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January 2009 Archives

January 5, 2009

Most read posts of 2008

cc%20plug.jpg Happy New year to all our readers!


Before we kick off 2009 in earnest, here is a roundup of the most-viewed content in 2008, with the Engineer in Wonderland series proving its popularity (only posts on advent calendars and the world's largetst LCD monitor puncturing its dominance).

'Alice' is a special contributor, by the way, with the title 'An Engineer in Wonderland' inspired by the 1967 book 'The Engineer in Wonderland' by Professor Eric Laithwaite: champion of the linear induction motor.

1. An Engineer in Wonderland - Domestic wiring madness?

2. An Engineer in Wonderland - A car alternator surprise

3. An Engineer in Wonderland - You can't just turn off CERN

Continue reading "Most read posts of 2008" »

Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on January 5, 2009 10:21 AM | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

January 6, 2009

LED Luminaries take a blogging bow

led luminaries small.JPG
There is now a new blog in town, covering the latest developments in LED technology - LED Luminaries! Don't miss out.

As its strapline says, "LED industry insiders, from Dialight, Carclo, Farnell and SKK Lighting share their insights on the issues shaping the development of LED technology in general and LED lighting in particular."

Posts already on the blog include:

Continue reading "LED Luminaries take a blogging bow" »

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on January 6, 2009 10:35 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

January 7, 2009

Electronics Weekly Live - Get the Events Brochure

ew_live_logo 475.gifRead the EW Live Events Brochure.pdf

More details are now available for Electronics Weekly Live, the 'How To' conference and exhibition which will be held in association with National Electronics Week.

The event will take place at Earls Court, London on 16 - 18 June 2009. More details will follow, but an Events Brochure is now available. Also, bookmark: www.electronicsweekly.com/live

For exhibition and sponsorship opportunities, please contact:  Dean Slade
For programming information, please contact: Richard Wilson

Continue reading "Electronics Weekly Live - Get the Events Brochure" »

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on January 7, 2009 10:44 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

January 8, 2009

An Engineer In Wonderland - Metal detecting with an 8 pin micro

 

An Engineer in Wonderland has a new home. You can find this particular entry here. If you wish to leave a comment, please do that on the new blog.

 

cc gold bar.jpgSometimes I am amazed by the ingenuity of a circuit.

I had such a moment when I first saw a 1997 application note for the PIC12C series of 8 pin microcontrollers called 'Using PIC12CXXX as a Sensor Interface for Metal Detection' by Vladimir Velchev of Bulgaria.

An entry for Microchip's 'Designing for Dollars' competition.

The very clever bit is that Velchev cunningly replaces the microcontroller's external crystal with a parallel LC tank circuit, where the L is the coil of a metal detector.

This means the processor clock frequency is determined by the coil inductance, which is affected by nearby lumps of metal.

Continue reading "An Engineer In Wonderland - Metal detecting with an 8 pin micro" »

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on January 8, 2009 9:28 AM | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Q5 Interview - Professor Chris Toumazou, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Imperial College

Prof Chris Toumazou,Director and Chief Scientist, IBE.jpg
The latest Q5 Interview is now online with the Director and Chief Scientist at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Imperial College, London.

Professor Chris Toumazou talks to Electronics Weekly about the the status of biomedical engineering in the UK, how the worlds of semiconductors and bioengineering come together, and his view on the status of the engineer in the UK.

The five questions this week are:

1. What is the role of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering in the UK's electronics and high tech industries?

2. How would you characterise the status of biomedical engineering in the UK?

Continue reading "Q5 Interview - Professor Chris Toumazou, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Imperial College" »

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on January 8, 2009 11:02 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

January 12, 2009

An Engineer in Wonderland - Soldering aluminium, triumph and tragedy

 

An Engineer in Wonderland has a new home. You can find this particular entry here. If you wish to leave a comment, please do that on the new blog.

 

easy weld.jpgApart from school, and two weeks at college on a course, I have no idea how to use a lathe.

