At the end of our conversations, longtime Circuit Cellar columnist Ed Nisley always says, “Onward and upward.” To this day, I’m not quite sure what that means, but it seems like a useful exit line. Of course, leaving a conversation … Continue reading →

On August 6, 2012, NASA’s Curiosity rover successfully landed in Gale Crater on Mars after traveling a daunting 352 million miles. It was a triumphant moment for the scores of Curiosity team members who had spent years engineering the mission. … Continue reading →

Electrical engineers and embedded programmers can expect to work several different jobs over the course of their careers. In the mid- to late-20th century, an engineer could expect to find a job with a large company, work it for 25 … Continue reading →

Whether you’re building or programming microcontroller-based systems, you should always keep your end users and their needs in mind. That means restraining any urges to stuff a project with superfluous functionality and parts. In “What Were They Thinking?” (Circuit Cellar … Continue reading →

Most of today’s expensive electronics systems are engineered to be left alone—meaning, the manufacturer doesn’t want you opening, servicing, or tweaking the products on your own. But that doesn’t mean intelligent, inquisitive engineers shouldn’t give modern electronics gadgets a good … Continue reading →