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 As the technology landscape continues to evolve and becomes ever mor complexs,more and more traditional electronic components are having to evolve to support new capabilities expecially connectors. Even emerging technologies, whether that’s artificial intelligence, the use of big data analytics, or smart wearable devices and drones, are being appropriated by the world’s military in order to improve the effectiveness and capabilities of their armed forces. Connectors may not be considered the most technological of products, but they haven’t been immune to the mega trends sweeping through many industries, not least the need to supply components that are smaller but also lighter and smarter.The changes are significant with product performance in the military space and electrical integrity having a huge impact on connector systems and their design, whether in terms of the equipment being used by soldiers, rugged displays, communications equipment or in vehicle electronics. Bob Stanton--technology director at Omnetics said: Today’s newer electronic instruments can neither afford the space or the weight required by older cabling and connector systems.High performance product is required and it needs to offer customers space and weight benefits but without impacting on performance, reliability or functionality.”  A growing list of connector suppliers are working on replacing two or three connectors with one miniature, dense multi-functional connector, for example, and that is having an impact on the kinds of cables people are looking to choose. ODU, a supplier of connector system's, has been working on developing connectors suitable for use with multiple interfaces that will be connecting the soldier of the future with their weapons and communications as well as with military vehicles and, according to the company’s managing director, Nick Harper, has been focused on developing one connector family capable of meeting the requirements for every application. (ODU has been heavily involved with supplying over 100,000 helmet connectors as part of the Ministry of Defence's Bowman programme.) While engineers are looking to supply smaller, more compact, connectors they have to also ensure that they are able to withstand temperature extremes, vibration, and be able to operate in an environment that might be sandy, wet or dirty – all of which could compromise the integrity of the connector. New surface treatments and technologies are being developed specifically to address the extreme environmental conditions expected in the military space. Take an example, connector manufacturer, LEMO, has developed NiCorAl a corrosion resistant conductive surface treatment that offers an alternative to Cadmium. Miniaturisation “New technologies are driving continuous miniaturisation of electronic equipment for communications, computing, surveillance, sensing and navigation,” according to Stanton. “Whether soldier-worn or on-board a UAV or UGV, small size and light weight are demanded – but no performance compromises can ever be accepted.” Many of the older military specification models are becoming outdated in the face of growing demands for micro- and nano-sized connectors that are needed to address the requirements of higher-technology electronics. “Trusted military connectors like MIL-DTL-24308 D-subs are being superseded by smaller, lighter alternatives like 83513 and 32139 Micro- or Nano-Ds,” explains Stanton. “Smaller can never mean weaker, though,” he warns. “Although they have very fine pitch (0.64mm for the Nano-Ds), they must be able to withstand environmental hazards like extremes of heat and cold and exposure to corrosive chemicals.”  In order to address this, Omnetics uses open-ended beryllium-copper pins, which are shaped to maintain four continuous points of contact and are tempered for continuous spring force.  “These have actually exceeded 2000 mate/de-mate cycles in testing, and the design gives extra travel in compression and expansion to ensure continuous electrical contact even during extremely harsh vibration,”  Stanton continues, “Sockets are copper-alloy, and designed to increase contact pressure as they expand at higher ambient temperatures. When cold, the socket contracts without over-stressing the spring. Contacts are nickel/gold plated after forming, meeting ASTM B488 Type II, giving high corrosion resistance.” Soldiers can be under huge pressure in action, so speed and convenience are also critical. Stanton explained that at Omnetics we have designed innovative latching Nano-D families that connect securely without fiddly jackscrews, and which pass the stringent MIL-DTL-32139 shock and vibration specifications. Military connectors are also having to contend with another important trend and that is the dramatic increase in the amount of data that is being routed between devices and people. More data requires more sensors and where data is time critical and where interference is unacceptable connectors that are smaller and more rugged are required. Technological Arms Race “Keeping the technological upper hand is critical to ensure military success,” explained Stanton. “Today's military forces need to maintain their superiority in unfamiliar environments from mountainous deserts to urban areas and, accordingly, soldiers need to be quick on their feet, and unmanned aerial and ground vehicles are increasingly in demand for dangerous missions, close to the enemy.”  Ben Green, Head of New Business at Harwin agree with it .