Day: December 2, 2024

Exploring The Sounds And Sights Of Alien Worlds

December 2, 2024 by 14 Comments

The 20th century saw humankind’s first careful steps outside of the biosphere in which our species has evolved. Whereas before humans had experienced the bitter cold of high altitudes, the crushing pressures in Earth’s oceans, as well as the various soundscapes and vistas offered in Earth’s biosphere, beyond Earth’s atmosphere we encountered something completely new. Departing Earth’s gravitational embrace, the first humans who ventured into space could see the glowing biosphere superimposed against the seemingly black void of space, in which stars, planets and more would only appear when blending out the intense light from the Earth and its life-giving Sun.

Years later, the first humans to set foot on the Moon experienced again something unlike anything anyone has experienced since. Walking around on the lunar regolith in almost complete vacuum and with very low gravity compared to Earth, it was both strangely familiar and hauntingly alien. Although humans haven’t set foot on Mars yet, we have done the next best thing, with a range of robotic explorers with cameras and microphones to record the experience for us here back on Earth.

Unlike the Moon, Mars has a thin but very real atmosphere which permits the travel of soundwaves, so what does the planet sound like? Despite what fictional stories like Weir’s The Martian like to claim, reality is in fact stranger than fiction, with for example a 2024 research article by Martin Gillier et al. as published in JGR Planets finding highly variable acoustics during Mars’ seasons. How much of what we consider to be ‘normal’ is just Earth’s normal?

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Building Experience And Circuits For Lithium Capacitors

December 2, 2024 by 22 Comments

For the cautious, a good piece of advice is to always wait to buy a new product until after the first model year, whether its cars or consumer electronics or any other major purchase. This gives the manufacturer a year to iron out the kinks and get everything ship shape the second time around. But not everyone is willing to wait on new tech. [Berto] has been interested in lithium capacitors, a fairly new type of super capacitor, and being unwilling to wait on support circuitry schematics to magically show up on the Internet he set about making his own.

The circuit he’s building here is a solar charger for the super capacitor. Being a fairly small device there’s not a lot of current, voltage, or energy, but these are different enough from other types of energy storage devices that it was worth taking a close look and designing something custom. An HT7533 is used for voltage regulation with a Schottky diode preventing return current to the solar cell, and a DW01 circuit is used to make sure that the capacitor doesn’t overcharge.

While the DW01 is made specifically for lithium ion batteries, [Berto] found that it was fairly suitable for this new type of capacitor as well. The capacitor itself is suited for many low-power, embedded applications where a battery might add complexity. Capacitors like this can charge much more rapidly and behave generally more linearly than their chemical cousins, and they aren’t limited to small applications either. For example, this RC plane was converted to run with super capacitors.

ESP32 Powers DIY Smart Energy Meter

December 2, 2024 by 20 Comments

Energy is expensive these days. There’s no getting around it. If, like [Giovanni], you want to keep better track of your usage, you might find value in his DIY energy meter build.

[Giovanni] built his energy meter to monitor energy usage in his whole home. An ESP32 serves as the heart of this build. It’s hooked up with a JSY-MK-194G energy metering module, which uses a current clamp and transformer in order to accurately monitor the amount of energy passing through the mains connection to his home. With this setup, it’s possible to track voltage, current, frequency, and power factor, so you can really nerd out over the electrical specifics of what’s going on. Results are then shared with Home Assistant via the ESPHome plugin and the ESP32’s WiFi connection. This allows [Giovanni] to see plots of live and historical data from the power meter via his smartphone.

A project like this one is a great way to explore saving energy, particularly if you live somewhere without a smart meter or any other sort of accessible usage tracking. We’ve featured some of [Giovanni]’s neat projects before, too.
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