Monday, January 7, 2008

Mr.clean Magic Eraser On Black




Wii Remote, is the super driver of the Nintendo Wii console. iPhone is the super Apple phone. Both devices have an acceleration sensor or three-axis three-axis accelerometer. This sensor is within the category of MEMS sensors (short for Micro-Electro-Mechanical System), which are those electronic sensors that are internally a mechanical device to function, in this case a mass (if, f = ma).
I was watching The accelerometer is the LIS302 of STMElectronics (other com the ADXL330). Some of the most interesting characteristics of this accelerometer are: low power, I2C/SPI interface, measuring range ± 2g / ± 8g and detection of click and double click.
communication with the accelerometer is I2C/SPI as preferred, this is true for the configuration as to read the acceleration values.
One of the things that caught my attention is the detection function click and double click. As I read when the sensor is subjected to a stimulus (mating, in one direction) will generate a signal indicating a click (stop). A more advanced variant of the same function can generate an interrupt when it detects a sequence of two consecutive stimuli (double click). The intensity of the stimulus and the time between the first and second stimulus is programmable. The advantage of this feature is that it simplifies programming the microcontroller / processor. The standard interface for communicating with the sensor is I2C/SPI, but using this feature, read the click or double click an entry simply involves connecting the micro to the sensor output INT.
How to use this sensor?, You can make an ad-hoc panel with a standard micro or use some of the platforms for prototyping, or CUI Arduino USB. Wiring (Arduino programming language) includes routines to handle I2C devices which greatly simplifies the issue.

Links:
STMElectronics
Wiring: routines to handle I2C devices

Friday, December 7, 2007

How Much Is A Half Head Of Foils



THURSDAY DECEMBER 13 - 20 hs. Edwin Herbert Hall and consists of the appearance of an electric field in a conductor when it is crossed by a magnetic field. Industrially manufactured sensors based on this principle and can be used to detect the movement of a gear and direction changes, measure speed and position, among many other things.
These devices are integrated and basically give a voltage (voltage) output as a function of magnetic field density at which they are exposed.

we start classifying these sensors into two groups, and switched linear
. Linear Sensors are those in which the output voltage is proportional to the magnetic field strength. On the other hand are those who switched output varies between two values \u200b\u200bthat we call "on" and "off" (on / off) depending on the intensity and / or polarity of the magnetic field. The point (or current) magnetic field needed to switch the sensor is specified for each particular model.

south pole of the magnet and the state "off" against the north pole (for example, allows detection of two sides of a piece).

For linear sensors are used to measure electrical current, proximity between objects, among other things.

The following classification will be useful when choosing a sensor (I hope): Switched

Onmipolar: commute, according to the magnetic field strength. No differ north pole south pole.


Bipolar

: commute according to the intensity and polarity of the magnetic field. The output value is indeterminate in the absence of magnetic field.


Latches: These are equivalent to bipolar, but unlike these the output value remain constant if you remove the applied magnetic field.

  • counter gear teeth is a pill that includes a magnet and a sensor, able to count the teeth of a metal gear that passes in front of him.
  • Differentials: They have immunity to noise caused eg by mechanical variations.
  • Hysteresis: They have a memory that makes them immune to magnetic noise.
  • Linear
  • Linear: the output voltage of this sensor is proportional to the applied magnetic field strength.
  • current sensors, linear sensors are essentially mechanical and operating characteristics specific to mount near wiring and / or platelets.
For many applications it is necessary to build parts with magnets magnets attached or use of particular forms.

These sensors can be obviously connected to any of the available development platforms, as well as to microcontrollers in general.
  • Here is the link to an example of Arduino
  • called ReadingRPM
  • (not well documented, but if you read Processing code can understand it) that uses a hall effect sensor for measure the speed of rotation of a PC fan.
This is another link of a very interesting (and rather complicated) that people did CUI

called Musical Interaction Design with the CREATE USB Interface

.

Links sensor manufacturers: Allegro MicroSystems