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Health Learning Life Music Work

Generation “Why Aren’t I Better?”

I am not a perfectionist. I think of myself as too practical to be a perfectionist.

However, I find myself setting very high expectations for myself and I don’t feel I am alone. Generation Y has always been encouraged by parents and others every step of the way. We have been told we can do anything and more drastically, we can do everything. We have been multitasking since kindergarten and over-scheduled ever since. We played the most little-league sports, we took the private music lessons, we had the private language tutors, we were boy scouts. We had the most extra-curriculars on our college applications, we had the best grades we could, we took all of the AP classes and we applied to more colleges than we’d ever need to. We took the most engineering credits, studied as many hours as we could stand, we drank during the remaining hours and we graduated with as many minors as they let us. We had the most interviews as our schedules would allow, we got the most job offers, we had the biggest signing bonuses and we got the fanciest job. We expect the biggest promotions at work, the biggest pay raises, the best benefit packages and the best of everything.

Now what?

OK, I’m not saying I did all those things above, but some of them rang true. I’d be willing to guess there are a few readers out there in the same boat. And now that I’ve exited the goal driven world of school and extracurriculars, I still have the drive and I have the spirit, but there isn’t as much need for it. Yes, I try as hard as I can at work and that continues to be a focus of my efforts. But in the rest of my life there’s really no pressure to do anything if I don’t place it on myself. Some would say that this is a great thing! “You can relax now!”, they say. But it is more of a mindset that we place upon ourselves naturally. A few examples:

  1. I have recently started playing music again since fixing my Wurlitzer 200. I immediately expected to excel at playing once again with much less practice than I had during other times I was playing.
  2. When starting this and other blogs I immediately expected people to flock to my site to read what I had to say. I did not understand at first that the content that I write must be good enough for people to want to read it and that others must link to it for it to really be found.
  3. When I began investing some of my income a few years back I instantly expected the stocks and funds I picked to begin beating the S&P500, even though I had no experience. I mean, hey, I read some books!
  4. Every single time I (re)start weight training I end up hurting myself because I try to do the same amount I remember doing the last time or expect to be able to do even more.
  5. I expect to have great relationships with people I am close to, even though I spend time doing more frivolous things like checking Facebook or Twitter instead of being in the moment with those next to me. I expect to be connected with everyone and know what’s going one with everyone all the time.

I point out my flaws because I think they are natural reactions to some of these situations, if not unrealistic. Perhaps the same is true for the general population or perhaps they are more specific to the high-expectation crowd of Generation Y. The truth is that in all things, there are averages. In music and in new media and in investing and everything else, there is always an average, always a mediocre player. However, Generation Y was consistently exposed to the top .1% by parents and the media. We have always been told not only can we do anything and everything but that we will also be THE best at it. Am I being clear how this doesn’t make sense that so many people believe they can be so good at everything? No? Let me be clearer, using one of my favorite uses of (overly) simple statistics:

Think of how bad the average driver is on any given day. Half are worse than that.

It’s such simple terms to think in, but really MOST people are going to be average, right? Do you really think that you are as bad a driver as most people out there? I know most people I talk to think they are top notch.

The point here is that these skills and talents do not come without practice. You can’t just step in and become an expert at anything and everything just by starting to do something. But people in Gen Y continue to expect to do so. We have been told and we continue to hear stories of Wunderkinds, but we never stop to question the work those people had to do to get where they are. Think about it: how often does the nightly news report on the 4 year old that can play Mozart? And how many times does the same news show highlight the parent forcing the child to hold a violin at 6 in the morning and practicing 8 hours a day? I don’t mean to demonize the media because I understand they are just trying to get the story; but it only adds to the mystique of the no-work success.

So what happens when you tell an entire generation that they will be THE best (at everything) and they figure out that it might not happen? I think we haven’t even begun to see the beginning of how these attitudes manifest themselves in the public and online. Let’s list off some of the more obvious ways:

  • Twitter — It can be used for good and for evil but I believe at least some of the popularity of the site stems from being able to show off how you are the “best” at whatever you’re doing. By showing your “uniqueness” on Twitter it allows people to believe they are different from the masses. Instead of taking time to concentrate on one subject and become better at it, our attention is again fragmented by constant updates and updates about minutiae.
  • Facebook and all the rest of social media — I think one of the ways that Gen Y shields themselves from the realities of the world is by surrounding themselves by friends or “friends” in the case of people you connect with online but don’t really know that well. I think of if I ever formed a new band. If I got all of my friends to come out to a show,  it’s likely they would say nice things after the show to me, even if I stunk up the house. I have nice friends. But really that’s shielding me from the reality that if I played the same music for a group of strangers, I’d get rotten tomatoes and zucchini thrown at me (do people ever really do that?).  As a generation we surround ourselves with friends, quasi friends and complete strangers online in order to share our successes and get positive feedback. But doing that with everything in our lives can mask areas where we really need improvement.
  • Social Isolationism — One major downside is that in expecting the best from ourselves we automatically become critical of others. This hinders our ability to go out and meet new people. The best way to connect with a person is to enter the new relationship with a sense of wonder…what does this person know, what can they teach me, etc. If we aren’t entering new social situations this way and instead we automatically instead begin looking for faults, then new relationships are doomed to fail. And then people go back to the social media tools listed above and end up isolating themselves more.
  • Higher Quit Rates — Penelope Trunk often cites the fact that Gen Y changes jobs on average every 18 months; she also loves what this adds to the workplace dynamic. And while I don’t disagree that changing jobs more often can advance your career in certain ways (compensation, respect at a new job), I think that it is a trend that is likely to go down after a time (meaning people quitting after even less than 18 months). Even at a year and a half in a technical position, I am not sure that enough depth of knowledge is gained to really move on to another job. So people in Gen Y will start to move on to the next job quicker and quicker, expecting to excel at each without ever learning the system and without ever putting the time in to gain useful knowledge for themselves or their next position.
  • Forgotten Blogs — You can find a lot of interesting things on the final pages of a Google search; most notable is the web garbage from those that had the same high expectations for a blog as I mentioned above. Pages upon pages of half-finished thoughts will sit there untouched until accounts go obsolete or the person gives it another shot. It’s natural for people to quit doing things; in fact doing it at the right time is a skill. But quitting simply because you are not instantly the best at something is not right, doubly so when you forget to remove your online record of it.

