The importance of effective surveillance and security cannot be understated in today’s world. With the growing demand for CCTV (Closed-Circuit Television) systems in various sectors, the need for reliable and efficient power supply solutions to support these systems has become paramount. In this context, one standout player in the industry is a leading CCTV power supply manufacturer, which has been instrumental in providing cutting-edge solutions to ensure uninterrupted surveillance. This article explores the journey, product offerings, and contributions of this manufacturer in empowering the surveillance landscape.
1. The Evolution of CCTV Power Supply Solutions
As surveillance technology has advanced over the years, so too has the demand for power supply solutions tailored to support CCTV systems. This manufacturer recognized this growing need and embarked on a journey to develop high-quality and versatile CCTV power supply units. They have been an active player in the security industry, addressing the unique power requirements of various surveillance setups.
2. Diverse Product Range
The CCTV power supply manufacturer offers a diverse range of products to cater to different surveillance setups and requirements:
a. Multi-Channel Power Supplies: These units are designed to power multiple cameras simultaneously, offering a centralized and efficient solution for large-scale installations such as in commercial complexes, industrial facilities, and public spaces.
b. Individual Camera Power Adapters: For smaller setups or when specific cameras require separate power sources, individual camera power adapters provide a convenient and compact solution.
c. Weatherproof and Outdoor Power Supplies: Outdoor surveillance demands rugged and weather-resistant power solutions. The manufacturer’s weatherproof power supplies ensure uninterrupted operation even in harsh environmental conditions.
d. Power over Ethernet (PoE) Solutions: Recognizing the growing popularity of PoE technology, the manufacturer offers PoE switches and injectors that enable both power and data transmission through a single Ethernet cable.
e. Battery Backup Systems: Ensuring continuous surveillance is crucial, even during power outages. Battery backup systems from the manufacturer provide uninterrupted power supply to critical cameras and recording devices during emergencies.
3. Emphasis on Quality and Reliability
Reliability is a non-negotiable aspect of any surveillance system. This manufacturer understands the critical nature of security applications and, therefore, places a strong emphasis on quality and reliability. Their products undergo rigorous testing and adhere to international safety standards, ensuring that customers receive dependable power supply solutions.
4. Customization and Flexibility
Different surveillance setups have different power requirements. To cater to diverse customer needs, the CCTV power supply manufacturer offers customization options. They work closely with clients to understand their specific requirements and provide tailored solutions that fit their unique surveillance environments.
5. Energy Efficiency and Eco-Friendly Practices
In an era of increasing environmental consciousness, the manufacturer is committed to energy-efficient designs. Their power supply solutions are engineered to minimize power wastage, reducing the overall carbon footprint of surveillance operations.
6. Technical Support and After-Sales Services
Beyond the sale of their products, the manufacturer places a significant emphasis on customer support. They offer technical assistance, installation guidance, and after-sales services to ensure that their clients have a seamless experience with their CCTV power supply solutions.
7. Contributing to the Security Ecosystem
As a pivotal player in the security ecosystem, the CCTV power supply manufacturer’s contributions extend beyond their products. By providing reliable power solutions, they play a crucial role in enhancing the effectiveness of surveillance systems, contributing to safer environments and better security practices.
In an age where security and surveillance have become paramount, the role of a reliable CCTV power supply manufacturer cannot be understated. Their dedication to quality, customization, and customer satisfaction has helped empower surveillance systems across various sectors. As surveillance technology continues to evolve, this manufacturer stands ready to meet the ever-changing power supply needs of the security industry, ensuring that surveillance operations remain effective, efficient, and dependable.


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Proteus achieves fast response times and efficient utilization of the available hardware resources. It encapsulates device heterogeneity to enable seamless orchestration across CPUs and GPUs.
Proteus is a database engine designed for today's heterogeneous environments. Proteus adapts to variable data, hardware and workloads through a combination of GPU acceleration, data virtualization, and adaptive scheduling.
The challenge: Heterogeneity
Data, hardware, and workloads are increasingly heterogeneous, challenging existing system designs and slowing down data scientists' exploration cycles.
Proteus uses heterogeneity to unlock optimization opportunities, delivering accelerated operational analytics and reducing the data-to-insights time.
Data scientists rely on a wide variety of heterogeneous datasets to gain insights. The different data models and formats pose a significant challenge in performing analysis over diverse datasets.
Proteus virtualizes the data to provide a uniform operational model while allowing for just-in-time specialization to the data models and formats at hand.
The modern hardware landscape expands beyond CPU-only servers to meet the computational demands. Modern servers have multiple hardware accelerators relying on software exploiting the available hardware resources, challenging existing systems that depend on hardware uniformity, and continuous hardware advances on CPUs.
Proteus exploits accelerator-level parallelism to reduce query response times by orchestrating query execution in multi-CPU, multi-GPU servers and using just-in-time compilation for smoother cross-device operator support.
The velocity of modern workloads generates vast amounts of data that need to be quickly ingested to allow timely business intelligence, pushing the limits of existing static resource allocation schemes for operational analytics.
Proteus exploits workload irregularities to deliver fast insights, while it exploits accelerator-level parallelism to increase workload isolation.
Proteus customizes itself on-demand to the data formats and hardware. It uses LLVM-based code generation to JIT (just-in-time) provide highly-optimized specialized engines per query.
Proteus schedules concurrent OLTP and OLAP based on the amount of fresh data queried by OLAP, and adapts data access paths, compute affinities and snapshot granularity across the OLAP & OLTP engines.
Proteus enables efficient and online data exploration through JIT data summaries. It uses hardware-conscious approximation operators designed for high-bandwidth data processing to unlock interactive data insights.
Proteus minimizes software-level interference across the transactional and analytical engines. It uses the hardware isolation between CPUs and GPUs to bound interference across workloads.
Proteus intelligently caches input data for fast analytics on disk-resident data. Through query- and execution-awareness, it distributes the in-memory space across input data to maximize the overall query speedups.
As the data volume grows, reducing the query execution times remains an elusive goal. While approximate query processing (AQP) techniques present a principled method to trade off accuracy for faster queries in analytics, the sample creation is often considered a second-class citizen. Modern analytical engines optimized for high-bandwidth media and multi-core architectures only exacerbate existing inefficiencies, resulting in prohibitive query-time online sampling and longer preprocessing times in offline AQP systems.
We demonstrate that the sampling operators can be practical in modern scale-up analytical systems. First, we evaluate three common sampling methods, identify algorithmic bottlenecks, and propose hardware-conscious optimizations. Second, we reduce the performance penalties of the added processing and sample materialization through system-aware operator design and compare the sample creation time to the matching relational operators of an in-memory JIT-compiled engine. The cost of data reduction with materialization is up to 2.5x of the equivalent group-by in the case of stratified sampling and virtually free (∼1x) for reasonable sample sizes of other strategies. As query processing starts to dominate the execution time, the gap between online and offline AQP methods diminishes.
Analytical engines rely on in-memory caching to avoid disk accesses and provide timely responses by keeping the most frequently accessed data in memory. Purely frequency- & time-based caching decisions, however, are a proxy of the expected query execution speedup only when disk accesses are significantly slower than in-memory query processing. On the other hand, fast storage offers loading times that approach or even outperform fully in-memory query execution response times, rendering purely frequency-based statistics incapable of capturing impact of a caching decision on query execution. For example, caching the input of a frequent query that spends most of its time processing joins is less beneficial than caching a page for a slightly less frequent but scan-heavy query. As a result, existing caching policies waste valuable memory space to cache input data that offer little-to-no acceleration for analytics.
