The classic wooden breadboard is obsolete, but its name continues to refer to a vital engineering tool that has changed to meet today’s component and design realities. As leaded components such as discrete transistors and low-pin-count ICs in DIP packages came into use in the late 1960s and 1970s, breadboarding technology evolved as well. Among […]
Breadboards evolve to meet 21st-century design needs, Part 1: The “Ancient” Past
The classic wooden breadboard is obsolete, but its name continues to refer to a vital engineering tool that has changed to meet today’s component and design realities. Breadboards have a special place and multiple meanings in the engineering lexicon. So, what is a breadboard? It can be a crude try-out version of a subcircuit to […]
What is “orthogonal”? (Part 4): eye diagrams
The phrase and concept “orthogonal” is widely used in engineering, but it is also often misunderstood. Just as both the time domain and frequency domain are two legitimate ways of looking at a signal from different perspectives linked by the Fourier transform, the constellation diagram has a time-domain complement called the eye diagram or eye […]
What is “orthogonal”? (Part 3): signal constellations
The phrase and concept “orthogonal” is widely used in engineering, but it is also often misunderstood. We can look at orthogonal signals in multiple ways: in the time domain, the frequency domain, as a constellation – a presentation which is widely used in the broad discipline referred to as signal processing, and as an eye […]
What is “orthogonal”? (Part 2): signal space
The phrase and concept “orthogonal” is widely used in engineering, but it is also often misunderstood. The formal definition of orthogonal signals does not necessarily mean that they are unrelated or uncorrelated, although that is how the term is often used in casual “engineering speak.” Formally, two vectors are orthogonal if their dot product is […]
What is “orthogonal”? (Part 1): mechanical design
The phrase and concept “orthogonal” is widely used in engineering, but it is also often misunderstood. I was chatting the other day with a non-technical friend and said something like, “Oh, that won’t happen. Those two things are orthogonal.” My friend looked at me and replied with a “huh?” and he was right to do […]
Why I’m divided on “Right to Repair”
Mandating a “right to repair” seems like a good idea, but what are the details and risks? As an engineer, I like to fix things, or at least try to. That’s why I have been following the “right to repair” (RTR) movement, which is getting a lot of attention these days (just Google it and […]
The Doppler effect: From highly ridiculed to absolutely indispensable, Part 2
Originally derided as scientifically erroneous, the Doppler effect is now a vital tool in all aspects of technology, ranging from microscopic to galactic. Doppler, back in the day – and now The explanation of the Doppler effect is almost intuitive to us, with our understanding of wave phenomena along with available frequency sources and measurement […]
The Doppler effect: From highly ridiculed to absolutely indispensable, Part 1
Originally derided as scientifically erroneous, the Doppler effect is now a vital tool in all aspects of technology, ranging from microscopic to galactic. Engineers are familiar with many “effects” ranging from widely used ones such as the piezoelectric effect to somewhat lesser-known ones such as the RF skin effect and even less-familiar ones such as […]
PIGAs can indeed fly – and are still the best, Part 3: History and future
The PIGA is the oldest accelerometer and widely used in rocketry and guidance, and still the best – but MEMS-based devices are getting closer. The previous parts looked at the principle and operation of the PIGA. This part looks briefly at its history and refinement and the MEMS-based versions of the PIGA being developed and […]
