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Tag Archives: Matt Porter
UK Company Pulsar Fusion Demonstrates Green, Mach-7 Rocket in Switzerland
On Saturday 26 November, In the sleepy mountain town of Gstaad – Switzerland, British company Pulsar Fusion demonstrated its latest green hybrid rocket engine.
An impressive visual plume effect of supersonic shock diamonds, typical of a high-temperature high mass flow rate rocket exhaust, could be seen through the snowstorm as the team operated the engine in quickly changing conditions. The exhaust speeds of the engine were recorded at Mach 7. This engine would be capable of launching a small rocket to an altitude of several 10s of km, well above UK airspace, or powering the upper stage of a rocket with a larger booster stage into orbit.
CEO, Richard Dinan commented: “British companies with space ambitions must be international and fast-moving, achieving technological milestones on time and on budget whilst being environmentally conscious. Pulsar’s objective is to build world-class technologies that serve as a force for good.
Pulsar’s green (non-toxic) hybrid rocket engine combusts nitrous oxide (N2O) oxidiser and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) fuel and oxygen. The HDPE can be obtained from recycled plastic and the two fuels burn together to produce a non-toxic plume.
The propellants used – nitrous oxide N2O and polyethylene HDPE – are some of the cleanest available to the space industry, producing an exhaust of largely water vapour and having an extremely low production energy requirement, resulting in one of the lowest carbon footprints in the world for an engine of this size.
It is a new model that enables Pulsar to manufacture these compact rocket engines at record lead times, with an enhanced safety factor as due to the design, these engines have relatively benign failure modes in comparison with conventional liquid propulsion engines.
WHAT DOES PULSAR FUSION DO?
Pulsar Fusion is primarily engaged in the research of high-speed propulsion and clean energy applications from nuclear fusion.
Pulsar Fusion received UK government funding in September 2021 to further develop its HET (Hall Effect Thruster) plasma satellite engines, capable of 20 km / second particle exhaust speeds. These Pulsar thrusters have recently been tested at Harwell’s facilities where they withstood 20g’s of vibration, simulating a rocket launch. Pulsar now seeks to IOD test these engines. (In-Orbit Demonstration).
The company’s ultimate milestone is to produce a hyper-speed propulsion engine using nuclear fusion technologies of which it has been researching for nine years which could eventually be used for interplanetary travel – and which scientists say could halve the journey time from Earth to Mars. A first prototype is expected in 2025.
HOW WAS THIS TEST DIFFERENT TO THE PULSAR UK TESTS?
The test in Gstaad ran the engine on liquid oxidiser, compared to only gas in the UK. The oxidiser quantity and engine impulse were increased by a factor of nearly 10, and the chamber pressure raised from around 5 bar to over 20 bar on the first Swiss test to nearly 50 bar on the 2nd one. Pulsar supercharged the flow with nitrogen pressurant which has not been done in the UK before and in doing so raised the thrust to near the design value of 12kN or just over a tonne of thrust.
WHY DEMONSTRATE IN SWITZERLAND?
The demonstration took place on the Gstaad Runway, an idyllic spot surrounded by mountains. Pulsar sees Switzerland as a country that is well placed to support advanced, environmentally friendly space technologies. The company strives to be a British company that can demonstrate its technologies to international clients and Switzerland is an ideal gateway for such an ambition. Pulsar hopes to carry out further tests in the region in 2022 and invite European space clients to attend. Additionally, Pulsar is in contact with most of the UK launch sites and would probably start with further static tests and low altitude flights at Machrihanish, near Cambletown on Argyll before moving to one of the other sites such as Space Hub Sutherland on the mainland or Spaceport-1 on the Hebrides for high altitude flights towards and beyond the Karman line at 100km.
Gadget Man – Episode 173 – Repair your own Apple devices?
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I’m back again for a new episode of the podcast which features me chatting to Lesley Dolphin at BBC Radio Suffolk about Apples plans to allow their devices to be repaired.
Pretty much everyone is in shock at this decision, which isn’t quite as welcome as it could be.
Listen in to the stream to find out more!
Cashing In: First Look at the EV Charger that gives you Rewards and Puts Your on the Road to Net Zero, Simply by Plugging In
The demand for convenient, intelligent, and incentivised electric vehicle charging has been met with the launch of the INDRA Smart Pioneer.
Unveiled to drivers for the first time at Fully Charged OUTSIDE 2021, INDRA’s Smart Pioneer signals a new standard for electric car charging. With a simple plugin and go message for users, the charger is an intuitively smart piece of kit, making it easy for drivers to shift their charging patterns to off-peak times, save money and earn rewards.
Coupling leading technology with reliability, the Smart Pioneer helps drivers to reduce their environmental impact. By managing their charging schedule and shifting up to 80% of energy use to off-peak tariffs, it can lessen the demand on the grid and see customer carbon emissions fall by an average of 20%.
