye, which makes Light source them useful in applications involving human light perception, such as headlight dimmers and intensity LDR LUX sensor adjustments on information displays. Fig. 2: Measuring the values of an LDR using lux meter

n electronics, there are many ways to play with light the way you dream. If you are looking for an inexpensive solution, regular light-dependent resistors (LDRs) can also be used as optical sensors. Light-dependent resistors based on cadmium-sulphide (CdS) have a resistance that varies inversely with the amount of light falling on them. These LDRs are known by many names, including photoresistor, photoconductive cell or simply the photocell. Usually, LDRs are available in epoxy resin and hermetical packages (Fig. 1). You can take a few measure-

Resistance (KiloOhm)

1000 Vs 100

R

10

V0

V0

R

1.0 0.1

Vs

Gnd 1.0

10 100 Light (Lux)

1000

Fig. 3: Typical graph of LDR resistance as a function of light www.efymag.com

(a)

Gnd

(b)

Fig. 4: Potential divider using LDR: (a) LDR at the top, (b) LDR at the bottom

LDR as a potential divider Since the resistance of LDRs varies in response to light, usually potential divider concept is used to get a valid output for further processing by other parts of the circuit (for example, analogue-to-digital controller of a microcontroller). As shown in Fig. 4, when the LDR is at the top, we get a large Vo as the sensor has a low resistance, and when the LDR is at the bottom, we get a small Vo as the sensor has a high resistance.

Practical application of LDR: smart bulb holder Smart bulb holder is nothing but an AC-mains-operated incandescent, compact fluorescent or LED light bulb holder with a simple duskto-dawn/twilight controller circuit for automatic switching of your outdoor/corridor electric light bulbs (Fig. 5). The circuit, as shown in Fig. 6, can be enclosed in an appropriate light bulb holder. It comprises two equally important parts: Parts List Semiconductors: T1, T2 - BC547 pnp transistor D1-D5 - 1N4007 rectifier diode - 12V, 1W zener diode ZD1 Resistors (all 1/4-watt, ±5% carbon, unless specified): R1 - 820-kilo-ohm R2 - 15-ohm, 2W R3 - 1.5-kilo-ohm - 10-kilo-ohm R4 R5 - 1-kilo-ohm VR1 - 22-kilo-ohm potmeter LDR1 - 5mm photoresistor or light-dependent resistor Capacitors: C1 - 1µF, 400V polyester C2 - 470µF, 25V electrolytic C3 - 22µF, 25V electrolytic Miscellaneous: CON1, CON2 - 2-pin terminal connector F1 - 3A fuse with holder - 12V, 1C/O relay RL1

electronics for you | october 2017

131

Do-it-yourself

Fig. 7: Author’s prototype

F1 3A

RL1=12V,1C/O RELAY RL1

D1−D5 = 1N4007

D1

N/O

R1 820K

N/C

Fig. 5: Light bulb with holder

L

CON1 230V AC L INPUT N

C1 1u 400V R2 15E 2W

LDR1 D3

ZD1 12V 1W

D4

LOAD BULB

D5 D2

CON2 230V AC OUTPUT

R4 10K N

VR1 22K

C2 470u 25V

R3 1.5K

R5 1K C3 22u 25V

T2 BC547 T1 BC547

Fig. 6: Circuit of the smart bulb holder

12V DC low-current power supply and LDR-based twilight-controlled switching circuitry. For the sake of simplicity, a capacitive potential divider circuit is used for the power supply. Rest of the circuit, as stated, is the ambientlight-controlled electromagnetic relay driver built around a standard photoresistor (LDR1) and two small general-purpose switching transistors T1 and T2. In the circuit, 230V AC mains input is rectified by diodes D1 through D4 and limited by Zener diode ZD1 to 12V DC, then smoothed by capacitor C2. A 5mm photoresistor (LDR1) is used to detect the ambient light level. When there is little or no light, the resistance of LDR1 is high. So the voltage on the base of T1 is very low, which drives the transistor into cut-off mode. Consequently, T2 conducts to energise relay RL1 and switch on the exterior light connected at CON2. When sufficient light falls on the LDR1, the high voltage on base of T1 132

