Some Knowledge

Before the transistor, there were vacuum tubes.  There are still vacuum tubes used in some applications, like good guitar amps.  Aside from that, the transistor rules electronics.

Vacuum tubes were big, made out of glass or metal, and sucked lots of power to heat the filament.  Tiny chips of germanium and later, silicon changed all this.  In a transistor, a small current is used to control a larger current.  Thus, the transistor is an amplifier.  Many useful circuits can be made from transistors.  Transistors are small and efficient.

In the late 1950s it was discovered how to build entire circuits on a chip.  The integrated circuit is made out of transistors, resistors, and capacitors, all built on the same material structure.  The integrated circuit can perform a complex circuit function with a minimum of interconnections.  The integrated circuit is for the most part made out of individual transistors.

None of our common modern electronic devices would be possible without the transistor.  Computers would fill whole buildings and would take a powerplant to do simple things like calculations.  The old tube circuits were notoriously unreliable and required high voltages and power to operate.  With transistors and integrated circuits, a radio transceiver  with the power of a computer can fit into a tiny pocket and serve as a cell phone.  Transistors are perhaps the most important invention man has ever devised.  Almost every electronic device contains thousands of individual transistors.  There are billions of transistors in the average computer.

What would our world be like without affordable computers, phones, entertainment devices and medical equipment?  It would indeed be a different place.  There would be no Internet without the simple transistor.  We would have no useful satellites.  People would not have the access to easy communication that they have today.  The transistor has changed the world, and offers more interesting possibilities for the future.

Triumph International Japan Ltd showed a camisole bra with a flexible solar panel on the belly portion of the undergarment.  The bra included a display panel and symmetrically arranged cup holders.  It was of course done up in green material.

I don’t think they thought out this idea very well, and the bra is not on the market.  Solar panels require direct sunlight and most people wear clothing over their underwear.  Perhaps if they made a solar panel on a shirt that could charge your Ipod it would be a little more practical.  As it is, this ridiculous piece of lingerie is not for sale and remains an item of curiosity.

I’m sure this is just a ploy to garner publicity for this company.  I’m not sure how they intend to make money if they design products they can not sell.  The world needs new sources of energy, but this?  A solar bra is nothing but a bad joke.  They ought to make wide-brimmed solar hats that are waterproof and charge your implantable mp3 players.  Perhaps this electric underwear can be used to make the idea of renewable energy more popular, but as far as practical use, it is pointless.

If you want to see how impractical this thing is, check out this link.

Analog Devices manufactures a wide array of analog and digital integrated circuits.  If you are designing a new gadget that needs a radiation-hardened fast A/D converter, this is the place to look.  Analog Devices produces many different kinds of amplifiers and signal processors.  If you are looking for what’s new in the field of integrated circuitry, check out this place.

I found this site while looking for analog computer tracking circuits for guided missiles.  Apparently, the military still uses analog computers in some of its applications.  Tracking circuits are a natural for analog computers, as the sensors tend to have an analog output, and the parallel and almost instantaneous response of a fast analog circuit can be quite handy when you need real time control signals for steering a missile.

I haven’t had much time yet to explore this chip supplier website, but it seems more interesting to me than the consumer product websites I looked at this morning.  It always amazes me how there can be so much high tech stuff in the world that never gets used in everyday life.  Then again, even a simple CD player has some pretty high tech stuff inside it.  I really must try to get back into the cutting edge of technology.

But, I don’t want any of them.  Technology must be failing.  I’m not too hard to get interested in something.  I just don’t want a new laptop, an electronic computer phone, a Han Solo ice cube maker, A printer shaped like a bucket, a solar powered LED light for a bottle of water, or anything else.  I looked at both the major gadget blogs and found nothing of interest.  Still, there was a lot of stuff.

I must not be trying hard enough to find interesting things.  Apparently, I live in a cave.  I have a lot of things I never use.  I have about three guitars I hardly ever play.  I have what I consider to be the ultimate gizmo ever invented, a synthesizer.  Still, it doesn’t get me interested.

Perhaps I am not focussed enough on things.  Maybe I need to be re-educated in a consumerism indoctrination center.  Perhaps I do not watch enough commercials on TV.  Maybe I just don’t see any use for things like picture frames that show hundreds of pictures.  If I want to look at pictures I can show them on my computer.  That’s the point of having a general purpose analytical engine.