It will be interesting to see how these things will change over time. More than likely, new online services and activities will pop up that exacerbate the problems in Gen Y. Eventually I’m sure people will begin to see the virtue of putting the time in learning depth of a subject and not just breadth. Then expectations about being considered an “expert” will be more realistic.

It’s not hard to see this is a self-deprecating post. I do it as a slap to my own face and because I have found myself getting increasingly stressed over things in my life that aren’t all that important; the stress is derived from unrealistic expectations and not properly prioritizing the things I do on a daily basis. And I’m not saying that you shouldn’t strive to be the best in everything that you do, because in reality someone always does have to be in that top .1%. I just think more people should think about expectations they set for themselves and the time they allocate to activities in which they expect to be experts. Slowing myself down and re-evaluating how I set goals and expectations for myself is a healthy process and one I need to do to keep self-induced stress low.

What about you? Do you put a lot of pressure on yourself? Do you fall into the category of “Generation Y” or are you from a different generation? If so, how do you set expectations for yourself?

Categories
Analog Electronics Music

Wurlitzer 200: Fixed

I am very excited to announce that the Wurlitzer 200 is fixed and operational. I say Wurlitzer 200 instead of 200A because a nice chap emailed me and let me know that I actually had an earlier model. Either way, it works and it sounds delicious.

Wurlitzer 200

Really this post is to gloat a little and to post the sound samples I recorded with my friend Joe. He is a great piano player and shows off the awesomeness of the Wurly better than I ever could. I also wanted to lay out some future posts about the Wurlitzer that I plan to write:

  1. Things learned about fixing the Wurlitzer. Schematics and my own drawings included.
  2. The importance of grounding for a clean signal and how it can affect other types of electronics.
  3. How transistors work and how the broken transistor on my Wurly was causing me grief.
  4. How fuses work and when to use them.
  5. Any others requested/suggested through the skribit box on the right.

Finally, here are the sound samples Joe and I put together today. It was fun recording again. For full disclosure, there was digital delay on the Wurly and there was some processing on the drums too. Also, I apologize that the drum tracks are a little loud; it’s because I’m an electrical engineer, not a sound engineer (and definitely not a professional musician). Enjoy!

Categories
Engineering Life Politics

What The World Needs, Part 2

Engineering parents don’t tell their kids to study engineering for lots of reasons. One of the biggest reasons is that they don’t understand what engineers do. There aren’t really any television shows that explain it. It’s not sexy enough for Hollywood. There really just isn’t much information to the general public unless they are looking for it. I know I didn’t have much access to this info before seeking it out. And I know how it feels to have people nicely shake their heads and smile when I explain what I do at parties.

So I’ve decided part 2 of the “What the world needs” series here will be more references to engineering in popular culture. It can be advertising in any form (as in “Any press is good press”). People talking about engineering and what the heck they do might inspire some to go out and find out more. They might start reading blogs about engineering (dream on Chris). How might this stuff get into the mainstream? Well, comics of course! And no, not Dilbert. I choose XKCD for my mainstream weapon of choice. If you have never read the site, I insist that you go there immediately and read as many backlogged comics as possible. The author has a great grasp of mathematics, science, love and life. Bringing focus onto engineering/science/nerdy culture can only do good things for the profession and encouraging kids to explore if they would enjoy the work.

A note about the comics on XKCD, always be sure to mouse over the comics to get the “hidden message” which extends the sarcasm and awesomeness of the comic itself. Without further ado, my new favorite XKCD:

Urgent Mission

(If you don’t quite get it, current is defined in the opposite direction of how electrons actually flow thanks to Ben Franklin. This can get REALLY confusing when working with electronics, but eventually you learn to deal with it. Eventually.)

Categories
Economics Engineering Life Supply Chain

Are Engineers Naturally Cheapskates?

In a down economy, there is always focus on low cost. Job cutting, project re-definition, scaling back expenses, finding new sources of parts, all of these actions can lead to lower costs and help businesses stay alive in crappy economic climates. I think that the average (electrical) engineer can’t but help to let this mentality creep into other parts of their lives. In fact, I think the best engineers enter the profession and excel with this mindset. This revelation about engineering penny pinchers may have been stumbled upon by myself after being accused of being overly-thrifty a time or two. I don’t mind it though; I think maintaining a mindset of low cost is good for my work life and my personal life.

I have been on my own personal finance journey ever since I bought a house in the middle of a recession. I have been a regular reader of Get Rich Slowly, a fantastic blog about personal money issues, getting out of debt, smart money planning and tips on living a simple and frugal life. One of my favorite books suggested by JD has been The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Road Map to True Riches. It is full of interesting ideas to save money in non-traditional areas and generally living a simple and fulfilling life. If you’ve never read it, I highly suggest it. I also suggest to my engineering friends out there to consider how you can refocus your engineering efforts to match these principles. In his writing Jeff Yeager lists “6 golden rules for ruling your gold”, but I think they have everyday practical implications in engineering. Here is how I translate them for a thrifty engineer:

  1. Live within your means at thirty, and stay there. — I translate this idea as staying on budget for a project. A simple idea but many projects fail to do so. However, this also assumes you have a realistic budget in the first place. Allotting $10 for test equipment when you don’t have any and you plan to work on high speed signals is not a realistic way to start a project.
  2. Never underestimate the power of not spending. — Again, this is my translation but I would say this would be to cut out extraneous costs in a project. True, this sounds a bit scrooge-like, but I feel if I was bootstrapping my own company, this would be the only way I would operate. Ten years down the road you will remember the feeling of accomplishing your goal of releasing a product more than you will remember the t-shirt and mug you got commemorating it.
  3. Discretion is the better part of shopping. — I’ll speak more on this later, but the idea is to understand when you are buying a valuable product or service and when you are just being “sold” on something. It also means you have to understand the intricacies of what you are buying. From an analog engineering perspective, I think of this as buying a switching converter or something similar. Sure, you know you need to change the voltage supplied to a part of a circuit, but unless you know why you do or don’t need the latest and greatest buck converter, you might end up paying too much (for something you won’t necessarily need…could a linear regulator do the trick?).
  4. Do for yourself what you could have others do for you. — Design services are available for just about any task in engineering.If you were desperate enough, you could farm out every task in a project to a separate engineering firm that would piecemeal put together your project for you (READ: outsourcing). While it’s nice to use this service every once in a while to help speed up a portion of a project you are not an expert with, the time it takes to learn what has been done for you will often outstrip the time you save. Then if something breaks later no one knows how to fix it and you must pay the same design firm to help you again.
  5. Anyone can negotiate anything. — This is my favorite of the six golden rules and the one I have been taking most seriously lately. My attitude has been, “What is the downside to asking for a discount from a vendor?” If you are the customer, the most they will tell you is that they cannot swing any discount; at that point I thank them for their time and tell them I will get back to them after talking to some competitors. In a recession, people are eager to make a sale and are willing to lose some of their margin to do so. Don’t think of it as costing them money, think of it as gracing them with your business in a down time.
  6. Pinch the dollars, and the pennies will pinch themselves. — Paying $0.10 more per resistor when you are only buying 100 may have huge dividends. It could reduce the error in a circuit by orders of magnitudes. This is a small expense. Paying $100,000 for an oscilloscope that can measure 80 GHz when you really only need 10 GHz (still a little too RF-y for my tastes) could save you a significant amount of money and raise your overall margin for a product. Making money decisions based on need instead of “ooo-look-at-this-ery” can help project teams, companies and individuals have more rewarding payoffs at the end of a project.