october 2017 | electronics for you

drives it into conduction. This interrupts the base current to T2, with the result that the relay de-energises. The switching level can be adjusted with the help of potentiometer VR1. Capacitor C3 provides a bit of hysteresis to prevent the system from jittering near the threshold level. Since the circuit is connected directly to the AC mains power lines, house it inside an insulated cabinet made from wood/acrylic sheets. Make sure the relay is low-current type (well below 35 milliamperes). The author used a 12V, 400-ohm relay for the prototype (shown in Fig. 7). This circuit is suitable for wallmounting and/or pole installation. Connect 230V AC input to CON1 and take output from CON2 terminals. Caution! This circuit works on 230V AC mains, so take care to avoid lethal shock. T.K. Hareendran is founder and promoter of TechNode Protolabz

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Sa Th ni eo

Better utilisation Of radio spectrum With Cognitive Radio Dr Arun KumAr AnD nAnDhA KumAr P.

C

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Serial to Parallel Convertor

Random Binary Generator

Parallel to Serial Convertor

IFFT

Addition of CP AWGN Channel

Parallel to Serial Convertor

Mixed Signal

Serial to Parallel Convertor

FFT

Received Signal (Rx)

CP Removal

Detection=(if Rx ≥Threshold)

Threshold

Fig. 1: Block diagram of proposed matched filter detection BER vs SNR for 16-QAM

100

OFDM with CP OFDM without CP

100

10–1 BER

10–1 BER

ognitive radio is an intelligent technology that improves radio spectrum utilisation. The increasing number of new devices has caused congestion in the ISM (industrial, scientific and medical) radio band. Federal Communications Commission allows unlicensed users (secondary users) to operate in the white space without causing interference to licensed users (primary users). Cognitive radio provides a solution to the additional spectrum requirement for efficient spectrum utilisation. It is capable of sensing and sharing the unused spectrum with unlicensed users. To enhance the spectrum efficiency, cognitive radio is integrated with different orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) frameworks. Parameters such as probability of detection (Pd) vs probability of false alarm (Pfa), Pd vs signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and bit-error rate (BER) vs SNR for each OFDM framework are calculated and analysed using matched filter detection. Matched filter method can detect the free portion of primary users’ spectrum and allocate it to secondary users, thus minimising spectral overcrowding. A matched filter is obtained by cross-correlating an unknown signal with a known signal to detect the presence of a well-known signal. It is also known as optimal linear filter. In matched filter detection, use of a dynamic threshold improves the spectrum sensing efficiency as well as detection performance at low SNR values. Integration of cognitive radio with OFDM for better spectrum uti-

10–2

10–2

10–3

10–3

OFDM filter @ Tx OFDM filter @ Tx and Rx

0

2

4

6 SNR (dB)

8

10

12

0

2

4

6 SNR (dB)

8

10

12

Fig. 2: BER vs SNR for OFDM with and without CP

Fig. 3: BER vs SNR for OFDM with filter at transmitter and receiver

lisation requires more priori knowledge of the signal for detection. So, the received signal is demodulated and matched filter applied to the signal. Detection time for matched filter is very less than with other detection methods. Hence, research on integration of cognitive radio with OFDM system is in high demand. In this article, an OFDM system with and without cyclic prefix (CP), filter at only the transmitter side and filter at both the transmitter and receiver sides, integrated with matched filter detection, is implemented and analysed. The project is implemented using MATLAB version

2013b. It overcomes the requirement of a high SNR in energy detection by using cyclostationary detection. Detection is also faster than with other energy detection schemes.