I wonder when they will start manufacturing steam punk gadgets.  Certainly there would be a market for a steam driven computer.  Just fill the firebox with coal and get it cooking, and all your music files will play so pretty.  Perhaps when the energy shortage comes, there will be a reason.  Perhaps they have these things in an alternative dimension where they took Charles Babbage seriously.

I think the next wave of the future will be in analog computers.  What do people need accurate digital computers for anyway?  Hooking up to your friends half way around the world should not be a complicated task.  A series of analog waves could be used to signify a port address on the analog net.  Of course, there would be problems implementing this.  Perhaps the analog circuitry could be better utilized in something like an engine control circuit for a car.  For years the military used analog computers in radar and guided missiles.  Of course, that was before accurate digital circuitry was available.  There’s only so much you can do with a ball and cone integrator.

I actually have one of these old mechanical gizmos.  I have an aerial sextant that was used in bombers for navigation.  It has a mechanical, spring wound integrator to average out the readings on the sun’s position in a moving plane.  It might even still work.  GPS makes something like this superfluous. Still, it is a big old ticking gizmo that somebody went to a lot of trouble to design and build.  It probably cost thousands in its day.  Now, it’s just a piece of junk sitting in a plastic box in a closet somewhere.  Yet another example of something that was once cutting edge and is now useless.  Maybe I should sell it on ebay.

I really must say, that I don’t know what’s the latest buzz in technology.  Maybe somebody should invent a personal data assistant that fills in its own information.  Who wouldn’t want a personal assistant that tells them what to do?  I don’t know.  Maybe somebody has invented something that translates brainwaves directly into text so you can message on your cell phone by just thinking about something.  Seems pretty far fetched.  Maybe they are working on a coffee maker that is plumbed into the household plumbing and that makes coffee continuously from a pipeline of coffee grounds that runs directly from the mercantile exchange.  I really doubt it though.

There is always some kind of new gadget coming out on the market.  There are several blogs that do nothing but write about new gadgets.  This is the power of marketing.  When something new is developed, it has to be sold.  When you have a new product, you issue press releases and film to TV and people try to buy your product.  I watched the cycle spin itself out yesterday with the new Blackberry Bold.  It was on the news at least three times yesterday morning.  It was the top search on Google Trends all day.  They must have pre-sold more of those things yesterday than they will make in a month.

The bottom line is that there are a lot of places where you can find the latest gadget.  Mostly these days, when you hear the word gadget, you think of electronics.  I remember when I first became an electronic geek.  I was 12 years old.  My parents bought me some electronic kits for my birthday.  I learned how to solder putting together those kits.  I made an audio amplifier that never worked as promised.  It fed back a lot and ended up on a shelf.  Still, it was interesting.  I bought some books on electronics and got some parts at Radio Shack.  I became a hobbyist.  All through high school I worked on radio circuits.  It was self-education at its best.  Hands on experience in a hobby that provided not only fun, but the training for every decent job I’ve ever had.  Nevermind I went through college and got a degree in physics.  What paid off for me was electronics.

So, where did I lose track of what’s happening on the cutting edge in electronics?  I used to read journals about audio and video and radio.  I used to keep up with the latest in integrated circuits.  I had a Vic 20 computer that I wrote programs in BASIC for when I was in high school.  I took a couple classes in microprocessors and electronics design.  But it never went anywhere.  I stayed on the lowest strata of tech, the lowly repairman.  The guy who gets all the problems and all the complaints.  I probably should have gone into engineering.

None of this speaks to the question at hand.  What is the latest gadget?  It’s probably some electronic device that makes it easier to do business.  It’s probably some kind of telephone.  People all like to talk on the phone.  There is a big market for phones.  I don’t use the phone a lot.  Sometimes a friend will call.  I talk to family.  I do most of my communicating on the computer.  I think the Internet is the greatest invention of all time.  I have a huge book all about network architecture and equipment.  I could spend a week doing nothing but reading that book.  It’s interesting stuff.  I have a computer that lets me type up entries for my blog and play games.  I don’t really need a magical phone.  I don’t need a radio to communicate.  My computer hooks up over a radio link.  It’s all very complicated and interesting.

I just don’t keep on top of the latest gadgets.  I should look into what kind of electronics components are available in the new market.  For years, the only components I purchased or looked up were replacements.  I was stuck in the junk industry.  The bottom is falling out of the junk industry.  We live in a throw away culture where things are replaced and not repaired.  There is still some stuff that can be fixed, but it’s not really common.  I suppose there could be a market for refurbished electronics goods.  There is going to be a lot of junk going to the landfill and recyclers next year when analog TV phases out in broadcast band.  A whole era of technology made obsolete by legislation and improvements in technology.

