Low cost and open source Serial to Ethernet WIZ750SR, WIZ752SR Series

WIZnet’s new Serial to Ethernet products, WIZ750SR and WIZ752SR series, comply with WIZnet’s low cost and open source policy.

If you ever need a large display to keep score for games or a counter for sports events, this is the thing to build. With its four large 10-centimeter-high 7-segment digits it can be read easily from a distance. It is based on LEDitron modules, 7-segment displays built from LED filaments as found in modern lamps. Functions as a clock too.

Much like they say about spiders, you’re likely always within 6ʹ of a microcontroller. That’s because billions of microcontrollers are deployed throughout the Internet of Things. Regrettably, few nonengineers know much about these remarkable, ubiquitous devices. Here are a few key facts about microcontrollers that everyone should know.

Startup Mayku has designed a handy desktop vacuum former to form a plastic sheet around a 3D model. All you need is a sheet of thermoplastic material and a household vacuum cleaner to generate the negative pressure and draw the heated sheet around the 3D single-surface mould...

Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have demonstrated what is arguably the world's smallest transistor. Developed by Thomas Schimmel and his team, this quantum electronic element uses the displacement of a single atom to switch an electrical path. What’s more, the process works at room temperature!

Wastewater from textile factories often contain the chemical methylene blue which is commonly used as a fabric dye. As well as its function as a dye this chemical is used in medicine to treat various conditions. Research is now indicating it may also be useful as an effective electrolyte material for redox flow batteries.

Who said that size doesn’t matter? It does. Many sexy applications prefer small boards, especially the long-endurance ones. The Arrow giveaway dev boards in this week’s selection are like that. Some of them sport an FPGA, others have ARM-core processors; they all let you express yourself the way you want on a small surface while consuming little power.

Sounds crazy but it actually works! Install an app and extend your Android phone’s battery life by up to an hour extra a day...

Help your children dream STEAM! Neither a toy nor a gadget, this WaterColorBot is an attractive educational project, involving girls, kids, adults, and teachers into active robotics and creative making. It not only provides opportunities for young people to build and learn about computer numerical control and to learn how to program a robot. It can be used far beyond that horizon. The WaterColorBot V2.0 is essentially a specialized pen plotter, using watercolors to paintbrush onto paper before your eyes. It dips its brush in water, goes and gets the right color. Standard watercolor paints and paper are used (no specialized supplies required).

After a little delay the Raspberry Pi Foundation released the Power over Ethernet HAT for the Raspberry Pi 3B+ model. This can provide up to 2.5 A at 5 V to the system. To see what it is good for, we take it out of the box for a short review.