Adding to the cheapskate stew and something briefly mentioned in point 3 above is discretion when buying a new product. I believe engineers are well suited for this mindset and that it stems from a slight mistrust of marketers and salesman. This is neither vituperation against engineers or any salesmen or marketers I have known, just that it is a general trend I have seen. I believe it is the result of encountering both sides of the sale. From the product designer perspective, there is often tension with marketers and salesmen when there is lack of communication. If the salesman talks to a customer and tells them that a new product can jiggle a widget 3x faster than the competition, the customer may purchase the product thinking it will always be jiggling at 3x of FluxCorp‘s latest product. But if the product can only sometimes and under the correct conditions jiggle that fast, well, there will be some problems; when the salesman relays back to the engineer that the customer is unhappy with their new product, arguments and finger pointing may ensue. On the other side of the sale, engineers often encounter sales forces descending upon them to encourage using their sub-widget in the new widget jiggler. If the salesman can supply a portion of the design to your new product then they will share in your success, because every new product made is a sale for them (albeit only a fraction of your product’s final sale price).  However, engineers sometimes encounter marketers and salesman (on the “being sold to” side of things) that may provide some “stretching” of the truth of a sub-widget’s ability. In either case, I believe that being a part of selling to others and being sold to helps hone engineers’ ability to sniff out when they are being sold something (as opposed to buying something because they want/need it). This is both something learned in engineering and a quality that some of the best engineers possess.

Yet another thing that drives engineers towards thriftiness is the nature of their jobs. If you look at an engineer and compare them to a scientist, there are some interesting distinctions. First, engineers are responsible for bringing products to market. This means that whatever technology they are using (oftentimes first discovered by scientists) must be viable on a large scale and must be done efficiently. If a scientist determines that a capacitor can hold more energy if you tap on it with your finger 1000 times before applying a voltage across it, that might be a brilliant (albeit completely fake) discovery. The engineer has to worry about how that capacitor can be sold at a reasonable price (in relation to the demand of the marketplace) and how to possibly produce millions of finger-tapped capacitors as fast as possible. Most importantly, the engineer and the company he/she works for is judged on the difference of the cost and the selling price (margin). More often than not the marketplace will be the one determining the price, so the only option for making more money is to reduce the costs in producing the product. A scientist may have external funding which allows for time to discover the newest technologies that will be later implemented; there is less direct influence on the success of the technology by near-term funding (though I know grant-writing is no picnic). The direct payoff and re-investment of profit from a successful product introduction influences how engineers operate. The thrifty engineers are successful because they can have the money they save go directly back into their next product.

A counter argument to being a (true) cheapskate is when it comes to quality. Many times in work and in life there can be significant savings from buying a quality product the first time. An example might be buying a high quality, variable temperature soldering iron (maybe even with an auto shut down). Compare that to buying a piece of junk Radio Shack soldering iron that you happen to leave on after working on your Wurlitzer. The former can last you many years and will perform well and help you solder many different products throughout its lifetime. The RS soldering iron burns out in less than a year (perhaps due to negligence, we’ll never know) and is not capable of soldering even the largest components properly. In this example there is money saved by not having to purchase another RS soldering iron and there is time saved while working on a project. So while I say that I am a cheapskate, I try to take all costs–including time–into account when purchasing something.

So answer the question Chris. Are engineers naturally cheapskates? After looking at the facts here it is pretty obvious that no, engineers are not naturally cheapskates; rather, they are often in a position to pick up money-saving skills while working on engineering issues and are well liked by management if they succeed in saving money. Also, if you happen to have some innate cheapness you will be at an advantage when starting out in engineering. Some of the people I have encountered in engineering have shown me the benefits of reducing costs in their personal lives and always knowing as much as possible about what they are buying so they can make make the best possible decision.

How about you? Are you a cheapskate? You definitely don’t have to be an engineer to be one. Do you find that engineers are naturally more thrifty? Please let me know in the comments or take the poll below!

[poll id=”2″]

Photo by MacQ

Categories
Blogging Engineering Learning Life

Engineering Parents Say The Darndest Things

“I wouldn’t suggest engineering as a career path for my child.”

So you’re an engineer. Maybe you have been for a long time and you have put up with a lot of grief. But still…Would you really tell your kid not to go into engineering?? Apparently 1 out of every 3 electrical/electronic engineering parents or so are. And while these numbers are better than the ridiculous ones I had first thought they were (more like 2 out of 3), they are better than the numbers coming from non-engineering parents (only 20% encourage their children to go into engineering, though it is likely ignorance). I can’t stand it. Why? Because it’s followed by stories about the US not having enough engineering talent. Then that story is followed by a story about H1B visas. Then THAT story is followed by a commentary about someone lamenting the situation with international workers. But it’s worst when I see it on message boards and comment sections and on blogs (see all the comments on the survey page and just about any other article on EDN or EETimes these days). Then I realize it’s not a statistic. It’s actually people telling their kids why they shouldn’t go into engineering.

sad-graph

So, let’s be scientific about it (engineerentific?) and look at both sides. Obviously, I’m biased about why parents shouldn’t be doing this sort of thing. But I think there are some significant implications if engineers aren’t cultivated from a young age by those who know the profession best.