Maybe I should turn this blog into yet another new gadget advertisement forum.  I could solicit press releases from manufacturers and just republish the information they give me as advertising for new stuff.  I would even sell advertisement to make money when millions of people start reading this blog.  For now, I don’t know what’s the latest stuff in technology.  It’s certain there is a market for stuff though, because companies make millions selling stuff.  Just think of all the profits lost by the CD manufacturers when the mp3 player went into mass production.  New stuff is always just around the corner.  Finding out about new stuff is as simple as having a venue where people visit.  Now, if I can just get a billion readers, my project in communications will pay off.

I’ve just seem more nonsense for supposedly increasing fuel economy in vehicles.  Various companies are selling products that are supposed to increase fuel economy or convert your car into running on water.  These things all work the same way.  They take water, pass electricity through it from the car’s electrical system, break the water down into hydrogen and oxygen, and burn the resulting gasses in the cylinders of the car.

These systems sell for from hundreds to thousands of dollars.  Some even claim they will run your car on nothing but water.  This is all a load of nonsense.  It takes energy to break water down into hydrogen and oxygen.  It takes more energy than you get from burning the resulting hydrogen and oxygen.  Water is not a source of chemical energy.  Water is a product of combustion.  You can not run your car on water as an energy source.

There is a lot of talk these days about a hydrogen economy and use of hydrogen as a fuel source.  Hydrogen is not available in its elemental state on earth.  It is bound with oxygen in water, or bound to carbon in methane and petroleum.  Hydrogen in fossil fuels combines with oxygen in the atmosphere to release chemical energy and combine into water.  If you want to use hydrogen as a fuel, you will have to supply energy to generate the free hydrogen in the first place.  In a car engine system, using electrical energy from the alternator to generate hydrogen from water will not supply net energy to your engine.  You will lose more energy to heat and inefficiencies of electrolysis than you will gain from burning the resulting hydrogen in an inefficient engine.

Do not waste your time or money trying to get something for nothing.  You will only lose whatever money you spend on this system.  You can not improve your gas mileage by recycling mechanical energy from the engine to generate fuel gasses.  I can’t believe people get away with selling such ridiculous systems.  This is a ripoff.  Your car can not run on water as fuel.  You will only decrease your mileage and compromise your engine by installing any such hydrogen generator in your car.

Electronic gear all works on the same basic principles.  There will be a power supply to supply electrical energy to the device.  In most electronic gear, the power supply will take AC from a wall outlet, transform it to a lower voltage, then rectify and regulate it at some DC voltage.  When looking for problems with an electronic device, it is best to start with the power supply.

You will need a volt-ohm meter.  Check the fuse for continuity.  If the fuse is blown, check the transformer for a short circuit.  If the transformer checks out good, try replacing the fuse.  If it blows immediately there is some problem with too much current flowing somewhere in the circuit.

Identify the main power-using components.  This may be an output amplifier.  If it looks burned, it is probably fried.  If there is a crater in the package, the unit has failed explosively.  Your sense of smell can come in handy for finding things like burned resistors or popped capacitors.  Often, there will be a burned trace on the circuit board where too much current has melted the copper.

After looking around for obvious problems, it is time to check the power supply line for short circuits.  If an obvious short exists, you will have to do some work on the board.  This involves removing components with a soldering iron, de-soldering wick, or a de-soldering tool commonly called a solder-sucker.  Remove one device at a time, starting with the most power-hungry devices, because these will be the most likely to blow due to excess power consumption.  Check the circuit for shorts again after removing each device.

If you start with the output circuits and remove the devices in sequence, you will most likely find the bad circuit quickly.  Once you find the bad device, get a replacement and solder it in place.  Replace all the devices you removed and check the circuit again for shorts.  If it checks out good, replace the fuse and fire up the device.  Check that the voltage on the power rail is correct.  Check the device for proper operation.  Then, put the equipment back together.  The time you spend removing circuit boards and putting them back in the equipment will account for most of the time you spend troubleshooting and repairing electronics.

