You may have heard the quote attributed to Thomas Edison where he says that genius (or success) is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. I am going to prove to you that while the sentiment of the quote may be attributable… Read More »Tesla/Edison Conspiracy Theory
Engineers and engineering technologists are both highly trained professionals and have similar, but not identical roles in a wide range of industries. This article specifically applies to engineering technologists and engineers in Canada, but also applies, at least in broad… Read More »The Difference Between Engineering Technologists and Engineers
By many accounts, Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison did not like each other much. There was probably a level of mutual respect. but it wasn’t full respect from either side. I get the sense (and there’s probably a good paper… Read More »Mind Your P’s and Q’s
The self resonance frequency (SRF) of an inductor is the frequency at which resonance between the inductance and the parasitic capacitance of the inductor occurs. At the SRF, the inductor looks like an open circuit. In this article, we’ll examine… Read More »Self Resonance Frequency of an Inductor
ThingSpeak is a cloud based internet of things service that allows you to send HTTP requests to interface to a channel of data. You can send data, retrieve data, and even perform actions based on data values. You can configure… Read More »Updating a ThingSpeak Channel Using an Arduino
This project, constructed by Brad Billwiller, uses an Arduino Uno as the interface between a glove and a mechanical hand. Flex sensors on the fingers of the glove change resistance as the fingers are flexed. This change of resistance is detected by the Arduino and the amount of flexion (i.e. change of resistance) determines how much to turn a servo motor (one for each finger). The servos are connected to fingers of the animatronic hand via fishing line and when the fishing line is pulled by the servos the fingers flex.
This project, built by Nathaniel Nolt, reuses a couple of old CD ROM drives from a computer, an Arduino Mega and a stepper motor control board to create a 2 dimensional plotter. The plotter is built from mostly scrap parts. … Read More »2D Plotter – A Student Project from Fall 2014
Students in the Introduction to Electronic Engineering Technology class at Okanagan College are required to complete an electronics project for the course. The course is a first semester course and so many students have never put together an electronics project… Read More »First Year Electronics Projects 2014
The concept behind Kirchoff’s Voltage Law is that around any electrical loop, the sum of the voltage rises equals the sum of the voltage drops. Another way to put this is that if you start at one point on a… Read More »Kirchoff’s Voltage Law
With special thanks to Tchaikovsky and Afrotechmods.