Forum - Recent Threads

Mnemonic triangle

Knighthawk_140 — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 12:36:18 GMT

Hello

Here is my custom mnemonic math triangle for constant current ramp work. I have this time and date stamped on youtube.

T = Time, V = Voltage, I = Constant Current & C = Capacitance

Enjoy

Maker construction kits

beacon_dave — Sun, 13 Apr 2025 11:03:33 GMT

I spotted this maker product line from Fischertechnik recently, which may be of interest to the STEM community on element14.

Three platforms to get your mobile projects moving quickly and reliably.

Maker Kit Car

Maker Kit Omniwheels

Maker Kit Bionic

2024 Bionic Maker kit first impression (on YouTube)

Spotted some Fischertechnik industrial simulation in use at the Times Higher Education DUUK 2025 Expo the other week

Digital Universities UK 2025 - Day 2

Green Envy finally gets to make its debut at Lake Gairdner

beacon_dave — Sun, 02 Apr 2023 18:48:00 GMT

After 3 years of waiting in anticipation, Green Envy finally managed to make its debut run at Lake Gairdner (Australia) during Speed Week 2023.

(Photo: builder and rider Eva Håkansson with Green Envy at Lake Gairdner in 2023)

As some may know, Eva is a strong advocate for STEM education and has featured previously in publications like STEM Women Magazine:
https://www.stemmagazine.com/swNOV18/7C19FF261A6146851BB8188846172C5E/swNOV18.pdf

Green Envy is a battery powered streamliner motorcycle designed and built to become the worlds fasted motorcycle. It was built in around 6 months ready for its debut in 2020 but due to the pandemic and bad weather it has had to remain in storage up until now. Even this year bad weather stopped play for 2 days out of 5 limiting the number of runs to only 4. Even so, 178MPH was recorded during the licensing runs.

(The sort of speeding ticket you don't mind being presented with.)

I've been following the progress for a number of years now and it has been fascinating. It is like many element14 projects here but perhaps with a little bit more horsepower in the electric motors.

Just about every aspect of the build has been openly shared on-line which could make for a great STEM type study.

Cable car with detachable gondolas (1:10 scale)

beacon_dave — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 19:16:48 GMT

Quite an interesting (and ambitious) project currently being built out of Fischertechnik constructor kit components.

1:10 scale cable car with detachable gondolas.

Due to be on display at BUGA23 in Mannheim.

It's pretty big...

...with lots of moving parts

and should appeal to those in the STEM community.

Video channel on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiPkmxDNxz8hcTikRfCa6Yw

Forum on Fischer Technology Community Forum:
https://forum.ftcommunity.de/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5930

There are ongoing technical articles being published about the design in ft:pedia starting from issue 1/2021
https://www.ftcommunity.de/ftpedia/2021/

Encouraging computer literacy: the BBC Microcomputer & the Raspberry Pi

beacon_dave — Mon, 29 Nov 2021 19:34:15 GMT

An interesting short video featuring Sophie Wilson and Eben Upton talking about the early BBC Micro and the later Raspberry Pi.

Encouraging computer literacy: the BBC Microcomputer & the Raspberry Pi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPeRBio7FwU

www.youtube.com/watch

3D CAD Homeschool

selajon — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 14:08:57 GMT

Right now almost all schools are closed and the students are homeschooling because of COVID-19 Pandemic. If you want something to keep your kids busy during the

lockdown check out these step by step tutorials that can help them learn 3D modeling easily.

www.youtube.com/watch

Nitinol Heat Engine

philertman — Sun, 09 Jun 2019 01:41:39 GMT

Work was being done on heat engines using Nitinol wire at Berkley. The idea was to build a heat engine that would run on waste heat energy.

There was some work done using a small solar panel to heat water for the engine. This work was done in 1973. I have never heard anything

about it nor have I seen anything done with it. It would seem this would be a good thing standalone or in unison with solar panels.

https://youtu.be/oKmYqUSDch8

Contracting wire, silent muscles.

philertman — Sun, 09 Jun 2019 00:05:02 GMT

Quite a while back there was a product introduced to the market. It was a type of wire. This wire however would expand and contract when voltage was applied to it. There where controllers made, software written.

For the life of me I can't remember what it was called. Does anybody remember?

Phil

Have you ever run a code club in your local community?

jlucas — Thu, 25 Apr 2019 12:24:01 GMT

Whether it's an after-school group or a summer class, code clubs are a vital resource for getting young people engaged with coding and digital literacy. At element14 we're currently planning some special activities to support local code clubs through the summer, and we'd really appreciate some feedback from our membership to help us to shape our plans.