It only takes one shorted transistor or IC to break an electronic device.  If you are not lucky enough to be working on something that has had a catastrophic failure, you will need more sophisticated equipment to discover the problems.  I am talking about an oscilloscope here.  You will also need a circuit diagram if the device is not simplistic and laid out well.  You will need to trace the signal through the device with the scope and find out which circuit is causing distortion or signal loss.  This takes time.  You will eventually identify a bad device which can be replaced with the proper replacement.   You have to know what you are doing.

Electronic equipment all operates pretty much the same, in principle.  Once you know how a circuit is supposed to work, you can trace it for flaws and repair it.  It takes some basic test equipment and some knowledge of the device you are working on.  Information on how semiconductor devices operate is important to have.  Often, the problem will be nothing more complicated than a blown voltage regulator in the power supply.  Such faults are easy to identify by tracing the circuit with a volt meter.  If you want to learn electronic repair, get some old equipment, take it apart, and use a volt meter and oscilloscope to look at the circuitry.  Get some practice on tracing circuitry that works, and when you have something that’s broken, you will be able to figure out where it has failed.

As in any circumstance, exercise extreme caution in working on electrical devices.  Televisions contain possible lethal voltages.  Old tube-type circuits all have a high voltage plate supply that can kill.  Use insulated tools and do not put your fingers on any part of the metal circuitry.  Sometimes a malfunctioning device will heat up and can cause burns if touched.  Be careful that you do not come into contact with the mains of the power supply.  Safety is important.

Ultra HD is Ultra High Definition television.  Common HDTV uses 1920 x 1080 pixels.  Ultra, developed by NHK of Japan, has 16 times as many pixels.  It is broadcast in 7680 x 4320 pixels.  The bandwidth consumed by an Ultra HD signal requires fiber optic cabling.  It is proposed to come to market in 2025.

Ultra HD is broadcast with 24 channels of sound.  It uses MPEG-4 compression on each of the 16 HD segments that make up the image to reduce bandwidth requirements.  First demonstrated in 2003, Ultra HD has been exhibited at various expos and conferences around the world.  The experience is said to be much like viewing a scene in person, with some people aquiring vertigo from viewing this broadcast.

It is proposed that Ultra HD will eventually replace the HDTV that is becoming standard today.  The proposed high bandwidth of the signal will require dedicated gigabit fiber optic connections to any house served by this technology.  For the present, Ultra HD is much like IMAX movies, in that it is only available at specific demonstrations meant to showcase new technology.

There seems to be a new kind of umbrella on the market.  What I could find out about it from the Italian video I watched is that it opens up kind of like the top on a convertible car.  The Newbrella is a semicircular clear plastic dome you wear over your head to keep the rain off.

The English language videos all seemed to be busy today.  Here’s a link to the one I watched.   You can pretty much see all the features of this new device.  What I couldn’t make out was any price information.

I can see where you might get better protection from the rain with this device, but aside from that I don’t see too many real advantages to this new design.  It seems to be a hands-free sort of thing, but what exactly are you using your hands for while you’re walking in the rain?  Carrying more purchases?  I can see where if there is a lot of rain falling this may obstruct your vision.  The Newbrella does not seem to come equipped with a windshield wiper mechanism.

Aside from the fact that this thing just looks silly, it might also be expensive.  I think I will stick with the free umbrella I got with a subscription to Golf magazine.  I think I’d almost rather get wet in the rain than to walk around with what looks like a huge clear beetle perched on my skull.  Still, if you like the looks of this thing and think it will be an improvement over your present rain gear, go for it.  I have no idea where to buy this thing.  There does not seem to be a Newbrella.com retail site.  Newbrella.com is a parked site, and a retailer search turned up no results.

Here’s a very interesting open letter written by Kurt Denke to the Monster cable company about Monster’s claim that a Tartan Cable RCA connector infringes on their patents.  The writing is all very proper and legalistic, but there is a tone of indignation that makes this a possibly funny read.

The story is that Monster Cable sent some papers to Tartan Cable, which is owned by Blue Jeans Cable telling them that their RCA connector is infringing on their design patents.  Big company, bored lawyers attacks small company over plain vanilla product.  Well, the little company is run by a former federal litigator, and he responded by asking for all kinds of evidence and paperwork to back up any claims Monster makes.

I think it’s a bit hilarious that two companies are arguing about a product that neither of them designed in the first place.  RCA connectors have been around for ages and are named for the Radio Corporation of America, RCA, who invented the things in the early 20th century.  But the connectors look kind of the same, so people have to fight in court.  It makes entertaining reading, if you speak lawyer.