Category Archives: Newsworthy

MEMS Technology Helps To Measure Flow

Smart technologies are creating compact and lightweight sensing elements. Apart from being optimal, fast, and efficient solutions, these are not limited to only the data input functions as the conventional sensing technologies are. Rather, they integrate the areas of sensing and control while offering high-value information that humans or systems can subsequently process. Several unique and advanced technologies such as MEMS form the concept of sensing and control expertise. For example, flow sensors use the ButterflyMEMS technology to operate.

Flow sensors using the MEMS technology operate with major advantages. For example, they can easily measure flow speed ranging from 1 mm per second to 40 m per second. To understand this better, ButterflyMEMS technology can sense the fluttering of the wings of a butterfly and the roar of a typhoon with equal ease. A tiny MEMS flow sensor does all the work and it is the size of a 1.5 mm square chip, which is only 0.4 mm thick.

Conventionally, flow sensors have been using the method of resistance measurement. The method senses the change in electrical resistance of a filament because of a change in temperature caused by the flow of material across the filament. Balancing the resistance of the filament is a time-consuming method, which forms the major disadvantage of this method and makes it expensive.

In contrast, the MEMS flow sensor utilizes a thermopile, an element that converts thermal energy into electrical energy. This technology offers several advantages not seen earlier. For instance, MEMS technology offers cheaper operation, only a few adjustments, high sensitivity, and low power consumption.

This advanced sensor can even sense the direction of flow. The chip has two sets of thermopiles located on either side of a tiny heater element. The thermopiles measure the deviations in heat symmetry that the gas flow causes. The chip senses the direction of flow based on a positive or a negative deviation. A thin layer of insulating film covers the sensor chip and protects it from being exposed to the gas.

In the absence of flow, temperature distribution remains uniform around the heater and there is no differential voltage between the two thermopiles. With even the smallest flow, the heat symmetry collapses, as the thermopile on the side of the heater facing the flow shows a lower temperature, while the thermopile on the other side is warmer. This temperature difference causes a differential voltage to appear between the two thermopiles. This voltage is proportional to the mass flow rate.

The superb characteristic of the sensing chip comes from an unusual shape created by a unique etching technology. Compared to the conventional silicon etching, this unique etching technology creates a larger sensing area in the same volume. This results in a cavity design enabling heating with greater efficiency while keeping the power consumption low. Additionally, the cross-point of temperature characteristic can be factory adjusted, which results in high output stability even when the ambient temperature fluctuates.

Within the actual sensor, a set of screens in the sensor inlet produces a uniform, laminar flow through the sensor offering optimal mass flow readings. An orifice in the outlet side of the sensor buffers against pulsing flows.

Rectannas : Will They Make Solar Cells Obsolete?

Professor Baratunda Cola and colleagues at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, claims to have improved on the solar cells available. They have reported their findings in Nature Nanotechnology. The new type of solar cell is actually a rectenna – half antenna and half rectifier that can be tuned to any frequency as a detector, while generating electricity from solar and infrared light falling on it.

The team claims they can achieve a broad-spectrum efficiency of 40 percent with their new cell, although the efficiency they have achieved so far is only one percent. Comparatively, conventional solar cells such as the silicon and multi-junction gallium arsenide types have a maximum efficiency of 20 percent. The team also claims their rectenna can achieve an upper limit of 90 percent efficiency for single wavelength conversion at only a one-tenth the cost of conventional solar cells.

The theory of rectennas is not new, but was discovered more than 50 years ago. However, so far, technology was not advanced enough to fabricate them. According to Professor Baratunda Cola, with currently available technology, it is now possible to make cheap solar-to-electricity converters from carbon nanotubes with ends turned into a special tunnel diode. Cola says the concept is well suited for mass production.

Rectennas are made by growing fields of vertical carbon nanotubes. Their length roughly matches the wavelength of the energy source – for solar radiation, it is one micron. An insulating dielectric such as aluminum oxide caps the carbon nanotubes on the tethered end of the bundles. On the dielectric grows a low-work function of metal – calcium/aluminum. This arrangement makes each nanotube a rectenna with a two electron-volt potential when collecting sunlight and converting it to direct current.

According to Cola, the process uses three steps. In the first step, they grow a large array of vertical nanotube bundles. Then one end of the tubes is coated with a dielectric, while a layer of metal is deposited. One end of the nanotubes changes to a super-fast metal-insulator-metal type of tunnel diode by this process. This method is eminently suitable for mass production, and up to ten times cheaper than making crystalline silicon cells.