This paper proposes HPCache, a buffer management policy that enables fast analytics on high-bandwidth storage by efficiently using the available in-memory space. HPCache caches data based on their speedup potential instead of relying on frequency-based statistics. We show that, with fast storage, the benefit of in-memory caching varies significantly across queries; therefore, we quantify the efficiency of caching decisions and formulate an optimization problem. We implement HPCache in Proteus and show that i) estimating speedup potential improves memory space utilization, and ii) simple runtime statistics suffice to infer speedup expectations. We show that HPCache achieves up to 12% faster query execution over state-of-the-art caching policies, or 75% less in-memory cache footprint without deteriorating query performance. Overall, HPCache enables efficient use of the in-memory space for input caching in the presence of fast storage, without any requirement for workload predictions.
GPUs are becoming increasingly popular in large scale data center installations due to their strong, embarrassingly parallel, processing capabilities. Data management systems are riding the wave by using GPUs to accelerate query execution, mainly for analytical workloads. However, this acceleration comes at the price of a slow interconnect which imposes strong restrictions in bandwidth and latency when bringing data from the main memory to the GPU for processing. The related research in data management systems mostly relies on late materialization and data sharing to mitigate the overheads introduced by slow interconnects even in the standard CPU processing case. Finally, workload trends move beyond analytical to fresh data processing, typically referred to as Hybrid Transactional and Analytical Processing (HTAP).
Therefore, we experience an evolution in three different axes: interconnect technology, GPU architecture, and workload characteristics. In this paper, we break the evolution of the technological landscape into steps and we study the applicability and performance of late materialization and data sharing in each one of them. We demonstrate that the standard PCIe interconnect substantially limits the performance of state-of-the-art GPUs and we propose a hybrid materialization approach which combines eager with lazy data transfers. Further, we show that the wide gap between GPU and PCIe throughput can be bridged through efficient data sharing techniques. Finally, we provide an H2TAP system design which removes software-level interference and we show that the interference in the memory bus is minimal, allowing data transfer optimizations as in OLAP workloads.
Modern Hybrid Transactional/Analytical Processing (HTAP) systems use an integrated data processing engine that performs analytics on fresh data, which are ingested from a transactional engine. HTAP systems typically consider data freshness at design time, and are optimized for a fixed range of freshness requirements, addressed at a performance cost for either OLTP or OLAP. The data freshness and the performance requirements of both engines, however, may vary with the workload.
We approach HTAP as a scheduling problem, addressed at runtime through elastic resource management. We model an HTAP system as a set of three individual engines: an OLTP, an OLAP and a Resource and Data Exchange (RDE) engine. We devise a scheduling algorithm which traverses the HTAP design spectrum through elastic resource management, to meet the workload data freshness requirements. We propose an in-memory system design which is non-intrusive to the current state-of-art OLTP and OLAP engines, and we use it to evaluate the performance of our approach. Our evaluation shows that the performance benefit of our system for OLAP queries increases over time, reaching up to 50% compared to static schedules for 100 query sequences, while maintaining a small, and controlled, drop in the OLTP throughput.
Modern server hardware is increasingly heterogeneous as hardware accelerators, such as GPUs, are used together with multicore CPUs to meet the computational demands of modern data analytics workloads. Unfortunately, query parallelization techniques used by analytical database engines are designed for homogeneous multicore servers, where query plans are parallelized across CPUs to process data stored in cache coherent shared memory. Thus, these techniques are unable to fully exploit available heterogeneous hardware, where one needs to exploit task-parallelism of CPUs and data-parallelism of GPUs for processing data stored in a deep, noncache-coherent memory hierarchy with widely varying access latencies and bandwidth.
In this paper, we introduce HetExchange-a parallel query execution framework that encapsulates the heterogeneous parallelism of modern multi-CPU-multi-GPU servers and enables the parallelization of (pre-)existing sequential relational operators. In contrast to the interpreted nature of traditional Exchange, HetExchange is designed to be used in conjunction with JIT compiled engines in order to allow a tight integration with the proposed operators and generation of efficient code for heterogeneous hardware. We validate the applicability and efficiency of our design by building a prototype that can operate over both CPUs and GPUs, and enables its operators to be parallelism- and data-location-agnostic. In doing so, we show that efficiently exploiting CPU-GPU parallelism can provide 2.8x and 6.4x improvement in performance compared to state-of-the-art CPU-based and GPU-based DBMS.
In the last years, modern servers are adopting hardware accelerators, such as GPUs, in order to improve their power efficiency and computational capacity. Modern analytical query processing engines are highly optimized for multi-core multi-CPU query execution, but lack the necessary abstractions to support concurrent hardware-conscious query execution over multiple heterogeneous devices and exploit the available accelerators.
This work presents a Heterogeneity-conscious Analytical query Processing Engine (HAPE), a blueprint for hardware-conscious analytical engines for efficient and concurrent multi-CPU multi-GPU query execution. HAPE decomposes query execution on heterogeneous hardware into, 1) efficient single-device and 2) concurrent multi-device query execution. It uses hardware-conscious algorithms designed for single-device execution and combines them into efficient intra-device hardware-conscious execution modules, via code generation. HAPE combines these modules to achieve multi-device execution by handling data and control transfers.
We validate our design by building a prototype and evaluating its performance using radix-join co-processing and the TPC-H benchmark. We show that it achieves up to 10x and 3.5x speed-up on the radix-join against CPU and GPU alternatives, respectively, and 1.6x-8x against state-of-the-art CPU- and GPU-based commercial DBMSs on the selected TPC-H queries.
Industry and academia are continuously becoming more data-driven and data-intensive, relying on the analysis of a wide variety of heterogeneous datasets to gain insights. The different data models and formats pose a significant challenge on performing analysis over a combination of diverse datasets. Serving all queries using a single, general-purpose query engine is slow. On the other hand, using a specialized engine for each heterogeneous dataset increases complexity: queries touching a combination of datasets require an integration layer over the different engines.
This paper presents a system design that natively supports heterogeneous data formats and also minimizes query execution times. For multi-format support, the design uses an expressive query algebra which enables operations over various data models. For minimal execution times, it uses a code generation mechanism to mimic the system and storage most appropriate to answer a query fast. We validate our design by building Proteus, a query engine which natively supports queries over CSV, JSON, and relational binary data, and which specializes itself to each query, dataset, and workload via code generation. Proteus outperforms state-of-the-art opensource and commercial systems on both synthetic and real-world workloads without being tied to a single data model or format, all while exposing users to a single query interface.
As the size of data and its heterogeneity increase, traditional database system architecture becomes an obstacle to data analysis. Integrating and ingesting (loading) data into databases is quickly becoming a bottleneck in face of massive data as well as increasingly heterogeneous data formats. Still, state-of-the-art approaches typically rely on copying and transforming data into one (or few) repositories. Queries, on the other hand, are often ad-hoc and supported by pre-cooked operators which are not adaptive enough to optimize access to data. As data formats and queries increasingly vary, there is a need to depart from the current status quo of static query processing primitives and build dynamic, fully adaptive architectures.
We build ViDa, a system which reads data in its raw format and processes queries using adaptive, just-in-time operators. Our key insight is use of virtualization, i.e., abstracting data and manipulating it regardless of its original format, and dynamic generation of operators. ViDa’s queryengine is generated just-in-time; its caches and its query operators adapt to the current query and the workload, while also treating raw datasets as its native storage structures. Finally, ViDa features a language expressive enough to support heterogeneous data models, and to which existing languages can be translated. Users therefore have the power to choose the language best suited for an analysis.