- Have you ever run a code club for young people? If so, what was the format?

- If you'd like to but haven't run one so far, what's stopping you?

- What were the biggest challenges involved in running a code club?

- How could companies like Premier Farnell make it easier for parents, teachers and community members to run localised Code Clubs?

All answers welcome!

Fischertechnik polar pen plotter controlled by Arduino

beacon_dave — Tue, 17 Apr 2018 18:59:28 GMT

An interesting looking polar pen plotter project for STEM type activities.

Polar Drawing Machine

https://www.hackster.io/ArduinoFT/polar-drawing-machine-f7a05c

shabaz - you were asking about alternatives to the Fischertechnik RoboTX / Robo TXT controller - this may be of interest.

Stretching a school budget

NigelB — Mon, 05 Feb 2018 09:46:21 GMT

I am in discussions with a local school about the best way to stretch their budget for buying controllers for robotics and coding projects.

Previous D&T teachers there have invested in "Crumbles"... which seem very poor value and limited in their tools, functionality and IO pins compared to Arduinos or Pi Zeros.

At the moment I am exploring the possibility of using cheap Arduino nano boards, and mounting them on a simple pcb that will improve their robustness, and break out their IO into bigger more accessible terminals, as my D&T teaching contact is happy to make such boards himself using the resources from a different bucket of money, thus minimising the cost of ruggedising the Arduinos on his new equipment budget.

I have also barely started to find out if S4A - Scratch for Arduino - can run on nanos, as a low-level entry way of programming them - but as far as I know S4A is designed for the Arduino Uno, so that might force my hand in that direction). If Arduinos are used, then there are free programming tools out there, allowing different levels of ability to access them for projects. Are there other examples of Scratch for Arduino that might work on a nano? Would someone like to collaborate to make one? The great thing about Arduinos is the huge range of very affordable shields out there, as well as the big community of users.

Pi zeros are another possibility, as they give several levels of complexity possible - from Raspberry Assembler, to Scratch, to GPIO Zero, to Python ... each with their pros and cons - but of course the Pi zero offers the chance to do other stuff far more sophisticated than a "mere" 8-bit microcontroller such as the Arduino. And of course there are a growing number of Pi Hats to interface with the real world.

As always, my time is limited to look into these things, particularly if I am to get something useful out there quickly for them.

So I would be really interested in hearing from anyone who has already been through this loop, who can throw ideas or experiences into the pot, or even collaborate or share what they have already done for their local school. Something far better could be produced as a collaboration, of course. And it would be a shame to duplicate effort, instead of putting more time into an existing project to hopefully expand and improve it.

Nigel

STEM Ambassador in HANTS since 2012 (working individually, not as a corporate STEM Ambassador)

PTLLS certified

Fischertechnik add 'Smart Home' and 'IoT' to their line up of educational kits

beacon_dave — Sat, 03 Feb 2018 21:25:44 GMT

Fischertechnik have just released a couple of new educational kits to their robotics range aimed at home monitoring / IoT which may be of interest to those involved in STEM.

ROBOTICS TXT Smart Home

https://www.fischertechnik.de/en/products/playing/robotics/544624-robotics-txt-smart-home

Robotics Sensor Station IoT

https://www.fischertechnik.de/en/products/teaching/stem-robotics/544625-robotics-sensor-station-iot

It appears to include the ability to connect their existing 'Robotics TXT' controllers to the cloud via Wi-Fi providing a dashboard for remotely monitoring the data being collected.

STEAM punky

amunizp — Tue, 21 Nov 2017 10:34:37 GMT

I was suggested to post my current project here to get some feedback. Hopefully this is the right forum to do so.

I created an afterschool club, vulnerable adult activity, or simple club with the theme of STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Arts and Maths). The idea being a bit forward from codeclubs or kit making clubs where people follow tutorials and guidance we just punk it and wing it.

The flow would be as follows: before starting the club people write ideas for projects things that help local communities are encouraged. No such thing as bad ideas. Then we get all together in a room with post-its and white boards and just brain dump the ideas. Then the ideas are grouped by theme for example (environment, health politics). Then voting goes to one of the preferred groups. Then further merging and further voting until a project is chosen.

After that, we simplify the project to the Minimum Viable Product (MVP). And start working in teams. Teams would have different background, ages, skill sets (aka diverse) so the trick is not to have star performers and not to leave anybody behind. Star performers should be able to slow down and explain what they are doing to the others.