With its metal-insulator-metal form, the structure resembles a capacitor with a rating of a few attofarads (1aF = 10-18F). Each nanotube bundle is only 10-20 microns in diameter and consequently, the area of the capacitor plates is so small that the electrical field concentration at the end of the nanotube is very high. With the low work function of the metal, the device behaves just as a tunnel diode does in the peta-hertz (1015 Hertz) region when excited by solar energy and emits electrons in bursts of femtoseconds (10-15 seconds).

Commercialization will require several trillions of nanotube bundles growing side-by-side. Once optimized for higher efficiency, this bunch of nanotube bundles could ramp the power output well into the megawatt range. According to Cola, increasing the efficiency can be achieved by lowering the contact resistance between the antenna and diode. The team expects to improve the efficiency up to 40 percent in only a few years.

Differential Pressure with a Tiny Sensor

Process control requires system operators to monitor and control the condition and movement of liquids and gases. Several instruments are available for this, allowing measurement and monitoring of variables, and these fall under the categories of pressure, temperature, level, and flow. Among the pressure-gage category, differential-pressure gages receive the widest recognition for being the largest specialty type – useful in filtration, flow, and level measurements.

While standard pressure gages measure pressure at a single point in a system, differential pressure gages measure pressures at two points and display the difference on a single dial. This makes it easy for the operator to know at a glance, which of the two points is at a higher pressure, and by how much. Use of differential pressure gages greatly reduces operator error, protecting expensive equipment. They reduce operator training and maintenance time, thereby improving process efficiency.

For instance, differential pressure gages are popularly applied in filtration. In this process, a filter separates unwanted contaminants or particles from a gas or liquid system. However, with the progress of the process, the filter becomes increasingly clogged, leading to a drop in efficiency and pressure at the outlet.

It would seem enough to use a single standard pressure gage at the outlet to monitor the health of the filter and assess the time for its inspection and replacement. However, the situation is complicated, as most processes do not maintain a steady working pressure. Several factors are responsible for this, such as compressor or pump on-off cycles or valve open-close cycles, causing wide pressure fluctuations in most processes. For many systems, operators expect such fluctuations of pressure as normal, within limits.

Using two standard pressure gages, one at the input and the other at the output, introduces two additional problems for the operator. First, this compounds the accuracy errors resulting from the two gages as against error from one gage. Second, the operator needs training in reading the two gages, then subtracting the readings, and finally, interpreting the result. History shows many operators do not truly understand the importance of the calculation.

Installing one differential pressure gage using the same taps at the filter inlet and outlet solves all the problems listed above. The accuracy goes up as the rate of error drops. Additionally, the operator does not have to rely on mathematics to understand and interpret the reading – most differential pressure gage dials feature a red arc to indicate the clogging of the filter.

The SDP3x differential pressure sensor from Sensirion is a tiny device. Its dimensions are only 5x8x5 mm, making it one of the smallest of its kind, but with countless new possibilities of applications. It is well suited for use in portable medical devices as well as in consumer electronics.

Users can choose between an analog signal output and a digital one from two versions of the fully calibrated and temperature-compensated differential pressure sensor. The digital sensor, the SDP31, comes with an I2C interface, while the analog sensor, the SDP36, offers an analog output signal. The sensors have a sampling rate of 2 KHz with a resolution of 16-bits, and a measurement range of +/-500 Pa with a span accuracy of 3% of the reading.

Create a Baby Monitor with the Raspberry Pi

The arrival of a baby nearly always alters the entire timetable for all the members of the family, whether willingly or otherwise. For the parents, if they are first timers, the joy of seeing the tiny human is never-ending – they want to see the baby even if they are away from home. That is where a baby monitor comes in and what better to use for the project other than the versatile single board computer, the Raspberry Pi or RBPi.

As a simple, cheap, and low power computer, the RBPi works as a perfect fit for a baby monitor that has a motion detector and a simple web browser interface. That allows you to see the little one on your phone or laptop any time you want.

