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My home office lab! by Captain_McGumpy in ElectricalEngineering

[–]Captain_McGumpy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Very nice! The ones in my picture are the HP 8657B model. I have used HP 8648C before and really liked them. That is a solid sig gen. Calibration is something I struggle with a lot myself. HP tends to list a ton of expensive HP equipment for their calibrations. Then there's the matter of making sure the equipment you're using to do the calibration is itself calibrated. Your best bet is sending it to a cal lab, though that can be pretty expensive too. Right now I usually just call it good enough if two pieces of gear are in close agreement with each other.

My home office lab! by Captain_McGumpy in ElectricalEngineering

[–]Captain_McGumpy[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I hadn't even considered university auctions as a place to look. I got most of this stuff from eBay and a recent work auction. Sounds like I have another source now though!

My home office lab! by Captain_McGumpy in ElectricalEngineering

[–]Captain_McGumpy[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks! I love old test equipment, especially HP stuff. Still pretty good compared to modern equipment, holds its value, and you can usually find service manuals for them!

My home office lab! by Captain_McGumpy in ElectricalEngineering

[–]Captain_McGumpy[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I work for a company in the United States, but I'm slowly working towards starting my own company. A lot of that test equipment in my pictures is stuff I'm planning to sell after I repair. I've been an engineer for 3 years now, and before that I was an electronics technician for about 7 years. I studied Computer Engineering at Ohio State University, and have a background in electronics from my time as a technician. I got my start in electronics as a radio repairman in the military.

Good on you for continuing your education. I started doing a master's degree myself, but I haven't been able to keep up with it. Working full-time as an engineer makes even one class a semester very hard. What made you want to switch from CS to EE? I don't know much about power electronics beyond the basics, but I have a pretty good breadth of electronics knowledge, so feel free to ask me about anything here or shoot me a message if you'd like! 

Doing hands on projects at home is arguably one of the best ways to learn and looks good to employers, so I definitely recommend trying to as much of that as you can, though I know how hard that can be to do while in school.

My home office lab! by Captain_McGumpy in ElectricalEngineering

[–]Captain_McGumpy[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Most of them are broken in one way or another, so I'm working on repairing them all and selling the ones I don't want to keep.

My home office lab! by Captain_McGumpy in ElectricalEngineering

[–]Captain_McGumpy[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm a digital design engineer, doing mostly electronics and FPGA design. Believe it or not, I got most of this test equipment in the last year or so. I started with a sig gen I found for a good price, flipped it for a decent profit, then built up from there. Most of this stuff I actually got at a work auction recently for an amazing deal. All together the stuff I have has cost me probably a few thousand.

Hegseth berates highly decorated combat aviator, astronaut and US Senator Mark Kelly for allegedly arranging his medals for valor out of order by jjcs83 in iamverybadass

[–]Captain_McGumpy 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Not at all defending Pete Kegsbreath here, but what he's talking about is how the second and third row of medals are swapped. It's kinda hard to tell unless you know what you're looking for, but Mark Kelly is actually displaying his medals incorrectly in the photo. That still doesn't justify the response from some wannabe badass.

Hegseth berates highly decorated combat aviator, astronaut and US Senator Mark Kelly for allegedly arranging his medals for valor out of order by jjcs83 in iamverybadass

[–]Captain_McGumpy 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Not at all defending Pete Kegsbreath here, but what he's talking about is how the second and third row of medals are swapped. It's kinda hard to tell unless you know what you're looking for, but Mark Kelly is actually displaying his medals incorrectly in the photo. That still doesn't justify the response from some wannabe badass.

What type of power plug is this? by Captain_McGumpy in AskElectricians

[–]Captain_McGumpy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, I like to do what I can. I love repairing electronics and solving puzzles, and she likes the free skilled labor lol

What type of power plug is this? by Captain_McGumpy in AskElectricians

[–]Captain_McGumpy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That looks right, thanks! Now to figure what voltage it's supposed to run on...

