I’m finally starting to get it.

Apparently in the past the design work I’ve been doing is too slow. It’s too methodical, I have too much time to question my decisions. Well not anymore.

I’ve been working on a time sensitive project recently (sensitive enough that I feel bad writing this post at 9 pm on a  Saturday) and I’ve finally started to understand the reason the part vendors come to talk to me about power module this and fast design that. They come in with these nearly-done solutions and try pushing them on me, only to hear me say something like,  “Wow, I’d never use that”. I mean, where is the fun in using a power switcher that is damn near complete?

“Wha?”

That’s what you said when you read the title, isn’t it? That’s probably what I would have said. You said that for one of two reasons:

1. You’ve never watched Firefly.
2. You’ve watched Firefly and you just don’t get it yet.

The second is more excusable than the first. If you’ve never watched Firefly, I highly suggest going to do that right now. It’s 14 episodes (one season) and a feature length film. It’s a great show that was unfortunately cancelled after one season.

Over on The Amp Hour, I’ve been known to call ham radio operators, “The Rock Stars of Analog“. This is meant for the ones that are out there making their circuits using the dead bug method or otherwise. Jason Milldrum from NT7s.com has confirmed this belief with a picture in his latest posting about his RF kit making business:

I mean would you LOOK at that thing??? It’s awesome! Plus it transmits radio signals, so it’s just that much more magical. I know the theory behind RF, but I still geek out whenever I think about radio stuff. Anyway, thanks to Jason for posting the picture on his site and on Flickr. Check out his blog for more info as it comes available!

Boy is it hot in here or is it just me? Why’s that gizmo over there giving off so much heat?

Power budgets are a necessity these days. Due to increasing regulation, we’re seeing devices that must comply with efficiency limits in their power conversion (using a switching power supply or otherwise).

So what is a power budget? Much like a budget you might have for your personal finances, a power budget shows where all the possible power will be used by a device to by breaking it down into components and categories. In some situations, you might be told up front that you will have 3W available to run your design. However, sometimes as designers we start by calculating the total power a system needs and then taking actions such as replacing parts or redesigning circuits to cut back power to an acceptable level. So why might someone want to do a power budget from day one?

I have lots of thoughts about education, especially higher education. The theme that keeps popping up in my head though is that school isn’t too far removed from teaching yourself. Honestly, let’s look at the learning process:

1. Encounter a “problem” that needs to be solved.
2. Do background research and look at past examples of how it was solved.
3. Apply your newly gained knowledge to the problem at hand.
4. If a new problem arises that is not encompassed by the recently acquired wisdom, go back to step 2.
5. Report on your findings to others.

Doesn’t this sound like work? Or studying on your own? Or doing a hobby project? How is this any different?

Being an analog engineer, I’m around “more experienced” engineers on a daily basis. However, a group of younger engineers often find ourselves acting much older than we are, shouting things like “Get off my lawn!” and “Back in my day…” (really, we had a whole list).

Anyway, another common one that comes up is “They don’t make ’em like they used to!”.  Do we as engineers know WHY they don’t make them that way anymore? Of course we do. The lower reliability and requirements for many more people to assemble the devices honestly doesn’t make sense these days. With lower priced labor the world over and low tolerance for waste and inefficient processes, I know I wouldn’t make the proverbial “them” that way anymore. It just doesn’t make sense.

I’ve started reading resumes from the bottom up.

What does this mean? It means I’m looking for passion. It means I’m looking for interest. It means I look for people who do electronics for fun. It means that classroom experience–while important–is not getting you the job. In fact, quite the opposite. If you’re spending all of your time in the classroom, how useful are you? Yes, understanding the basics are important. But if you’re going to quote me an equation you learned instead of going out and soldering and desoldering components to a board, how will I know that you’re a legit worker that is willing to get their hands dirty? (solder-y?)

I’m spending the day at the New York Hall of Science. It’s amazing. The venue is perfect. The swag from the OHS people and sponsors is so cool. I’m completely smitten with everyone here. I’m kind of reverting to a childhood state I’m so excited.

Why?

Well, because this feels like the beginning of something much much bigger than me and that I get to watch it unfold in front of me. And participate, that’s key as well. And since I looked for a while for people online and failed and new get to sit in a room with 200 people that do hardware, it gets me excited. These are my people. My nerdy, awesome people.

So I’ve been at ESC Boston since Monday, both as a participant and as a writer. It’s been a really cool experience meeting a lot of people in the technical writing field and a lot in the publishing industry (as well as those in the technical side of things, of course). And today for the first time, I was published in EETimes on the EELife section. Check out a couple of my articles, linked below.

So it’s quite apparent I haven’t been around posting too much. The date on the last post makes that pretty obvious. I have been doing some fun and exciting things though!

First off is The Amp Hour, a new electronics podcast/radio show. We just completed our 8th episode yesterday and it seems to be going well! We were very lucky to have much of Dave Jones’ wonderful community at EEVblog make the jump over and listen to us. It’s nice to have a strong base of listeners to start with and we appreciate everyone of them (I appreciate you doubly if you happen to read here as well!).