Author Archives: Yakov

About Yakov

While some have claimed to spot him around the Research Tech office, Yakov usually appears early in the morning to grab coffee and surprise Dave.

Arduino: Servo Motor

This experiment demonstrates how the Arduino can be used to connect and run a servo motor. Servo motors are useful for metering/dispensing, winding and walking (in robotics). They can also be found in many radio controlled appliances such as solar panels which can track the movement of the sun to gain more energy as opposed to remaining stationary.

Typically, a servo motor can be positioned from 0 to 180 degrees. Its position is controlled through timed pulses, meaning that increasing the time will increase the angle as well and vice versa. If the pulse is sent within a certain amount (usually 25-50 milliseconds) the servo motor will function smoothly as can be seen in this video.

The next step would be to modify the servo so that instead of only 180 degrees, the motor would spin all the way around.

Although this is a simple experiment demonstrating one of the uses of an Arduino, the possibilities for micro controllers in all fields of research exist.

HeartBleed Bug

A few weeks ago with the disclosure of the bug found in OpenSSL, many servers and user credentials were compromised. We would like to remind you to make sure your servers are updated and any passwords (both personal and work related) should be changed. For accounts on websites outside of Stony Brook, make sure that the site has updated their servers before changing your password. Otherwise changing your password will still allow for your account to be compromised on those websites.

Add-ons are also available for your browser to check which sites you visit are vulnerable.

For Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/foxbleed/

For Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chromebleed/eeoekjnjgppnaegdjbcafdggilajhpic?hl=en

More info:

http://you.stonybrook.edu/heartbleed/