I'm a big Linux fan, I play Linux, talk Linux and even get paid to work with Linux

now I can even get the Linux T-Shirt with the Linux Foundation's 2012 T-Shirt contest

themed "Inspired by Linux". If you are inspired to contribute to open source because of

Linux and have 1337 D351GN Sk1lz then you may want  to have ago at this:

https://www.linux.com/news/featured-blogs/200-libby-clark/575917--2012-linux-foundation-t-shirt-contest-inspired-by-linux

LED Wishing Star art show (via Tokyo Hotaru)

LEDs have been used to create some of the world’s most interesting art. One of the more impressive pieces was showcased at the Licht Festival in Belgium last year, showcasing the cathedral of light. This year brought another large display of LEDs from Panasonic for Tokyo’s Hotaru Festival (Firefly Festival) which celebrates an age old tradition of…well…watching fireflies along river-banks. Panasonic took part in the ‘Symphony of Light’ celebration by releasing 100,000 ‘wishing star’ LED free-floating balls into Tokyo’s Sumida river which was complemented by the illuminated Tokyo Sky Tree. Each ball contains an individual LED which is powered by a tiny solar-cell and rechargeable battery making them fully self-sustainable and reusable. The piece is strikingly similar to what Mother Nature does naturally with bioluminescence.

Bioluminescent bloom of plankton, Maldives (via Doug Perrine)

Illuminating art can be found in nature and also uses self-sustainable energy like Panasonic’s ‘wishing star’ LED balls. These however rely on a chemical reactions (chemiluminescence) rather than solar to emit light. Plankton (much like the firefly) use a group of chemicals, known as luciferins, that oxidize and set off a catalyst called luciferase which produces ‘cold light’. Many of this plankton wash up on various shores where lucky on-lookers can appreciate a fantastic light-show like that recently found on Vaadhoo Island in the Maldives. Both of the displays were impressive in their own right, but only one of them was edible which edges Mother Nature as the winner of the illuminated art shows!

Cabe

http://twitter.com/Cabe_e14

More of the Panasonic Tokyo art show:

Engineers become millionaires in less than 30 days; learn from their example.

Pebble Technology has recently entered into the Kickstarter hall of fame with their E-Paper watch gaining over $10,000,000 US in funding after only 26 hours of being put on the site. So, what makes the E-Paper watch so popular? It functions as a connection interface between your smartphone and as a wrist-mounted watch with app capabilities, a relatively simple embedded system.

Pebble Smartwatch (via Pebble)

The watch can be infinitely customized with different watch-faces (which is always on) and is compatible with both iPhone and Android (2.3 and higher) smartphones with a wide range of apps that let you check e-mail/text messages, caller ID and Facebook/Twitter accounts among others. The E-Paper watch connects to your smartphone through a Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR/4.0 connection and houses an ARM Cortex-M3 microcontroller which has over 8X more Flash memory and 12X more RAM than their previous inPulse Smartwatch. The ‘face’ is actually a high-resolution (144 X 168) black and white e-paper display and has a vibrating motor with a 3-axis accelerometer that’s capable of gestural detection. Charging the watch is the same as you would a smartphone by using a USB cable either for your PC/wall-outlet or mobile charging platform and has a life-span of 7 days before it needs to be re-charged. For those of you who love the water, E-paper is expected to be fully water-proofed to either 3 or 5 ATM (up to 165ft) if you can stand the pressure but make no mistake the watch IS NOT water-proof. Pebble Technology has sold out their first batch of 85,000 units, so the rest of us will just have to wait for E-Paper’s second coming.

Cabe

http://twitter.com/Cabe_e14

May 16th : Grace Tutorial as Promised

I mentioned a few weeks back how much I loved the grace tool, and I said I would make a video tutorial.. So here you go! This is the first time I have done a spoken tutorial so hope it turned out ok..

It the video I will go through setting up a grace project which will use a capture compare timer to blink an LED every 500ms. Normally for a new chip this would mean digging through data sheets to figure out how to set up a timer, not any more!!

More Weight Scales

The other day I managed to communicate with the ADS1131REF board via serial, but I was left stumped by the data I was getting. Turns out I was just being an idiot, the data returned was not weight data but the raw voltage reading from the output of the sensor. To convert the raw voltage to a usefull weight I needed to calibrate the sensor (of course!). The claibration uses the simple equation below to convert the sensor reading to a calibrated weight.

Whats Next?

So far I feel like my blog posts talk a whole lot but don't really show my progress, hopefully this weekend I can fix that by bringing a whole lot of this information together into something that resembles my original idea.

Cheers!

LED luminous efficacy continued to increase, in order to achieve high brightness requirements, single-component power has increased a lot, especially in the ensuing run fever situation is likely because the problem of high fever, so that in bad light or life of the components relatively lower, the component if we consider the cooling demand in the FEOL thermal design is more more efficient than from external conditions, but also sustainable development of higher power, high brightness led driver 120w  components in response to daily lighting applications.