Best wifi 6 routers under 200 2023 are a great way to get the most out of your internet connection. They can provide you with faster speeds, more range, and better performance than older routers. But with so many different models available, it can be hard to know which one is right for you.
That’s why we’ve put together this list of the best wifi 6 routers for under 200 dollars. We’ve looked at a variety of factors to find the models that offer the best performance, features, and value for money. In this article, we will guide you through everything you need to know about wifi 6 routers under 200 and help you choose the best model for your needs.
Best Wifi 6 Router Under 200 2023 Comparison Table
| TP-Link AX5400 WiFi 6 Router ||Check Price||TP-LINKS||• Easy to set up
• Extensive Coverage
• Full-Featured WiFi 6 Router
• Connect more devices
| TP-Link AX1800 WiFi 6 Router (Archer AX21)||Check Price||TP-Link||• Dual wifi 6
• Easy to use
• Multiple devices
• Extensive coverage
• Powerful antenna
| ASUS WiFi 6 Router (RT-AX3000) ||Check Price||ASUS||• 4 strong antenna
• Maximum Range : 3000 Sq Ft
• Powerful Mesh System
• Mobile app connection
| D-Link WiFi 6 Router AX5400 MU-MIMO Voice Control Compatible ||Check Price||D-link wifi||• It carry Up to 6 Simultaneous Streams:
• Unprecedented Efficiency
• Connectivity technology: Ethernet
• Easy to set up
| ASUS AX1800 WiFi 6 Router (RT-AX55) ||Check Price||ASUS||• Easy to set up
• Wireless router coverage
• Increase capacity of usage
• Connect to any internet coverage
| NETGEAR Nighthawk 6-Stream AX5400 WiFi 6 Router (RAX50)||Check Price||NETGEAR||• Plug in computers, game consoles
• 1 year warranty
• Wifi coverage is strong
| Reyee WiFi 6 Router AX3200 Smart Wi-Fi Mesh Router||Check Price||Reyee||• Multi-user-friendly design|
| ASUS AX1800 WiFi 6 Router (RT-AX1800S)||Check Price||Asus||• 4 Gigabit ports
• Increase Capacity and Efficiency
• Easy to connect to any internet provider
• Cover range
| Netgear Nighthawk AX6 6-Stream AX4300 WiFi 6 Router||Check Price||Netgear||• Faster WiFi download
• Powerful triple core
• It has 3 streaming AX
• Ultimate range
| Certified Refurbished TP-Link AX6000 WiFi 6 Router,||Check Price||Tp-link||• Easy to use
• Cover long range
• Powerful connection
• High speed internet
1) AX5400 TP-Link Dual Band WiFi 6 Router
TP-Link’s Archer AX5400 is one of the best WiFi 6 routers on the market, offering incredible speeds of up to 5400 Mbps. It’s equipped with 4T4R and HE160 technologies for maximum speed and range, and it has a powerful processor that can handle multiple devices simultaneously. The Archer AX5400 also has a USB 3.0 port for easy sharing of files and printers, and it comes with cutting-edge network and IoT protection. It’s compatible with all internet service providers, making it a great choice for anyone looking to upgrade to WiFi 6.
AX5400 TP-Link Dual Band WiFi 6 Router First Hand Review Video
Video Source: Dad.0
2) AX1800 Wireless WiFi 6 Router by TP-Link
The Archer AX21 is a powerful and affordable Wi-Fi 6 router from TP-Link. It’s one of the first 802.11ax routers on the market, and it supports both VPN server and client functionality. The Archer AX21 is also certified for humans, which means it’s easy to set up and use.
The Archer AX21 is a dual-band Wi-Fi 6 router that offers speeds of up to 1.8 Gbps. It’s equipped with four high-gain antennas and an advanced front-end module (FEM) chipset. The Archer AX21 also has beamforming technology, which focuses signal strength to your devices far away, and it supports MU-MIMO technology for more efficient data transfer. The Archer AX21 is compatible with all major internet service providers (ISPs), and it comes with a two-year warranty.
AX1800 Wireless WiFi 6 Router by TP-Link First Hand Review Video
Video Source: TP-Link
3) ASUS WiFi 6 Router Dual Band Gigabit
The ASUS RT-AX3000 is one of the best budget-friendly WiFi 6 routers that you can buy in 2023. It’s fast, it’s efficient and it comes with a great set of features, making it a great choice for any home or small office.
The router has a maximum speed of 3000Mbps and supports 160MHz bandwidth, which is more than enough for most homes and small offices. It also comes with OFDMA and MU-MIMO technology, which makes it more efficient and faster than other WiFi 5 routers.
The router also comes with AiMesh technology, which allows you to create a mesh network with other ASUS routers. This is great if you want to extend the coverage of your WiFi network. The router also has a mobile app that allows you to manage and monitor your network from your smartphone. The app is very user-friendly and makes it easy to keep track of your network.
ASUS WiFi 6 Router Dual Band Gigabit First Hand Review Video
Video Source: AuthenTech – Ben Schmanke
The D-Link AX5400 is one of the best WiFi 6 routers you can buy, and it’s great for several reasons. Firstly, it offers combined speeds of up to 5.4Gbps, which is 90% faster than the equivalent 5GHz 11ac connection. Secondly, it has a massive range of up to 176%, meaning you can connect more devices without any drop in speed.
Thirdly, it’s made for the smart home, with OFDMA and MU-MIMO technology ensuring your devices are always connected. Finally, it has a target wake time of just 1ms, meaning your devices will never be left waiting. If you’re looking for a top-of-the-line WiFi 6 router, the D-Link AX5400 is the one for you.
D-Link AX5400 WiFi 6 Router MU-MIMO Voice Control First Hand Review Video
Video Source: PaaTing Reviews
5) ASUS AX1800 WiFi 6 Router
The ASUS AX1800 is a great WiFi 6 router that offers support for the latest WiFi standard, 802.11AX. It offers a bandwidth of 80MHz and a speed of about 1800Mbps – 574 Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and 1201 Mbps on the 5GHz band. The router also supports MU-MIMO and OFDMA techniques and comes with lifetime free AiProtection powered by Trend Micro. The router is also compatible with the ASUS AiMesh WiFi system.
ASUS AX1800 WiFi 6 Router First Hand Review Video
Video Source: JK Chavez
6) Nighthawk 6-Stream NETGEAR WiFi 6 Router.
Nighthawk 6-Stream NETGEAR WiFi 6 Router is one of the very few devices that can stream uninterrupted movies, games, and video calls at 10.8Gbps Wi-Fi speed. It also works with existing and new Wi-Fi 6 devices. The 2 x 3.0 USB ports make it easy to connect external storage devices. NETGEAR ARMOR POWERED BY BITDEFENDER provides comprehensive security for all your devices. The QUICK SET UP process is very user-friendly.
It has WIRED ETHERNET PORTS with 4 x 1G and 1 x 2.5G Ethernet ports. The design includes a 1.8GHz triple-core processor. OFDMA, MU-MIMO, and Dynamic QoS are great features that make this router stand out. Beamforming technologies provide better range and performance. Additionally, it supports the WPA2/WPA3 wireless security standards.
Nighthawk 6-Stream NETGEAR WiFi 6 Router. First Hand Review Video
Video Source: Upgrade
Best Wifi 6 Router Under 200 2023: Buying Guide
What Is A Wifi 6 Router Under 200?
A wifi 6 router under 200 is a gigabit-class wireless router that offers next-generation speeds of up to 9.6Gbps. It is based on the latest 802.11ax standard and offers improved performance in terms of speed, capacity, and efficiency.