Working in tandem with the ev.energy companion app, the rewards platform automatically taps into the times when energy is at its cheapest, and offers rewards back, meaning drivers can claim over £250* per year in energy savings, retail incentives and get involved in projects like local tree planting to help offset their carbon emissions.
Commenting on the benefits of smart charging sessions Indra’s founder and chief technology officer, Mike Schooling, comments:
“Households that drive a lot of miles on electricity, and charge mostly on electricity, need smart charging to avoid putting more demand on the UK’s power supply. We know that drivers are happy to shift their charging patterns to off-peak times, but they need peace of mind that it will be simple to do and reliable so that when they get in their car at 6 am for work they can get straight on the road.”
Continuing to break down charging barriers, INDRA’s latest product builds on the initial success of its Smart PRO. With an extended 5-year warranty, the Smart Pioneer also offers all the same benefits as the INDRA Smart PRO, including smart-scheduling, house-fuse protection, solar panel integration and advanced safety features – meaning EV drivers can guarantee safety and ultimate utilisation of renewable energy.
Schooling, further adds: “Electric car sales have surged to 17% market share and innovative, smart charging is key to greater uptake of electric cars so that number keeps rising. The launch of our Smart Pioneer is a step-change in the smart optimisation of EV chargers and will be the world’s first commercially available V1G product that rewards customers for being flexible with when they charge their EV at home.”
The Smart Pioneer collaboration between INDRA and ev.energy sees drivers getting rewards passed on from the V1G smart charging technology, something which is a world-first proposition from a charge point company.
V1G charging varies the time and rate at which an electric vehicle is charged to respond to surges in power demand. This type of smart charging can harness extra revenue, above a driver’s tariff savings, by accessing flexibility services across the distribution operator and National Grid.
The Smart Pioneer uses leading technology to aggregate thousands of devices to provide a local or national response to grid events and when revenue is generated, shares those back with drivers.
Nick Wooley, CEO at ev.energy, concludes: “We’ve admired INDRA for a really long time, they have a fantastic history of building great products so we’re really excited to be partnering to bring even more drivers cheaper, greener charging.”
For more information about the Indra Smart Pioneer, visit: https://www.indra.co.uk/smart-pioneer-ev-charger
Braun LE03 – High End Smart Audio for Your Home
This month I have been reviewing the LE03 Speaker from Braun Audio and I was very pleasantly surprised!
I have used quite a few smart speakers over the years, so when I received the Braun LE03 Speaker, I was intrigued to find out more. Out of the box, you can see that the speaker isn’t aimed at the smart assistant market as it is both high end and reassuringly weighty, but it also retains the smart speaker functionality with its minimalist design approach.
The speaker is controlled by either Google Voice (configured from your Android or iPhone), play pause, volume and ‘privacy’ button (which switches off the listening function). It can also be connected by Bluetooth pairing.
The speaker connects to the internet by WiFi, this pairing is set up by the Google Home app, which once set up, seamlessly sits alongside your other Google Devices ready to answer questions, play music or connect to Chromecast compatible TV’s. If you are looking for finer tuning, you can also install the Braun app which gives greater control.
Set up is very straightforward, and once up and running, I was happily playing my favourite tunes and my daughter was equally happy to ask Google plenty of questions. Everything works in a similar fashion to using Google Assistant on your phone or indeed Alexa.
For the audiophiles amongst you, the LE03 contains a custom-designed 3.5” ‘high-excursion fast-transient’ woofer with NdFe motor, a Full-range 1.5“ Balanced Mode Radiator drive unit, a Race track/quadratic 5” x 3” Customised passive radiator all powered by a Monolithic class-D power amplifier. (I did say this was for the audiophiles).
The speaker can also be paired with further LE range speakers to give you a full multiroom experience.
The sound quality was mind-blowing, the bass was there when you needed it and vocals were clear. It really is a very good system and probably warrants the price tag of £349
The Braun LE03 is really worth a look if you are on the hunt for a capable speaker and want to spend a little bit more for the added quality.
Highly recommended!!
SwitchBot Curtain – How I made my curtains ‘Smart’ in just a few minutes
So, I’m now the proud owner of a pair of ‘Smart Curtains’… Yes, you read that right! After a simple installation, our living room curtains can now be controlled by the flick of a screen gesture, a Google Home or Alexa command, temperature, a timed opening and closing or it can even be triggered (and charged) by light!
All of this came courtesy of the SwitchBot Curtain, a nifty set of kit that allows me to all of the above and more!
SmitchBot Curtain is a motorised device that sits on your curtain rail or pole and simply moves your curtains open or closed upon your command or wishes. It can also integrate with an additional SwitchBot hub that connects it to other SwitchBot gadgets and talks to your favourite cloud assistants via the internet. This allows you to control your curtains remotely. More importantly, this allows this to happen via a schedule, so you can be away on holiday and your curtains can open and close deterring unwanted visitors and stopping your houseplants from scorching in the hot sun.
