Electronics_For_You_August_2016

Manufactureplanes closer means that 1. 0V plane to high-speed signals ifsignal traces have to be these are routed on thelocated on the outermost 2. Signal (stripline) inner layers (layers 3 andplanes, which can cause PCB center-line 4). Again, tracks on these 3. Signal (stripline) 90° to layer 2increased emission and 4. Power plane two inner layers have to besusceptibility. Fig. 13 shows Fig. 14: Stripline configuration laid perpendicular to avoida traditional stacking in cross-talk.a four-layer board where 1. Signal (microstrip) 90° to layer 2 Board stacking of eight-layers are spaced equally. 2. Signal (embedded microstrip) layer PCB. SymmetricalGround and power planes 3. 0V plane stackup using an eight-layer(layers 2 and 3) are sand- 4. Power plane PCB can meet all EMC re-wiched between signal 5. Signal (embedded microstrip) quirements, without havinglayers (layers 1 and 4). 6. Signal (microstrip) to resort to compromises and additional efforts taken for This type of distribu-tion is called microstrip Fig. 15: Board stacking of a six-layer PCB unsymmetrical stackup. Adistribution and provides traditional eight-layer sym-excellent decoupling capaci- 1. Signal (microstrip) metrical stackup is showntance between power and 2. 0V plane in Fig. 17, which consists ofground planes since these 3. Power plane four signal layers and twoare located close together. 4. Signal (stripline) 90° to layer 5 pairs of 0V power plane.This, along with reduced 5. Signal (stripline) Since in both power planeinductance, provides a 20dB 6. 0V plane pairs, 0V and power planesto 30dB improvement for Fig. 16: Another type of board stacking of a six-layer PCB are located close together,emission and susceptibility excellent decoupling capaci-over the two-layer board. 1. Low frequency signal (microstrip) tance is obtained. Very goodHowever, since traces are 2. 0V plane shielding can be providedon the outside of the board, 3. Power plane by routing the high-speed, 4. High frequency signal (stripline)there exists potential emis- 5. High frequency signal (stripline) 90° to layer 4 high-frequency tracks on in-sion and susceptibility. 6. Power plane nermost layers 4 and 5. Since 7. 0V plane the tracks on any layer have To reduce potential 8. Low frequency signal (microstrip)emission and susceptibil- Fig. 17: Board stacking of an eight-layer PCB a plane nearby, image planeity problems of microstrip effect so created leads to lowdistribution, power and ground A six-layer board provides more decoupling inductance. Overall, anplanes can be placed on the out- design options to improve EMC eight-layer board provides the most-side, while signal traces are sand- characteristics if stacking is done effective high-speed performancewiched between the two. Such type judiciously. Fig. 15 shows board with 20dB or more improvementof distribution is called stripline stacking for a six-layer board. Here, over a six-layer board.distribution. As shown in Fig. 14, power and 0V planes are located at Conclusionsignal traces on layers 2 and 3 are the centre on either side of PCB cen-very close and are oriented perpen- tre line, with two signal-track layers So far we have discussed the variousdicular to each other (for reducing above and below these. This type aspects of a good PCB design to takecross-talk). However, in this type of of stacking does not provide much care of both signal integrity and EMIstacking, power and ground planes EMC performance improvement issues. A good PCB design is alwaysare so far apart and their distributed over a four-layer board, except that the starting point of a good EMCcapacitance so low that there is there are just two additional signal design and is the most importantnegligible decoupling. This has to layers to play with. too, since it reduces performancebe compensated by providing larger Some improvement in perfor- requirements of filters and shields,decoupling capacitors. mance can be gained by using the thus contributing a long way inAnother drawback of stripline type of stacking shown in Fig. 16, reducing the product cost and keepdistribution is that of increasing where positions of inner signal the product competitive.difficulty as far as hand repairs and and power plane layers have beenrework is concerned, especially dur- interchanged. This causes lower- This article is an extract from aing prototype development. ing of power supply decoupling, book by the author. The next partBoard stacking of six-layer PCB. but can provide good shielding will cover grounding.52 August 2016 | ElEctronics For You www.EFYmAg.com



Defence electronics Part 5 of 8DirecteD energy Weapons: Less-Lethal Laser WeaponsDr Anil Kumar Maini Under directed energy weapons, so in the case of LIC operations, armedis former director, far we have covered particle beam forces engaged in the conflict operate atLaser Science and weapons and high-power micro- a greatly-reduced tempo, generally withTechnology Centre, waves. Let us now take a look at some fewer soldiers, reduced range of tacticala premier laser and less-lethal laser weapons. equipment and limited scope to operateoptoelectronics in military manner. Also, use of artil-research and Directed energy laser systems are gen- lery is avoided in the case of conflicts indevelopment erally categorised as non-lethal or, more urban territories, and use of air power islaboratory of appropriately, less-lethal directed energy often restricted to surveillance and trans-Defence Research laser weapons and lethal high-energy portation of personnel and equipment.and Development laser weapons. These include laser daz-Organisation of zlers used in anti-personnel applications LICs, which pose an alarming threatMinistry of Defence for anti-terrorist and counter-insurgency to national security, is an area of concern operations and lethal high-energy laser for the whole of international com- weapon systems aimed at inflicting struc- munity, today. Its scope extends from tural damage to the intended targets at emergency preparedness and response tactical and strategic ranges. High-energy to domestic intelligence activities to riot lasers used in anti-sensor applications as and mob control, from combating illegal a part of electro-optic countermeasure drug trafficking to protection of critical equipment also come under less-lethal infrastructure, from handling counter- directed energy laser systems. insurgency and anti-terrorist operations to detection of concealed weapons, from Another important application of detection and identification of chemical high-energy directed energy laser sys- and biological warfare agents to detection tems, when operated at relatively-lower of explosive materials. power levels, is in safe neutralisation of unexploded ordnances with minimised Laser and optoelectronics technolo- collateral damage. These systems, gen- gies play an important role in handling erally configured around kilowatt-class LIC situations. Key advantages of the use bulk solid-state lasers or high-power fibre of laser technology in such applications lasers, have amply demonstrated their are near-zero collateral damage, speed-of- efficacy in the disposal of unexploded light delivery and potential for building ordnances including improvised explosive non-lethal weapons. Some of the well- devices from a safe distance. established laser devices in LIC applica- tions include laser dazzlers for close- Less-lethal laser dazzlers combat operations, mob/riot control and protection of critical infrastructures from A low-intensity conflict (LIC) is the most aerial threats. common form of warfare today, and is likely to be so in the foreseeable future. Operational parameters Data suggests that more than 75 per cent of the armed conflicts since World War II A laser dazzler emits a high-intensity have been of the low-intensity variety. An laser beam in the visible band, usually LIC operation is a military term used for in the blue-green region, to temporar- deployment and use of troops and/or assets ily impair the vision of the adversary in situations other than conventional war. without causing any permanent or lasting injury or adverse effect to the subject’s As compared to a conventional war, www.EFYmAg.com54 August 2016 | ElEctronics For You



eyes. Depending upon intended ap- Defence electronics doubling Nd-YAG lasers. These de-plication, laser dazzlers come in a vices usually produce a randomly-variety of package styles, mounting Fig. 1: Response of human eye to different pulsed output in the range of 10Hzconfigurations and performance wavelengths to 20Hz, riding a DC level for bet-specifications. These devices can Fig. 2: Laser dazzler for close-combat operation ter overall effect. DC level is usu-be handheld or weapon-mountable Fig. 3: Vehicle-mounted laser dazzler for ally kept at 30 per cent to 50 perfor versatility, convenience and crowd-control application cent of peak intensity level. Night-ease of use. Some laser dazzlers Fig. 4: Laser dazzler in homeland security time maximum operational rangehave adjustable beam divergence Fig. 5: Protection of ships from asymmetric is typically three to four times thethat allows these to vary the spot threats maximum day-time range.size. While using a broader beamallows these a larger swath path Potential applicationsneeded to effectively produce atactical advantage, tighter beams Non-lethal weapons act as a forceallow longer range and increased multiplier, enabling friendly forcesefficacy at longer distances. to discourage, delay or prevent hostile action. A laser dazzler is Choice of operating parameters a non-lethal weapon specificallysuch as laser power, spot size at designed for applications wherethe target, laser power density and subject vision impairment is toothers are driven by the nature be achieved at a distance rangingof deployment. Beam-shaping from few tens of metres to sev-and directing optics are designed eral kilometres in bright ambientto achieve the desired value of conditions. These are particularlynominal ocular hazard distance effective in situations where use(NOHD) and a laser power density of lethal force is not preferred;that does not exceed the maximum examples being limiting escalationpermissible exposure (MPE) figure and temporarily disabling facilitiesdictated by American National and equipment.Standards Institute (ANSI) stand-ards for eye safety. Laser based less-lethal weap- ons such as laser dazzlers can MPE, expressed as power be used for counter-insurgency,density, is dependent on wave- anti-terrorism, counter-sniper, self-length and exposure time. At defence (Fig. 2) and crowd-control532nm, maximum permissible (Fig. 3) and infrastructure-protec-power density equals 2.5mW/ tion applications.cm2 for 0.25-second exposure and1.0mW/cm2 for an exposure time Laser dazzlers are emergingof ten seconds. internationally as the new non- lethal alternative to lethal force Blue-green region is the chosen for law enforcement, homelandwavelength band as the human security (Fig. 4), border patrol,eye is most sensitive to green light. coastal protection, ship defenceRelative spectral response (Fig. 1) from asymmetric threats (Fig. 5),is used in determining lumens of aircraft defence against shoulder-a light source and thus how bright fired missiles (Fig. 6), infrastruc-the light will appear in terms of ture protection and host of otherlux. For a red light to appear as low-intensity conflict scenarios.bright as a green light, the red lightmust emit more radiation than the Such vehicles are usuallygreen light because humans are equipped with remotely-controllednot as sensitive to red light. weapon stations for a wide range of applications. Technology of Most-commonly-employed the short-range laser dazzler andwavelength for the purpose is crowd-control laser dazzler is532nm, usually generated by using more or less similar, except thateither laser diodes or frequency the latter system employs a larger 56 August 2016 | ElEctronics For You www.EFYmAg.com



Defence electronicsFig. 6: Aircraft protection figuration of multiple laser dazzler individuals. This feature is particu- stations and radars could be effec- larly important for protection ofFig. 7: CHP laser dazzler mounted on a tripod tively used for protection of critical entry control points and convoys, at infrastructure or assets. distance, in bright ambient condi-Fig. 8: GLARE GBD-IIIC tions. The CHP laser dazzler has In a system like this, the radar been comprehensively evaluated toFig. 9: M240B mounted laser dazzler provides the initial cue about the demonstrate no lasting eye dam- rogue or suspect aircraft when it is age from repeated direct exposurespower source to be able to produce still more than 100km away from beyond the specified 20m stand-the desired power density in a the actual asset to be protected. It off distance.larger beam spot. Some means of keeps a continuous vigil on the sus-scanning the laser beam spot may pect aircraft till it comes within the GLARE MOUT is a non-lethalalso be necessary. tracking range of the electro-optic visual disruption laser with an effec- tracker, which is usually an integral tive range of 20m to 2km. The de- Laser dazzlers are also being part of the laser dazzler station. vice is ideally suited for small armsconsidered as a potential candidate integration as well as mobile crew-for warning the crew of commer- The electro-optic tracker station served applications. When a suspectcial airliners or military aircraft takes the cue from the radar and approaches a restricted or controlledwho tend to violate intentionally tracks the target with much higher area, such a device can be used toor unintentionally the no-fly zone. accuracy needed for the dazzling give warning to that person beforeSuch systems in a networked con- action. Exposure to a strong laser shots have to be fired. It is config- 58 August 2016 | ElEctronics For You light source results in flash blind- ured around 125mW green laser ness and after-images. In flash emitting at 532nm. It has an NOHD blindness, exposure to a very of 18m. Its shockingly bright-green bright light source deprives the beam sends an irrefutable, multi- pilot of vision for a period of time lingual, cross-cultural, unambiguous ranging from a few seconds to a message that you mean business. few minutes. Reports confirm that GLARE MOUT has saved numerous lives of both Also, laser illumination fills the soldiers and non-combatants in Iraq flight deck with a bright light, thus and Afghanistan. making it difficult to concentrate on flight instruments as well and GLARE GBD-IIIC, a long-range adversely affecting pilot’s intended variant of GLARE MOUT, is a visual actions. Before the aircraft cock- deterrent laser device for hail and pit is flooded with dazzling laser warning applications. It is an ef- light, much lower power levels are fective dazzler ideally suited for employed to send a kind of warn- ship-to-ship signaling or airborne ing signal to the crew to know their over-watch. With twice the power intent. This helps in discriminating and a more concentrated beam than rogue aircraft from those that might GLARE MOUT, this device can ef- have gone astray unintentionally. fectively hail and warn as far away as 4km. Representative laser dazzler systems Like GLARE MOUT, GLARE GBD-IIIC produces an overtly bright- A large number of companies are green diffused laser spot to impair offering short- to medium-range the visual ability of a suspect. Fig. 8 laser dazzler systems for various shows the photograph of the device. application scenarios. One such It is configured around a 250mW short-range laser dazzler is Com- green laser operating at 532nm. It pact High Power (CHP) laser daz- has an operational range of 72m to zler from LE systems, USA (Fig. 7). 4000m with lower limit being the The dazzler emits 500mW flashing NOHD for the unaided eye. A fixed- green dazzling laser beam. The beam divergence of 4mrad to 5mrad CHP with its higher power creates a produces a spot size of about 30cm credible glare effect in a larger spot at the minimum operating range. size for use on moving vehicles or www.EFYmAg.com



