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Intro to reed switches, magnets, magnetic fields

This brief introductory video on the DigiKey site offers tips for engineers designing with reed switches. Dr. Stephen Day, Ph.D. from Coto Technology gives a solid overview on reed switches -- complete with real-world application examples -- and a detailed explanation of how they react to magnetic fields.
View the video.

Bi-color LEDs to light up your designs

Created with engineers and OEMs in mind, SpectraBright Series SMD RGB and Bi-Color LEDs from Visual Communi-cations Company (VCC) deliver efficiency, design flexibility, and control for devices in a range of industries, including mil-aero, automated guided vehicles, EV charging stations, industrial, telecom, IoT/smart home, and medical. These 50,000-hr bi-color and RGB options save money and space on the HMI, communicating two or three operating modes in a single component.
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All about slip rings: How they work and their uses

Rotary Systems has put together a really nice basic primer on slip rings -- electrical collectors that carry a current from a stationary wire into a rotating device. Common uses are for power, proximity switches, strain gauges, video, and Ethernet signal transmission. This introduction also covers how to specify, assembly types, and interface requirements. Rotary Systems also manufactures rotary unions for fluid applications.
Read the overview.

Seifert thermoelectric coolers from AutomationDirect

Automation-Direct has added new high-quality and efficient stainless steel Seifert 340 BTU/H thermoelectric coolers with 120-V and 230-V power options. Thermoelectric coolers from Seifert use the Peltier Effect to create a temperature difference between the internal and ambient heat sinks, making internal air cooler while dissipating heat into the external environment. Fans assist the convective heat transfer from the heat sinks, which are optimized for maximum flow.
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EMI shielding honeycomb air vent panel design

Learn from the engineering experts at Parker how honeycomb air vent panels are used to help cool electronics with airflow while maintaining electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding. Topics include: design features, cell size and thickness, platings and coatings, and a stacked design called OMNI CELL construction. These vents can be incorporated into enclosures where EMI radiation and susceptibility is a concern or where heat dissipation is necessary. Lots of good info.
Read the Parker blog.

What is 3D-MID? Molded parts with integrated electronics from HARTING

3D-MID (three-dimensional mechatronic integrated devices) technology combines electronic and mechanical functionalities into a single, 3D component. It replaces the traditional printed circuit board and opens up many new opportunities. It takes injection-molded parts and uses laser-direct structuring to etch areas of conductor structures, which are filled with a copper plating process to create very precise electronic circuits. HARTING, the technology's developer, says it's "Like a PCB, but 3D." Tons of possibilities.
View the video.

Loss-free conversion of 3D/CAD data

CT CoreTech-nologie has further developed its state-of-the-art CAD converter 3D_Evolution and is now introducing native interfaces for reading Solidedge and writing Nx and Solidworks files. It supports a wide range of formats such as Catia, Nx, Creo, Solidworks, Solidedge, Inventor, Step, and Jt, facilitating smooth interoperability between different systems and collaboration for engineers and designers in development environments with different CAD systems.
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Top 5 reasons for solder joint failure

Solder joint reliability is often a pain point in the design of an electronic system. According to Tyler Ferris at ANSYS, a wide variety of factors affect joint reliability, and any one of them can drastically reduce joint lifetime. Properly identifying and mitigating potential causes during the design and manufacturing process can prevent costly and difficult-to-solve problems later in a product lifecycle.
Read this informative ANSYS blog.

Advanced overtemp detection for EV battery packs

Littelfuse has introduced TTape, a ground-breaking over-temperature detection platform designed to transform the management of Li-ion battery systems. TTape helps vehicle systems monitor and manage premature cell aging effectively while reducing the risks associated with thermal runaway incidents. This solution is ideally suited for a wide range of applications, including automotive EV/HEVs, commercial vehicles, and energy storage systems.
Learn more.

Benchtop ionizer for hands-free static elimination

EXAIR's Varistat Benchtop Ionizer is the latest solution for neutralizing static on charged surfaces in industrial settings. Using ionizing technology, the Varistat provides a hands-free solution that requires no compressed air. Easily mounted on benchtops or machines, it is manually adjustable and perfect for processes needing comprehensive coverage such as part assembly, web cleaning, printing, and more.
Learn more.

LED light bars from AutomationDirect

Automation-Direct adds CCEA TRACK-ALPHA-PRO series LED light bars to expand their offering of industrial LED fixtures. Their rugged industrial-grade anodized aluminum construction makes TRACKALPHA-PRO ideal for use with medium to large-size industrial machine tools and for use in wet environments. These 120 VAC-rated, high-power LED lights provide intense, uniform lighting, with up to a 4,600-lumen output (100 lumens per watt). They come with a standard bracket mount that allows for angle adjustments. Optional TACLIP mounts (sold separately) provide for extra sturdy, vibration-resistant installations.
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World's first metalens fisheye camera

2Pi Optics has begun commercial-ization of the first fisheye camera based on the company's proprietary metalens technology -- a breakthrough for electronics design engineers and product managers striving to miniaturize the tiny digital cameras used in advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), AR/VR, UAVs, robotics, and other industrial applications. This camera can operate at different wavelengths -- from visible, to near IR, to longer IR -- and is claimed to "outperform conventional refractive, wide-FOV optics in all areas: size, weight, performance, and cost."
Learn more.

