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Best smart bulbs for your connected home

Descripción: Best smart bulbs for your connected home Smart LED bulbs that can be controlled by a hub or smartphone app are no longer a new idea. What is new is how far this technology has come since its advent just a few years ago. Also new: Products like the Nanoleaf Light Panels—a system of interlocking LED panels that let you decorate with light—fundamentally change the light-bulb concept. Smart LED bulbs aren’t quite a commodity, but they are getting close to maturity as far as the market goes. Today’s bulbs are more compact, much brighter, have better color representation, and, for the most part, feature control apps that do more than ever and are easier to set up. Prices have also come down, with some no-name color-tunable bulbs now available for less than $10 each. (Buyer beware: You get what you pay for.) With their rainbow of hues and myriad party tricks, color LEDs get all the press in the world of smart lighting. It’s fun stuff, but the reality is that most of us will rarely find much of a need to turn all the lights in the house blue or red—unless it’s time to celebrate our team winning the World Series. Even then, you’ll probably want to turn them all back to white after the celebration. White light is also important in its own right, as today there is plenty of science to show how various shades of white—with variations in color temperature—impact our psychological state. Cool light that’s closer to blue has an energizing effect, and is best in the morning. Warm light is relaxing, and is best after the sun goes down. Note, however, that not every white smart LED light is color-temperature-tunable. Check out the specs before you buy. White smart bulbs downplay the party features that are a staple of color-tunable bulbs. On the other hand, white smart bulbs are less expensive than color bulbs, making it more affordable to roll them out in multiple rooms. We’ve tested just about every color and white smart LED bulb on the market. You’ll find links to all our reviews at the bottom of the page, and we’ll update this story as new models are introduced. Philips was one of the first players in this market, and the company’s experience shows. Physically, its Hue Color and Ambiance bulbs haven’t changed much since their introduction in late 2012, but the latest generation lasts a lot longer and the company has added a Bluetooth radio that obviates the need for the Philips Hue Bridge (but most smart home denizens will want the Bridge anyway). The Philips Hue ecosystem is the industry’s deepest and broadest, including not only bulbs of every shape and size imaginable, but also indoor and outdoor fixtures as well, including the Philips Hue Calla pathway light and the Philips Hue Lily outdoor spotlight, both of which we like very much. LIFX is a very strong competitor in the smart lighting space and comes a very close second place in our roundup. LIFX no longer has just A19 and BR30 form factors to offer, and we really like its unique  LIFX+ (which has an array of infrared LEDs that will help your home security camera see in the dark), but Philips still delivers much more diversity in its ecosystem and universe of third-party support. Our choice won’t surprise anyone who’s been following this market. Philips dominates this space and is also our top pick for best color LED smart bulb. The latest Hue bulbs can be controlled via Bluetooth or Zigbee (the latter requires the Philips Hue Bridge), they deliver high-quality light, and are backed by a strong warranty. We received the BR30 form factor for our review, but the bulb is also available in A19, candelabra, and even with vintage-style LED filaments. The new Cree Connected Max line of smart bulbs is agressively priced and available in all the most popular form factors: A19, A21, BR30, and PAR38. The A19 Tunable White + Color Changing bulb we reviewed costs just $10, and it supports both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, so you don’t need to factor in the added cost of a hub to integrate it into your smart home. It’s a very good product. Most home security cameras are equipped with infrared LEDs to deliver a semblance of night vision. the LIFX+ is equipped with infrared LEDs of its own, which are active even when the bulb is turned off via software. Infrared light is invisible to the naked eye, but the LIFX+ can bathe a room in it so that your security camera can see more of the room and in more detail than it can with its own infrared LEDs.  