I am trying to get a feel for some aspects of the new platform by writing this blog. It probably won't see any views by members since it looks like personal blogs are squirreled away and probably not in the main forum stream. This is partly a tes...

This is just an off the wall way to say thank you to element14 and Xilinx. They had a little give-away draw to win a Zynq book and they ended up sending me a huge book called Exploring Zynq MPSoC and a screw driver set. I also recently completed a Pr...

I made an unexpected discovery the other day while purging some old dead storage. I came across a slide rule and a super 8 movie camera. At this point, these items are mostly just curiosities, but I thought I would see if I could remember how to use ...

VeroboardSpoiler alert - for me strip board is generally the best proto-board. But why?Well, when it comes to circuit cards, I have a compulsion to make them clean, neat and orderly (PCB-OCD).I have all these rules and objectives that I use when layi...

I just received a box of loot from element14, including an Arduino Nano Every and an Arduino Micro - thanks tariq.ahmadI'm not quite clear what the occasion is, but this stuff is useful - the cat thinks so.... Look for these to appear in a project at...

I like to make a list of my main activities of the previous year and put them in a summary blog, so I can easily find them.2020 was a strange year as I'm sure everyone can attest to.element14 was a bright spot throughout the year that helped take my ...

My first digital multimeter was a Micronta....here it is, fresh from my museum archives:I remember being very impressed with its long battery life when I was using it decades ago, probably because it didn't use LEDs. But now I just turned it on and i...

Two element14 T-shirts in two days - Wow.This one came with a very useful breadboard.... But not the cat - he just wanted to try it on.Hey - when are you going to learn to get the size right? Thanks element14

The T-shirt is great - the cat has spoken...Note the nice element14 Presents battery it came with.What do you mean photobomb? .... this is my half of the shirt..... I was here first.Okay, lets see how to turn this into a game.... Thanks element1...

Somewhere in the last 2 years I lost the plot. I thought I would share my experience in case it benefits other members. One of my goals in the past 2 years has been to get nominated for member of the year, but I have not been able to figure out what ...

Every year I review my projects for the last year, but when I look at the oddball list of projects I did last year, it really begs questions like "What was he thinking?" or "What was he into?" or "What was he up to?"It started with a magnetic levitat...

In the past year or so I set out to explore what we members could do to improve interest and participation in the forum. This blog is a discussion of some of those initiatives. In total these activities took quite a bit of thought and effort so I wan...

It came up recently that it is possible to collect a whole week of T-shirts from element14.Here is the proof: This collection is actually missing at least five T-shirts I have squirreled away somewhere, but it does show it is possible to have a ...

This is what I won for participating in the Project14 Test Instrumentation contest:Some of it was chosen by element14 (tool kit, PocketBeagle and swag)I chose the Pi 3A+, displays, proto stripboards, & transistors. Thank you element14 - this...

This is the latest blog in my annual summary series. This year I will try to include a few more statistics for those that are interested in that sort of thing. Those that follow the forum will know from my comments that I greatly enjoy reading and le...

A few months ago I purchased a 2.5" 2 TB USB hard disk drive mostly for backup, but I started using it for project work that had lots of video in it. A few days ago it wouldn't power up with my computer - it just made an intermittent beeping...

Every year about this time I do a review of my forum activity over the past year. This summary provides some insight into the amount of time I expend on element14 activities and it also provides insight into how well the forum motivates me to partici...

This blog is to add to theheckwithkaren blog about using Dollar Store parts in projects.I scour the Dollar Store for parts on many projects and I have use parts from the Dollar Store countless times.Here are a few examples:The Acrylic dome on my Konk...

This blog will cover my experience with the DJI Phantom 4 which was a prize for my entry in the Safe and Sound Design Challenge.The objective is to provide those who were curious about the great prize in this challenge with information about what it ...

It is clear from the response to the "bit by the bug" blog that there are a lot of inspiring stories about how people became interested in technology.Active members of the forum can all relate to many of the sentiments and motives expressed...

I finally made it to CES for the first time, which explains why I have not been active on this forum for a week. This is a beast of a trade show.CES showcases about 3,600 exhibitors in about 2.5 million square feet for over 170,000 attendees. Exhibit...

For me accumulating a complete set of tools, software, instrumentation and stock to permit building electronics projects has been a long slow process (decades) and it is still going on. This list is my idea of the most effective order in which to acq...

Every December I try to summarize my participation on element14 over the year. This year I will keep it short and just link a few highlights.I was fortunate to be successful on 4 road test proposals and participate in 2 design challenges. I also ente...

This blog investigates how the BBC micro:bit power supply circuitry works.I have been trying to interface the micro:bit with different peripherals and planned to run it off a 4.2 volt lithium-polymer battery, however it was not clear if it is safe to...

 #ShareTheScare this HalloweenVisit our Halloween space and find out how to win one of two Cel Robox 3D Printers. There are two ways to win:Build and document your past or present Halloween projects.Tweet your best engineering spook with #ShareT...