pbo

5 ms·

1.
by pbo 11y ago
Do you have an estimate of the efficiency of the DC -> AC -> DC charging system?
2.
by pbo 11y ago
That is the principle of a ram air turbine. It's a small wind turbine which can operate as a power generator while the plane is flying.
3.
by pbo 11y ago
Redundancy is a well-accepted (at least in aeronautics) way of providing robustness. When designing onboard systems for aircraft, it is not unusual to have a function with a higher level of design assurance which is implemented by a set of
4.
by pbo 11y ago
There is a tremendous number of hardware products and industrial systems where the processing is performed on small and cheap components (microcontrollers, digital signal processors). Of course there exist very complex components in the cat
5.
by pbo 12y ago
If I recall correctly, Intel tried a few years ago to sell a system-on-chip combining an Atom CPU with a FPGA from Altera. I believe it didn't work very well, especially with regards to communication and synchronization between the two
6.
by pbo 13y ago
I second that. I write assembly for DSPs on a near-daily basis. Up until a few months ago there didn'nt even exist a C compiler for the target architecture. Even when you write C code for an embedded platform that does have a decent C
7.
by pbo 13y ago
Even though the work environment is peculiar, the technical contents itself is far from exceptionnal, really. If you'd like to read more about this kind of systems, this document could be a starting point: http://www.ti.com&
8.
by pbo 13y ago
Actually I distribute power from the battery to other subsystems, so it's rather far from the ECU.
9.
by pbo 13y ago
I wrote firmware (~20kLocs) for a power (electrical) supply that's part of one such power train. This kind of development is very demanding, because you can't afford to leave any bugs in your program but at the same time you'
10.
by pbo 13y ago
Exactly. Since the output is not continuous, the average power remains quite low. This is why you can still power it from regular domestic power :)
11.
by pbo 13y ago
It's useful when you have a circuit which needs a high-current burst which is powered from a low current (but high capacity) power source. One application for this is lasers. I'm part of a team that works on a converter that uses wall pow
12.
by pbo 13y ago
From here, for the past 3 years: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10822
13.
by pbo 13y ago
I was lead tech (and first hire) at a hardware startup which launched two unsuccessful products then ran out of money (despite some seed funding). After that I left. Revenue and margins yes, but far from break-even.
14.
by pbo 13y ago
This looks great. I want to write a DSL to generate low-level code, and it would have involved both C and Lua at some point, so I'll definitely give this a try.
15.
by pbo 13y ago
http://maps.stamen.com shows the same kind of map transformations and is also based on OpenStreetMap. The Watercolor style is especially gorgeous in my opinion.
16.
by pbo 13y ago
This also shows in how quick you can iterate. The "REPL time" in mechanical engineering has decreased a lot with CAD software but it's still insanely long compared to software development. I used to work in a lab with a researcher who desig
17.
by pbo 13y ago
Small environments also have an influence over the body size of animals. Surprisingly the change does not always occur in the same direction: see Insular Dwarfism and Insular Gigantism . [1] http://webecoist.momtastic.com/2010/08/09/ins
18.
by pbo 13y ago
I would love to have a higher-level-than-C language to work with on embedded systems, and Clojure seems good. However my applications run on systems with very limited resources (and a Harvard-ish architecture, e.g separate data/program memo
19.
by pbo 13y ago
This reminds of a fascinating book, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks. One of the most interesting stories is about a man who lost his ability to intuitively recognize things and needs to reason about their features t
20.
by pbo 13y ago
I work at a hardware company - high-current and high-voltage power electronics. Things occasionnaly blow-up, but there have never been any serious consequences, because eveyone has very safe working habits, even the individuals who act li
21.
by pbo 13y ago
Nobody mentioned the Shanzai. The term was explained to me by the founder of a hardware company in Shenzhen. They are small companies that specialize in infringing IP laws and copying consumer electronics products almost as fast as they a r
22.
by pbo 13y ago
I have used 3D printing in two different contexts: - At a research lab. They had a massive Stratasys which cost around $30,000. They used it all the time for experiment setups; they had a whole workshop with CNC mills, lathes, etc. and the