Defence electronics(a)(b)Fig. 10: Dazer lasers: (a) Guardian (b) Defender Fig. 11: Laser dazzler for global coverage from a distance. TALI-series devices are configured around a 100mW,With the optional eye-safety mod- ates on green wavelength. Mounted 532nm laser producing a laser beamule, the device automatically shuts on M240B, it was used during with 1.5mrad to 7.5mrad adjustableoff when the targeted personnel are Iraq war. beam divergence.within the NOHD. The Chinese JD-3 laser dazzler Dazer Laser (Fig. 10) from Laser GLARE LA-9/Palso, built around and ZM-87 portable laser disrup- Energetics Inc., USA, is yet anothera 250mW green laser, is yet another tor are other established systems. very popular device. It comes inlong-range visual deterrent laser JD-3 laser dazzler is reported to be two variants, namely, Guardiandevice for hail and warning applica- mounted on Chinese Type 98 main that has a range of 1m to 300mtions. It is intended to be effective battle tank and is coupled with a la- (model-dependent) and Defenderfrom 0.3km to 4km for ship-to-ship ser radiation detector, and automati- that has a range of 1m to 2400msignaling or airborne over-watch cally aims for the enemy’s illuminat- (model-dependent). Both variantsapplications. This system has an ing laser designator, attempting to temporarily impair the vision ofadditional feature of automati- overwhelm its optical systems or the target adversary and succeedcally shutting off the device if the blind the operator. in eliminating the threat’s ability tosubject target is within the NOHD. see, engage or effectively target theThe device is equipped to rapidly ZM-87 portable laser disruptor is user. This provides the user with adetect if a bystander within inside an electro-optic countermeasure la- significant advantage over the threatthe NOHD; it shuts off the glaring ser device. It can blind enemy troops at longer and safer stand-off dis-laser output to prevent unintended up to a range of 3km and temporar- tances. Both variants are designed toeye injury. ily blind them at up to 10km range. be eye-safe at all ranges beyond 1m ZM-87 has been widely-deployed, and meet the current ANSI safety Saber 203 Grenade Shell Laser including its use on naval vessels. standard Z136.1.Intruder Countermeasure System isa type of laser dazzler that uses a Photonic Disruptor, classified A vehicle-mounted laser dazzler250mW red laser diode mounted in as Threat Assessment Laser Il- system designed to control violenta hard plastic capsule in the shape luminator (TALI), is yet another crowds and unruly mobs was earlierof a standard 40mm grenade. It non-lethal high-power green laser shown in Fig. 3. Defence Researchis suitable for being loaded into a developed by Wicked Lasers, USA, and Development OrganizationM203 grenade launcher and has an in cooperation with Xtreme Al- (DRDO), India, has also developed aeffective range of 300m. It is con- ternative Defence Systems. This short-range hand-held laser dazzlertrolled via a box snapped under the tactical laser is equipped with a and a vehicle-mounted laser dazzlerlauncher, with batteries and a firing versatile focus-adjustable collimat- for crowd-control applications.switch housed in this box. In emer- ing lens to compensate for rangegencies, it can be quickly ejected and power intensity when used to To be continued...and replaced with a grenade. Saber either incapacitate an attacker in203 dazzlers were used in Somalia close range or safely identify threatsin 1995 during Operation UnitedShield. Fig. 9 shows the photographof another laser dazzler, which oper-60 August 2016 | ElEctronics For You www.EFYmAg.com



embedded MCUs And PSoCs InElECtroniC toy APPliCAtionS Ronak Desai Microcontrollers (MCUs) in current have a readily-available component block is system electronic toy applications are for designing the interface and logic like engineering mainly used for infrared (IR) inter- IR, ADC for analogue inputs, pulse-width manager faces, external EEPROM interfaces, analogue modulator (PWM) for buzzer applications, at Cypress inputs using external analogue-to-digital DACs, segments, characters or graphical Semiconductor, converters (ADCs) and comparators, timer LCD display support. Bengaluru and clock interfaces, monitoring batteryFig. 1: Block diagram inputs, controlling front panel mechanical This article discusses the role of MCUsusing an MCU keypads and displaying the results on LCDs/ and PSoCs in electronic toy applications. LEDs/graphical displays. It also evaluates system limitations and design challenges for these applica- Programmable systems on chip (PSoC) tions. With PSoCs, devices can reduce devices can be used in remote control the complete product cost (by reducing systems as single-board solutions for IR bills of material cost) and project cost (by interfaces, battery input detection, analogue implementation in IDE tool) in electronic measurements and direct-drive LCD/graphi- toy applications. cal displays. Such devices support CapSense technology, which replaces mechanical but- Theory behind tons on the keypad. Current electronic toy applications use Using IDE tool of SoC devices, all inter- 8-bit/16-bit MCUs for different functions faces and logics can be designed. IDE tools like motor control, LED/LCD/graphical display drive and different input and output Audio interfaces, battery sensing and audio out- Amplifier put. The MCU in CSP package is most com- monly used in electronic toy applications. Sensor Input, AnaloguePosition Sensor, Input The MCU receives analogue input sig- nals from analogue sensors (sensors thatAudio Input receive analogue inputs and provide digital voltage that is applied to the MCU) and ADC and DAC 2-axis/3-axis accelerometer (accelerometer Comparator measures the 2-axis/3-axis movement and converts it to digital voltage, which is ap- Buzzer plied to the MCU). The MCU also uses the accelerometer and mechanical joystick forEEPROM SDA running gaming applications. SCL LCD/ Graphical The MCU uses external buffer driver Buffer Display circuitry to drive LED, LCD or graphical displays. Typically, an LCD or a graphicalMechanical MCU Wireless/ display with backlight is used in low-end Keypad Bluetooth applications. The MCU also controls the interface backlight of the LCD and graphical display. Battery Inputs It uses a touchscreen controller for touch- UART/ screen interface in high-end applications.Power Supply I2C/ Section SPI The MCU uses a mechanical keypad for user inputs in low-end applications. It uses MOSFET M CapSense/touchscreen based keypads in Drive high-end applications. The MCU interfaces DC Motor LED1 LED2 LED3 Control Low Battery Charging User LED LED LED62 August 2016 | ElEctronics For You www.EFYmAg.com

Sensor Input, Analogue Audio Position Sensor, Input Amplifier Audio Input BuzzerCapSense Buttons PSoC LCD/ GraphicalBattery Inputs Display Wireless/ Bluetooth Interface UART/ I2C/ SPIPower Supply MOSFET M Section Drive DC Motor LED1 LED2 LED3 Control Low Battery Charging User LED LED LEDFig. 2: PSoC based block diagram different end toy applicationsMcU features end toy applicationsSoC with flash memory Remote controllers and remote controlled toys (cars, helicopters, planes, boats, robots, etc)SoC with one-time programmable Low-end, entry-level toys and toys that do not support firmwarememory for low-end devices upgradesSoC with flash memory and full- USB dongles for PC connectivity (also support firmwarespeed USB support upgrades), USB support for console and PC dongles and toys that support firmware upgradesRadio-on-a-chip with 2Mpbs, Any wireless end product1Mbps and 250kbps data rateFig. 3: Some toy applications for battery-charging, fault-detection and data-recovery applications.with other onboard peripherals (likecamera interface controller) through An MCU on proprietary 2.4GHzI2C, SPI and UART interfaces. technology is targeted at remote- controlled toys segment; gaming Toy applications are battery-op- controllers and remote-controllederated and use coin-cell or lithium- toys are also witnessing customersion batteries for operation. The MCU shifting from IR to radio frequencymonitors the coin-cell and lithium- (RF) range.ion battery voltage. It is also used Implementation of PSoC in electronic toy applications A PSoC is a combination of an MCU with programmable logic and high-performance analogue-to-digi-www.EFYmAg.com ElEctronics For You | August 2016 63

embedded CapSense Proximity Sensor In low-power mode, it consumes less than 1µA current, making it Voltage Regulator CY8C3866AXI Accelerometer useful when operating a toy inGeneral-Purpose Switch PSoC 3 device low-power mode and with coin- cell battery input.J4 Voltage CapSense SliderRegulator A PSoC has an internal RTCSource Select 8 Red LED Outputs component for real-time meas- 12-Pin Wireless urements. It does not require an9V Battery Header external clock/oscillator circuitry Header 28-Pin External and supports USB 2.0 interface, I/O (on reverse) allowing the user to interface external memory through USB USB Mini B Port Thermistor 2.0. It also supports secure digital J1 Vddio Power CY7C68013A card interface. Source Select FX2LP High-Speed USB A PSoC has internal PWM,Fig. 4: PSoC based board for toy applications which is used for controlling and varying the tone of the buzzer for Boot every key press in electronic toy applications. Duty cycle of PWMs Start is varied based on the speed re- quired as set by the user through Get ADC count (V) for the GUI/keypad interface. A PSoCmeasured accelerometer has an internal 8-bit DAC, which can be used for controlling speaker Y axis voltage volume, and it also performs mute function for the speaker. V > minimum No No Yes Reset alloscillation thershold? accelerometer A PSoC has internal op-amps, Minimium variables comparators and 12-bit 1MSPS osciallation successive-approximation ADC count++>500? with differential and single-ended modes including sample-and- Yes hold capability, which is used to measure different sensor inputs,Calculate velocity and and battery monitoring. So it does distance not require external amplifiers, ADC and comparators for electronic Peak oscillation Yes toy applications. detected? Update Peak detect A PSoC has an operating rage No variables of 1.71V to 5.5V, so it can be easily interfaced with external peripheralsCalculate character for other applications. It supports aoffset in the string low operating voltage up to 1.71V and ultra-low power (consumesUpdate LED display less than 1µA current) operation along with hibernate and deep-Fig. 5: PSoCRocks application flowchart sleep modes, which allow wake-up time versus power trade-off, which,tal conversions and commonly-used have flash memories up to 256kB, in turn, help support extended bat-fixed-function peripherals. The SRAM up to 64kB and internal tery life/power supply life.PSoC family is made up of 8-bit EEPROM up to 2kB (flash can be(PSoC 1 and PSoC 3) and 32-bit used to emulate EEPROM). A PSoC A PSoC supports two inde-(PSoC4 and PSoC5) MCUs. These works on ultra-low power mode. pendent run-time reconfigurable serial communication blocks with64 August 2016 | ElEctronics For You re-configurable I2C, SPI or UART functionality, which are helpful www.EFYmAg.com