The 2020 version of the Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus LED is the only strip light to support both Bluetooth and the more robust Zigbee protocol (if you’re willing to pay for the required bridge to connect it to your Wi-Fi network, that is). The very nature of LED light strips renders them delicate devices, and the first review product we received broke after a short amount of time (the second one is holding up just fine). But we haven’t encountered a competing device that’s as versatile as this one.  Smart light bulb protocols and features Three control technologies continue to vie for leadership in the smart downlight market (Z-Wave is a major contender in smart lighting, but you won’t encounter it in bulbs—just in switches, plug-in modules, control panels, and smart-home hubs). Zigbee: Bulbs that use the popular smart-home networking protocol require a bridge to communicate with your home Wi-Fi network. This is the technology Philips has adopted for its Hue lineup, but it’s not the only one. Wi-Fi: This class of bulb talks directly to your Wi-Fi router, no hub or bridge required. LIFX and TP-Link both manufacture excellent Wi-Fi smart bulbs, but neither company comes close to Signify’s Philips Hue lineup in terms of the depth and breadth of the Hue ecosystem. Bluetooth: These bulbs skip your home network altogether and pair directly with your smartphone or tablet. As such, they can’t be controlled from outside your home. GE and a number of other manufacturers make Bluetooth bulbs, some of better quality than others. Signify has recently added Bluetooth radios to its Philips Hue line of smart GU10 spotlight, which eliminates the need to deploy the Philips Hue Bridge. Taking the bridge out of the equation reduces the overall cost of deployment, but adds some limitations. You can read more in our review of the new Philips Hue bulbs. Each of these technologies has pros and cons, so before you attempt to settle on a specific bulb, first try to determine which tech is right for you. If you want to hook your bulbs into a broader smart-home system—such as SmartThings or Nest—Bluetooth bulbs are out. You can control more than one bulb with your phone, but you can’t connect it to sensors or other systems inside your home. Don’t like the idea of pairing a bulb to your phone? A Wi-Fi bulb will work best for you, though you won’t have quite as many options as you’ll find with a Zigbee product. Smart bulb, or smart switch? There’s a significant argument about the best way to install smart lighting, and two approaches present themselves. You can either go with expensive smart bulbs and control them all individually, or you can use cheap dumb bulbs and install smart switches to control all the lights on that circuit. Both approaches make sense: With smart bulbs, the biggest issue is cost, but there’s also complexity to deal with. While bulbs can usually be grouped based on location, this is only as intuitive to manage as the bulb control app. Smart switches, on the other hand, are far more complicated to install—to the point where some users might be uncomfortable dealing with exposed wiring and would prefer to hire an electrician. Smart switches, however, provide more flexibility in many installations. Habituated from years of flipping hard-wired switches, many users (or their children) will instinctively use the wall switch to turn the lights out when they leave a room. Once that happens, all the apps in the world won’t be able to turn the light back on until the switch is returned to the on position. While this won’t be an issue if you install smart switches, they can’t change a bulb’s color or color temperature. That said, smart bulbs, no matter what the technology, still won’t be right for everyone. Notably, most of these bulbs cannot be dimmed via a hardwired wall switch (it messes with the power going to the radio, rendering them useless). Some will fail even if a dimmer is present on the circuit and dialed up to full power. The quality of light from an LED bulb is likely to be much, much better. The good news is that bulb prices are going down, so it’s easier to get started with 2.4G/IR LED bulb and less punishing should you find that a product doesn’t work for you. That said, we want to get you started on the right foot. So without further ado, here are deep dives into the most worthwhile color and white LED smart bulbs on the market. 

Fecha de Publicación: 27-09-21

How to Build a Boat Bench Seat? 

