World’s fastest Magnetic Levitation (Maglev) Train

The railway travel has been revolutionized with a novel technology called as Magnetic Levitation. According to Maglev principle, train is lifted from the track and ride over the track (called as guide way) without any wheels. The whole train compartments are lifted off above the guide way for about 10 millimeter by powerful magnets. The transrapid technology was first developed by a German firm.
China has launched such a wonderful fastest train ever in the history of this technology. The first test runs was from Shanghai River to International airport Pudong. The initial rocket speed of train is 430 kph (350 km per hour). They say it as Joyrides. For travel of 1000 Km, It would take only 3 Hours.
The tech experts say, it is 60% faster than the Bullet trains. This is mainly due to reduction in friction as there are no wheels. The total investment of the Maglev is 1.2$ billion.
If there are no wheels, no friction, definitely it would be a fantastic experience without any jerks while riding. This is really amazing technology giveaway and gift to New Year 2010.
In one way it is amazing, however, my suggestion is that if they spent all these money for innovation of novel technologies for fighting against Global warming, then the whole world will be saved and the future generations will be benefiting.

Global warming causes and remedies

Global warming causes and remedies

Global warming is caused by the green house gases such as carbon di oxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydro fluoro carbons, perfluoro carbon and sulpur hexafluoride. Among these first two gases are the major contributor. These gases rise the temperature of the atmosphere.

Concentration of these gases have resulted in melting of glaciers, rise in sea level which will result in submerging of lower area of earth, extreme wether events such as frequent cyclones and stroms.Drive away the carbon emission with Renewable energy technologies

Some efforts shoule be taken for reduction of these emission.
The top 5 contributors are US, Russia, UK, China and India. Developed countries have already been emitting most persentage of emission. Developing countries have also been emitting in order to maintain their growth.
There several meets and protocols worldwide to reduce the effect of Green House gases(GHGs). These are Kyoto protocol, Copenhagen meet and so on. They have agreed to reduce these GHGs by 2020. Wheather they are developed or developing countries, the individuals should aware of these emissions and try to reduce by taking responsibilities at their own risk in order to save our earth.
As the technologies have been revolutioning the world, scientist and experts should found new ways of using solar, wind and other renewable energies at reduced cost, so that the conventional vechicles and industrial components would be completely avoided.
Politcians should also cooperate for the technological breakthrough in order to reduce the carbon emissions for saving our earth.

Top 10 futures of Electric Concept cars

Electric Concept cars

Most of the car companies are heading towards electric car. It also prevents the global warming.
The main future of electric car is
1. its 100% free from carbon emission. The other futures are
2. operating with high efficiency batteries
3. Compact design
4. Wheels are individually controllable
5. No mechanical mechanism in wheel controls which avoids friction
6. The car can be designed with our desired stylish
7. It avoids congestion / traffic on roads
8. Smooth riding
9. Easy parking
10. Maintenance free
The future technology will be oriented with these concept cars. Be ready to get one such car and be helpful for your future generations.

ANT COLONY OPTIMIZATION

ANT COLONY OPTIMIZATION

Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) technique is newly invented optimization technique to solve graphical optimization problem. It has been developed for combinatorial optimization problems. ACO are multi-agent system in which the behaviour of each single agent, called artificial ant or ant for short in the following, is inspired by the behaviour of real ants . ACO has been successfully employed to combinatorial optimization problems such as maximum loadability in voltage control study, loss minimization in distribution networks, unit commitment problem, multi0bjective reactive power compensation, and complex multi-stage decision problem.

ACO CONCEPT:
There is a path, along which ants are walking (for example from food source A to the nest E, and vice versa, as shown in Fig 1.

Suddenly an obstacle appears and the path is cut off. So at position B the ants walking from A to E (or at position D those walking in the opposite direction) have to decide whether to turn right or left. The path of ants followed is shown in Fig 2.

Because path BCD is shorter than BHD, the first ant following it will reach D before the first ant following path BHD which is shown in Fig.3. The result is that an ant returning from E to D will find a stronger trail on path DCB, caused by the half of all the ants that by chance decided to approach the obstacle via DCBA and by the already arrived ones coming via BCD: they will therefore prefer (in probability) path DCB to path DHB. As a consequence, the number of ants following path BCD per unit of time will be higher than the number of ants following EHD. This causes the quantity of pheromone on the shorter path to grow faster than on the longer one, and therefore the probability with which any single ant chooses the path to follow is quickly biased toward the shorter one. The final result is that very quickly all ants will choose the shorter path.
The algorithm that is going to be defined in the next sections is models derived from the study of real ant colonies. Therefore the system is called as Ant System (AS) and the algorithms as Ant algorithms.
The use of artificial ant colonies as an optimization tool, will have some major differences with a real (natural ant) one:
1. artificial ants will have some memory,
2. they will not be completely blind,
3. they will live in an environment where time is discrete.
Ant colony optimization is a major breakthrough in Engineering as well as non engineering applications

Clean Energy from BIOmass

Clean Energy from Biomass

Biomass is a renewable energy resource derived from the carbonaceous waste of various human and natural activities. It is derived from numerous sources, including the by-products from the timber industry, agricultural crops, raw material from the forest, major parts of household waste and livestock manure.

Biomass does not add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere as it absorbs the same amount of carbon in growing as it releases when consumed as a fuel. Its advantage is that it can be used to generate electricity with the same equipment or power plants that are now burning fossil fuels.

Biomass is an important source of energy and the most important fuel worldwide after coal, oil and natural gas. Traditional use of biomass is more than its use in modern application. In the developed world biomass is again becoming important for applications such as combined heat and power generation. In addition, biomass energy is gaining significance as a source of clean heat for domestic heating and community heating applications.
Biogas is a product of fermentation ( anaerobic process ) of organic material. Organic means substances from plants or animal origin and with a high content of carbon. The main goal of the fermentation is to produce biogas as a energy source of renewable energy. The main components are methane (CH4, round about 60 %) and carbon dioxide ( 30-40 %).

