Electronics Magazines for Hobbyists

During the recent Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose, a few engineers were wondering how the next generation will ever learn engineering. Many of us took apart home appliances just to see what made them tick (sorry Mom!). A few complained about the complete dearth of project-based magazines targeting hobbyists and beginners, which surprised me.

There are actually quite a few excellent magazines and likely many more that I probably don't even know about.

Here are a few of my personal favorites. Know of others? Let me know.

• Circuit Cellar
• Nuts & Volts
• Elektor
• Everyday Practical Electronics (EPE Online)
• Servo (more for the robotics crowd)

Although not dedicated to electronics, MAKE Magazine also has a variety of do-it-yourself projects--many with electronics content.

Conan O'Brien Does the Science Fair

While judging at this year's Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), I apparently missed this weird, lanky, red-headed guy harrassing the kids. Security!

I think these short segments are funny, but then again, he's talking to my people! Take a look.

1. Point your browser at the Tonight Show web site
   http://www.tonightshowwithconanobrien.com/intel/?dfaid=1&crtvid=0
2. Sit through the short Intel advertisement.
3. Click on "Intel Science Fair, Pt. 1".
4. Click on "Intel Science Fair, Pt. 2".
5. ENJOY!

As an aside, here's a link to a serious Conan O'Brien interview with Intel chairman Craig Barret. Not so funny, but hey, it's Conan.

ISEF 2009: People of Great Talent Offer Hope for the Future (and for the Species)

I recently had the privilege to serve as a judge at the 2009 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF 2009) in Reno, Nevada, USA. Over 1,500 high-school students from 50 countries around the world converged to showcase their projects and show off their many talents. The judging was a highly rewarding (and exhausting!) experience and offered great hope, both for the future and for the species.

In particular, I judged a vast array of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering projects. At first, this seemed a somewhat strange combination of disciplines, but then again, many students demonstrated electromechanical projects. Some of these budding young scientists and engineers appear to be having far more fun than is legally allowed. There were ion propulsion engines, magnetic levitation devices, robots of every conceivable description, advanced traffic signals, radios for communicating through caves and mines, solar sails, ... well, you likely get the idea.

The projects employed a wide variety of commercial products including ...

• EAGLE for design printed circuit boards
  
• Various products from Parallax including various I/O and sensor modules, Propeller processors, BASIC Stamp modules, and robots
  
• PIC microcontrollers from Microchip
  
• Atmel AVR and ATmega microcontrollers
  
• Lego Mindstorm NXT bricks, which contain an ARM-based processor
  
• LabVIEW from National Instruments

Intel, as many know, is the primary sponsor for this prestigious event. Unfortunately, Intel received an ill-timed US$1,450,000,000 ($1.45 billion) kick in the teeth courtesy of the European courts. Seemingly, no good deed goes unpunished.

During a panel discussion with various Nobel laureates, the discussion turned to how we educate and inspire the next generation. Many wondered, myself included, we there doesn't seem to be a modern equivalent of the venerable Mr. Wizard.

The 2010 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair will be held in San Jose, California, USA from May 9th through May 15th. Interested in becoming a judge, a volunteer, or an interpreter?

Oldies but Moldies: Ongoing Updates to the Personal Portfolio

Due to the recent purchase of a Brother large-format multi-function scanner/printer and the optical character recognition (OCR) function in Adobe Acrobat, we've added some new "oldies but moldies" to the list of articles in Steve Knapp's portfolio page. These include various magazine articles and application notes dating back all the way to 1985 (back before PDF, when computerized dinosaurs roamed the Earth).

Check them out at http://www.prevailing-technology.com/knapp.html

FPGA Mezzanine Card (FMC / VITA 57)

There is a relatively new FPGA-related board connector specification called FPGA Mezzanine Card, or FMC for short.

The actual details are in a $75.00 Acrobat PDF specification called VITA 57 from the VITA web site.
https://www.vita.com/online-store.html

However, here are a variety of other links that describe the capabilities.

An Introduction to the FMC Standard (PDF of a VMETRO presentation)
http://www.critical-embedded-systems.com/mediafest2008/VMETRO.pdf

FMC Introductory Article
http://www.vmecritical.com/articles/id/?3163

Samtec Connector
http://www.samtec.com/search/vita57fmc.aspx

There appear to be FMC carrier boards and mezzanine boards available from the following vendors. There are likely more to follow (I know at least two vendors that are developing cards).

• VMETRO (www.vmetro.com)
  
• Bittware (www.bittware.com)
  
• Xilinx (www.xilinx.com)

FPGA Summit Coming to San Jose, December 2008

The FPGA Summit is coming to San Jose, California this December 2008. Prevailing Technology, Inc. will be presenting during multiple sessions.