You will need the entire RBPi kit for this project. The kit will have the RBPi, its SD Card, the USB charger, and the micro USB cable. Additionally, you will need a USB webcam, an Ethernet cable, and a Wi-Fi dongle or an Ethernet power line adapter. Although not part of the project, you will also need a laptop or a desktop to prepare the SD Card for the RBPi. To interact with the RBPi, you will also need a keyboard, mouse, and a monitor.

From the official site of the Raspberry Pi, download the latest Raspbian image on your laptop. Now transfer the image to your SD card, making sure you have backed up anything important on the SD card beforehand. Writing an image wipes off whatever you have on your SD card, so be careful. If this is complicated for you, pre-pared SD cards are also available. Insert the SD card into the slot on your RBPi, plug in the keyboard, mouse, monitor, and the Ethernet adapter and power up the RBPi.

If you do not have a keyboard, mouse, and monitor for your RBPi, you can still connect to it using your laptop. If you are using Linux or Mac on your laptop, connect using SSH. For Windows, you can use Putty. Once you have powered on the RBPi, there will be only a few LEDs blinking, but nothing else. That is why it makes such a good baby monitor – it is silent.

To connect to the RBPi, you will need to know its IP address. As the RBPi is connected to the Ethernet adapter, your router will be the best place to look – search in the connected devices, and make a note of the IP address. Now, to connect via SSH, issue the command from your laptop: ssh pi@xxx.xxx.x.x, where the xx denote the IP address you noted down from the router. When prompted for a password, enter raspberry, as this is the default.

Update and upgrade your OS to ensure you have all the updates and security patches. Now, install motion, as this is the package to allow you to monitor the baby with the webcam. Configure motion to operate in daemon mode with a low frame rate, and start it working with the command: sudo service motion start. Now browse to the webcam from your laptop with: http://xxx.xxx.x.x:8081.

What is the IEC 61800-5-1 Safety Standard?

Almost all industrial applications require using electric motors in some form. You can see them being used in factory robotics, compressors, blowers, cooling and recirculating pumps, lifts, hoists, mixers, cranes, paper mills, printing presses, conveyor belts, fans and in many other applications. Worldwide, over a 300 million electric motors are in use, and their numbers are growing steadily every year.

When dealing with adjustable-speed electric power-drive systems, it is necessary to isolate the low-voltage control system from the actual motor as it most often runs on a higher voltage. Such smart motor-control systems have other names also, such as AC motor drives or variable-frequency drives. Instead of running the motor at a fixed speed or using mechanical elements to control it, smart control systems employ sophisticated power electronics to control the speed, torque, and position of a motor. Adjustable speed drives improve the efficiency and controlling of motor drive systems substantially, and therefore, are widely used in motor drive applications.

The IEC 61800-5-1 is a safety standard specified by the International Electrotechnical Commission for adjustable-speed electrical power drive systems. It covers the safety aspects related to electrical, thermal and energy. In the part covering electrical safety, the standard defines requirements for ensuring proper insulation between circuits carrying voltages higher than 50 V and any drive system connectors or parts that humans may be able to access. What this means is any part of the system that a person can touch – motor, panel, switch, connector, cable, etc. – must be adequately insulated, if it is carrying a voltage higher than 50 V.

Most adjustable-speed electrical power drives use isolators as one of their key electronic components. For instance, by employing isolated gate drives, isolators control the turning On/Off the power transistors such as MOSFETs or metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors used in the power stages. In addition, there are isolated ADCs or analog-to-digital converters and isolated amplifiers to convey voltage and current feedback from the high-voltage inverter output to the low-voltage control system. Moreover, power drives also need general-purpose communication links, where isolators transfer information from high-voltage circuits to earthed circuits. In this capacity, isolators also act as insulators.

An adjustable speed motor drive system has a grid input, which is typically a three-phase AC power supply typically at 400 V, 690 V, or 830 V at frequencies of 50 or 60 Hz. This is followed by a rectifier stage that converts the AC voltage into DC, filtered by high-voltage DC capacitors. A three-phase inverter usually follows, made up of IGBT, insulated gate bipolar transistor modules. IGBTs have isolated gates through which gate drivers provide the necessary drive voltages to turn the IGBT on and off. The control system uses a closed-loop and receives feedbacks through isolated voltage and current sense elements.

To conform to the IEC 61800-5-1 safety standard, the designer of a motor drive system needs to understand a few definitions such as creepage, clearance, system voltage, working voltage, and overvoltage category. Most industrial motor drives fall under Category-III, as equipment is connected permanently to supply mains, downstream of the distribution board.

