Electro-ramblings: November 2011 Archives

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It's my periodic reminder: Have you signed up to receive the Circuits or Made by Monkeys newsletters yet? Or the Mannerisms semiconductor mailing? Or the general, weekly Electronics Weekly newsletter, bringing you the latest news and content from the site?

Go to MyAccount to make sure you keep receiving them. If you wish to receive the newsletters you will need to register!

Also, there is the Daily Newsletter bringing you the latest news, products releases and most popular content on the site read by your peers. Straight to your inbox, no fuss. It is mailed out early afternoon.

Under the My Emails heading, simply tick the box for:
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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on November 2, 2011 7:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Comment on Electronics Weekly news articles

Just a quick post to flag that you can now leave comments on Electronics Weekly news articles! You could always post comments on our blogs, but now news pieces have caught up, too.

The comment functionality is powered by Disqus software. This is widely used on the Web and, while it lets you comment anonymously, it will also aggregate your Web interaction if you have signed in, at another site previously maybe. Your comments will all be collected in one place, as it were.

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on November 30, 2011 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Only Connect: Identifying greener manufacturers (Going Green #9)

Welcome to another post in the series by Nick Locke, of Nicab Ltd, who has over 15 years experience in the electronics manufacturing industry specialising in interconnection cable assembly.

The protesters outside St Paul's have been making a lot of headlines recently and creating a discussion point around the nature of capitalism and how the economy works.

These are far too big and important issues to go into in my humble blog post, however I did want to raise the interesting point of how we the consumer can drive big business to do more in terms of reducing the impact on our environment.

I was interested to see that www.epeat.net has been set up with the view of identifying manufacturers that have products with more environmentally-friendly features. This is an outcome of consumers wanting to know who is doing more to protect the environment and therefore create the real link between companies that care about their consumers.

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on November 1, 2011 9:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

An Engineer in Fairyland - Financial engineering?

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.

My fundamental complaint is that real engineering is built on science, and financial engineering is built on bollocks.

I think what confuses people is that in both cases there is a lot of maths between the foundations and the engineering.

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on November 2, 2011 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

An Engineer in Fairyland - Millisecond trading?

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.

While I am pondering The Market and things, is millisecond trading really such a good thing?

Even I, who struggled with control theory at university, know that too much gain in system can lead to instability.

And that doing trades faster and faster, unless you proportionally reduce the size of the trades, is increasing the gain of the system.

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on November 4, 2011 2:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Comment: Is the Age of Silicon Start-Ups Over?

John Moor of NMI joins the SiliconSouthWest debate on the future of silicon startups...

I've stolen the title of this blog post from a question asked by Peter Claydon at a recent SiliconSouthWest event and I thought it worth a comment or two.

According to the David Manners' blog, Mannerisms, Peter answered "it probably is...". However an alternative view was presented in this article which argues that "Scarcity drives up the value of semiconductor start-ups"...

From my vantage point it is clear to see that the "classic" fabless semiconductor model has had a huge challenge for some time but does this mean it really is all over?

I doubt it. Actually, I very much doubt it.

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NMI

Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on November 3, 2011 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Only Connect: Good design and the IEC Connector

Welcome to another post in the series by Nick Locke, of Nicab Ltd, who has over 15 years experience in the electronics manufacturing industry specialising in interconnection cable assembly.

If you use power then you use the IEC connector. It's been around for a while now, since 1970 to be precise. As mentioned in previous blog posts, good design stands the test of time, that's why they are still around. They do the job really well.

There is usually a little confusion around the connector types and their uses. So to keep things simple for this blog post I am only going to talk about the IEC 60320 series. That's the C-Series to you and me!

Here is a list of connectors and their common uses:

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C1/C2 connector (pictured right) used on electric shavers and other low voltage devices, not in use so much these days, normally replaced by the DC connector.

Continue reading "Only Connect: Good design and the IEC Connector" »

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on November 7, 2011 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

OhmArt Cartoon: Super Capacitor

Time for another in our series of posts featuring the excellent electronics cartoons from OhmArt! Check out more on Barney's blog, too...