First, let’s look at your arguments against your child going into engineering:

  1. “Business is all about finance and marketing these days!”
    • Oh yeah, it’s true. Marketing is everywhere and it’s important. I take personal interest in it and bug my friends about personal branding all the time and why I think it’s important and all that stuff. But without a product, there isn’t anything to sell. Nada. Without a product to sell, the bean counters and the brokers on wall street no longer have a job. Without them, everyone loses confidence in the company (for some reason) and everyone is laid off and jobs are shipped overseas or everyone shuts down. End of story. A sub-argument here would be that we need people to package and brand products that are made overseas and that the marketers can continue to do that. Well, that’s true…but eventually the overseas producers are going to figure out that they can come up with and market the products too. Then it won’t just be engineers asking,”Where’d all the jobs go?”
  2. “Engineers aren’t paid well enough!”
    • I can only imagine this would be a complaint among engineers that move up in the workplace and see other educated people continue to move up in salary for non-engineering positions. Sure, if you look at the top of the management field and the top of the engineering field, there are differences at the top. But fewer professions provide the pay that engineering offers directly out of school (with only a 4 year degree). After that, yes, you have to work harder to get to the top of the pay-scale. If  it worries you that much, go get an MBA and try out middle management.
  3. “There’s too much global competition!”
  4. “They will never be in charge!”
    • I would guess disgruntled engineering parents use this reasoning because of timing (an engineer who is 50 might have a child entering college, but if they are still an engineer they may not be “in charge”) and because engineers get frustrated being told what to do; it’s a conflict of roles when a person gets to define how a system is built but not how much money they can spend on a widget going into the machine. However, in order to maintain a technical career sometimes you have to let others do some of the managerial tasks; it’s a sacrifice that is at least in some ways necessary if you want to maintain control over technical aspects of a project. To the ones who fall under this category and wish to do it all, I would encourage you to start your own company; then encourage your children to do the same. One profession that will always have job openings is entrepreneur-ing and there are no greater sources of jobs than small businesses.
  5. “I’d rather my child be a _________.”
    • I know I’m kind of shouting into the void here, but do you hear yourself? No? OK, close your eyes and imagine YOUR parents telling you this. How do you feel? If there is anything an engineering parent should do, it is warning a child against potential pitfalls in an engineering education and career (“Those double integrals can be real stinkers!”), not steering them off on an alternate course. Tell them the truth about engineering, the ups and the downs. And if there are a lot of downs, maybe take a step back and consider why you are still in engineering.
  6. “My son isn’t interested in science!”
    • Well what about your daughter? Besides the fact that there is education assistance for women in engineering and support throughout the educational process, research has shown that more and more women are following in their father’s footsteps (we’re assuming here that the father is the one talking about their son’s disinterest). My friend Elaine can go toe to toe with any other engineer out there and I can personally attest to the fact that she helped me get through college. Women do great things in engineering and cutting off your daughter from that greatness could rob her and the rest of the population of her future potential.

OK, I’ve changed your mind, right? You decided you want to encourage a young potential engineer. What do you say? What are some reasons you should be encouraging your child to follow in your footsteps?

  1. “You get to make stuff!”
  2. “You get to make stuff!”
    • How fun is that? You get to design stuff that will be used by other people! You get to make something that could last longer than you will on the planet! (hopefully as a useful product, not in a landfill). You get to wake up everyday and say “I can do anything. I can make anything. If I can imagine it (and the cost is feasible), I can build it.” Hey, if you aren’t excited about the prospects of working on new products, it’s cool…we can always ship your job somewhere where they’re excited to do that kind of work (and do it at a discount). But if the prospect of making a product excites you (it should, or else you might be reading the wrong blog…), then you should pitch this idea to children who could end up as similarly excited engineers.
  3. “Don’t worry, you can be happy without money.”
    • Wha? Money doesn’t make people happy? Well, no, it doesn’t, and there are lots of studies to prove it. Sure, it makes things a little easier than NOT having money, but beyond meeting your basic needs, more money does not equate to more happiness. You don’t have to belabor this point, because it won’t sink in with kids. Instead, emphasize things that do matter: helping people, living simply, taking joy in your work, trying to change the world, connecting with friends, etc. All these are valuable life lessons and things that will help them in life and in their career (it won’t hurt them to develop those engineering soft skills either!). They will hopefully figure out the money thing later on when they are enjoying the finer aspects of life.
  4. “You won’t be doing the same thing every day!”
    • This is what sold me on engineering. When I was sitting around in high school, trying to plan out a future and really not having any clue what I was doing, I decided I didn’t like being bored. So that was criteria number one. I wanted something where I could do a lot of different things and not sit behind a desk without any hands-on activities. Some job or calling where I would have to keep learning and keep figuring stuff out every day. I know there are a lot of jobs that really do fall under this category, but I obviously didn’t realize it at the time. What I’m trying to say here is that you are more likely to be expected to be an expert on lots of areas as an engineer (technology, science, business, etc) and that will keep you on your toes. And I like that.
  5. “My child, look at the big picture.”
    • If you can go to work every day and feel that you are accomplishing something that is good for you and your community (local or global), then that should be what you encourage your children to do. As an engineer, I would hope that you feel engineering provides the greatest chance to feel satisfied with how you are contributing and that it makes it worth putting up with all the things people complain about in engineering. Engineering can lead to great technical careers, great management careers or careers having nothing to do with engineering. The skills learned are invaluable in myriad professions, so there’s no downside to getting an engineering degree (OK, maybe cost).

OK, so there it is. Two sides of the argument, all presented to you with the skills I learned in engineering school: unarguable logic (10(b) + 10(b) = 100(b)), beautiful prose (technical writing was taught but haikus were my forte) and massaging of data (the hyper link is the new pie-chart). See? TONS of useful skills!

Ah, and now for a bit of perspective. I have been an engineer for 5 years now (counting co-ops). That’s not much, it’s true. However, I am a continual optimist and I believe that I will continue to enjoy being an engineer (hell, I write about it in my spare time). I also believe that engineering will continue to offer the best option for graduates in terms of career fulfillment, compensation, job opportunity (regardless of off-shoring) and options outside of the field of engineering. Everything else I feel about this topic you can deduce from the points above, doubly so for the points dripping with sarcasm.  It should also be noted that I don’t dislike other professions (nor management, which I could very well end up in some day), it’s just that when I compare it to engineering I feel I made the right decision for myself at this time. So there that is. I am young and have not experienced all of the ups and downs of engineering that a veteran might encounter, but I am strongly against discouraging kids from it.