But over Christmas I found a few days to lock myself away with a small one and gradually made a pile of parts for my Mark V bike light.

I suspect the tolerances I achieved would make a toolmaker giggle, but I was proud that the bits fitted together at all.

This weekend I attempted to solder them together using special aluminium solder from Durafix.

To see what an expert can do, take a look at the videos on the site.

Continue reading "An Engineer in Wonderland - Soldering aluminium, triumph and tragedy" »

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on January 12, 2009 12:58 PM | | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

January 13, 2009

Circuit Competition - One of our components is missing

circuit001.jpg
Take the Circuit Challenge

We are launching a new monthly competition on Electronics Weekly, with a £50 Amazon voucher to be won, kindly provided by Digi-Key sponsors of our new Circuits section.

The circuit schematic-based challenge is dubbed 'One of our components is missing' and you just have to reason which component has been blacked out from a particular (real world) circuit schematic. Have a go!

It's just a piece of electronics engineering fun, aimed at those who like reading circuits.

Continue reading "Circuit Competition - One of our components is missing" »

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on January 13, 2009 1:00 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

January 14, 2009

Back to storage basics

ones and zeroes 0101010 jpg.jpgJust an FYI - Fujitsu Siemens Computers is highlighting a free PDF guide entitled ''Storage Basics'.

"Getting to grips with the ever-growing flood of data is one of the greatest challenges faced by most organisations when it comes to information storage. Do you know your SAN from your NAS? How does iSCSI compare to FC? How close is your near-line storage? What does a VTA do?," says the press release

The guide is available free-of-charge (after registration) as a PDF download from the Fujitsu Siemens Computers website.

Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on January 14, 2009 11:37 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

January 16, 2009

An Engineer in Wonderland - Free LED design software

 

An Engineer in Wonderland has a new home. You can find this particular entry here. If you wish to leave a comment, please do that on the new blog.

 

nat semi webinar.jpgThe second of Nat Semi's excellent power led seminars 'Driving High-Power LEDs Without Getting Burned - Part 2' includes some good stuff about the feedback stabilisation inside buck regulators driving power leds and also a couple of demonstrations of free design software available.

The thermal design tool is tied to Future/Lumileds and the electrical design software is National's own, but I am guessing both will at least show you what is possible, could be used to get the feel of power led design, and would be a way to do some suck-it-and-see work before getting out the soldering iron.

Does anyone know of any other free power LED tools out there.

'Alice'

Respond below, or to alice@electronicsweekly.com

You cannot get spammed for replying to either.
 - That is the way it should be. 

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on January 16, 2009 11:24 AM | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

EDA and self-esteem issues

cute puppy.jpgAn interesting summary of a CEO Forecast panel in San Jose, under the auspices of the annual Electronic Design Automation Consortium (EDAC): Analysis: EDA CEOs waltz on the tilting deck

The CEOs taking part included Wally Rhines of Mentor Graphics, Aart de Geus of Synopsys, Chris Rowen of Tensilica, and Rajeev Madhavan of Magma Design Automation. Each took their turn to outline a prognosis for the EDA industry in 2009 beyond, and they weren't pulling punches.

Continue reading "EDA and self-esteem issues" »

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on January 16, 2009 10:42 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

What to watch in 2009 - A look ahead

filofax.jpgHopefully you've seen them on the News Index this week - Electronics Weekly's look forward to 2009, and what it has to offer.

As well as the technologies, people and legislation to watch in 2009, we consider the companies to watch in the year ahead, too.

Here is the full list:

Continue reading "What to watch in 2009 - A look ahead" »

Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on January 16, 2009 2:38 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

January 19, 2009

Ubuntu Man and Hardy Heron

ubuntu hardy heron.jpgI am now an Ubuntu man, having purchased a Linux PC at the end of last week (a Dell Inspiron 530, just so you know). I am but a small particle in the Linux wave, but I made the choice to invest my hard-earned in an open source platform rather than Windows Vista...

What are my impressions? So far, so very good, and I certainly don't regret the choice. Indeed I have been pleasantly surprised as to what's on offer.

