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 […]

This article is a follow-up to my previous article to detail how I created my stop-motion film “Passing By.”

Choosing Your Subject

This part is fairly subjective. For stop-motion films, just about any subject can be entertaining in stop-motion, but in limited quantities. Harping on the same location or subject for a long period of […]

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. […]

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 […]

Design Process
In order to better under the digital design process with respect to real-world applications, a two-way traffic light controller was designed. The traffic light operated in two modes:

Timed signal changing cycle with weight sensor input
The primary mode of operation is the standard timed signal changing. Additional logic was added to implement a weight sensor […]