“A key method for protecting frontline troops and ensuring that lives are not placed into unnecessarily dangerous situations is through greater use of smart technology. The interest in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) has grown significantly, as a result.” UAVs and UGVs enable the military to undertake a number of operations - including detailed surveillance, the transportation of vital supplies and even recovery missions - without placing service personnel at risk. “These types of vehicles have to rely on the incorporation of sophisticated electronic circuitry and, in turn, the support of high reliability cabling/interconnects - so that the power needed to drive the motors for propulsion purposes and data from an array of different sensors to allow timely manoeuvring can be delivered,” Green says. “The constituent components all need to be compact and light in order to deal with space and weight constraints, so that less impact is placed on their limited energy reserves and the vehicles can cover longer distances before they have to return.” These trends are combining to drive continuous miniaturisation of electronic equipment for communications, computing, surveillance, sensing and navigation Green says. “Whether soldier-worn or on-board a UAV or UGV, small size and light weight are demanded.” To address these demands, defence agencies and their military contractors need to be able to collaborate with suppliers who can provide them with robust, high performance components in small form factors. “The connectors specified as part of UAV/UGV design and development activity, for example, as with any other military-related application, need to possess elevated levels of reliability, as well as exhibiting high degrees resilience to electro-magnetic interference (EMI),” Green contends. “Dealing with all these different aspects is clearly challenging, so engaging with the right supplier is absolutely critical,” he concludes. But there is another reason why equipment needs to be compact, lightweight, and technically advanced, according to Stanton. “Today's arms races increasingly pit professional armies against militias that are adept at harnessing powerful consumer technologies, whether that’s smartphones, mobile data, GPS or quadcopters. “Overcoming these challenges demands smart thinking about even the finest of details – and that includes the connector.”   

  Background Nowadays,more and more people need wifi and they can not leave it.More and more family has connected with wifi even in undeveloping country or area.Today,let's make a wifi based home automation project to realize that controlling home devices by using wifi as wireless communication. In this project,we will using esp8266 wifi module and Arduino Uno R3,We have also posted a similar project using pic microcontroller based home automation over wifi. you may also like to check it.    components we needESP8266 Wifi Module: ESP8266 is a wifi chip that provides Transfer Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP). There are different ESP8266modules available in the market. In this project we are using the first model. It has 6 pins and operates on 3.3v. ESP8266 was initialized via the following commands:ATAT+CWMODE = 3AT+CIFSRAT+CIPMUX = 1ESP8266 was then connected to the mobile hotspot by the following commands:AT+CWLAP (returns the list of the available Wi-Fi networks available)AT+CWJAP = “SSID”, “password”  Example: AT+CWJAP = “PTCL-BB”, “12345467”Arduino Uno: Arduino is development boards build around ATmega 328P. Arduino is perfect for this project as it provides much pins to interface relay module,16×2 LCD and ESP8266 wifi module4 channel Relay Module: Relay is used to switch on and off higher voltages devices by using low dc voltages such as signal from Arduino digital pin. In this project we used 4 channel relay module it is easy to interface with Arduino instead of connecting each relay separately. It can bears up to 250VAC and 10 amps of current.16X2 LCD: 16×2 LCD is used to display 16 characters in two lines. It is easy to interface with Arduino due to its available library. In this project this LCD is used to display the status of the appliances whether it is on or off. Project Circuit Diagram  Connections 16×2 LCD:VSS to ground.VDD to supply voltage.VO to adjust pin of 10k potentiometer.RS to Pin A0.RW to ground.Enable to Pin A1.LCD D4 to Pin A2.LCD D5 to Pin A3.LCD D6 to Pin A4.LCD D7 to Pin A5.Ground one end of potentiometer.5v to other end of potentiometer. 4 Channel Relay modules:External 5 volt to JD VCC.Ground to ground.Ini1 to Pin 3.Ini2 to Pin 4.Ini3 to Pin5.Vcc to Arduino 5v.Connect one terminal of all bulbs to normally open terminal of relays. One end of 220VAC to all common terminals of relay and other end with other terminal of bulbs. ESP8266 wifi module to Arduino:Module Vcc to 3.3v.Module CH_PD to 3.3v.Module Ground to Arduino ground.Module Tx to Arduino Rx.Module Rx to Arduino Tx. Working Download the S Remote application from Google Play Store. Open the application, go to Setting>>Advance>>Layout and select the Button according to your desire. Then select IP and enter the IP address which is get when we initialize ESP8266 wifi module using this command “AT+CIFSR”. IP address is written in third line such as “192.168.10.4”. Then write the port which is “80” in port option. Go to Setting>>Keys and then select key1 and write the label to display on button and then the data which you want to send to Arduino. Click the TCP button. Similarly write the label and data in others keys. If you connect everything correctly then power up the circuit and open serial monitor, it takes few seconds to initialize wifi module. Press the button on application, the data is send by application to Arduino through Wifi and then Arduino performs operations according to instructions and the status on devices are display on LCD.  