Rolly: Rollup Your Keyboards

Anyone who has typed on a touchscreen with his or her thumbs can certify that it gets rather tiring after sometime – especially if you have to hold the smartphone also. At such times, one wishes they had a regular keyboard to allow the use of other fingers also to aid the thumbs. Although a number of keyboards are available, which are small enough to fit easily in the pocket along with the smartphone, LG’s Rolly Keyboard is unique – you can roll and fold it.

LG is coming to the market with an innovatively designed product, the first wireless portable solid keyboard of the industry, which is also roll able. LG’s Rolly Keyboard can easily fit in your pocket, purse or briefcase. It also has two arms that fold out to support your tablet or smartphone, leaving all your fingers free for typing.

Although roll able keyboards are not new in the market, most of these silicone gadgets feel more like an extension of the onscreen keyboard. Their tactile feedback is entirely different from the real feel of a desktop keyboard. That has also led to keyboards with origami-like designs to fit into your pocket. However, LG has managed to combine the feel of a real keyboard with the flexibility of rolling it up.

LG’s Rolly Keyboard, model KBB-700, is made from impact-resistant polycarbonate and ABS plastic. When spread out for use, four rows of keys become visible along with an elongated rectangular box sitting at the top of the keyboard. Inside the box are the two arms that fold out to hold your tablet or smartphone. The box also holds the single AAA battery for powering the keyboard for over three months of normal use. When not in use, the four rows of keys roll up around the rectangular box to form a stick. You can carry the stick easily in your pocket or purse.

Rolly Keyboard uses Bluetooth 3.0 to connect wirelessly to mobile devices. You only have to unroll the keyboard to activate it. Once paired up, any subsequent pairing function works automatically with a specific device. Additionally, you can pair up the keyboard with two devices at a time. A single button press allows you to switch over the keyboard to the other device. Rolly can be powered down simply by rolling it up. The keyboard then forms a stick, making it portable and easy to carry.

Although a portable device, Rolly has a pitch of 17 mm. This, according to LG, is very close to the 18 mm pitch for a desktop keyboard. Pitch being the distance between the centers of any two neighboring keys. That makes typing on Rolly as comfortable as typing on a real desktop keyboard. Additionally, Rolly offers the same tactile feeling as does the desktop keyboard when pressing keys on it. They markings on the Rolly keyboard are high-contrast type and therefore, readability is not an issue.

With Rolly, users can forget the onscreen keyboard on their smartphone. They can keep their smartphone on Rolly’s arms just as they would place a monitor in front of a desktop keyboard. That makes typing on smartphones much simpler than having to use the cramped up keyboard on the screen.

Let Spinpod & Hobie Hold Your Smartphone

Smartphones are getting smarter all the time and their camera functions are improving too. With 13MP+ cameras becoming common in phones, it is possible for anyone to capture stunning photographs. The only requirement to get those shots just right is to have steady hands – especially with panoramic shots. However, gadgets such as the Spinpod and Hobie are now available to take care of that. These are portable motion control unit making it easier to create panoramas. At the same time, you do not have to spin on the spot holding your smartphone.

Independent time-lapse panoramas

You can use the Spinpod for shooting motion time-lapse videos. A simple device with a rotating dock holds your smartphone in the proper position, while allowing it to rotate with a continuous motion. The rotation is smooth and you control the pace, which means there are no more overlaps, disruptive seams and lost pixels, all so usual with handheld panoramas.

Although the slot is 64×13 mm, it fits most Apple and Android phones and a thumb-wheel locks the phone in position. Smaller or larger phones can also be fitted with adapters. Users can use these adapters for holding their smartphones horizontally also. After the device is locked in position, controlling the Spinpod is simple, as it has capacitive touch buttons and LED indicators.

For shooting difficult panoramas, you can delay the start of rotation by 5, 10 or 15 seconds. That gives you ample time to place the Spinpod in its proper position to start the panoramic selfie. In the time-lapse mode, you can set the device to rotate in steps of 0.5, 1, 2, 5 or 10-second intervals. The re-chargeable battery can last for 10 hours of panoramic shoots or 100 hours of time-lapse photography.

Tilted time-lapse photography

However, when you want to tilt your smartphone at any angle for the panoramic shot, you will have to use the Hobie. Looking more like a modified kitchen timer, Hobie is a smartphone-holding gadget that allows users to capture panning time-lapse photos at almost any angle.