Continue reading "Ubuntu Man and Hardy Heron" »

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on January 19, 2009 12:27 PM | | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

January 20, 2009

Q5 Interview - Peter van den Eijnden, JTAG Technologies

Prof Chris Toumazou,Director and Chief Scientist, IBE.jpg The latest Q5 interview is online, with the managing director of JTAG Technologies.

Peter van den Eijnden talks to Electronics Weekly about boundary-scanning - what value it adds, why the tools are perceived as being expensive, and the long-term stability of manufacturing test systems.

The five questions this week are:

1. What value-added does boundary-scan (aka JTAG testing) bring to the manufacturing process?

2. Boundary-scan tools are perceived as expensive, why?

Continue reading "Q5 Interview - Peter van den Eijnden, JTAG Technologies" »

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on January 20, 2009 8:53 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

January 21, 2009

Implementing radios & Embedded development and testing

wimax certified.jpgCheck out three new in-depth articles recently made available on the site. They cover the "Hot 100 Electronic Products of 2008", compact low-power wireless devices, and embedded development and testing.



Hardware and software approaches implement multiple radios
Miniaturization and emerging flexible software architectures will enable compact, low-power wireless devices to support communications standards ranging from Bluetooth to WiMax.

Continue reading "Implementing radios & Embedded development and testing" »

Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on January 21, 2009 9:08 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

January 27, 2009

Twitter Twitter Tweet Tweet

twitter%20logo.pngSee: EWcom (for Richard Wilson's updates) and ElectronicsNews (for, yes, the latest electronics news).

I'm surpised by the buzz that has recently built-up again around twitter, not quite sure where it has come from.

It's not as if it's new - we were trialling Electronics Weekly on Twitter a year ago, for example, and ElectronicsNews. I had filed it away as a fad that had peaked. I remember reading a .Net magazine article 6 months ago poking fun at the service saying, what with the crashing servers and being swamped by users of a Japanese virtual pet game it was becoming unusable. How things change. Now I'm following Barack Obama and Russell Brand (only joking).

Anyhoo. Once more EW is braving the airless Twitterverse: if you want to follow Electronics Weekly's editor Richard Wilson, just follow EWcom. Here's the RSS twitter feed.

We'll  gauge the response before putting Gadget Master and Made By Monkeys on there!

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on January 27, 2009 12:37 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

January 28, 2009

Q5 Interview - Jason Oxman, CEA

28jan09JasonOxman.jpg
The latest Q5 interview is online, with the senior VP industry affairs, Consumer Electronics Association.

Jason Oxman, senior VP industry affairs, Consumer Electronics Association, talks to Electronics Weekly about the biggest opportunities in the consumer market in 2009, the digital TV switch-over, and suppliers meeting the challenge of potentially falling consumer spending...

The five questions this week are:

1. Which technologies are expected to provide the biggest opportunities in the consumer market in 2009?

2. What impact will the move towards digital switch-over have on the market?

Continue reading "Q5 Interview - Jason Oxman, CEA" »

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on January 28, 2009 12:54 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

January 29, 2009

An Engineer in Wonderland - A bag for explosions

 

An Engineer in Wonderland has a new home. You can find this particular entry here. If you wish to leave a comment, please do that on the new blog.

 

liposafebag.jpgLithium ion and lithium polymer cells are wonderful, because they store lots of energy and don't weigh very much.

But as pointed out in Electronics Weekly more than once: if abused, they can bite back.

Over-heating, over-charging, over-discharging, penetration, crushing, and probably just being Tuesday can turn them into a fire ball in a second or so.

I remember someone on a caving discussion forum declaring that he had made a head lamp and its lithium polymer cells resided inside his caving helmet....

Continue reading "An Engineer in Wonderland - A bag for explosions" »

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on January 29, 2009 4:43 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

About January 2009

This page contains all entries posted to Electro-ramblings in January 2009. They are listed from oldest to newest.

December 2008 is the previous archive.

February 2009 is the next archive.

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