Call In Show #5

Our 5th call in show. Likely our last for a while given the drop off in the number of callers. We’ll do it again if asked!

• Alexander (by far our best caller)
  • He's an EE student struggling with math, was wondering how to get through it.
  • Dave was part of a local college's promo video.
  • There is an Intersil chip that involves RGB LEDs that requires using matricies.
  • Alexander was the person who sent Dave's mailbag a warming device. 
• David2 is back doing some design work for Dave again.
• Anon SW Eng via email 
  • They asked about connecting the green and black grounds on a power supply by default. You can, but it's usually better not to unless there's a reason.
  • The isolated output of these supplies allows for "stacking" voltages.
  • Not having a grasp on your grounding tree means you could end up with ground loops.
• Chris found out he has knob and tube wiring throughout his house, which means none of the 3 prong switches (except for the ones Chris wired) have an earth ground. Romex is the plastic wrapped wire that often runs throughout houses.
• Xander
  • Wanted recommendations for getting an EE degree while keeping working. 
  • Ultimately it comes down to what kind of work Xander wants to work in.
  • If you're getting a degree online (or in person, for that matter), make sure they are ABET accredited. These are often the only kind of engineering degrees accepted by employers. 
• Artem
  • Asked about the whether there is a shift away from formal education.
  • We used as an "add on" to Xanders question.
  • Places like Google are putting less emphasis on degrees and more on experience/portfolios.
• Todd
  • Asked if we had heard about magnetostrictive delay line memory.
  • He has a version from an old Friden 132 calculator from the mid 60s (what a beast!)
  • Chris asked Dave about RPN notation.
• A user took die photos of a chip on board a uCurrent when they blew theirs up. Chris was trying to remember the name of the site (formerly with a Russian TLD) took pictures of tons of ICs. It was Zeptobars! (who we have surely mentioned before)
• Chris has been posting lots of videos on the PHY youtube channel, including a great talk from Mike Harrison about art and one from James Lewis on Capacitors.