Recent content by amuron

The FET idea is by far the easiest, depending upon load issues... ie if its high current, you will blow a lot of parts while debugging. In that case, a motor driven potentiometer such as used in some automated audio consoles may be a lot simpler and cheaper in the long run.

Unless you have done something fairly closely related in the past, the learning curve is often filled with gee by the way, its not in the data sheet type things and other gotchas. Having done the 50:1 margin products myself over the years, there are a lot of things that go into pricing well...

Induction heating of aluminum is a difficult one to handle with infrared, as you mentioned, as the changing oxide raises havoc with infrared measurement. However, you can work around this with a multi band system, which effectively takes emissivity variation our of the equation. A dual band...

Nothing beats a live project... If nothing else, grab a few things off your desk, and draw them. The tutorials will get you the absolute basics, to avoid frustration, but until you are forced to use them, they don't become solid.

Having been involved in DOE contracts, automotive electronics, consumer electronics, and even 1:1 consulting with the man on the street, I'd say most of the issues discussed are the same. No one knows really what they want, or even the definition of a correct outcome. Its an ambiguous mess that...

The first few years of engineering are also simliar to medical field. Tons of hours, and combined with minimal sleep are common in the electrical and computer field. At that point, if you don't enjoy it, engineering salaries outside of process are not going to be near enough compensation. The...

Its really multidiscipinary. If you get into the nuts and bolts of chip design, calculus becomes less of a factor. If you get into process development, then chemistry becomes predominant as well as physics. As one poster alluded to earlier, calculus will be invaluable in your academic career...

I'm 100% for free speech and academic exploration, but you are actually building something potentially very dangerous. I don't think you will get much help here. If you do want to learn about rocketry, join a sanctioned club, but there is no way they will condone explosive payloads either...

Here you go, from the TX statutes definitions... http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/statutes/docs/HS/content/htm/hs.006.00.000481.00.htm 53) "Chemical laboratory apparatus" means any item of equipment designed, made, or adapted to manufacture a controlled substance or a controlled...

In a nutshell. making sure all the things that need to happen to get a project done properly in an efficient manner within the constraints of time and money. The easiest top level view is a triangle. You have money, quality, and time at each corner. A project managers job is to balance those...

You know... once you get out in the field, more than 98% of the people won't get the right answer, and the problems are going to be really poorly designed and ill concieved. Only 2-3% of product development or research efforts actual succeed. In many cases, success means you eat, failure means...

I think it comes down to choices... my roommate spent around 40 hours a week drinking beer and chasing women and worked 15 hours/week. I put in 60 hours a week on 2 jobs, plus took full loads of 18-21 credit hours, but skipped the beer and woman chasing for the most part. At the end, I had...

Your fixed costs in airplane ownership are the killer. Most people find that owning their own plane is much much higher than renting from an FBO, or being in a flying club. Now, if you are going to be flying 200 hours or more a year, ownership starts to look pretty good. At 100 hours/year...

Its been quite a while, but I believe their are ten states or so that have laws against possesion of burglar tools, without a license and bonding, eg repair shops, law enforcement, lock smiths etc. There are a lot of seedy engineering projects one could do, but outside of an academic...

Someone posted earlier in the thread. "It is both a matter of public policy, as well as engineering, and engineers need to be heard in the public forum." As a rule, we tend to ignore politics and go about our business... or at least I do. I spent 2 years at a state govt appointed position...