There are many examples out there on the Internet of clever creations that people can come up with using only the basic of equipment. One such creation is this replica Nintendo Entertainment System control pad made out of a simple copper circuit board.
The circuit board controller was created using The MezzoMill, which itself is an invention featured on the site Kickstarter. The MezzoMill is a machine created to specifically create circuit boards out of sheets of copper. These circuit boards can be used for all manner of applications such as the afore mentioned NES control pad. The sheet of copper can act as a controller because it allows different regions of the copper to be detected as buttons.
It’s great to see the electronics community continuously developing products and prototype PCB designs for new uses and there is always something new to find out there on the web.
We are always interested to see what products our customers are producing using PCB boards and one such company is Global RadioData Communications (GRC) who specialise in “Command, Control, Communications, Computing and Intelligence Systems”. One of their products is the Unmaned Aerial System (UAS) which is a small and quite aerial vehicle that is easy to operate and capable of capturing and transmitting high quality images and video. In essence a flying camera, the UAS has flight planning software which allows the operator to just focus on surveying using the camera.
The PCB used inside the UAS allows it to follow pre-planned flight routes which can be beyond the line of sight and can produce real time streaming of what can be seen back to any place. The vehicle has many real world applications such as for tactical surveillance, search and rescue, covert reconnaissance, aerial views of large crowds and environmental monitoring. It wouldn’t be any good for any of these tasks though if the outside didn’t match the quality of the insides but the UAS is weather proof and can operate in many different weather situations including hot, cold and wet weather so is more than up to the task.
The benefits of this product are clear for all to see and will allow the Army to carry out surveillance in dangerous territory, assist mountain rescue teams search for missing people without putting themselves in danger and Geologists study areas of the environment unreachable by humans.
For this month’s blog post we thought we’d take a look at the history of Newbury Electronics so you can see who long we have been trading and specialising in PCB assembly and electronic design.
The history of Newbury Electronics dates back to the establishment of the company in 1956. It was developed as an offshoot from Newbury Engineering Limited which was formed by Major Ernest Lloyd and to house the new company a factory was purchased in West Mills in Newbury. Newbury Electronics began specialising in the manufacture of circuit boards and the company went through a number of acquisitions in the early 70s before 1972 when they were acquired by AB Electronic Components. From this acquisition, Kevin Forder joined from AB to be the Managing Director and is still the current Managing/Technical Director and Chairman. To keep up with the fast moving pace of the industry, a new factory was custom built in 1980 at the London Road Industrial Estate which is still the location of the Newbury head office. After Philip King joined the company in 1987 as an accountant, who is now the current Financial and Marketing Director, he partnered with Kevin Forder and bought the company from AB Electronics plc.
Throughout the years a number of new technologies, products and services emerged such as in 1978 when PTH circuit boards were manufactured for the very first time at Newbury. Other major dates in the history of Newbury are the start of manufacturing of multilayer circuits in 1989 and the start of PCB assembly in 1995. Due to the success of PCB assembly, Newbury started its own internet based company called PCB Train in 1999 to focus on printed circuit boards. This growth of the Newbury Electronics family led to the relocating of assembly operations to the River Park Industrial Estate. Another recent new improvement to the services offered was the introduction of laser cut solder paste stencil manufacturing which began two years ago.
As you can see Newbury has a long history in the industry so you know with our products and services you are getting years of knowledge and experience.
The car manufacturer Honda revealed a new updated version of its ASIMO robot this week which is absolutely stunning.
Honda robotics has been developing robots for 25 years, with their first being a pair of robotic legs that could walk. After much development and a number of upgrades, the robot revealed this week has capable of running, hopping and even performing hand tasks such as opening a bottle to pour a drink. Measuring four feet tall and weighing 105 pounds, the futuristic looking ASIMO has excellent visual and auditory sensors which enable the robot to perform many human tasks and even surpass them, for example being able to recognise many voices at one time when people are speaking simultaneously
As well as walking and running, ASIMO has great hand dexterity for performing tasks.
Seeing ASIMO in action is very impressive and a joy to watch but the actual practical uses of what a robot like this could be used for is even more impressive. Being able to access areas that are inaccessible to humans during disasters and handling hazardous goods are all benefits of having a robot capable of these types of movements. Honda have been able to vastly improve the ability of its robotics in a fairly short period of time. Have a look at this video of ASIMO in action or see the Honda website for an impressive history of their robotics division.