Here’s what I do know. Tell your kids to make up their own minds. Point them in the right direction and let them make mistakes; don’t try to protect them from a potentially great career based upon current (linear) data. I was very lucky in this regard, I have wonderful parents who were very supportive of my choices (although neither was an engineer). As mentioned above, if you are an engineer, point out the good and the bad. Steer them away from the pitfalls in both education and the working world and help to make them a better engineer. Volunteer at schools to let children other than your own know the benefits of engineering and explain to people what you do in a positive light so others know that they can positively affect the world through work in engineering.

If you have any thoughts on engineering or encouraging children in engineering, please contact me or leave them in the comments below!

Categories
Analog Electronics Learning Renewable Energy

Switching Regulators and Switching Noise

A background

Switching regulator, buck converter, boost converter, SEPIC, flyback, push-pull, buck-boost… do you know what the heck these things are??? Because I sure didn’t when I was getting back into analog electronics. Now thanks to new interest in power efficient electronics, they are starting to come front and center on the electronics stage. Hopefully this article will give you a better understanding of what they are, what they do, where to use them and issues with noise.

OK, so before we get to the real topic of this post, what do switching regulators do?

Switching  regulators allow you to translate one voltage into another. They allow you to take a higher voltage and translate it to a lower voltage or a lower voltage and go to a higher voltage.

“Eureka!” you cry, “Chris has found the solution to all of our energy needs! We just hook a bunch of these switching doo-dads up and we’ll have unlimited power!”

But no, it’s not that easy. Switching regulators go off the fact that you can take a voltage and translate it to a different voltage, however, the power stays the same (in an ideal case). Meaning if you have 5V coming into a circuit and you have a portion of that circuit that needs to operate off of a 15V supply, you can use a boost converter or something similar and crank up the voltage. Say you have 150 mA (at 5V) coming in, when you convert it up to 15 V, you’ll have 50 mA available to whatever needs the 15V power. Notice in this (ideal) case, the power stays the same (750 mW).

It is a similar story when going down  in voltage. However, there are many more options when moving down in voltage: switching regulator, linear regulator or even a passive element (like a resistor or a diode). You use a switching regulator because they regulate the output voltage (unlike the voltage drop across a resistor or a diode) and they don’t waste power like a linear regulator. If you want to go from a 20 V input down to a 5V output, a linear regulator would just “burn” up that 15V in the middle. With a switching regulator, most of the power is conserved (assuming you are running in the optimized voltage ranges…and there are a ton of different models to choose from so you can find the right range).

Finally, real quick, where are these used? Well, the hot new talk of the town has been renewable energy. “I can get 95% efficiency?” you ask, “Why wouldn’t I pay $4 per chip to do that?”. And really, the power efficiency isn’t just the garbage everyone seems to be spewing these days about saving energy for savings sake…it actually can help you make a better product. If you are in a heat sensitive situation, you don’t want to use a linear regulator to get your required voltage. In the above example if you are going from 100 mA at 20V and the output of the linear regulator is 100mA at 5V…that means you are burning 1.5W just regulating your voltages. With a switching regulator you can save a good percentage of that (for battery or “green” devices) and you can reduce the heat in a sensitive application. Plus, if you’re trying to go from a lower voltage to a higher voltage, you’re out of luck with linear regulators.

Switching Noise

Nothing in life is perfect. Switching regulators aren’t 100% efficient, there are limits to how much you can convert voltages (1000v down to 10V usually isn’t possible…or smart) and even in the best cases a switching regulator will introduce noise into a circuit. For the ways I have mostly used switching regulators (supplies for digital circuits), switching noise isn’t that big of a deal. If you are supplying 5V to a piece of flash memory, the part will probably not care if there is 100 mV of noise “on top” of the 5V signal (meaning the actual power supplied would bounce between 4.9V and 5.1V). Same for supplying power to LEDs or other non-analog situations. However, if there are any measurement components in your design or any even slightly sensitive analog portions, you should consider how the switching noise will affect your output.

So why does switching noise occur? To answer that we really need to look at a switching regulator to understand what is inside of it. To illustrate, I will be using my version of LTSpice, which is free (awesome!). Also to note, there are lots of great programs out there to help you design this stuff (Webench, for example). Just don’t want to leave any of the vendors out, especially when they give out sampled parts. For this example, we’ll look at the LT3755, which EDN (and me by extension) showcased in an article about creating simple LED lighting for your home.  The application here would be to boost an input of 10V to an output of 40V to light an array of up to 14 1A LEDs.

lt3755

Notice the LEDs (D2 in the diagram) are where the final current and voltage is being delivered. The waveform for the inputs and outputs is below:

lt3755_chart_no_i

In this graph we see the voltage at the point above R4 (the sense resistor), which is close to what is being delivered to the LEDs. Notice that the voltage starts at roughly 15V and then shoots up to around 40V; the “on” state when the LEDs would be lit settles around 38V. When the red PWM waveform turns off, the voltage bounces up to the exact voltage (40V) the LT3755 is supposed to be outputting because the LEDs are not draining on the output of the circuit. When the PWM goes back on (to 5V), there is noticeable noise on the output voltage. So why is there noise?

lt3755_chart

If you look at the circuit diagram above, the second most critical component after the regulator itself is the inductor (L1), just to the upper right of the LT3755. Switchers take advantage of the fact that the voltage across an inductor is equal to the instantaneous current through an inductor times a constant (known as inductance). Pulsing current through the inductor introduces the voltages necessary to step the output voltage up to the desired level. Using negative feedback, the controlling chips can output pulses at varying speeds and shapes to correct for any errors on the output of the circuit (see the image above to see the current going through the inductor in light blue). However, as stated before, nothing is perfect. The bandwidth of the chip (the op-amps and other controlling elements within the chip) are finite, so there cannot be perfect control. This introduces noise on the output of the circuit at the same frequency as the switcher (and some harmonics of that frequency).  In the LT3755, the switching frequency can be anywhere from 100 kHz to 1 MHz.

If you are using this switcher for LEDs in a car…no big deal. And really, with high power applications such as lighting, the noise isn’t much of an issue. However, as switching regulators find their way into more and more products, the noise issue becomes more prevalent, especially smaller products. The trade-off comes in when you start looking at the inductor required for the switching regulator. Some can get quite large and unwieldy, especially for handheld products (see below for an unwieldy example).

