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OpenEMS Optimizing Simulator
Saturday, May 17, 2025 in Blog
Introduction Over at EOI we’ve been working on a time domain reflectometer (TDR) for precision agriculture for the past few months. The waveguide assembly has several competing design constraints. The following is an overview of a a …
Managing Openscad Projects
Friday, May 16, 2025 in Blog
Why Structure Your OpenSCAD Projects? OpenSCAD is powerful, but as projects grow, managing complexity becomes critical. Plus you’re already ditching the GUI for a descriptive language, are you going to be chained to the GUI for exporting files? …
Tariff Math for Two-Layer Prototype PCBs: OshPark vs Imported Fabs
Thursday, May 15, 2025 in Blog
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Introduction If you’re a US-based hobbyist, consultant, or small-batch hardware developer, PCB manufacturing has just changed a bit. Back in 2018 when the first batch of Chinese tariffs were introduced we got hit with a surprise bill and an …
FreeCAD Make
Sunday, April 13, 2025 in Blog
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Github Repo Background If you’re new to FreeCAD scripting, start with this guide on setting up FreeCAD on Linux. Introduction I’ve recently been working on a waveguide assembly for a time-domain reflectometer (TDR), designed in OpenSCAD …
Product Announcement: QL03 Photoreceiver
Sunday, March 16, 2025 in Blog
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We’ve just launched a new photoreceiver over at our sister site, Hobbs ElectroOptics: the QL03 Photoreceiver. It’s designed for low-light applications that demand high sensitivity and low noise. Highlights 150 mm² photodiode with immersion lens for …
Installing OpenEMS on Linux
Sunday, November 17, 2024 in Blog
(Updated: )OpenEMS is an open-source Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) simulator that has seen some significant adoption. As I go through the setup for the second time, I’m noting down all the steps, common pitfalls, and useful resources to help others get …
System Diagrams / Schematics
Sunday, September 01, 2024 in Blog
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Most designs start with a sketch of some type– be it on a napkin, whiteboard, a quick CAD model, or scribbled in the air. When dealing with designs that involve multiple separately developed components, a system diagram (sometimes referred to …
Device Control GUI and Binary Distribution
Sunday, June 23, 2024 in Blog
Abstract Built a basic GUI wrapping a CLI and packaged it into a standalone executable to control embedded software updating and diagnostics. Firmware Updating GUI Background & Goal We’ve been working with an agricultural fire prevention …
KiCad Coordinate System
Sunday, June 16, 2024 in Blog
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The KiCad coordinate system can be unintuitive, especially when scripting or developing plugins. Here’s what I learned while building the JigsApp system and the kicad-testpoints plugin. The origin and axis settings are global display …