Don Bertke's Blog

  • Holiday tidings

    DAB
    I hope that all of you are safe and enjoying the Holiday Season with friends and family. After another trying year we need to remember that things could always be worse, but we can all help make things better with tolerance and a good attitude. So be...

  • A perspective of STEM and Art.

    DAB
    The promotion of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is critical for our future. Science is the study of how things work.  Physics involves the physical universe, chemistry involves the interaction of atomic elements to ...

  • Second Annual Dayton Mini-Maker Faire

    DAB
    Hi all, I was able to attend the second faire held over 5/6 August and had a great time. As it is new, the Faire is still trying to find a mix of demonstrations, booths and information. There was definitely more food vendors this year,...

  • Keynote Speech Update.

    DAB
    Hi all, Last night I presented a Keynote speech on my "The Only Needed (TON) Particle Theory" to the local IEEE Computer Society Awards Banquet. The speech went well, I received a number of great questions and everyone appeared to...

  • The First Dayton, Ohio Maker Fair

    DAB
    Hi all, I managed to attend the first, hopefully annual, Maker Fair. Both my wife and I had a great time and from my observation, so did everyone else.  Nice turnout. So without further ado, the pictures.Carollon Park is a great v...

  • Review of "Exploring Beaglebone" book.

    DAB
    Hi All, I was at the library yesterday and picked up a copy of  "Exploring Beaglebone" by Derek Malloy ISBN 978-1-118-93512-5, from Wiley Press.  Now I do not have a BB, but was interested in its capability.  The book is very well...

  • Latest Book Release: World War II Sea War, Volume 8, Guadalcanal Secured.

    DAB
    Hi all, As some of you know, I am writing several books and I have just release my latest Volume for my Sea War series. So if you have an interest in history or know someone who does, all of my books are available at Lulu.com and will be on...

  • Spectral Microscope Blog 2.

    DAB
    Hi all, I did warn you this would be a slowly evolving project. After seeing the comments from @Douglas Wong  I did some research and  web searches for a more spectrally pure source. While I appreciate the need for such a sou...

  • Spectral Microscope Illminator Blog 1.

    DAB
    Hi All, When I saw the road test for the new Cypress Semiconductor PSOC 4 board, I was inspired to build a Spectral Illuminator for microscopes. To answer the first question, why the PSOC 4 board.Well, when I first saw the Programmable Syst...

  • RPi v2.0 Update.

    DAB
    Hi all, I got adventurous over the weekend and hooked my RPi v2.0 up to my local wifi network. I was impressed with how simple the process was.The search quickly found my home net and the data entry was straight forward. Soon after hit...

  • Solar PI day.

    DAB
    Hi all, I saw this awesome photo on the NASA weather site and thought I would share it with you. Enjoy,DAB

  • New book release!

    DAB
    Hi all, We just approved the next volume of our World War II Sea War series with Volume 7, The Allies Strike Back is now available at Lulu.com. So if you like Military History and Naval warfare, you will not find a more detailed collection ...

  • DAB 2014 in Review

    DAB
    Without a doubt 2014 has been one of the best years at Element 14 since I joined several years ago. The current membership is much more open about discussing technical issues and working with others to encourage success and understanding of the ...

  • My new toy, the LYTRO camera.

    DAB
    Hi all, I saw this LYTRO camera on TV the other night and ordered one right away.What makes the camera different is that it captures the optical flow of the image. That means that once you import the file, you can change your viewing locati...

  • New Book Announcement.

    DAB
    Hi all, For those of you with an interest in military history, we just published: World War II Sea War Volume 6, "The Allies Halt the Axis Advance!" Now available at Lulu.com.  It will be on Amazon in six to eight weeks. Than...

  • My New Book "I Killed Schrodinger's Cat!" is now for sale.

    DAB
    Hi all. As some of you have heard, I have been writing a book on a simple solution to Einstein's Unified Field Theory. The book is now for sale at LULU.COM. The book is written for the non-scientist, but includes mathematic proofs ...

  • Why I want to speed up Global Warming!

    DAB
    As some of you have seen in past posts, I completely reject the current effort to concern the public about global warming. Mostly I object to the blatant scare tactics and lack of any scientific information that supports their position that we s...

  • Holiday Wishes

    DAB
    Hi All, At the end of the year it is always a good time to look back at what you accomplished and set new goals for the coming year.I have seen a lot of amazing posts by a lot of dedicated and talented people.We have all seen the new updated Ele...

  • Initial impression of the TI LDC1000EVM

    DAB
    Early last week I told you all about the Texas Instruments Inductance to Digital converter. I recieved it yesturday and did some quick tests. The EVM kit comes with a single board, about 4 inches long and about 1/2 inch wide that plugs into...

  • New TI Inductive Sensor

    DAB
    Hi All, I just recieved an email that TI just released a very interesting Inductive Sensor board with a MSP430.The video on the TI site showed sensitivity down to about 2 microns. The evaluation board is available for 29 USD, so I immediate...

  • Book Release Annouoncment.

    DAB
    For those of you who have an interest in history, specifically naval history during the Second World War, we have just released  World War II Sea War, Volume 5, Air Raid Pearl Harbor.  This is not a Drill. by Bertke, Kindell and Smith.&nbsp...

  • Cypress Semiconductor PSOC 4, The Engineers Magic Wand!

    DAB
     Cypress Semiconductor PSOC 4, The Engineers Magic Wand!    Yes I am analyzing architectures again.When I first saw the 100 projects in 100 days for the PSOC 4 Pioneer Development Kit, I did not have a lot of enthusiasm, mostly becaus...

  • Do you see the lights?

    DAB
    Hi all, I made a discovery a few weeks ago and I wanted to see if anyone else has seen the phenomena. Background:Have you ever closed your eyelids and seen the lights in your eyes after the lids are closed?From my initial polling, only a fe...

  • Confession of a Garage Sale Junkie.

    DAB
    Hi all, I am sitting in my living room after another Garage Sale day.  I found a really good bargain today.  I bought three old 35-mm cameras for a buck apiece.Why buy an old film camera, you might ask, well, these were the last of the...

  • LED light ring for Macro Photography

    DAB
    Hi all, I am starting to build a light ring for Macro Photography and plan to share the details and progress as I go.  Feel free to send comments at any time. I plan to build four light stacks, each with three LEDs.  The LEDs in e...