So instead of using a large value (and size and price) inductor, the switching frequency needs to increase. As explained before, voltage is created across an inductor by forcing pulses of current through the inductor. The higher frequency means that there are smaller current pulses, but there are more of them. This allows for smaller and smaller inductors in designs (some are starting to be pulled into the chip packaging!) but brings with it the noise, now at a higher frequency.  If you have a 5V power supply line with 100 mV of noise of top of it (with the noise at around 100 kHz), then it might not be a problem on your circuit board. But when your boss tells you to start using smaller parts so you can fit the design in a handheld form factor and the switching frequency goes up to 1 and 2 MHz, you will start having problems. That innocent 100 mV from before now might couple into other board traces and introduce noise into the rest of your design. If you have any analog signals that are critical to your design, 100 mV of noise can wreak havoc on the output.

Less noise, more answers

Switching noise is something that will be apparent in any design involving a switching regulator. Knowing your system constraints will allow you to best decide which option is best for your specific needs. If you are crunched for space, you will need to be able to handle high frequency switching noise. If you are sensitive to noise, you better buck up for some big, expensive inductors and carefully route your board (in fact, if you’re that sensitive, maybe reconsider switching regulators entirely). If you have access to the resource, the best people to ask are the vendors selling the parts; they know the funny behavior of a part and which “flavor” of regulator to use to best suit your needs. And in the meantime you can play around with the tools they make available online and in software.

Please leave any questions or comments you might have and good luck with your new designs!

Categories
Blogging Economics Engineering

Squeaky Wheels Get The Job Hunting Tips

Last month, I had a not-so-nice commenter remark that my last post on blogging keeping me going through a recession was a waste of time. He or she went on to remark that they didn’t have a job and they were obviously looking for some help. While I can’t say I condone their harsh tone and unnecessary crudeness (I know, I know, it’s the internet), I do empathize with their jobless situation.

So today’s post is going to be on some ways (and notably some non-traditional ways) to go about getting a job and hopefully getting through this recession. Here is the big disclaimer though: I don’t know how many of these techniques work. I am basing them on my own ideas and experience and some are just brainstorms. Let’s start from the top with the most traditional methods of finding a job and work our way down to the silly and intriguing ideas. On with the show…

  1. Online job searches/classified ads — 4% success rate, 10% unemployment. Do the math and consider this one to be a non-option.
  2. Networking — Ahh man, I know I’m not going to get this point across like I want to, but there are so many ways this is important. I actually had a digital designer I worked with a few years back sit me down and explain the importance of networking, and I STILL didn’t get it. In fact, for a long time, I was infuriated by the idea that just who you know might get you a job, as opposed to what you know. But here’s what it comes down to: there are a ton of people who can do your job. In fact, there are a lot of people out there who can do your job better and possibly cheaper than you (think China). However, you are the person who was in the right place at the right time, with the right skills, the right charisma and the right contacts. Everything else you start learning the day you start your new position. Networking takes time, though, and you need to start it before you lose or leave a job. It means that you are friendly with the people you work with and you’re actively keeping in touch with people you used to work with.  If you haven’t been doing that, call up a former co-worker and see what they’re working on; you might find something interesting and you get to maintain a relationship easily.
  3. Vendors — Yes, this still falls under the category of networking, but in a different way. Vendors, for those of you who do not know, are people trying to sell you (an engineer or scientist) stuff. They can be salesmen, application engineers, marketers, you name it. If they’re trying to get you to buy what their company has to offer…they’re vendors. They are also in the unique position of trying to sell stuff to other people in your industry; therefore, they know a lot of people doing a lot of stuff that is similar to your job. If I lost my job tomorrow, my stack of vendor business cards would be the first thing I would reach for. Call up some of them and see what trends they see in the industry. Ask for a place to look for your next gig. If you don’t deal with vendors on a regular basis, try other people you interact with daily who have contact to the outside world (maybe the UPS or FedEX delivery person?).
  4. Get something published — You don’t need to publish a paper in IEEE or Nature to get noticed by people. Sure, those first two magazines will get you noticed by a lot of people, but you really only need one. Think smaller. Write a letter to an editor in EETimes or EDN (two of my favorites).  I know whenever I see a letter to the editor, I am usually curious to what kind of expertise that person has and what industry they work in. Make sure when people look you up they know how to find you and that you have some good examples of your work.
  5. Blog Comments — The traditional gatekeepers to knowledge have started to transition. Whereas engineers and scientists might have only had a few sources of news in the past, blogs now offer an alternative in myriad forms; be it a day-in-the-life format or an aggregation of smaller news stories that might interest an engineer or scientist, information is available everywhere these days. These outlets also provide new ways to find others interested in the same stuff as you. If you see a comment from someone on a blog that intrigues you, try to strike up a conversation with them or see if that person has their own website (usually a link from their name). Try contacting the writer of the blog and see how receptive they are to talking to their readers (hopefully very). Blogs provide information and a new method of meeting people online. As with many of the other items on this list, try the less traveled places first; don’t try writing to an administrator of slashdot if you are interested in tech stories. Look for some smaller blogs (maybe from people linking their own blogs on slashdot) and try to contact them.
  6. LinkedIn — One of the best ideas I have ever heard in a job hunt is “informational interviews” (I first read it in the classic “What Color Is Your Parachute”). Basically, you call up someone and ask them about what they do, their industry, job trends and anything else you think might be relevant to a position.  Sometimes people will pick up on the fact that you’re in the market for a job, but other times they might not and you just have an interesting conversation. The problem I always had though was how to get an interview. The best way would be through those contacts I mention when I talk about networking…but the real problem is when you don’t have any contacts either. Then you are in a bit of a tighter spot and you need to get creative. One technique suggested by a friend that had worked for me to look up people on my LinkedIn network; extra points if they work somewhere I think I would like to work. Then once I know their name I try to figure out what their company email might be (usually they’re standardized at companies) and try to email them to request if you can call them for an informational interview. Sure it’s a little sneaky, but I think it’s OK if you’re genuinely interested and not just trying to use them as a contact. Sometimes you won’t get a response, sometimes you’ll get a confused response, sometimes you get a grouchy person and sometimes you get a person who doesn’t mind taking a few minutes out of their day to talk to an inquisitive person. I’ll let you look up informational interview questions for yourself, but go through the interview, keep it brief and ask if they wouldn’t mind passing you a name of someone else to talk to; if they do, be sure to thank them profusely afterward. If they don’t pass you a name… thank them profusely anyway. If nothing else, you will get a good conversation and some more information about an industry that interests you. Note: I always tried to email people first before an informational interview. You could always try and call someone out of the blue (call a front desk, ask for them) and ask for an informational interview; they usually will be confused by this abrupt request. Refer to this technique (that I learned from some sneaky recruiters) only if you really would like to talk to someone and they are non-responsive to email (remember, there might be a reason).
  7. Work For Yourself — My friend Pat recently came up with a great idea while he looks for work. He has been helping me out with my (still) broken Wurlitzer, taking the old schematic and putting it into a modern CAD program. He gets the experience of using common, open-source tools and I get some free labor to help me with my board. He also mentioned learning other software while he is looking for work. I see this sprouting into other opportunities too; if you are working on a new piece of software, you’re likely going to go to discussion boards for help.  You might even get involved in the development of the open-source tools, all of which can provide great experience and great contacts. If nothing else, you can put hobbies on your resume that are relevant to your potential job (the only hobbies that should ever be listed in my opinion). Showing an employer that you are passionate about your chosen field (i.e. willing to go home and do the same stuff you just did for 8-12 hours that day) really can make you stand out in a crowd.
  8. Work For Free — Starting to get into ideas that I’m really not sure would work. Offer to work somewhere for free. This could be considered an “internship” or whatever you want to call it. You’d basically be working for two things (besides no money): contacts and experience. The latter might be limited, especially if you are working somewhere with a sensitive security policy. However, if you offer your services for free, you will get to meet people and that could be worth more than anything else. Remember, you want to look in the non-standard places for work, so don’t waste your time begging for a job at this place. If they don’t want to pay you to start with, they probably won’t want to pay you in the future (at least not in a recession). Instead, talk to everyone you meet and make them want to help you. This idea might be the most difficult of the bunch but if you can pull it off (namely getting the internship to start with), it might have the best chance of success.
  9. Guerrilla marketing — Are you particularly good at CAD programs? Have you created a novel circuit that you think might interest an employer? Have you made a website about analog electronics? Use non-standard ways to stand out; however, make sure you do this at non-standard times. Don’t walk up to a recruiter at a job fair and hand him a circuit diagram with your signature on it. Instead, find out who is in charge of the hiring process (non-HR) and send it to them. Better yet, use the idea in number 5 and figure out who that person is and send the circuit diagram as a thank you to each person you talk to along the way. As for the CAD designer, make your business card out of a circuit board or something else novel like that. Passively advertise that you are in the job market. The “Parachute” book mentions putting it on your answering machine that you are currently looking to have your contacts help your searching project. If you have a website or a facebook profile, make sure it is well known (your front page or your default status message)that you are in the market for a job and some of the best characteristics you can offer. Shameless? Nope, just a good way to get your name out there.
  10. Walk in a front door — This idea was the inspiration for this post and also the most ludicrous of the bunch. What would happen if you dressed up in your best suit and walked into an office and asked for a meeting with Mr. BigGuyInCharge? Sure, you’d need to figure out that person with some sneaky or not-so-sneaky methods prior to walking in there; but if you did it right, this technique has a small small chance of working. It’s like the in person cold call. Most managers won’t have anything to do with it, but that one time it might work that makes it all worth it. I’d suggest any of the above methods before this one, but since it was the inspriation for this post, I figured I had to include it.

