Monday, March 02, 2015
Friday, December 31, 2010
The Importance of Clothing For The Engineer
I'll bet that, if you are an engineer, you are thinking 'Wow, that is one weird topic'. And certainly as a young (or even middle aged) engineer, I never thought about much about what I wore - at least in terms of style or the like. I dressed, more or less, in 'casual business' style. But then I changed the 'type' of engineering I was involved in - I went from simply being a design engineer or, in some cases, a manager of design engineers to being a engineer who worked with clients. Whoa! What a difference!
Let me back up and bit and at least nibble around the topic of 'types' of engineering. And specifically let's talk about engineers who work for companies (and usually design stuff like rockets, radios, etc - stuff that gets produced by factories in general) and engineers who design buildings, power plants, public facilities and the like.
This latter group of engineers frequently are designing facilities, etc for public entities such as power companies. They frequently are required to hold a 'Professional Engineering' license (i.e. a PE license) which is granted by the state. They may work for a engineering company but their work is usually done directly with the end customer or client.
In this type of environment, your physical appearance (when in front of the client) becomes very, very important. All those style pages in Esquire all of sudden become important. And for most engineers this is a bit of a jolt! It was for me at least!
My first 30 years of engineering (in the design world) - yeah, you had to be neat - nobody likes a slob. But then a big shift - new job, new industry, and new things to learn. One of which was that I had to look good! Along with many other little lessons learned.
Bottom line - be aware that the type of engineering you do can impact you in ways you might not have expected!
I'll bet that, if you are an engineer, you are thinking 'Wow, that is one weird topic'. And certainly as a young (or even middle aged) engineer, I never thought about much about what I wore - at least in terms of style or the like. I dressed, more or less, in 'casual business' style. But then I changed the 'type' of engineering I was involved in - I went from simply being a design engineer or, in some cases, a manager of design engineers to being a engineer who worked with clients. Whoa! What a difference!
Let me back up and bit and at least nibble around the topic of 'types' of engineering. And specifically let's talk about engineers who work for companies (and usually design stuff like rockets, radios, etc - stuff that gets produced by factories in general) and engineers who design buildings, power plants, public facilities and the like.
This latter group of engineers frequently are designing facilities, etc for public entities such as power companies. They frequently are required to hold a 'Professional Engineering' license (i.e. a PE license) which is granted by the state. They may work for a engineering company but their work is usually done directly with the end customer or client.
In this type of environment, your physical appearance (when in front of the client) becomes very, very important. All those style pages in Esquire all of sudden become important. And for most engineers this is a bit of a jolt! It was for me at least!
My first 30 years of engineering (in the design world) - yeah, you had to be neat - nobody likes a slob. But then a big shift - new job, new industry, and new things to learn. One of which was that I had to look good! Along with many other little lessons learned.
Bottom line - be aware that the type of engineering you do can impact you in ways you might not have expected!
Monday, November 15, 2010
Lionel Bell and Whistle Controller
Now here is a shift in topic. And, yes, we are talking about Lionel model trains and, more specifically, how to activate the bell and whistle functions on both old and new locomotives (Not including the new digital control versions, e.g. TMCC).
Back in the olden days Lionel evolved a simple way to add a 'control function' to their train sets. Normally Lionel trains use AC power on the track - 5 to 18 VAC. In order to control an accessory (e.g. a whistle) they added a low voltage dc relay in the train. The contacts on this little relay then drove the accessory device (e.g. the whistle). Then they just added (activated by a switch) a low voltage dc offset to the normal ac power signal going to the track . The relay in the load was activated by the dc signal and the relays contacts activated the load.
As Lionel morphed into the digital world, they retained this same basic mechanism for activating simple functions such as the whistle and the bell. To get two functions to work, they simply used one polarity of dc offset for one function and the other polarity for the other function.
So how can we adapt an older transformer/train controller to work with one of the newer engines? I'm working on that and I will have more to come.
Now here is a shift in topic. And, yes, we are talking about Lionel model trains and, more specifically, how to activate the bell and whistle functions on both old and new locomotives (Not including the new digital control versions, e.g. TMCC).
Back in the olden days Lionel evolved a simple way to add a 'control function' to their train sets. Normally Lionel trains use AC power on the track - 5 to 18 VAC. In order to control an accessory (e.g. a whistle) they added a low voltage dc relay in the train. The contacts on this little relay then drove the accessory device (e.g. the whistle). Then they just added (activated by a switch) a low voltage dc offset to the normal ac power signal going to the track . The relay in the load was activated by the dc signal and the relays contacts activated the load.
As Lionel morphed into the digital world, they retained this same basic mechanism for activating simple functions such as the whistle and the bell. To get two functions to work, they simply used one polarity of dc offset for one function and the other polarity for the other function.
So how can we adapt an older transformer/train controller to work with one of the newer engines? I'm working on that and I will have more to come.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
A Rant about Norton Internet Security
Let me start by saying that I am a long user of Norton - been using them (in various forms) for over 15 years now. But they just pulled a sneaky and nasty trick on me (and probably many other Norton customers).