Fig. 6: PSoCRocks application image directly (does not require external buffers) drive LCD/graphical LCDs. Boot IDE tool also has RTC compo- Start nent for real-time measurements. PSoC Creator has an internal Get ADC count (V) for system clock and does not require Accelerometer X axis voltage external clock/oscillator circuitry. Other components include timer, Calculate the LED offset buzzer, CapSense, segment LCD, for current value of V character LCD, graphical LCD and so on. Update LED display PSoC Creator also enables us-Fig. 7: Bubble levels application flowchart ers to make use of an entire tools ecosystem with integrated compilerin internal and external peripheral tool chains, RTOS solutions andcommunication. production programmers. With PSoC Creator and PSoC Designer, It supports CapSense compo- users can create and share user-nent, which supports manual and defined custom peripherals usingauto-tuning, which, in turn, is hierarchical schematic designs.helpful in waterproofing application. They can automatically place andThe PSoC directly drives LCDs and route select components and inte-graphical displays for displaying dif- grate simple glue logic, normallyferent menu options. located in discrete devices. PSoC Creator IDE tool has a Pros and cons of using PSoCreadily-available component blockfor designing interface and logics A PSoC supports CapSense tech-like SARADC and PGA for analogue nology, which replaces mechani-sensors and other analogue inputs. cal buttons with CapSense basedComponents like PWM, CLK, MUX keypad. This reduces failure due toand comparator are used for elec- mechanical buttons and providestronic toy applications. Character better product reliability.LCD and segment LCD components PSoC Creator and PSoC Design- er support CapSense SmartSense component (CapSense algorithm continuously compensates for sys- tem, manufacturing and environ- mental changes), which auto-tunes the sensitivity of CapSense buttons and sliders. So it does not require manual tuning. A PSoC supports waterproofing application. It does not detect false triggers due to water droplets and buttons operate in normal condi- tions in this case. It ensures robust button performance even in noisy operating conditions. PSoC supports proximity detec- tion using PCB trace, single-wire, ganged-button or single-button im- plementations. So the front keypad is activated when a user places a hand near the keypad.www.EFYmAg.com ElEctronics For You | August 2016 65

embeddedFig. 8: Bubble levels application image ded system that can fail condition is required for mobile be solved by single- phone applications. ImplementingBoot chip solutions. self diagnostics in electronic toy ap- plications is also a design challenge.Start Design challenges An MCU with one-time programma- ble feature prevents reverse engi-Scan CapSense Slider The high-performance neering of the firmware by competi- intelligence MCU tors and hackers. Read the selection with higherCentroid position MIPS CPU core, faster Designing electronic toys ADC (≥500ksps @ No 10-bit), internal flash Electronic toys can be used for and SRAM memory, raster displays, bubble levels and Is finger internal EEPROM, analogue and CapSense applications. For example,detected on digital peripherals are required to a PSoC based board can be used for the slider? perform key functions like high-per- showing raster display, bubble level formance analogue measurement, and CapSense applications. Yes CapSense, touchscreen interface, LCD drives, low-power operations, Components indicated in Fig. 4Update LED display with RTC and interfaces with different are as follows:respect to finger position external protocols. 1. PSoC 3 100-pin TQFP (Cypress A PSoC supports CapSense tech-Fig. 9: CapSense flowchart nology. Using PSoC in the design, CY8C3866AXI-040 TQFP100) CapSense based button, slider and 2. CapSense proximity sensor con- In the world of Cortex proces- proximity can be implemented forsors, operating range is up to 3.3V. the front panel. Meeting CapSense nector (Samtec Inc., BCS-101-L-A PSoC supports operating rage of performance (signal-to-noise ratio) S-HE)1.71V to 5.5V. with nearby LEDs (PWM based) on 3. 3-axis accelerometer (Kionix, the front panel is a design challenge KXSC7-2050) A PSoC is available with pro- for the system designer. 4. 5-segment CapSense slidergrammable solutions (can be set Implementing waterproofing and 5. Eight LEDsup to implement a range of user- water-tolerance features, imple- 6. Thermistor (Murata, NCP21X-defined features) and configurable menting auto-tuning with variation V103J03RA)solutions (can implement specific in trace capacitance, variation in 7. 12-pin wireless expansion con-features without firmware develop- CapSense button and slider sizes nectorment; can be hardware through re- and shape are some other design 8. 28-pin external I/O connectorsistors or I2C register configurable) challenges for the system designer, (22 GPIO, 2 VDD, 2 GND, 2 SIO)in electronic toy applications. along with implementing CapSense 9. USB programming and debug- sensing with thicker glass mate- ging interface (Cypress CY- Increasing the number of inter- rial (display glass) and meeting 7C68013A-56LFXC)nal and external interfaces on the CapSense sensitivity with that type 10. USB connectorboard increases the number of ways of materials. 11. 9V DC battery holderthat an intruder can create havoc As this solution involves electro- 12. Jumper J1 Vddio power sourceon the system. Failure analysis and mechanical construction, designing selectreturned materials are two of the a compact and cost-effective electro- 13. Jumper J4 voltage regulatorlargest limitations of this embed- mechanical solution becomes a chal- source select lenge for the system designer, added 14. Voltage regulator (Zetex Inc., with the challenge of certifying this ZLDO330) electromechanical design with EMI/ 15. General-purpose push-button EMC standards. switch Fault-detection and recovery PSoCRocks raster image using mechanisms are required in elec- PSoC board. The board has a 3-axis tronic toy applications. Power sup- accelerometer, which detects instant ply design with battery protection, acceleration of the board in motion. over-current, over-heating, start-up Instantaneous voltage at each axis of the accelerometer is directly pro- portional to the acceleration along that axis. In the firmware, y-axis66 August 2016 | ElEctronics For You www.EFYmAg.com

Fig. 10: CapSense image under the influence of gravity. When the board is placed flat on thevoltage output of the accelerometer ground, static acceleration due tois routed to an ADC in the PSoC. gravity along x axis of the accel-This digital value is now a measure erometer is zero. In this position,of acceleration detected by the ac- two LEDs in the centre of the LEDcelerometer. If acceleration exceeds display are turned on. Because thethe maximum value, it signals the board is tilted in one direction, forcestart of a new wave event. of gravity along that axis increases. This increases static acceleration Firmware delays are for a fixed detected by the accelerometer.period of time to start the firstcharacter in the proper position of The x axis voltage output of thethe wave. PSoCRocks string is con- accelerometer is fed into the ADCverted into a rasterised display data in the PSoC. The ADC converts thisarray before the start of the wave. voltage into digital count, which isEach column of the rasterised data the measure of static accelerationarray is sequentially output after a detected by the accelerometer. PSoCfixed delay. determines the tilt of the board and lights up LEDs indicating the tilt. If Delay periods may be adjusted the board is further tilted in one di-in the firmware. For a particular rection, the LED moves accordinglycharacter in the message, a look-up to the extreme of the LED display.table determines which LEDs to turnon. When the board is waved back CapSense inputs using PSoCand forth rapidly, due to persistence board. Capacitive sensing deter-of vision, the user-defined image mines the presence of a conduc-appears to float in the air. Multiple tive element such as a finger onstrings may be configured with each a capacitive sensor incorporatedstring being displayed for an adjust- on the PCB. The kit consists ofable number of wave cycles. CapSense sensors in the form of a slider. Size of the sensors and their PSoCRocks application displays a positions are designed such thatrasterised image of the user-defined when a finger is placed on any partmessage (“PSoCRocks!”) using of the slider, at least three sensorspersistence of vision. Waving the are actived (it detects the presencecircuit board back and forth quickly of the finger by a change in itsin the plane of the board generates capacitance value).the message. CapSense component provides Bubble levels application using APIs, which report the centroidPSoC board. A bubble level displays (relative position) of the finger onthe degree of horizontal deviation the slider based on active sen-using a bubble of air in a glass via sors. The firmware then lightslevel. In firmware project, a level is up the LED corresponding to thisemulated by the accelerometer on centroid position.the board. In bubble-level detection,LEDs display the tilt of the board Conclusionalong its length (corresponding to xaxis of the accelerometer). A PSoC is a combination of an MCU and an ASIC. It provides an ease-of- The accelerometer is always use environment in electronic toy applications. Using a PSoC in these applications helps reduce the product cost (by reducing bills of material cost and design cycle time) and project cost (with PSoC Creator and PSoC Designer implementation).www.EFYmAg.com ElEctronics For You | August 2016 67





buyers’ guideChoosing The Right LED COB Sani Theo is Why is the LED lighting indus- as indicator lights because of their senior assistant try abuzz with light emitting low cost, high brightness and ease of editor - tech diode chips on boards (LED install. DIP LEDs generally produce at EFY COBs)? What makes these the current between three lumens and four lumensFig. 1: DIP LEDs favourite? Which applications are these per LED. good for and for which ones should these be avoided? Most importantly, SMD LED chips. SMD, or surface what are the factors based on which mounted device, chips (Fig. 2) have be- you should choose the right LED COB come very popular due to their versatil- chip? These are some questions I have ity. These are much smaller in compari- tried to answer here. son to DIP. SMD LEDs have been used to create everything from light bulbs to Technologies galore strip lights. Before we get down to discussing the SMD chips have the ability to put parameters based on which you should three diodes on the same chip. When choose your LED chip—mainly COB a chip includes a red, green and blue LED—let me give you a perspective of diode, you have a chip that can create the different technologies that power dif- any colour you want by adjusting the ferent type of LEDs. level of output from each individual diode on the chip. Because these are DIP LEDs. Dual inline package (DIP) bright and can change colours, these LED technology, as shown in Fig. 1, chips are used extensively for LED strip is likely what you think of when you lights and light bulbs. picture an LED. It has been around for more than 50 years. Though it is old, COB LEDs. COB chips have multiple DIP LEDs are far from outdated as these diodes (more than three) on the same are still used extensively for large signs wafer. This is where the similarities and displays. between SMD and COB end. In fact, on every COB chip (Fig. 3) there are multi- These LEDs are typically found ple diodes. in electronic and electrical gadgets While SMD requires a circuit for70 August 2016 | ElEctronics For You every diode included on the chip, a COB device has only one circuit with two contacts for the entire chip, regard- less of the number of diodes. This single-circuit design, regardless of the number of diodes on the chip, leads to design simplicity. More importantly, COB has im- proved lumen-per-watt ratios in com- parison to other LED technologies such as DIP and SMD. Unfortunately, the big drawback of COB (due to single-circuit design) is that multiple channels are necessary to adjust individual levels of light output to create colour-changing effects. Thus, COB lighting is powerful and efficient for single-colour applica- tions, but cannot be used to create colour-changing lights. www.EFYmAg.com



buyers’ guideFig. 2: SMD LED chips Why COB LEDs LED anD othEr Lighting sourcEs From the above, it is clear that COBs are one of the best optionsMinimum light output incandescent common cFL common LED bulbs available. These promise to lower(brightness) light bulbs bulbs the overall cost of LED luminaires by providing several benefits,Lumens Energy used Energy used Energy used such as greater design flexibility, (watts) (watts) (watts) better light distribution and sim- 9-11 5-8 pler manufacturing process. Here450 40 13-20 10-13 is why: 18-25 13-18800 60 23-30 20-26 1. COBs produce less heat as 30-52 Currently not available compared to other form of LEDs.1100 75 This, in turn, results in higher ef- ficiency. Better thermal dissipation1600 100 is achieved because the LEDs are directly mounted on an aluminium2600 150 sheet, which, in turn, offers better heat dissipation as compared toCourtesy: atcoenergysense.com other materials. COB chips vary widely in their applications. MCOB is a very new 2. COBs have a lower failureapplications and thus different technology at this point that not rate because spot soldering ischips require different wattage, many manufacturers are producing, no longer required as it is builtvoltage and produce vastly differ- but will likely catch on. directly on to the PCB.ent lumen counts. However, COBchips have good lumens per watt Fig. 3: COB LEDs 3. Another major factor is that,ratio, starting typically from 80 lu- typically COBs have a much widermens per watt minimum and going beam angle and thereby a higherup to 100 lumens per watt or more. colour rendering index (CRI). ThisThis attribute of high efficiency makes these a preferred choice formakes these a clear favourite for all outdoor lighting luminaries suchapplications running on batteries, as streetlights.including mobile phones, camerasand more. 4. It is also possible for COB LED package to be assembled in MCOB LEDs. A variant of COB the heat-sink directly. In such ais now gaining popularity—MCOB scenario, a separate mounting andor multiple chip on board. MCOB PCB are not required.devices (Fig. 4) are very similar toCOB chips in their application and www.EFYmAg.comare essentially multiple COB chipstogether in series. MCOB devicesproduce a lot of light and are evenbetter than COBs for low-wattage72 August 2016 | ElEctronics For You