Digital ant for cyber security

Digital ant for cyber security

Ants are normally very fast and quick in action for searching food. Based on its activities, ant colony algorithm has been developed by the technology world and put it in many real time applications.
Even when its colony is under threat, it behave in such a way, it protect its colony from any intruders. Ants use swarming intelligence to detect intruders. While it detects a threat, it joins with many other ants to overcome their opponents.
This technique is effectively incorporated by cyber scientist into their security system at Wake Forest University, North Carolina, US. They call the ants as “digital ants” which will wander through computer networks looking for any intruders or worms or virus. Each time a digital ant detects any intruder, it is programmed to leave a strong digital scent ( a real ant leave a scent called as pheromones). The stronger scent trails attract more ants, producing the swarm that marks a potential computer infection. The researcher at the University has said that 3000 different types of digital ants could be deployed for evidence of a threat. As the digital ant moves over the network, they leave digital scent as trails to guide other ants.
This is very interesting which saves our computers and networks from viruses

Piezo Electric Power Generation on Road

Piezo Electric Power Generation on Road

In the last post, i have discussed about Solar road. The technological inventions are never going to end. The another try with the technology is that electric power generation from road by Piezoelectric effect. According to the principle, When a mechanical stress is applied over a Piezoelectric materials, it generate voltage or current.
This principle has been utilized in order to generate power in the order of Kilowatts / Km distance. In the design, the the road is integrated with Piezoelectric materials. Hence, while a vehicle moves over the road, due to its mechanical stress, electric power can be harvested. This will somewhat reduce our demand of electric power worldwide. I would like to thank the researcher who have done this wonderful contributions to the world.

An novel idea of Solar panels integrated with roads

Solar roads

The solar technology is going to make a another milestone. Normally solar panels are used to receive solar power from sun which is used for electrifying many electrical appliances such as lighting, solar car, electrifying house appliances and so on.
The roads are running all over the world, think about that if all the roads are integrated with solar panels, then the tremendous amount of solar power can be extracted which can be used for all the electric appliances. This will in turn improve the shortage of power worldwide.
In addition to this, the power extracted can be used for making signals on the black roads. This will enhance the smooth riding on roads.

1G, 2G, 3G and 4G telecome technology

Cell phones are used millions and billions of users worldwide. How may of us know the technology behind cell phones that is used for our communication? I have also intrigued about the type of technology used in my phone. What are 1G, 2G, 3G and 4G technologies? I would like to share some of these thoughts in this article

1G, 2G, 3G & 4G ("G" stands for "Generation") are the generations of wireless telecom connectivity

1G (Time Division Multiple Access and Frequency Division Multiple Access ) was the initial wireless telecom network system. It's out-dated now . The analog “brick phones” and “bag phones” are under 1G technology. Cell phones era began with 1G.

The next era, 2G has taken its place of 1G. Cell phones received their first major upgrade when they went from 1G to 2G. This leap effectively took cell phones from analog to digital. 2G and 2.5G were versions of the GSM and CDMA connections. And GSM is still the most popular technology, but with no internet. Fortunately, GPRS, an additional service, is provided over GSM for the purpose of internet access. GPRS has been developed and thus, EGPRS was created . It's more secure and faster than GPRS.

Then 3G came, the new Wireless CDMA technology. It is the first wireless telecom technology that provides broadband-speed internet connection on mobile phones. It has been specially made for the demand of internet on smart phones. Further development led to the creation of 3.5G, which provides blazing fast internet connection on phones, up to the speed of 7.2 MBPS. A smart phone can be connected to a PC to share its internet connection and 3G and 3.5G are ideal for this. But, as this WCDMA technology is not available in all regions, its not as popular as GSM yet. Before making the major leap from 2G to 3G wireless networks, the lesser-known 2.5G was an interim standard that bridged the gap. Following 2.5G, 3G ushered in faster data-transmission speeds so you could use your cell phone in more data-demanding ways. This has meant streaming video (i.e. movie trailers and television), audio and much more. Cell phone companies today are spending a lot of money to brand to you the importance of their 3G network.

4G, which is also known as “beyond 3G” or “fourth-generation” cell phone technology, refers to the entirely new evolution. Developers are now going for 4G (OFDMA), which will provide internet upto the speed of 1 GBPS! It is said to be able to overcome the problems of weak network strength and should provide a much wider network, making sure that the users get high-speed connectivity anytime anywhere. No doubt, 4G will open new doors of revolutionary internet technologies, but for now, 3G and 3.5G are the best. 4G will allow for speeds of up to 100Mbps. 4G promises voice, data and high-quality multimedia in real-time form all the time and anywhere.
Whatever technology that comes or goes, I am still using only 2G technology phone which is cheaper and more comfortable for me

Invisible solar roof

Invisible solar roof

The future world will be electrified with the help of renewable energy sources. One such in exhaustible energy source is solar energy. Now a days, solar panels have been replacing the conventional energy for electrifying any of the electrical appliances. Though it is not accepted all the people due to its high cost, many people are changing their taste to solar powered home or vehicles. In this connection, if any home is powered with solar energy, i will be distinguishably visible to all that the house is using the solar energy or power.
Because the solar panels are visible over the roof. In modern technology in the solar energy era has changed its design in such a way that the solar panels are invisibe, on the other hand i can state that it is integrated within the roof itself. This is what shown in the figure. Hence, no one can identify whether that particular house is backed with solar energy. What a great technology revolution?

Novel Engineering projects from electrofriends

Novel Engineering projects from electrofriends

Final students are in hunting of their engineering projects. Novel projects in different areas are required for them. Electrofriends is one such website where plenty of engineering projects are available.

The project list varies from microcontroller based projects to computer oriented control. Few of the projects are vehicle monitoring and safety, robotic car controlled by 8951 micro controller, solar tracking system, Intelligent train engines, Digital IC tester. Even this site includes some famous C++ programming based project. Sudoku using C++ coding is very interesting puzzle to solve.
One important thing is that we can submit our own engineering projects. Really a lot of collections of projects are available.

Automatic Energy Meter Reading through Power Line Communication

Automatic Energy Meter Reading through Power Line Communication(PLC)

In most of the places in world wide, Energy Meter reading is done through nominated officials by visiting the residential and commercial places. In this technique, it is proposed to change the existing energy metering by employing the Power line communication technology. Power line carrier communications take place over the same lines that deliver electricity.

This technique involves injecting a high frequency AC carrier into the power line and modulating this carrier with data originating from the remote meter or central station. Power Line Communications transmits data over an existing high voltage power line instead of requiring dedicated cabling. PLC can thus provide an inexpensive solution for transmitting data in a pre wired location.
The solution for residential Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) consists of a host computer, a gateway interface and a low-cost Power Line Carrier (PLC) residential meter. LCD display showing the meter readings, date of bill payment and billing details. The system also incorporates a power cut feature, which can be activated when the consumer doesn’t pay the bill within the due date. The system performances become superior to conventional methods. Now this scheme becomes implementing able with advent fast computing devices.