The recurring theme for all of these ideas is stepping outside your comfort zone and to try approaches to non-standard job paths. You don’t have to try the most extreme of these ideas (like walking into an office asking to talk to a manager), but you might have to pick up a phone and call a bunch of people. Or you might need to develop some new skills on your own before applying for a new job. If you keep trying hard and keep trying different things (other than online applications), you’ll eventually find something. If you are lucky enough to be working right now, keep an eye out for friends and colleagues and help them when you can. Good luck to all and leave any other ideas you might have in the comments.

Photo by brettdarnell

Categories
Analog Electronics Blogging Renewable Energy

Back in March

Hi everyone,

I know there aren’t too many concerned blog citizens out there, but I just wanted to post to say I am taking the rest of the month off from writing to take care of personal stuff (mostly my house). I would highly suggest you leave any blog post ideas you would like to see when I get back on the “skribit” widget on the right side of the page. Alternately, you can vote on suggestions that are already there. I get weekly updates on which post ideas are popular and will use those to build up my post repertoire in order of popularity (most of the time). Thanks for reading, as always, and I look forward to continuing the conversation about analog electronics and renewable energy when I get back.

~Chris Gammell

Categories
Analog Electronics Blogging Life

Blogging Keeps Me Going

As you may have all noticed (or at least those that read here more often-ish), I have been posting less lately. Partly because I am fixing up a new house and partly because I have not felt very inspired. I think the recession is starting to get me down a little unfortunately. Worrying takes its toll as I’m sure many can attest to.  But fear not! I have some things I would like to reaffirm about why I enjoy blogging thus far and why I think it’s a good idea to keep going with the blog:

