New chapter of Control Engineer is out! (1/1 chapter)

Model-Based Development (2): Presentation

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Two months had passed.

After the family gathered for dinner. Eleanor, my sister-in-law who had recently married Conan-niisan, was also present. Just as my brothers were about to return to their respective rooms, the butler Morien, who normally would not appear at this time, stopped everyone in the dining room.

“Then, please allow me to begin.” (Morien)

Kaa-sama’s brow furrowed. She was clearly wary.

“What is going to begin? Do you know, Leon?” (Hein)

When I returned his question with a smile, he narrowed his brows suspiciously. In this respect, he resembled Kaa-sama exactly. Morien raised his right hand, and the maids began to move. They dispersed to the four corners of the dining room.

Then, Morien clapped his hands.

“What!” (??)

The chairs creaked, and those gathered around the table looked up all at once, glancing about. Their gazes crawled along the walls.

“What is this?” (??)

“Hey!” (??)

“The magical lamps…” (??)

Yes. The magical lamps had undergone an abnormal change.

“Did it get darker?” (??)

“But it is not completely dark.” (??)

“What does this mean?” (??)

Indeed. There was a certain level of brightness, yet it was clearly dimmer than before.

At that moment, another clap sounded.

The maids reached their hands toward the wall.

“Ah, again.” (??)

It became darker again. This time, with two sharp claps, *pan, pan*, the light disappeared in stages until it became completely dark. Then, with another clap, light returned to the dining room.

“That is all.” (Morien)

“No, no, what is this? What is going on?” (Hein)

“Hein-dono. As you have seen. Can you not understand?” (Morien)

“N-no. When the maids touched the magical lamp switches, the light became dimmer. And that too, in four stages… I have never seen a magical lamp have such halfway brightness before.” (Hein)

At that moment, Conan-niisan’s eyes widened.

“I-I see. You modified the magical lamps. Ah, you must have changed the magic stones that produce the light.” (Conan)

“Is that so? You know about this, do you not, dear?” (Mother)

“No. I merely gave Leon permission.” (Father)

“‘Leon’!” (Hein, Conan, Eleanor)

The voices of my two brothers and my newlywed sister-in-law rang out in unison.

“What is going on?” (Hein)

“I do not know either. It is rather different from what I had heard. Leon, explain it yourself.” (Father)

“Yes.” (Leon)

I stood up.

“It is true that I modified the magic stones in the magical lamps. However, they are not the magic stones that produce light.” (Leon)

“Then, other magic stones?” (Hein)

“Yes. Of the three types of magic stones inside a magical lamp, I modified the control magic stone that is built into the main body.” (Leon)

“Eh, um? Leon-san, you can engrave magic arts into magic stones?” (Eleanor)

Oh, sister-in-law. Though she appears gentle, her mind turns quickly.

“Well, those inside magical lamps are comparatively simple.” (Leon)

“Is that so? Dear?” (Eleanor)

Eleanor took hold of Nii-san’s arm.

After I made the magic stones for the magical stove, I told everyone in the family about it. They were all surprised and said it was amazing. However, my sister-in-law was not yet part of the family at that time.

“That is right, Eleanor. What Leon does is half amazing, half exasperating. So then, tell us, how did you change it?” (Conan)

“Yes. Magical lamps emit light by sending magic flux through the internal filament. Normally, a magical lamp has only two states, either continuously sending magic flux, or not at all.” (Leon)

“Is that not simply how magical lamps are?” (Father)

As expected of Tou-sama. Magical tools are one of the products of the trading company, so he is familiar with them.

“Yes. Therefore, they are either on or off. There is no other state. I wanted to improve the magical lamp, but the ability to control brightness in multiple stages happened as a side effect.” (Leon)

“A side effect…” (??)

“The original aim I will speak of later. First, the principle of how the brightness can be changed. To change the brightness, you only need to vary the amount of magic flux flowing into the light-emitting magic stone.” (Leon)

“Can such a thing be done? A magical tool is not a magic arts practitioner.” (Hein-nian)

“Yes, and here is how. I divided time into short intervals. In some intervals magic pressure is applied, and in others it is not. By changing the proportion of intervals with magic pressure within a fixed period, the brightness can be adjusted.” (Leon)

It was the principle of pulse-width modulation, PWM.