buyers’ guideHow to choose the right lumens per watt. For example, if Lifespan of COB LED. An-COB LED package a nine-watt light bulb comes with other important specification is the lumens of 800, it means it has lifespan in hours. Some LED lampsLet us now discuss some of the pa- an efficacy of about 90 lumens may last for 50,000 hours. So if yourameters that are important while per watt. consider daily use of eight hours, itchoosing COB LEDs: may last 17 years. CRI, or colour rendering index. Forward voltage. This is the CRI is a measure of light quality, Life of the LED also depends onamount of volts the LED requires showing how well a light source the heat-sink used. COB technologyto conduct electricity and light up. replicates colour to the human gives the best conditions for optimalA typical 20-watt COB LED would eye. White light is made up of all cooling, which, in turn, increasesrequire a forward voltage of about the colours in the light spectrum. efficiency and lengthens the overall29V DC to 32V DC. We can see the colour of every life of the lamp. material object in daylight. Natural Forward current. It is the Beam angle. Beam angle of acurrent flowing through an LED Fig. 4: MCOB LEDs bulb refers to the spread of light towhen forward voltage is applied your surroundings. For example, ato it. A typical 20-watt COB LED daylight has the highest CRI rating, spotlight in a kitchen will have adraws about 640mA. Therefore you while artificial light sources cannot beam angle of between 35 degreesshould choose appropriate current produce all the colours of the lightdriver as per the rating on the spectrum. CRI of 80 is the standard and 60 degrees. Standard andLED package. requirement for general home use. candle-shape bulbs require a beam angle as wide as possible Power consumption. An CCT, or correlated colour tem- when fitted to lamps. Though,LED lamp packaging may be perature. CCT is measured in Kelvin ideally the beam angle shouldspecified with power consump- (K) to refer to the warmth or cool- be over 200 degrees.tion in watts, lumen output, ness of the white light that the LED To distribute light better, tocolour temperature, operating produces. The higher the tempera- more areas, you would needtemperature range and others. ture, the cooler the light looks. An a wider beam angle. But aPower rating in LED lamps LED bulb marked with 5000K does narrow beam angle is requiredshould not be confused with not actually heat up to 8500°F, but when you want to have the lightpower ratings in other lighting still gives off a warm light.systems. With less wattage rating more focused and intense. Adjust-in LED lamps, as compared to Some LED bulbs have more ing beam angles correctly can vastlyother lighting products, you can than 6000K CCT, which makes the improve the lighting effect in a room.get more light output or lumen light more towards bluish ratheroutput as shown in the table on than white. A warm light is around Junction temperature. It is thethe previous page. 2700K, while neutral white at highest operating temperature of the around 4000K and cool white at actual semiconductor in an elec- Luminous flux. It is used as 5000K or more. tronic device. This temperature isan objective measure of the total normally specified in the datasheet.amount of visible light that your You will require this value whenlighting source produces. The SI calculating the case-to-ambientunit of luminous flux is lumen thermal resistance for a given power(lm). If you compare a CFL and dissipation. This will help you selecta normal white LED, the latter is an appropriate heat-sink.highly energy efficient and usesvery little energy. The lumens COB LEDs are going strongproduced by an LED bulb ascompared to other lighting sources Many publicly-available indus-are shown in the table. COB LED try reports claim that there is anoffers a greatly improved lumen- increasing demand for COB LEDsper-watt ratio compared to other in the global lighting industry. AsLED technologies. of now, you can see COB LEDs in many consumer and industrial Efficacy. This parameter is for products including bulbs, down-deciding the performance of the lights, tubelights, street lamps, bayLED. It is the effectiveness of the lights and others. One can confi-LED at converting electricity into dently state that their future looksvisible light. Thus, efficacy is total bright, for now. 74 August 2016 | ElEctronics For You www.EFYmAg.com



test & measurement GeneratinG FunctionsFor A Diverse Range Of Applications Saurabh Durgapal Not so long ago, dial based function How it all works is working as generators were in high demand. technology With advancing technologies, these A function generator basically generates a triangular journalist at EFY have become outdated and now, with wave. Frequency can, however, be controlled by thefunction generator computer control, generating a single fre- knobs on the interface of the device. Repeatedlyin use quency can be redefined. Additionally, with charging and discharging a capacitor results in a multichannel generators and digital signal linearly ascending and descending voltage ramp or a generation, there is not much that cannot triangular wave. Changing the current provided and be done via a function generator. the size of the capacitor can vary the frequencies. Function generators have many ap- By changing the charging and discharging plications, ranging from observation of a cycles we can observe other waveforms as well. simple sinusoidal waveform to being used If we charge the capacitor slowly and discharge it as a signal source to test amplifiers, or to quickly by using a diode over a current source, we introduce an error signal into a control can have a sawtooth wave. loop. We also have equipment generating synchronised signals suitable for television A square wave can be easily observed from and other broadcasts, including horizontal the current-switching comparator output. Output and vertical sync pulses (in analogue) or will give a 50 per cent duty cycle square-wave for sync words (in digital). Let us take a look at regular charging and discharging of the capacitor. some of these advancing test and measure- ment equipment. bitrary generators are being more and more integrated in other equipment like oscillo- Emerging features scopes, which will significantly reduce the market for this basic type,” explains Rao. Today is an era of computers. If we can The function generator acts as a source for control a function generator via a computer, a quasi-digital bit-stream that may be mod- it can become very easy for people to work ulated by arbitrary analogue waveforms to with it. There are manufacturers developing simulate signal distortion. Bit patterns may equipment that can be connected to a com- have significant length, preventing the use puter, and the frequency to be generated of traditional arbitrary editors, and require can be fine-tuned. Pico Source PG900 series modification of the remote command set by is one such example. adding pattern commands and storing the integrated arbitrary memory. “We see a trend towards multichannel generators, two channels at least, but there Another interesting feature is the is also a need for four channels and more,” integration of different devices. Tools like Siglent SDG1025 have incorporated an says Appalla Srinivasa oscilloscope with the waveform generator Rao, manager - product in a handy little device. With such equip- support and applica- ment, generation of a signal and viewing tion, Rohde & Schwarz the signals for analysis can be done on a India. Such multichannel single device. Today, we have a multitude generators are very fruit- of devices requiring separate maintenance ful in comparing multiple tools. Development of such equipment is signals for education pur- always helpful in reducing the number of poses, along with testing equipment on an engineer’s workbench. for optimum performance. Testers need precision “Beside these trends, simple single-channel ar- Requirement of test and measurement equipment has always been there from elec-76 August 2016 | ElEctronics For You www.EFYmAg.com



test & measurementtronics equipment designers. These Hack for signal generationhave always helped in delivering thebest products; the ease of testing An interesting approach for signal generation is the use of a sound card fitted on your personalequipment with computer systems is computer system to output the required wave. Within certain specified frequency ranges andonly expected to improve productiv- amplitudes, you can generate your very own personal frequencies. Employing some softwareity. This also minimises the chances instructions, it should be a good DIY.of human errors in the final result, asthe signal generated can be calibrated Test it on Cloudand values can be automated viathe computer. To make testing easy for engineers, a trend towards incorporating multiple equipment in a single equipment is being seen. Kicking it up a notch, you have Cloud testing platforms from However, accuracy is not enough. Advantest. The capability to test semiconductor chips online creates an ease in measurements.“Customers expect higher precision Now the tester can plug in the probes and let the Cloud take care of the rest. All updates inthan in the past, that is, 16-bit ampli- the instruments are done at CTS end and the user can work comfortably simply by paying atude resolution instead of 14-bit used monthly fee. Additionally, instead of using several different components and getting confusedin the actual generation,” says Rao. between readings, a single platform takes care of multiple tests. V. Mahadevan, managing director, synchronisation, Trueform waveform Cloud testingVigVen Tech Mark Pvt Ltd, supports sequencing and PRBS series patterns.this argument about high-resolution “Trueform technology offers more Another matter of concern withequipment. He says, “Such preci- capability, fidelity and flexibility,” function generators is the price.sion would result in minute changes says Kishore S., application engineer, “Price is, as usual, an issue,” addsbeing highlighted, resulting in better Keysight Technologies India Pvt Ltd. Rao. However, with the release ofend devices.” 33600A and 33500B series Trueform multiple test equipment incorporated waveform generators from Keysight in a single device, this should not be Rao mentions another require- feature this technology. a major issue now. Bringing the bestment as, “requests for digital pattern in technology also has its problemsgenerators as additional functional- Flexible equipment design that can correlate to cost. “The timeity.” With the move to digital signals, to market causes the product to bethis was bound to happen sooner Rao says, “Our preferred implementa- designed with the latest processors toor later. Agilent, NI and Tektronix, tion is based on FPGAs containing be delayed,” says Mahadevan.among others, provide products cater- several DDSes, thus providing maxi-ing to this category as well. mum flexibility at reasonable prices. Could there be a wave of change It allows us to tailor the instrument toSignal generation the needs of big-volume customers.” Addition of multiple testers in a singlefrom a single clock piece of equipment has been the Today, most function generators manufacturing strategy for some timeNewer function generators, known adopt a digital approach. Analogue now. When you incorporate multipleas arbitrary waveform generators function generators are still used as equipment with a familiar computer(AWGs), employ direct digital syn- these can provide levels of perfor- interface, working with the equipmentthesisers (DDSes) in signal genera- mance that are more than satisfac- will be highly simplified.tion. DDSes can be used for creating tory for exact requirements neededarbitrary waveforms from a single, in many development laboratories. Looking forward, we can surelyfixed-frequency reference clock. Also, analogue function generators expect some other integration into tend to be much cheaper. the function generator. If the cost Use of DDS has been another challenges can be somehow handled,advantage in coming up with high- Oh, the challenges a function generator can be regularlyfrequency devices. A DDS has many updated. And it would not just lie onadvantages over the earlier phase- “Some test challenges are generat- the corner table for an entire year tolocked loop (PLL), including much ing a waveform with many points, be used only once in a while.better frequency agility, improved simulating signals with high in-phase noise and precise control of tegrity, synchronising two signalsthe output phase across frequency- to generate pseudorandom binaryswitching transitions. sequence signals, creating differential signals, changing one segment of arb Trueform technology from Key- without redesigning the whole signalsight offers standard features along and needing to sweep arb throughwith baseband I-Q player, 80MHz a set of different frequencies,”and 120MHz with one and two says Kishore.channels, two-channel coupling and78 August 2016 | ElEctronics For You www.EFYmAg.com