Descripción: How to Build a Boat Bench Seat?  DIY projects allow you to achieve the result that you desire. Utilizing your skills and artistic talents is related to this matter, and it’s also a way to save some bucks. With regards to this, many boaters can manage how to build a boat bench seat by themselves. You may have wood for building boat seats. Some upgrades can be done by adding cushion and vinyl. Once you choose a design, you can start collecting materials. If you’re groping for design ideas, this article will show you DIY boat bench seats that will surely please you. You can follow them to refurbish or renovate a boat. Various boat styles showcase different angles and lines. Wide and deep hulls are the main characteristics of workboats, while sailboats are thin and long. Nonetheless, a wooden banquette would be fantastic on both of these vessels. Here are the steps: Step 1. Take off Metal and Trim A banquette is a bench along the wall. Therefore, you have to consider the needed space and shape for it. The center section of the boat is where you need to lay down this project. To get started, you have to remove metal or trim but you must keep the pieces for reconnection later on. You may also need to take off logos and insignias that are still useful. Step 2. Cutting the Chosen Area Use chalk to draw a line on your chosen area then you can run the chainsaw over it. Cutting the area should be even and consistent. You may need to tidy up the cutting with a circular saw. You have to be attentive while doing it as there may be some screws. These tiny pieces of hardware may be hiding underwood plugs. Step 3. Cleaning Get rid of the debris created by cutting since it can block from cutting the bottom part. Step 4. The Bench Base Use two pieces of 2×4 wood and place them 16 inches above the pontoon boat furniture with the support from screws for wood. This step is not only for building the base but hull reinforcement as well. Get ?-inch plywood to be added over the 2×4 woods with screws. This will strengthen the structural integrity that may have temporarily gone due to the cuttings that were made. Step 5. Seat Back You may recycle some wood that just lay around or V-groove soffit panels. Get measurement from the seat to the boat anchor for the preparation of the seatback. To ensure that you’re going to create comfortable seats, add horizontal wood blocks that tilt at a slight angle. Install the seatback with 15-gauge finish nails. Step 6. Seat Attachment You may choose any suitable wood for the seat. Mahogany and tropical hardwoods like ipe are the best examples. Pre-drilled screw holes should be done before assembling the parts. Make planks for the bench size that you like and fasten them with stainless wood screws. Step 7. Painting the Banquette If you use recycled wood with some paint on it, you need to sand it before applying a new coat. Step 8. The Last Touch for Refinement You have to add a routed edge over the wooden seat. Then, you can put back the metal and insignia that you removed when starting this project. The finishing touches will be covering the back panels with new paint, applying oil on the wood to have an attractive sheen, and sealing the original parts with polyurethane. When thinking of comfortable bench seats for boats, cushions and vinyl may be the first things that come into your mind. You can skip buying ones for your aluminum boat and instead, make them yourself for customization. So, here’s a guide on how to make a boat rear bench seat if you don’t mind sewing some seat cover. Making a rectangular box frame is the very first step. Make three sides for the lower portion, and they will touch the transom and the floor. Its top will be able to flip and access the engine. Make some plywood strips based on the measurement of the bench seat. You may have a shop cut it for you. Some 1”x1.5” pressure treated lumber, waterproof wood glue, and 1” staples are the things that you need to put the pieces together. After forming the box out of the plywood strips, get rid of splinters by sanding. This process can also break the edges to prevent damaging the vinyl. After sanding, you can apply two coatings of paint. Once the glue has dried, place it on the designated area in your boat. It’s sturdy and it won’t give you problems. Step 2. Setting the Vinyl Down You don’t have to put vinyl at the bottom of the box. An extra piece is needed to be wrapped under the seat. Just apply more effort in working for a nice appearance and allow a vinyl skirt to hang. Make sure to leave a margin of about half an inch for sewing the edges. This is enough to match the cording’s size. Use the double-sided tape to hold the cording and make it curved without twisting or binding. If you know how to use the sewing machine, you’ll be fine. But if not, you can ask someone to do it for you. When vinyl is sewn properly, you can install the bench. Step 3. Cutting the Foam Measure the amount of foam that you need, then mark it. Cutting can be done with an electric knife. Give ?” extra to ensure that the vinyl cushion is stuffed nicely. When you have the right piece of foam, glue it