Automatic errors

A couple of months back I did an article about unpacking the arduino Uno board that was manufactured in Italy. It had a lot of SMD components that I am assuming was made using automated pick and place machines and reflow machines.

I have been using the board but not on a regular basis and recently I used it to put together a project. While working with the board, I noticed something strange. It was very minute but one of the ICs, A comparator was not placed correctly. On closer inspection I found that the IC was not even soldered properly from one side...!

Of Inventors and Scientists

Inventions have never been about the exact science or methodology of anything. If necessity is the mother of invention, then science has always been the father. A curious mind is all it takes to create something new and invent. For ages people have been looking at the world around them and the few that could find that ‘flash of genius’ and go beyond a problem, those few were celebrated as inventors. How many men did it take to be hit on the head with an apple till Sir I. Newton, coined the term gravity?

Using Syntax Highlighter: Confessions

So I was going through some blogs online and I noticed that the code was displayed very nicely, so digging through the online resources I came to an online project on google code called syntax highlighter.

This allows you to do exactly what it says... highlight code! You can download the entire project which is essentially a CSS and some javascript, put it on your server or a free hosting service and then link it to your website or blog etc. This becomes a little complicated once you find out that blogger does not allow you to upload files so you have to put the files somewhere else and then link them here. The alternative is to use code.google.com directly... thats what I ended up doing. Here's what to do.

Test Post

public static void Main()
        {
            OutputPort led = new OutputPort(Pins.ONBOARD_LED, false);
            while (true)
            {
                led.Write(true);
                Thread.Sleep(1000);
                led.Write(false);
                Thread.Sleep(1000);
            }
        }

Orcad vs Eagle: Yet Another Comparison.

Introduction

I read a lot of articles online with regards to Board design Software and two names kept popping up: "Cadence Orcad" and "Cadsoft Eagle". I have been an avid user of Orcad since 2005 and have learned to use it more professionally and accurately with the years. I have also invested a lot of time in building custom libraries for Part footprints etc so I was initially biased in favor of it. Then a couple of months back, I started doing a lot of Open-Source Projects and began exploring the "Open Source" ways of Life so to speak. Needless to say the Orcad fit nowhere in the scheme of things. Cadsoft eagle however was a name that popped up a lot which is attributed to two reasons... ONE: There is a Lite -FREE version of the tool available and the professional version is not as costly as Cadence Orcad. TWO: Because of the Lite Version, there is a lot of people doing work on this so as far as open source projects are concerned, if you want to put up a project schematic and board up without getting in a legal mess, Eagle is the best way to go.

Practical Probe Fed Patch Antenna Design

Introduction

The concept of microstrip radiators was first proposed by Deschamps in 1953. A patent was issued in France in 1955 in the names of Gutton and Baissinot. However, 20 years passed before practical antennas were fabricated. Development during the 1970s was accelerated by the availability of good substrates with low loss tangent and attractive thermal and mechanical properties. Improved photolithographic techniques, and better theoretical models. The first practical antennas were developed by Howell and Munson. Since then, extensive research and development of microstrip antennas and arrays, aimed at exploiting their numerous advantages such as light weight, low volume, low cost, conformal configuration, compatibility with integrated circuits, and so on, have led to diversified applications and to the establishment of the topic as a separate entity within the broad field of microwave antennas. 

Python 3 and 2 Meet Twitter

There has been a lot of confusion with regards to accessing twitter with python. For people like me who had used python 2.4 etc with twitter are wondering why their scripts are not working anymore. I dug mine out from an old backup only to find that it not only has problems with twitter but also with python 3 - The shiny new thing.