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39 Experiments with Raspberry Pi and Arduino This book is about Raspberry Pi 3 and Arduino camera projects. The book explains in simple terms and with tested and working example projects, how to configure and use a Raspberry Pi camera and USB based webcam in camera-based projects using a Raspberry Pi. Example projects are given to capture images, create timelapse photography, record video, use the camera and Raspberry Pi in security and surveillance applications, post images to Twitter, record wildlife, stream live video to YouTube, use a night camera, send pictures to smartphones, face and eye detection, colour and shape recognition, number plate recognition, barcode recognition and many more. Installation and use of popular image processing libraries and software including OpenCV, SimpleCV, and OpenALPR are explained in detail using a Raspberry Pi. The book also explains in detail how to use a camera on an Arduino development board to capture images and then save them on a microSD card. All projects given in this book have been fully tested and are working. Program listings for all Raspberry Pi and Arduino projects used in this book are available for download on the Elektor website.

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The short-wave technique has a very particular appeal: It can easily bridge long distances. By reflecting short-wave signals off the conductive layers of the ionosphere, they can be received in places beyond the horizon and therefore can reach anywhere on earth. Although technology is striving for ever higher frequencies, and radio is usually listened to on FM, DAB+, satellite or the Internet, modern means of transmission require extensive infrastructure and are extremely vulnerable. In the event of a global power outage, there is nothing more important than the short-wave. Amateur radio is not only a hobby, it’s also an emergency radio system! Elektor’s SDR-Shield is a versatile shortwave receiver up to 30 MHz. Using an Arduino and the appropriate software, radio stations, morse signals, SSB stations, and digital signals can be received. In this book, successful author and enthusiastic radio amateur, Burkhard Kainka describes the modern practice of software defined radio using the Elektor SDR Shield. He not only imparts a theoretical background but also explains numerous open source software tools.

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An Introduction to Circuit Simulation LTspice, developed by Analog Devices, is a powerful, fast, and free SPICE simulator, schematic capture, and waveform viewer with a large database of components supported by SPICE models from all over the world. Drawing a schematic in LTspice is easy and fast. Thanks to its powerful graphing features, you can visualize the voltages and currents in a circuit, and also the power consumption of its components and much more. This book is about learning to design and simulate electronic circuits using LTspice. Among others, the following topics are treated: DC and AC circuits Signal diodes and Zener diodes Transistor circuits including oscillators Thyristor/SCR, diac, and triac circuits Operational amplifier circuits including oscillators The 555 timer IC Filters Voltage regulators Optocouplers Waveform generation Digital logic simulation including the 74HC family SPICE modeling LTspice is a powerful electronic circuit simulation tool with many features and possibilities. Covering them all in detail is not possible in a book of this size. Therefore, this book presents the most common topics like DC and AC circuit analysis, parameter sweeping, transfer functions, oscillators, graphing, etc. Although this book is an introduction to LTspice, it covers most topics of interest to people engaged in electronic circuit simulation. The book is aimed at electronic/electrical engineers, students, teachers, and hobbyists. Many tested simulation examples are given in the book. Readers do not need to have any computer programming skills, but it will help if they are familiar with basic electronic circuit design and operation principles. Readers who want to dive deeper can find many detailed tutorials, articles, videos, design files, and SPICE circuit models on the Internet. All the simulation examples used in the book are available as files at the webpage of this book. Readers can use these example circuits for learning or modify them for their own applications.

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The author Stephan Menzel provides an introduction into capacitor technology and describes the wide range of capacitor types with their properties and parameters. Basic principles This chapter imparts basic knowledge on the relationships between the electric field, permittivity, as well as the structure and operating principles of a capacitor. Capacitor characteristics The electrical parameters and essential characteristics of a capacitor are explained in greater detail for the reader. This extends from the actual capacitance of a capacitor through to the interdependencies. Capacitor types Existing capacitor types and their characteristics are presented. Film, electrolyte and ceramic capacitors are considered in detail.

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Space, the final frontier, will become more and more popular. The space industry is continually growing and new products and services will be required. Innovation is needed for the development of this industry. Today it is no longer possible to follow all the events in field of space. The space market is growing and activities are increasing, especially the market for small-satellites. This book wants to help close the gap and encourage electronic engineers to enter into the fascinating field of space electronics. One of the main difficulties is finding people with knowledge of space electronics design. Nowadays companies have to invest a lot of time and resources to instruct electronic engineers with no experience of space. Only a brief and basic introduction of this topic is typically achieved at university in space engineering lectures. Professionals with practical experience and the necessary theoretical knowledge are scarce. Companies from the space sector are searching for staff with knowledge of space electronics. This book will bring space closer aspiring to the space electronic hobbyists.