Nowadays,almost all the focus in transportation is on self-driving ars with more and more similar initiatives with google car.Trucks, however, could also benefit from extra automation and connectivity to enable preventive maintenance, improve safety, efficiency and cost. Might we therefore one day soon see trucks on our roads with no driver in the front seat?  Jörg Rüger's comment “Not for at least 10 years; I don’t think the public would accept it,” argued Jörg Rüger, president of commercial vehicle and off-road at Bosch Mobility. “If we’re talking autonomous driving for trucks, we’re talking about motorways, not inter-urban traffic. For that, it’s not realistic from today’s point of view because when the truck leaves the motorway, it would need someone to take over.” This is because the current level of technology doesn’t provide for this degree of autonomy – yet. While Europe is in the driver’s seat when it comes to standards for increasing road safety, legislation is lagging behind the level of sophisticated solutions being developed – solutions which could lead to fully autonomous trucks. Legislation is currently being written for stop and go control systems and turn assist systems, which Rüger believes will appear in the next couple of years. Dr Thomas Dieckmann's comment “WABCO has developed its own urban turning assist collision avoidance system,” said Dr Thomas Dieckmann, leader of advanced development at WABCO. “OnCity is a single-sensor solution and the first to use LiDAR (light imaging, detection and ranging) technology.” LiDAR measures distances by illuminating a target with a pulsed laser light and measuring the reflected pulses. “The system alerts the driver visually and acoustically to a potential collision, both right before and during a turning manoeuvre,” Dr Dieckmann added. “In the future, it will be able to apply the brake autonomously to prevent collisions, should the driver fail to take corrective action.” The next level up in terms of automation – though only currently envisioned on motorways – is platoons: convoys of trucks linked and controlled electronically through short range vehicle-to-vehicle communications. Led by the front vehicle, this communication, coupled with technologies such as forward collision avoidance systems, enables the trucks to accelerate or brake simultaneously and to follow each other more closely. Potential benefits include: better fuel economy due to reduced air resistance; reduced congestion; fewer collisions; and less pressure for drivers, who could, instead of driving, plan routes, process shipping documents or simply take a break. Several trial platoon runs have been conducted in Europe – including the European Truck Platooning Challenge – but legislation is still wanting. “Platooning needs legislation to allow trucks to drive at a distance of eight to 10m, much closer together than it is currently legal,” Rüger explained, pictured left, “and to allow drivers to be on standby. “There will eventually be mixed platoons and that needs a standardised protocol. The expectation is to see these platoons on the road between 2023 and 2025.” Not everyone is keen on the idea however. The Road Haulage Association believes platooning is not feasible.  Rod McKenzie's comment “Causing queues for vehicles trying to join and leave the motorway will simply create even more congestion,” cautioned Rod McKenzie. “Of course, the auto-pilot facility has the ability to remove human error and mistake – but what happens if the engine goes wrong?” As drivers won’t be concentrating on the road, they might not be able to react as quickly when there’s a system failure, for example. Another downside is that systems could potentially be hacked. How to resolve these issues To resolve these issues, Volvo Trucks is concentrating on improving human machine interaction to ensure good usability. “We provide training and methods for continuous improvements along with supporting tools to assist planning and driving,” said Michael Gudmunds, product manager, soft products. While the practicality of platoons is open to debate, commercial vehicles are already benefitting from increased connectivity and automation. “Commercial vehicles can already upload data into the cloud and download automated software updates,” said Rüger. “Infotainment is becoming more connected with smartphone integration, voice control and a Bluetooth hands-free system. Navigation systems are being used to optimise engine use and fuel consumption by providing the driver with road and environment mapping information in advance.” Real-time information about road conditions – such as the presence of black ice – can be shared between trucks via data collected by the sensors, then processed and stored in the cloud and retransmitted. Legislation for advanced emergency braking systems (AEBS) and lane departure warning (LDW) has been in place since 2015. Commercial vehicle technology supplier WABCO offers an LDW system called OnLane, which detects road markings and vehicle position, and warn the driver of imminent lane departure via visual, audible and haptic signals. The camera-based solution can distinguish between a deliberate lane change and an unintentional drift by identifying the driver’s turn signal usage.Lane keeping support takes LDW one step further by not only warning the driver but also, if no action is taken, by taking steps to ensure the vehicle stays in its lane. Volvo Trucks’ Dynamic Steering – which combines conventional hydraulic power steering with an electric motor fitted to the steering gear (pictured below) – also provides lane keeping support.  The electrical control unit processes data from multiple sensors and controls the motor at 2000Hz to work out the truck’s direction and the driver’s intentions. A principle called ‘torque overlay’ corrects unintentional steering movements to keep the truck dead on course. Some trucks are already ‘smart’, benefitting from advancements in automation and connectivity, and companies are more than eager to take these capabilities to a higher level. Conclusion But there is a long path to full autonomy and, as Ruger says: “A 40tonne autonomous truck frightens people.” Autonomous commercial vehicles therefore will not appear tomorrow. “Development will be steady,” Dr Dieckmann concluded. “We will see an increase in partial automation, then further developments in the areas of manoeuvring and highway driving.” 

