The Origami of the Internet of Things Perhaps you see the connection between origami and the IoT right away. It only occurred to me while watching a documentary the other night, opening my mind further to the symbiotic relationship between art and science. The film “Between the Folds, The Science of Art, The Art of […]

In this issue: Extended Power Range GaN-based USB-C adapters and chargers deliver increased performance An innovative, highly integrated combo controller for the joint control of the PFC and the hybrid flyback stage. How to control dc microgrids Microgrids are a great way to power locations where grid connections are unreliable, though it can be tricky […]

Goodbye To Used EV Sales? There were some interesting developments at the recent and aptly named Battery Show near Detroit for those who follow battery technology. One in particular came from the Michigan-based Our Next Energy (ONE). The fi rm released details about a 240- Ah prismatic cell battery it has designed and which is […]

Next EV Anxiety: Cold Weather If you wandered around the Society of Automotive Engineers’ annual trade show earlier this year, you would have seen a number of ideas aimed at cutting power consumption in electric vehicles. One development in that category was from a company called BetterFrost. It devised a more energy efficient windshield defroster. […]

A frequency you can count on There are few constants in life, but what few there are might include death, taxes, and a U.S. grid frequency that doesn’t vary by more than ±0.5 Hz. However, the certainty of the grid frequency is coming into question, thanks to the rising percentage of renewable energy sources that…

How to turn off a smart meter the hard way Potential cyber attacks have a lot of people worried thanks to the recent conflict in Ukraine. So it might be appropriate to review what happened when cybersecurity fi rm FireEye’s Mandiant team demonstrated how to infiltrate the network of a North American utility. During this…

Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a flying battery! According to a company called Joby Aviation, in a few years you’ll be able to summon up an air taxi on your Uber phone app for trips of 25 miles or so. And you won’t have to feel guilty about the…

Talk of EV fires still smolders The latest figures from the National Fire Protection Association show that only about 20% of all vehicle fires arise from problems in the vehicle electrical system—most fires have something to do with the fuel system. Seeing as electric vehicles will do away with problematic petrol, you might wonder whether…

MICROWAVES AND THE HAVANA SYNDROME The National Academy of Sciences recently released its conclusions about what sickened dozens of American Embassy diplomats in Cuba, a phenomenon dubbed the Havana Syndrome. Though the panel reached no definitive conclusion, it found pulsed RF (a.k.a. directed microwave energy) was the most likely cause. Panel members could not rule…