Long fight with Computer Viruses

Long fight with Computer Viruses

I have been a long fight with viruses in my computer system. So, i could not continue my blogging on technical topics. All of sudden my system was functioning so slow. I could not find how to rectify from this problem. I was using a trial version anti virus software installed in my system. I was also struggling with other trial version anti virus software. It could able to detect the viruses, however it could not remove the viruses.
Finally i decided to buy licensed version of anti virus software. I bought a new Internet Security 2009 anti virus software. Before that i formatted my computer system C drive. Then After installing the OS, i installed my new antivirus software. After updating the antivirus software, i had a complete computer scan. It is so terrible to see the result of scanning, my files has had thousands of viruses. Now my system is completely free from viruses.
Finally, i inferred that only a licensed antivirus could remove all viruses from the system, so we can safely run our computer system

PCB Design basics

PCB Design basics

Electronics circuits are designed using Printed Circuit Boards. Sometimes we do not know the procedures to do a PCB design. PCBs form the core of electronic equipment domestic and industrial. Some of the areas where PCBs are intensively used are computers, process control, telecommunications and instrumentation. I would like to share the various steps in PCB design here.

1. MANUFACTURING
The manufacturing process consists of two methods; print and etch, and print, plate and etch. The single sided PCBs are usually made using the print and etch method. The double sided plate through – hole (PTH) boards are made by the print plate and etch method.
The production of multi layer boards uses both the methods. The inner layers are printed and etch while the outer layers are produced by print, plate and etch after pressing the inner layers. The software used in our project to obtain the schematic layout is MICROSIM.
2. PANELISATION
Here the schematic transformed in to the working positive/negative films. The circuit is repeated conveniently to accommodate economically as many circuits as possible in a panel, which can be operated in every sequence of subsequent steps in the PCB process. This is called penalization. For the PTH boards, the next operation is drilling.
3. DRILLING AND PLATING
PCB drilling is a state of the art operation. Very small holes are drilled with high speed CNC drilling machines, giving a wall finish with less or no smear or epoxy, required for void free through hole plating. The heart of the PCB manufacturing process. The holes drilled in the board are treated both mechanically and chemically before depositing the copper by the electro less copper platting process.

4. ETCHING
Once a multiplayer board is drilled and electro less copper deposited, the image available in the form of a film is transferred on to the out side by photo printing using a dry film printing process. The boards are then electrolytic plated on to the circuit pattern with copper and tin. The tin-plated deposit serves an etch resist when copper in the unwanted area is removed by the conveyor’s spray etching machines with chemical etch ants. The etching machines are attached to automatic dosing equipment, which analyses and controls etch ants concentrations.

5. SOLDERMASK
Since a PCB design may call for very close spacing between conductors, a solder mask has to be applied on the both sides of the circuitry to avoid the bridging of conductors. The solder mask ink is applied by screening. The ink is dried, exposed to UV, developed in a mild alkaline solution and finally cured by both UV and thermal energy.
After applying the solder mask, the circuit pads are soldered using the hot air leveling process. The bare bodies fluxed and dipped in to a molten solder bath. While removing the board from the solder bath, hot air is blown on both sides of the board through air knives in the machines, leaving the board soldered and leveled. This is one of the common finishes given to the boards. Thus the double sided plated through whole printed circuit board is manufactured and is now ready for the components to be soldered.

Software tool for PIC microcontroller

Software tools for PIC microcontroller
Most of the engineering projects are done using PIC microcontrollers. I would like to share the software tools used in PIC microcontroller.
MPLAB Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is a free, integrated gcc-based toolset for the development of embedded applications employing Microchip's PIC and dsPIC microcontrollers. The MPLAB IDE runs as a 32-bit application on Microsoft Windows, and includes several free software components for application development, hardware simulation and debugging. MPLAB also serves as a single, unified graphical user interface for additional Microchip and third party software and hardware development tools.

Both Assembly and C programming languages can be used with MPLAB. Others may be supported through the use of third party programs.
Support for MPLAB, along with sample code, tutorials, and drivers can be found on Microchip's website. MPLAB does not support Linux, UNIX, or Macintosh based operating systems.

Amazing flying wonders

Amazing flying wonders

I have in search of flying wonders. In this series i am wondering to see the technological development in design of little flying robots, flying disc, toys and helicopters and so on. In this tech flying wonders,
Flying toy:
a remote controlled rotary wind flying toy is a little one which is not coming under the helicopter, but it uses two propellers facing in the opposite directions to spin the main blades which generate the lift .

It can be used only for indoor purpose. By using a infrared controller, the flying toy can climb or descend with direction buttons to move forward or backward, left and right. This is possible by adjusting the speed of the propellers. In the autopilot mode, it uses two infrared sensors to hover away from ceilings and walls. We get whole enjoyment even the flight time is 5 minutes with 20 minutes recharge time. This cheap little wonder is a gift to the flying enthusiast. If you find anymore such small wonders, feel free to share in the comment sections

Improving Power factor of an Induction motor drive using Labview

Improving Power factor of an Induction motor drive using Labview

Virtual instrumentation deals with acquiring, analysing and presenting data. It offers more flexibility than traditional instruments and proves to be ideal for signal processing and simulation. It is popularly used due to its graphical nature, versatility and easy programmability. The program can be changed at any point of time according to the needs of the user.
A project which deals with the power factor determination and correction of a lagging power factor load such as Induction motor drive is discussed here. A three phase Induction motor is used as the load which normally draws lagging current. The current and voltage waveforms are obtained through current and potential transformers from the line side respectively. The sinusoidal waveform is given to zero crossing detector to produce square waveform which is then given to X-Or gate. This produces a signal which is nothing but the difference of the phase angle between current and voltage waveforms. The signal is then fed to the PC using DAQ (Data Acquisition) card. After acquiring the signal, the power factor is calculated using Lab view software and depending on whether leading or lagging, a pulse is generated. This pulse is used through DAQ card to correct the capacitance value on the line in order to improve the power factor

Speed Control of Switched Relectance Motor with DSP controller

Speed Control of Switched Relectance Motor with DSP controller

In construction, the switched reluctance motor (SRM) is the simplest of all electrical machines and most rugged one. The highly non linear relationship of the SRM are due to its single excited (exciting the stator only) double- salient and highly nonlinear machine characteristics. SRM drives can be controlled only by synchronising the energisation of the motor phases with the rotor position. Hence, the control of SRM is a tough one to deal with.

The increase in need for variable speed drives in industry and consumer application has seen renewed interest in the SRM. SRM is widely used in high performance servo applications such as aerospace, industrial and robotics.

