Month: July 2014

July 22, 2014

What Headset Do I Need For My Mountain Bike?

The headset of a bicycle is, in simplest terms, the part of the bike that allows the steering column and front wheel to rotate and turn. It is, therefore, fairly important to the general running of a bike (as we’re sure you’ll agree!)

A bicycle headset generally consists of two cups that are pressed to the top and bottom of the headtube, there are bearings inside the cups that provide low friction contact between the cup and the steerer. This setup allows the rider to be able to steer and operate the bike with maximum efficiency.

Today’s bikes use lots of different headset styles, so we’ll take you through a few of the most common ones (because we’re nice like that).

Threaded Headsets – These headsets are the most simple and ‘classic’ of all headsets. They were once nearly ubiquitous, but times have moved on since then. According to ParkTool.com, “The “threaded” in the name refers to the external threading at the top of the fork steering column. Bearing cups are pressed into the bike head tube. The bearings, which may be loose ball bearings, retainer ball bearings, or cartridge bearings, sit above and below the pressed races. The top most bearing-race has internal threading, and is held in place by a threaded locknut. The stem has no effect on the headset adjustment”.
Threadless Headsets – Threadless headsets are actually quite similar to their threaded cousins, with one major difference (and you’ll probably see this one coming), there is no threading. According to ParkTool, “The top race uses an internal centering sleeve on the column to maintain alignment to the bearing cup. Pressure is applied to the top race from the stem. Threadless Headsets must use a compatible stem that matches the steering column diameter. The stem binds to the outside of the column, and holds the top race in adjustment. The threadless standards are 1-inch and 1-1/8 inch diameter steering column.”
Low Profile Headsets – Alternately known as ‘Integrated Headsets’, ‘Internal Headsets’ and ‘Zero Stack Headsets’ (amongst others), these headsets use pressure frame cups to secure the bearings. “The cups have a flange, or lip, and sit adjacent to the outer edge of the top and bottom of the headtube. The headtube is a relatively large outside diameter, approximately 50mm, and cups allow the bearings to sit flush or even inside the headtube. The headset bearings sit “internally” to the top and bottom of the headtube. Some models use a cup that holds a cartridge bearing. The cartridge bearing is a slip fit into the cups. The cups act as a bearing holder and do not take bearing movement or wear directly. Other types have the cartridge bearing and cup/holder as a unit. These are simply replaced as a unit when it is worn out. Still another version of this type uses a cup and cone system with caged ball bearings, similar to the conventional threadless headsets”.

Of course, its up to you to decide which of these styles best suites you and your bike.

SOURCES

http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/headset-standards

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headset_(bicycle_part)

July 17, 2014

What is Communications Technology?

Broadly speaking, the term ‘communications technology’ can refer to any technology that allows its users to communicate with one another. Using this (admittedly loose) definition, two-way radios and mobile phones fall into the category of ‘communications technology’.

The term also refers to computers and computer-related work. Here in the UK, schoolchildren study a subject called ‘ICT‘ this stands for ‘Information and Technology’ (although when this rapidly ageing writer was at school, it was known simply as ‘IT’ or, ‘Information Technology’).

As the Internet has become a more and more prevalent part of our society, communications over longer distances have become significantly easier. In fact, such communications are easier now than at any other time in Human history. Ergo, it stands to reason that computers should be considered as a prime form of communications technology.

Basic, everyday acts such as checking your emails, updating your Facebook or Twitter feed, answering the phone, or taking Skype calls are all a part of ‘communications technology’ as are the two-way radios used by public transport, security firms and the emergency services.

A person who makes a living by working with ‘comms tech’ is likely involved in the designing, creating, implementing or maintaining of communicational systems. Such systems can include radio networks, mobile phone providers, telephone companies, even television. It is a broad and ever-expanding field, which makes it difficult to ascertain exactly what a person actually does if they list it as their job title.