I have attached an open letter to local I have started sending.

So I have started trying this out. My questions are:

* Is this a good idea?

* Should I team up with local codeclubs and similar groups such as firestarter?

* Has this been done before, any success/failure stories around?

Attachments:

community.element14.com/.../C4AD_2D00_letter_2D00_STEAM_2D00_PUNKY_2D00_v3.pdf

C4AD-letter-STEAM-PUNKY-v3.pdf

Getting Started on a Breadboard

makerkaren — Fri, 03 Nov 2017 15:36:37 GMT

I run workshops to teach STEM basics, sometimes to adults, often to children. Soldering is not always an option, so I've been trying to come up with simple projects to build on a breadboard with fairly inexpensive parts, to show how to make a circuit that does something visually obvious, such as turn on a motor or lights. The groups that organize these workshops frequently have very low budgets to where they couldn't afford enough Arduino or Raspberry Pis or the like for the entire group. I'm frequently given a $50-100 budget for anywhere between 6 and 30 individuals. What fun projects could be built on breadboards that are simple enough for a child to be able to understand? I've found that the best received projects are ones with a result that is the kids can see; a light turns on, a motor spins, etc.

One of the goals of these projects would be reusing the parts for other projects or with another group, so nothing with the project should be destructive.

What simple circuits helped you to learn electronics?

Crash Course Computer Science

beacon_dave — Sat, 20 May 2017 21:55:13 GMT

I've not seen it mentioned elsewhere yet, but Carrie Anne Philbin (Raspberry Pi Foundation) in collaboration with PBS Digital Studios, appears to have created a crash course in computer science on YouTube.

"Starting February 22nd, Carrie Anne Philbin will be hosting Crash Course Computer Science! In this series, we're going to trace the origins of our modern computers, take a closer look at the ideas that gave us our current hardware and software, discuss how and why our smart devices just keep getting smarter, and even look towards the future! Computers fill a crucial role in the function of our society, and it's our hope that over the course of this series you will gain a better understanding of how far computers have taken us and how far they may carry us into the future."

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtNlUrzyH5r6jN9ulIgZBpdo

May be of interest to those in the STEM community.

Raspberry Pi Launches STEM Magazine for Tech Educators, Hello World

spannerspencer — Thu, 26 Jan 2017 14:16:02 GMT

Our good buddies over at Raspberry Pi are big into STEM. That's pretty obvious, really, given their flagship product (the Raspberry Pi) is every bit as useful for kids, as it is adults and retro gamers. And you already know about The MagPi; the official magazine for the Foundation, in which element14 and its members are regularly featured.

But the team behind The MagPi has teamed up with Computing At School (CAS), and they've been labouring on a brand new love, called Hello World. This is a print and digital publication, just like its older brother, except that the dead tree version of Hello World is also free to UK-based educators. Nice!

Here's the shtick:

Hello World has been written for anybody who’s introducing young people to computing and digital making, including primary and secondary teachers, volunteers, and parents. The magazine will be free for all, forever online, and free in print for teachers and educators based in the UK. Visit helloworld.cc to learn more.

www.youtube.com/watch

It's aimed squarely at teachers, but includes anyone aiming to share their love of technology with the next generations (much as we've been doing actually, over at How Were You 'Bit by the Bug' of Engineering & Technology?). It's due to be published three times a year, and will cover subjects including physical computing, makers, educational methods, robotics in school, setting up maker spaces and Code Clubs and a whole lot, lot more.

Here's the official website, if you fancy checking out Hello World!

https://www.raspberrypi.org/helloworld

Have a read, and let us know your thoughts.

Sharing!

D_Hersey — Wed, 21 Sep 2016 18:51:07 GMT

Why scientists must share their research code : Nature News & Comment

Open Discussion | Engineers Weigh In on Continuing Education and Training

jlucas — Thu, 04 Aug 2016 15:09:28 GMT

A professional qualification in Engineering is consistently ranked as among the most challenging career paths to pursue. However, most engineers would agree that the learning process is far from over at the point of graduation. With the rapid advancement of modern technology, pursuing further educational opportunities can prove vital to engineers after they've entered the workforce.

With this in mind, what's your approach to staying up to date in your chosen field? Is there any substitute for formal training courses? If not, how do you navigate the cost - both financial and in terms of the time you need to dedicate to staying on top of it? Does your workplace have a healthy CET culture? What could be done to make further study more accessible and/or appealing to you and other professional engineers?