SRM cannot be run directly from the supply. It can be run only when the motor is integrated with power converter, controller and rotor position sensor. So its essential to design high performance digital controller for SRM to get the optimum performance in the presence of the parameters variations and load disturbances.

The best solutions to control a switched reluctance motor is the usage of TMS320C24x. This new DSP family enables cost-effective design of intelligent controllers for switched reluctance motors. A novel speed control
algorithm is used to allow the Switched Reluctance motor drive to reach high efficiency, smooth operation, very good dynamic behavior, very high speed and low accoustical noise. All these solutions use only TMS320C24x resources, thus providing a single chip cost efficient control structure.

World's Cleanest Electric Bike

World's Cleanest Electric Bike

Electric vehicles do not normally emits carbon. The Zero Motorcycles from Calif., have unveiled a Zero X electric bike with zero emissions. This bike is the lightest, quietest and least polluting off-road bike. The features of this bike

* with 64Kg - which is half of the weight of a gas powered motorcyles
* with 20HP electric motor - speed is 0-48 Km/Hr.
* with lithium -ion battery pack runs 60 Km on a 2 Hr. battery charge
* It can be rided on mountain and can handle higher jumps.
Howerver the bike cost is too high say $7450

Brain wave controller for disabilities

Brain wave controller for disabilities

This revolutionised technology is used to control a wheel chair driven by a disabled person by using his mind control. The thoughts steer the vehicle wherever he wish to go. Brain nerve cells create electric signals in the order of Micro level. These signals can be picked by using EEG ((Electro-encephalogram) detector.

This detector is fitted to the wheelchair with a display unit. By thinking about the direction of the movement, the electrodes of the EEG unit detect the brain signals and then respond by turning left or right and moving in the desired direction. Toyota, and the Japanese research foundation have created such a wonderful device for the welfare of lives of paraplegics.
Once these devices hit the market, there will be a lot of relief to the disabled. Thanks to the researcher who have done this wonderful job.

Distributed intellegence in day to day electrical and electronics appliances

Distributed intellegence in day to day electrical and electronics appliances

Distributed intellegence which is normally hidden inside the products that we use in day to day appliances is revolutinising this world and has been doing wonders. This embedded information processing revolution has created a new path in controling electrical and electronics appliances. For example, in a washing machine the amount water required for washing is adjusted accroding to the dirty and load size. For this purpose, a Microcontroller is used to do this job. A single appliance may be equiped with a number of microcontrollers to accurately control the appliances.

This distributed intellegence can be categorized as
1. In consumer segment which includes home appliances and entertainment equipment
2. In Automative field where a moder car is embedded with more than 50 micro controllers
3. Office automation, which includes PCs, Keyboard, copier machines, printers and so on
4. Telecommuncation field includes cellular phones, pagers and so on
5. The major usage of this intellegence is industry and so on

This intellegence is a second revolution next to microprocessor based, what would be the next technology? is there any such intellegence, give your valuable suggestions.

Features of PIC 16C7x Microcontroller

Features of PIC 16C7x Microcontroller
Pic Microcontrollers are commonly used in Engineering Projects. It can be used as a portable controller in any applications. I would like to share its immense features compared with conventional microcontrollers.
1. High-performance RISC CPU
2. Only 35 single word instructions and All are single cycle instructions except for program branches which are two cycle
3. Operating speed: DC - 20 MHz clock input, DC - 200 ns instruction cycle
4. Up to 8K x 14 words of Program Memory,up to 368 x 8 bytes of Data Memory (RAM)
5. Interrupt capability
6. Eight level deep hardware stack
7. Direct, indirect, and relative addressing modes
8. Power-on Reset (POR), Power-up Timer (PWRT) and Oscillator Start-up Timer (OST)
9. Watchdog Timer (WDT) with its own on-chip RC
10. oscillator for reliable operation
11. Programmable code-protection
12. Power saving SLEEP mode
13. Selectable oscillator options
14. Low-power, high-speed CMOS EPROM technology
15. Fully static design
16. Wide operating voltage range: 2.5V to 6.0V
17. High Sink/Source Current 25/25 mA
18. Commercial, Industrial and Extended temperature ranges
19. Low-power consumption:

Peripheral Features:
• Timer0: 8-bit timer/counter with 8-bit prescaler
• Timer1: 16-bit timer/counter with prescaler,can be incremented during sleep via external crystal/clock
• Timer2: 8-bit timer/counter with 8-bit period register, prescaler and postscaler
• Capture, Compare, PWM module(s)
• Capture is 16-bit, max. resolution is 12.5 ns, Compare is 16-bit, max. resolution is 200 ns, PWM max. resolution is 10-bit
• 8-bit multichannel analog-to-digital converter
• Synchronous Serial Port (SSP) with SPI
• Universal Synchronous Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (USART/SCI)
• Parallel Slave Port (PSP) 8-bits wide, with external RD, WR and CS controls
• Brown-out detection circuitry for Brown-out Reset (BOR)

Internet-based SCADA systems

Internet-based SCADA systems

The Internet has now been dedicating a new and highly-efficient medium for sharing information all over the world. The development of web technologies allows information to be displayed numerically and graphically on any conventional Internet browser. Via Internet browsers (or web-browsers), end users can access, monitor the real-time data and even control the field devices and equipments.

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems are now becoming more and more popular in industrial processes and the demands in functionality and high performance have been increasing rapidly. Furthermore, the fast development of microprocessor manufacturing and Internet technology makes it more efficient and cost-saving to design such systems with the embedded network protocol modules.

Overall block diagram

A best solution on implementing Internet-based SCADA systems is with the presence of embedded TCP/IP Protocol stacks. The solution provides the following features:
• Automatically collect the latest system’s data and real-time data are displayed on web-browser interfaces.
• Users can manage and issue command controls on system’s devices from any internet-connected place.
• Security issue is carefully considered with: server protection by router; user authentication & IP approval on server application software and MD5 algorithm for data encoding. This helps reduce the threat of the public nature of the Internet.
• New sites/devices can be added/deleted/tracked.
• System operation can be tracked for each user by the event log tool.
These type of decentralised control can be more efficient and fast compared with conventional methods.

Emerging technologies in Advertising compaigns

Emerging technologies in Advertising compaigns

The emerging technologies has opened a new window in advertising compaigns by recognising the human face whether male or female. This technology can identify the gender among a group of people which is utilised for the purpose of advertising compaign based on gender ( male or female based) . A digital video stream can detect from the frontal images of faces of a number of persons in real time. This technology can also be utilized online where the laptops or PCs are fit with web cameras. The advertising compains will be changed dynamically based on the gender who are onlin.
My suggestion is that this technology could be utilised for security purposes like facical recognitions autentication systems

MICROCONTROLLER PIC 16F877, Features, PIN diagram, PIN description

MICROCONTROLLER PIC 16F877, Features, PIN diagram, PIN description

Most of the enngineering projects are done with the help of Micro controller. In this series, i would like to share the MICROCONTROLLER PIC 16F877, Features, PIN diagram and PIN description so on.