When somebody tells you that they are a plumber, for example, you get a broad idea of what they do for a living all day. If I tell you that I am a professional copywriter, you at least have some notion as to what that entails. A person who works in the field of ‘comm tech’ could be doing almost anything.

In case you’re wondering, the Internet itself can be considered as a communication technology, given that any person who uploads videos or writes blogs is communicating the very second that those blogs are read or those videos are watched.

Telecom’s is a huge field and, as I think you’ll agree, a pretty important one. Without the ability to communicate with others, either via short distances on your mobile or much longer distances (such as the distance between our office in the UK and your home on the African continent), this world would be a vastly different place.

July 15, 2014

What Is an Ultrasonic Transducer?

For a long time people have been telling me that family, love and happiness are the crucial things in life…At present I realise that I can take or leave all that as long as I have this headset in the world.

An ultrasonic transducer is an electrical component that converts ultrasonic sound waves beyond the range of human hearing into alternating current (AC) or direct current (DC) electrical signals that are then transmitted or recorded. Usually such devices are built upon crystals that demonstrate a piezoelectric effect, which conduct electrical current in response to mechanical stress or vibrations. The crystals have directly proportional output to the strength of the input sound wave or stress, and this makes them useful measuring devices as an ultrasonic transducer.

Applications for ultrasonic transducer-based electronics included use in early television remote controls as signal devices, and, as of 2011, in anemometers used by weather stations to monitor wind course and speed. They are used in industrial applications to monitor the level of fluid in a tank, and in modern-day automobiles as of 2011 for echo location sensors to indicate objects in close proximity to the path of a vehicle that is backing up or pulling into a garage. Since an ultrasonic transducer can also play the role of an ultrasonic transmitterthrough input electrical power, they offer the capability of a primitive type of sonar in many cases. Sound waves can be reflected off of a surface and the distance to that surface measured by the time and frequency of the wave that bounces back.

Electrical devices that convert one form of energy to another, like ultrasonic sensors, often have widespread applications in electronics and industry. Many diverse uses for the ultrasonic transducer now exist, including in environmental controls for buildings, such as in humidifiers where they vaporize the surface of the water, and in burglar alarms to detect objects moving within an otherwise clear path. Ultrasonography also relies on the principle of an ultrasonic transducer in medicine, where sound waves of 1 to 30 megahertz are employed to remotely generate imagery for the state of muscles, internal organs, and blood vessels in the human body, as well as the state of a fetus during pregnancy.

Since the era of the 1940s, the ultrasonic transducer has been incorporated into testing equipment to detect flaws in a range of sonar-related applications. They can be used to find fine cracks, voids, or porous sections in concrete and building foundations, damaged or fractured metal welds, and flaws in other materials such as plastic, ceramic, and composites. The devices are versatile because the sound waves that they emit will be affected by any medium, whether liquid, solid, or gas. With a detector used to measure gas status, however, an intermediate gel is usually placed between the gas and the ultrasonic transducer, as sound waves are otherwise poorly conducted and recorded in a gas medium.

The field of flaw detection for ultrasonic technology is broken down into five different types of transducer designs: contact, angle beam, delay line, immersion, and dual element transducers. Contact transducers have to have close contact proximity to what they are measuring, such as a stud finder in the building trade used to detect wooden beams behind walls. An immersion transducer is waterproof and placed in a fluid flow. Both angle beam and delay line forms of an ultrasonic transducer are used to measure welds and in conditions of high temperatures. The dual element transducer is simultaneously a transmitter and receiver for continuous monitoring of rough or potentially flawed surfaces.

July 13, 2014

A Martian Tribute

Professor Steve Squyres of New York’s Cornell University has named a beautiful piece of Martian landscape after his recently departed friend and colleague, the British scientist Colin Pillinger.

Squyres, who leads the team in charge of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover, felt that naming a portion of the red planet in honour of his friend would be a fitting tribute.

In a column for BBC News, Squyres wrote, “When I heard the news of Colin’s death, I knew immediately that we had to name a place on Mars after him. And by very good luck, Opportunity was at that moment approaching one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen on Mars. We named it Pillinger Point”.

