Bench Talk

Bench Talk for Design Engineers | The Official Blog of Mouser Electronics

Michael Parks, P.E. is the co-founder of Green Shoe Garage, a custom electronics design studio and embedded security research firm located in Western Maryland. He produces the Gears of Resistance Podcast to help raise public awareness of technical and scientific matters. Michael is also a licensed Professional Engineer in the state of Maryland and holds a Master’s degree in systems engineering from Johns Hopkins University.

Making Mathematical Sense of PID Controllers

On December 8, 2017 in All, Automation, Industrial, IoT, Maker, Power by Mike Parks

PID controllers are a popular method for including a feedback as a mechanism to help efficiently control industrial processes. Short for “proportional, integrative, derivative,” PID controllers keep the output of a system constant based on user provided setpoint. Tuning the PID controller parameters, though, requires a bit of math to maximize efficiency and minimize adjustments and corrections based on feedback.

Tagged With: automation, derivative Kd, industrial controller, Industry 4.0, integrative Ki, loop tuning, PID, proportional Kp, proportional-integrative-derivative, temperature controller

Shaping Smarter Cities: Farming 2.0: Arduino Helps Farms Go Vertical

On July 24, 2017 in All, Empowering Innovation by Mike Parks

Vertical Farming is poised to bring agriculture to urban centers, but it needs automation and intelligence to succeed.

Tagged With: Microchip, Shaping Smarter Cities, Vertical Farming

Westworld: Where Technology and Ethics Collide

On July 21, 2017 in All, Robotics by Mike Parks

Can we understand the implications of what we build?

Tagged With: AI, Westworld

Design Patterns: An Intuitive Approach to Circuit Analysis

On July 14, 2017 in All, MultiSIM BLUE, Student Central by Mike Parks

Circuit design incorporates elements that are often repeated across many different circuits. Learning these patterns can enrich your own designs and inform how you see others schematics.

Tagged With: circuit design, Multisim Blue

Mind Your R’s and C’s: A Look at Different Types of Resistors and Capacitors

On July 5, 2017 in All, Student Central by Mike Parks

There's a lot more to resistors and capacitors than just a symbol on a circuit. Learn about the various construction and performance characteristics of these overlooked parts to find which is right for your design.

Tagged With: capacitor, resistor

Cybersecurity and the Internet of Industrial Things

On November 25, 2016 in IoT by Mike Parks

The Internet was not built with security in mind. It was built predominantly by researchers looking to pass around scientific data. The assumption was that only good players would ever have access to the systems that eventually gave rise to the Internet we all know today. We have made significant progress with security in the decades since the Internet first became accessible to the public, but the cat and mouse game between the good guys and bad guys continues.

Tagged With: Cyber Security, IoT

Desktop Factories: A ‘Moving’ Look at 3D Printing

On October 17, 2016 in 3D Printing by Mike Parks

There is no other product that singularly captures the essence of the maker movement more than the 3D printer. It is difficult to describe the feeling you get when you use a 3D printer for the first time. It truly is a euphoric rush once you realize you have the ability to take a mere concept in your mind’s eye and bring it to a tangible reality. There are many technologies driving the plethora of additive manufacturing products available today including stereolithography, Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), Electron Beam Melting (EBM) and the most universally recognized Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) method.

Tagged With: 3D Printing, Fused Filament Fabrication, Stepper Motors

Rise of the “Maker Pro”: Selling Your First 100 Products

On September 16, 2016 in Maker by Mike Parks

Never before in the history of invention has it been so easy to turn an idea into a reality. The Maker Movement has proven that there are still plenty of great products to be built and companies to grow. Many folks who are not classically trained in any technical field are becoming empowered to design, build, and create in ways that until recently were just simply not possible.

Tagged With: Maker, Maker Pro

See It Before Your Build It: A Look at 3D Visualization

On August 23, 2016 in Maker by Mike Parks

Before a single piece of steel is forged or a circuit board is sent to the fab, engineers rely heavily on 3D models to understand their designs in virtual reality before committing vast sums of money and time in actually building them. But now you don’t have to be a multi-million-dollar design firm to take advantage of this technology. The cost of virtual reality and augmented reality is plummeting as competition in the market heats up in 2016. This means that just about anyone, including fledgling startups and makers, can get take advantage of 3D visualization.

Tagged With: 3d, design, virtual reality

Tips for Building Environmental Monitoring Technology

On August 17, 2016 in Sensors by Mike Parks

Some of the most challenging yet immensely satisfying embedded projects to work on involve observing environmental conditions. From a personal perspective, environmental monitoring projects are a chance to do something good for mankind. Whether tracking the air quality in a building or measuring the contaminants in a far off lake, embedded systems built to monitor the environment can really benefit our world.

Tagged With: sensors

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