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Engineers Build a Alt Energy Device That Generates Power at Night

Catwell — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 20:51:19 GMT

Render and data show radiative cooling of the top plate to the night sky and warming of the bottom plate to the ground. This produced a temperature difference that powered the engine. (Image Credit: ScienceAdvances) Engineers at the University ...(read more)

Japan’s Sidewalks Converts Human Footsteps into Useable Electricity

Catwell — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 21:03:12 GMT

(Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons) Wind and sunlight are the most common sources of renewable energy, powering turbines and solar panels worldwide. Japan and other countries are now tapping a subtler source: footsteps on piezoelectric sidewalks to ge...(read more)

Japan is Working on Three Surprising Hydrogen Projects

Catwell — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 20:09:20 GMT

Rendering of the co-firing hydrogen engine built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries. (Image Credit: Kawasaki) Kawasaki Heavy Industries constructed the first-ever 8MW KG Series co-firing hydrogen engine, which generates electricity. It operates on natural...(read more)

Japan Extracts Rare Earth Elements from Seabed Mud

Catwell — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 15:09:54 GMT

Japan’s Chikyu deep-sea drilling vessel recently extracted samples of rare earth elements from seabed sediment. (Photo By Gleam - Photo taken by Gleam., CC BY-SA 3.0) Japan is starting to take action on a decade-old plan to move away from Chi...(read more)

Energy left in "dead" batteries?!

Attila Tőkés — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 16:49:51 GMT

Hi Element14 Community! Traditional alkaline batteries tend to "die" at the most inconvenient times. I used to I have them in devices like wireless mouse and keyboards, and it felt that the batteries were draining fairly quickly, catc...(read more)

Building a Smart Electronic Load | 2026 Update (#3)

Attila Tőkés — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 18:22:09 GMT

Hi E14 Community! Wanted to give a quick update on my Smart Electronic Load project. Since the last time from one year ago, Building a Smart Electronic Load | DAC and Initial Firmware (#2), the project was progressing relati...(read more)

Triplet Antennas Unlock Low-Voltage NIR-II LEDs

Catwell — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 21:02:13 GMT

Artist’s rendering of a lanthanide-doped nanoparticle in the shape of a spider and the web (made of 9-ACA). (Image Credit: Zhongzheng Yu/) Engineers at the University of Cambridge have developed a technique that enables the electrical activati...(read more)

Hot Gadget Alert: My First Tinker With the Multicomp Pro Thermal Camera

foxbat — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 13:29:38 GMT

Unboxing the Multicomp Pro Professional Thermal Imager : A First Look The fine (and clearly very patient) folks of the element14 Community somehow concluded that my particular brand of Halloween-themed tinkering deserved to win this year’s Hall...(read more)

Designing for Ultra-Low Power: Strategies for Edge and Battery-Powered Devices

Catwell — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 21:00:20 GMT

(Image credit: Pixabay) If you’ve ever designed a product meant to run off a battery and last a long time, you know how brutal reality can be. You start with hope and a 10,000 mAh battery, and six months later, you’re back in meeti...(read more)

Researchers Develop Energy Harvesting System That Could Power Wearables

Catwell — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 21:06:24 GMT

The IE-TENG system generates electricity through the intrusion and extrusion of liquid in the silicon nanopores. (Image Credit: TU Hamburg, DESY, Künsting) Engineers at Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH) and other European institutions dev...(read more)

Inventor of the Super Soaker is Working on a Next Gen Energy Generation Device

Catwell — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 20:58:47 GMT

Lonnie Johnson, inventor of the Super Soaker, is working on the JTEC device. (Image Credit: Johnson Energy Storage) We’re familiar with the legendary Super Soaker, a fun water gun invented by Lonnie Johnson that earned him a $1 billion profit ...(read more)

The Latest Insight into Low-Power Design for Always-On Edge AI Devices

Catwell — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 22:00:43 GMT

(Image credit: Freepik) AI is no longer limited to cloud data centers or high-performance machines; it’s being pushed to the edge in the form of mobile devices, smart cameras, industrial sensors, wearables, and other consumer platforms. These ...(read more)

The Rise of GaN and SiC: What Power Designers Need to Know

Catwell — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 20:49:55 GMT

(Image credit: Pixabay) For years, silicon has been the default foundation of power electronics, but like any technology, that’s changing fast. Wide-bandgap semiconductors such as Gallium Nitride (GaN) and Silicon Carbide (SiC) are transformin...(read more)

Harvesting Ambient Energy: Real World Use Cases in 2025

Catwell — Thu, 30 Oct 2025 20:01:23 GMT

Solar Harvesting for Remote IoT Networks Solar power. (Image Credit: Wikimediaimages/pixabay) Remote IoT nodes still rely on solar power as a source of energy. At the Myriota deployment in June 2025, isolated farms and island resorts had ultra-low-p...(read more)

Teacher Transmits Sound using a Laser and Solar Panel Connected to a Speaker

Catwell — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 06:37:59 GMT

Chemistry teacher Phillip Cook noticed that when he fired a laser at a solar panel, it emitted sound. Cook found that he could wirelessly transmit sound, with the solar panel acting as a receiver. (Image credit Phillip Cook via YouTube) Chemistry te...(read more)