Major production of this kind of robotics is still far off in the future, so we’ll stick to PCB assembly for now.
It was sad news last week to learn of the death of Steve Jobs, founder of Apple and creator of many market leading electronic devices including the Apple computer, iPod and iPhone. These products all revolutionised the industry and Jobs was also heavily involved in the creation of the leading animation studio Pixar. The American inventor was a visionary and pioneer in the computer industry, and whilst reading many of the articles and stories about his life we came across this one which links into PCB assembly.
(L-R) Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs holding a printed circuit board
Before founding Apple in 1976, Steve Jobs took a job at Atari in 1974 and was given the task of creating a circuit board for the video game Breakout. The Atari co-founder, Nolan Bushnell, offered $100 for each chip that could be eliminated from the machine but since Jobs had only little interest and knowledge in circuit board assembly, he made a deal with Steve Wozniak, who he had previously worked with, to split the bonus if the number of chips could be reduced. Atari was amazed when they were able to minimise the number of chips used by 50 and were even more amazed since the design was so tight that it would be impossible to reproduce it on an assembly line.
Steve Jobs excelled in business, innovation, and product design and it’s these skills that enabled him to revolutionise at least six different industries and create some of the most loved products in the world today.
The development of PCB assembly (Printed Circuit Boards) has its roots in the early 20th century with a number of different experiments by different inventors including Albert Hanson, Thomas Edison, Arthur Berry, Max Schoop and Charles Durcase. It was in 1936 when the engineer Paul Eisler undertook PCB assembly and invented the printed circuit as part of a radio set that the concept gathered momentum.
The technology was then used on a large scale during World War II for making proximity fuse and after the war began being used commercially, but they did not become commonplace in consumer electronics until the middle of the 50s.
Originally, all electronic components had wire leads and during PCB assembly, holes were drilled into the circuit boards for each wire of each component which went through holes and were soldered to the PCB. In 1949, a process was developed were component leads were inserted into a copper foil interconnection pattern and then soldered and this concept evolved into the standard PCB assembly process that is used today.
These days, with the prevalence of smaller electronics such as video game handhelds, iPods and smartphones, the use of surface mount parts for PCB assembly has increased in popularity due to the demand for smaller products with increased functionality.
We recently read an article discussing how there has been a sharp decline in the number of students wanting to study electronics design courses at degree level. This is worrying as the next generation of electronics engineers are needed in the UK to help continue the industry in this country.
The UK Electronics Skills Foundation (UKEFS) was set up to try and encourage students to pursue a career in the electronics sector and is a joint collaboration between industry, universities and the public sector. One way that they are getting interest in electronics design is through a summer school which was recently held at the University of Bristol for the first time. The school ran for five days and among other things featured a design and build challenge to see who could create a two wheeled robot that could balance and perform well.
We think this kind of challenge is great to appeal to potential electronics design University students and get them interested and involved in the electronics sector. More students are needed to study engineering at universities and help prepare them for a career in innovative electronics design.
It seems like everything is so complicated these days, especially in electronics design … which is more and more products everyday.
Why are they so complex? “Hey, our cell phone takes pictures, sharpens knives, mows the lawn, pays your bills, steers your car, and cooks dinner, all by voice command!” Give us a break!
Unfortunately, the reason so many electronic products are stuffed with features is that it is relatively cheap to add features to them! Do we consumers really want or need those functions? That is an entirely different question. Often, the answer is no. But the manufacturers add them, in many cases, simply so they can advertise that they have more features.
It costs a lot more to carefully determine what features are most wanted and to design electronics so that they are feature-rich, yet easy and intuitive for people to use. That is why this vital step is often shortcut.
Ever had trouble figuring out how to program your VCR? Did you ever think that perhaps it’s not really your fault? It’s the fault of the engineers who designed a lousy user interface to the product. And you think they are bad? Try using a combination VCR-DVD player!
There is second reason why manufacturers keep cramming more questionable features into products. In the case of products like cell phones, sales have slowed down because most people who wanted one have one. So, the phone manufacturers keep adding features in order to try to find ones that motivate people to buy new phones. They keep looking for that latest cool feature that people will be willing to buy a new phone to get.