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ARM Cortex-M Embedded Design from 0 to 1 Hobbyists can mash together amazing functional systems using platforms like Arduino or Raspberry Pi, but it is imperative that engineers and product designers understand the foundational knowledge of embedded design. There are very few resources available that describe the thinking, strategies, and processes to take an idea through hardware design and low-level driver development, and successfully build a complete embedded system. Many engineers end up learning the hard way, or never really learn at all. ARM processors are essentially ubiquitous in embedded systems. Design engineers building novel devices must understand the fundamentals of these systems and be able to break down large, complicated ideas into manageable pieces. Successful product development means traversing a huge amount of documentation to understand how to accomplish what you need, then put everything together to create a robust system that will reliably operate and be maintainable for years to come. This book is a case study in embedded design including discussion of the hardware, processor initialization, low‑level driver development, and application interface design for a product. Though we describe this through a specific application of a Cortex-M3 development board, our mission is to help the reader build foundational skills critical to being an excellent product developer. The completed development board is available to maximize the impact of this book, and the working platform that you create can then be used as a base for further development and learning. The Embedded in Embedded program is about teaching fundamental skill sets to help engineers build a solid foundation of knowledge that can be applied in any design environment. With nearly 20 years of experience in the industry, the author communicates the critical skill development that is demanded by companies and essential to successful design. This book is as much about building a great design process, critical thinking, and even social considerations important to developers as it is about technical hardware and firmware design. Downloads EiE Software Archive (200 MB) IAR ARM 8.10.1 (Recommended IDE version to use) (1.2 GB) IAR ARM 7.20.1 (Optional IDE version to use) (600 MB)

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Over 45 Builds for the Legendary 555 Chip (and the 556, 558) The 555 timer IC, originally introduced by the Signetics Corporation around 1971, is sure to rank high among the most popular analog integrated circuits ever produced. Originally called the IC Time Machine, this chip has been used in many timer-related projects by countless people over decades. This book is all about designing projects based on the 555 timer IC. Over 45 fully tested and documented projects are presented. All projects have been fully tested by the author by constructing them individually on a breadboard. You are not expected to have any programming experiences for constructing or using the projects given in the book. However, it’s definitely useful to have some knowledge of basic electronics and the use of a breadboard for constructing and testing electronic circuits. Some of the projects in the book are: Alternately Flashing Two LEDs Changing LED Flashing Rate Touch Sensor On/Off Switch Switch On/Off Delay Light-Dependent Sound Dark/Light Switch Tone Burst Generator Long Duration Timer Chasing LEDs LED Roulette Game Traffic Lights Continuity Tester Electronic Lock Switch Contact Debouncing Toy Electronic Organ Multiple Sensor Alarm System Metronome Voltage Multipliers Electronic Dice 7-Segment Display Counter Motor Control 7-Segment Display Dice Electronic Siren Various Other Projects The projects given in the book can be modified or expanded by you for your very own applications. Electronic engineering students, people engaged in designing small electronic circuits, and electronic hobbyists should find the projects in the book instructive, fun, interesting, and useful.

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311 Circuits is the twelfth book in Elektor’s celebrated ‘300’ series. An immense source of inspiration for all electronics enthusiasts and professionals, this book deserves a place not far from the workbench. This book contains circuits, design ideas, tips and tricks from all areas of electronics: audio & video, computers & microcontrollers, radio, hobby & modelling, home & garden, power supplies & batteries, test & measurement, software, not forgetting a section ‘miscellaneous’ for everything that doesn’t fit in one of the other categories. 311 Circuits presents complete solutions for numerous problems, as well as starting points for your own creations. 311 Circuits has been compiled from the 2009, 2010 and 2011 ‘Summer Circuits’ double editions of Elektor magazine. The book is mostly based on readers’ contributions, supplemented by circuits engineered and developed in the Elektor Labs.

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If you enjoy DIY electronics, projects, software and robots, you’ll find this book intellectually stimulating and immediately useful. With the right parts and a little guidance, you can build robot systems that suit your needs more than overpriced commercial systems can. 20 years ago, robots based on simple 8-bit processors and touch sensors were the norm. Now, it’s possible to build multi-core robots that can react to their surroundings with intelligence. Today’s robots combine sensor readings from accelerometers, gyroscopes and computer vision sensors to learn about their environments. They can respond using sophisticated control algorithms and they can process data both locally and in the cloud. This book, which covers the theory and best practices associated with advanced robot technologies, was written to help roboticists, whether amateur hobbyist or professional, take their designs to the next level. As will be seen, building advanced applications does not require extremely costly robot technology. All that is needed is simply the knowledge of which technologies are out there and how best to use each of them. Each chapter in this book will introduce one of these different technologies and discuss how best to use it in a robotics application. On the hardware side, we’ll cover microcontrollers, servos, and sensors, hopefully inspiring you to design your own awe-inspiring, next-generation systems. On the software side, we’ll cover programming languages, debugging, algorithms, and state machines. We’ll focus on the Arduino, the Parallax Propeller, Revolution Education PICAXE and projects I’ve with which I’ve been involved, including the TBot educational robot, the PropScope oscilloscope, the 12Blocks visual programming language, and the ViewPort development environment. In addition, we’ll serve up a comprehensive introduction to a variety of essential topics, including output (e.g. LEDs, servo motors), and communication technologies (e.g. infrared, audio), that you can use to develop systems that interact to stimuli and communicate with humans and other robots. To make these topics as accessible as possible, handy schematics, sample code and practical tips regarding building and debugging have been included. Hanno Sander Christchurch, New Zealand

