Discover Top Posts Tagged with #practical electronics

Popular Recent

Zeaker by David Buckley and Colne Robotics, Practical Electronics, May & June 1983. The name 'Zeaker' is a contraction of ZX-81 and Seeker, as it was designed to be controlled from a Sinclair ZX-81 fitted with an I/O expansion card. Zeaker was available as a kit from Colne Robotics of East Twickenham, UK.

"ZEAKER is a small, low cost computer controlled robot vehicle designed to have all the normal functions of a "turtle" i.e. steering, lights, pen, horn and bump sensors but it is also capable of being expanded using photosensors for eyes to seek out or avoid light or to follow white lines etc; with a complex sound generator for special noises à la R2D2, and with computer speech. It will easily interface to most popular microcomputers and can be programmed in a high level language like BASIC, although a modular language like FORTH or PASCAL would be better. Under program control Zeaker can go forward, backwards or rotate right or left on the spot; it has two navigation lamps: port and starboard (or eyes if you prefer) which can be turned on or off; a speaker which can emit a high or low tone or a combination of both; 6 tactile sensors which can detect a collision with an object in Zeaker's path and finally but not least a pen which can be lowered or raised to enable Zeaker to draw Turtle Graphics. The up or down state of the pen is indicated by a lamp on the top of Zeaker." – David Buckley, Practical Electronics.

#cybernetics #robot #Practical Electronics #1983 #David Buckley

Color Changing LED Ultrasonic Air Humidifier Purifier Aroma Diffuser

The negative ions generateated remove particles as small as 0.01 microns, such as pollutants, bacteria, fine dusts, smokes & viruses which cannot be removed by filtered air purifier. It relieves depression, stress, fatigue & headaches. Eases breathing & helps you sleep better. The soothing array of rainbow colors shift & change while it illuminates the mist & the surrounding area.

Now available at ebuyemporium.com

#home improvement #home decor #home & lifestyle #online shopping #air purifier #aroma diffuser #humidifier #electronic accessories and gadgets #practical electronics #aromatherapy #electronic device #electronic gadgets

EMMA - Electronic Mime Mobile Animal by G.C. Brown, in Practical Electronics (1969). "The design concept has been based largely on data relating to the habits of "real live" animals called planaria. These animals, which represent a species of flatworm, are commonly found lurking beneath small rocks and boulders in many of Britain's streams. Whilst planaria demonstrate a crude form of learning, our synthetic version (which we have called EMMA) will exhibit only certain in-born or innate characteristics. This project should therefore be considered an open-ended affair, in that it can later form the basis for an even more sophisticated "animal". … The sensing of light is bilateral; two quite separate channels exist – left and right. Each channel derives its input from a photo-sensor and, following suitable amplification, has direct control over the forward mode of operation of the opposite channel. Hence if a strong light stimulates one of the sensors the animal will make a reflex movement away from the source of illumination (i.e. the creature is negatively phototropic)." – EMMA, Practical Electronics, March-April 1969.

#cybernetics #robot #Practical Electronics #1969

XEE by G. Brown, in Practical Electronics, June-July 1971. "There has been a considerable amount of correspondence relating to "electronic animals" following the earlier series on Bionics and the articles about EMMA last year. Readers' letters, in the main, have emphasised the need for less expensive drive systems in these "animals" and, among other things, pointed to the shortcomings of the noise cell arrangement used in EMMA. Unlike the earlier models, XEE employs integrated-circuitry for all its control logic, using discrete components only where it is more simple and cheaper to do so. Further differences include the bodiment of relays in the muscle control circuitry, rather than transistors which only afford a modicum of isolation between logic and drive systems, and which, because of their relatively high Vcc lose volts that could be usefully driving motors. Related to EMMA, XEE is mechanically a sort of "middi" version; indeed, this new animal represents just the beginning of others which, physically, will tend towards the "mini". We will examine the anatomy of this latest "bug" which, not inappropriately, got its name from a computer that had been programmed to generate random letter and word sequences. Basically, XEE has two senses, one, an electro-optical sense provided by a pair of photo-sensitive resistors; and the other, a load monitoring arrangement associated with the muscle control circuitry. How XEE ultimately decides to respond as a result of inputs to these senses is determined by a subsystem employing a clock and random generator. Several degrees of freedom are provided permitting turning to the right, turning to the left, driving forward, driving in reverse, and stopping. These functions, over which there is a fair amount of random control, thus provide XEE with a reasonably lifelike repertoire of responses." – Practical Electronics, June-July 1971.

#cybernetics #robot #Practical Electronics #G. Brown #1971

Educated EMMA - Electronic Mime Mobile Animal by G.C. Brown, in Practical Electronics (1970). "Now it is intended that EMMA should learn to work, so this implies that she must additionally have a need to work in the first place. If a situation is made sufficiently attractive she will be prepared to do some simple chore provided she has a previous memory of being rewarded. These requirements are largely accommodated by deliberately reducing EMMA's muscle control supply for short periods. This makes her hypersensitive to loads during which she is encouraged to carry a heavy book or similar object. Periodically we may give her some "reward" by returning the supply to normal so that she realises that we intend to pay her when the work has been done. We achieve all this in a somewhat synthetic way by switching out one of the cells forming part of the forward drive supply battery. Thus during conditioning her supply for the forward mode is a little less than 3 volts unless we provide a reward, in which case it rises to about 4-5V." – Educated EMMA, Practical Electronics, January 1970.

#cybernetics #conditioning #Practical Electronics #1970 #robot

2 in 1 Red Laser Pointer Teach Pen USB Wireless Remote

To make your presentation flow continuously, the Powers enter integrates the slide up/down functions with a laser pointer on a remote hand held device using a wireless technology. The Wireless Remote does not require any software and PC programming and take just a few seconds to install and use.

Available at ebuyemporium.com