Features:
 High-performance RISC CPU
 All single cycle instructions except for program branches which are 2 cycle
 Operating speed: DC - 20 MHz clock input DC - 200 ns instruction cycle
 Up to 8K x 14 words of Flash Program Memory,
 Up to 256 x 8 bytes of EEPROM data memory
 Pin out compatible to the PIC16C73/74/76/77
 Interrupt capability -up to 14 internal/external
 Eight level deep hardware stack
 Direct, indirect, and relative addressing modes
 Power-on Reset (POR)
 Power-up Timer (PWRT) and Oscillator Start-up Timer (OST)
 Watchdog Timer (WDT) with its own on-chip RC Oscillator for reliable operation
 Programmable code-protection
 Power saving SLEEP mode
 Selectable oscillator options
 Low-power, high-speed CMOS EPROM/EEPROM technology
 Fully static design
 In-Circuit Serial Programming (ICSP) via two pins
 Only single 5V source needed for programming capability
 In-Circuit Debugging via two pins
 Processor read/write access to program memory
 Wide operating voltage range: 2.5V to 5.5V
 High Sink/Source Current: 25 mA
 Commercial and Industrial temperature ranges

PIN Diagram:


PIN description

5V, 12V Regulated Power supply

5V, 12V Regulated Power supply

Regulated power supplies are commonly used in engineering projects. Power supply is food of any circuit. I would like to share 5V, 12V regulated power supply circuits which can be used for Embedded or Micro controller projects.

+5V SUPPLY UNIT

The circuit diagram of +5V is shown in the figure. +5V supply is obtained from the +5V supply unit for microcontroller and digital ICs. Initially 230 V AC supply is reduced to (0-9V) with the help of a step down transformer having a capacity of 500mA. Since the input voltage to the regulator IC should be more than its output voltage, transformer secondary voltage is 9V. This low voltage is rectified with the help of bridge rectifier. The ripples are minimized with the help of capacitor filter to get a smooth DC supply. The rating of the chosen capacitor filter is 1000µF.
The regulated DC voltage is obtained by using a regulator IC 7805. In the case of IC 7805, the unregulated DC voltage is applied to Pin 1, and the output is taken at Pin 3 and Pin 2 is grounded. Another capacitor filter of rating 10µF is connected at the output of regulator IC to eliminate the voltage oscillations at the output due to the large voltage oscillations at the input of the regulator.

+12V SUPPLY UNIT

The ±12 V supply required by the OP amps is provided by the 12V supply circuit arrangement. The circuit diagram of ±12V power supply unit is shown in figure. Initially 230 V AC supply is reduced to (15V-0-15V) with the help of a step down transformer having a capacity of 1A and the center tap of the transformer is grounded. This low voltage is rectified with the help off bridge rectifier. Since the input voltage to the regulator IC should be more than its output voltage, transformer secondary voltage is 15V-0-15V.The ripples are minimized with the help of capacitor filter to get a smooth DC supply. The rating of the chosen capacitor filter is 1000µF.
The regulated DC output voltage is obtained by using regulator ICs. For regulated +12V DC supply, IC 7812 is used and for regulated -12V DC supply, IC 7912 is used. In the case of IC 7812 the unregulated DC voltage is applied to Pin 1, and the output is taken at Pin 3 and Pin 2 is grounded. In the case of 7912 ,the unregulated DC voltage is applied to Pin 2, the output is taken at Pin 3 and Pin 1 is grounded. The pair of capacitors of 10µF is connected at the output as shown in figure to eliminate the voltage oscillations at the output due to the large voltage oscillations at the input of the regulator.

Learn and Earn more by patenting your products

Learn and Earn more by patenting your products

You are very good in design of any engineering or technology related projects. You have invented new products based on your technological updates. The next step is to market the product. Before doing it, if your patent that particular novel idea, or product, or design, then the value that particular product increases which can be marketed at higher values. This is the secret behing patenting a product. IPR stands for Intellectual property Rights is one such area to know more about property rights and achieving patents. IPR related courses are conducted by Universities to bring awarness about patenting and IPR. These type of courses bring good amount of insight about patents, Trademarks, and copyright so on.

World Celebrating World Environment Day 2009

World Celebrating World Environment Day 2009

In this year, in particular, today is a special day and everyone should proudly celebrate the day. This year’s theme is
“Your planet needs you - UNite to combat Climate Change”

Why should we celebrate today? First off all, We should know about Global warming and how to eradicate from this threat?

Global warming or Climate change is mainly due to the human made mistakes on earth. We have to fight and must give utmost important to eradicate this change. Due to Global warming, its impact on global temperature, effect on agriculture, glacial erosion is increasing day by day.

Why is Global warming?
Global warming is mainly contributed by Carbon emissions by Individuals, Organizations, a business or a government (so called as Carbon foot print).

The reduction of carbon footprint is individual’s response at all level.

What can we do today, even a small thing can do big change tomorrow, yes, and planting a single tree by each one of us can make a big change to save our earth.

Wishing all a Happy, Healthy breathing Greener. this World Environment Day 2009

GPS based Train tracking system with Location announcer

GPS based Train tracking system with Location announcer

Nowadays Railways play a great role in transporting people and goods from one place to another. An innumerable number of trains are running across the nation. It would be a great boon if we are able to get the exact position of a train at any instant. This can be best realized with the recent technology era. The technology is associated with satellite communication tech like GPS , GSM, and GPRS.
The primary objective is to track trains based on the Global System Module (GSM) and Global Positioning System (GPS) technologies. GPS is used to get the position of the train in terms of Latitude and Longitude from the satellite. GSM is used to transmit the data obtained using GPS to the server using General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). It would be helpful for a passenger to catch a train if he knows its exact location. This enables a person to trace a train while sitting in any part of the world using internet. By using the softwares like Google Earth the location of the train can be pin pointed accurately. The tracking is done continuously by the GPS modem and the values are updated regularly in the server by refreshing it periodically to receive the latest values.
In addition to this, the announcement of the next station that is going to be reached also be possible. People in AC coaches inside the train are not aware of the station coming next and also how long it will take to reach it. For this, a suitable Micro Controller can be programmed to calculate the distance between the current position of the train and the nearby station. The announcement is made to the passengers before the train reaches every station. When the train reaches the predetermined distance, the Controller enables the corresponding voice in the Voice Processor. This ensures that the passengers get enough time to get ready and also they won’t miss the right station.