Let me lay in a little background. It is generally my habit to be a bit stingy with renewing my subscription to Norton each year. Sometimes I buy a copy before the expiration date of my present edition and then, when the software expires, I load the new version in. Or I wait after expiration to buy a new copy when I happen to be at the software store or when I see a good deal come up (e.g. I get a reduced price or even free copy with my tax software package). The only minor aggravation with this somewhat relaxes attitude toward updating the software is that I can no longer get virus definition updates. Not a big problem - I still have the program running and I am protected.
Well, gues what sneaky trick Norton has played on their customers! Now when the subscription expires, they turn off the program! You are left high and dry with NO protection! Now there are two possibilities here -
A. the program is still running but they are fibbing a bit to try to scare you into buying an updated right NOW!!
B. The program is de-activated and you are out there with no protection!
Well, A is nasty and sly and sneaky but B is a real bastard. Both are reprehensible and Norton should be ashamed of them selves.
Let me start by saying that I am a long user of Norton - been using them (in various forms) for over 15 years now. But they just pulled a sneaky and nasty trick on me (and probably many other Norton customers).
Let me lay in a little background. It is generally my habit to be a bit stingy with renewing my subscription to Norton each year. Sometimes I buy a copy before the expiration date of my present edition and then, when the software expires, I load the new version in. Or I wait after expiration to buy a new copy when I happen to be at the software store or when I see a good deal come up (e.g. I get a reduced price or even free copy with my tax software package). The only minor aggravation with this somewhat relaxes attitude toward updating the software is that I can no longer get virus definition updates. Not a big problem - I still have the program running and I am protected.
Well, gues what sneaky trick Norton has played on their customers! Now when the subscription expires, they turn off the program! You are left high and dry with NO protection! Now there are two possibilities here -
A. the program is still running but they are fibbing a bit to try to scare you into buying an updated right NOW!!
B. The program is de-activated and you are out there with no protection!
Well, A is nasty and sly and sneaky but B is a real bastard. Both are reprehensible and Norton should be ashamed of them selves.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Video editors for my JVC Enverio Hard drive camcorder
Trying to do more with my blog - given that I have done only two posts since I started over a year ago, posting more frequently should not be hard to achieve!
So today let's talk about video editors. Two years ago, I received a JVC Hybrid (i.e. solid state memory and/or built in harddisk) camcorder. This little bundle is a really fine camcorder - it takes great movies, is easy to use and is quite compact. Battery life seems to be a bit more than 2 hours so, if you don't go crazy, you have plenty of battery to record reasonably long sessions.
The only problem has been with the 'production' of the video's - i.e. taking the video files, downloading them (no problem) and then arranging them, editing them, adding titles and, finally, recording them to YouTube, DVD, or whatever so other people can see them.
JVC provides a 'limited capability' version of 'Power Director' which works but is a bit clunky and limited in what it can do. The program is actually 3 programs - each of which is discrete and, to some extent, seem to overlap in functionality. But it does work and I was able to product a video product. An upgraded product would cost about $60.
Of the many video editors out there, I then choose an Adobe product - Adobe Premiere Elements 4. It came combined with Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 which I wanted anyways so, for an addition $30 or so, I opt'ed to add it. Now, as background, JVC uses a mpeg 2 format for it's computer files (file extension is 'mod'). And reviewers of the Adobe program had indicated that Adobe Premiere Elements 4 (PE4) did not handle *.mod files well at all. Adobe says it will - reviewers say no way.
Well, guess what, the reviewers were right. Long story shortened - it doesn't work. It crashes when you try. There are work arounds which involve translating (with an external converter) the *.mod files to another format (e.g. *.mvi) that PE4 would handle. This conversion turned out to be a very lengthly and laborious process (even on a dual core AMD processor running at 3 GHz and with 4 GB of RAM) - hours to process 20 minutes of video. Ugly.
So PE4 was a loser. I sort of sat back and sulked for a year or so. Tried again and again with both PE4 and Power Director. Still hated both. Finally organized another look at the video editor market (June 2009), downloaded some trial runs and then decided on Corel's Visual Studio Pro X2.
Bought Corel VideoStudio Pro X2 on EBAY in an original, sealed package and I am delighted with it so far. It handles the *.mod files with no complaint. And it actually came with a real printed manual! Boy, that is so unusual in today's world - absolutely wonderful. Still figuring out to use it - for example, it has the capability to lighten or darken an entire clip which, for the video I am working on, is essential (one clip is taken under a shadowed pavilion on a bright sun shiney day. The people under the pavilion are almost lost in the shadows. This will let me bring them out of the dark, so to speak.
Lots more to explore but right now, Video Studio rocks!
Trying to do more with my blog - given that I have done only two posts since I started over a year ago, posting more frequently should not be hard to achieve!
So today let's talk about video editors. Two years ago, I received a JVC Hybrid (i.e. solid state memory and/or built in harddisk) camcorder. This little bundle is a really fine camcorder - it takes great movies, is easy to use and is quite compact. Battery life seems to be a bit more than 2 hours so, if you don't go crazy, you have plenty of battery to record reasonably long sessions.