If you’re looking for the best possible gaming experience, reducing lag, and improving your connection to the internet, then you need a wifi 6 router. A good wifi 6 router can improve your online gaming experience by up to four times. That means faster connections, reduced latency, and less time spent waiting for things to load.
Of course, not everyone needs a wifi 6 router. If you’re just looking for a basic router to connect to the internet, then a cheaper model will suffice. However, if you have any gaming or streaming requirements, then we would recommend opting for a wifi 6 router.
Photo Source: PCmag.com
Various Types Of Wifi 6 Routers Under 200
There are different types of wifi 6 routers under 200 that you can purchase depending on your needs. The following are the most popular types:
AC5300 Wifi Router
This type of router is great for those who want to enjoy high speeds and a large range. It is also ideal for gaming and streaming HD videos.
AC5400 Wifi Router
This is usually a gaming router and is the best type of Wifi 6 router you can buy. They offer the best speeds and most features
AC5500 Wifi Router
This type of router is the most powerful and offers the best range and speeds. They are great for those who want the best of both worlds.
AC750 Wifi Router
It’s a good choice for those who want a router that is affordable and offers good speeds.
AC1200 Wifi Router
Dual-band Wireless-AC technology delivers combined speeds of up to 1200Mbps so you can enjoy fast, responsive streaming and gaming from more devices at once.
As you can see, there are different types of wifi 6 routers under 200 that you can purchase depending on your needs.
Difference Between Wifi 6 Routers Under 200 From Others
As the latest wireless networking standard, Wifi 6 routers under 200 have a lot to offer in terms of speed and performance. However, there are also a few key differences that set them apart from other types of routers on the market.
One of the biggest differences is that Wifi 6 routers under 200 use OFDMA technology. This allows for much higher data rates and less congestion than older standards. In addition, Wifi 6 also uses MU-MIMO technology, which allows for multiple devices to connect to the router at the same time without slowing down the connection.
Another difference is that Wifi 6 routers under 200 are built with an eye toward the future. The new standard is designed to be scalable so that it can be easily upgraded as new devices come out. In addition, Wifi 6 routers under 200 are also built to be more energy efficient than older models, which can save you money on your electric bill.
Considerations Before Buying A Wifi 6 Router Under 200
This is the first thing you need to consider when purchasing a new router. There are many different types of routers on the market, each with its own set of features. The more features a router has, the more expensive it will be. If you have a limited budget, you may want to consider buying a basic router.
The next thing you need to consider is the features that you need in a router. Each router has different features, and you need to decide which ones are important to you. For example, some routers have parental controls that allow you to block certain websites or limit the amount of time your children can spend online. Other routers have built-in firewalls that protect your network from hackers.
Another important consideration is the speed of the router. The faster the router, the better. However, you need to consider your budget when making this decision. If you have a limited budget, you may want to consider buying a slower router.
The last thing you need to consider is the range of the router. The range is how far the signal can reach from the router. If you have a large home, you will need a router with a good range. Most routers have a range of about 150 feet.
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Benefits Of Wifi 6 Router Under 200
If you are looking for a new router, you may be wondering if you should get a WiFi 6 router. There are many benefits of WiFi 6 that make it worth considering, especially if you have a lot of devices that connect to the internet. Here are some of the top benefits of WiFi 6 routers:
1. Increased Speed
One of the biggest benefits of WiFi 6 is that it offers increased speed. If you have a lot of devices that need to connect to the internet, this can be a huge advantage. With WiFi 6, you can expect speeds up to four times faster than traditional WiFi 5 routers.
2. Improved Range
Another big benefit of WiFi 6 is that it offers an improved range. This means that you will be able to connect to the internet from further away with a WiFi 6 router. If you have a large home or office, this can be a huge advantage.
3. Reduced Latency
Latency is the time it takes for a device to connect to the internet. With WiFi 6, you can expect reduced latency, which means that you will be able to connect to the internet faster. If you use the internet for gaming or other activities that demand low latency, this can be a huge benefit.
4. Greater Capacity
WiFi 6 routers have a greater capacity than traditional WiFi 5 routers. This means that they can handle more devices that are connecting to the internet.
5. Better Battery Life
Another benefit of WiFi 6 is that it can help to improve battery life. This is because WiFi 6 uses less power than traditional WiFi 5 routers.
If you are looking for a new router, WiFi 6 is worth considering. Many benefits make it a great choice, especially if you have a lot of devices that need to connect to the internet.
How To Maintain A Wifi 6 Router Under 200?
With the development of technology, our life has become more and more convenient. The emergence of WiFi routers has greatly promoted the popularization of wireless networks. However, many people do not know how to maintain their WiFi routers properly, which often leads to a decrease in network speed or even network failure. Therefore, it is very important to learn how to maintain a WiFi router.
In general, the maintenance of WiFi routers is not difficult. As long as we pay attention to some details in daily use, we can effectively extend the service life of WiFi routers and ensure the stability of wireless networks.
1. Keep the environment around the router clean
The working environment of the router will directly affect the heat dissipation effect of the router. If the environment around the router is dirty or there are too many obstacles, the heat dissipation of the router will be affected, which will easily lead to network failure. Therefore, it is very important to keep the environment around the router clean and unobstructed.
2. Do not place the router in a humid or dusty place
It is not advisable to place the router in a humid or dusty place. If the router is placed in a humid or dusty environment for a long time, the internal components of the router will be easily damaged by moisture or dust, which will affect the normal operation of the router and even cause network failure.
3. Avoid using the router in a high-temperature environment
In addition to avoiding humidity and dust, it is also very important to avoid using the router in a high-temperature environment. If the temperature is too high, the internal components of the router will be easily damaged, which will affect the normal operation of the router and even cause network failure.
How To Utilize A Wifi 6 Router Under 200?
There are many ways that you can utilize a wifi 6 router under 200. One way is to use it as an access point for your home network. This means that you can use the router to connect to the internet and then share the connection with all of the devices on your home network. This can be a great way to save money on your monthly internet bill, as well as to keep your home network more secure.
Another way that you can use a wifi 6 router under 200 is to use it as a repeater. This means that you can place the router in an area where there is a weak signal and then use it to amplify the signal so that it can reach all of the devices on your home network. This can be a great way to improve the range of your home network and to make sure that all of your devices can connect to the internet.
Finally, you can also use a wifi 6 router under 200 to create a guest network. This can be a great way to allow people to connect to your home network without having to give them your password. This can be a great way to keep your home network more secure and to make sure that only people you trust can connect to it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is A Wifi 6 Router Under 200 Worth It?
YES! A Wifi 6 router under 200 is worth it because it will give you the best gaming and 4K streaming experience. It also has the latest technology that will make your internet connection faster and more stable.
Are A Wifi 6 Router Under 200 Expensive?
Not at all! A Wifi 6 router under 200 is quite affordable. You can easily find one that fits your budget and needs.
How To Clean A Wifi 6 Router Under 200?
Use a damp cloth to wipe down the outside of the router. Be careful not to get water inside the router. You can also use a vacuum with a soft brush attachment to remove dust from the vents.
In conclusion, a wifi 6 router under 200 is the best way to go if you want to improve your home network. Many benefits come with this new technology including faster speeds and improved security. We hope that this article has helped you to understand more about wifi 6 and how it can benefit your home network.