IntervIew The Internet of Things: Let us Face It, No oNe Likes CabLiNgShakti Leekha Of all the benefits attributed to the IoT, the one that can make jobs more exciting is Integrated Building Management Systems (IBMS), which offer a wider productSenior generaL manager portfolio to integrated, intelligent building management systems. Shakti Leekha,and head - iBmS, senior general manager and head - IBMS, Bajaj Electricals Ltd, speaks withBajaj eLectricaLS Ltd Dilin Anand of EFYQ. What is the biggest change that because the sensors could now move Q. What about projects in line withyou have noticed in the iot space? about and hunt for a device to con- make in india initiative? nect and share sensor data with. A. The biggest change in the In- A. We are building a proactiveternet of Things (IoT) is that people The active device in this system fire-control solution that can be useddriving its development have ma- is the one that hunts—just like a to prevent the cause of fire. We aretured. They now ask for more open Bluetooth Low Energy device. You designing this with Make in India inplatforms with no lock-in and those can pair it up as you move the serv- mind, in such a way that there willthat are easily scalable. ers and these keep reconnecting with be little-to-no imports required to the ones in reach. sustain this technology. Earlier, people were doing it forshow; tech companies had office Q. good point! do you believe that Our solution related to this isautomation installed to show that the iot can attract people to what not based on gas based suppression,they practice what they preach. were traditionally boring sectors? which requires a lot of chemicalToday, they want to derive value out imports. Oxygen reduction is at theof their installations. A. The fancier a job is, the better core of this technology, which we the chances of it attracting talented intend to use. The system makesQ. could you give an example of a people. A person from a prestigious sure that there is enough oxygen forfacility management project solved institute might not try out for a job humans but not enough for sustain-with the iot? in a petrol pump, although there may ing a fire. This is a great example be many challenges there which that of root cause analysis, but with the A. One interesting design chal- person’s intellect could solve. Yet, he difference that this tackles the verylenge that our team worked on and or she would rather join a bank. It is core of the cause—oxygen to feedsolved was that of a government this same element of human dynam- the flame.project. Ever since ticketing moved ics that prevent highly-qualifiedfrom physical to digital, governments people from looking at IBMS domain. Q. What, according to you, is one ofhave had an increased requirement Let us face it, no one likes cabling. the most significant effects the iotfor scalable server systems. Existing has had on people?servers were tethered with cables Q. any exciting project that solvedthat powered these, which made an india-specific problem? A. The IoT has affected themodifications and movement ex- management philosophy itself. Ittremely difficult. A. We had an interesting project has influenced the transition from where we had to keep track of the a pyramid structure towards a more We created a solution using the number of people entering and leav- integrated matrix-style structure. WeIoT, to develop a mobile rack that ing the place. Of course, it was impos- have been providing non-proprietarywould wirelessly connect for sharing sible to manually count, so we built solutions with no entry barriersdata while wirelessly receiving power. an algorithm that was used to count since 2008, because we believe that and give a good estimate of the num- it is only through opening up theQ. could you elaborate? ber of people in a particular area. Our ecosystem to partners and system in- A. We developed sensors that used algorithm is unique to India and the tegrators that products, services and conditions seen at a pilgrimage site at apps can be innovated upon by thelight energy harvesting as their source such a massive-scale gathering. various labs working on these.of power. This simple innovationenabled all their racks to go mobilewww.efymag.com electronics for you | august 2016 79

IntervIew Data Analytics: Trucks use daTa To Figure Out How To apply brakesRichaRd RovneR Engineering data has become essential to business-critical systems and applications. Richard Rovner, vice president - marketing, MathWorks, speaks withvice pResident - maRketing, Dilin Anand from EFY, about how engineering data is re-shaping the industrymathWoRksQ. tell us about something exciting sources, graphics processing unit data analytics groups embedded inhappening in data analytics? computation and all the various meth- their business or engineering teams. ods to compute a large amount of In our experience, discussions start A. We are most excited by engi- data quickly using statistical methods. with the architects and the businessneering-driven analytics. Examples teams, but we include informationof these can be found in smartcars, Q. could you give an example of an technology groups, too, since it is themodern aeroplanes, autonomous exciting application where analytics IT infrastructure that is leveraged tovehicles and even in robotics. The has been implemented? implement these solutions.technology is being driven by real-time availability of massive amounts A. Analytics are becoming an Q. What is preventing the rapidof engineering data, new machine- important part of the embedded growth of iot solutions?learning algorithms, Big Data support systems workflow. One example ofand performance enhancements to this being put into use can be seen in A. In the consumer market,analytics and design tools. Scania trucks. They have an emer- one bottleneck is ease of use. IoT gency braking system for their heavy devices for the broad consumerQ. how is engineering-driven analyt- trucks, designed using model based market must be simple to operateics different from traditional ones? design with Simulink. Engineering and deliver real value to the user. data comes in from an on-vehicle ra- This element enables the adoption A. Business intelligence is pri- dar and camera, and is then analysed of consumer electronics.marily about gathering information by the system to identify if the vehi-from traditional sources of data. cle needs to slow down or stop. The In the business-to-business seg-These include business and trans- analytics uses a mix of sensor fusion ment, the hold-up would be the skillsactional data generated by humans, and situational analysis to figure out available. This is especially becausewhich then gets analysed by busi- how to apply the brakes. there is a shortage of data scientists.ness intelligence systems. Growthin smartsensors is delivering a large Q. What enabled this evolution in Q. how can firms solve the chal-increase in machine-produced data, systems design? lenge of the skills bottleneck?outpacing human-produced data.Now we have the ability to combine A. More engineers and prod- A. We believe tools like MATLABengineering data and traditional uct designers now have the ability can enable engineers and scientists totransactional data together to gather to store and process the massive become data scientists and developinsights from a much richer data set. volumes of data available today, and engineering-driven analytics systems.That is the difference. to apply powerful machine-learning algorithms to it. Additionally, regarding forma-Q. What are the challenges faced tion of teams, we have also seenin implementing engineering-driven Q. Who is responsible for reviewing more interest in this concept of theanalytics on a full scale? and approving the implementation of T-shaped engineer, who has deep such solutions? expertise in one domain like con- A. Challenges are in understand- trols but also general knowledge ofing how to process the massive scale A. It varies. Some organisations other domains. This concept helpsof data generated here. You would are centralising their approach to teams of engineers to be collabora-need to get all computing and data data analytics, while others have tive and solve inherently multi- domain problems.80 August 2016 | ElEctronics For You www.EFYmAg.com



efy dvd Phenomenal electronic designsoftware To Impress The Engineer In You ShanoSh KumarXcos Some popular resources software is aimed at supporting engineers with multiple use casesDistributed along Scilab, Xcos is a KompoZer. KompoZer lets users edit Web pages in the areas of industrial processtool used to model and simulate hy- and is a complete Web authoring system. With a automation, distribution networks,brid dynamic systems. The user can robust file-management system, KompoZer has a automation, land and residentialmodel discrete as well as continuous, user interface that is also ideal for non-technical applications. ScadaBR supports overcausal as well as acausal models on computer users who can fulfil their wish to create 20 protocols of communication andit along with being able to design, professionally-attractive Web pages without prior is compatible with hardware of vari-load, save, compile and simulate. knowledge of HTML or complex codes. ous manufacturing sectors.Xcos makes the most-commonly- Chromium Portable. Chromium Portable is aused blocks such as signal process- custom-built version of Chromium Web browser. Some interesting features thating, electrical systems, thermo- The browser is completely open and optimised extend the functionality of this soft-hydraulic systems, mathematical for portable use. Reviews suggest that it runs ware are graphs and reporting, crea-operations and much more. There seamlessly on Linux based platforms but is a tion of edition screens (views/HMI),are also ways to import user-defined little tough or sluggish on Windows. Chromium access control data and commands,blocks that can be easily added to Portable leaves no personal information behind revenue programming (scripting),Xcos framework. This tool is flexible on any device like its well-known cousin Chrome alert alarms and events manage-enough to handle all that. browser. The software is based on Google ment, among others. Chrome development release channel, and isOpenModelica updated at least twice per month. FreeRTOS real-time kernel Ubuntu OS. Ubuntu could be one of the mostOpenModelica is an open source popular open source Debian based OS anybody A real-time operating system (RTOS)Modelica based modelling and could come across. Perfect for installation on is optimised for applications insimulation environment intended personal computers, smartphones and network embedded/real-time environments.for industrial and academic usage. servers, Ubuntu 16.04 comes with the latest The primary objective here is to en-The compiler used by OpenModelica versions of apps such as Firefox 45, Thunderbird sure a prompt and timely responseconverts objects from base Mod- 38, Files 3.14.2, Videos 3.18, LibreOffice 5.1, to events. FreeRTOS could becomeelica code to C code. The user can GNOME Terminal 3.18, Eye of GNOME 3.18, your one-stop-shop solution in theuse APIs that are freely available Rhythmbox 3.3, Shotwell 0.22 and many more. universe of RTOSes while dealingto interact with the system through There is something called Snap packages in the with microcontrollers and smallAdvanced Interactive OpenModelica latest version of Ubuntu. It is a new way devised microprocessors. The OS blends inCompiler. This is the crucial part of by the developer team of Canonical to package with the hardware and is suited forthe package as it acts like the engine and deliver applications to Ubuntu users in order any imaginable applications rightof the simulator. to deplete dependency factors. Snaps could from toys to aircrafts. be called a bundle with all dependencies andFreeCAD PCB libraries, which assist users in installing the latest Each task in FreeRTOS could be version of apps without going through any hassles assigned priority while the queuingPrinted circuit board (PCB) software of compatibility. And, with this version of Ubuntu, methodology in the OS ensures thatare designed to enable rapid develop- they can see that GNOME software is becoming independent tasks are running andment of electronic schematics and the default software management and it facilitates waiting tasks are equally managed.PCB layouts. This enables beginners upgrades of OS and the firmware. The real-time kernel featured in thisas well as advanced users to quickly OS is also responsible for task man-move their ideas into physical PCBs, names of layers and transparency. It agement, and inter-task communi-aiding in faster project development. also facilitates import of various Ini- cation and synchronisation, and itFreeCAD-PCB allows users to import tial Graphics Exchange Specification seamlessly handles such responsi-PCB boards to FreeCAD. The software (IGES) models with colours. bilities in real-time.supports many layers along with op-tions to choose from various colours, ScadaBR Shanosh Kumar is technology journalist at EFY. He is BCA from Bangalore University, and MBA from ScadaBR is a Supervisory Control Christ University, Bengaluru and Data Acquisition (SCADA) oper- ating system (OS) with applications in process control and automation. It is being developed and distributed using the open source model. This82 August 2016 | ElEctronics For You www.EFYmAg.com

efy dvdJaamsim: Simulation Tool Simplifying Complex Systems Priya ravindranThe rate at which technology Fig. 1: Modelling a server is progressing today, one has to be creative, futuristic and The checklistcode efficiently on the go. What ifyou could use your Java scripting  Java development environment like Eclipseskills to simplify the behaviour of  System supporting OpenGL graphics version 2.1 and abovecomplex systems? How about bring-  JaamSim software from this month’s DVD. Simply copy JaamSim executable file toing it all down to models and simu-lations of sequences of well-defined your working environment and you are doneevents? This is what JaamSim letsyou do! a sub-class of thread allows for Simulation Object stores inputs that entities to move through its meth- define basic parameters such as run JaamSim, short for Java Anima- ods, otherwise called a process. To duration. While operating the sys-tion Modelling and Simulation, is a create a process flow, you can move tem is as simple as selecting start/discrete event-simulation software around, resize and place the com- pause/stop/reset buttons from thepackage that can run on Windows, ponents, connecting stages one after control panel, the speed of simu-Linux or OS X systems, and is another, and also set the time at lation is decided by the real-timesupported by Apache2.0 free open which each entity will be added to speed-up factor, as specified by yousource software licence. the model and the time each would in the controls. By default, simula- spend at every stage of the same. tion time is equal to one real-timeWhat to expect from discrete second. Multiple simulations cansystem-simulation software As each model is created,The idea behind simulating asystem is clear-cut—to replicateits functionality, imbibing all yourideas into it. The system is a bunchof components put together, eachdepicting a certain functionality at acertain time or under given condi-tions. The component could be asimulation entity, an entity genera-tor or a source as it is colloquiallycalled, a channel or entity conveyor,or an entity sink where the entiredata converges. The stimulus flows from one sec-tion, through the entire model, andfinally appears at the sink, creatingthe process flow. This is, of course,the basic requirement for the simplestof systems. As complexity adds on,you might need a queue, a branch,additional resources or even an entitycontainer to hold multiple entities. Smooth processing. In JaamSim,www.efymag.com electronics for you Plus | august 2016 1i