To get the conversation started, we asked seven STEM professionals to share their thoughts on the importance of CET.

Tony Glockler

Mechanical engineer and co-founder of SolidProfessor, an online learning resource for engineers and designers.

"Today, we have advanced tools and technology like CAD software and rapid prototyping that have accelerated how quickly engineers can bring their ideas to life. Because these technologies are evolving at a rapid pace, the days of ‘once and done’ training is no longer enough to maintain proficiency with the tools - much less stay competitive with increased rates of innovation in product design and development."

Carol Martsolf, PE, LEED, AP

Vice President and Director of Training at Urban Engineers at the Urban Training Institute

“Continuing education and training (CET) plays an important role in the development and maintenance of key skills and knowledge – which is very important for engineers! CET ensures that we keep pace with changing technology and advances in engineering so we don’t fall behind and become antiquated. With a profession like engineering that relies so heavily on intellectual collateral, it is important to keep investing in that “collateral” and keep abreast of new initiatives. There are only advantages to CET, and no clear disadvantage. Studies suggest that lack of time or funds [are] a driver for NOT participating in CET. But it is important to invest in ourselves and our future as a profession, and continuing education and training is that vehicle.”

David Brenner

Computer engineer and co-founder of Thimble, a subscription program providing monthly DIY electronic kits to engineers interested in coding, building and hacking.

“From experience, engineers are curious by nature. We want to take things apart, understand how they work, and some of us even enjoy rebuilding afterwards. This curiosity doesn't just turn off once you graduate and settle into a comfortable career path. Staying up to date with technology is a never-ending task for engineers. Much of my learning recently has come from observing and participating in the maker movement. Project-based learning is the type of "exercise left for the reader" that I actually enjoy doing. I think there is plenty that even well-established industry professionals can learn from the maker movement and its culture of inclusiveness, innovation and self-motivated learning.”

Jim Meyer, PE

Training and Development instructor and Standards Committee member at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

“As with most questions, the importance of continued education in engineering depends on your situation. If you have constant interaction with other engineers with different experiences [or] backgrounds, it might not be overly important. However if you have been trained by one mentor… and are now just repeating calculations or designs the same way you were taught when you started, continuing education is extremely important. …When an employer is evaluating experience they look at the diversity of the work. Sometimes they see many years of very different experiences, showing the individual is constantly learning new skills while on the job, other times they see one year of experience repeated for 20 or more years. Again, these are the individuals where continuing education is really important. A good example of this is most state licensing boards accept involvement in ASME Codes and Standards Development as meeting the requirements for continuing education.”

Varaz Shahmirian, PHD

Director, Engineering & Technology Department, UCLA Extension

“The field of engineering has been changing at a more rapid rate than ever before. Today, engineers find themselves facing technical problems that require more knowledge and innovative methods to solve topics they were not covered in college. To keep their skills current they should take advantage of numerous professional, continuing educational programs which offer practical, solutions-based knowledge and application. These programs are offered online, or in class. Professional certificates offer the best option in gaining knowledge in areas such as nanotechnology, composite materials, cybersecurity, data science as well as management skills such as project management and lean Six Sigma. These programs provide the knowledge with a shorter time commitment, at a fraction of the cost compared to advanced degrees.”

Diana J. Schwerha, PHD

Associate Professor, Industrial and Systems Engineering, Russ College of Engineering and Technology at Ohio University

“Engineers build things that were once considered to be impossible; they make scientific discoveries tangible, real and available….Engineers by definition are constantly pushing boundaries and manufacturing for the future. Education enables that. Some engineers pursue advanced degrees in engineering management so that they advance in their field, others pursue professional training at conferences and workshops, and still others may obtain certificates in certain sub-areas that will allow them to transition into a different discipline. Engineers continue to seek education because they are wired that way. For an engineer, it’s either get better or stay stagnant, and being an engineer by definition precludes the latter.”

Dr Erika Ebbel Angle

CEO and co-founder of Ixcela, a biotechnology start-up company, and founder of Science from Scientists (SfS), a US-based program that sends scientists into classrooms to help ensure the nation's youth is globally competitive in STEM fields.

"We live in a society today where facts are at our fingertips through ready access to the Internet and search engines. The ability to use these facts and even the ability to know what types of questions to ask to get the right facts are, however, in short supply. These so called “critical thinking” and “problem solving” skills are at the core of what an engineering education delivers. Whether or not you are designing an aircraft, performing surgery, investigating a crime scene, inventing next generation computers, or inserting a photo into an email; understanding how to gather the information required and how to apply that information are critical ingredients to career success. Virtually EVERY career today can benefit from these skills."