My name is Eythor Westman and I am the founder of justwifirouter.com, a blog dedicated to providing readers with the latest technology news and reviews on WiFi routers. With years of experience in the field, my goal is to equip readers with accurate and up-to-date information so they can stay ahead of the curve. My passion for technology drives me to stay informed on all things related to network security and staying connected online. Let me help you make technology work for you!


7 Basic Electrical Repairs Even Beginners Can Do
Electrical systems can be dangerous if they aren’t properly maintained. By understanding the basics of electricity, you can keep your home safe and prevent unnecessary fires.
There are several basic repairs you can make to your home’s electrical system if you have the proper tools and safety precautions. Read on to learn about 7 of them that even beginner DIYers can do!
1. Turn Off the Power
There are a number of electrical repairs that even novice DIYers can do, and many of them don’t require any advanced skills or tools. Nevertheless, it’s important to be aware of safety precautions and know how to pick the right tools for the job.
For example, a basic tool needed for most electrical repair jobs is a non-contact circuit tester. This can help you verify that all power has been shut off to your house.
Another essential tool for most electrical repairs is a pair of good quality wire pliers. These should have insulated grips to minimize damage from cutting wires accidentally.
One final tool that you’ll need is a flashlight, since you might have to work in the dark. This is especially true if you’re working on the service panel in the basement or another interior room without windows.
The service panel in your home has rows of individual switches that look like toggles and a main circuit breaker on top. This breaker controls all the power flowing to the switch switches inside the panel door. There should be a list on the panel door that tells you which circuit each switch is controlling.
2. Check the Wiring
One of the most important things to do before doing any electrical work is to check your home’s wiring. Faulty wiring can lead to a variety of problems, including fires.
If you see any signs of damage, such as a melted wire or smoke, you should immediately contact an electrician to fix the problem. This can prevent a fire from happening and protect your family.
It’s also a good idea to check your home’s wiring on a regular basis to ensure there are no safety issues. Older houses often have wiring that’s outdated and dangerous, which could cause a fire.
Another thing to look for is the type of wire being used. Aluminum wiring is generally less safe than copper. If your home has aluminum wire, you should replace it right away to protect yourself and your family.
It’s also important to test the wires in your home with a voltmeter. This will help you figure out where the power is coming from and which circuit it’s connected to.
3. Replace a Light Fixture
If you’re not happy with the current light fixture in your home or are tired of it, you can upgrade to something new. It’s important to choose a replacement that matches your preferences, because you want something that looks good and feels right.
First, remove the wiring from the old light fixture, using a voltage tester to confirm that there is no power flowing. You may need to unscrew a few screws to get the wiring free.
Disconnect the wires from each wire connector on the old fixture. These wires will usually have black or red current wires, white neutral wires, and a green ground wire attached to the ceiling box.
Next, connect the corresponding wires from the new light fixture to the wires on the ceiling box. This is the part that’s often the most difficult to do properly.
The frayed ends of the black and white wires will need to be connected together, and the copper ground wire (sometimes called a green ground screw) will need to be connected to the circuit ground wire. Follow the instructions that came with your new fixture to make sure you do this correctly.
4. Replace a Switch
Replacing a light switch is one of the most basic electrical repairs you can do. It doesn’t require any special knowledge or tools, and it can be done in a spare hour.
The first step is to turn off the power at your circuit breaker panel or fuse box. This will protect any other devices and prevent anyone from accidentally turning the power back on.
After that, you can begin to disconnect the wires from the old switch and prepare the new switch for installation. This is a good time to take a close-up photo of the wiring so you can recall it later when it’s time to connect all the wires correctly.
Next, remove about a half inch of insulation from the ends of the wires. If the switch has locking tabs, remove these by inserting a narrow-blade screwdriver in slots next to the wire-grip holes.
Once all the wires are out, transfer them one at a time from the old switch to the new. It’s easiest to do this if you have the wires connected in their original positions on the old switch; if not, you may need to disconnect them one at a time until you can verify that they are all connecting properly.
5. Replace a Outlet
Whether you’re in the midst of a remodel or you simply want to do some minor tweaking in your home, some electrical repairs can be done on your own. For others, you should consult a licensed electrician.
If your outlet is recessed too deeply into the wall, you’ll need to tuck it back in place with some outlet shims (available at any home improvement store). Before you do this, turn off the power and use a voltage tester to ensure that no electricity is being sent to the outlet.
You’ll also need to check that it doesn’t have any damage that could prevent it from receiving electricity. To do this, touch the probes of your voltage tester to the upper pair of screws on the outlet and to the lower pair of screws on the outlet casing.
The wires connected to the outlet may be attached with screw terminals, or push-in ‘back-wire’ slots. If your receptacle uses screw terminals, you’ll need to use a needle-nose pliers to bend each end of the wire so that it loops clockwise around the screw terminals.
6. Replace a Circuit Breaker
A circuit breaker is designed to trip when it senses an issue with the electrical wiring in your home. A tripped breaker will cut off power to the circuit until you can fix the issue and get it back on line.
Typically, a tripped breaker will happen when a wire is touching another or there’s a short circuit. This can be caused by too many appliances running at once, a loose wire, or something like a tree branch that’s fallen on the electrical wire.
The first step in replacing a circuit breaker is to remove it from the panel. You can do this by using a screwdriver to loosen the black wire that attaches to a screw-down terminal on the side of the breaker.
Next, unplug any appliances or other devices that are connected to the circuit breaker. Doing so will help you find the exact location of the problem.
After you’ve found the breaker that needs to be replaced, mark it with some electrical tape (a bright color like orange is best for convenience but any color will work). Shut off the main circuit breaker and any ancillary equipment breakers before proceeding.
7. Replace a Wire
Whether you’re an avid DIYer or just want to save money on your next project, understanding how electricity works in your home is essential. Not only is it important for safety purposes, but it also can help you make informed decisions about upgrades and maintenance.
One of the simplest electrical repairs that even beginners can do is replace a wire. It’s a quick fix that won’t cost you too much and can be done safely.
First, determine which wire is damaged. This can be easy with a multimeter, which is a tool that measures resistance. To do this, simply touch the black probe of your meter to one wire and the red probe to the other wire.
Next, check for signs of fraying or cracking. If you notice any, wrap the wire in electrical tape to protect it and prevent it from further damage.
You can also use heat-shrink tubing to fix damaged wires. It can be an effective and inexpensive way to repair a wire, but it can be dangerous if you overheat the tube or don’t use it properly.


A few months ago I decided to update my desktop PC to Windows 8. I am somewhat ambivalent about the new Metro/Modern UI, but I figured that I would update anyway just to be on the latest and greatest.
Unfortunately, after I updated, I started experiencing a lot of bizarre blue-screen crashes. At the same time, sometimes my machine would refuse to get through the BIOS startup at all, which would seem to indicate an issue with hardware rather than with the OS. I suspected perhaps that it was an issue with the SSD I had installed a while back (a Crucial M4), because the BIOS startup code would hang on drive detection. I tried updating the firmware for it, but that didn’t seem to do anything. Finally, after a more serious bout of being unable to boot for an extended period of time, I got frustrated and started trying to isolate things further.
I turned off my external Blu-ray writer (an ASUS BW-12D1S-U), and then all of a sudden I was able to boot consistently. I thought that was very strange, and then got to thinking that maybe it was because I had plugged it into one of the front USB 2.0 ports on my case, and maybe that was drawing too much power. The reason I had plugged it in there was that a different USB 3.0 hub that I had bought (a SIIG JU-H60012-S1) had always been kind of flaky, and didn’t seem to work well with Windows 8 — I checked the Device Manager, and it was listed as “Superspeed USB Hub (Non Functional)”, which was kind of off-putting.