Computer system crashes and Remedy

Computer system crashes and Remedy

There is no end by the way viruses, spyware and hijackers. Recently my laptop has encountered such a virus attack. Yes, my system was completely hijacked by couple of Trojan and hijackers. I could not remove these viruses by any of the anti viruses. Whenever i installed a new anti virus, i immediately stopped installation and deleted the installed files. Finally i used spybot software, it detected all the viruses, however i could not fix the problem. Then i searched for an online antivirus software, and i thought i could remove the viruses from my laptop. As the download speed is low, this method of removing viruses also not helping me.
After a long trials, in order to save my files, i moved my files to D drives, formatted C drive and installed fresh copy of windows, now it is fine. All of my effort in battle of removing viruses gone.

AUTOMATIC BUS TIMING INDICATION AND DEPARTURE CONTROL

AUTOMATIC BUS TIMING INDICATION AND DEPARTURE CONTROL

Often, a bus passenger does not have sufficient information of the time of departure of the bus. In order to provide a solution for this, each bus can be fitted with a module that displays the time of departure of the bus as well as its next destination before hand, for the convenience of passengers.
The time schedule for the entire day is stored in a microcontroller and the relevant information is displayed automatically and at the appropriate time (based on a real time clock) without requiring any sort of control by the driver or conductor. Not only this, the departure time of the bus is controlled by this module, which controls the ignition circuit of the bus. This module connects it at the scheduled time already stored in the microcontroller. This prevents the driver from starting the bus before the scheduled time and it also helps to prevent unwanted wastage of fuel.
The circuit consists of two important modules viz. timer module, and display module The two modules are used to display the real time and passenger information relating to the departure time as well as the destination.
The two modules are controlled by two microcontrollers (ATMEGA 8L), which are programmed to display the real time and relevant information at the appropriate time, based on the time schedule of the bus.

VOICE BASED SWITCHING CONTROL OF HOUSEHOLD ELECTRICAL APPLIANCE using VIRTUAL INSTRUMENTATION

VOICE BASED SWITCHING CONTROL OF HOUSEHOLD ELECTRICAL APPLIANCE using VIRTUAL INSTRUMENTATION
Normally the control of household electrical appliances are done using manual switches. In the digital era, every device can be controlled remotely. However, additionally one more remote control unit is required which can also be controlled only by manual . Instead of this, if the devices are able to control using our voice, then our task will become even more easy. If all the electrical appliances can be controlled using our voice, then the way of control and our lifestyle also will become a enjoying one.
Virtual instrumentation use intuitive and powerful software with flexible and modular hardware to build customer defined solutions. In building virtual instrumentation solutions, engineers use software to define the functions of the system. This software flexibility maximizes the hardware capabilities while making it easier to adapt and scale to future needs. LabVIEW is a widely adopted graphical development environment for customized test, measurement and control applications
Voice Control parameters is of prime importance in present industrial scenario. With Virtual Instrumentation, it is possible to make the process more effective. The effective senses and the pre-trained words using labview and can give better matching results.The output signal from the Virutual Instrumentation control can be effectively used to make the ON/OFF control all the household electrical appliances.

Smart card based Prepaid Electricity Billing

Smart card based Prepaid Electricity Billing
Over the past few years, smart cards have achieved a growing acceptance as a powerful tool for security and time management. If a smart card is used along with a controller which can be connected to the energy meter, the concept goes like this... For every unit of electricity consumed, the unit-charge from the card gets reduced simultaneously. When the threshold balance limit of the card is reached or goes below it, the alarm is triggered, in addition a message is sent to the consumer’s mobile phone, indicating that the card should be recharged. If the balance of the card goes zero, a relay is activated which trips open the supply to the consumer. On recharge of the card, the supply can be restored. The ultimate aim of is to put an end to the queue in the billing counter and to reduce the expenditure towards billing and system monitoring of the electricity board.
In this project smart card technique is used for paying electricity bills. The smart card used is a rechargeable card which has an IC which acts as a memory module for storing the current balance status of the card.
This smart card based prepaid electricity billing is accomplished using an Atmel AT89C51 Microcontroller. This controller is programmed to read the smart card and give the control signal to the mobile communication unit using RS-232 serial communication unit.

However, the main points to ponder are

* keeping the smart card safe

* Each time recharge the smart card

* security aspects of the cards

Live IT Security training courses from EC-council

Live IT Security training courses from EC-council

In the internet era, we live in a world where almost all the computers are connected in a network for sharing our information. In one side, we get any information related to our field. On the other hand, there is a possibility of attach on our valuable information by the hackers. IT Security risks are high in the world wide network. So protecting our files from hacker is mandatory. If we work in IT companies, it is our responsible to secure the valuable information which is worth of time and hard earned money.

If we are able to develop enough skills about security fundamentals, ethical hacking and disaster Recovery then we can protect our company from these security threats. EC Council offer such live courses by online which plays important job role in order to expand our technical expertise in securing our company's information, or just because we were intrigued by the opportunity to learn what the Hackers know. The courses are on the following topics
Security Fundamentals,
Ethical Hacking,
Computer Forensics,
Penetration Testing,
Disaster Recovery or
Secure Programming.

These certification courses run from 9am to 4pm and promise to give us a great FIRST LOOK at our various non-vendor specific certification courses.
The online conferencing & VOIP technology facilities from EC-Council provide students to receive quality education without the extra cost of travel to a remote class.
With recent innovations in online education, EC-Council has created the most advanced online-self-paced Infosec training program available today! We can also receive authorized training through streaming video instruction with full lab demonstrations, official curriculum and certification exam. It is also very easy to take all the time we need to study for an exam, and without leaving the comfort of our home or office. This option fits the learning style and needs of every professional who prefers self paced/self study learning, but enjoys the facilitation of Instructor-led training
We get assurance for getting new high paying job opportunities in reputed companies. As being a Certified Ethical Hacker, we will be completely free from security fears.