Orbex offers two fiber optic rotary joint solutions

Orbex Group announces its 700 Series of fiber optic rotary joint (FORJ) assemblies, supporting either single or multi-mode operation ideal for high-speed digital transmission over long distances. Wavelengths available are 1,310 or 1,550 nm. Applications include marine cable reels, wind turbines, robotics, and high-def video transmission. Both options feature an outer diameter of 7 mm for installation in tight spaces. Construction includes a stainless steel housing.
Learn more.

Mini tunnel magneto-resistance effect sensors

Littelfuse has released its highly anticipated 54100 and 54140 mini Tunnel Magneto-Resistance (TMR) effect sensors, offering unmatched sensitivity and power efficiency. The key differentiator is their remarkable sensitivity and 100x improvement in power efficiency compared to Hall Effect sensors. They are well suited for applications in position and limit sensing, RPM measurement, brushless DC motor commutation, and more in various markets including appliances, home and building automation, and the industrial sectors.
Learn more.

Panasonic solar and EV components available from Newark

Newark has added Panasonic Industry's solar inverters and EV charging system components to their power portfolio. These best-in-class products help designers meet the growing global demand for sustainable and renewable energy mobility systems. Offerings include film capacitors, power inductors, anti-surge thick film chip resistors, graphite thermal interface materials, power relays, capacitors, and wireless modules.
Learn more.

New software developed at the University of Michigan could alleviate wireless traffic

The explosive popularity of wireless devices -- from WiFi laptops to Bluetooth headsets to ZigBee sensor nodes -- is increasingly clogging the airwaves, resulting in dropped calls, wasted bandwidth, and botched connections.

New software being developed at the University of Michigan (U-M) works like a stoplight to control the traffic and dramatically reduce interference.

The software, GapSense, lets these devices that can't normally talk to one another exchange simple stop and warning messages so their communications collide less often. GapSense creates a common language of energy pulses and gaps. The length of the gaps conveys the stop or warning message. Devices could send them at the start of a communication, or in between information packets to let other gadgets in the vicinity know about their plans.

"All these devices are supposed to perform their designated functions, but they're using the same highway and fighting for space," says Kang Shin, the Kevin and Nancy O'Connor Professor of Computer Science at U-M. "Since they don't have a direct means of communicating with each other because they use different protocols, we thought, 'How can we coordinate them so that each can perform their functions while minimizing interference with the others?'"

The researchers tested GapSense and found that it could reduce interference by more than 88 percent on some networks with diverse devices. Shin and Xinyu Zhang, a former doctoral student in electrical engineering and computer science, presented the work April 18 at the IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications in Turin, Italy.

To get a sense of how many wireless devices exist today, in 2013, CTIA, the Wireless Association, counted more than 321 million WiFi-enabled cell phones, laptops, and tablets in the United States. That's more than one device per person, and it's just the items that use WiFi, the protocol that transmits big chunks of data over relatively long distances.

Bluetooth and ZigBee use the same wireless spectrum as WiFi, but they all speak different languages. Bluetooth, shorter range and less powerful, can connect headsets and keyboards to phones and computers, for example. ZigBee, the lowest powered of the group, links networks of small radios to automate home and building systems such as lighting, security alarms and thermostats. It's also found in hospitals, where it gathers medical data from patients.

All these devices are already equipped with the standard "carrier sense multiple access," or CSMA, protocol that programs them to listen for radio silence before they send their own transmissions. But often it doesn't work.

ZigBee takes 16 times longer than WiFi to gear up from its idle state to transmit information, so sometimes it might sound to WiFi that the coast is clear when a ZigBee packet is on its way out.

"The little guy might be talking, but the big guy cannot hear it," Shin says. "So the little guy's communication will be destroyed."

That's just one of several potential problems GapSense can help remedy. The researchers tested the software in a simulated office environment. With moderate WiFi traffic, they detected a 45 percent collision rate between ZigBee and WiFi, and GapSense reduced that to 8 percent.

The software could also address the so-called "hidden terminal" problem. Newer WiFi standards allow for faster data rates on wider bandwidths than the standard 20 MHz, but devices on different bandwidths can't hear one another's communications to avoid talking over them. GapSense could enable these devices on different standards to talk in turn. At moderate WiFi traffic, the researchers detected around 40 percent collision rate between wider and narrower bandwidth devices, and GapSense reduced it to virtually zero.

GapSense could also reduce energy consumption of WiFi devices by 44 percent, its developers predict. It would accomplish this by allowing the WiFi receiver to operate at low clock rates. With the software, the faster clocked WiFi transmitter could send a wake-up message to the slower clocked receiver in time for it to synch and catch an information packet.

"The impact of GapSense is huge in my opinion," Shin says. "It could be the Tower of Babel for the increasingly diversified world of wireless devices."

The paper is titled "Gap Sense: Lightweight Coordination of Heterogeneous Wireless Devices." The work is funded by the National Science Foundation. The university is pursuing patent protection for the intellectual property and is seeking commercialization partners to help bring the technology to market.

Source: University of Michigan

Published May 2013

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