Pillinger Point is situated on the Western rim of Endeavor Crater, a 22 km impact crater on the surface of Mars. The location offers perhaps the best view yet seen of the Martian landscape.

“I like to think that Colin would have enjoyed this view, and I hope that our image of it will help honour his memory”, wrote Squyres.

colin pilinger Colin Pillinger, who died in May of this year of a brain haemorrhage, after nearly a decade of battling multiple sclerosis, was perhaps best known as the brains behind the unsuccessful Beagle 2 mission to Mars, which took place during 2003.

The unmanned probe was designed to seek out life in the Martian wilderness. Although the mission ultimately ended in failure, Squyres is optimistic regarding The Beagle’s final legacy. “What they (Pillinger and his team) did do, though, was energize the public in Britain and around the globe in a way that few scientific explorers have matched”. He writes.

Born in 1943, Colin Pillinger worked first for NASA, analyzing lunar samples and later at Cambridge University and then The Open University. In 2000, he had an asteroid named after him and in 2003; he was awarded a CBE by the Queen.

Later, in 2011, Pillinger was awarded the prestigious Michael Faraday Prize.

Writing of his friend and kindred intellect, Steve Squyres simply says, “Colin was a force of nature, and his enthusiasm for Mars exploration was unparalleled. So I think that Beagle 2’s greatest legacy, and part of Colin’s, is surely the thousands of young people who were inspired to pursue careers in science, in engineering, and in technology, and to follow in Colin’s footsteps”.

It is a fitting tribute for a man who spent his life and career looking toward the stars.

SOURCES

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-28033648

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Pillinger

July 11, 2014

Inventors That Changed the World: Al Gross

Much like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character in the movie ‘Twins’, the walkie-talkie can claim to have many fathers. However, one of the most prominent names in the debate (and maybe the one with the single strongest claim to having invented the walkie-talkie) is Canadian/American inventor Al Gross.

The son of Romanian immigrants, Al Gross was born in Toronto, Canada in 1918, but his parents moved to Cleveland, Ohio, USA when he was quite young. Whilst on a steamboat trip across Lake Erie, the 9-year-old Gross encountered radio technology for the first time and, in so doing, ignited a passion within him that would change the world.

How passionate was he? By age 12, Gross had turned his parents’ basement into a radio centre. The bright young man would visit junkyards and salvage any material he thought he could use. Four years later –aged 16- Gross was awarded an amateur radio license, which was still in effect at the time of his death in 2000.

At the age of 18, Gross enrolled in the Case School of Applied Sciences. At the time, radio frequencies above 100MHz were relatively unexplored territory. Gross wanted to see exactly what could be done with them. He wanted to create a mobile, lightweight, handheld transceiver, using those uncharted frequencies. In 1938, he did just that, patenting the two-way radio, or ‘walkie-talkie’. He was just 20 years old.

War arrived on American shores in 1941 with the attack on Pearl Harbour. America scrambled to mobilize its armed forces and take advantage of any/all new technology that could aid the struggle against the Axis powers. The US Office of Strategic Services (OSS) – a forerunner to the CIA – tapped Gross to create an air-to-ground communications’ system. The system Gross designed employed Hertzian radio waves and was almost impossible for the enemy to monitor, even when allied planes were in enemy airspace. Gross’ system proved incredibly successful (so much so, that it was not declassified until 1976).

After the war, the inventor turned entrepreneur and founded the Citizens Radio Corporation, which took advantage of the first frequencies designated for personal use. His company was the first to receive FCC approval for use with the new ‘citizens’ band’. He licensed radios to other companies and supplied units to the Coast Guard, amongst others.

Then, in 1949 came another amazing discovery. Gross invented and patented the telephone pager. He invented the system with doctors in mind, but the medical community was (amazingly) slow to respond to this new technology. Only New York’s Jewish Hospital saw the potential of the pager as a life-saving device, when they implemented it in 1950.

