A webpage to document and share my open-source software/hardware projects.
From my past posts you can see that I’ve used Geiger-Mueller tubes before to detect ambient radiation. I was inspired to use more of these neat inventions for Christmas gifts for my family- controlling the brightness/dimming of Christmas lights based on frequency of radioactive hits. I made a device that pulses a string of Continue Reading
Using a small 6-7V, 0.5W solar panel, the LTC3588-1 energy harvesting chip, and the ESP8266 Thing Dev board, I created a small solar powered web server. This is a very simple demonstration circuit to prove a concept for another project I’m doing but the idea is pretty fun. This solar panel in bright sunlight can Continue Reading
My manager at work approached me one day and asked if there was a PCB I’d like to make, to help the company create a rapid prototyping process. I jumped at the opportunity and decided to build a seismograph for my apartment which uses a swinging laser pendulum to detect low frequency movement of the Continue Reading
At my previous job working on satellites (and before that, in grad school…also working on satellites…) I used Altium for all my schematic design and printed circuit board layout work. Altium’s pretty nice software, widely used, and like a lot of industrial software hugely expensive ($4000+ for a single license). My new job however uses Continue Reading
Geiger-Mueller tubes are the heart of “Geiger counters” which you’ve probably seen in movies or on TV- a character points a small device at a radioactive source, and it emits a static-like crackling sound, with more clicks indicating larger amounts of radiation. They work by having a pin inside of a metal tube, with the Continue Reading
I was playing the Indiana Jones game at Seattle’s Pinball Museum when the owner came by to turn the game off after I was finished. I asked why, since all the other games were on and being played. He said that the power supply overheats after the game has been played for a couple hours Continue Reading
This is my first post talking about pinball, a hobby I picked up when I moved to Seattle. Pinball is a great hobby for an analog electrical engineer like myself for many reasons: first, it’s a great way to meet people (either by challenging other folks to a multiplayer match, or participating in a tournament) Continue Reading
Two years ago I took a great seminar (graduate class) by Prof. Ayse Coskun (her last name is pronounced “Josh-Kun”) that covered heterogeneous computer architectures, including things like server design incorporating different types of processors and single-die CPUs with multiple architectures on one chip. The Beaglebone Black is a much more exotic CPU than most Continue Reading