Impressive braking system

Volvo Trucks is introducing a collision warning with emergency brake system.

If the system detects an imminent collision situation it will alert the driver and if there is no response automatically apply the emergency brakes to avoid a crash. It combines a radar and a camera that work together to identify and monitor vehicles in front. The system is designed to deal with both stationary and moving vehicles and can prevent a collision with a moving target at relative speeds of up to 70 km/h. When the system detects a vehicle that the truck will hit at its current speed, the warning system activates a constant red light in the windscreen in order to bring the driver's attention back to the road.

If the truck fails to detect any reaction from the driver, such as steering or braking, the system upgrades to a flashing red light and a beeping sound. If there is still no reaction, the system applies the brakes gently. When all this fails, the system activates the emergency braking system and does everything possible to bring the truck to a complete stop.



Further info on Volvo Trucks website.

Super Simple Raspberry Pi Case

My Raspberry Pi arrived from RS in a pink plastic box. After some simple measuring and cutting with a craft knife, it provides a great semi permanent case for the Raspberry Pi. I initially cut a trapezoid for the HDMI port, but the connection was a little loose so I enlarged this to snugly fit the rectangular part of the HDMI plug. If I need to plug in GPIO, video, sound or ethernet I can cut more holes. With the Pi running at 100% CPU the case is not noticeably warm but if overheating becomes a problem I can add some more holes for airflow.

Box with holes cut for power, USB and HDMI

The Pi fits snugly in the plastic molding

Closed case with HDMI connected

Xi3: Ushering In the post PC Era

Two things I like in the design of computers: small form factor and multiple configurations/expandability. The new Xi3 modular computers do really well at this with a small robust strong chassis that is configurable with different swappable modules. Learn more about these innovative computers in the following video and on the Xi3 website.