Programming Efficiency: Part 2
A number of years ago I did some work on a PABX. The device was electromechanical and far from state of the art, but the owner had been talked into spending a bunch of money expanding it and couldn’t...
View ArticleTransition from the Academe to the Industry Unraveled (Part 2)
Some few months ago, I wrote an article contrasting academe and work life as well as the adjustments and precautions that had to be made by a typical fresh graduate...Guest blogsread more
View ArticleEngineering Education: Fact and Fiction
I have taken a keen interest in the dialogue (that has been going on for many years) about the quality of engineering education in the U.S.Guest blogsread more
View ArticleFour-Wire Sensing Can Make or Break Your Measurements
Erroneously implementing four-wire sensing into a measurement instrument can be disastrous, so it becomes critical to have a firm grasp of how sense lines function.Guest blogsread more
View ArticleInconspicuous Pitfalls in Datasheet Analysis
Identifying the limitations of a datasheet saves lots of time, and cost, in terms of troubleshooting and redesigning circuits.Guest blogsread more
View ArticleProof-of-Concept Prototypes versus Manufacturing Design Preparations
I have designed many early-stage proof-of-concept (POC) circuits, and observed many others do the same thing. It seems that there is often a huge disconnect between clients and engineers, though, when...
View ArticleWhat is All This Nanogenerator Stuff, Anyway?
Nanogenerators, which harvest energy from the environment, could be the next big thing in renewable energy.Guest blogsread more
View ArticleBuilding Home or Very Small Office Electronic-Circuit Prototypes, Part 1
This first part in a series goes through the steps of creating a preliminary design for a small and inexpensive hobbyist/limited-technology-prototype build-and-test capability.Guest blogsread more
View ArticleBuilding Home or Very Small Office Electronic-Circuit Prototypes, Part 2
Part 2 gives step-by-step instructions on how to turn a Black & Decker TO1675B convection countertop oven into a temperature-controlled reflow oven.Guest blogsread more
View ArticleBuilding Home or Very Small Office Electronic Circuit Prototypes, Part 3
Part 3 delves into critical equipment for testing today's electronics, and provides updates on circuit-board designs from Part 1.Guest blogsread more
View ArticleWho Are You? (I Really Want to Know!)
Borrowing a stanza from The Who’s hit song seemed like a good way to bring attention to a critical topic often ignored by engineers. When finding information on a company that has an interesting...
View ArticleHow To Dumb Down Smart Electronics
In our generation of microcontroller-enhanced everything, it has been frustrating at best to see how often the capability of smart hardware has been foiled by the design of poorly purposed software....
View ArticleHome or Very Small Office Electronic Circuit Prototypes, Part 4
Part 4 focuses on testing for a reflow oven and build of a mixed SMT/through-hole board.Guest blogsread more
View ArticleConfabbing on the Fabless Fad
High capital and maintenance costs, and EDA advances along with abstractions to deal with chip complexity, have been leading contributors to the fabless migration.Guest blogsread more
View ArticleSimple Yet Effective ESD Testing Methods for Higher Reliability
There are multiple ways to test for electrostatic discharge, ranging from implementing a human-body or machine model to....using a balloon and a comb?read more
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