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Practical Multitasking Fundamentals Programming embedded systems is difficult because of resource constraints and limited debugging facilities. Why develop your own Real-Time Operating System (RTOS) as well as your application when the proven FreeRTOS software is freely available? Why not start with a validated foundation? Every software developer knows that you must divide a difficult problem into smaller ones to conquer it. Using separate preemptive tasks and FreeRTOS communication mechanisms, a clean separation of functions is achieved within the entire application. This results in safe and maintainable designs. Practicing engineers and students alike can use this book and the ESP32 Arduino environment to wade into FreeRTOS concepts at a comfortable pace. The well-organized text enables you to master each concept before starting the next chapter. Practical breadboard experiments and schematics are included to bring the lessons home. Experience is the best teacher. Each chapter includes exercises to test your knowledge. The coverage of the FreeRTOS Application Programming Interface (API) is complete for the ESP32 Arduino environment. You can apply what you learn to other FreeRTOS environments, including Espressif’s ESP-IDF. The source code is available from GitHub. All of these resources put you in the driver’s seat when it is time to develop your next uber-cool ESP32 project. What you will learn: How preemptive scheduling works within FreeRTOS The Arduino startup “loopTask” Message queues FreeRTOS timers and the IDLE task The semaphore, mutex, and their differences The mailbox and its application Real-time task priorities and its effect Interrupt interaction and use with FreeRTOS Queue sets Notifying tasks with events Event groups Critical sections Task local storage The gatekeeper task

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A Guide to Powerful Programming for Embedded Systems You must be a well-rounded professional to excel in the ever-evolving, rapidly developing embedded design and programming industry. Simply put, when it comes to electronics design and programming, the more topics you can master, the more you’ll flourish at your workplace and at your personal workbench. This shouldn’t be a surprise, as the line between the skills of a hardware engineer and software engineer is blurring. The former should have a good grasp of programming in order to build efficient systems. The latter should understand the details of the design (whether it’s a physical or virtual application) for which he or she is writing code. Thus, to be successful, a modern professional electronics engineer must have a solid grasp of both hardware design and programming. Assembly Language Essentials is a matter-of-fact guide to Assembly that will introduce you to the most fundamental programming language of a processor. Unlike other resources about Assembly that focus exclusively on specific processors and platforms, this book uses the architecture of a fictional processor with its own hardware and instruction set. This enables you to consider the importance of Assembly language without having to deal with predetermined hardware or architectural restrictions. You’ll immediately find this thorough introduction to Assembly to be a valuable resource, whether you know nothing about the language or you have used it before. The only prerequisite is that you have a working knowledge of at least one higher-level programming language, such as C or Java. Assembly Language Essentials is an indispensible resource for electronics engineering professionals, academics, and advanced students looking to enhance their programming skills. The book provides the following, and more: An introduction to Assembly language and its functionality Significant definitions associated with Assembly language, as well as essential terminology pertaining to higher-level programming languages and computer architecture Important algorithms that may be built into high-level languages, but must be done the “hard way” in Assembly language — multiplication, division, and polynomial evaluation A presentation of Interrupt Service Routines with examples A free, downloadable Assembler program for experimenting with Assembly

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Quite unintentionally a one-page story on an old Heathkit tube tester in the December 2004 edition of Elektor magazine spawned dozens of ‘Retronics’ tales appearing with a monthly cadence, and attracting a steady flow of reader feedback and contributions to the series. Since launching his Retronics columns, Elektor Editor Jan Buiting has never been short of copy to print, or vintage equipment to marvel at. This book is a compilation of about 80 Retronics installments published between 2004 and 2012. The stories cover vintage test equipment, prehistoric computers, long forgotten components, and Elektor blockbuster projects, all aiming to make engineers smile, sit up, object, drool, or experience a whiff of nostalgia. To reflect that our memories are constantly playing tricks on us, and honoring that “one man’s rubbish is another man’s gem”, the tales in the book purposely have no chronological order, and no bias in favor of transistor or tube, microprocessor or discrete part, audio or RF, DIY or professional, dry or narrative style. Although vastly diff erent in subject matter, all tales in the book are told with personal gusto because Retronics is about sentiment in electronics engineering, construction and repair, be it to reminisce about a 1960s Tektronix scope with a cleaning lady as a feature, or a 1928 PanSanitor box for dubious medical use. Owners of this book are advised to not exceed one Retronics tale per working day, preferably consumed in the evening hours under lamp light, in a comfortable chair, with a piece of vintage electronic equipment close and powered up.

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