efy dvdFig. 2: Experience your dream car and time span for before being applied to the system. such inputs, and Areas that require a red-green-also be run one after another, each these are randomly blue (RGB) colour scheme can useof which can be accessed by their introduced into the standard colour keywords instead ofrun number and run index. system, paving the explicit RGB values. This would be way for a nearly- as simple as using pink instead of Event-driven design. Not just accurate real-time 255 192 203.processes, JaamSim is built to model. JavaSimhandle event-driven models and a provides a huge Handling numbers. Numericalmix of both as well. A method can list of distributions details are given in Internationalbe processed in parallel or in series, to select from, like System of Units (SI units), unlessallowing for the much-needed flex- uniform, triangular, otherwise specified, and a mouseibility in system functionality. As a exponential and log- hovering over the output name dis-consequence, a new method runs logistic distributions. plays a tool-tip pop-up with a briefserially and a new process runs in It also provides description of the selection.parallel, which means that when a user-defined prob-method is halted, the process need ability distributions, The system being simulated cannot be started all over again. both continuous and also have its parameters calculated discrete. All of these using various options provided; a The entire functioning is man- distributions can also be played controller that signals componentaged by Event Manager Object, around with, like the case of chang- updates in the specified sequence,which maintains separate lists for ing the random seed value. integrators or differentiators, wavefuture events and conditional events, generators, delay generators, poly-and handles these separately, too. De-cluttering the design maze nomial calculators, etc.The latest added events are handledfirst, but conditioned events are JaamSim provides Model Builder and User interface,processed in the order in which these Object Selector to help manoeuvre the deciding factorwere entered. through the entire system design. While these let you view and select Aesthetics takes an all-new mean- Here, there, everywhere. The components of the system, each ing today, and this software keepsone feature you cannot leave out parameter can be customised via up with the trend by letting youin a real-time system is the factor Input Editor. Control Panel pro- change the graphical appearance ofof dynamic variability. While these vides required run control features the designed model. This featurecannot be exactly accounted for for simulation. Outputs are mostly also comes in handy when movingin simulation, one can certainly pre-programmed depending on the to designs of higher complexity, asconsider randomness and statisti- design, but the user can also create then the placement or appearancecal phenomena. Here, Probability outputs for the model using attrib- might even affect functionality. ForDistribution feature comes to the aid utes, and even custom outputs for example, if a magnet is placed nextof the designer. individual blocks. Model outputs to a transformer, there is a chance of can be seen on Output Viewer, while signal interference. The designer specifies the range Graphical Window displays a graphi- cal representation of the same. As you use the software, you can choose between a 2D or 3D view, Look before you leap. Input the former giving a bird’s-eye view data has specified formats, and the directly above xy simulation plane system can also involve algebraic and the latter adding a sense of expressions or Boolean logic. A giv- depth in all directions. These views en input is validated to make sure only define the camera position, al- it satisfies the needed constraints ways giving you full-3D perspective graphics and letting you zoom, pan and orbit over the workspace. Well, The kind of projects you can simulate with JaamSim  Construct your dream car from scratch and experience it!  Create your own server setup.  How about a harmonic oscillator that models your physical system?  Or, maybe, a model of the controls in your house!2ii august 2016 | electronics for you Plus www.efymag.com

there is nothing stopping you from Fig. 3: Travelling with system parameters scale it to the largest ofdoing a 3D animation. applications. Once you sive objects for building dynamic are familiar with the The extras. A feature called models. The objects allow for details language and the tools,Overlay Object can be used in the right from defining properties of the you can create additionalgraphical display as position refer- fluids under use, to fluid flow be- palettes of high-levelences, since these are positioned at tween source and destination, ves- objects for advanced re-the corner of a view window and do sels for storage, pipes for transporta- quirements. The develop-not move when the view is panned tion and also centrifugal pumps. ers have built the soft-or zoomed. The software also gener- ware with over 35 yearsates graphs of selected parameters to Taking a cue from experience of simulation practice,help study behaviour in detail. You with every lesson learntcan even save a video of a model in An extremely-fast simulation soft- inculcated into the tool inoperation, which can later be viewed ware that Jaamsim is, it lets one some form.on VLC player. As the generatedvideo format is not compatible with Built on this strongall software, and is slightly on the background, alongside a neat web-higher side when it comes to storage site (www.jaamsim.com), developersspace, developers recommend using have gone on to start a company,software such as HandBrake for JaamSim Software Inc., to develop,professional purposes. promote and offer support. Enough said! Looks like JaamSim is alreadySimulating a hydraulic inviting you to jump in and try yourgenerator, maybe hand at simulation, if you have not already.If the problem at hand involvesdealing with fluids, a fluid objects Priya Ravindran is a freelance writer with EFYpalette in JaamSim provides exclu-www.efymag.com electronics for you Plus | august 2016 i3ii

efy dvdOpenModelica And The Wonderful World Of SiMulatiOn Ashwin GopinAthReal-life superhero Elon MDT Eclipse Plugir Interactive GraphicalModel Musk recently speculated editor/browser session handler editor/browser whether we all might beliving in some kind of Wachowski OMOptim Textualsiblings’ kind of matrix, without optimisation Model editoreven knowing. I personally think sub-systemthat it is not possible, although if it Execution Modelicawere the case, may be I am pro- OMNotebook compilergrammed to think that it was not. DrModelicaEnough with the what ifs and what Model Editornots, let us talk about the hot ‘S’word, simulation. Modelica debuggerWhy simulate Fig. 1: Architecture of OpenModelica Environment1All systems we see around us aretested and looked at extensively via open source environment based on mentioned above can be simu-some sort of simulation. Engineers Modelica modelling language. lated using Modelica. Managed byand designers have a plethora of Modelica Association, as of versiontools to see exactly how the piston Modelica is a tool to model, 3.2.1, Modelica Standard Librarythey designed would behave in an simulate, optimise and analyse contains about 1360 generic modelenclosed cylinder casing at tempera- complex dynamic systems. It is run components and 1280 functions in atures ranging from 100 degrees to by the good folks at Open Source bevy of domains.200 degrees. You name the condition Modelica Consortium, a non-profit,and there are simulators that can non-government organisation com- Modelica in its basic form lookseasily incorporate that aspect into mitted to keeping this software alive a lot like C++ or, for that mat-the test. and well. ter, Java. This can be attributed to the object-oriented programming it It is amazing how different What Modelica is employs. The difference, of course,systems can be made to interact is that it is not a programmingwith each other as well. Just like Before we dig into the idea of language, but rather a modellingthe above example, scientists can OpenModelica, let us take a look language. Compiling Modelicasee how a nut will behave in zero at the mother ship, Modelica. code also brings out differencesgravity, while exposed to a bunch That should help us appreciate the as it is compiled by first convert-of cosmic rays. If need be, you can thought that has gone behind the ing the code into objects, to besimulate the conditions that would education-heavy OpenModelica. further processed by the respectivemake you the next Spider Man. Let Modelica is an object-oriented, simulation engine.us calm down though, there is a lot declarative, multi-domain model-to learn before we get there. ling language that can be used to Execution of commands also model systems of a variety of kinds. takes a different approach from In this edition of Electronics Examples of such systems could be C++ code. While the latterFor You Plus, we introduce you to electrical, mechanical, electronic, lays stress on assignment state-one of the pioneers of the present hydraulic, thermal, control, electric ments, Modelica incorporates asimulation scene and then delve power or process-oriented sub- series of equations that have to bedeeper into a spin-off that caters to components. Any system that has solved to explain the behaviour ofthe education sector. This month, components of any of the variety the system.we look at OpenModelica, the freeiV August 2016 | ElEctronics For You Plus www.EFYmAg.com

Modelica, in turn, finds use in OpenModelica Shell (OMShell). Short- and long-term goalsa variety of applications like fluid This is an interactive command-systems (steam power generation, line interface that handles sessions The community driving OpenMod-hydraulics), automotive (power- and does simple editing work like elica aims to develop a complete im-trains, transmission systems) and parsing. This is where you type your plementation along with an efficient,mechanical systems (dual-body commands, much like DOS screen interactive computational environ-systems, mechatronics). It is also command-line interface. ment for Modelica language. In thebeing increasingly used in the simu- long run, however, the team hopes tolation process of thermo-fluid and OpenModelica NoteBook (OM- be able to build a complete referenceenergy systems. Notebook). Developed more as an implementation of Modelica language, advanced teaching tool, OMNote- including simulation of equationOpenModelica and book is a lightweight mathematical based models, additional facilities inits components editor for Modelica. If you have the programming environment as well used the niche search engine Wolf- as research in new activities.The goal envisioned by the crea- ramAlpha, then you would knowtors and managers of OpenMod- what this is. Another area to work on iselica was to “… create language design so as to improvea comprehensive open OpenModelica Python Interfacesource Modelica model- (OMPython). This component con- properties such as orthogonality,ling, compilation and tains a Python based package and declarativity, reuse, configurabilitysimulation environment API for accessing the functionalities and so on.based on free software made available by OMC.distributed in binary Online help and documentationand source code form Modelica Development Tool- on OpenModelica is extensive andfor research, teaching ing (MDT). This package is also easy to find. Because of its use inand industrial usage.” an advanced tool for model editing academia, you can be rest assuredNow, OpenModelica is and uses code assistance to solve its that all FAQs are explained in detail,not the most-commonly- problems. MDT communicates with and you can find examples of codeused variant of Modelica OMC through an API that is based and a lot of relevant detail at open-ecosystem but a lot of on Common Object Request Broker modelica.org. If simulation feels likeindustrial products use Architecture (CORBA), a standard something you want to explore, youit along with proprietary developed to facilitate communica- should definitely install the latestsoftware to simulate tion of systems that are deployed on version (available in this month’sapplications in the field diverse platforms. DVD) and give it a whirl!of power plant optimisa- Fig. 2: OMEdittion, automotive and On March 16, 2016, OpenModel- Ashwin Gopinath, an engineer, is currently pursu-water treatment, to name a few. ica 1.9.6 was released with updates ing MBA in operations from Great Lakes Institute to fix an FMU generation bug. of Management (GLIM), Chennai OpenModelica Compiler(OMC).This is the compiler used by Open-Modelica to convert objects from thebase Modelica code to a C code. Theuser can use APIs available freelyto interact with the system throughAdvanced Interactive OpenModelicaCompiler. This is the crucial part ofthe package as it acts like the engineof the simulator. OpenModelica Connection Edi-tor (OMEdit). This is a graphicaluser interface that lets users createand modify models on OpenMod-elica. It uses OMC by means ofa C language API to perform therequisite simulation, model queryand plotting.www.EFYmAg.com ElEctronics For You Plus | August 2016 V



efy dvdXcos: Simulate Hybrid Systems Easily Ashwin GopinAthAcommon prob- enough to handle all that. lem facing a lot Association of Scilab of independent with LabView allowsdesigners is the choice of it access to numer-tools they have for their ous free gateways andsimulation needs. “Do links, which is criticalI need precise and fast for enhanced perfor-help that a paid licence mance. It also connectsfrom MATLAB/Simulink to National Instruments’offers, or can I work with NIDAQ module for bettera tool that has documen- access to data-acquisitiontation mostly offered by I/O devices.its users?” Like other simulation,As with most answers different blocks representin life, this one too is an, Fig. 1: Typical example of Xcos different functions, pre-“It depends.” The final defined or user-defined.decision depends on Users can arrange thesethe scope of the project, in order of requirementtime limit and, may of the system and runbe, the depth of your the simulation to see thepockets. This month we effects. Xcos is freely dis-introduce you to a little tributed under CeCILL v2simulator by the name licence, and can be runof Xcos, developed by on Windows, Linux andScilab Enterprises. Mac OS X.What is Xcos and Fig. 2: Role of simulation General environmenthow it can help Software at a glance After launching Xcos, you can see two windows, namely, aNumerical simulation is very Developer : Scilab Enterprises palette browser, which houses all pre-defined blocks and animportant for all designers, editing window where you canalmost indispensable to the sys- Latest version : 5.5.1 October 2, 2014 place the blocks and make req- Written in : Scilab, Java, C and FORTRANtem design process. Instead of Environment : Linux, Windows, Mac OS and BSDwasting money on real experi-ments like someone from 1980s, as continuous and causal, as well uisite connections. To design atoday it is all about simulations and as acausal, models on it along circuit, you can simply pick these uptheir results. Complex phenomena from the palette browser and drop itlike electrical and mechanical inter- with being able to design, load, into the editing window. And, con-actions are modelled at the smallest save, compile and simulate. Most nect the blocks using their differentlevel, and today’s engineers know commonly-used blocks, namely, ports, inputs, outputs and events sothat they need to be aware of these signal processing, electrical systems, as to simulate the given circuit.techniques in order to be better than thermo-hydraulic systems, math-good at what they do. ematical operations and much more, Features of Xcos are available for use on Xcos. There Distributed along with Scilab, Xcos environment supportsXcos is a tool used to model and are ways to import user-defined simulation as well as model-simulate hybrid dynamic systems. blocks that can be easily added to ling, and its systems include theUsers can model discrete as well Xcos framework, which is flexible following features:www.efymag.com electronics for you Plus | august 2016 Vii