According to Mattia Ciuccaiarelli, the designer of Hobie, using a kitchen timer for time-lapse photography is like giving an existing product a new life. However, Hobie does include some clever features and functionalities.

Hobie comes across as a large static wheel mounted atop a kitchen timer. The wheel holds a crossbar with bungees that can rotate 360 degrees. You use the bungees to secure your smartphone (8 cm and below only) in place – that means, no phablets. The rotating crossbar allows the smartphone to be angled in almost any angle, overcoming the limitations of products such as the Spinpod.

As the timer operates on its wind-up mechanism, no batteries or charging are involved. However, you cannot alter the speed of rotation – it always takes 15 minutes to turn 90-degrees. With Hobie on the kitchen timer, you can take still pictures or moving time lapses.

Hobie is a simple, cheap and portable means of capturing time lapses and panoramas with a smartphone. Expect it to start shipping this November.

Farming With Drones & Robots

According to Heidi Johnson, crops and soil agent for Dane County, Wisconsin, “Farmers are the ultimate “innovative tinkerers”.” Farming, through the ages, has undergone vast changes. Although in developing worlds, you will still find stereotype farmers planting his seeds and praying for rain and good weather while waiting for his crops to grow, farm technology has progressed. Therefore, we now have twenty-four hour farming and driverless combines and autonomous tractors have moved out of agro-science fiction. Farmers now are good at developing things that are close to what they need.

For example, the Farm Tech Days Show has farmers discussing technology ranging from the latest sensors to cloud processing for optimizing their yield and robotics that can improve manual tasks. Most farmers are already aware of data analytics, cloud services, molecular science, robotics, drones and climate change among other technological jargon. The latest buzz in the agricultural sector is about managing farms that are not a single field, but distributed in multiple small units. This requires advanced mapping and GPS for tailoring daily activities such as the amount of water and fertilizer that each plant needs.

That naturally leads to observation, measurements and responding in real time. Because such precision farming means technological backup, with data being the crux of the issue to respond to what is actually happening in the field. A farmer would always like to know when his plants are suffering and the cause of their suffering.

For example, farmers want sensors that can tell them about the nutrient levels in the soil at a more granular level – potassium, phosphorus and nitrogen, etc. They also want to know how fast the plant is taking up such nutrients – the flow rate. This information must come in real time from sensors and there must be diagnostic tools to make sense of the data.

Although NIFA, the National Institute of Food and Agriculture were talking about the Internet of Ag Things, the concept is not new to farmers. In fact, farmers are already collecting information from both air and ground. They are doing this by flying drones, inserting moisture sensors into ground and placing crop sensors in machines when spraying and applying fertilizers.

Presently, what farmers are lacking is a cost effective, adequate broadband connection. Although Internet connectivity exists even in remote areas, thanks to satellite linkages, these are not cost effective to the farmer, as they have to deal with increasing amounts of data flow.

The current method farmers use is to collect data from the field on an SD card or thumb drive and plug it into their home computers. They transfer this data for analysis to services where crop consultants or co-operative experts are available. The entire process of turnaround takes a few days.

What farmers need is end-node farming equipment with the necessary computing power. This could help with processing and editing the raw data and sending only the relevant part direct to a cloud service. This requires an automated process and a real-time operation. With farms getting bigger, farmers need to cover much more acreage, while dealing with labor shortage and boosting yields in their farms.

Superconductivity Temperatures Get Higher

Superconductors have the capability and the potential to revolutionize our lives through improved technology. That includes superior thermal conductivity, remarkable magnetic properties and nearly zero electrical resistance. However, all that is only possible at cryogenic temperatures, that is, at temperatures in the region of absolute zero, at -273°C or -459°F.

Researchers at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and the Max Plank Institute for Chemistry are working on material, which will work as superconductors equally well at room temperature. They have developed a record high-temperature superconductor, but it smells like rotten eggs.

Although superconductors are useful in all aspects of life – from fusion reactors to MRI scanners, the major deterrent is they work below -234°C or -389°F, which rather limits their application. Although all engineers want is superconductors that work at room temperatures, until now, the best they had is cuprates or copper oxide ceramics working under normal pressures at -140°C (-220°F) or under high pressures at -109°C (-164°F).