This one isn't just a capacitor, it's a super capacitor... He writes "Everyone needs a superhero. This one is in the form of a super-capacitor, complete with slightly yellowing Y-fronts and a billowing cape. Gaunt, proud, valiant he stands on the hilltop, keeping a watchful eye for those who need considerable charge at a moment's notice. At a useful 5.5V, this superhero packs a massive 1 Farad - that's right - an absolute truckload of capacitance!"

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on November 11, 2011 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

LED content on Electronics Weekly

The sharp-eyed among you will have noticed a new addition to our main navigation bar - a tab for LEDs.

LED content - which of course is of increasing interest and importance - was maybe somewhat buried away in the larger sub-section of Displays and Opto in the main Components section. Hopefully, now the LED content is more clearly signposted.

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LED

Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on November 11, 2011 9:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Job of the Week: Formula One racing team Red Bull

I hope you have seen we are regularly featuring a Job of the Week, taking a pick from the many vacancies in our Jobs section.

This week we are highlighting that Red Bull is recruiting an Electronic Hardware Engineer. Based in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, it is a full-time, permanent role.

The company is seeking an enthusiastic applicant to work on its Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS). The main purpose of the position, it says, is to provide a wide range of electrical and electronic support to this project.

View the full details >>

Apply Now >>

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jobs

Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on November 15, 2011 9:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

An Engineer in Wonderland - An amusing website for those in need of magnification

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.

Never have I come across such an honest sales website.

I am looking for some sort of magnifier because I am going cross-eyed machining the finer bits of the Mark 6b bicycle headlight.

QuickTest.co.uk of Watford offers a wide range of magnifiers, from some seriously wonderful stuff, to some lesser products only there because they sell cheaply.

More of the serious stuff later, but it is the descriptions of the lesser stuff that tickled me.

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on November 16, 2011 4:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

An Engineer in Wonderland - Engineering Nobel Prize

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.

It is nice to see that the Royal Academy of Engineering has stepped in to fill a hole in the Nobel Prizes with the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering.

- Much in the way that the Rolf Schock and Crafoord Prizes fill the maths hole, and the Turing Award does for computing.

So I got to thinking who in the past I would like to give a Queen Elizabeth Prize to.

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on November 17, 2011 4:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

An Engineer in Wonderland - Thanks Mr Cree, the Mark 6b LED headlight is looking good

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.

Sneezing and sniffing put the brakes on my extensive social life (I claim) and offered a golden opportunity for a few evenings in a chilly workshop.

The result is a Mark 6b LED bicycle headlight and, once more, learning more than I wanted to.

Continue reading "An Engineer in Wonderland - Thanks Mr Cree, the Mark 6b LED headlight is looking good" »

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on November 18, 2011 2:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Only Connect: CCA Conductors in Ethernet Cables

Welcome to another post in the series by Nick Locke, of Nicab Ltd, who has over 15 years experience in the electronics manufacturing industry specialising in interconnection cable assembly.

As first reported by my colleagues over the pond @ www.interconnectionworld.com, the FIA have released a white paper on the use of CCA (Copper Clad Aluminium) cables in Ethernet cables (pdf).

In the last couple of years those of us in the networking interconnection industry have seen the introduction of CCA cables largely because of the downward pressure customers have on prices, and in no small account to the fact that copper prices have been going through the roof.

CCA is as the name suggests it's a small amount of copper bulked up with aluminium to create the 24 AWG required for most Ethernet applications.

Continue reading "Only Connect: CCA Conductors in Ethernet Cables" »

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on November 22, 2011 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Elektra Awards 2011 - Book your place!

It's not long until the Elektra Awards 2011 - Wednesday 14 December - so we are starting to flag it is the last chance to book your place at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge London Hotel.

Be a part of the biggest celebration in the electronics industry by joining us at the event. You don't have to be a finalist to attend; anyone can join in the celebrations!

Enjoy fantastic entertainment
Thank your clients for their support
Reward you colleagues for their hard work
Build up your networking contacts
Meet the winners

Book your table online or call Jenny Harman on 020 8652 8680 for more details.