Have you heard of Silicon carbide power devices yet? Researchers are rolling out a new manufacturing process and chip design for silicon carbide (SiC) power devices, which can be used to more efficiently regulate power in technologies that use electronics. The process -- called PRESiCE -- was developed to make it easier for companies to enter the SiC marketplace and develop new products.(Silicon carbide power devices, like the one shown here, are more efficient than their silicon counterparts.)"PRESiCE will allow more companies to get into the SiC market, because they won't have to initially develop their own design and manufacturing process for power devices -- an expensive, time-consuming engineering effort," says Jay Baliga, Distinguished University Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NC State and lead author of a paper on PRESiCE that will be presented later this month. "The companies can instead use the PRESiCE technology to develop their own products. That's good for the companies, good for consumers, and good for U.S. manufacturing." Power devices consist of a diode and transistor, and are used to regulate the flow of power in electrical devices. For decades, electronics have used silicon-based power devices. In recent years, however, some companies have begun using SiC power devices, which have two key advantages. First, SiC power devices are more efficient, because SiC transistors lose less power. Conventional silicon transistors lose 10 percent of their energy to waste heat. SiC transistors lose only 7 percent. This is not only more efficient, but means that product designers need to do less to address cooling for the devices. Second, SiC devices can also switch at a higher frequency. That means electronics incorporating SiC devices can have smaller capacitors and inductors -- allowing designers to create smaller, lighter electronic products. But there's a problem. Up to this point, companies that have developed manufacturing processes for creating SiC power devices have kept their processes proprietary -- making it difficult for other companies to get into the field. This has limited the participation of other companies and kept the cost of SiC devices high. The NC State researchers developed PRESiCE to address this bottleneck, with the goal of lowering the barrier of entry to the field for companies and increasing innovation. The PRESiCE team worked with a Texas-based foundry called X-Fab to implement the manufacturing process and have now qualified it -- showing that it has the high yield and tight statistical distribution of electrical properties for SiC power devices necessary to make them attractive to industry. "If more companies get involved in manufacturing SiC power devices, it will increase the volume of production at the foundry, significantly driving down costs," Baliga says. Right now, SiC devices cost about five times more than silicon power devices. "Our goal is to get it down to 1.5 times the cost of silicon devices," Baliga says. "Hopefully that will begin the 'virtuous cycle': lower cost will lead to higher use; higher use leads to greater production volume; greater production volume further reduces cost, and so on. And consumers are getting a better, more energy-efficient product." The researchers have already licensed the PRESiCE process and chip design to one company, and are in talks with several others. "I conceived the development of wide bandgap semiconductor (SiC) power devices in 1979 and have been promoting the technology for more than three decades," Baliga says. "Now, I feel privileged to have created PRESiCE as the nation's technology for manufacturing SiC power devices to generate high-paying jobs in the U.S. We're optimistic that our technology can expedite the commercialization of SiC devices and contribute to a competitive manufacturing sector here in the U.S.," Baliga says. The paper, "PRESiCE: PRocess Engineered for manufacturing SiC Electronic-devices," will be presented at the International Conference on Silicon Carbide and Related Materials, being held Sept. 17-22 in Washington, D.C. The paper is co-authored by W. Sung, now at State University of New York Polytechnic Institute; K. Han and J. Harmon, who are Ph.D. students at NC State; and A. Tucker and S. Syed, who are undergraduates at NC State. The work was supported by PowerAmerica, the Department of Energy-funded manufacturing innovation institute that focuses on boosting manufacturing of wide bandgap semiconductor-based power electronics. ref.KY56-PZTA06KY41-SL12T1G