on the top of the box. Batting should be added on the sides for some cushioning with the roughly estimated size. It gives the seat a fuller look. Use a Loctite adhesive to glue it and trimming is needed once it sits in the right place. Step 4. Adding the Vinyl by Stapling Stapling creates a serious grip and adequate strength to hold the vinyl in place. It’s best to use stainless staples. You can begin on the opposing side and work your way to finish tucking the whole piece of vinyl. Just keep pulling, stapling, and tucking to obtain a neat result. At this point, you have finished a bench seat or a motor box for your aluminum boat. As long as you have time, resources, and willingness to work, there’s no reason that you won’t try following the steps on how to build a boat bench seat. You can choose the color, design, size, and materials that you like from these two guides. Some boaters want to customize the looks of their boats to represent their personalities. No one is stopping you from doing so! It can be a technique to give life to an old boat. Also, you can always make a bench seat in a set-up that brings comfort. Did you find this article helpful? If yes, share with anyone who would need this. It’s the time of the year again when being out on the water is the best place to be. In the heat of the summer sun, there’s really nothing like sitting on a pontoon boat to just drift on a calm lake or spend an entire afternoon fishing. Pontoon boats get a lot of attention during the summer months, and it’s only right to take preventative measures in order to keep the health of your boat in check. One of the easiest ways you can do this is by protecting the pontoon’s seats using seat covers. If you’re thinking about buying pontoon folding boat seat covers, here is a quick guide on what you should look for. Material Pontoon seat covers are made out of many different kinds of materials. The lowest end in the spectrum would be a simple plastic tarp. Although plastic tarps will do the job of covering your seats, they aren’t particularly durable. Plastic tarps are great alternative for quick-fix solutions, but they are not permanent options. The next step up to plastic would be canvas tarps. Canvas tarps have long been used as a general cover-up material in boating. They are more durable than plastic in many ways. However, they are also more susceptible to mildew and mold. Canvas tarps today are most often referred to as marine vinyl. It’s still a good alternative if you prefer to use it, but canvas is also easy to stain. Either way, your canvas will definitely protect your pontoon boat seats, but they won’t last as long untreated. If you want your marine vinyl to last longer and protect your flip up boat seat better, you can treat them a waterproof and/or UV spray. The best materials for pontoon seat covers are vinyl blends or polyester. These materials are highly durable and easy to take care of. They are also more resistant to the elements; therefore, they can protect your seats better. Most vinyl blends also offer some breathability factors, so mold and mildew won’t have much room to grow in—even in the most humid conditions. Size You might automatically think that larger is better when it comes to pontoon boat covers, but that’s not necessarily true. Although a larger size will allow you to cover more area, it’s important to measure fit more than anything. Since pontoon boats are exposed to the elements continually, a fitted seat cover will do a better job in protection. Any excess room caused by an unfitted cover will just be excess room for more water or air to enter and damage your pontoon seats. This is why it’s important to measure your pontoon seats before you go out looking for seat covers. This article discusses how you can measure your seat covers properly. Once you have the dimensions written down, you can then continue shopping for pontoon seat covers. Make sure you check your dimensions against the size of the covers before you purchase. It also helps to read reviews regarding the size of the cover from those that have purchased the same product before. You can also get information from the manufacturer of both the seat cover and your low back folding boat seat. Other things to look for Apart from material and size to consider, you might want to also think about a few other things before you buy a pontoon seat cover. First, you might want to think about ease of use and storage. When you’re not using your pontoon seat covers, where are they going to go? Can they easily be folded up and stowed away someplace on your pontoon boat? There are also seat covers that might utilize the use of zippers or elastic. Some people prefer seat covers that will just slip over your pontoon seats. But there are others that are so fitted; you’d have to zip them up in place. There are seat covers that come with enclosures and others that don’t. It might not matter to some people, but style and color matter to others. You might find that a lot of pontoon seat covers come in a white color, neutral, or blue color. Whites and neutral colors reflect the sunlight better than darker colors.

