Events

Capacitor Interview on The Engineering Commons Podcast

The Engineering Commons Podcast LogoThe awesome hosts on The Engineering Commons (TEC) podcast asked me to join them on Episode 93-Capacitors! They told me I was the first passive component expert they had on their shown. It was a blast talking to Jeff, Carmen, Brian, and Adam.

The unique thing, in my opinion, about The Engineering Commons is that it covers multiple engineering disciplines. A couple of episodes ago, they talked traffic. Since I am about to move, the episode on Garage Setups was great.

When I put together my list of 5 electrical engineering podcasts, I didn’t include TEC. Which was tough because it is a great podcast, and worth adding to your favorite podcatcher.

If you want to hear my answers to some common capacitor questions, check out The Engineering Commons Podcast Episode 93: Capacitors. For a more in-depth interview, don’t forget about The Spark Gap Episode 25 where I go into a bit more detail about capacitor types.

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Around The Web

Huge archive from Project Apollo now on Flickr

moon from apollo project archive
Image via Project Apollo Archive Flickr

Years of hard work, curation, and archiving have brought the Project Apollo Photo Archive to a Flickr album. Kipp Teague writes,

“This new Flickr gallery would have not been possible without the support of Mike [Gentry], Steve [Garber], and Eric [Jones], and many others.”

In this note, he corrects a misconception that this archive itself was an NASA undertaking. While the photos come from NASA, the archive is an independent effort.

There is also a Project Apollo Archive Facebook page, in addition to the photos on Flickr.

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Around The Web

The War On Science – AsapSCIENCE

The latest video from AsapSCIENCE, The War on Science, addresses the preverbal war between science and society we are experiencing today. 100, 200, or 1000+ years ago you could argue the ignorance of science was due to lack of information availability. However, that does not apply to today’s world. The entire World’s knowledge and the sum of collected data are available to virtually anyone, anywhere at any time. This moment isn’t just historical; it is pivotal. Yet. Society as a whole seems to continue the trend of ignoring this data in favor of emotional social media posts.

AsapSCIENCE’s take on the situation is spot on and worth not only the 5 minutes to watch but also sharing with the video everyone you know, and voting to support science, in your area.

Watch the The War on Science on YouTube.

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Around The Web

Elegant and cheap storage solutions for your shop

lattice as shop storage
Picture via makezine.com

The article caught my eye because I’m about to make a move, and I’ll be setting up my shop soon. Seeing these clever alternate uses is already giving me some ideas.

The perfect shop doesn’t need expensive storage options. While there are stores dedicated to containers, they to tend to run on the expensive side. A workshop, may not need the most expensive storage gear. Especially if it gets as dusty as mine! This Make article offers 5 Simple Shop Storage Solutions.

Another resource for shop hardware is Episode #92 of The Engineering Commons podcast, “Garage Gear.”

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Arduino

Arduino Software PWM with millis()

software PWM code example line by line

The Arduino Uno has six pins dedicated to Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). PWM is great for analog-like control for the speed of motors or LED fading. But what if you want to control more than 6 devices? Or what if you’re using the PWM pins to control servo motors, but still want to fade an LED on a 7th pin?

One option is to change boards and processors. For example, you could move up to the Arduino Mega 2560. That means a bigger board and more cost.

Using millis() and micros(), it is possible to do PWM entirely in software. The best part is; if you can set the pin to OUTPUT, you can use this technique.

This tutorial will explain how you can use micros() and millis() to get more PWM pins on an Arduino Uno, Nano, or Pro Mini. It will probably work on other boards and processor types, but I haven’t tested them yet.

There’s a reason I needed this software PWM code. Subscribe to the mailing list, RSS feed, or follow me on social media to see why next week…

Apologies to the email subscribers if the code isn’t formatted correctly. Click here to read the full post.

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