Code Club Senegal aims to empower women through coding

jlucas — Wed, 27 Jul 2016 12:07:43 GMT

This is a really nice story that I spotted on The Guardian. The Senegalese government is investing heavily in providing STEM learning opportunities for women, including coding clubs that are providing practical solutions to local problems. Applications include creating a digital database of land title deeds to protect local property rights, book exchange programs, health trackers and vaccine reminders.

Lots of really cool ideas featured in this piece, and it's great to see a government recognising that coding has the potential to be at the vanguard for social change. There's also an interesting angle on the conflict between engaging with first world tech structures and developing their own. Although Senegal is one of the most politically and economically stable of the African nations, they still lose a lot of young workers to the West where the perception is that the opportunities are greater.

"“Above all, I want to show children and young people that in order to succeed you don’t need to leave the country... You can stay here in Senegal and do well. This is a big issue for us – people leave to try to make it, but you can stay and be happy and successful. I don’t want to say that the next Mark Zuckerberg or head of Google will come from Senegal – rather, we can create our own tools that can be exported globally.”

What do you guys think? Have you seen any other good examples of STEM initiatives being utilised for social progress in this way? What other countries that don't necessarily have access to first world resources and infrastructures are doing really good things with STEM and coding initiatives?

Gotta Catch 'Em All: Pokemon Go and the Power of Stealth Benefits

jlucas — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 17:14:03 GMT

It may already be having a disastrous effect on office productivity, but I've been quite interested in the theory that the new Pokemon Go! app is a potential health and fitness revolution.

Put simply, by using GPS technology to generate different Pokemon in different areas of your local town or city, the game is encouraging users to get up and do some highly beneficial light exercise as they scour the streets for elusive catches.

Photo: Pokemon.com

Personally, I'm not quite convinced that it's the answer to the global obesity epidemic that some are claiming, but anything that encourages us to get out from behind our desks and move around a little more can only be a good thing.

With that in mind, I was wondering about other recent pop culture crazes that have harnessed technology to promote stealth benefits in health and education, and how this might continue to evolve in the future. Far from transforming us into the vegetative slobs depicted in films like WALL-E, maybe technology is on the verge of turning a corner into helping us all to become smarter, fitter and more active?

Or maybe it's all just an excuse for thirty-somethings who really should know better to get far too excited about capturing a Jigglypuff? What do you guys think?

STM32F4 Discovery and SSD2119 LCD driver with the LCD_35T example

Former Member — Fri, 10 Jun 2016 13:55:54 GMT

I'm trying to loading the LCD_35T example on an STM32F4 Discovery connected to a 320x240 TFT LCD with the SSD2119 driver (connected like in the expansion board).

What I get is that I'm not able to write on all the pixels of the display. I suppose it is a problem of register initialization:

  LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_SLEEP_MODE_1_REG, 0x0001);
  // Set initial power parameters.
  LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_PWR_CTRL_5_REG, 0x002B);
  LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_VCOM_OTP_1_REG, 0x0006);
  // Start the oscillator.
  LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_OSC_START_REG, 0x0001);
  // Set pixel format and basic display orientation (scanning direction).
  LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_OUTPUT_CTRL_REG, 0x72EF); //72-30EF
  LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_LCD_DRIVE_AC_CTRL_REG, 0x0600);
  // Exit sleep mode.
  LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_SLEEP_MODE_1_REG, 0x0000);
  _delay_(5);
  // Configure pixel color format and MCU interface parameters.
  LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_ENTRY_MODE_REG, ENTRY_MODE_DEFAULT);
  // Set analog parameters
  LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_SLEEP_MODE_2_REG, 0x0999);
  LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_ANALOG_SET_REG, 0x3800);
  // Enable the display
  LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_DISPLAY_CTRL_REG, 0x0033);
  // Set VCIX2 voltage to 6.1V.
  LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_PWR_CTRL_2_REG, 0x0005);
  // Configure gamma correction.
  LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_GAMMA_CTRL_1_REG, 0x0000);
  LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_GAMMA_CTRL_2_REG, 0x0303);
  LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_GAMMA_CTRL_3_REG, 0x0407);
  LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_GAMMA_CTRL_4_REG, 0x0301);
  LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_GAMMA_CTRL_5_REG, 0x0301);
  LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_GAMMA_CTRL_6_REG, 0x0403);
  LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_GAMMA_CTRL_7_REG, 0x0707);
  LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_GAMMA_CTRL_8_REG, 0x0400);
  LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_GAMMA_CTRL_9_REG, 0x0A00);
  LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_GAMMA_CTRL_10_REG, 0x1000);
  // Configure Vlcd63 and VCOMl
  LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_PWR_CTRL_3_REG, 0x000A);
  LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_PWR_CTRL_4_REG, 0x2E00);
  LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_GATE_SCAN_START_REG, 0x0001); // Vertical offset
  // Set the display size and ensure that the GRAM window is set to allow
  // access to the full display buffer.
  LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_V_RAM_POS_REG, (LCD_PIXEL_HEIGHT-1) << 8);
  LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_H_RAM_START_REG, 0x0000);
  LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_H_RAM_END_REG, LCD_PIXEL_WIDTH-1);
  //LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_H_PORCH, 0x001D);
  //LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_V_PORCH, 0x0003);
  //LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_FW_START, 0x0000);
  //LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_FW_END, 0x00EF);
  //LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_SW_START, 0x0000);
  //LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_SW_END, 0x00EF);
  LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_X_RAM_ADDR_REG, 0x00);
  LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_Y_RAM_ADDR_REG, 0x00);
  // clear the lcd
  LCD_WriteReg(SSD2119_RAM_DATA_REG, 0x0000);