It turns out that there is a firmware update for that USB hub that gets it to work correctly with Windows 8 (I’m guessing that may be more of a “gets it to work correctly at all” update). Applying that update allowed the hub to work in Windows 8, and, in turn, allowed me to plug my Blu-ray writer into it (a separately-powered hub) rather than directly to my computer. And (crossing my fingers) that seems to have solved my stability problems so far.
My layman’s guesses as to why the problems initially seemed to be related to Windows 8:
- There might be power-management changes in the USB drivers for Windows 8, that might be changing behavior slightly and triggering problems with my particular setup.
- I might have switched where I plugged the drive in after I upgraded, not realizing that was what was causing the problem to begin with.
- I didn’t use the hub that often before I updated to Windows 8, and didn’t realize that the hub itself could potentially be screwing with the rest of my system.
I’m just glad that everything seems to be working now, and I can soldier on a bit further with my system (which is almost 3 years old now!)…


Light-bulb moment: LED vs halogen and fluorescent lighting
Have you heard all the hype about making the change between traditional light bulbs and these new energy efficient LED bulbs? There are many different types of light bulbs on the market today, but what are the differences? Allow us to show you in this brief and easy to read comparison.
These bulbs typically will last between 2,250-3,500 hours which is substantially longer than the incandescent bulbs. The Halogen bulbs give off a very crisp, bright light that is white. Majority of vehicle lights are using Halogen bulbs because they do not fad over time like Incandescent bulbs. The down side to these bulbs though is their high energy consumption and extreme heat output. Halogen bulbs have been banned from certain universities because of their fire hazard risk.
You have to push the old stigma out of your head when it comes to these bulbs, the new and improved models are not as noisy nor do they flicker like the older models used to. The Fluorescent bulb is a long skinny glass tube that is covered with phosphor on the inside. This gas along with a small amount of mercury is what causes these bulbs to function. The glass tubes rely on the electronic ballasts which regulate the electricity flow through the bulb. These bulbs will last you about 10,000 or more hours. So, they are the longest lasting bulbs on the market.
Also known as light-emitting diode bulb, use a semiconductor as the light source. This is one of the most energy efficient options at this point. These light bulbs last a lot longer than the other options on the market, but they do cost a little more as well.
These bulbs have been used for almost 120 years and have been wonderful until the new options that are more energy efficient came out. The bulbs work by heating up a wire filament inside the glass to heat up which causes the glow (or light). These bulbs obviously get hot to the touch and will give off a substantial amount of heat. These last about 750-1,000 hours on average and are very inexpensive to purchase.
The smartest way to shop for light bulbs…when you are out on your next shopping trip to your favourite Australian shop looking for light bulbs be sure to watch out for the little blue and white star with the words “Energy Star” on them, these products are widely known as the most energy efficient products on the market.


Sunday, June 21, 2009
Preventing a 'reversal of fortune' in the field
The July 2009 edition of WorldRadio Online magazine's Trail-Friendly Radio column, by Richard Fisher, KI6SN, features details on a simple field-operation accessory that can spare the operator a ton of headaches caused by fried equipment, as well as a ton of embarrassment.
This reverse polarity protector can help you to avoid a reversal of fortune when out on the trail.
All it takes is inadvertently hooking up your battery cables backward: POSITIVE lead to the NEGATIVE battery terminal, and vice versa. The WRO article has full construction details. Pictured here is the circuitry housed in a nice plastic box.
A black power cable with large alligator-style clip leads goes to the battery. An RCA jack with appropriate cable goes from the unit to your transceiver.
With this accessory in line, if you mistakenly get battery polarity reversed, a protecting diode shorts the DC to ground and the fuse blows - saving your equipment.
Two spare fuses are wrapped in white tissue and stored in the box, ready to be called upon if any knuckleheaded battery connections are made.
Here's the circuit's schematic:
Click here to see the latest edition of WorldRadio Online magazine.
(For an enlarged view, click on the image.)


I had discussion on PHP dev mailing list. It appeared that not few developers misunderstand “What is Input Validations“. Therefore, I summarize computer programming fundamentals and basics to help understanding validations.
Without fundamentals and basics understanding, discussion is meaningless. “Input Validation” is one of the most important countermeasure for cyber attacks. The idea is strongly supported by notable computer scientists (e.g. CMU’s CERT) and security specialists, yet it is misunderstood by majority of developers. Therefore, almost all web applications are missed to have proper “Input Validation” currently.
I came across this discussion too often, so I summarize why, “Input Validation”, “Input Data Validation” or “Application Input Data Validation” especially, is fundamental and mandatory requirement for applications.
“Application Input Data Validation” and “Business Logic Validation” are 2 different validations by fundamentals and principles. Except few exceptions, ALL web application input data can be validated by “Application Input Data Validation” without user interactions. This achieves more secure state and cleaner/manageable code structure. Thus, applications should implement “Application Input Data Validation” always.
Note: “Application Input Data Validation” is NOT a replacement of “Business Logic Validation”.


What is Etherscan?
Etherscan is the leading Block Explorer for the Ethereum Blockchain. The platform is most commonly used for looking up, confirming and validating transactions that have taken place on the Ethereum Blockchain.
The main use of Etherscan for developers, however, is to verify their contract by verifying the bytecode of the smart contract (which is stored in the Ethereum network) corresponds to the Solidity code initially available only to the smart contract developer. This means that getting verified on Etherscan is a quality check on your smart contract, and the code is executed accordingly when the smart contract is executed.
The FST Network team believes that it is a good practice to publish your Ethereum Smart Contract code on Etherscan.io under your contract’s address in a main net environment as it represents transparency and signifies readiness of your product. Once deployed, the smart contract will be published on the main net and its code cannot be changed. Because it is no longer a moving target, it becomes easier to audit. However, during our deployment to the main net, we noticed that there are flaws within the etherscan verification framework.
So why did we hack Etherscan?
FST Network provides modularised functions. What exactly does that mean? In layman’s terms, we use smart contracts to generate smart contracts, and this allows our clients to manage and configure their crypto-assets with smart contracts. Because our modules are built upon “Smart Contracts” rather than a “Smart Contract,” we have a powerful objective-orientation structure to support modularization. On top of that, as a rare benefit of modularization, the relationship of each objective of the code is complex such as “call” or “include.” This makes our modules robust for business applications since the core smart contract is lean. This also makes our end-users free from the bug of adopting features from Ethereum.
At FST Network, we take Smart contract security very seriously and formal verification allows us to prove conclusively that certain error states can never occur and our product can deliver what it promised to deliver.
How does Etherscan verify smart contracts and what does it check?
When verifying the contract, there are two factors that are inspected:
1) compiling time should not exceed 30 seconds
2) the complexity of the contract.
Etherescan will compile the Solidity code and ensure the resulting bytecode exactly matches the bytecode stored in the Ethereum network. With that verification in place, clients who are reading the smart contract will know that the code is being executed accordingly when they execute the smart contract.
Our modules involve multiple contracts, and therefore we cannot get verified when Etherscan reads our modules because the compiling time exceeds 30 seconds. Our contracts take approximately 2 minutes to compile.
In addition, in order to get verified, Etherscan compiler will generate a meta-hash in compile result (bytecode) according to modern solidity’s nature. This is their method to prove the contract promise meets the Blockchain result. The bytecode generated by Etherscan’s compiler is different in the official compiler “solc” if the contract is complex. Our objective-orientation is larger than usual scale (2500–4000 lines with 5–10 contracts compared with the normal single contract at 200–500 lines), therefore our meta hash result is different with Etherscan.