Matched-filter OFDM model Block diagram of the proposed matched-filter detection is shown in Fig. 1. A random binary signal is brought forth in a serial way and converted into parallel form. To analyse the signal in time domain, inverse Fast Fourier transform (IFFT) is applied to the signal and it is again converted from parallel into serial form for addition of the electronics for you | october 2017

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Do-it-yourself

Analysis results BER vs SNR for OFDM with and without CP. Analysis of BER vs SNR for OFDM with and without CP is shown in Fig. 2. BER decreases as SNR increases. From 0dB to 3dB, BER for OFDM with and without CP is approximately equal. But as SNR increases beyond 3dB, BER performance of OFDM with CP is a lot better than OFDM without CP. Analytical results prove that the OFDM system with CP is much more efficient and authentic with less ISI and BER than OFDM without CP. BER vs SNR for OFDM with filter at transmitter and receiver. Analysis of BER vs SNR for OFDM with a filter at both the transmitter and the receiver is shown in Fig. 3. For OFDM system with filter at the transmitter, BER decreases with the increase of SNR. But OFDM with filter at both transmitter and receiver sides gives a constant BER for all SNRs. This proves that OFDM with filter at the transmitter is more beneficial than OFDM with filter at both 134

october 2017 | electronics for you

1.0

1.0 0.8

OFDM CP OFDM NO CP

0.8

0.7

0.7

0.6

0.6

0.5

0.5

Pd

Pd

0.9

OFDM CP OFDM NO CP

0.9

0.4

0.4

0.3

0.3

0.2

0.2

0.1

0.1

0.0 -6

-5

-4

-3 -2 SNR (dB)

-1

0.0

0

Fig. 4: Pd vs SNR for OFDM with and without CP 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.0 -10 -8

0.74 0.76 0.78 0.8 0.82 0.84 0.86 0.88 0.9 Probability of false alarm

Fig. 6: Pd vs Pfa for OFDM with and without CP

1.0

OFDM filter @ Tx OFDM filter @ Tx and Rx

0.9

OFDM filter @ Tx OFDM filter @ Rx

0.8 0.7

Pd

0.6 0.5 Pd

CP and then sent through an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. At the receiver, the CP is removed, serial form of signal is converted into parallel form and FFT is applied to each symbol for analysing the signal in the frequency field. After demodulation, it is cross-correlated with a local oscillator signal, which is dislodged in time. Finally, the picked-up signal is compared with the threshold for sensing of the spectrum. A hypothesis is formulated that if the received signal is larger than the threshold, there will be detection, otherwise not. The results are thoroughly analysed by using a mathematical model of cognitive OFDM system and code is implemented using MATLAB programs (filter_tx.m, filter_tx_rx.m, pd_pfa.m, pd_pfa_ cp.m, pd_pfa_rx.m, pd_pfa_tx.m, pd_snr.m, pd_snr_cp.m) included in this month’s EFY DVD.

0.4

-6

-4

-2 0 2 SNR (dB)

4

6

8

10

Fig. 5: Pd vs SNR for OFDM with filter at transmitter and receiver

the transmitter and the reciever. Pd vs SNR for OFDM with and without CP. Analysis of Pd vs SNR for OFDM with and without CP is shown in Fig. 4. Pd increases with the increase of SNR. OFDM system with CP is capable of detecion for smaller SNRs, whereas detection for OFDM without CP needs a high SNR. Pd vs SNR for OFDM with filter at transmitter and receiver. Pd vs SNR plots for an OFDM system with a filter at the transmitter, and an OFDM system with a filter at both the transmitter and the receiver, are shown in Fig. 5. Pd increases with the increase of SNR. OFDM system with a filter at the transmitter is capable of detection for smaller SNRs, whereas OFDM system with a filter at both the transmitter and the re-

efy Note

The maTlab programs of this project are included in this month’s EFY DVD and are also available for free download at source. efymag.com

0.3 0.2 0.1 0.0

0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 Probability of false alarm

