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Senior Technical Editor Martin Rowe covers topics relating to general-purpose instrumentation, compliance, communications test, and anything else that comes along.


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Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Need AVI to DVD converter

Sep 15 2009 2:04PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

The original video of The Measurement Blues in Austin is in AVI format and I'd like to convert it to DVD. A search turned up several free and paid software packages, but I'd like to get a recommendation. If you've used any AVI-to-DVD software for Windows, please e-mail me at m.rowe@tmworld.com.

Monday, September 14, 2009

MSC paper deadline extended

Sep 14 2009 7:26AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

The submission deadline for the 2010 Measurement Science Conference has been extended to September 31. Here are the instructions for submitting a paper.

===========================

MSC is using a web-based system for abstract and paper submittals. Please follow the instruction below.
1. Visit www.edas.info .
If you already have an EDAS user's account, please log onto EDAS and skip to step 4 below. If you do not already have an account, click the "New User" button.
2. Create a profile. Only the five fields with the red asterisk are required. These fields are first & last name, affiliation (company or organization), country, e-mail address, and status. When the fields are filled in, check the "Privacy Policies" box and click the "Add Person" butto...Read More

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

The engineering knowledge gap

Aug 25 2009 9:12AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (1) |

Many companies are faced with a knowledge gap between experienced engineers (roughly above age 45) and recent graduates (roughly under age 30). Experienced engineers have the practical knowledge to bring recent graduates up to speed, but may lack the time to do so. Once one engineer mentored one new graduate, but now experienced engineers are asked to mentor several younger engineers while having more engineering responsibilities themselves. Thus, engineers are finding it more difficult to pass on knowledge, even when they want to and are expected to.

Have you found a similar knowledge gap at your job? Why does the problem exist and what needs to be done to fix it.

Please reply here and send me an e-mail (m.rowe@tmworld.com) because I’d like to speak with you personally.


Related entries in: Electronics Careers & Training | Electronics Engineering Education | Test & Measurement | 

Monday, August 24, 2009

What's obsolete in test, and what's not?

Aug 24 2009 12:05PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

PC World recently published a piece called "Obsolete Technology: 40 Big Losers" citing things such as VHS tape, phone booths, dial-in bulletin boards, holding up a lighter at a concert, and getting an AOL disk in the mail. Well, VHS is alive and well in my home, but holding up a light is certainly out, at least at the Bruce Springsteen concert I recently attended.

In the test business, technology takes a long time to become obsolete. Here's a list of things that I would call "obsolete" that are likely still in use somewhere.

* Parallel-port instruments
* Test equipment with red LED displays
* Resistance boxes with mechanical dials
* Digital oscilloscopes with CRT displays (new analog scopes still have them)

T...Read More


Related entries in: Data Acquisition | Instruments | Meters | Oscilloscopes | Test & Measurement | 

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

EMC Symposium: MIL-STD-461F demos

Aug 19 2009 4:55PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

Today at the EMC Symposium, Steve Ferguson of Washington Labs gave a demonstration on test setups for MIL-STD-461F Method CS116 for conducted susceptibility on cables and power leads. It uses damped sinusoidal transients at frequencies from 10 kHz to 100 MHz. He discussed the test setup and its calibration where he used an HV Technologies pulse generator to inject current into cables.

“There’s no such thing as a shielded power cable,” he noted, “because when you get to the AC mains, there’s no shielding.” In the demo, he injected a damped 100-kHz sine wave with a peak voltage of 260 mV into 50 Ω, which is too much voltage to comply with the test.

Ferguson used an oscilloscope to show the audience the ...Read More


Related entries in: EMC Test | Interference | Technical Standards | 

EMC Symposium: An on-site EMI tester

Aug 19 2009 4:00PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

On August 18 at the EMC Symposium, Thursten Schrader of Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), the national standards lab of Germany, presented “On Site EMC Testing and Interference Prevention.” Schrader discussed a weighing system for large trucks, which has electronics. Operators noticed unusual results when suing a cell phone. “EMC test is only performed on the components, but not on the installation.”

Engineers made measurements testing the response of a weigh-bridge around transmitters of 4.5 MHz at 0.5 W. The check indicators as the moved a transmitter closer to the display. With no radio, they measured 0.1 V/m. With the transmitter at 4-m distance, they measured a 20 kg change and a change of up to 60 kg at 1 meter.

Engineers designed an on-site EMC test system. Transmitters in the area ranged from 27 MHz (Citizens Band...Read More


Related entries in: EMC Test | Interference | 

EMC Symposium: A wrap-around probe

Aug 19 2009 3:52PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

On Tuesday, August 18, I attended a presentation at the EMC Symposium “A Flexible EMI Measurement Sheet to Measure Electric and Magnetic Fields Separately with Distributed Antennas and LSIs.” Presented by The University of Tokyo Institute of Industrial Science graduate student N. Masunaga. He explained the problem of devices such as cell phones having intrasystem emissions problems. The phone’s RF transmitter can interfere with analog circuits.