Throughout the 1950’s, Gross, ever the pioneer, fought hard to garner interest for his newest idea – a mobile telephone. It took him eight years to get mobile telephony, as a concept, off the ground. Talk about being ahead of the curve!

Unfortunately, many of Gross’ best ideas were so far ahead of said curve, that his patents ran out before he could garner the profit his genius deserved. Had he earned the money eventually generated by CB radio, pagers and cellular phones, he would have died an extremely rich man. However, it was not to be.

Gross invented a lot throughout the years, but nothing brought him the amount of money that he potentially could have made from his earlier inventions. However, Gross was able to make a comfortable living, spending the 1960’s working for large corporations as a specialist in communications systems.

In the 1990’s, he was employed as a Senior Staff Engineer for Orbital Sciences Corporation in Arizona, where he worked on satellite communications, military equipment and aerospace technology.

As an older man, Gross got the most joy from visiting local schools and giving presentations. He took extra pleasure in inspiring the next generation of scientists, engineers and thinkers.

In April of the year 2000, Al Gross (who had garnered numerous awards throughout his career, far too many to write about here) was honoured to receive the Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award. He passed away eight months later in December 2000.

Gross never actually retired and was still working at the age of 82, a restless paragon of forward thinking, innovation and tireless imagination.

SOURCE

http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/gross.html

July 2, 2014

We Have A Look Under The Bonnet Of The IC-4088SR

With very little information on the internet about 2 way Radio’s, it is very rare when we get a chance to re post, with permission, an article from this industry.

PMR446 Handheld Transceiver

Designed to meet the demands of the licence free PMR 446 service, the IC-4088SR builds on its predecessor’s functionality, features and operating performance.

Featuring a high level of flexibility, the IC-4088SR allows instant communication between members of a group in and around buildings and over short distances. This makes it the perfect tool for keeping in touch with friends, family and work colleagues whilst in close proximity to them. The applications for the PMR446 service are almost limitless and the IC-4088SR would be suitable for camping, golf, catering, use in sports centres, on building sites, catering, events management, neighbourhood watch, factories, farms etc. What’s more it is water-resistant making it ideal for rambling, trekking, or for use on inland waterways etc.

An optional external charger socket or cigarette lighter lead allows you to charge and operate the IC-4088SR allowing you to use the IC-4088SR when and whenever you like.

The IC-4088SR has all the hallmarks of a quality product. It is well designed, easy to use and very robust. Its strong body makes it ideal for outdoor activity enthusiasts, for example. In fact the IC-4088SR is ergonomically designed and there are an absolute minimum number of switches making operation quick and intuitive. The large, easy to read LCD shows operating information at a glance with clear status icons such as ‘low battery’ and ‘timer’ that are easily recognisable.

In addition to its ease of use and aesthetic design the IC-4088SR is packed full of communication features that provides the user with a high level of usability and convenience. Among these useful functions are a simple voice scrambler that will provide secure private communication and a handy ‘Automatic Transponder’ function which automatically warns you if the other radios are out of range.

Other useful operating functions include a call ring function, which allows you to send a ring tone when calling another party – similar to using a mobile phone. Ten different ring types can be selected from. To ensure clear communications with other radios, you can select from 8 different radio channels and 38 different group codes, giving more than 300 different combinations to choose from. A Smart Ring function is also included which lets you know whether your call has got all the way through.

The IC-4088SR transceiver is available with charger and four rechargeable batteries. Two commercial multi-packs are also available.

Rugged construction and high performance antenna
External DC power jack
Built-in voice scrambler
Simple to use for everyone
Economical three alkaline cells
Splash resistant construction
Built-in CTCSS encoder and decoder
Automatic transponder system
Smart-ring function
Call-ring function
Power save function
Low battery indicator
Automatic power-off timer (0.5–2 hours)
Scan function
PTT hold function
Variable time-out-timer (1–30 minutes)