The team led by the Max Plank Institute is using H2S or Hydrogen Sulphide as the new record-holder. Although a colorless gas, H2S is usually associated with the smell emanating from rotten eggs. The team has found that H2S, when cooled and subjected to high pressures, acts like a superconductor. The super high-pressure chamber consists of a cryogenic cell of dimensions one-cubic centimeter placed between two flat-faced diamonds.

The super-cooled liquefied hydrogen sulphide placed in the cryogenic cell is subjected to high pressure by squeezing the two diamond faces together. As the pressure reaches 1.5 megabars, the super-cooled liquid H2S becomes a superconductor. This happens at a record new high temperature of -70°C or -94°F.

Scientists placed electrodes in one of two identical cells to measure the electrical resistance and magnetic sensors in the other to measure the magnetic response of the super-cooled liquid. With this arrangement, they were able to arrive at the exact combination of pressure and temperature that caused the liquid to transition to superconductivity.

According to the team, H2S under pressure transforms to H3S, which contributes to the superconductivity. They explained the relatively high temperature of the superconductor to be mainly because of the presence of hydrogen atoms in the compound. Among all elements, hydrogen has the highest frequency of oscillations. As the gas solidifies under high pressure, it causes crystal lattices to form with strong atomic bonds in the molecule, transforming the gas to solid H3S.

The team is now setting their sights to producing superconductors with still higher transition temperatures. In their opinion, this will mean increasing the pressure to at least twice that used in their current experiment. That may also mean they will no longer be able to use H2S and instead have to use other substances such as pure hydrogen or compounds such as hydrogen rich polymers. With the latter, superconductivity may be possible at high temperatures but without the accompanying necessity for high pressure.

Head of the working group, Mikhael Eremets feels that other material may have a lot of potential for performing as conventional superconductors at high temperatures. While theoretically, there is no limit for conventional superconductors to achieve transition temperatures, the experiments conducted by the team give adequate reasons to hope that superconductivity at room temperatures can be a reality.

Surf the Streets with a Single-Wheel Hoverboard

Most of us relate surfing to either the Internet or seas. Likewise, hovering is more of an activity concerning helicopters, quadcopters or drones. Marry the two and what you have is a hoverboard, with which you can surf the streets and hover while window-shopping. Most astonishingly, the hoverboard does all this with a single wheel – see it in action.

With a top speed of 26 kmph and a range of 19 Km, the single-wheel Hoverboard may not be an ideal device for actually hovering in midair similar to what a drone does. However, it is the closest you can get to hovering while balancing on the ground on a single wheel. The 10-inch wheel has a board mounted atop it on which the user stands. When the user leans to one side, the wheel speeds up in that direction and slows down if the user leans the other way, ultimately to change direction. In between, the user can balance to keep the wheel immobile – that is, hover.

According to Hoverboard Technologies, the manufacturer of the single-wheeled electric skateboard, it is a faster way of getting about and it charges quickly. The Hoverboard has API connectivity and uses sonar technology to stay stable. The entire unit weighs 11 Kg and has a 5 KW motor to power it. The motor and its driving electronics, including the battery, forms the drive-unit positioned at the center of the wheel.

The electronics allows the battery to charge completely in about 20 minutes. A sonar detection system below the board allows it to self-balance and keep it parallel to the ground. When slowing down or when going downhill, Hoverboard uses regenerative braking to recover energy and charge the board.

The single-wheel board also offers feedback to its rider. An LCD on the board does this effectively. For night-time riding, the board has LED lighting, while built-in speakers break the monotony of a long ride by playing music. Although playing music does not consume appreciable amounts of power, the LED lighting may reduce the power available for the motor by about ten percent.

However, riders may not be keen to lean over and read the LCD on the board when surfing the streets. Therefore, the manufacturers have added another useful feature – a mobile app for Android and iOS. The app runs on a smart mobile device connected to the board wirelessly via Bluetooth. Using the app, users can check the charge level and health of the battery, while setting the top speed limit of the board. Users can also customize the lighting on the board, while choosing the song to play. At the same time, one can view raw data such as the distance traveled, the average speed and the top speed the board has reached in its travel.

Owners of the Hoverboard can open it up and service it because Hoverboard Technologies has designed it that way. They claim to have done so to ensure the board has a maximum lifespan. Owners can swap out the components and replace them with improved modules from the company for upgrading their Hoverboard on their own.