efy dvd• Standard palettes and blocks Mathematical models of• Model building and editing systems and simulation techniques• Sub-modelling for models reuse Deterministic Stochastic and simplification• Customisation of built models Static Dynamic Static Dynamic• Simulation includes a built-in Monte Carlo Modelica compiler and C code simulation generation for better perfor- mance Continuous time Discrete time Continuous time Discrete timeResults analysis Optimisation solutions Discrete-event simulationand visualisation Fig. 3: Simulation systemsOne of the major advantages of thistool is that, unlike certain simula- Fig. 4: Xcos screenshottors, Xcos is a visual editor and,hence, much easier to pick up for Xcos Vs simuLink by craigLouiEa novice than a simulator that re-quires to learn coding in a particular Capability matlab/simulink/simPowersystems scilab/Xcoslanguage. There is no doubt that Documentation Very good Goodwhen compared to MATLAB/Sim- User support Very good Fairulink, it is not as polished. But, we Installation Very good Fairmust remember that the aim of Xcos Sharing Fair Fairis to introduce users to the world Price Fair Very goodof simulation using a visual editor, US$ 12,000+yearly fee Freeand it is aimed mostly at studentsand academicians. licence is bought in bulk. can start off by trying out some of the simplest tutorials available. It As mentioned earlier, simulation Final verdict would help to know your differentialincludes an integrated Modelica com- equations and your Kirschoff’s laws,piler and, hence, there is assurance Regardless of other factors, if you but more than that, all you need isof a legacy compiler for users’ needs. are starting out in the area of visual an inquisitive mind.It also supports batch simulation, editing and want software to helpcutting down on wait time for them. you ease into it, you should give Ashwin Gopinath, an engineer, is currently pursu- Xcos (bundled in this month’s ing MBA in operations from Great Lakes Institute The ability to customise a tem- Electronics For You Plus) a try. Its of Management (GLIM), Chennaiplate means that a high degree of documentation is extensive, and youflexibility and, as a result, the abilityto customise a solution is achieved.Make no mistake, this is a greattool for beginners, but you wouldbe surprised as to how quickly youcan level up on this software. I amspeaking from personal experience;I did not understand the basics ofSimulink at one point. A further advantage lies in thefact that it is very easy to sharemodels on Xcos, as it is easy to getaccess to the modelling environ-ment. MATLAB/Simulink tendsto bring out the cost factor a bitmore, as all collaborators on ateam need to have a licensedversion, which can stretch mostbudgets. This is never an issue totake lightly and is offset only if theViii august 2016 | electronics for you Plus www.efymag.com

InnovatIonA SmArt PAckAging PlAtform For Safe, Secure DeliveryPriya Ravindran Now is the age of online shopping and authentication or authorisation between thewas working home delivery. In this context, we consumer and the retailer. Named OpeKun,as a technical often hear stories about things not this solution makes use of Bluetooth Lowjournalist going the way they ought to. A customer Energy capabilities and uses strong encryp-at EFY until replaced original products with dummy tion methods to acknowledge safe receiptrecently ones and returned those to a renowned of parcels. online dealer, making huge profits. A person thrashed a company on social media for How it works failed delivery, only to realise that the prod- uct had been claimed wrongly. Products get The idea is to create a strong handshake stolen during delivery, also exposing private between the vendor and the customer. Pack- information to unwanted eyes. age boxes are designed with a combination of electronic and mechanical methods. These, while not everyday occurrences, are serious problems, especially for the Basic principles like operation of levers, vendor. But, the system is here to stay. What pulleys and gears, 3D printing, mobile can then be done to ensure security of every computing and Bluetooth connectivity have delivery that is planned? Let us put together been exploited to arrive at this comprehen- a smart packaging platform, says the team sive low-power solution. Each package has from Nexshark, emphasising the importance a microcontroller with miniaturised semi- of vendor-customer handshake. conductors for reduced size and a lock that is connected to the Cloud; the entire process Say Hi to OpeKun is encrypted by asymmetric keys. Adithya Venkatesh, founder and CEO of Nex- When a parcel is dispatched, a public key shark, and his team consisting of Sivakumar, is programmed into the microcontroller in- Nitin Kumar, Uma Sankar and Prakash, went side the package. At the same time, a private about designing an innovative platform to key is securely delivered to the customer on link e-commerce vendors and end users in the app. The public key is embedded in iBea- an electromechanical way, to ensure safe con format and transmitted; though everyone delivery of packages. can see it, it is ineffective unless combined with the private key. In e-commerce delivery, there is no Once the parcel arrives, the customerFig. 1: Innovative Microcontroller Battery packaging Manufactured product Mechanical lock Application I lockwww.efymag.com electronics for you | august 2016 83

InnovatIongets the public key from the Blue- Fig. 2: A scene from American sitcom Breaking Bad that inspired the producttooth-enabled packet and uses theprivate key to unlock the parcel. If farmers or safeguarding bundles of “We have all heardthe parcel has been tampered with at exam papers. of the story ofany point of time, the customer, on Alibaba and the fortyconnecting to the Bluetooth portal, The thoughts—huge and costly thieves. If we lookreceives a warning message, instead at it closely, we willof the usual unlock option. It is only natural to think of what notice that there such a solution would truly mean to was a secure way ofSecurity is always a challenge a vendor. Would the implementation opening the caves, escalate budget costs? Can the deliv- the famous Open Sesame. Indian historyOpeKun took almost a year to take ery agent carry the required number is rich with such stories. We only need toshape from when the idea was con- of boxes? The developers plan on see the new in the old, and we can makeceived. The main challenge was in providing this solution as a service, technical marvels. An idea can be simple.identification and collaboration, as meaning that, the cost to the vendor Polishing it to get a smooth finish is thethese require a high level of exper- would be a minimal amount for just key factor.”tise. What worked for it was com- the transaction.bined work by members skilled in —Adithya Venkatesh, founder and CEO ofdifferent domains. To make it easy on the person Nexshark, shares his view on innovation delivering the packet, the develop- While there are many smartlock- ers are looking at using lightweight transport vehicles carrying milk,ers readily available in the market, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) as pack- petrol and water.in most, the locking systems are at- aging material. As every box is re-tached to doors and, predominantly, usable, the target is to make boxes There are also advanced versionsuse solenoid valves. The solution of standard sizes that can fit most of the platform being planned, whichoffered in this product is different, regularly-bought high-end products would include support for global po-owing to the electromechanical and transport these safely. sitioning system (GPS) tracking andcombination put together to specifi- measurement of abnormal conditionscally address logistics problems on Unlocking the next steps during transit like shock, impact,the wheels. temperatures exposed to and the like, The team has its plans in place. using built-in sensors. As one mightA theft that laid the Having won Makethon organised by want to provide authorisation accessgroundwork IESA and Intel, it is in the process of to a friend/family member, the team patenting this stroke of genius. is also working on a key sharingHow often have you heard of some- setup that would enable transfer ofone being inspired by a movie or Thinking beyond the e-com- the private key by the customer.a TV serial, and go on to achieve merce industry, the developers aresomething huge? Well, here is a case working with pharmaceutical com- With quality and quantity takingof something similar! panies to create package contain- a hit in these uncertain times, the ers that auto-lock when the stock world is looking forward to more Fig. 2 shows a freight train and a reaches its expiry date. such solutions that could help carvewell-secured container with methyl- out more organised systems. Goodamine. Still, calculative minds man- Another area being looked at luck, team Nexshark!aged to pull off a heist of a kind, is an alternate mode of locking forwithout anyone even realising it. Thisis a scene from the popular AmericanTV serial Breaking Bad, which startedit all for Nexshark. It got the makersthinking of how vulnerable the numer-ous tankers carrying petrol, oil andeven water are, which travel aroundthe country on a daily basis. The team then came up with ahack-proof smartlock combining me-chanical and embedded electronics.If implemented in the right manner,this could even solve problems likesupplying low-quality products to84 august 2016 | electronics for you www.efymag.com



Do-it-yourself ElEctronics DiY toolsFor Hobbyists And ProfessionalsTanmay Dasgupta is Use of proper tools is important for Fig. 1: Tools shown in the two images are actuallyan electronics hobbyist making any project properly. Here pairs and form six types of different tools: Knifeand a small-business are some tools that are in common pair is useful for cutting tracks of PCB, chip holdowner in Bilaspur, use by amateurs as well as professionals. pair for holding surface mount devices whileChhattisgarh. His soldering, cleaning brush pair for removing solderinterests include Soldering tools from PCB, hook pair for removing components afterLED based circuits de-soldering, reamer pair for transforming holes on Soldering tools are needed for performing PCB to larger-desired size and fork pair for aligning efficient soldering work. Soldering is an component leads to desired direction art by which electronic components are connected with each other, so that these can communicate in a circuit and perform a specific task. Electronic components are held together on a board called a printedname of tool Table IVariablesoldering SolderIng ToolSstation35-watt Functionsoldering Soldering stations have a soldering pen/iron and a base unit with a knob to vary temperature of the soldering iron tip asiron per needs. Most soldering jobs are performed at 250°C/15W knob setting. For bigger joints, you can use 350°C/25WTripod PCB knob setting, too.holder This soldering iron is part of Max Gold 535 station and you need to use Bevel 4C bit with it for almost all kinds of solder-De-soldering ing jobs. Tip of the bit is the area that melts the solder, so it should be properly tinned frequently for best results. Alwayspump leave a blob of solder on the tip after you finish soldering.Connections It is needed for holding the PCB while performing soldering work. The PCB can be rotated at any angle as per needs.Fine 26SWG This tool is needed to correct any mistakes that you may have committed while soldering. It helps extract the excess orsolder wire wrongly-formed solder from the solder joint.Thick 22SWG The light-green area is the copper track that connects two component leads with the help of a molten solder (white, coni-solder wire cal objects). The dark-green area is the solder side of the PCB.De-solder braid You should use very fine solder wires (of size 26SWG) to avoid excess feeding of solder to the joint. It is better to use 60Flux paste per cent tin and 40 per cent lead based solder wire, as lead-free ones need higher melting temperatures and are difficult to inspect for correct joint formation. Use a solder wire with at least five cores of flux within.PCB cleaner For bigger joints, use a thicker solder wire (of size 22SWG). Composition should be 60/40 (same as fine solder wire). De-solder braid, or de-solder wick, is extremely useful to wick away (extract away) excess solder from an incorrect solder joint. Place it between the joint and the tip of the soldering iron and it will magically absorb all the solder from the joint. It has flux built-in that turns to smoke when heated. Flux is applied to the area where solder joints need to be formed. Action of flux is simple; it is corrosive in nature at sol- dering temperatures and non-corrosive at normal temperatures. Due to its corrosive nature it removes oxides and other impurities from soldering surfaces while soldering. The PCB cleaner is used to clean the PCB after soldering work to remove left-over flux.Cleaning sponge It is first made wet and then squeezed to the level so that water does not drip from it but instead moistens. It is used to clean and tin the tip of the soldering iron. This is a cellulose-type sponge.86 August 2016 | ElEctronics For You www.EFYmAg.com

