#Electronics

What’s hidden inside a smart socket?

In today’s world, the importance of various types of devices from the “smart home” category is growing day by day. There is nothing surprising in this, after all, thanks to these, sometimes very simple equipment, we can remotely control home lighting, heating or ventilation. Besides, thanks to all kinds of sensors, reading temperature, humidity and light intensity has become much simpler. The data collected by the system can be used to intelligently manage actuators such as relays. In other words, today’s technology allows us to build really complex structures at a low cost, which we can call a smart home.

The art of microelectronics – silicon integrated circuits

Modern microelectronics is one of the fastest growing areas of science and technology. Its relevance to our daily lives is immense, as it is thanks to microelectronics that we can use advanced electronic devices, such as smartphones, tablets and laptops, which have become an integral part of our reality. In today’s article, we invite you to take a deeper dive into the fascinating world of silicon, where we will consider the construction of elements such as transistors and diodes.

In the land of silicon – an introduction to electronic structures

The modern world is constantly flowing toward the future, driven by incredible advances in technology. Central to this dynamic process is the electronics that underpin most everyday devices. One of the key foundations of electronics are structures called integrated circuits, which have been revolutionizing our ability to process information and communicate for years. However, when we look deep into electronic chips, we see that they are made up of structures such as transistors, diodes, resistors and even capacitors. These elements are placed together, on a single piece of silicon, which makes them significantly different from similar structures placed on printed circuit boards. In this article I will tell you a little about silicon electronic structures, the foundation of today’s technological world.

Miniaturization of big ideas – how integrated circuits came to be

In today’s dynamic world of electronics, we are constantly using advanced technologies that enable us to perform tasks faster, more efficiently and more conveniently. One of the most remarkable developments that has affected our daily reality is the invention of the integrated circuit. These small but powerful electronic components, typically containing hundreds, thousands or even millions of elements on a single silicon wafer. Chips have revolutionized our world in ways we could not even imagine before. But in order to explore the history of integrated circuits, we need to go all the way back to the 1920s, to the days of tube designs.

ESP8266 & Apple HomeKit – Let’s get started

There are quite a few different types of smart home systems, also known as smart home. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, and choosing the right system really depends on the individual user’s preferences. One such system is HomeKit from Apple. In this and subsequent materials in this series, I would like to tell you a little about how to integrate HomeKit and the well-known ESP8266 modules. I will show you how to configure such a module so that its operation can be controlled from an iPhone, MacBook or Apple Watch. In addition, we will connect to the outputs of our microcontroller various peripheral modules, the operation of which will be controlled by ESP.

What do you need to know about voltage converters?

Any electronic equipment must be powered in some way, without the right voltage it will not work at all or will work, but only for a fraction of a second. There are quite a few solutions and designs whose task is to bring energy to the designed circuit. Some of the most commonly used are linear stabilizers and voltage converters. We will leave stabilizers for another material, while today I would like to tell you a little about the operation and design of inverters. In addition, we will also look at their problems and try to solve them.

Lightning sensor for Arduino

I’m sure that in the mind of anyone who has worked with Arduino boards, the idea to build your own weather station has appeared at some point. Such projects are most often based on the simplest sensors for temperature, humidity possibly pressure. Sometimes a module is also added to measure wind speed. However, practically no project is equipped with a sensor capable of detecting lightning. This is a rather strange state of affairs, given that it is very simple to run this type of module in the Arduino environment.

Compendium of knowledge about Nixie

On a cold December morning in the Czech village of Březolupy, a man stops his truck in front of a 17th century castle. He puts on thick gloves, gets out of the truck and opens the tailgate. Then, very carefully, he unloads more crates of heavy equipment and glass.

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