I was running some CAD and simulation jobs on my main machine and was shocked but then resigned as to how much memory was being used without me really trying. I wanted to take on some modelling and simulation work for a local client, and was thinking of ways I could speed things up a …
Pretty much anybody who does electronics prototyping needs to master reflow soldering at some point. There are a few ways to do it. The simplest is to set up the PCB with solder paste and components pre-applied, onto a preheater to get up to a starting temperature. Then, apply the additional reflow heat with hot …
I picked up a Chinese K40 laser cutter a few years back. I had a little play with it, decided the software was abysmal, the controller was horrible and it was grossly unsafe. I stashed it on the ‘forgotten projects’ shelf and left it there. Now, since our hackspace is still closed due to Covid-19, …
Lots of timing-type instruments, such as frequency counters, AWGs and oscilloscopes have the option to be tied to an external frequency reference, most commonly 10 MHz. This enables correlation of measurements from different instruments, as well as vastly improving their accuracy and repeatability. Impedance and Termination It is a useful at this point to mention …
Repurposing a video distribution amplifier – part 1 Read More »
I’ve taken the opportunity during the latest COVID-19 lockdowns to shutdown my main workshop and rebuild from the ground up. The storage rack is in, and is quite full of all my parts, projects and tools. This worked out well. The next area of concern is my working space. My previous two workbenches were too …
Desks are wasteful things – they collect junk and waste precious space with their fixed shape and hard-to-move bulkiness. Why not just hang some monitors on a stand, and get a nice comfortable chair? I’ll worry about the keyboard rest another day. I do a lot of CAD work as an electronics designer, and was …
Don’t buy a new one – just fix it up! Thermal design of Electronics is very important. Electronic parts get hot. The resistance of materials results in heat. Nothing in modern mass-produced products get much hotter than the CPU in a PC. It’s simply the sheer size of the circuits on the die, billions of …