Few years, environmental issues continues to heat up, so that the current status of various electricity to a great change, electrical terminals have a number of great change, such as CRT TVs LCD TV, or even a large number of energy incandescent light source countries have disabled.

Observed in 19% electricity consumption for lighting applications, import in the daily lighting energy-saving lamps, the world's energy consumption is likely to generate significant savings results, therefore, governments in order to create a more environmentally friendly image of the country. actively through policy, regulations and industry guidance toward the development of energy-saving lighting applications direction, using the LED Floodlight 80W  or CCFL new light source designed to replace traditional light sources for everyday lighting applications, has also become an important development trend of the lighting industry.

The current situation of the traditional light source applications

Most practical applications, still have a large number of high-performance, high-brightness light sources, for example, street lighting, store lighting, shop lighting, high efficiency and high brightness of the lighting facilities, mostly collected high-intensity gas discharge lamps (High- intensity disc ha rge; HID) or halogen lamps, high brightness, high-illumination application requirements; while demand in the stores, shops for a long time, mostly selected fluorescent tube (the Compact Fluorescent Lamp; the CFL); residential multi-still widely used incandescent lamps, fluorescent lamps (CFL) or energy saving demands of the new energy saving bulbs. In many practical applications, the highest energy consumption and the least efficient light source to the incandescent lamp mainly because the application will make a lot of power when converted into useless heat, but also makes the lamp life and therefore reduce.

Application specific light observation, the daily lighting market covered a very wide field of applications include architectural lighting, signs, landscape lighting, retail, lights, street lighting and residential lighting. To discuss the benefits of energy-saving, it is necessary for the scientific assessment for existing lamps.

Different lighting scheme energy efficiency gap

Existing lighting applications observed, the worst of the energy efficiency of incandescent lighting scheme according to the name, for example, 60W incandescent, energy efficiency is about 10 lm / W, compared with CFL fluorescent lamps with energy efficiency up to 50 lm / W A 100W HID has a 80 lm / W, which is equivalent to a brightness of 8,000 lumens.

LED Flood light 10W  light source performance and practicality dramatically

Characteristics of the LED is that in itself is an electronic components, and gas discharge HID lamp, the CFL with this type of fluorescent light source, the necessary built-in high-pressure gas to the glass container volume is relatively smaller, filled with toxic elements without group pieces of itself has a metal contact welding can install on any surface, the convenience is quite high.

LED with a future light source a number of advantages, including energy efficiency is the focus of most businesses.

LED in the past due to somewhat limited at that time, the brightness can not effectively enhance the multi-auxiliary light source used for indicative purposes, but now the white LED, for example, production methods already significantly improved, for example, through high-performance blue LED plated phosphorus approximate white glow, and significantly improved light output of a single component, the white LED has been substantial progress in energy efficiency, color temperature of 4,500 ~ 6,000 k, in the laboratory test data has to reach beyond the 200 lm / W high can show

LED is a solid state light source component, component hardness, high strength, not like traditional light sources mainly made of glass, there will be fear of fall, impatience impact the problem, with different phosphors or with a configuration design, produce various lighting effects on the overall components nor mercury, along with more than 50,000 hours of life-cycle, LED life compared to only operate for 1,000 hours of incandescent higher more.

Importing life applications are still key issues to be overcome

Due to the difference of the LED in the physical characteristics of the original device, the concept of the production of light source system is very different from the traditional design, the need for more technical and professional support.

LED bulbs design space is relatively compact, how to do the relevant circuit integration, and must rely on integrated chips to achieve design goals.

1, the optical design

LED Spotlight 30W   source is an efficient point source, the light of this too concentrated in traditional applications would be a lot of problems, for example, when reading lamp use will cause the close type of light is not enough symmetry, even if the LED with a wide color control flexibility energy efficiency performance is quite good, but in life with the lighting application will affect the perception of point light source through the optical lens or institution design (lenses, light guide material) to produce light performance to approximate the traditional lamp, will increase lighting costs, more difficult in the compact configuration of the design of the physical characteristics of the optical breakthrough.

2, the thermal design

Similarly, continuation of the LED assembly itself is the limit of point light sources, the components in the light temperature is overly concentrated in a single point above, if not effectively deal with heat, which would have led components burn melt, or even shorten the life! In addition to the component itself need for thermally enhanced design, for example, through the chip to play the gold line, or improve the carrier board design techniques to achieve the thermal design of the autologous, but even so, heat, there will still be over-concentrated in the status of the lamps dot position through the external components of the active cooling and passive cooling design to improve the handling capacity of the junction temperature control, this lighting design technology gap.

3, drive and control circuit design

Practical applications, the LED drive light still requires a lot of electronic circuits for the auxiliary, in order to achieve the purpose of efficient, but for the ordinary incandescent lamp dimmer design, if you want to achieve in the new LED light source, which must be available through the DC DC electrical control, power supply adjustment, taking into account energy consumption and power efficiency, make the drive electronic circuit complexity is increased significantly on the design is to take a large number of independent components to cause the system to the discrete design problem, so the overall savings of power hand in the relevant circuit is consumed.