All of this is achieved by (in my case) a pair of SwitchBot curtain, one for each side on the window, a pair of plug-in solar chargers which keep the batteries topped up (although you can do this with the included USB Type-C cables,
Set up was a breeze, I installed the SwitchBot app on my Android phone (iPhone app also available) and it took me through every single step without missing a beat! Within a couple of minutes, I was up and running. There were some simple steps to teach the devices when to stop and when opening and closing the curtains, but we were good to go after that!
Our curtain pole is extendable, so by design has two different sized poles connected, SwitchBot provides a nifty little adapter that allows the SwitchBot Curtain to easily move over this uneven without issue.
As well as using the app to close and open the curtains, you can also tug them gently in either direction, which will trigger then to do the rest, very useful if you forget that you don’t have to open and close them manually!
Our curtains run on a pole, however, SwitchBot is also available for I Rail and U Rail fittings in either white or black, basically suiting most tastes. The device also sits neatly behind our curtains, so you don’t actually see them at all. Out of sight, out of mind!
So now, the Gadget-Household are smart-curtain enabled, giving one more thing for Alexa to do and hopefully improving our lives just a little bit more.
SwitchBot is available on Amazon at the link below, keep an eye out for upcoming Prime Day deals which are listed below!!
SwitchBot Amazon Prime Day Deals
SwitchBot Curtain Rail
SwitchBot Curtail – U Rail – was £79 now £55.30
SwitchBot Curtain – I Rail – was £79 now £55.30
SwitchBot Curtain – Rod – was £85 now £59.30
Amazon Links Here:
SwitchBot’s hero product and a bestseller on Amazon, the SwitchBot Curtain is a small wireless robot that makes any curtains motorized and smart with a 30-second installation. After attaching to your curtain, you can open and close it with your smartphone. Or, just set a schedule to automatically open or close the curtain. For any type of curtain rail – no matter if it’s Rod, U rail track, or I Rail track, SwitchBotCurtain can always fit. Make sure to measure the dimensions of your curtain rails, so it can work smoothly on your curtains.
SwitchBot Bot – was £25 now £17.50
SwitchBot Bot lets you retrofit all existing appliances or light switches in your home, instead of replacing them. It mechanically turns device switches ON/OFF working as a robotic finger. There’s a 5-second installation, tape it right next to a rocker switch or button with a 3M sticker. No swapping, no tools required. Easy App operation. With SwitchBot Hub Plus/Mini (only support 2.4GHz Wi-Fi), control your SwitchBot Bot remotely from anywhere and enable voice control. Works well with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri and IFTTT.
SwitchBot Meter – was £18 now £12.60
SwitchBot Meter is a sensor that monitors your environment reliably and around the clock. Manage the temperature and humidity in the most accurate way. The Meter maintains the most recent 36 days of data while you are away. With SwitchBot Hub Plus/Mini (only support 2.4GHz Wi-Fi), unlimited data could be stored on the SwitchBot cloud.
SwitchBot Hub Mini – was £35 now £24.50
The SwitchBot Hub Mini connects and streamlines the control of your SwitchBot products/ most household devices, including your TV, air conditioner and anything else that would usually be controlled by a remote. Easy set up in the SwitchBot App. With “Smart learning” mode, it can mimic your existing remote control in 5 seconds. USB-powered and portable, you can take & place it everywhere.
- SwitchBot Remote – was £18 now £12.60
Compatible with the SwitchBot Curtain and SwitchBot Bot, this device lets you turn the products ON/OFF at the press of a button. For example, the concave button can be used for switching the SwitchBot Curtain ON/OFF and the convex button can be used for switching the SwitchBot Bot ON/OFF.
- SwitchBot Solar Panel – was £23.99 now £16.79
The SwitchBot Solar Panel is a charger for the SwitchBot Curtain. Once plugged into the SwitchBot Curtain, you will never have to recharge again. Works with U/Rod/I SwitchBot Curtain models.
Don’t forget, we are an Amazon affiliate, so may earn a small commission through our links
A Beginner’s Guide To Getting Into Drones
They are fascinating, impressive, and downright cool, which is enough for some gadget fanatics to want to devote plenty of manhours to getting to grips with them. However, given their expense and the fact that a novice handling could quite easily end up in disaster, it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that some beginners are a little apprehensive about diving headfirst into the world of drones.
Here, we’re going to look at what you, as a beginner, need to know about drones, how to choose the best one for your needs, and how to make sure that you can actually fly the thing without a catastrophe following in your wake.
