Category: Design Logic
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E14 News Article: A Fleeting Hope from Lost Potential: Project Kits
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…
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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…
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E14 DIT Article: The Schematic Review – A Few Methods To The Madness
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…
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E14 DIT Article: How Hot is Too Hot?
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…
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E14 DIT Article: Does That Generator Really Work (and how do you know?)!?!?!?!
Lately I’ve been carrying around a couple small-scale energy generators to test a few things. Since these devices are new to the market and it is impossible to nail down exact specs from the variety of user input cases, people often ask me how they work. Here’s an E14 article I wrote to sum up…
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E14 DIT Post: A Control System For A Fish On A Hook
After a weekend of fishing in the Western Basin of Lake Erie, I couldn’t help but to write a post on how my engineering mind understands fishing. The equipment selected is a set of design parameters that can represent SNR, Bandwidth, and Sensitivity: SNR: The first thing I notice when I pick up a rod…
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E14 DIT Blog Post: The Missed Era of Designing Without Restraint
I put up a new post on the Element14 DIT blog talking about things I’ve missed out on and wanted to share it here. I’m sure the older generation would approve! …the part of our history that I look back at with the most envy is the engineering work completed from the period of the…
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Why not just finish it up, guys?
I recently bought an FM transmitter for my phone to broadcast to my car stereo. The transmitter market is the same as any other market — you get what you pay for. But because I’m not an audiophile, and the FM radio link only gives so much fidelity, I thought a cheap little thing would…
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Deisgn Path Vs. Physical Challenge
The other day I was speaking with Robin, a friend and colleague. We were talking about marathons and half marathons, which got me wondering if I could do a half without any training. Sunday was a beautiful fall day in Ithaca, and I decided to go for it. I didn’t know what the outcome would…