Connecting the car is the easy part At the annual conference of the Society of Automotive Engineers, no small number of technical papers cover issues surrounding driver interactions with features on the car dashboard. Touchscreens in particular are a hot topic. You can find SAE papers with impressive-sounding titles such as, Touch Interactive Display Systems:…
June 2018 Special Edition: Test & Measurement Handbook
Will high test instrument costs keep the next Steve Wozniak out of the tech business? Back in the heyday of personal computing, it was possible to do state-of-the-art work without making a big investment in test equipment. To see what I mean, consider the development of the first 5.25-in. floppy disk drive for the Apple…
February 2018 Issue: Power Electronics Handbook
Hiring hint: Look for soft skills in young engineers Do schools teach young engineers the right skills? It is easy to find a lot of opinions on that subject from academics. It is more difficult to find assessments from experienced engineers who actually work with new grads. That’s why the comments of Richard Lukaszewski are…
November 2017 Digital Issue: Power & Energy Efficiency Handbook + more
The down side of free samples If you’ve had hassles trying to get component samples for a project, you can thank the efforts of a few enterprising students for making your life more complicated. Here’s a microcosm of what has happened with sample parts: The folks at Texas Instruments used to have a liberal policy…
Power Electronics Handbook 2017
In this issue: 2 The tough problems in power design 8 Teardown: Inside Ikea’s smart LED bulb 28 The basics of thermistors in thermal management 43 How to be smart when selecting a fan for forced air cooling The tough problems in power design AN ANNUAL RITUAL takes place in the upper echelons of…
Power & energy efficiency handbook: Energy efficient doesn’t mean cost efficient
In this issue: 22 Energy efficiency in LLC resonant conversion topologies 37 Better thermal design means better efficiency Energy efficient doesn’t mean cost efficient I once had a root cellar illuminated by a single incandescent light bulb, the kind of bulb that is being phased out thanks to energy efficiency regulations. I would use…
Hacked at the Polls
Last month we learned that computer systems used by both the U. S. Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) were hacked into, possibly by Russia. The initial news reports were confirmed by the FBI, which is investigating the breaches. While no actual damage appears to have been done—yet—it is not […]
Power Electronics Handbook
In this issue: 8 Teardown: What’s inside a Phillips Sonicare electric toothbrush A novel ac rectification and coil-driving scheme may characterize the electronics found 14 Basics of designing with permanent magnets It can be tricky to correctly specify magnetic materials for power circuits and actuators. 26 Test Instruments help tame power factor and signal integrity…
Amazon Launches Prime Video Subscription Platform
Amazon is adding an extra TV-related benefit for Prime subscribers: the company just launched a streaming partners program. For $8.99 a month, Prime subscribers can get access to channels like Starz, Showtime, Sundance, AMC Movie channels, and others. Amazon is handling all the logistics of running the streaming service, while content partners can reap the […]
AT&T Expands GigaPower to 38 More Metro Areas
AT&T has kicked it into high gear on its GigaPower rollout plans. It announced that it has plans to roll out GigaPower availability to 38 additional metro areas in America. That brings the total rollout to 56 metro areas having access to 1Gbps internet. The service has now launched in 1 million locations. AT&T’s GigaPower […]