“Hmm. If you increase the proportion, it becomes brighter. That I understand, but… hmm.” (Conan)

Conan-niisan tilted his head, thinking.

“No, but Leon. If you do that, the magical lamp should become brighter and darker repeatedly. Yet earlier, that did not happen. The brightness changed, but there was no flicker.” (Hein)

Indeed. Hein-niisan had good intuition. He noticed the flicker phenomenon. The brothers were quite the contrast.

“In that case, let us test it so you can see.” (Leon)

I walked under a magical lamp.

“Turn off all magical lamps except the one above me.” (Leon)

The maid operated the switches, and all but the area around me became dark. Then…

I opened the system in my mind and called up the block diagram of the magical lamp. I switched the magic stone possessor to sequential update mode. Then, I changed the frequency of the triangular wave carrier used for PWM comparison to 10 hertz.

“Oh, the magical lamp…” (??)

“It is flickering.” (??)

Yes.

“Now then.” (Leon)

I raised it to 20 hertz.

“Oh, the rapid change has become gentler.” (??)

“Now I will return it to the initial state.” (Leon)

I set the frequency back to 100 hertz.

I returned the possessor to normal update mode.

“It is not flickering at all now.” (??)

“Y-yes. This way, the eyes do not feel irritated.” (Conan)

“Leon! What did you do? Explain it.” (Hein)

“Yes. First, let us make it bright. Turn on all the magical lamps.” (Leon)

The dining room returned to its original brightness.

“Now I will explain. As Hein-niisan said, when you intermittently apply magic pressure to the light-emitting magic stone, the brightness changes and flicker occurs.” (Leon)

“But right now, it is not so, correct?” (Hein)

“Correct. When you make the time intervals shorter and shorter, at a certain point the human eye can no longer perceive it. Furthermore, the variation in brightness becomes small. This is the current state, in which flicker is not felt.” (Leon)

“Hmm. I probably understand less than half of what you are saying, Leon, but I can see the effect.” (Hein)

Following Hein-niisan’s words, everyone nodded.

“I…” (Eleanor)

“What is it, Eleanor?” (Conan)

“When I am doing embroidery and such, I like it bright, but before sleeping, I think it feels calmer when it is slightly dim like earlier. Also, it felt like watching a play in a theater, and it was fun.” (Eleanor)

“Y-yes, that is true.” (Conan)

For some reason, Conan-niisan and his wife blushed slightly.

A theater, huh.

“That is true, sister-in-law. If we put this magical lamp on the market, the wealthy people might be pleased.” (Hein)

“Yes.” (Eleanor)

“By the way, Leon. If it is made dim, would it not extend the life of the mana-storing magic stone?” (Mother)

Mm. Kaa-sama was sharp.

“That is correct.” (Leon)

Everyone let out a sound of admiration.

“In that case, for magical lamps used in places that do not need to be that bright, we could make them simpler. The selling price could be reduced.” (Mother)

Our family was a merchant household, so such thoughts came quickly.

“So? Is that not the original aim you mentioned earlier, rather than the side effect?” (Father)

“No. I was originally thinking of conserving the light-emitting magic stones.” (Leon)

“The light-emitting ones?” (Hein)

“Is that true, Leon?” (Conan)

“Morien.” (Leon)

The butler, who had been waiting by the wall, stepped forward.

“It is as Leon-bocchama says. We replaced the magical lamps in the mansion’s corridors and hall. The number is 135.” (Morien)

“You were doing that? But that is quite a number.” (Hein)

“Hein, let us hear the rest.” (Father)

“With that number of magical lamps, about 20 magic stones would normally be replaced every month. However, according to Butler Renato, in the past month only 9 were replaced, a clear reduction.” (Morien)

“In other words, the maintenance cost of the magical lamps would be reduced to about half?” (Fathera)

“I believe there is no harm in saying so.” (Morien)

“Amazing. I have heard from my husband many times that Leon is amazing, and it was true.” (Eleanor)

“When you said you wanted to test the magical lamps, I was surprised, but it seems good results have come. Morien, and everyone, well done. And Leon, you did well.” (Father)

Tou-sama!

“Leon. Write the patent application specification.” (Mother)

Kaa-sama?

 

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