Fecha de Publicación: 27-09-21

Development of a Wireless Temperature Sensor Using Polymer-Derived Ceramics

Descripción: Development of a Wireless Temperature Sensor Using Polymer-Derived Ceramics Development of a Wireless Temperature Sensor Using Polymer-Derived Ceramics A temperature sensor has been developed using an embedded system and a sensor head made of polymer-derived SiAlCN ceramics (PDCs). PDC is a promising material for measuring high temperature and the embedded system features low-power consumption, compact size, and wireless temperature monitor. The developed temperature sensor has been experimentally tested to demonstrate the possibility of using such sensors for real world applications. 1. Introduction Accurate temperature measurements are crucial for many applications, such as chemical processing, power generation, and engine monitoring. As a result, development of temperature sensors has always been a focus of microsensor field. A variety of materials have been studied for temperature sensor applications, for example, semiconducting silicon and silicon carbide. Silicon based sensors are typically used at temperatures lower than 350°C due to accelerated material degradation at higher temperature . Silicon carbide based sensors are better than silicon based sensors in high temperature measurement and can be applied in temperatures up to 500°C . Polymer-derived SiAlCN ceramics (PDCs) are another widely studied material that demonstrate properties such as excellent high temperature stability as well as good oxidation/corrosion resistance . PDCs have been considered as a promising material for measuring high temperature . Our early works have showed that PDC sensor head can accurately measure high temperature up to 830°C using data acquisition system from National Instruments. The cost and size of the sensor system must be significantly reduced before it can be deployed for real world applications. In this paper, we develop a temperature sensor using PDC and an embedded system. Comparing to the National Instruments data acquisition equipment used in the previous paper, the newly developed embedded sensor is much smaller (9.7?dm3 versus 0.3?dm3), lighter (5.97?kg versus 0.19?kg), and cheaper (approximately $8000 versus $170). A WiFi module is also added so the temperature measurement can be transmitted wirelessly. The embedded board and WiFi module used in this paper are commercially available. The experiments in this paper demonstrate the possibility of deploying PDC based sensors for real world applications. 2. Fabrication of the PDC Sensor Head In this study, the PDC sensor head is fabricated by following the procedure reported previously . In brief, 8.8?g of commercially available liquid-phased polysilazane (HTT1800, Kion) and 1.0?g of aluminum-tri-sec-butoxide (ASB, Sigma-Aldrich) are first reacted together at 120°C for 24 hours under constant magnetic stirring to form the liquid precursor for SiAlCN. The precursor is then cooled down to room temperature, followed by adding 0.2?g of dicumyl peroxide (DP) into the liquid under sonication for 30 minutes. DP is the thermal initiator which can lower the solidification temperature and tailor the electrical properties . The resultant liquid mixture is solidified by heat-treatment at 150°C for 24 hours. The disk-shaped green bodies are then prepared by ball-milling the solid into fine powder of ~1?μm and subsequently uniaxially pressing. A rectangular-shaped sample is cut from the discs and pyrolyzed at 1000°C for 4 hours. The entire fabrication is carried out in high-purity nitrogen to avoid any possible contamination. Pt wires are attached to the sensor head by two ceramic fasteners on the two mounting holes on the diagonal of the sensor head. To improve the conductivity, both mounting holes are coated with Pt plasma; see Figure 1. To measure temperature using the PDC sensor, the processor needs to perform the following tasks: () supply voltage  to the circuit through DAC7724; () sample the circuit output  using AD7656 and convert the output to temperature measurement; and () transmit data to readers from the RS232 port. The input signal  to the conversion circuit is a sinusoidal signal of ±10?V. The sinusoidal signal can bypass the parasitic capacitor in series to the PDC probe. The noise from the furnace coil can also be greatly subdued. The sensor output voltage  is approximately sinusoidal as well and its magnitude can be computed using Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) or curve fitting using recursive least square method (RLSM) . Comparing to FFT, RLSM is more computationally efficient but may have numerical instability because TMS320F28335 only supports IEEE 754 floating-point arithmetic. Here we prefer FFT for fast prototyping purpose because Texas Instruments provides FPU library that performs floating FFT routines on C2000 series microcontroller. Next we explain how the sensor works. A high-priority interrupt service request (ISR1) based on a CPU timer continues reading a look-up-table and drives the DAC7724 to generate the input signal . The frequency of  is controlled by the frequency of ISR1. ISR1 also samples circuit output from AD7656 and adds the data to a 1024-point buffer if there is no FFT running. Once the buffer is filled up, ISR1 stops writing the buffer and the FFT routine starts. The FFT routine is implemented in another slower low-priority interrupt service (ISR2). Once the FFT routine is completed, ISR2 will give ISR1 the permission to clean and write the input buffer again. The magnitude from the FFT is used as the circuit output . The software flowchart is shown in Figure 4. High temperature sensors capable of operating in harsh environments are needed in order to prevent disasters caused by structural or system functional failures due to increasing temperatures. Most existing temperature sensors do not satisfy the needs because they require either physical contact or a battery power supply for signal communication, and furthermore, neither of them can withstand high temperatures nor