Category: Work Style
-
e14: EAGLE ULPs Every User Should Know
I love designing PCBs. It’s more than just connecting wires in a given area; it’s devising clever ways to make connections while controlling the design for things like EMC, switcher noise, signal integrity, heat dissipation, and many more. But the actual laying down of traces isn’t the whole challenge. The design needs to be accurately…
-
Using Paper Protos to Check EAGLE Footprints
Checking footprints in a PCB layout review with only the on-screen file can be a pain in the neck. There are many different measurements that need to be made for each individual part, and the mouse-based measurement tool can be somewhat obnoxious to get exactly on the edge of a pad. There is a much…
-
Frame-It: A Tool For Wading Through Millions of Parts
Hardware engineers everywhere know how crrazy selecting parts can be. Especially when a part change needs to occur months after intiial part selection. Why was this part so special? What were the nuances of it again? Frame-it is a chrome extension that allows you to save a document or web page while taking notes as…
-
E14 Op Ed: Coping With Failure: Stack The Deck in Your Favor
I’ve always been interested in topics of failure, motivation, and rewards. Especially in the context of personal achievement in the design process. When speaking with a friend over a couple beers which were his reward for doing everything that could be done in a failing situation, I suggested he take a different approach when placed…
-
E14 News Article: Error Budgets Launch Careers!
My latest Element14 article is based directly on my experience as a new engineer at Keithley. Anyone will tell you how tough an error budget can be to work out, but I was amazed at all of the things it did for my job there and my career for years to come. After all, if…
-
EEweb Featured Engineer!
Check it out! I’m EEweb’s featured engineer today! http://www.eeweb.com/spotlight/interview-with-dave-young
-
E14 News Article on Employment Contracts: A Pre-Flight Safety Checklist for Engineers
I am a firm believer that contracts are a GOOD thing. Not only is it an opportunity for reasonable people to write down their expectations and assumptions at one time, but memories have a habit of drifting from reality. Issues on responsibility, payments, ownership, etc… need to have some reference point that both parties agreed…
-
E14 News Article: Politically Canceled Projects
Have you ever worked on a project that gets canceled for some political or other reason not related to the technical potential? Kind of drives you insane. I just canceled a project of mine for strictly political reasons, and it gave me a better understanding of why it happens. Always good to look at things…
-
E14 DIT Article: Internet Ideas
Sometimes I can’t help but think the way people (myself included) research the new ideas on the internet stagnates creativity. Like a big pot of stale ideas being stirred, never pushing someone to try something that ‘is so crazy, it just might work!” ….What was surprising to me was that the lack of consistent internet…
-
E14 DIT Article: Engineering’s ‘Progress Feedback Loop’?
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…