Wireless ECG Monitoring

Wireless ECG Monitoring

The integration technology into the medical field continues to revolutionize hospital care. Many developments in the computer industry have found their way current medical systems. This is true of wireless communication.
Most of the students are currently doing their final year projects. I would like to share one such project abstract. ECG monitoring is very import in the medical field. The monitoring of the ECG signals and an appropriate warnings about the patient to the doctor at the appropriate time will save the patient.
The integration of wireless communication into medical applications has immediate benefits. With wireless communications, monitoring of patients can be done remotely and efficiently. This would enable the intelligent monitoring of multiple patients concurrently. When a patient has alarming medical condition, the monitoring user can be informed to take appropriate action.
This technology in hospitals is rapidly advancing. The potential is to have a totally monitored hospital network, where each patient is constantly monitored via wireless telemetry.
The application of wireless biomedical sensor extends past the hospital sitting. This technology could see its way into houses, cars and even workplace. Now the total condition of a person’s health could be taken care of effectively and in a safe manner. This could be in the form of an intelligent car that could take control in the event that a driver experienced a heart attack. The number of possible applications of this technology is endless.
In order to the above concept, we can use embedded systems, Labview based controllers, FPGA based controller along with transmitter and Receiver 

GSM Verses GPS

GSM Verses GPS

GSM and GPS are commonly used in mobile technology. It is the time to know the difference between the two with respect to the applications.
GSM stands for Global system of Mobile which is used in Mobile communication system. GSM based Mobile communication system is used in electronic devices which can collect data and send it to the central place using SMS or GSM data call. One of the primary applications of GSM is used in Vehicle tracking systems.
GPS stands for Global Position System which is used to receive location information from satellites. GPS cannot communicate itself back with them. GPS can be used along GSM to send or receive the location information to a central control room. A total of 24 satellites orbit the Earth, monitored continuously by earth stations. The satellites transmit signals that can be detected by GPS receivers located in the vehicles and used to determine their location with great accuracy. GPS gives the exact position of vehicles irrespective of the weather conditions at all the time.

Smart Mini Helicopter

Smart Mini Helicopter

I recently purchased a new mini Helicopter online at 22$. It is really exciting to control this mini helicopter. I actually bought this for doing a Project. This has been my long dream to buy and play with a mini Helicopter. When I was doing my Engineering, I was working to design a Heli, but it was not working, even not lifted. Because, the motor and the blades that I used for design of Heli were very heavy.

The specifications are

• Weight: 16g
• Dimensions: main rotor diameter 180mm
• Helicopter battery: 3.7v Rechargeable lithium polymer battery
• Charging Time: 20-30 minutes
• Flight Duration: 6-8 minutes
• Transmitter Batteries: 6 x 1.2v AA Alkaline Batteries
• Frequency: Infra red control system - bands A, B & C
• Control Specification: forward / backward / up / down / left / right
• Range: Up to 10m (30ft)

The weight of the Heli is really very less in weight and the size is also very small. I wonder how the technology has changed in all the field. The motor is very small in size (dia 180mm only). This is really a flying robot. I would like to design a circuit and prototype in such a way that it could be used for search and rescue operation during disastrous conditions.
I need also some help and suggestions on this topic. Those who are familiar with this topic, leave it as comments.

Virtual Instrumentation in the Engineering Process

Virtual Instrumentation in the Engineering Process

Virtual instruments provide significant advantages in every stage of the engineering process, from research and design to manufacturing test.

Research and Design
• In research and design, engineers and scientists demand rapid development and prototyping capabilities. With virtual instruments, you can quickly develop a program, take measurements from an instrument to test a prototype, and analyze results, all in a fraction of the time required to build tests with traditional instruments.
• When you need flexibility, an scalable open platform is essential, from the desktop, to embedded systems, to distributed networks.
• The demanding requirements of research and development (R&D) applications require seamless software and hardware integration.
• Whether you need to interface stand-alone instruments using GPIB or directly acquire signals into the computer with a data acquisition board and signal conditioning hardware, LabVIEW makes integration simple.
• With virtual instruments, you also can automate a testing procedure, eliminating the possibility of human error and ensuring the consistency of the results by not introducing unknown or unexpected variables.

Development Test and Validation
• With the flexibility and power of virtual instruments, you can easily build complex test procedures.
• For automated design verification testing, you can create test routines in LabVIEW and integrate software such as National Instruments TestStand, which offers powerful test management capabilities.
• One of the many advantages these tools offer across the organization is code reuse. You develop code in the design process, and then plug these same programs into functional tools for validation, test, or manufacturing.

Manufacturing Test
• Decreasing test time and simplifying development of test procedures are primary goals in manufacturing test. Virtual instruments based on LabVIEW combined with powerful test management software such as TestStand deliver high performance to meet those needs.
• These tools meet rigorous throughput requirements with a high-speed, multithreaded engine for running multiple test sequences in parallel. TestStand easily manages test sequencing, execution, and reporting based on routines written in LabVIEW.
• TestStand integrates the creation of test code in LabVIEW. TestStand also can reuse code created in R&D or design and validation.
• If you have manufacturing test applications, you can take full advantage of the work already done in the product life cycle.

Manufacturing
• Manufacturing applications require software to be reliable, high in performance, and interoperable.
• Virtual instruments based on LabVIEW offer all these advantages, by integrating features such as alarm management, historical data trending, security, networking, industrial I/O, and enterprise connectivity.
• With this functionality, you can easily connect to many types of industrial devices such as PLCs, industrial networks, distributed I/O, and plug-in data acquisition boards. By sharing code across the enterprise, manufacturing can use the same LabVIEW applications developed in R&D or validation, and integrate seamlessly with manufacturing test processes.

Energy Efficient E-Bus - Electric motors built in Wheels

Energy Efficient E-Bus

Most of the buses, four wheelers are run using Diesel Engines. Some buses are designed to run on using Electric motors for wheel drives. But it require adequate batteries with proper backup to run these electrical driven vehicles.
A novel technology has been developed where the electric motor is built within the wheel with built in controllers. This bus called as E bus. The main advantages of this type of bus are that it eliminates the transmitting mechanism from electric motors to the wheels.
This is in turn improves the efficiency of E-bus and also saves the energy. So the vehicle can be run for long period with available battery backup. At the same time vehicle can be ride very smoothly and controlled easily.