So how we hacked Etherscan?
1. We calculated and replaced the meta hash in the compiled result before deploying to the ethereum chain to make the binary consistent with the compiled version in Etherscan.
2. We rewrote the entire contract to non-inheritance format and simplified the logic of our contract. The more abstract the code, the more stability and robustness are sacrificed. We simplified it because, the less effort that is needed to understand and conduct maintenance, the better the ability to extend and elaborate the business logic. In order to verify our smart contract on the Etherscan, we made changed our contract to compile only in low-quality format.
3. The max optimization runs is limited to 200 (which is not the optimal number for most of the contract). So, we “adjusted” the limit.
What does it mean for Etherscan?
From this whole experience, we noticed that the entire framework of Etherscan is designed to verify simple contracts with simple functionalities and is not compliant with the updated version of solidity. This will only bring harm to big projects, as they need to sacrifice features and quality of their code just to get verified on Etherscan. This cannot remain true if we desire that blockchain technology achieve what it needs to achieve — the revolutionary tech that will redefine the economic and digital structure. Smart contracts will only get more robust, not less. If this problem remains as it is, how can a developer convince others of the execution of the smart contract? We already have too many scams in the market. While open sourcing the code on GitHub is a great idea, it gives no guarantees that the code in the repository is even remotely similar to the one running on-chain.
Formal verification allows programmers greater assurances in developing smart contracts. Naturally, any type of security comes at a cost, and we do not need Etherscan to make it any more difficult for the developers.


Welcome to Data Mining Laboratory in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Seoul National University. Our research interests lie in big data mining which aims to find models, algorithms, and systems for scalable data analysis with applications on knowledge discovery, learning, and anomaly detection. Specifically, we focus on the following research topics: big graph mining, big tensor mining, deep learning & scalable machine learning, online stream mining, anomaly/fraud detection, and recommendation system.
Ph.D. student Jinhong Jung won the HumanTech award (silver, 2nd in Computer Science) from Samsung, from his paper "BePI: Fast and Memory-Efficient Method for Billion-Scale Random Walk with Restart". B.S. student Jungwoo Lee also won the Humantech award (bronze, 3rd in Computer Science), from his paper "CTD: Compact Tensor Decomposition for Multi-way Data". HumanTech award is given to best papers in the engineering area, and it is the most prestigious award among such kind in Korea. Congratulations!
The paper "Fast and Scalable Distributed Boolean Tensor Factorization" is accepted to ICDE 2017, a top tier database conference. The paper proposed a distributed algorithm that performs Boolean tensor factorization in a fast and scalable manner by utilizing caching and minimizing data shuffling.
College of Engineering in Seoul National University selected the 'Seven Technologies to Lead the Future' on the 70th anniversary of foundation. Prof. U Kang introduced Amazon's recommendation system and delivery forecasting system to explain Big Data Technology, one of the seven selected technologies, and predicted the future of real-time big data analysis and forecasting technology.
Prof. Kang won the 1st Young Information Scientist Award from Korean Institute of Information Scientists and Engineers. The award is given to the best Korean Scientist under 40 in the area of Computer Science, and is given to only one person per year. Prof. Kang is the first recipeint of the award. Congratulations!
The paper "BePI: Fast and Memory-Efficient Method for Billion-Scale Random Walk with Restart" is accepted to SIGMOD 2017, a top tier database conference. The paper is on fast and memory-efficient RWR computation in very large graphs exploiting characteristics of real-world graphs.


Introduction: LEDura - Analog LED Clock
After a long time of just making various project I decided to make an instructable myself. For the first one, I will guide you through process of making your own analog clock made with awesome addressable LED ring. The inner ring shows the hours, outer ring shows minutes and seconds.
Beside showing the time, clock can also display the room temperature and it can be a very nice decoration in the room. Every 15 minutes, clock also makes some special effects – video shows them all, make sure to check it out. With the help of 2 buttons and potentiometer, user can chose between different mode and modifie colors by his own desire. I also upgraded it to automatically dim the LEDs if the room goes dark, so the user won’t be disturbed during night.
The clock can be placed on the desk, bed table or hanged from the wall.
Note: Pictures are not as good as the view in the reality because of high brightness.
Step 1: How to Read It?
Clock has 2 rings - smaller one for displaying hours and bigger one for displaying minutes and seconds. Some LEDs glow all the time - a so called compass that indicates main clock positions. On hour ring it represents 3, 6, 9 and 12'o clock, on minute ring it represents 15, 30, 45 and 0 minutes.
Step 2: What Will You Need
- 1x Arduino Nano (you can use any other Arduino as well)
- 1x DS3231 RealTimeClock module
- 1x Addressable led ring - 60 LEDs
- 1x Addressable led ring - 24 LEDs
- 2x Buttons (NO - normaly open)
- 1x 100kOhm potentiometter
- 1x 5V power supply (capable of delivering 1 Amp)
- 1x Supply connector
- Some wires
- 1x 10kOhm resistor
- Terminal block wire connectors (optional)
- 25mm thick wood, size at least of 22cmx22cm
- 1mm thin mat PVC plastic size 20cmx20xm
- Basic tools for building electronics (soldering iron, pliers, screwdriver, ...)
- Drill machine
- Hot glue gun
- Sand paper and some wood varnish
- CNC machine (maybe some friend has it)
Step 3: Electronics Components - Background
We could determine the time using Arduinos build in oscillator and a timer, but I decided to use dedicated Real Time Clock (RTC) module, which can keep track of time even if we disconnect the clock from its power source. DS3231 board has a battery, which provides power when module is not connected to power supply. It is also more precise on longer periods of time than Arduinos clock source.
DS3231 RTC uses I2C interface to communicate with micro-controller – very simple to use and we need only 2 wires to communicate with it. Module also provides temperature sensor, which will be used in this project.
Important: If you are planing to use non-rechargeable battery for the RTC module, you should de-solder the 200 ohm resistor or 1N4148 diode. Otherwise your battery might blow up. More information can be found on this link.
WS2812 LED ring
I decided to use 60 LED ring to keep track of minutes and 24 LED ring for hours. You can find them on Adafruit (neoPixel ring) or some cheap versions on eBay, Aliexpress or other web shops. There is a big diversity among the addressable led strips and if it is your first time to play around with them, I recommend you to read through some usage descriptions – here are some useful links:
Addressable LED strip has 3 connectors: 5V, GND and DI/DO. First two are for powering the LEDs, last one is for the data. Be careful while connecting ring to Arduino – your data line must be connected to DI (data IN) pin.
I am using Arduino Nano because it is small and sufficient enough for this project. You can use nearly any other Arduino, but then you must be careful while connecting everything to it. The buttons and LED rings can be on the same pins, but I2C connectors (for RTC module) may differ from platform to platform – check out their datasheet.
Step 4: Electronics - Power Supply
Arduino and LED strip must both be supplied with 5V power source so we know which voltage is needed. Since the LED rings it draws quite a lot of amps we can’t power it directly with Arduino, which can withstand max 20mA on its digital output. By my measurements, LED rings can together draw up to 500 mA. That’s why I bought an adapter which is capable of supplying up to 1A.
With the same power supply we want to power Arduino and LEDs - here you have to be careful.
Warning! Be extra careful when you are testing the LED strip – power adapter must NOT be connected to Arduino, when Arduino is also connected to PC with USB connector (you can damage your computer USB port).
