I LOVE sensors. Which is probably why I got into analog electronics. The idea of taking something that is in the real world and making it interact with a computer is amazing. As computing continues to become more powerful and ubiquitous, the possibilities for sensors gets more and more fun. With that in mind, I signed [...]
For those who know me, beer isn’t just about the drinking. It’s also about the brewing. I’ve casually brewed beer for years, only getting serious with my own setup a year ago. However brewing in front of a stove can be annoying especially when trying to brew 2 different batches at once. To make the experience [...]
Last week I went to the Open Hardware Summit with a skeptical eye to the ability for someone to generate a realistic business model when giving away everything they design. How can one pay the engineers to design a product when the competition get the same design files without having to pay them? And I’m [...]
I love the experience of cracking open a new design platform and seeing what it can do, and how it can be used. However there are so many out there! What about the individual options are the best for attacking a project? How can one ensure that the experience will be the best possible, preventing [...]
I’m just coming off of BlueStamp Engineering’s 2012 season, and I thought I’d write about some of the things I’ve observed while teaching students new to coding with microcontrollers. It can be tough getting a project started when one doesn’t know what is going on, so this article should help someone understand at least a [...]
While working at Keithley I spent an immense amount of time working with error budgets and now that I’ve taken a few steps back from that experience I can really appreciate the power they provide to a designer. Without getting too technical (since error budgets are VERY technical), I show what they are and how [...]
I love everything about kits. I build what I use, I know how to fix it, and I can get any part I find broken. It is sad that there aren’t more people that are into this sort of thing because the DIY-ers don’t represent a significant enough portion of any market to drive manufacturers [...]
We all like to search for truth, meaning, and an understanding of ‘why we are here’ or ‘if what we do matters’ and ultimately, ‘am I making things better?’ So I wrote an article bringing up that exact point for the entire engineering field: In a discussion with a non-technical and environmentally-minded friend about the [...]
For my next installment on the E14: DIT blog, I wrote an article with some of my most useful steps to completing a schematic review. I’ve found these to work great on big reviews that involve lots of people as well as small reviews that consist of just me and the designer. Check out the [...]
I have seen numerous designs that ahve made it into production even though the electronics are being operated above the suggested die temperature. Sometimes it is a simple product that has a price point of under $5 so the engineer didn’t care or have time to check. Yet other times it is because an engineer [...]