When I joined Circuit Cellar five years ago, as I was settling in, I did a lot of thinking about what makes this magazine special. It was immediately clear that it’s special because it’s a mirror of you, the reader. You are engineers and academics who want to know not only the rich details of a microcontroller’s on-board peripherals, but also how other like-minded techies applied that technology to their DIY or commercial project.
Circuit Cellar is the only publication where the DIY and professional engineering worlds intersect. We’ve ridden the wave of the past decade where a treasure trove of tools, chips and information resources available today allow you to get started on project at very little cost—including free software and inexpensive boardlevel electronics.
These resources put more power into the hands of makers and electronics DIY experts than ever before. There is hardware such as Arduino, Raspberry Pi and others. And there is open-source software like Linux and Eclipse that make integrating and developing software easier than ever.
The average Circuit Cellar is probably someone like you: a professional engineer developing embedded systems. Those rich resources are of value to your own “for fun” DIY projects. But they’re even more powerful for enhancing your professional engineering projects at work. Prototypes can be spun up faster and easier than ever. Ideas can be tried out quickly. Part of what makes Circuit Cellar so unique is its history of having a foot in both worlds.
Circuit Cellar’s technical depth is another way that the magazine is special, and that’s also a reflection of you the reader. It’s obvious by looking at our columns and guest features that we don’t hold back or curtail our stories when it comes to technical depth. We get right down to the bits and bytes and lines code in way you’re not likely to find anywhere else.
At the risk of burying the lead, I have news on a personal note: I am leaving Circuit Cellar. This will be my final Circuit Cellar column. Over my career, I’ve had several job transitions. But this is one of those rare cases of leaving one happy situation for another. I’ve enjoyed my time with Circuit Cellar immensely. I’m deeply grateful to Circuit Cellar’s publisher KC Prescott for letting me collaborate with him closely as we updated the magazine’s look and its content and clarified its mission. He also let me work closely with him while we remade circuitcellar.com into the rich, thriving media platform that you see today.
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If my decades working in the magazine business have taught me anything it’s this: If you try to change what a magazine is, you’re doomed to failure. But you have to evolve. And that means making the publication into a more vivid and stronger version of what it already is. That’s exactly what I’ve hopefully accomplished in my time at Circuit Cellar.
If you’ve read this far, I think you get it: I’m proud of Circuit Cellar’s past and present—and I feel just as positive about its future. Circuit Cellar isn’t about any one person. I’ll say it another way: Circuit Cellar is you.
On that note, let me remind you that Circuit Cellar is always looking for great technical articles that help readers better understand embedded electronics technology in action. That’s why I encourage professional engineers and serious electronics enthusiasts like you to submit articles and proposals. Whether it’s a project-based article, an article about a technology trend, an analysis of a technical issue or challenge or even a tutorial on a key electronics concept, Circuit Cellar is looking for insightful, detailed articles that help your fellow readers do their jobs as embedded system designers. If you have an article or proposal, email editor@circuitcellar.com. Also go check out circuitcellar. com/submit for our requirements and guidelines.
PUBLISHED IN CIRCUIT CELLAR MAGAZINE• APRIL #381 – Get a PDF of the issue
Jeff served as Editor-in-Chief for both LinuxGizmos.com and its sister publication, Circuit Cellar magazine 6/2017—3/2022. In nearly three decades of covering the embedded electronics and computing industry, Jeff has also held senior editorial positions at EE Times, Computer Design, Electronic Design, Embedded Systems Development, and COTS Journal. His knowledge spans a broad range of electronics and computing topics, including CPUs, MCUs, memory, storage, graphics, power supplies, software development, and real-time OSes.