For sponsorship opportunities, please contact lee.delaruebrowne@rbi.co.uk on 020 8652 3262.

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Elektra Awards 2011

Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on November 23, 2011 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Toshiba Electronics Education Zone - November update

Don't forget to bookmark the Toshiba Electronics Education Zone on Electronics Weekly, providing design engineers with access to guides, whitepapers and videos - www.electronicsweekly.com/toshiba-zone

Topics covered include ASIC, Memory, Microcontrollers, Mobile Peripherals, Optical Devices, Power, and SSDs.

We will be updating the Zone regualrly, and new entries for November include:

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Toshiba

Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on November 23, 2011 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

OhmArt Cartoon: Bipolar transistor

Time for another in our series of posts featuring the excellent electronics cartoons from OhmArt! Check out more on Barney's blog, too...

This one is about a transistor with issues, a bipolar transistor... "...my mother was a cheap octal valve...I never met my father... "

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on November 25, 2011 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Only Connect: Requirements & Acceptance for Cable & Wire Harness Assemblies

Welcome to another post in the series by Nick Locke, of Nicab Ltd, who has over 15 years experience in the electronics manufacturing industry specialising in interconnection cable assembly.

Many of my previous blogs have referred to the design or products used in interconnection and cable assemblies. This week I want to talk about the standards used in wire and cable assembly.

Many people working in electronics assembly design & manufacture are familiar with the IPC 610 Standard (Acceptability of Electronic Assemblies) however; the dedicated standard for Cable & Wire Harness Assemblies is IPC/WHMA-A-620.

Continue reading "Only Connect: Requirements & Acceptance for Cable & Wire Harness Assemblies" »

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Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on November 29, 2011 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

New job service gets mobile on Electronics Weekly

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Check out the new job service on Electronics Weekly - make sure you visit us at www.electronicsweekly.com/jobs to see what's new!

You will find a website designed to make finding and applying for jobs much easier, with improved navigation and more accurate job searches. Your log in details will remain the same and now is a great chance to make sure your profile and CV are up-to-date.

KEY FEATURES

- Quicker search (new options to get you straight to the jobs you want)

- Recruiting now section (find jobs with leading employers in the industry)

- New look layout (quickly access your account and the jobs you're interested in)

- Mobile site (find and apply for jobs straight from your mobile phone

Continue reading "New job service gets mobile on Electronics Weekly" »

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jobs

Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com on November 29, 2011 12:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Electro-ramblings

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November 2011 Archives

November 2, 2011

Don't forget to sign up to the Electronics Weekly newsletters

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November 30, 2011

Comment on Electronics Weekly news articles

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November 1, 2011

Only Connect: Identifying greener manufacturers (Going Green #9)

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November 2, 2011

An Engineer in Fairyland - Financial engineering?

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November 4, 2011

An Engineer in Fairyland - Millisecond trading?

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November 3, 2011

Comment: Is the Age of Silicon Start-Ups Over?

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November 4, 2011

Top 10 most popular articles on ElectronicsWeekly.com

November 7, 2011

Only Connect: Good design and the IEC Connector

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November 11, 2011

OhmArt Cartoon: Super Capacitor

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LED content on Electronics Weekly

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November 15, 2011

Job of the Week: Formula One racing team Red Bull

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November 16, 2011

An Engineer in Wonderland - An amusing website for those in need of magnification

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November 17, 2011

An Engineer in Wonderland - Engineering Nobel Prize

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November 18, 2011

Top 10 most popular articles on ElectronicsWeekly.com

An Engineer in Wonderland - Thanks Mr Cree, the Mark 6b LED headlight is looking good

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November 22, 2011

Only Connect: CCA Conductors in Ethernet Cables

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November 23, 2011

Elektra Awards 2011 - Book your place!

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Toshiba Electronics Education Zone - November update

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November 25, 2011

OhmArt Cartoon: Bipolar transistor

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November 29, 2011

Only Connect: Requirements & Acceptance for Cable & Wire Harness Assemblies

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New job service gets mobile on Electronics Weekly

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