Electronics For You July 2025 Issue Vol. 57 No. 7 Strategy |
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Do-It-Yourself PROJECT: Miniature Watch-Style FM Radio Radio has remained one of the most enduring and essential communication devices, retaining its relevance to this day. Its evolution—from large, bulky units to compact, portable forms—has been remarkable. This device pushes that evolution further, delivering one of the smallest wearable and portable FM radios to date. | Do-It-Yourself PROJECT: Taking Smokers’ Snapshot In No-Smoking Areas Using MaixCam Board This system deploys an automated detector that sounds a buzzer alarm and captures a MaixCam snapshot on the SD card whenever a cigarette is lit or smoked, alerting nearby individuals and deterring the smoker. |
Do-It-Yourself PROJECT: Gesture-Based Home Automation Gesture-based home automation allows users to control household devices through simple hand movements, removing the need for switches or remotes. It improves convenience, accessibility, and hygiene with its touchless interface—ideal for users of all ages, including the elderly and differently abled. By combining sensors and microcontrollers, the system recognises and interprets gestures to perform tasks such as lighting control or appliance operation, making home environments smarter and more intuitive. | Do-It-Yourself Cool Hacks: Personal AI Assistant System For Your Home The past few years have seen a rapid rise in the fields of artificial intelligence and large language models (LLMs). LLMs have been instrumental in the proliferation of ‘modern AI’ applications and are significantly better than the natural language processing (NLP)-based home assistants like Amazon Alexa when it comes to text generation or responding to human queries. |
Do-It-Yourself CIRCUIT IDEA: Timer-Controlled Doorbell Repeated or prolonged pressing of a doorbell can be disruptive, particularly in homes or offices. Visitors often press the bell multiple times in quick succession or hold it down too long, creating unnecessary disturbance. To counter this, a timer-controlled doorbell device has been developed using two 555 timer ICs in monostable mode, combined with a relay driver and a control circuit to block repeated activations within a short interval. | Do-It-Yourself PROJECT: Automatic Humidifier For The Textile Industry Using Arduino Precise humidity control is vital across various environments to preserve material quality and ensure optimal performance. In the textile industry, maintaining accurate humidity levels strengthens fabric, minimises static electricity, and prevents yarn breakage—enhancing both product quality and machine efficiency. |
Do-It-Yourself CIRCUIT IDEA: Arduino IR Reflectance Alarm Using Homemade Sensor Photoelectric sensors detect objects and surface changes using variations in optical properties. Each sensor includes a light emitter and a receiver, with most relying on infrared light. In optical proximity sensing, the emitter and receiver are housed in the same unit. An infrared reflectance sensor, also known as a diffuse sensor, detects changes in reflected light from a target. |