Fig. 7: Pd vs Pfa for OFDM with filter at transmitter and receiver

ceiver needs a high SNR for detection. Pd vs Pfa for OFDM with and without CP. Analysis of Pd vs Pfa for OFDM with and without CP is shown in Fig. 6. Pd increases with the increase of Pfa. For OFDM with CP the probability of missed detection is higher, even for lower Pfa, whereas for OFDM without CP the Pfa requirement is more for missed detection, which means the effect of Pfa in OFDM without CP is less than in OFDM with CP. Pd vs Pfa for OFDM with filter at transmitter and receiver. Analysis of Pd vs Pfa for OFDM with filter at transmitter and receiver both is shown in Fig. 7. OFDM with filter at transmitter shows a better performance than OFDM with filter at both transmitter and receiver. Dr Arun Kumar (left) and Nandha Kumar P. (right) are assistant professors in Department of ECE, JECRC University, Jaipur

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A1 Cadtech ............................................................................................145

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Analog Devices (www.analog.com) ........................................................27

Global Corporation ...................................................................................50

AqTronics Technologies Pvt. Ltd .............................................................19

Green Vision Technologies ........................................................................3

Artesyn Embedded Technologies ............................................................57

Harwin Asia Pte Ltd..................................................................................21

Binay Opto Electronics Pvt Ltd (www.binayLED.com) ............................69

Hicotronics Devices Pvt Ltd. .................................................................... 11

Brisker Systems Electronics & Services................................................145

Hind Electronika India Private Limited (www.hindelec.com) ..................81

CADD Centre Training Services Private Limited ...................................135

HK Wentworth (India) Pvt Ltd ................................................................151

Persang Alloy Industries Pvt Ltd (www.persangalloy.com) .....................29 Persang Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.........................................................64, 65 Positronic Pvt. Ltd ....................................................................................15 Progressive Engineers...........................................................................136 Protolab Electro Technologes Pvt Ltd......................................................45 Qingdao Ainuo Intelligent Instrument Co Ltd., China ............................125

Conquer electronics .................................................................................93

India Electronics Week .....................................................................99-102

Core Technologies .................................................................................140

Indian Technological Products Pvt Ltd (www.itpindia.com) ...................137

Rajguru Electronics ................................................................................139

Covestro .....................................................................................................5

Jai Mata Electronics ...............................................................................145

Rebuter Electronics Pvt Ltd ...................................................................144

Creative Telecom Pvt. Ltd ........................................................................87

Jetking Infotrain Ltd..................................................................................35

RECOM Asia Pte Ltd ...............................................................................55

Digi-Key Electronics (www.digikey.com)....................................................2

Kits N Spares ...........................................................................................26

Rohde & Schwarz (www.rohde-schwarz.co.in) .......................................59

Digital Factor ...........................................................................................85

Kufra International (www.secomcctvindia.com) ....................................145

Sakthi Accumulators Private Ltd ............................................................145

Digital Promoters (I) Pvt Ltd ..................................................................145

LWI Electronics Inc. (www.livewireinfo.com) ...........................................23

Dinrack Integrated System Pvt Ltd ..........................................................47

Matrix Comsec Pvt. Ltd............................................................................25

Dow Corning India Private Limited ..........................................................51

Max Technology & Co. (www.maxtechnoloindia.com) ............................33

DSM India Private Limited ....................................................................140

Microchip Technology Hong Kong Ltd (www.microchip.com) .................73

Dynalog (India) Ltd (www.dynalogindia.com) ............................................9

Montu Electronics LLP ...........................................................................145

E Control Devices ..................................................................................144

Mornsun Guangzhou Science & Technology Co. Ltd. ............................31

Schurter Electronics (I) Pvt Ltd ..............................................................141 Scientific Mes Technik Pvt Ltd (www.scientificindia.com) .......................61 Shavison Electronics Pvt. Ltd (www.shavison.com).............................. 117 ST Microelectronics Marketing Pvt. Ltd ...................................................67 The Aeonia ...............................................................................................43 Transcom Instruments ...........................................................................105

EFY Group: Subscription Form......................................................146, 147

