Today’s engineering mandates an almost-impossible balance among design imperatives. I recently received two unrelated email advisories from reputable technology companies promoting online webinars on the same topic: the cost of overengineering, also known as overdesign. One of these even had a dramatic example of a customer who needed a machine to stuff foam into a […]
Bill Schweber Blogs
Barrel connectors already drive me crazy…and now even crazier
The simple and ubiquitous DC-power barrel connector brings a lot of confusion and frustration. Like most of you, I have accumulated a random collection of many ac-dc and a few ac-ac power-adapter/charger units – often referred to dismissively as “wall warts” – over the years, with a collection that resembles Figure 1. After all, what […]
Unconventional thinking: when an unregulated pass-through regulator output yields higher efficiency
By going contrary to conventional thinking, a design team devised a more efficient regulator device for the DC-power path. DC regulators are available in many different topologies, each offering tradeoffs in performance, size, efficiency, cost, and other factors. Regardless of their internal design, they all have one primary functional role: to accept a DC voltage […]
Revisiting Bill’s Blogs 2024
This past year, we were treated monthly to insightful and unique engineering perspectives from one of EEWorld’s long-time freelancers, Bill Schweber, in Bill’s Blogs. In addition to his regular technical FAQs and other tutorial electronics engineering content, Bill wrote these pieces revealing the fascinating tensions between innovation and practicality that define modern engineering. From wooden […]
How “smart” should appliances be – or become?
Internet and smart-home-linked appliances are available, but user reaction has been lukewarm — for many reasons. It’s hard not to notice the recent trend hitting even basic home appliances: adding “smart” features. That’s somewhat of a misnomer, as the smartness does not include suggestions such as “Hey, maybe you’re overcooking that roast?” Instead, it means […]
Product longevity sometimes defies expectations
Battery self-discharge can limit product life, but sometimes there’s an inexplicable outlier. We’re all familiar with products that fail before too soon. I’m not talking about those that suddenly become obsolete when there’s an incompatible mandated software upgrade or similar problem. Instead, I mean a product that is no longer usable due to an issue, […]
Debugging can make you do dumb things, and quickly
It’s easy to skip past the basic points to check first in troubleshooting “rush.” I have always regarded debugging circuit hardware and software as the most challenging engineering disciplines. Yes, new design can be difficult, with its many constraints and tradeoffs, but when something doesn’t work as planned — or works and then fails — […]
Much pain, little gain: have advancements gotten ahead of their designers?
Again, we are reaching the point in some technical areas where gains are incremental, yet they consume significant engineering effort, time, and money. We all know how complicated and sophisticated many consumer products have become today. Consider automobiles, those complex electromechanical systems with hundreds of processors, millions of lines of code, multiple internal networks, countless […]
Will AI-managed EV charging tell us what to do and when?
Every story these days seems to connect its message or theme to artificial intelligence (AI). Some of these connections have validity, while others are a “reach” for others who want to appear on-trend and relevant. The latter are of interest primarily from a “really, is that so?” perspective, yet some legitimate ones are worrisome. One […]
Wooden CubeSat: PR stunt or worthy investigation?
It’s literally out-of-the-box thinking with a CubeSat whose enclosure is made of wood, not metal. I recently came across a technical news story that I initially assumed was either a clever prank or a delayed April 1 story from last year. Strange as it may sound, a Japanese university team has developed the world’s first […]