Similarly, digital camera manufacturers keep coming out with cameras with more and more megapixels. Two megapixels, then 3.2, then 4.0, then 5, now 6, 7, even 8. Do consumers need 7 or 8 megapixel cameras? Not in the least. For shooting snapshots or sharing pictures online, a 3.2 megapixel camera is more than adequate. Really.
Why then, do manufacturers keep extending the capability? It is as we said above: 1) so they can advertise they have it, and 2) to try to get people to stick their old camera in a drawer and buy a new one.
Our advice: It pays to look carefully at the features being offered in the products you are interested in. Don’t assume that a product with more features (or higher numbers) is the better choice. Often it is not, it is just more complicated to use! And, there is more to go wrong.
BLOATWARE
There is a similar phenomenon in software. It is called “bloatware.” Programs that are overloaded with features, especially those not essential to the basic purpose for the software, carry this moniker.
Often, in the software industry when people are working on the next versions of software products, the programmers would say, “Hey, I can add such-and-such feature with only 100 lines of code.”. That’s not much, since a software program can have hundreds of thousands of lines of code. But often it was a feature the users would have no need for. Too often, these kind of features make it into software products, and they become bloated with unnecessary features. Bloatware.
Gold is a wonderfully versatile element, with applications across all areas of science and technology. From dentistry to electronics, gold can be found in just about anything due to its high resistance to several types of corrosion and chemical reactions. It also has great electrical conductivity, making it almost invaluable to many fields of electronics; from domestic to industrial.
But with the rising prices of gold over the last few years, it is becoming an extremely costly resource for electronics manufacturers worldwide. Data compiled by the World Gold Council suggests that 2010 was the highest year on record for gold demand, with 326.8 tonnes ($12.9 billion) of gold changing hands.
For the first quarter of 2011, 79.8 tonnes of gold ($5.1 billion) have been sold/purchased by the electronics industry alone says the W.G.C.
Though the weight of gold traded has only gone up 1% in Quarter 1 2011, the cost has increased 25% because of the increasingly rapid rise in the price of gold. The chip production and wire bonding electrical industries alone are predicted to consume 130 tonnes each over 2011. Though these are two extreme cases (the 2 biggest applications for gold worldwide), the figures for the money and resources being traded are mind blowing.
However, the gold consuming industries won’t be worrying about dwindling resources any time soon. The Japan National Institute for Materials Science (N.I.M.S) estimate that across 3 of Japans techonology land fills alone, there are more precious metals than the world will consume in an entire year. A company who specialises in salvaging valuable metals from land fills (Ashai Pretec) managed to save 15 tonnes of gold in 2007.
The N.I.M.S. stated that if the land fills were to be exploited properly, it would push Japan into the the top 5 countries for metal exports!
Either way, only 13% of the world’s gold usage (550 tonnes) is recycled annually. Meaning there is still plenty left to be reused and remanufactured.
Dr.Holliday of the W.G.C. has stated that the electronics industry may have to switch from gold to a more available and sustainable material such as copper.
“Some low-end sub-contractors and foundries have been aggressively promoting copper as the main wire bonding packaging solution, as well as advocating alternative non-gold contact finishes,” says Dr.Holliday, “this record demand shows that gold remains the metal of choice for manufacturers looking for durability and reliability in component manufacturing.”
Nikola Tesla, born on 10 July 1856 grew to become known as the father of modern electronics. His most wonderful invetion, aptly named the ‘Tesla Coil’ in his own honour. A type of resonant transformer circuit used to produce high voltage, low current, high frequency alternating current electricity, however they do produce higher current than the electrostatic machines.
Used to help research many of Teslas electrical engineering innovations, this brilliant piece of kit has many applications in the research and development of electrical kit. Even today, over almost 150 years after it’s inception! Things like pcb assembly would probably be a much more complicated process were it not for several of Teslas incredible inventions, innovations and ideas.
But there was one particular innovative use of Teslas coils that i doubt even he would have foreseen…
A Musical Instrument!
Brilliantly nicknamed: The Zeusaphone
The guys behind this wonderful performance are: The Masters Of Lightning: Steve Ward, Jeff Larson and Terry Blake
There are videos all over the web of these guys performing various melodies and memorable tunes; and several more describing how they create music with these immensely powerful electrical rigs.
We hope you found this as entertaining and impressive as we did here!