Note: In the schematics below I used normal switch to select if Arduino is powered via power supply or via USB connector. But on the perfboard you can see that I added a pin header to select from which power source Arduino is powered.
Step 5: Electronics - Soldering
When you gather all the parts it is time to solder them together.
Because I wanted to make the wiring neat, I used perfboard and some terminal block connector for wires, so I can unplug them in case of modifications. This is optional - you can also solder the wires directly to the Arduino.
A tip: it is easier if you print the schematics so you have it in-front of you while soldering. And double check everything before connecting to power supply.
Step 6: Software - Background
We are going to program Arduino with its dedicated software: Arduino IDE. If you are playing with Arduino for the first time, I recommend you to check some instructables on how to do it. There is already plenty tutorials in the web, so I won’t go to details.
I decided to use FastLED library instead of popular Adafruit. It has some neat math functions with which you can do great effects (Thumbs up to the developers!). You can find the library on their GitHub repository, but I added the .zip file of version that I am using in my code.
If you are wondering, how to add external library to Arduino IDE you can check some already made instructions
For the clock module I used Arduino library for the DS3231 real-time clock (RTC) (link), which you can easily install in Arduino IDE. When you are in IDE, click to Sketch → Include library → Manage libraries… and then filter your search with the name above.
Note: For some reason I currently can't add .zip files. You can find the library on my GitHub repository.
Step 7: Software - Code
The application is constructed with 4 files:
- LEDclokc.ino --> This is main Arduino application, where you can find functions for controlling the whole clock – they start with prefix CLOCK_.
- LEDclokc.h --> here are pin connection defines and some clock configurations.
- ring.cpp and ring.h --> here is my code for controlling the LED rings.
Here you will find all the clock definitions. In the beginning, there are definitions for wiring. Make sure they are the same as your connections. Then there are clock configurations – here you can find the macro for number of modes that the clock has.
On the diagram, main loop is represented. Code first checks if any button is pressed. Because of the nature of switches, we must use debbouncing method to read their values (you can read more about this on the link).
When button 1 is pressed, variable mode is raised by 1, if button 2 is pressed, variable type is raised. We use these variables to determine, which clock mode we want to see. If both buttons are pressed at the same time, function CLOCK_setTime() is called so you can change the time of the clock.
Later code reads the value of potentiometer and stores it into variable – whit this variable user can change the colors of the clock, brightness etc.
Then there is a switch-case statement. Here we determine in which mode clock is currently in, and by that mode, corresponding function is called, which sets up the LEDs colors. You can add your own clock modes and re-write or modify the functions.
As described in FastLED library, you have to call function FastLED.show() on the end, which turns the LEDs to the color we previously set them up to.
You can find much more detailed descriptions between the code lines.
Whole code is attached below in the files below.
TIP: you can find whole project on my GitHub repository. Here the code will also be updated if I will add any changes to it.
Step 8: Make the Clock
I built the clock frame using CNC machine and 25mm thick wood. You can find the sketch drawn in ProgeCAD attached bellow. The slots for LED ring are a bit larger, because manufactures only provide the measurements of outer diameter – inner may vary quite a lot… In the back of the clock, there is a lot of space for electronics and wires.
Because LEDs are quite bright it is good to diffuse them somehow. First I tried with transparent silicone, which does the job of diffusing, but it is quite messy and it is hard to get it smooth on top. That is why I ordered a 20x20 cm piece of “milk” PVC plastics and cut two rings in it with CNC machine. You can use sandpaper to soften the edges so the rings slip in the slots.
Then it is time to drill the holes for buttons, potentiometer and power supply connector. Firstly, draw every position with a pencil, then drill in the hole. Here it depends what type of buttons you have – I went with push buttons with slightly curved head. They have 16mm of diameter so I used wood drill of that size. Same goes for potentiometer and power connector. Be sure to erase all the pencil drawings afterwards.
Step 9: Draw in the Wood
I decided to draw some clock indicators in the wood – here you can use your imagination and design your own. I burned the wood using soldering iron, heated to max temperature.
For the circles to be nicely round, I used a piece of aluminum, drilled a hole into it and followed the edges of the hole with soldering iron (look at the picture). Make sure that you are holding aluminum firmly, so it doesn’t slip while drawing. And be cautious while doing it to prevent injuries.
If you are making drawings and want them to be nicely aligned to the clock pixels, you can use “Maintenance mode” which will show you where the pixels are going to be located (go to chapter Assemble).
Protect the wood
When you are satisfied with the clock it is time to sand it and protect it with wood varnish. I used very soft sandpaper (value of 500) to soften the edges. I recommend you to use transparent wood varnish, so the color of the wood doesn’t change. Put a small amount of varnish on the brush and pull it in the direction of the annuals in the wood. Repeat it at least 2 times.
Step 10: Assamble
Firs put the buttons and potentiometer on their positions – if your holes are too big, you can use some hot glue to fix them in place. Then put the ring strip in its slots and connect its wires to the Arduino. Before you glue the LED ring into its place it is good to be sure, that LED pixels are in right place – centered and aligned with the drawing. For that purpose I added so called Maintenance mode which will display all the important pixels (0, 5, 10, 15, … on minute ring and 3, 6, 9 and 12 on hour ring). You can enter this mode by pressing and holding both buttons, before plugging the power supply to the connector. You can exit this mode by pressing any button.
When you have your LED rings aligned, apply some hot glue and hold them while glue gets firm. Then take your PVC rings and again: apply some hot glue to the LEDs, quickly position them and hold them for a couple of seconds. In the end, when you are sure that everything works you can hot glue the per board (or Arduino) to the wood. Tip: do not apply to much glue. Just a small amount so it holds in one place but you can easily remove it if you would like to change something later.
On the very end, insert coin cell battery to its holder.
Step 11: Upgrade - Photoresistor
The clock effects are especially nice in the dark. But this can disturb its user during the night, while he or she sleeps. That is why I decided to upgrade the clock with the feature of automatic brightness correction – when the room goes dark; the clock turns off its LEDs.
For that purpose, I used the light sensor - photo resistor. Its resistance will significantly rise; up to few mega ohms when it is dark and it will have only few hundred ohms when there is light shining on it. Together with a normal resistor they form the voltage divider. So when the resistance of the light sensor changes, so does the voltage on Arduino analogue pin (which we can measure).
Before soldering and assembling any circuit, it is wise to simulate it first, so you can see the behavior and make corrections. Whit the help of Autocad Tinkercad you can do exactly that! With just a few clicks I added the components, connected them and wrote the code. In the simulation you can see how the LEDs brightness is changed according to the value of photo resistor. It is very simple and straightforward - you are welcome to play with the circuit.
After simulation it was time to add the feature to the clock. I drilled a hole in the centre of the clock, glued the photo resistor, connected it like it can be seen on the circuit and added few lines of code. In the file LEDclock.h you have to enable this feature by declaring USE_PHOTO_RESISTOR as 1. You can also change at which room brightness the clock will dim the LEDs by changing the CLOCK_PHOTO_TRESHOLD value.
Step 12: Enjoy!
When you will power it for the first time, the clock will show some random time. You can set it up by pressing both buttons at the same time. Turn the knob to select the right time and confirm it with the press of any button.
I found inspiration in some very neat project on the internet. If you decide to build the clock on your own, check them out as well! (NeoClock, Wol Clock, Arduino Colorful Clock) If you ever decide to try to follow instructables, I hope you find making it as enjoyable as I did.
If you stumble across any trouble along the process of making it, feel free to ask me any question in the comments – I will gladly try to answer it!
Participated in the
Arduino Contest 2020