The use of graphic symbols may be the trend and save space, but we need to acknowledge their potential downsides as well. I was surfing the web looking for some specialty tools and landed on a site that had many of the ones I needed. All was well until I started to go further on […]
Bill Schweber Blogs
Is it finally time for the “smart home” to become real — again?
Over the years, we’ve heard many times that smart homes and automation are now a reality; could it finally be true? I recently saw a story in The Wall Street Journal, “It’s Finally Time to Add Some Smart Tech to Your Dumb Home” making the case that smart lights, locks, and thermostats are ready for […]
How many electric motors are in a car?
The first gasoline cars had no electric motors; in contrast, today’s cars have tens of “invisible” motors having a range of power levels, sizes, and types. It’s not news that today’s cars, regardless of their motive power source, are packed with what is called “electronics.” Whether it’s for power trains, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), […]
Titan submersible reminds us you can’t ignore materials science
When doing engineering development at a keyboard, it’s easy to overlook the huge role that materials and material science play in electronics and their amazing components. We don’t know what caused the apparent implosion and subsequent loss of OceanGate’s Titan submersible, and we may never know the root causes. Various experts and pundits have chimed […]
Creating robust designs despite unavoidable imperfections
A good designer anticipates that circuit performance and components will be imperfect or drift and employs various tactics to avoid the consequences. When you spend a lot of time and energy designing, assessing, and debugging an analog signal chain from its sensor through front-end amplifiers and A/D converters, you have to face the reality that […]
Right-size, on-demand cardboard boxes: big benefits but low glamour
Sophisticated machines which create custom-sized corrugated cardboard boxes offer major advantages but receive little sustainability attention. There are many times when we are so caught up in the “that’s awesome” shimmer and shine associated with the latest technical product or gadget that we don’t see or appreciate the less visible and quieter developments that offer […]
What can we do to boost hands-on engineering?
Is there a shortage of hands-on technical professionals? Yes, no, maybe — or all of these? It’s hard to prove with numbers, but it certainly seems as if fewer students and entry-level electrical/electronic engineers are doing hands-on projects in school or at the job. By hands-on, I mean projects which involve wire stripping and soldering […]
When reality intrudes on component models and equivalent circuits
Determining the utility of an equivalent-circuit model versus construction reality is often a difficult challenge. Using simplified, first-order approximations in models and equivalent circuits is a normal part of engineering life. Without them, we would get mired in the details and harsh reality of the components and their characteristics. We would never be able to […]
How about putting some basic error codes in your product?
Is the lack of error codes in basic appliances an attempt to make repairs harder, or is there a deeper, safety-focused rationale here? After about five years of hard daily use, our undercabinet, no-frills GE-brand microwave oven stopped working (Figure 1). It did not die completely, as the user control panel and its keypad worked, […]
Don’t let system complexity discourage basic troubleshooting
A somewhat justified concern about damaging a complex system can also intimidate you from a basic investigation into a system problem. OK, I admit it: I avoided checking for an obvious problem due to my fear of making things worse in a high-risk situation. Fortunately, the only cost, in this case, was to my pride. […]
