2016 Great Year for Enginerds

While many want to call 2016 the worst year ever, I feel that is an entirely undeserved title. It certainly could have been a better year, but it wasn’t the worst that I can remember. For the engineering community, both professional and hobbyist, it seems to have been a fantastic year. My gauge for this feeling is the activity on baldengineer.com. In 2016, I saw almost half a million sessions contributing over 1.2 million page views. (That’s 98% more people looking at 313% more tutorials compared to 2015.)

Here’s a breakdown of the most visited pages (tutorials) on the site.

Overall Top 5 Tutorials for 2016

First up is a simple list with the most views, across all content.

1. MQTT Tutorial for Raspberry Pi, Arduino, and ESP8266
2. Raspberry Pi GUI Tutorial
3. millis() Tutorial: Arduino Multitasking
4. Arduino, how do you reset mills()?
5. Top 4 transistors for your kit

The MQTT and Raspberry Pi GUI tutorials have been runaway hits. As a follow-up, I’m working on two more based on their popularity. One is how to subscribe to multiple MQTT topics (in Arduino) and the other is looking at creating a non-QT GUI for Raspberry Pi. The MQTT will be soon. The expanded Raspberry Pi tutorial, later down the road.

Overall Top 5 Tutorials for 2016 — FROM 2016

This list is similar to the previous list. However, Only #1 and #2 on that list were posts I made in the last year. So here are the Top 5 posts published in 2016.

1. MQTT Tutorial for Raspberry Pi, Arduino, and ESP8266
2. Raspberry Pi GUI Tutorial
3. MQTT Introduction
4. Use Arduino millis() with buttons to delay events
5. 5 Common Arduino Programming Mistakes

No surprise here really. I would like to comment that one of my favorite graphics this year was the header image I created for the 5 Common Arduino Programming Mistakes. I thought it looked beautiful and was clever. Just saying.

Honorable Mentions

Here’s some stuff on the site I just want to highlight. No particular reason. Just stuff I like.

1. The ever expanding Arduino millis() examples cookbook
2. The 5 (maybe 6 now) electrical engineering podcast I think you subscribe to
3. Four ESP8266 Gotchas
4. Blink Without Delay Explained, Line by Line
5. 3D Printer Tips I wish I knew years ago.

Last but not least, don’t forget I also blog frequently on the KEMET Engineering Center Blog.

But these lists leave out some of my favorites from the year! Like when I learned electronics safety while mountain climbing, or how I used a financial modified moving average for PWM current, or the guest post from John Teel and Predictable Designs.

Looking Ahead to 2017

There’s a project I worked on over the holiday break I’ll be sharing in a week or two. My only hint is that it is big, red, and goes “pew pew pew.” I have a pile of stuff I’ve started reviews on but haven’t finished, so you’ll be seeing those soon. As I mentioned before, I have some new MQTT and PI tutorials coming sooner than later. And lastly, I’m working on a new eBook focused entirely on Arduino millis() programming.

Don’t forget I also produce video content on the AddOhms YouTube Channel. Make sure you’re subscribed there because I’m changing the format of the channel, which I hope means time to make more content.

Thank you to everyone who visits the site, subscribes to the newsletter, and sends feedback. I appreciate all of the comments, interactions on social media, and emails I receive (sorry I can’t respond to everyone).

Cheers and here is to another great year!
James