Mouser Electronics (India) Private Limited ................................................7

Element14 India Pvt Ltd.............................................................................1

National Controlling & Equipments .......................................................145

Universal Electronic Agencies (www.easternradio.co.in) ......................136

Epcos AG .................................................................................................53

NI Days.....................................................................................................45

V5 Semiconductors..................................................................................37

Euridition .................................................................................................39

NMTronics India Pvt.Ltd. (www.nmtronics.com)......................................13

Zhaoqing Beryl Electronic Co., Ltd. .......................................................127

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Miscellaneous Euridition............................................................. 39 Open Source For You ........................................111 Automation & Robotics Dynalog (India) Ltd ............................................... 9 Shavison Electronics Pvt. Ltd. ...........................117 Batteries & Power Supplies Artesyn Embedded Technologies ....................... 57 Fusion Power Systems ..................................... 143 Green Vision Technologies .................................. 3 Montu Electronics LLP ..................................... 145 Mornsun Guangzhou Science & Technology Co. Ltd ......................................... 31 National Controlling & Equipments ................... 145 Qingdao Ainuo Intelligent Instrument Co Ltd., China................................................ 125 RECOM Asia Pte Ltd ......................................... 55 Sakthi Accumulators Private Ltd ...................... 145 Cabinets, Enclosures & Accessories Dinrack Integrated System Pvt Ltd .................... 47 Jai Mata Electronics ........................................ 145 Protolab Electro Technologes Pvt Ltd ................ 49 Universal Electronic Agencies ......................... 136 Components (Including Active & Passive) Analog Devices................................................... 27 Conquer Electronics .......................................... 93 Epcos AG ........................................................... 53 Indian Technological Products Pvt Ltd ............. 137

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Microchip Technology Hong Kong Ltd. .............. 73 Pasternack ....................................................... 152 Schurter Electronics (I) Pvt Ltd ........................ 141 ST Microelectronics Marketing Pvt. Ltd ............. 67 Zhaoqing Beryl Electronic Co., Ltd. .................. 127 Display Systems Global Advertisers ............................................. 50 EDA Tools (Including Designing & Drafting Aids) NI Days .............................................................. 45 Educational Training Kits Core Technologies ........................................... 140 Kits N Spares ..................................................... 26 Industrial & Manufacturing Equipment Max Technology & Co. ....................................... 33 NMTronics India Pvt Ltd. .................................... 13 IT Products Dell International Services India Private Limited 17 Digital Factor ...................................................... 85 Logistics Gati Kintetsu Express Pvt Ltd ........................... 150 Materials (Including Chemicals & Consumables) Covestro (India) Private Limited ........................... 5 Dow Corning India Private Limited .................... 51

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DSM India Private Limited ............................... 140 HK Wentworth (India) Pvt Ltd .......................... 151 Persang Alloy Industries Pvt Ltd ........................ 29 Progressive Engineers ..................................... 136 Optics & Optoelectronics Binay Opto Electronics Pvt Ltd ........................... 69 PCBs, Assemblies & Sub Assemblies A1 Cadtech ...................................................... 145 Advance Technologies...................................... 145 Brisker Systems Electronics & Services .......... 145 Plugs, Sockets & Connectors Positronic Pvt. Ltd .............................................. 15 Printed Electronics Protolab Electro Technologes Pvt Ltd................. 45 Reseller and Distributors AqTronics Technologies Pvt. Ltd ....................... 19 Digi-Key Electronics ............................................ 2 Digital Promoters (I) Pvt Ltd ............................. 145 E Control Devices ............................................ 144 Element14 India Pvt Ltd. ..................................... 1 Hicotronics Devices Pvt Ltd. ...............................11 LWI Electronics Inc. ........................................... 23 Mouser Electronics (India) Private Limited .......... 7 Perfect Radios ................................................. 145 Rajguru Electronics ......................................... 139 Rebutor Electronics Pvt Ltd .............................. 144 V5 Semiconductors ........................................... 37

