Tag Archives: Member Profile

Member Profile: Thomas Struzik

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Member Thomas Struzik at his bench.

 

  • Member Name: Thomas Struzik
  • Location: Houston, TX
  • Education: BSEE, Purdue University
  • Occupation: Software architect
  • Member Status: He has been a subscriber since day one. “I’ve got Issue 1 sitting in a box somewhere,” he said. Thomas adds that he was a BYTE magazine subscriber before Circuit Cellar.
  • Technical Interests: Thomas enjoys automation through embedded technology, robotics, low-level programming, and electronic music generation / enhancement.
  • Most Recent Embedded Tech-Related Purchase: He recently bought a CWAV USBee SX Digital Test Pod and an Atmel AVR Dragon.
  • Current and Recent Projects: Thomas is working on designing an isolated USB power supply for his car.
  • Thoughts on the Future of Embedded Technology: Ever-increasing complexity is becoming a stumbling block for the “average” user. “Few people even realize the technology embedded in everyday items,” he said. “How many people know that brand-new LCD TV they’ve got is actually running Linux under the covers? Fortunately, there seems to be a resurgence of ‘need-to-know how stuff works’ with the whole DIY/maker culture. But even that is still a small island compared to the population in general.”

Member Profile: Richard Lord

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Richard Lord is an engineer, author, and photographer whose article series on an innovative digital camera controller project will begin in the October issue of Circuit Cellar.  Lord’s Photo-Pal design is an electronic flash-trigger camera controller built around a Microchip Technology PIC16F873. It features four modes of operation: triggered shutter, triggered flash, multiple flash, and time lapse. Now you too can take sound-triggered photos.

The Photo-Pal enables Richard to take amazing photos like this and capture high-speed action.

  • Member Name: Richard H. Lord
  • Location: Durham, NH, United States
  • Education: BS Electrical Engineering 1969, MS Biomedical Engineering, 1971
  • Occupation: Retired electronics hardware design engineer
  • Member Status: Richard said he has subscribed to Circuit Cellar for at least 14 years, maybe longer.
  • Technical Interests: Richard’s interests include photography, model railroading, and microcontroller projects.
  • Most Recent Embedded Tech-Related Purchase: Richard’s most recent purchase was a Microchip Technology dsPIC30F4013 digital signal controller.
  • Current Project: Richard is working on a Microchip PIC16F886-based multipurpose front panel interface controller.
  • Thoughts on the Future of Embedded Technology: “With the ready availability of prepackaged 32-bit processor modules, it’s easy to forget there are many applications where 8-bit controllers are more appropriate”, Richard said. He continued by saying he gets a lot of enjoyment from the challenge of working within the capabilities and constraints of the smaller microcontrollers.