....keeping tenants in check and properties in good condition is A LOT of work

No kidding. My rental had a hot water failure and the tenants went ALL WEEKEND with only cold showers. The electrician visited and seems they had turned the hot water off at the board for some reason and then forgot they did it.

Even cold showers didn't trigger recall. Amazing.

 

Anyway.... I'm retired, a bit of work at my desktop all-in-one in my office, but my serious machines are in my workshop, a 12m x 9m shed.

Programming for windows, embedded hardware (microchip) and Android, also some hardware work. Just hobby stuff these days.

 

Like many others, I won't try to interact with AAC (or nearly any other website) on a cell phone. Far too frustrating. I don't even check e-mail on it unless absolutely necessary (which happens maybe once or twice a year, if that), I have an office set up in the basement and that is where I spend most of my day, including all of my AAC stuff. AAC is always open in a browser and I check it quite frequently, along with a few other sites. I'm basically retired, but still doing stuff to generate income as well as stay busy, so I have a lot of flexibility in when/where I spend my time.

 

Have it ever *triggered* you? Lol.

In almost 40 years of owning rental properties, I’ve had to take tenants to court only three times.

 

Even cold showers didn't trigger recall. Amazing.

Perhaps part of the reason they are renters and not owners.

 

In those periods of time at work when I’m waiting for something to happen.. for a hot air soldered board to cool down, for a 15 minute battery finish test to happen or times like that.

 

Thank you everyone for answering such post. I admire your efforts after all the work you've been through in your lives. I want to be this way too.
(I always was kind of apprehensive because the forums are mainly to discuss serious topics, but now I figured out that I can chat in the off-topic with everyone, and everyone is being nice.)

Hi Kiroma—another interesting aspect (at least for me) is the question of “WHY” we post here on the forum.

As far as I’m concerned, there are three main reasons for this:
1.) I can learn something new in areas where I have little or no experience;
2.) By answering questions (based on my own professional experience), I can test my own ability to explain physical and technical concepts (and possibly correct any mistakes);
In this context - Are you familiar with the following principle?
"The best way to understand something is to explain it to someone else."
3.) As someone whose native language is not English, I stay in constant contact with the language and can (hopefully) continue to improve.

 

Why indeed. . . ( in addition to @LvW ‘s points 1 and 2)
1) because I’m the only senior electronics engineer in a small company, and it’s my opportunity to talk shop with other engineers.
2) to pass on “old skills” such as analogue design that seem to be getting overlooked in a digital world
3) payback - AAC taught me most of what I know about SPICE and quite a lot of what I know about C

 

In this context - Are you familiar with the following principle?
"The best way to understand something is to explain it to someone else."
3.) As someone whose native language is not English, I stay in constant contact with the language and can (hopefully) continue to improve.

Hello!
I'm familiar with that sentence. I try to explain everything I can and understand to a certain point to anyone who's willing to listen to me. As you know people, they are often uninterested and when they get to listen 10 seconds of something, sometimes they find just nice. Few people that are fascinated as I was when I first listened to such topics. Maybe I don't explain in the best way, but many people said I don't over simplify nor I complicate (and they say I explain it well), I tend to do analogies that are not that far off.
As I said, my native language is not English too. But I've been in contact with it since 2005 when I first started to play RuneScape (today is the Old School one) and I got to have a foreign language subject at school because I was in the 5th grade.

 

1) because I’m the only senior electronics engineer in a small company, and it’s my opportunity to talk shop with other engineers.
2) to pass on “old skills” such as analogue design that seem to be getting overlooked in a digital world

Where I worked I felt I was the least without the required knowledge for the actual electronics, not just analog (to not say I was the best). I feel that people are too much interested in the programming and almost 0 in electronics. Quirks of the current digital world we live in.
The 2) hits me, because I want to teach people what I got to understand by myself or on the web, but they don't seem to want to learn anything, they stand like a wall written "I already know everything I possibly want/need". It's not good, but I got used to such ordinary world. With some time I got to filter to want to know and who will get a phrase like "It's more complicated than you think".

