An alternative device for converting the energy of solar radiation into electric current is often called a nanoantenna today, however, other applications are possible, and this will also be discussed here. This device works, like many antennas, according to the principle of rectification, but unlike traditional antennas, it works in the optical wavelength range.

The electromagnetic waves of the optical range are extremely short, but back in 1972 this idea was proposed by Robert Bailey and James Fletcher, who even then saw the prospect of collecting solar energy in the same way as with radio waves. Due to the short wavelength of the optical range, the nanoantenna has dimensions not exceeding hundreds of microns in length (proportional to the wavelength), and in width - not more, or even less, 100 nanometers ...

When comparing lamps for domestic lighting, considering their advantages and disadvantages, in most cases only the material side is considered - that is, how reliable this or that lamp is compared to others and how economical it is. At the same time, the most important selection criterion is missed - harmlessness to health, especially for human vision. In this article, we will consider which lamps are the safest for human health, which parameters should be considered when choosing one or another type of lamp.

When choosing light sources, first of all, you should pay attention to the correct color rendering of the lamp. This concept refers to the display in natural tones of various colors. The highest color rendering coefficient for incandescent lamps, halogen lamps, as well as for certain types of compact fluorescent lamps with a five-component phosphor ...

This article is for informational purposes only. The devices described here are potentially life-threatening, so please be careful when using this information.

A Marx generator is a device for producing high-voltage pulsed discharges, based on the principle of parallel charging several high-voltage capacitors to a high voltage, followed by connecting these charged capacitors to a series circuit, as a result of this addition, a spark electric discharge is obtained at a voltage higher than the voltage of the charging source, in proportion the number of capacitors in the circuit.

Capacitors are charged in parallel through high-resistance (megaohm) resistors, and series connection is made possible by the use of gas (air) arresters ...

A power limiter is a device designed to limit the amount of power consumed. This device monitors the load and if it grows above the established level, it deenergizes the consumer. The operation of the power limiter is carried out with a time delay of several seconds to several minutes. That is, if the consumer includes electrical appliances in the network whose total power exceeds the set limit, then the relay will trip after the set time.

There is an LED on the power limiter that signals overload. Depending on the type of limiter, there may be a digital indicator on the current limiter, which displays the current power value, and if the set power limit (overload) is exceeded, a countdown occurs, after which the wiring will be de-energized ...

When it comes to home automation, at first glance it may seem like something very, very complicated, it immediately suggests a bunch of different sensors that need to be connected and configured somehow. However, in reality this is not always the case.In particular, the Fibaro Starter Kit is easy to install and configure, therefore, to create a “smart home” system with it, the user does not need special knowledge and special skills.

The Fibaro system is a Z-Wave wireless intelligent building automation system. And the Fibaro Starter Kit consists of only several parts, it includes a controller and several wireless sensors that will make it easy to create a “smart home” for a housewife who is not even sophisticated in these matters, without any damage even to the most sophisticated interior .. .

Both at home and at enterprises it is often necessary to turn on electrical appliances in that part of the room or outdoors where there is no outlet from which you can power the necessary electrical appliance. This problem is easily solved with an extension cord, the so-called “carry”.

In addition to the function of the extension cord - that is, the ability to turn on the appliance at a certain distance from the plug socket, the carry-out performs the function of branching one plug connector into several, which is important if you need to plug several appliances into one socket. For example, to connect to a computer network, you need several outlets to connect a monitor, system unit, audio equipment, printer, router, etc. Extenders for technical needs are also widely used, which are used to connect various power tools and devices to the network ...

To power various electronic equipment, DC / DC converters are very widely used. They are used in computing devices, communication devices, various control and automation circuits, etc.

In traditional transformer power supplies, the voltage of the mains is converted using a transformer, most often lowered, to the desired value. The reduced voltage is rectified by a diode bridge and smoothed by a capacitor filter. If necessary, a semiconductor stabilizer is placed after the rectifier.

Transformer power supplies are usually equipped with linear stabilizers. There are at least two advantages of such stabilizers: it is a small cost and a small number of parts in the harness. But these advantages are eaten by low efficiency, since a significant part of the input voltage is used for heating ...

The phenomenon of the emergence of thermo-EMF was discovered by the German physicist Thomas Johann Seebeck back in 1821. And this phenomenon consists in the fact that in a closed electric circuit consisting of heterogeneous conductors connected in series, provided that their contacts are at different temperatures, an EMF occurs. This effect, named after its discoverer, the Seebeck effect, is now called simply the thermoelectric effect.

If the circuit consists of only a pair of dissimilar conductors, then such a circuit is called a thermocouple. In a first approximation, it can be argued that the magnitude of the thermo-emf depends only on the material of the conductors and on the temperatures of the cold and hot contacts. Thus, in a small temperature range, thermo-EMF is proportional to the temperature difference between cold and hot contacts, and the proportionality coefficient in the formula is called the coefficient ...

For a long time, lighting systems with cotton on were no wonder, for those days had passed when such a technical miracle could be observed only in Hollywood films.Moreover, other scenarios of the operation of smart lighting are possible, for example, the inclusion of light when the motion sensor is triggered or depending on the degree of natural light. The various scenarios of smart lighting will be discussed in this article.

If you turn on the light, where necessary, you can, as necessary, then turn it off, you can sometimes easily forget. For example, a man came to the kitchen, made tea, and suddenly remembered a case that he urgently needed to do in another room. He goes there, continues his activities, at the same time distracted by something else, and in the kitchen the light remained on. Suddenly you need to go somewhere, he urgently puts on his shoes ...

How many readers of this article, and how often, use solder fat in their practice? Surely the majority are much closer to liquid fluxes applied with a brush or just rosin. Meanwhile, solder fat is widely used as a complete solder flux. Solder fat is available in two types: neutral solder fat and active.

The vaseline-based active solder fat is excellent when it is necessary to solder even large parts of oxidized non-ferrous or ferrous metals, for this reason it is very useful in the household, almost like regular solder (zinc chloride) acid. Neutral solder grease is perfect as a normal flux in the process of soldering any electrical and radio devices, printed circuit boards, etc. It is clear that active soldering fat does not need to be used for soldering radio components, as is soldering acid ...

All types of capacitors used today almost everywhere in electronics and electrical engineering, as a dielectric contain various substances. However, with regard to specifically electrolytic capacitors, in particular also tantalum and polymer, it is important for them to include strict polarity when included in the circuit. If such a capacitor is not included in the circuit correctly, then it will not be able to operate normally. These capacitors are therefore called polar.

What is the fundamental difference between a polar capacitor and a non-polar one, why do some capacitors still care how to be included in the circuit, and it is fundamentally important for others to observe the polarity? We’ll try to figure it out now. The point here is that the manufacturing process of electrolytic capacitors is very different from, say, ceramic or polypropylene ...

Time is flowing, technology is evolving, and many devices are improving along with them. Newspapers and magazines are increasingly giving way to web pages, cell phones have almost replaced landlines, and no one is using pagers. The modernization and needle multimeters, which are now almost everywhere replaced by convenient digital devices, did not bypass.

The advantages of digital multimeters over analog multimeters are obvious, they have much wider functionality, and their price is not high. So, digital multimeters took their place in the arsenal of not only radio amateurs, but also engineers. Nevertheless, pointer testers are too early to write off, real professionals know that sometimes a pointer device is simply irreplaceable. What is the feature here? And the difference lies directly in the internal structure of arrow and digital multimeters. The dial gauge is ...