VLSI, Embedded, Matlab and Circuit Design related Websites

VLSI, Embedded, Matlab and Circuit Design related Websites

I would like to share some interesting tech sites which will be very help for the final year Engineering students. Already I have given a long list on Technology related website links. If you have such websites, feel free to list in dropping at Comments

VLSI
http://only-vlsi.blogspot.com
http://digitalverification.blogspot.com
http://vlsifaq.blogspot.com
http://asic-soc.blogspot.com/
http://vlsi-career.blogspot.com/

Embedded systems
http://ascprojects.blogspot.com/
http://www.lifezkoool.blogspot.com
http://www.embedded-bits.co.uk/
http://ilearntechnology.com

matlab
http://blinkdagger.com/

Electronic Circuit and Design and Other category

http://enggprojecttopics.blogspot.com/
http://electronicparts-kits.blogspot.com/
http://www.circuitizen.com/
http://schematronics.blogspot.com/
http://rfcircuits.blogspot.com/
http://transmitterpalace.blogspot.com/
http://aquacar.blogspot.com/
http://detector-sensor.blogspot.com/

Amazing and Exciting Dolphin Bubbles in SeaWorld

Amazing and Exciting Dolphin Bubbles in Sea World

Amazing events are happening in Nature World wide. I used to share with all my family members and friends such amazing events through online or other medias. This week, I watched a Video in online by which i amazed and excited. Yes, it was dolphin bubbles from the Sea World. Dolphin is naturally an intelligence sea creature. I have already heard about Dolphin's intelligence and some facts about it. It can play and dance with us. This is the first time i see Dolphin bubbles and its play with bubbles in sea water. It is really amazing and exciting to watch the video. While i was showing the Dolphin bubbles to my son and wife, they wondered its amazing behavior. My family members enjoyed a lot by watching the Video. It is my great wish to share with you all to watch the video and enjoy.



As I said, I would like to share some of the Dolphin's amazing facts. Dolphins can travel at a speed of 18 miles per hour and make up 1000 clicking sounds per second. There are different Dolphins in Sea World e.g. Spinner, Dusky Dolphins. The way it capture the food while feeding to it is really enthusiastic one. I would say that watching Dolphin blowing bubbles is a memorable event forever for me and my family members. It also makes us to interact with them to have a life time enjoyment and fun. There are no words to explain this kind of experience. I expect that everyone should get the same exciting experience and share with all of your friends. It is also a fun experience. One more interesting thing with this website is that we can know and learn more about Dolphins and its behavior. I thank GOD for having such wonderful creatures in earth.

VIRTUAL INSTRUMENTS BEYOND THE PERSONAL COMPUTER

VIRTUAL INSTRUMENTS BEYOND THE PERSONAL COMPUTER
• Recently, commercial PC technologies have begun migrating into embedded systems. Examples include Windows CE, Intel x86-based processors, PCI and CompactPCI buses, and Ethernet for embedded development. Because virtual instrumentation relies so heavily on commercial technologies for cost and performance advantages, it also has expanded to encompass more embedded and real-time capabilities.

• For example, LabVIEW runs on Linux as well as the embedded ETS real-time operating system from VenturCom on specific embedded targets.

• The option of using virtual instrumentation as a scalable framework that extends from the desktop to embedded devices should be considered a tool in the complete toolbox of an embedded systems developer.

• A dramatic technology change example that affects embedded systems development is networking and the Web. With the ubiquity of PCs, Ethernet now dominates as the standard network infrastructure for companies worldwide.

• In addition, the popularity of the Web interface in the PC world has overflowed into the development of cell phones, PDAs, and now industrial data acquisition and control systems.

• Embedded systems at one time meant stand-alone operation, or at most interfacing at a low level with a real-time bus to peripheral components.

• Now, the increased demand for information at all levels of the enterprise (and in consumer products) requires you to network embedded systems while continuing to guarantee reliable and often real-time operation.

• Because virtual instrumentation software can combine one development environment for both desktop and real-time systems using cross-platform compiled technology, you can capitalize on the built-in Web servers and easy-to-use networking functionality of desktop software and target it to real-time and embedded systems.

• For example, you could use LabVIEW to simply configure a built-in Web server to export an application interface to defined secure machines on the network on Windows, and then download that application to run on a headless embedded system that can fit in the user's hand.

• This procedure happens with no additional programming required on the embedded system. You then can deploy that embedded system, power it, connect to the application from a remote secure machine via Ethernet, and interface to it using a standard Web browser.

For more sophisticated networking applications, you can graphically program TCP/IP or other methods with which you are already familiar in LabVIEW and then run them in the embedded system.

Virtual Instruments versus Traditional Instruments

Virtual Instruments versus Traditional Instruments

• Stand-alone traditional instruments such as oscilloscopes and waveform generators are very powerful, expensive, and designed to perform one or more specific tasks defined by the vendor. However, the user generally cannot extend or customize them. The knobs and buttons on the instrument, the built-in circuitry, and the functions available to the user, are all specific to the nature of the instrument. In addition, special technology and costly components must be developed to build these instruments, making them very expensive and slow to adapt.

• Virtual instruments, by virtue of being PC-based, inherently take advantage of the benefits from the latest technology incorporated into off-the-shelf PCs. These advances in technology and performance, which are quickly closing the gap between stand-alone instruments and PCs, include powerful processors such as the Pentium 4 and operating systems and technologies such as Microsoft Windows XP, .NET, and Apple Mac OS X. In addition to incorporating powerful features, these platforms also offer easy access to

• powerful tools such as the Internet. Traditional instruments also frequently lack portability, whereas virtual instruments running on notebooks automatically incorporate their portable nature.

• Engineers and scientists whose needs, applications, and requirements change very quickly, need flexibility to create their own solutions. You can adapt a virtual instrument to your particular needs without having to replace the entire device because of the application software installed on the PC and the wide range of available plug-in hardware.

Flexibility
• Except for the specialized components and circuitry found in traditional instruments, the general architecture of stand-alone instruments is very similar to that of a PC-based virtual instrument. Both require one or more microprocessors, communication ports (for example, serial and GPIB), and display capabilities, as well as data acquisition modules.

• What makes one different from the other is their flexibility and the fact that you can modify and adapt the instrument to your particular needs.

• A traditional instrument might contain an integrated circuit to perform a particular set of data processing functions; in a virtual instrument, these functions would be performed by software running on the PC processor. You can extend the set of functions easily, limited only by the power of the software used.

Lower Cost

• By employing virtual instrumentation solutions, you can lower capital costs, system development costs, and system maintenance costs, while improving time to market and the quality of your own products.

Plug-In and Networked Hardware

• There is a wide variety of available hardware that you can either plug into the computer or access through a network. These devices offer a wide range of data acquisition capabilities at a significantly lower cost than that of dedicated devices.

• As integrated circuit technology advances, and off-the-shelf components become cheaper and more powerful, so do the boards that use them. With these advances in technology come an increase in data acquisition rates, measurement accuracy, precision, and better signal isolation.

• Depending on the particular application, the hardware you choose might include analog input or output, digital input or output, counters, timers, filters, simultaneous sampling, and waveform generation capabilities.

• The wide gamut of boards and hardware could include any one of these features or a combination of them.