Table II Hand ToolSname of tool Function name of tool FunctionHand drill It is needed for drilling holes of 1.5mm to 6.5mm di- IC chip extractor An IC chip puller is used to pull chips off the PCBs ameter in cabinets/enclosures of electronics projects. without bending the pins of the IC.Drill bit sets The bit is attached to the drill by rotating the top (shiny Illuminated portion in picture) anti-clockwise, placing the bit and magnifier A magnifier like the one shown in the image that canNeedle files then rotating it clockwise. You can also choose a 15.2cm (6-inch) magnify as well as illuminate the object under inspec- motorised drill if cost is not a factor. hand tion is a must-have for inspecting solder joints for These bits are needed for drilling holes of 0.8mm to file proper soldering, reading component markings and 6.5mm diameter in cabinets/enclosures of electron- set while dealing with surface mount device components. ics projects. The bit can be attached to a hand drill or This usually comes in sets that include various types motorised drill. These come in sets. Fine 0.8mm and like square, round, flat, triangular, semicircular, etc. It 1mm drill bits are required for drilling holes in PCBs. is useful in giving finishes to the otherwise crudely-cut Needle files of various types like square, semi-circle, electronic enclosures. triangular, round and flat are extremely useful for giving It has a large number of applications like cutting, bend- desired shapes or for imparting the perfect finish to ing and stripping wires. It is also useful in holding the the crudely-cut areas of electronic enclosures. bolt while tightening the nut.Ten-piece These form the essentials when it comes to the setting Lineman’s pliertrimming tool set of trimmers, presets and the like, where the use of nor- mal screwdrivers can cause hand capacitance effect.Fine screwdriver This type of fine screwdrivers can be used for applying Needle- It is useful in bending component leads prior toSolder-assist flux paste to PCBs. nose soldering these on PCBs. It can also be used to holdtool set plier precision-fine bolts while tightening the nut.Hexagonal head Nippers are useful in cutting component leads inL key set It is needed for cutting tracks of the PCB, holding SMD Nipper hard-to-reach areas where flush-side cutters cannot components while soldering, removing solder from fit. Look for a nipper with one side of the cutting blade the PCB, removing components after de-soldering, completely flat so that it cuts the leftover component transforming holes to a larger desired size and aligning lead with extreme precision. component leads. Open-end spanners are useful for opening bolts from cabinets of large electronic appliances. These come in sets as well as loose and are very Open-end spanner useful for opening grub screws. setAutomatic These are useful for stripping off the insulation from Large heavy-duty A large heavy-duty cutter can be used to cut PCBs,wire single- or multi-stranded copper wires of 0.5mm to cutter plastic cabinets and more.stripper 6mm thickness.Baby vice It is useful for holding PCBs or electronic enclosures Helping A helping third hand is used to hold the wires while tin-Flush-side cutter while performing shaping, cutting, filing or drilling third ning or joining these. It can also be used to hold small work on these. hand PCBs. It basically has two alligator clips that hold stuff It is used to cut the leads of components after solder- with together. It can be felt as an extension to our two hands, ing work is done. magnifier hence the name. Archimedes push It is used to drill precision-fine holes of 0.8mm, 1mm or drill 1.2mm sizes on PCBs.Hacksaw This tool is used to cut enclosures, PCBs and so on. 15.2cm (6-inch) An adjustable spanner comes in handy to remove larger adjustable spanner bolts from large cabinets of electronic appliances.Hammer with flat Hammer and flat chisels can be used to cut metal 5mm flat It is useful in bending component leads after insertingand point chisels enclosures in a straight manner, while point chisels screwdriver components into the PCBs. can be used to make a pre-mark before drilling. Hot A hot glue gun is used in fixing cabinet-mounted parts ElEctronics For You | August 2016 87 glue to enclosures like switches, LEDs and so on. gunwww.EFYmAg.com

Do-it-yourself Table III circuit board (PCB). Leads of electron- ic components are joined to the PCB MeaSureMenT and power Supply ToolS by melting the solder wire and waiting for it to cool and solidify. PCBs eithername of tool Function have external copper wires (in generalAuto- An auto-ranging digital multimeter is a must-have tool for beginners as well as PCBs/perfboards) or printed copperranging advanced users. Look for features that suit your purpose well. A good digital tracks (advanced FR4-grade PCBs)digital multimeter should have a micro-ampere range and large backlit display. It that help in establishing the requiredmultimeter should have separate input sockets for current measurements and voltage/ connections. Various soldering toolsAnalogue resistance/other measurements, so that you do not accidentally short the test are described in Table I.multimeter leads while in current range. Due to provision of measurement over a dial, an analogue multimeter can be Hand toolsLogic probe used to test such electronic components that we cannot with a digital meter. Although new digital multimeters come with a bar graph display but they still Hand tools are required for stripping cannot beat analogue multimeters when it comes to cost. Analogue multim- wires, cutting component leads, drill- eters are not auto-ranging and you would have to select the range manually. ing holes in PCBs and cabinets, shap- It is used to check logic levels (high or low) of the digital circuit under test. It ing electronic enclosures, setting trim- has two alligator/crocodile clips that are connected to the supply voltages of mers and presets, opening enclosures, the equipment that is being tested. cutting cabinets, providing assistance in soldering, extracting integratedLab power supply A lab power supply is used to power electronic circuits/projects. If you work circuits (ICs), holding things while on op-amps a lot, you should consider buying a dual-tracking power supply. It soldering or other work, magnifying has two knobs: one for limiting the current and the other for adjusting the volt- work area and so on. Check out Table age. Voltage output is provided at binding posts, which is where banana plugs II for some basic hand tools. fit in. For most jobs 0V-18V, 3A output is more than adequate. Measurement andname of tool Table IV power supply toolsLarge breadboard proToTypIng ToolS Measurement tools are required in tak- ing measurements of physical quanti- Function ties in electronics like voltage, current It is good to build your own breadboard by sticking three 840-tiepoint bread- and resistance, while power supply boards on a wooden board. Using a drill attach two binding posts (red and is used to power up the electronic black) on the wooden board that will receive power from the lab supply. circuits. Table III shows some handy measurement and power supply tools.Connecting jumper You can either buy pre-made jumper wires or make your own using a single-wires strand 22SWG hook-up wire. Such wires can be used to add a connection Prototyping tools between electronic components on a breadboard or perfboard. Prototyping tools are required for as-Perfboard Called perfboard, veroboard or general-purpose PCBs, these serve as a base sembling a single unit of electronic upon which electronic components are interconnected with each other, so project/circuit, which then can be mass that these can communicate and form a circuit. When buying one, look for the produced, if successful. Some common tinned version. prototyping tools are shown in Table IV.Fig. 2: Some common screwdriver tools Screwdriver tools These are your best friends when it comes to opening/hacking electronic gadgets. These come in various tip types like slotted, Philips, Torx and so on. Avoid the extremely-cheap, low-quality screwdriver sets whose tips bend while opening a screw. Select sets that have tweezers in- cluded, as these are extremely useful in holding fine wires while solder- ing. Fig. 2 shows some widely-used screwdriver tools.88 August 2016 | ElEctronics For You www.EFYmAg.com



KNatidhhuiria Do-it-yourself 7×5 LED Matrix Using Arduino Jacob abraham and allen mathewPresented here is a simple 7x5 top-left LED is addressed as (0,0), a power jack, an ICSP header and LED matrix circuit driven by the top-right as (0,6), the bottom- a reset button. It is operated using Arduino Uno. It can be used right one as (4,6) and so on. a 16MHz crystal oscillator. Arduinoto display your name or create any board is connected to the computernumber of patterns. If the logic Arduino Uno board. Arduino is with a USB cable and programmedof this LED matrix is understood, an open source electronics proto- using Arduino IDE.it would be easy to handle much typing platform based on flexiblelarger matrices and even make a 3D and user-friendly hardware and LED matrix. The LED matrixLED matrix. software. It can be used by anyone consists of 35 LEDs connected as for creating interactive objects or per the circuit diagram. Seven tran-Circuit and working environments. The board consists sistors are used in the circuit to en- of an ATmega328 microcontroller hance switching action of the MCU.The circuit shown in Fig. 1 includes (MCU), 14 digital I/O pins, six Collector terminal of each transistoran Arduino UNO board, a few tran- analogue inputs, a USB connection (T1 through T7) is connected to 5Vsistors that act as switches, a few for programming the onboard MCU, supply output from Arduino board.resistors and LEDs. Arduino boardcontrols the LEDs and their timings Parts List Emitter terminals of the transis-according to the code programmed tors are connected to each columninto it. In the matrix arrangement, Semiconductors: of the matrix. Resistors R1 througheach LED can be addressed by R7 are connected to the bases ofspecifying its location in terms of its T1-T7 - BC547 npn transistor transistors and on their other sidesrow and column. For example, the to Arduino as row pins. Shorted LED1-LED35 - 5mm LED pins of each column are connected Board1 - Arduino Uno board Resistors (all 1/4-watt, ±5% carbon): R1-R7 - 1-kilo-ohmR1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R71K 1K 1K 1K 1K 1K 1K T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 T7 POWER USB BC547 BC547 BC547 BC547 BC547 BC547 BC547 INPUT LED1 LED7 LED12 LED17 LED22 LED27 LED32 DRIVER AREF LED2 LED8 LED13 LED18 LED23 LED28 LED33 IOREF ARDUINO DIGITALGND RST 13 3.3V ATMEGA328 12 5V 11 GND ANALOG 10 GND 9 Vin 8 LED3 LED6 LED11 LED16 LED21 LED26 LED31 LED4 LED9 LED14 LED19 LED24 LED29 LED34 7 6 A0 5 A1 4 A2 3 A3 2 A4 TX 1 A5 RX 0 LED5 LED10 LED15 LED20 LED25 LED30 LED35 BOARD1 ARDUINO UNOFig. 1: Circuit diagram of the 7x5 LED matrix using Arduino www.EFYmAg.com 90 August 2016 | ElEctronics For You

Fig. 2: Actual-size PCB layout of the 7x5 LED matrix using Arduino row is activated, one lead each of all LEDsFig. 3: Component layout of the PCB in that row gets the required voltage. Into another set of pins on Arduino plexing is employed to operate LED order to make a sin-board, represented as column pins matrices. By using this technique, gle LED in this row toin the code. different LEDs can have common glow, the correspond- row and column lines. When one ing column line is Multiplexing LED matrix. Multi- activated.www.EFYmAg.com Making all LEDs glow in a particular row by activating all column transistors may cause overload- ing for Arduino. To avoid that, the column transistors are switched between on and off states so fast that, in effect, all LEDs seem to glow continuously—a phenomenon called persistence of vision. Similarly, to dis- play a character, the LEDs required to dis- play the character are activated and deacti- vated one by one in high speed, tricking the eye to interpret it as a continuous glow of LEDs, thus seeing the required character glow continuously. Collectors of all transistors are con- nected to 5V supply from Arduino Uno board, emitter pins are connected to each column of the LED matrix and bases of these transistors are connected to digital pins 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 of Uno board through current- limiting resistors (R1-R8). Analogue input pins are used as digital pins in this project to provide ground potential for the LED terminals. ElEctronics For You | August 2016 91

Fig. 4: Proposed LED matrix arrangement Do-it-yourself efy Note(3D visualisation in Proteus 8) number to the function, correspond- The source code of To turn on an LED, the cor- ing LED in the matrix glows. this project isresponding analogue pin is turnedto low state and the corresponding J1-J4 are common jumper wires. included in thisdigital pin to high state, which turns Interconnect each other through month’s EFY DVD andon the transistor. Thus 5V supply external wires. is also available for freefrom Arduino reaches the positiveterminal of the LED, and current Software download at source.gets a complete closed path via efymag.comArduino’s analogue pin. Software code for Arduino Uno is written in Arduino program- shown in Fig. 4. A user-defined function is writ- ming language and compiled using Mount the components as shownten in the code so that when we in- Arduino IDE. The file name isput the value of the row and column led_matrix_7x5_efy.ino, compiled in the PCB layout. Then, install in Arduino IDE. The program is Arduino IDE in your computer. included in this month’s EFY DVD Open the program and upload it to and the algorithm is described in Arduino board. The LEDs should the program using comments. The start glowing. program is uploaded to Arduino Uno by clicking Upload in Arduino IDE. To test the LED matrix board, Select the correct board and COM check and ensure each LED is in port before uploading the code. its respective row and column. For initial testing of Arduino board, Construction and testing upload a simple program like Blink from the example sketches in Ar- An actual-size, single-side PCB of duino IDE. the 7x5 LED matrix is shown in Fig. 2 and its component layout in Fig. 3. Jacob Abraham (left) and Allen Mathew (right) Proposed LED matrix arrangement is are students of electronics and communication engineering, Amal Jyothi College of Engineering, Kottayam92 August 2016 | ElEctronics For You www.EFYmAg.com