The strange thing is that if I configure the SSD2119_H_RAM_END_REG [0x46] to be between 0 and 255 the display becomes wider but the last 65 pixels (320-255) are overwritten in the first pixels, like in the first two images. If I configure the same register to be greater than 255 (up to 320) the display shows just the last 65 pixels leaving undefined the rest of the display area.

Attachments:

Odd facts but true

clem57 — Tue, 17 May 2016 14:07:22 GMT

What is the only state highway that bans automobiles?
What country succeeded from Mexico before Texas?
What historical landmark is made of beer cans, abalone shells and concrete?
Has any land in the US been ceded to another country? Extra credit: Name the reason if so.
Where is the world's smallest skyscraper?
Is there any land not claimed by a country? If so where?

Answers later this week.

Clem

EE teaching tools

Former Member — Thu, 03 Mar 2016 15:15:23 GMT

Hello everyone,

I am professor at University of EE and I am teaching basics of electronics. I am looking around for a device that would enable me to introduce practical examples in my lessons.

I went across this products:

Digilent Analog Discovery 2

NI MyRIO

and Red Pitaya. This one seems to me especially attractive because it is very affordable, has all necessary T&M + SDR application and it seems to be open SW source. Can anyone share its experience on Red Pitaya and other products as well? Benefits/drawbacks?

Thank you in advance,

Marc

Advice welcome for secundary school science project (recycling/sense HAT)

Former Member — Sun, 29 Nov 2015 07:36:42 GMT

I am a Belgian language teacher (English as a second language) and I have a group of 25 science students under my wing, age 16-17. One teaching period per week, I challenge them with a 'scientific English' class. For next semester, I have a small budget and I have decided to set up a challenging project for them involving the Raspberry Pi 2. The goal is double: learning scientific and technical English in an implicit way and learning to work with the Pi. So now I have two teams of 4 students, as turned out, it's boys versus girls, who will be competing in this challenge. Both teams will have access to a Raspberry Pi2 + Sense HAT.

This is going to be the challenge: "Program and develop a working prototype of a recycling machine that can separate plastic water bottles from metal cans, using the Raspberry Pi 2 minicomputer and the Pi Sense HAT."

They (and I!) are completely new to Raspberry Pi, and the challenge is setting up the Pi 2, learning to use the Sense HAT, solving the recycling problem (how can the Sense HAT be used to recognize plastic bottles from metal cans), and then developing a working prototype of a machine that will separate one from the other. The 8 students will be asked to create an element 14 account and use the element 14 website as their main portal where they can look up information and ask for help.

Yep, I kind of dive into this blindly, so any advice is welcome!

Ivan Lietaert

Sint-Aloysiuscollege Menen, Belgium

What are you doing for the 'Hour of Code' this year?

nlarson — Mon, 16 Nov 2015 15:58:29 GMT

The global initiative "Hour of Code" organized by code.org to get students pumped up about computer science (read more here) will soon be here: December 7th - 13th. Are you/your students doing anything to participate this year? We would love to hear your plans to participate and stories about past experiences too. What could we as the element14 Community could do together for the Hour of Code this year?

Chime in on the conversation below!