Know what you want to use it for
Before you dedicate your life over the next few months to knowing anything and everything drone-related, it’s a good idea to get to know why you want to buy and fly one in the first place. There are plenty of people who want one just for the experience of flying a drone, which is perfectly fine in and of itself, but those who might want a drone for the sake of photography might have different needs (such as good camera stabilization features.) There are more practical uses for drones as well to consider, some of which might even have commercial benefits.
Choose the drone that best suits your needs
Now that you hopefully have a better idea of what, precisely, you are going to be using your drone for, it’s now time to choose the drone that suits those needs. Websites like DrDrone.ca offer thorough guides on which drones are best suited for different kinds of usage. Some are better suited to beginners who are just learning to fly, while others have specific applications. Even for those specific applications, such as buying a drone that is focused on photography, there is a wide variety so take your time in perusing the market.
Know whether you’re going to have to assemble your drone
This is a big stumbling block for a lot of people who buy a drone and expect that they are going to be able to fly it as soon as they take it out of the box. This type of drone does exist, they are called RTF drones (or Ready to Fly drones). The other type is called “DIY” typically, which means that you’re going to have to assemble it when you open it. If you feel confident you can put it together just fine, that’s a-okay, just make sure you know which you are getting.
Do you need a license?
The answer to this question will depend largely on where you live. In some countries, the recreational use of drones might not require any kind of license or ID. However, in the vast majority of English speaking countries, if you have any intentions to use your drones for commercial purposes, you’re going to need some form of license However, it is crucial to do your research and learn your local drone license needs and laws, rather than relying on this tip for a definitive answer. Drone-traveller.com offers an in-depth look at national drone laws in a variety of countries.
Get some training
Rather than trying to master the art of flying a drone all by yourself, it might be worth taking the time to look into those that can show the ropes. When it comes to earning a license in the countries and states that require it, it may be essential that you have some formal training, and there are plenty of teams like Uavcoach.com that can help give you all kinds of drone flying courses, for more general use as well as specific practical applications, depending on your needs.
Know what accessories you might need
Plenty of drones come out of the box with a range of helpful accessories, but you will often find that you need a little extra just to make sure that you’re covered in any eventuality. Some spare drone parts such as additional rotors or props are always a good idea to have on hand. Keeping a backup flight battery is usually a good idea as well, as well as having a portable charger so you can stay flying for longer.
With the tips above, hopefully, you should feel confident that getting into drone flying need not be all that much of a fuss. With the right choice of machine, a little practice, and a few solid tips in mind, you should be flying with the best of them.
McLEAR Launches RingPay With New Features, Rewards And Exclusive Membership Club Benefits
On a continued mission to make life more convenient, McLEAR has been quietly enhancing the world’s most frictionless way to pay.
Smart Ring pioneers McLEAR launches RingPay to market. The payment wearable is packed with new features and exclusive benefits; RingPay Rewards, RingPay+ and RingPay Giving.
RingPay by McLEAR makes payments fast, secure, and invisible. Users can make contactless payments of up to £45, and top up their ring by simply adding their preferred credit or debit card onto the RingPay app. The app allows users to track their spending in real-time, control their budgets, set automatic top-ups, respect physical distancing guidelines, and in case of loss, instantly freeze their Ring.
Making payments rewarding, McLEAR’s partnership with parsnip also allows users to earn in-store cash back at the growing number of selected retailers in the RingPay Rewards Programme, such as Nike, Foot Locker, Gap and River Island. A wearable so smart it pays for itself.
Ringholders can save significant amounts on everyday purchases by subscribing to RingPay+, premium members’ club to gain access to fantastic discounts and cashback, generated through hundreds of merchants across numerous categories including entertainment ticket bookings, cinema trips, restaurant offers, hotel discounts and holiday travel deals.
In addition, the RingPay Giving feature, let’s Ringholders choose to automatically send a micro-sized donation to their chosen charity when they make a purchase using their Ring. Ringholders control how much they give using monthly donation caps, and charities benefit from free Gift Aid reports allowing them to claim an extra 25% on all donations given. This social impact service is turning every contactless payment reader into a charity collection bucket!
The discreet and premium RingPay design is scratch-resistant, stress-tested, waterproof and requires no battery. Simply use McLEAR patented fist bump technology at any contactless reader for ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ payments. Forget the days of unlocking your phone or emptying your pockets. It’s always there on your finger, ready to go.
Daniel Blondell, Chief Operating Officer said: “The mission with RingPay is to improve the payment experience; making it faster, effortless and more rewarding. Whether commuting to work, picking up some essentials or off on your travels, RingPay by McLEAR gives you peace of mind knowing your finances are safely in-hand. Just kick back and fist pump your way to better spending and awesome rewards.”
We are reviewing the RingPay, so stay tuned for our thoughts!
For more info or to purchase your RingPay, visit www.mclear.com and get a Black Friday discount of 30% off when you use the code BF2020