We're back!

Sorry all, we've been on Holidays and now we're back.

I have a couple of projects going on but one is "secret" and the other is... trash... I'm trying to make art out of trash (or making less valuable trash out of more valuable trash).
The secret is something for my loved one (that's why it is secret), the trash one is a mini-wind generator, another of the projects involves LEDs, batteries, Solar cells and a jam jar and some other bits and pieces... Something like this.



I've noticed that postings are running low, at one per month.. I'll try to increase that this month to two... as any statistician would tell you, "it's a 100% increase"!! (and this one doesn't count, I promise!)

Some other projects in my head are around analog electronics, I've studying a lot of transistor circuits (band-gaps, differential pairs, current sources) and special op-amp circuits (integrators, analog computers). I'll try to post something on the matter later.

I've been unable to stick with the "cult of done" motto, 15 days is almost nothing in my development cycles. I have a lot of "diaper change" in between and it's hard to get some spare time during the week.

Meanwhile I also lost my beloved Rotring Quattro... two months after the blog post! Now I can't get used to the new one... it was my precious... I got a "cheap" (read not cheap) Parker Multi-pen Executive for replacement... The Lamy 4pen only comes with a 0.7mm pencil and I can't write with those, they're just too thick, kind of grocer's pencil...

Well back to work and I'll write soon..

The Calculator is dead, long live the Calculator...

My eyesight problem triggered a new blog motto... I must stay away from the computer when I'm "dedicated" to my home projects (or at least reduce the time to a minimum).
Here it comes "Never again use a Spreadsheet for designing power electronics"! I must admit that for work it is the best thing available,test scenarios, test components, circuit configurations everything numerical at a touch of a "button". But I don't need that, this is supposed to be for fun. I don't need speed of calculus, I want to keep learning the "Art". From now on calculations will be displayed scanned from the squared paper (I still have to find a scanner though)... And these two will have a bit more work...

Thinking back, how many times did I use a graphics calculator for a graphics problem? I don't remember, but not many...
I did love my HP48 in the last two years of university (before that I had a TI 57 II), I had to work for a while to pay for it and my father helped out with 50%.
Once at an exam, the teacher that saw my Texas classified it as "a Grocer's calculator", that was really embarrassing and this was in 1997!(most of my colleagues had either an 48S, the 48SX or the Casio Computer 850??)...
The HP32S was bought recently in Epay, to get something a bit more "portable" and keep "playing" outside...