Today I want to share an LED strobe design project I found in electronic-lab, which you can do it by yourself. Strobe provides regular flashes of light. Usually Strobes are designed using Xenon Tubes. Here is LED based simple solution that can be used as strobe for entertainment and events and also as warning signals. Project is based on PIC16F1825 micro-controller with two digit frequency display. Project provides TTL output signal, frequency 1Hz-25Hz, Tact switches provided to set the frequency. This project works along with DC Output Solid State Relay Features 1.Supply 4.5 to 5V DC2.Frequency 1Hz To 25Hz3.Easy Interface with Relay Board4.Easy Interface with Solid State Relay5.On Board Power LEDOn Board Output LED6.Onboard Switch to set the frequency7.2X7 Segment 0.5 Inch Display Applications 1.Strobe for Entertainment2.Traffic Signal3.Warning Signal4.Ambulance Warning Signals Schematic   Parts List Connections Photos Working Diagram Ref.PIC16F1825 

A Tomsk Polytechnic University study reveals how topological vortices found in low-dimensional materials can be both displaced and erased and restored again by the electrical field within nanoparticles. This may open exciting opportunities for memory devices or quantum computers in which information will be encrypted in the characteristics of topological vortices.(Vortices in nanoparticles exposed by the electrical field. Credit: Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU))Scientists from TPU and international collaborators have discovered unusual self-organization of atoms in the volume of nanoparticles and have learned to control it via an electric field. Such controlled nanoparticles can be used to generate capacious non-volatile random access memory (NRAM), quantum computers and other next-generation electronics. The main author is Dmitriy Karpov, engineer of the Department of General Physics, TPU, who explains that in modern materials science, the defects of matter are divided into two large groups. The first group includes classical, well-studied defects, when atoms in matter are mechanically disordered, i.e., atoms are either removed or inserted into the lattice. In the other group, the spatial organization of the lattice itself changes and such defects are called topological. Topological defects can strongly influence matter, making it superfluid or superconductive, and therefore, it is very important to study them. Topological defects can be found only in low-dimensional materials—two-dimensional nanorods and nanofilms (just several atoms thick) and one-dimensional nanodots or nanoparticles, which are spherical particles consisting of several tens or hundreds of identical atoms. "One of the important topological defects is a topological vortex which looks like a discernible twisting caused by a small displacement of all atoms. The vortex core is a nanostrand which can be both displaced by the field, and erased and restored again within nanoparticles," explains Edwin Fohtung, Professor of Los Alamos National Laboratory and New Mexico State University . The scientists studied barium titanate nanoparticles whose internal structure was visualized with the help of penetrating X-ray radiation from the synchrotron Advanced Photon Source (Chicago, USA). They obtained an image of the volume of nanoparticles with a resolution of 18 nanometers, which enabled them to analyze the slightest changes in the structure. As a result, the researchers showed that an external electric field can displace the core of the topological vortex inside the nanoparticle, and when the field is removed, it returns to its original position. Modern components of electronics are gradually becoming smaller. This can significantly influence the efficiency of devices, which will be significantly reduced due to quantum effects. One way to circumvent these limitations is to use topological vortices. Thus, they can be used to generate high density NRAM or quantum computers in which information will be encrypted in the characteristics of topological vortices. "All in all, the possibility to control and adjust topological vortices in nanoparticles is important for the creation of new electronics," concludes Dmitriy Karpov. Further reading>>>Topological defectA topological defect can be proven to exist[when?] because the boundary conditions entail the existence of homotopically distinct solutions. Typically, this occurs because the boundary on which the conditions are specified has a non-trivial homotopy group which is preserved in differential equations; the solutions to the differential equations are then topologically distinct, and are classified by their homotopy class. Topological defects are not only stable against small perturbations, but cannot decay or be undone or be de-tangled, precisely because there is no continuous transformation that will map them (homotopically) to a uniform or "trivial" solution. Reference>>>KY259-BB910KY259-CXA1512MKY32-K9T1G08U0M-YIBO