The only problem has been with the 'production' of the video's - i.e. taking the video files, downloading them (no problem) and then arranging them, editing them, adding titles and, finally, recording them to YouTube, DVD, or whatever so other people can see them.
JVC provides a 'limited capability' version of 'Power Director' which works but is a bit clunky and limited in what it can do. The program is actually 3 programs - each of which is discrete and, to some extent, seem to overlap in functionality. But it does work and I was able to product a video product. An upgraded product would cost about $60.
Of the many video editors out there, I then choose an Adobe product - Adobe Premiere Elements 4. It came combined with Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 which I wanted anyways so, for an addition $30 or so, I opt'ed to add it. Now, as background, JVC uses a mpeg 2 format for it's computer files (file extension is 'mod'). And reviewers of the Adobe program had indicated that Adobe Premiere Elements 4 (PE4) did not handle *.mod files well at all. Adobe says it will - reviewers say no way.
Well, guess what, the reviewers were right. Long story shortened - it doesn't work. It crashes when you try. There are work arounds which involve translating (with an external converter) the *.mod files to another format (e.g. *.mvi) that PE4 would handle. This conversion turned out to be a very lengthly and laborious process (even on a dual core AMD processor running at 3 GHz and with 4 GB of RAM) - hours to process 20 minutes of video. Ugly.
So PE4 was a loser. I sort of sat back and sulked for a year or so. Tried again and again with both PE4 and Power Director. Still hated both. Finally organized another look at the video editor market (June 2009), downloaded some trial runs and then decided on Corel's Visual Studio Pro X2.
Bought Corel VideoStudio Pro X2 on EBAY in an original, sealed package and I am delighted with it so far. It handles the *.mod files with no complaint. And it actually came with a real printed manual! Boy, that is so unusual in today's world - absolutely wonderful. Still figuring out to use it - for example, it has the capability to lighten or darken an entire clip which, for the video I am working on, is essential (one clip is taken under a shadowed pavilion on a bright sun shiney day. The people under the pavilion are almost lost in the shadows. This will let me bring them out of the dark, so to speak.
Lots more to explore but right now, Video Studio rocks!
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Experiments With Digital Noise Generation
Well, it has been so long since I started my blog that I forgotten how to go about making entries! My only excuse - lack of time! Time's a wasting so let's talk about my most recent endeavor - looking for a digital white noise generator. The application is a low parts count 'steam sound' generator for an O-gauge model railroad engine. I have several circuits which used conventional analog circuits but why do things the old fashion way! Let's jump in and use a digital noise generator.
Now using digital noise generators is NOT a new technology - from my research, people have been doing it for a least 30 years. Not even new to me - at least in concept. But boiling something down to practice and, even more challenging, understanding what I am doing - that should be both interesting and mind stretching. Goodness knows stretching my capabilities is a good thing.
Basically I want to try using a small microprocessor to generate a white noise - this will be Phase 1. Then, Phase 2, I will expand that to make a 'steam sound' simulator for a model railroad engine. That should keep me busy for a while.
The microprocessor will be a TI MSP430F2013 - I have a engineering demo unit plus compiler/debugger to match it. If I get that to work, I also have a new Freescale processor which I would like to try - it promises to have more resources that might be handy.
One good source of information is on Wikipedia and I have been reading that and experimenting using a Spice simulator (LTSpice - an excellent and free Spice program from Linear Technology - did you get the FREE part!). Having a lot of fun getting my brain around what is going on. Nothing like combining theory with real-world experimentation. Well, ok, not quite 'real-world' but at least simulation. Quick and easy and very interesting. More to come.
Well, it has been so long since I started my blog that I forgotten how to go about making entries! My only excuse - lack of time! Time's a wasting so let's talk about my most recent endeavor - looking for a digital white noise generator. The application is a low parts count 'steam sound' generator for an O-gauge model railroad engine. I have several circuits which used conventional analog circuits but why do things the old fashion way! Let's jump in and use a digital noise generator.
Now using digital noise generators is NOT a new technology - from my research, people have been doing it for a least 30 years. Not even new to me - at least in concept. But boiling something down to practice and, even more challenging, understanding what I am doing - that should be both interesting and mind stretching. Goodness knows stretching my capabilities is a good thing.
Basically I want to try using a small microprocessor to generate a white noise - this will be Phase 1. Then, Phase 2, I will expand that to make a 'steam sound' simulator for a model railroad engine. That should keep me busy for a while.
The microprocessor will be a TI MSP430F2013 - I have a engineering demo unit plus compiler/debugger to match it. If I get that to work, I also have a new Freescale processor which I would like to try - it promises to have more resources that might be handy.
One good source of information is on Wikipedia and I have been reading that and experimenting using a Spice simulator (LTSpice - an excellent and free Spice program from Linear Technology - did you get the FREE part!). Having a lot of fun getting my brain around what is going on. Nothing like combining theory with real-world experimentation. Well, ok, not quite 'real-world' but at least simulation. Quick and easy and very interesting. More to come.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
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