Electronics-Lab.com Blog

IBM scientists in Zurich have created a one-step point-of-care-diagnostic test, based on an innovative silicon chip that requires less sample volume, is significantly faster, portable, easy to use and can test for many diseases, including one of world’s leading cause of death, cardiovascular disease.

In this photo we see the capillary pump, which has a depth of 180 micrometers and contains an intricate set of microstructures, the job of which is to pump the sample through the device for as long as needed and at a regular flow rate, just like the human heart. This pump makes the test accurate, portable and simple to use. IBM scientists have developed a library of capillary pumps so that tests needing a variety of sample volumes or test times can still be done without having to re-engineer the entire chip. [via]

Biochip enables fast diagnosis of many diseases - [Link]

Constructing virtual 3D models usually requires heavy and expensive equipment, or takes lengthy amounts of time. A group of researchers Cambridge University Engineering Department; Qi Pan, Dr Gerhard Reitmayr and Dr Tom Drummond have created a program able to build 3D models of textured objects in real-time, using only a standard computer and webcam. This allows 3D modeling to become accessible to everybody… [via]

Creating 3D models with a simple webcam - [Link]

Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools allow you to draw out a symbolic representation of a circuit using a schematic capture interface, (sometimes) simulate it with a circuit simulator, and then finally lay out the circuit on a printed circuit board (PCB). In the commercial world, many companies use tools designed by Synopsys, Cadence or Mentor graphics, but these are prohibitively expensive and overly complex for most hobbyist use.

Software for designing circuits - [Link]

Bruce Heran writes:

This is a project that I made to take care of an ever increasing need to prototype vacuum tube (valve) circuits. As you can see from the photos, it really is a test “board”. I do a lot of work with tubes and love to design and improve circuits. In the process I often use various CAD type programs to rough out the designs.

DIY vacuum tube prototyping board - [Link]

Designed to make a permanent version (or Hardcopy if you will) of your project once you have perfected it on a breadboard but without the expense of embedding your original Arduino into your project. The hardcopy also makes your project more reliable and robust. With the prototyping area integrated into the board with the microprocessor, your project will have fewer boards and fewer wires, and because of that, fewer mistakes and fewer shorts.

Hardcopy: Arduino clone with a built in prototyping area - [Link]

jimthree writes:

The aim is to build a device which responds to earthquakes being reported in near-real time via the USGS RSS feeds. The device responds by illustrating the magnitude of the reported earthquake via two fairly chunky vibration motors of the kind used in video game controllers. The device is connected to a PC via a virtual com port over USB (thanks to an on board Arduino). On the PC, an application sits there checking the RSS feed periodically and when a new event it posted to the RSS feed, the desktop app parses the data out of it and presents the magnitude of the quake to the Arduino which interpreters this as rate at which to activate the vibration motors. [via]

Build a Seismic Reflector - [Link]

Silicon is the most important material for electronic chips and processors. Yet it has a big drawback: being a so-called indirect semiconductor, it hardly emits any light. Therefore worldwide efforts in the labs of the microelectronics industry are aimed towards developing more efficient light sources based on silicon. Physicists at the Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (FZD) now managed to make silicon shine red and blue in an alternating fashion. This two-color light source could help to produce cheap and compact biosensors. Recently a patent was filed related to this discovery.

Switchable Two-Color Light Source On A Silicon Chip - [Link]

Jonathan Thomson submitted this useful article about converting a low cost cell phone USB cable into and easy and cheap way to connect to an Arduino microcontroller setup. Jonathan found a cable for less then $3 which can be hacked to perform the same function as the typical $20 FTDI USB cable often used in Arduino projects.

DIY USB to Serial Cable For $3! - [Link]

starlino.com writes:

In a previous article I have analized 3 accelerometer side by side comparing their noise level. Today I am going to test a 3 axis accelerometer from ST LIS331AL. I am going to compare it with the DE-ACCM2G accelerometer from Dimension Engeneering.

LIS331AL – ADXL322 Accelerometer benchmarks – [Link]