rotating applications. This paper presents a novel passive wireless temperature sensor, suitable for working in harsh environments for high temperature rotating component monitoring. A completely passive LC resonant telemetry scheme, relying on a frequency variation output, which has been applied successfully in pressure, humidity and chemical measurement, is integrated with a unique high-k temperature sensitive ceramic material, in order to measure the temperatures without contacts, active elements, or power supplies within the sensor. In this paper, the high temperature sensor design and performance analysis are conducted based on mechanical and electrical modeling, in order to maximize the sensing distance, the Q factor and the sensitivity. In the end, the sensor prototype is fabricated and calibrated successfully up to 235oC, so that the concept of temperature sensing through passive wireless communication is proved.  This paper aims to develop a prototype for a web-based wireless remote temperature monitoring device for patients. This device uses a patient and coordinator set design approach involving the measurement, transmission, receipt and recording of patients’ temperatures via the MiWi wireless meter iot solution. The results of experimental tests on the proposed system indicated a wider distance coverage and reasonable temperature resolution and standard deviation. The system could display the temperature and patient information remotely via a graphical-user interface as shown in the tests on three healthy participants. By continuously monitoring participants’ temperatures, this device will likely improve the quality of the health care of the patients in normal ward as less human workload is involved. Background During the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003, hospitals became treatment centres in most countries. Because a patient’s core body temperature is one vital parameter for monitoring the progress of the patient’s health, it is often measured manually at a frequency ranging from once every few hours to once a day . However, such manual measurement of the temperature of patients requires the efforts of many staff members. In addition, when the patients suffer from conditions that result in abrupt changes of the core body temperature, e.g., due to infection at a surgical site after surgery, the staff on duty will not know such a temperature change occurred until the next temperature measurement. Such a delay may lead to patients being unnoticed while their health conditions worsen, which is dangerous because a difference of 1.5 degrees Celsius can result in adverse outcomes . Furthermore, there is always a need to have a monitoring system to improve the quality of health care , such as temperature monitoring of elderly and challenged persons using a wireless remote temperature monitoring system. Body temperature can be used to monitor the pain level of a patient following an operation or after shoulder endoprosthesis . In some cases, the tissue transient temperature was monitored during microwave liver ablation for the treatment of liver metastases. Instead of using a temperature sensor, pulse-echo ultrasound was used to visualize changes in the temperature of the patient’s body. In addition, a non-contact temperature-measuring device, such as a thermal imaging camera , was successfully used to detect human body temperature during the SARS outbreak. However, it can be quite expensive to equip each patient room with a thermal imaging camera. In addition, there are a few wireless temperature measuring solution (e.g., CADIT?, Primex?, and TempTrak?) on the market that are used to monitor and store a patient’s temperature for medical research by using body sensor networks . Most of these systems consist of an electronic module and a temperature-sensing device. The systems include a stand-alone electronic module with a display screen that allows the temperature sensor data to be transmitted over a secure wireless network. However, these systems can be difficult to reconfigure to suit the current database system used in the hospital. In addition, the current systems using short message service (SMS)-based telemedicine systems with hardware equipment were developed to monitor the mobility of patients. However, proper hardware and software to manage the messages and the patient’s temperature for display on mobile phones are not widely available. Hence, a medical device to continuously measure the body temperature of patients using a wireless temperature receiver is required. With such a wireless temperature sensor system, nurses will no longer have to manually measure the temperature of patients, which will free their time for other tasks and also reduce the risk associated with coming into contact with patients with contagious diseases, such as SARS. The readings will be transmitted wirelessly to the central nurse station, where they can be monitored by the staff-on-duty. In addition, the current and past history of the body temperature measurements can be stored in an online database, which allows the medical staff to access the database when they are not in the hospital. To the best of our knowledge, a MiWi wireless (besides using the Zigbee) temperature-monitoring system using a patient and coordinator set design that provides remote internet access to the temperature database has not been reported in any publication. The objective is therefore to develop and implement a prototype temperature-monitoring system for patients using a MiWi wireless remote connection to the nurse’s station for frequent real-time monitoring. The temperature monitoring system was designed based on a proposed patient and coordinator set design approach. The proposed temperature-monitoring system for use in normal ward will likely to improve the quality of the health care of the patients as the nursing workload is reduced. In this paper, the discussion on medical regulations and policy will not be included.

Fecha de Publicación: 27-09-21

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