  1. Resume 2.0 — I have seen it written that blogs are the new resume. I believe that a little bit, but only for certain industries. If you’re in a field like marketing or PR, you’d BETTER have a blog, and it should be better than the other gazillion marketing blogs out there. The people in non-traditional writing fields like engineering don’t have quite as much competition but I’ve never seen whether employers like new hires to write blogs. Heck, some might even discourage it for fear of a leaky mouthed employee talking about the company’s next great patent or product (I’m so much smarter than that though).  Any way you look at it, if you have a blog you are much more visible to employers than those without a blog.
  2. It opens new windows — My site is hardly a high traffic site. However, I get enough visitors that when someone leaves a comment I can take the time to write them back and try to get to know them. Already I have emailed with some people in the industry that I don’t think I would have ever met otherwise. I have had some people contact me for job interviews and others contact me about potential projects. I like that the blog helps me communicate with people.
  3. Build a brand, brand yourself — Chris Gammell is a brand now. It’s a search term. I’m even thinking about making it into an LLP. But when all else fails and people don’t make that association, scream out what you want people to know you are. That’s why I bought Analog ElectricalEngineer.com last month. If nothing else, blogging has taught me a lot about marketing, especially with “New Media”.
  4. Options, Options, Options — I’d like to think if nothing else in this down economy, I might have a few more options than my non-blogging engineering brethren. I think of writing for magazines, trying to blog full time (probably would need more people in the world interested in engineering), consulting, doing contract work, shifting completely and trying marketing (see above) or looking for another engineering position and advertising myself on my blog. While I have learned more and more that it is your experience that gets you a job, the tough part is showcasing that experience to an employer.
  5. Analog electronics suits me well —  I’ll be honest. I feel that my strengths lie in improving upon existing ideas as opposed to coming up with completely new ideas (engineer vs. scientist). And I think analog electronics intrigue me because even after all of these years since electricity was discovered, there are SO many things that are hard to get right. And there will always be problems with analog circuits where others will need help. You can put everything into digital format but there will still be significant portions of a circuit that need to be processing analog signals. Not only that, I could see a future where more signal processing moves back into the analog domain. Ka-ching!
  6. Renewable energy has a long way to go — I love writing about analog because it makes me geek out. I love writing about renewable energy because it’s such a new and exciting field with so much going on and so many new developments. While I don’t like talking about things “going green” just for the sake of it, I really do think there are some significant advances in the technology that need to be discussed (or dismissed).
  7. I like writing — Of all the things that blogging has taught me, I was most surprised at enjoying finding my writing voice. Perhaps it’s my creative side trying to escape or perhaps I enjoy others reading what I have to say. Either way, I like trying to get my ideas across to people, especially difficult technical ideas that may have been inaccessible otherwise. I hope you enjoy it too.

I know this and other posts have been a bit more introspective lately, but I think that’s what tougher times do to people. We stop expecting answers to be external to ourselves and we start to analyze how we can enjoy what we have and what we do. I fully expect to publish more technical entries in the near future because that is something I enjoy doing.

If you have posts you would like to see, technical or otherwise, feel free to suggest them in the skribit box to the right. Others can vote on ideas and I will write them if I can. If you have anything else to say, the comments box is always listening (as am I).

Photo by Woplu

Categories
Engineering Renewable Energy Supply Chain

What The World Needs, Part 1

I like the communication between myself and my readers and my readers (either random or regular) on the comments section. As such, I’ve decided to try some posts titled “What the world needs” (similar to the “My Hobby” posts over at xkcd). These will supplement, not supplant, my regular posts. So here we go:

What the world needs, part 1…

What the world needs is more energy storage solutions. What we have right now just isn’t going to work. Batteries aren’t reliable enough over the long term, ultracapacitors aren’t developed enough and large scale solutions just aren’t efficient enough. All we keep hearing about at the Detroit auto show are the hybrid and plug-in vehicles (Nov 2010 for the Volt? It’s going to take that long??). While they have the conversion from braking energy back into stored energy, I feel like all of the stored energy solutions right now (within the cars, just are not sufficient). Furthermore, when all those plug-in vehicles are in the driveways of the suburbs and sucking down grid power, there will be a higher need to draw upon reserves of energy, either by cranking on more power plant capacity or tapping stored energy. If we want renewable energy to fill that gap in available power we will need even more storage capability, as renewable sources are not “always on”.

My favorite idea out there is the storage of energy by pumping water up a hill (known as Pumped Storage Hydroelectricity); it’s so simple and beautiful, basically you pump water up a hill and then release it later to be converted through turbines into electricity. The initial concept was developed to help deal with load variations on power lines but also to help sell lower cost electricity produced at night during the high cost hours of the day (a concept the plug-in vehicles also hope to capitalize on). Today we see these hydroelectric storage facilities being targeted as ways to store energy from sources such as solar cells or wind turbines.When the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing, renewable sources cannot output power; people do not typically stop consuming energy during those times though, quite the opposite. When the sun is highest A/C units are cranked and when the wind is blowing outside people are cuddled under blankets watching TV or reading by lamp.

Like any engineering problem there are limitations. Evaporation reduces the efficiency in arid climates where large photo voltaic installations are likely. Wind occurs more naturally and is more likely to be harvested in areas with out large inclines to pump the water up and down. The turbines are not 100% efficient so there are losses during any pumping of the water. So the question remains, how else can we store and then harvest energy to take advantage of renewable energy infrastructure?

  1. As the verbiage above suggests, we can actually store energy and harvest it through biofuels; it’s really just a different way of thinking about an existing solution. Corn is a favorite right now, with switchgrass being a potential in the future. Mother nature helps us take sunshine, nutrients from the soil and water to produce plants that can be converted into energy through distillation.
  2. Gravity (in non water forms) could help us store more energy. I think of having lifts that could raise large weights into the air to be released at later times. I know there’s a lamp that uses gravity to temporarily light up LEDs, but I wonder how scalable this idea is.
  3. Spring energy has always fascinated me, ever since I got one of those wind up planes as a kid (you turn the propeller to twist a rubber band which then releases to unwind the propeller as the plane flies). I imagine a huge spring being pushed by some weight and then slowly released later to power a generator, but I doubt the materials would allow this indefinitely (springs eventually lose their “springiness”).
  4. Heat is another storage mechanism but has some serious limitations. You could try and heat up a medium (salt? water? saltwater? I think I saw that somewhere), but then maintaining the heat and retrieving it later provide some serious issues.
  5. Hydrogen is touted as a great storage mechanism; while I like the fact that water is readily available, I don’t think the storage capabilities are reasonable. One of the things I like most about the pumped storage facilities is its simplicity.
  6. Pumping air into a bladder or bag underwater could be a possibility someday. You would pump air into the bag and once the pumping had stopped and you wanted to retrieve the energy, the pressure surrounding the bag would force the air back upwards; when you need it, you direct the air through a turbine to retrieve the energy. Temperature changes as you go down in depth would be a concern (air compresses as it gets colder).
  7. Batteries are still an option…basically taking electrons and squirreling them away into electrolytic solutions (or however you want to do it). These become severely limited in large scale operations though; imagine how many “AA” rechargeable batteries you would need to store the output of a 500 MW wind farm…

As a final note, I should point out I found this other Wikipedia article on grid energy storage at the end of writing this post. I still wanted to publish my ideas but only some of them matched.

I get a little frustrated when I try and think of new ways to store energy; however, it’s reassuring that there are many options out there that can still be improved upon. Can you think of any other natural or otherwise methods of storing energy? Let me know in the comments!

Photo by obenson