 

@LvW , where are you from? What languages do you speak or people there speak? Just curious.

 

Where I worked I felt I was the least without the required knowledge for the actual electronics, not just analog (to not say I was the best). I feel that people are too much interested in the programming and almost 0 in electronics. Quirks of the current digital world we live in.
The 2) hits me, because I want to teach people what I got to understand by myself or on the web, but they don't seem to want to learn anything, they stand like a wall written "I already know everything I possibly want/need". It's not good, but I got used to such ordinary world. With some time I got to filter to want to know and who will get a phrase like "It's more complicated than you think".

Of course, everything can be done digitally! And then they need an antialiasing filter and then they are flummoxed!

 

Of course, everything can be done digitally! And then they need an antialiasing filter and then they are flummoxed!

I once sent a message to a colleague that was learning my problem that that problem could be solved with software, so an implementation in hardware wouldn't be necessary, it would be cheaper. Then he replied "yay, I knew it, software >>> hardware". I went quiet.

 

I once sent a message to a colleague that was learning my problem that that problem could be solved with software, so an implementation in hardware wouldn't be necessary, it would be cheaper. Then he replied "yay, I knew it, software >>> hardware". I went quiet.

I have a uInt16_t called MainsL1Voltage which contains 2462, representing 246.2V rms. How did that number get there, safely, and with an accuracy of ±1% ? That’s one of the things you need to know how to do before you can do anything clever with the software.

 

I have a uInt16_t called MainsL1Voltage which contains 2462, representing 246.2V rms. How did that number get there, safely, and with an accuracy of ±1% ? That’s one of the things you need to know how to do before you can do anything clever with the software.

Every ADC we need for basic stuff is based on very complex design of op amps. I read about 80 pages of the Sedra Smith Microelectronics book (I think it's the version of 2015) that has these extra pages regarding the design of op amps, what you can use, how you do that, how to improve some parameters... I was amazed when I read one or two years ago. Now I forgot almost it all because it's complex at first reading. Someday I'll read it again as now I have the book (it's 1/5 of a minimum wage here), and surely I'll be delighted once again.

 

Every ADC we need for basic stuff is based on very complex design of op amps.

A delta-sigma converter is based upon a simple single bit comparator, not a complex design of op amps.

The hard stuff is a bunch of hardware-based digital math processing.

 

A delta-sigma converter is based upon a simple single bit comparator, not a complex design of op amps.

The hard stuff is a bunch of hardware-based digital math processing.

You're right. I forgot about delta-sigma converter, and I don't think I wrote what I wanted to. I mixed ADC and op amps.
I meant that there are surprisingly few analog circuits that don't rely on some form of amplifier, whether it's a conventional op-amp, an OTA, or a custom amplifier designed for a specific purpose.

 

Where I worked I felt I was the least without the required knowledge for the actual electronics, not just analog (to not say I was the best). I feel that people are too much interested in the programming and almost 0 in electronics. Quirks of the current digital world we live in.
The 2) hits me, because I want to teach people what I got to understand by myself or on the web, but they don't seem to want to learn anything, they stand like a wall written "I already know everything I possibly want/need". It's not good, but I got used to such ordinary world. With some time I got to filter to want to know and who will get a phrase like "It's more complicated than you think".

1) As IanO wrote: "Of course, everything can be done digitally!"

Yes, this might be true - however, I think it is the most important and most challenging task for an engineer to DECIDE which solution (analog or digital) is the most effective option for a specific application (example: filtering)

2) As far as the 2nd point is concerned - unfortunately, I have to mention that I have also found that some people in forums like this were unable or unwilling to correct their misconceptions and incorrect explanations of certain physical effects in electronics (example: transistor physics).

 

Hello everyone.
I'm genuinely curious about where do you guys are when you are reading/writing to the forums.
I have spikes of interest, that's why I don't ask/read much. It's been more than 10 years, I graduated and I'm not even 100 posts yet.
But I come here mainly at my work.

Home.