What's the Toughest Branch in Electronics?

Also don't programmers have to know about field, physics, mechanics and the like when they write programs that map magnetic and electric fields for various configurations? Don't they need to know about gravity fields when they write programs for space craft navigation? Don't they need to know math to solve math problems? etc, etc, etc

Al

No, they download all that from Wikepedia. Real Engineers do hardware.

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Whining crybabies, RF, Audio and Crypto are easy. I'm a Research Associate at a large university, I supervise the equipment for three major labs, much of which is often adapted from existing technology , but a lot of it is one off custom stuff for absolutely bizzare measurments. Two days a week I'm working weak signals in high fields, the rest of the week is a laser spectroscopy lab.

You have not lived until , in one weeks time, you work on a laser stabilized to a few gigahertz for 72 hour periods, need to measure sub nanoampere currents in a 60 kv field, coax a foreign student through a local traffic court's procedures, give a touring Nobel prize winner a lesson in the physics of your apparatus and then go fix a 1970s tek scope without a manual, then go figgure out how to make a scanning tunneling microscope see the field from single atoms. Then go bias the ccd in a new camera. I'm on call for any question from any student in any of the engineering departments and answer to a PhD in polymers,a Phd in EE, and a Phd in computer science.

If I screw up, somebody's phd gets delayed,money is lost, and if I dont keep my eyes open, people get hurt from lab safety problems. RF isn't the most diffcult by a long shot, its physical optics and detectors. The students I work with (we are no longer allowed to say "My Students", that is now politically incorrect), are all chemies and mechies, most have never held a voltemeter till they meet me. Try explaining Nyquist and Shannon in one thousand words or or less to a person who's native language is not english and who's had no prior experience with test equipment, or even wiring a light bulb. Asian U's seem to only teach theory with no labs for undergraduates!

So please dont tell me mere techs only build stuff, we clean up the apparatus till it works to the designer's specs, and then teach the students to understand it well enough that they can run it stand alone. But being a lab support type across multiple labs from Dc to Terahertz, including high vacuum, physics,optics, chemistry and instruments, Now thats a challenge. I have to learn whatever the current project is just as well as the students do, and before they do. And the real fun part is making sure it can survive a user who will abuse it to no end.

There is a reason Winfield Hill can write the book.... and I am no Winfield Hill by a long shot, and at six years in the job,still have lots to learn. Every day is a new project, or recovering-modding a old one.

So in order,

small signal measurement in a large field environment optical detection in noise signal processing long term frequency stabilization anything higher then 35 ghz equipment for quant mechanics experiments chip design with less then 1 um features Emergency repairs with limited equipment.

I hate to rant, but lab support engineer requires you to jump from technology to technolgy and do it in short periods of time with no budget. And if you dont get it right, the experimenters are effectively blind.

It does make for a interesting, but stressful job.

Steve Roberts

Absolutely... OR be VERY good at taking LOTS of instruction, and use up lots of man hours in meetings! :-]

It would seem to require a bit more than basic knowledge of a given realm.

Welding robot programmers are welders, not programmers. A programmer wouldn't know if there was a gas problem or a feed rate problem with a weld. A welder would, and would know what part of the program needed changing to correct for the anomaly.

you quit too soon. I was just about impressed.

LOL

Al

At my old job, we had a couple dozen 8712 Narda meters. (Radiation Survey Instruments)

similar readings.

Measuring RF fields is one concern where you need to pay close and careful attention to the details - including operator measurement technique, and often spacial averaging to even get close.

Narda makes fine gear, but I fear a lot of folks use them improperly and get erronous results.

But of course, an 802.11 hotspot / direction finder is a whole different beast than measuring E & H Fields at a specific point. For one thing, the "antenna" is completely different.

-mpm

Our group is currently producing a calibrated antenna (+7dbi) attached to an rf amplifier and rms log amp. output as visual indication of field strength and also a voltage proportionate to the rf field strength,

so in the end you get a volts per meter to dc voltage ( can be pulsed) indication. Is this what yo are looking for?

Marc

I think he's just trying to draw a line between "hardware" and "software"; which doesn't preclude them from knowing about each other and interacting happily. :-)

Yes, "programming" isn't "electronics", but some electronics can benefit from having some programming installed into it. ;-)

And, for implementing examples of Boolean algebra, which is the most basic foundation of programming, electronics is so much easier and quicker than making mechanical flip-flops and gates and adders and stuff. ;-)

Then again.....

Cheers! Rich

i think electronics and telecommunication engg is the toughest branch in engineering because one has to learn circuit theory modern physics semiconductor theory in initial stage. so it is very difficult to make one to understand the theory of electron transpotation mechanism. this is my opinion

I'd say willow, poplar, or maybe eucalyptus during fire season.

That's just a guess, though. I never actually measured things like resistance or dielectric constant.

he he

i also would think it would be trying to convince some people that lightning actually isn't the "wrath of god" . that can be excrucuatingly "circutuous" so to speak....

Not quite A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

Martin

Kinda already doing that.. I'm trying to get bubbles in creamcheese for a cheesecake design. Kinda like the bubbles in Aero chocolate.

D from BC

For what purpose? You can add bubbles several ways, but I would probably either whip the cream before folding it into the cheese mixture, or whip the cream cheese before adding in the sugar and cream.

Actually, I did both for my Pumpkin Cheesecake Mousse recipe (low carb version...)

Charlie

LVMarc hath wroth:

Interesting antenna. I have no idea what you're doing, but I'm always interested (and suspicious of) claims of antennas that have more gain in a smaller package. Tiny unreadable images on the web pages and a general lack of standard test data (smith chart, vswr over bandwidth, gain over bandwidth, antenna gain plots, etc) are also rather suspicious. However, I realize that it's important to protect your invention or design. Good luck on whatever you're promoting.

As for building field strength meters, I use a wire approximation of an isotropic radiator:

It's unfortunately fairly narrow band (as limited by the phasing coax feed lines) and has a rather high VSWR, but is good enough for my purposes (but not for keeping the FCC happy). I forgot where I stole the design.

Ironwood.

Your story is full of holes.

My wife makes cheesecake for special occasions... like Saturday for a baby shower for a daughter-in-law.

It is so good as to die for ;-)

But it has NO bubbles... if it had bubbles my wife would be VERY upset.

...Jim Thompson