Somehow, my wife and I have manage to share a car for the past five years. This arrangment has worked because we live in a small town, both work at the University, and are attached at the hip. However, I am about to graduate and will need a car to commute. My wife still has […]

Battery Selection
Battery life is often measured by cycle life, the number of full charge/discharge cycles before the battery reaches 80% of its original capacity. Keeping the discharge current relative to the battery’s amp×hour capacity low and the discharge shallow improves battery longevity. Typical 12 V sealed lead acid (SLA) cells, like the ones found a […]

If you are reading this post, you probably are experiencing decreased range and speed on your Go-Ped electric scooter. I too have experienced these problems, but I am going to share some solutions I came up with. I purchased a Go-Ped ESR-750 scooter this summer for transportation in Mountain View, CA for a summer internship. […]

A few years ago my wife Sheryl and I were very involved with freshwater fish.  In our 120 gallon show tank we had what are refered to as the “King of the Freshwater Fish,” the Discus.  A couple of our discus are shown on the left.  One of the greatest pains in maintaining a Discus tank is their finicky […]

Well, a full year has passed and the PitelSPOT is still active.  Although post frequency is about half from what it was at the start, we are still going strong.  PitelSPOT got a very special gift for its first birthday - an UPGRADE!  It now had a more powerful Intel Q6600 Quad Core and 2GB of memory.  […]

Description
The attached zip file is a plot utility geared for scientific figures in publications. The plot utility sizes figures and text consistently and compactly; something the default Matlab plot function does do readily. Formatting rules were originally developed for IEEE publications and thus adheres to their specified conventions.
Capabilities
Figures can span one or two columns.
Multiple traces […]

There are many ways to measure a dc-dc converter’s inductor current for use in control. Direct-current resistance (DCR) is one low loss and cost method for measuring this current, it consists of a series RC network in parallel with the inductor. The RC network has some advantages over other methods: it has lower I2R losses […]

The prices on front-projectors have dropped to levels where they are comparable to rear-projectors and other display technologies.  Office projectors offer a low-cost alternative to the high-end home-theater projectors and provide sufficient color accuracy and usually brighter picture. The problem that deters many buyers from front and rear-projector systems is bulb life, which is typically 2000 […]

Engineering open house is an annual event hosted by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Each engineering school constructs booths that educate the public (mostly children and their parents) about specific engineering topics.
This year I was heavily involved in organizing and creating new exhibits for the Power and Energy Group in the Department of […]

Credit cards offer many free customer benefits that protect your purchases. While many services are those expected from any credit card, such as fraud protection and no monthly fees, there are some not well advertised services that can save you a lot of money. This article describes an experience with a broken item and American […]