Existing component manufacturers to take a single-chip adjustable light control IC design, the lighting industry without re-development of the different lamps with circuit, the use of off-the-shelf solutions can achieve both contrast to old-fashioned light of operating experience, but also to achieve a more high-performance energy-saving benefits.

E27 type of LED Power Supply   energy saving light bulbs, power consumption is only 6 watts.

4, the power conversion circuit design

LEDs generally take DC DC drive, AC LED in practical applications, there is more flexibility and advantages, and therefore the development of a major trend of the LED light source is very important especially in the general life of power sources are AC power, if To quickly universal life applications, the development of LED products designed by AC LED light source is a key application of the rapid growth of the related applications.

I am writing the post to give some more insight on the product that is available for Enrollment from today (May 16, 2012).

Most of the information is already posted on the roadtest page:  http://www.element14.com/community/roadTests/1087

For people reading the roadtest description and thinking of applying to this roadtest, given below is the information to gain some more clarity on what can be done with the board.

Given below are two diagrams that can be helpful.

Hardware Diagram

The IP Cores delivered with the package are evaluation version cores and the licenses for compilation need to be requested from: http://www.slscorp.com/licensing/ip-licensing.html for all the cores.  Multiple applications can be developed using different combination of the cores.  The hardware design provided in the package contains the cores integrated in the design.  All you need to do is give the license path for the cores and hit compilation to start developing.

The sample applications provided in the package are a unique combination of the hardware design already provided and the software.  The source code for selected application is provided in the package.  Given below is the software block diagram.

Software Diagram

More information about the board is available at http://www.slscorp.com/products/development-boards/corecommander.html

Also attached is the brief information on the product.

The digital power technology to break through the limitations of the traditional program, the user's requirements can be integrated and optimized to provide a complete solution for the LED driver and dimming control. In this paper, the specific design issues of LED lights to discuss the advantages of digital technology and problem-solving method.

The high efficiency The optocoupler conversion 100w led power circuit to convert the energy from the AC power grid in the form of light required DC for itself. There will be loss of energy in the conversion process. Higher conversion efficiency, the smaller the drive part of the cooling requirements are also lower the loss. Most LED lights filling plastic and aluminum heat sink to solve the heat problem. For users, the high efficiency of the driver program can reduce the cooling costs of the drive circuit to reduce the weight of LED 300w lights. Reduce circuit temperature rise is also beneficial to improve the life of the LED Flood light 20W. The traditional isolation driven program optocouplers to pass the current signal of the secondary side to primary side controller to maintain a stable output current. Secondary side of the detection circuit drive circuit complexity, cost and loss. Optocouplers use also reduces the reliability. Mainstream 50W LED Flood Lights 12V/24V manufacturers are beginning to use an opto-coupler on the primary side feedback technology. At present, digital primary-side technology has matured and has been widely applied. Digital control can achieve precise control of output current with an opto-coupler feedback. Transformer feedback waveform, digital technology can also be achieved trough opening to improve the conversion efficiency.

  Known electrical power to calculate the number of LED's Example: The rated output power is 10W power supply, rated forward current 20mA, power dissipation is 70mW conditions can configure the number of LED  3w ? According to the above formula (ie, take the data from the integer) 1: For the constant voltage drive mode: LED number and the number of parallel branch from the known to the output supply voltage of each road series (1) calculate the number of high power  LED on each branch (2) to calculate the parallel branch Note: VLED values according to different luminous colors vary regulator power LED drive current in order to control the series resistance. Example: a rated output voltage DC24V, power 10W power supply, rated forward current 20mA, power dissipation is 70mW nominal forward voltage of 1.8V. Can configure the number of LEDs? (Whichever is an integer) of the obtained data With 10 groups of branches, each, 14 LED  10w  series circuit, a total of 140 LEDs. 2: For constant current drive mode Calculated the number of parallel branch and the number of each road by a known power output current and LED current (1) Calculate the number of branches in parallel (2) slip cascading LED 120w  number: Example: a rated output current for DC0.35A, rated power is 10W power driver power dissipation is 70mW, the forward current is 0.02A of the LED, how can we configure? Parallel count Road: (Whichever is an integer) of the obtained data Each road cascading number: the number of Can take the 17 groups, each group of eight LEDs connected in series, a total of 136 LEDs. Line losses and the calculation of the line drop P wire = IRV, wire = IR R wire = σ (Note: L is the wire length; S is the wire cross-sectional area; σ is the wire conductivity) can also check the electrical manual. Example: a length of 10 meters (positive and negative wires of 5 m), 24AWG copper wire, the current of 2A, the loss of power and line drop is how much? Electrician check the manual shows: the R wire = 0.737W V wire = 2 × 0.737 = 1.474V Wire and P = 2 × 0.737 = 2.948W It can be seen from the above calculations, the line current to select the appropriate wire cross section, or line loss and line drop is considerable. We only fully understand the basic characteristics of LEDs and high power LED 1w  power supply to the proper design and use of LED light source.