Author: dyoung

  • E14 News: Time of the Hardware Startup

    Has anyone else noticed that there are more and more hardware startups being formed, and becoming successful? I’ve seen a significant change in the focus at many of the events I’ve attended in 2013 and am excited for what is on the way! My recent Element14 article shares exactly what I mean: …..Given all of…

  • E14: Suggestions for Applying To College

    Being a part of the BlueStamp Engineering program gives me the opportunity to share advice with high school students looking for a technical career path.  I’ve been asked multiple times about what the best method is to apply for college.  And while I’m just an engineer, I thought I’d write an article highlighting what I…

  • E14 Post: Learn The Art Of Giving An Interview

    When people think of interviews, they often think of searching for a job.  But for every interview there are two sides of the table.  Giving an interview is one of the best things a young employee can do to learn more valuable skills, understand their company, and reflect on themselves.  My most recent Element14 article…

  • Resources for Early EAGLE Users

    While teaching BlueStamp Engineering, I have several students ask me how they can get up and running with EAGLE.  And although EAGLE is created for getting users into the PCB game, it still has a significant learning curve. So I wrote an article on Element14’s EAGLE page to give new users a view of what…

  • Cypress PsoC4 Pioneer Kit: Further Blurring The Line Between Analog and Digital

      I recently got my hands on a Cypress Pioneer Kit powered by a PSoC4 4200 microcontroller. A neat $25 prototyping/tinkering board, to be sure.  But before I start building a project with it, I simply had to check the programmable analog specs!  See what I found by reading my latest Element14 Article: Read The…

  • Using ‘ownCloud’ on Raspberry Pi to Take Back Control of Data

    Last month I lost what could have been a beautiful night laying out a PCB while at a secluded cottage because Google Drive didn’t sync a couple of my board files.  I switched to Microsoft Skydrive for my cloud-based storage since Windows Mesh worked so well for me over the years before it was discontinued.…

  • EntConnect: A Conference For Those Who Make Things Happen

    Last month I attended the EntConnect Conference to give it some coverage from Element14.  I like entrepreneurship/engineering, and they had a bunch of fun events like Skiing at Vail which really drew me in.  I wasn’t sure what to expect, with an attendee list of ~30 people how much of a conference could it be?  When…

  • How to Easily Burn a Binary File to an MSP430 Chip Using the LaunchPad

    Want to give some Texas Instruments MSP430 firmware to a friend who doesn’t have an IDE like CCS or IAR installed?  All they need is a Binary file you create, an MSP430 Launchpad, and a small program called LITE FET-Pro430. If you’re trying to update firmware without being there in the flesh, this is a…

  • LED Bulb Teardown

    I, like most EE’s love LEDs.  They are such a great solution to lighting since they get away from the idea that something must be inefficiently burned (filament on incandescent), or nasty chemicals used (Mercury in CFLs) in order to generate lighting.  And although no reasonably-priced lighting solution can come close to the human appeal…

  • Silicon as the new PCB?

    Yesterday Chris Gammell pointed me in the direction of the Analog Devices AD5520, which is pretty close to an entire analog design for a Source Measure Unit in a single chip.  And while it’s totally different from a complete instrument, I thought it would be interesting to compare some specs.  To see how it performs relative to Keithley’s 2401 SourceMeter…