Masunaga described a solution to the problem of locating an emission with a flexible EMI receiving “antenna” that wraps around the equipment under test. Typical scans are currently done with magnetic-field probes scanned over the EUT. The “sheet” consists of a matrix of 4x4 PCBs with a stretchable interconnect between them. Each PCB consists of four antennas, making for 64 antennas in total...Read More


Related entries in: EMC Test | Interference | 

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

EMC Symposium: Test lab goes video

Aug 18 2009 8:55PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

At the 2009 EMC Symposium, test lab DLS Electronic Systems shows a live video of the lab from the exhibition hall. The video will let customers monitor their equipment while it's in the lab undergoing emissions and immunity tests. DLS business development manager Jack Black told me that they lab will add the ability for customers to control their equipment online during at test. That could reduce travel for engineers to witness EMC tests.

Interesting system for locating an emissions source

Aug 18 2009 1:52PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

I just attended a technical session at the EMC Symposium on a paper called "A Flexible EMI Measurement Sheet to Measure Electric and Magnetic Fields Separately with Distributed Antennas and LSIs." The probe operates on magnetic fields up to 1 GHz and electric fields up to 700 MHz.

N. Masunaga, a graduate student, explained the problem of devices such as cell phones having intrasystem emissions problems. An RF transmitter can interfere with analog circuits.

Masunaga described a solution to the problem of locating an emission with a flexible EMI receiving “antenna” that wraps around the equipment under test. Typical scans are currently done with magnetic-field probes scanned over the EUT. The “sheet” consists of a matrix of 4x4 PCBs with a stretchable interconnect between them. Each PCB consists of four antennas, making...Read More


Related entries in: EMC Test | Interference | 

EMC engineers jam in Austin

Aug 18 2009 1:27PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

This afternoon, I led off the musical session at the IEEE EMC Symposium. After playing "The Lab in the Corner," The Crazy Kings joined me for "The Measurement Blues." Yes, I have video, but it's too large to upload from the convention center. I'll upload it and provide a link tomorrow.

Several other engineers sang songs and played instruments. Some played solo, other with the Kings. A makeshift "band" formed two days before, played Bob Seger's "Turn the Page" and "Can't you see" by the Marshall Tucker Band. EMC Consultant Dan Hoolihan sang "God Bless America" for the crowd.


Related entries in: EMC Test | 

Monday, August 17, 2009

EMC Symposium under way

Aug 17 2009 9:16PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

The IEEE-EMC Symposium get into full swing on Tuesday, August 18 in Austin. Actually, it started on Friday, August 14 with meetings and workshops throughout the weekend. Many EMC engineers arrived a few days ago.

Tomorrow on the exhibition floor, several of us will perfrom our music. I don't know when I'll perform "The Lab in the Corner" and "The Measurement Blues."

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

EMC Symposium next week in Austin

Aug 12 2009 11:31AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (2) |

The 2009 IEEE EMC Symposium runs next week in Austin. Be sure the check out the live music stage on Tuesday and Wednesday at noon. Several EMC engineers and one editor (me) will try our best to entertain you. We'll have a professional band, Chadd Thomas and the Crazy Kings to make us sound good. I'll be doing a special EMI version of "The Lab in the Corner," although I don't know which day right now. I haven't played the song since the day I recorded it, so I need to practice over the weekend. Test & Measurement World will be giving away a guitar at the Symposium.

The so called "Music capital of the world," Austin lives up to that name. Take a w...Read More


Related entries in: Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) | EMC Test | EMI | ESD Test | RFI | 

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Get an old measurement video

Aug 11 2009 9:07AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

Paul Rako, Analog Editor at EDN, reports that "A fellow on eBay is selling a DVD duplicate of a 16mm movie done by Tektronix in the late 1950s." Paul notes that you can even get a preview from the eBay listing.


Related entries in: Instruments | Oscilloscopes | Test & Measurement | 

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Cut off from NI Week

Aug 6 2009 11:04AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

Because of the denial of service attack on twitter, I've been cut off from NI Week, as have the tweeters I was following yesterday. Back to work.


Related entries in: Test & Measurement | 

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

I'm not at NI Week

Aug 5 2009 12:30PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

I didn't get to go to NI Week this year, but I'm doing the next best thing. I'm following the action on twitter. By not being in Austin, I miss out on another NI Week T-shirt (I'm assuming there is an NI Week 2009 shirt). I have a few, including the original 1995 version.

Why do I keep old T-shirts? Because I'm an engineer, even though I've been an editor for 17 years. Keeping old T-shirts is typical of engineers, according to a NI-sponsored video "Engineers are Frugal" that you can see at www.anengineeringmind.com.

The video presenter talks about two kinds of engineers: those who must have the latest gadgets and those who refuse to spend money. There's a third kind, the one who finds ways to use old gadgets far longer than most people could ever do or would ever...Read More


Related entries in: EMC Test | Instruments | Measurement Software | Test & Measurement | 



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