Read more about the article Tom’s HAT – Wakeup Light Alarm

Tom’s HAT – Wakeup Light Alarm

How many of us have dreaded that alarm clock at ridiculous-o’clock in the morning interrupting our beautiful slumber in the land of nod? Beep-beep beep-beep… Some alarms will keep on going endlessly. Beep-beep beep-beep… Others will progressively get louder until you are forced to be awake, irritated that such a simple and inanimate, yet incredibly annoying object ruins your morning.  

There are studies (like this one) that heavily suggest that waking up to light is actually much better for your mental well-being and a better start to your morning than waking up to sound. Sure, a sounding alarm does the trick, but biologically speaking, your is still in “sleep mode” when you wake up. This is why you might try to get more sleep by hitting that “Snooze” button many (many!) times before accepting that you’re awake. In fact, these wakeup lights have shown to also successfully treat season affective disorders in people. 

It comes of no surprise then that the alarm clock industry has taken to simulating sunrises through artificial light. There are many wake-up light alarm clocks sold all across the internet that range from £20 ($25) to £150 ($190).   

But why buy one, when you can make your own IoT-based wakeup light using home automation hardware?  

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Read more about the article Freelance Electronics Engineer

Freelance Electronics Engineer

In this article, I would like to share with all readers about my experience so far working as a freelance electronics engineer.

I have only been in this game for around 8 months, still learning a lot, making mistakes and improving.

I have divided this article into different sections of interest that envelope the whole package of what it entails to work as a freelance electronics engineer.

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Read more about the article WindAid is also Electronics

WindAid is also Electronics

This post was originally published on the WindAid blog. The article can be found here

Back in the summer of 2014, I had one of the best experiences of my life (sounds cheesy and the start of a teenage girl movie doesn’t it?). I was just finishing university and graduating with an electronics engineering bachelor degree at the University of Plymouth and before getting hooked into a 9-5 job I was looking to have an experience where I could combine three different factors (more…)

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Read more about the article Wind turbines with Twitter accounts

Wind turbines with Twitter accounts

Wind Turbines with Twitter accounts? Unconventional perhaps, but it’s a zero service cost option I was able to implement that allows WindAid Institute, a Peruvian Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) to receive notifications from their wind turbine systems in rural Peru. The open source remote monitor project (or ReMona) was born out of a need to:

  • Receiving system alerts, such as battery level being critically low.
  • Wanting Live data to track system usage and turbine performance anywhere in the world.

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Read more about the article DIY Telematics Box

DIY Telematics Box

Lately, there has been a rise in dashcams sold worldwide to protect the driver’s insurance claims. Most of the time, these have been sufficient. I recently bought my first car and had to drive about an hour on the motorway to my first job. Being a new driver, I had my car fitted with a black box (telematics box) to monitor my driving. A few years later, I bought my second car, but I didn’t have a telematics box installed. Given the driving styles I have seen from various individuals on my commute to and from work, I felt a dashcam alone would not be sufficient, and I really wanted to have something that could monitor my driving in the event of some idiot thought they were on the set of the next Fast & Furious. So I made my own! (more…)

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Read more about the article The moral issue of working for defence contractors

The moral issue of working for defence contractors

This article, or actually, this personal essay so to speak, about the moral issue of working for defence contractors, is the first written composition in Developpa that falls into the “Create for good” category which is one of the cornerstones from this site. In contrast with other articles and resources published, posts from this category will have second to none technical content as we deal with more abstract ideas that fall more in the realm of ethics and philosophy rather than engineering. However, don’t be surprised if eventually an “Engineering Ethics” guide is released 😃. And as a last note, some people might get offended by what I have to say while others will actually feel identified and supported. That’s OK, is just the nature of these types of articles and I am not concerned about speaking my mind off.

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