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Safety & Security Products Kufra International ............................................ 145 Services Brisker Systems Electronics & Services .......... 145 V5 Semiconductors ........................................... 37 Telecom Products Creative Telecom Pvt. Ltd .................................. 87 Matrix Comsec Pvt. Ltd. .................................... 25 Test & Measurement Equipment (Including Indicators & Monitors) FLIR Systems India Pvt. Ltd. ..................... 93, 143 Hind Electronika India Private Limited ............... 81 Rohde & Schwarz .............................................. 59 Scientific Mes Technik Pvt Ltd ............................ 61 Transcom Instruments ...................................... 105 Tools & Toolkits Kits N Spares ..................................................... 26 Trade Shows and Events The Aeonia ........................................................ 43 Training and Certification Institutes CADD Centre Training Services Private Limited ............................................. 135 Jetking Infotrain Ltd ........................................... 35 Wireless Modules/Modem AN Wireless Solutions ....................................... 41

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internet of things

EFY Magazine Attractions During 2017 and mechanical probing.

The system solution to mitigating likeFocus this is to Monthsomething tEchnologY implement secure boot for the JanuaryPLC Computer Vision main CPU. This is a way of authenticating the firmware and only February Smart Fabrics accepting software that has a valid digital Depending on March signature. Exciting Technologies Powering the IoT the requirements, you could also encrypt the firmware. April Virtual and Augmented Reality Security processing demands can easily overwhelm May Smart Robotics the MIPS of a traditional PLC CPU or even create latency issues. This is best June by off-loading Artificial Intelligence done the security functions to a low-cost, off-theJuly 5G and Beyond shelf secure microprocessor that is built functions, as shown Augustfor these 3D Printing in Fig. 6. The system shown here September Industrialsecure IoT uses an external microprocessor to validate the firmware’s October The Brains of Mobile Devices digital signature. All the above examples use November Security of the IoT keys to enable authentication, but this raises the question of key December Implantable and Edible Electronics protection. Physical security of an

www.efymag.com 50 March 2017 | ElEctronics For You

MainDEsign SPI ElEctronics Controller

Lowering Power Consumption

Serial Flash Storing Device FW

Various secure key-storage devicMArkEt survEYs es provide system designers a host

Electronic Component of features thatManufacturing range from package

design to external-sensor interfaces and internal circuit architectures. PowerThese requirements BuildingManagement More Reliable Printed Circuit Boards Industry Outlook for 2017-18 were developed MAXQ1050 by American military in the form of IC FIPS 140 standard, and many chip Developer Boards: DIY and Hobbyist Applications Printed Circuit Boards Fig. 6: Secure boot of the main PLC CPU vendors provide very comprehensive Fight of the Processors: Ultra-Low-Voltage Computing Thetamper-proof Internet of Thingscapabilities that can be used in ICSes. encryption key is of prime consid(Mobile and Portable Devices) eration in many applications, since The Electronics future of the IoT security How to Getistheno Best Design foronce Manufacturing Strategic there security the key is compromised. There may be other approaches to Developer Boards: Industrial Applications Mobile Handset and Telecom Device Manufacturing To properly address physical security as well, and as you begin to security, several issues must be realise Improving Thermal Dissipation LED Lightinghow important security is in considered. These include a physical a connected factories environment, Which Input Technologies Should You Use Solar mechanism for generating random you will eventually coalesce around keys, a physical design that prevents a few approaches. Ruggedising Hardware Electronics Manufacturing Equipment covert electronic interception of a Theand IIoT in manufacturing is (Both SMT Non-SMT Categories) key that is being communicated in high demand, and is a growing Fight of the Processors: High-Performance Computing Test and Measurement between authorised agents, and a trend. Security will also eventually secure method of storing a key that grow to cover vulnerabilities, but Which Output Technologies Should You Use and Chemicals protects against clandestine physical Materials the need is already here. Improving Wireless Signal Performance

Electronics Manufacturing Services

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