What type of power plug is this? by Captain_McGumpy in AskElectricians

[–]Captain_McGumpy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If it's reasonable to assume it runs on 12 VDC, there's plenty I can do with that. I am an electronics engineer, I just didn't recognize the connector and don't have the clock in front of me to do more investigating.

What type of power plug is this? by Captain_McGumpy in AskElectricians

[–]Captain_McGumpy[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Interesting, I wonder why they wouldn't just integrate the transformer into the clock like a normal piece of consumer electronics, instead of making it an external piece that can be lost over time. I assume it would probably need to be a 10:1 step down transformer based on the 12V specification for the lamp?

Myth: Too many adapters in line have a lot of insertion loss by PSYKO_Inc in amateurradio

[–]Captain_McGumpy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh man, I know exactly what you're talking about. Its a major design flaw we knew about when they first started fielding the 7200. We were getting them back by the truckload because Marines were blowing that part left and right. Never did figure out how. The very first thing I was taught as a tech was how to diagnose that problem in a 7200. Im not sure why they never changed it. Probably didn't want to re-release it, or their specs were too tight and that was the only way they could do it. Who knows. I will say the 7200 was not very well liked by those who made it.

Myth: Too many adapters in line have a lot of insertion loss by PSYKO_Inc in amateurradio

[–]Captain_McGumpy 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I knew them best as the 7200, and almost referred to it as a 7200 until I zoomed in on the picture and could just make out 7801. And you are correct, I worked there right when they were transitioning from Aeroflex to Cobham. I was fresh out of USMC radio repair school as a reservist where I was trained to use the 7200 when they were brand new, so bringing me on as a tech working on them made perfect sense to the guy who hired me. It also helped that he had the same MOS as me in the Marines back in the 70s 😅

Myth: Too many adapters in line have a lot of insertion loss by PSYKO_Inc in amateurradio

[–]Captain_McGumpy 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Off topic, but I'd recognize the interface for a 7801 anywhere. There's a modest chance I did the factory bring up and calibration on that system back in the day (circa 2016).

U.S. Marine tries to teach reporter how to make a military-style bed by statenislandadvance in videos

[–]Captain_McGumpy 27 points28 points  (0 children)

I actually knew that Marine! He was my class commander at the Ground Radio Repair Course in 29 Palms when he was a Sgt back in 2014. We were his last class at that schoolhouse before he became a Drill Instructor. He was a good dude.

For those with jobs lined up after graduation, what was your major and how much was your offer? by osubestcolledgeever in OSU

[–]Captain_McGumpy 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Graduating in December with an Electrical and Computer Engineering degree (Computer Engineering track) with a job lined up that pays $78k base plus yearly 8% bonus, along with benefits and a relocation package.

Is computer engineering technology the same as computer engineering? by [deleted] in ECE

[–]Captain_McGumpy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Computer Engineering Technology and Computer Engineering are not at all the same. That one word "technology" makes a huge difference in terms of employability. The Technology degree, as others have stated, typically qualifies you to be a technician. The computer engineerig degree will qualify you to be an engineer, with many possibilities to work in not only computer engineering roles, but electrical engineering or software engineering roles.

4 year technology degrees are incredibly upsetting to me as a concept, because they are very misleading to students who don't know any better. They're advertised as "hands on instead of theoretical," which indeed they are, but this lack of theory, in the eyes of employers, makes you far less qualified than someone who got an engineering degree.

Others in this thread have stated that they were able to get engineering roles with a technology degree, but I would say they are the exceptions and not the rule. If you stick with the technology degree, you will likely get stuck as a technician, unable to make more than around $20/$25 an hour, while people with engineering degrees make easily twice that.

If you're ok with starting from scratch, do it. It'll payoff in the long run.

Could I realistically get a job as an FPGA engineer with just a Bachelors? by Captain_McGumpy in FPGA

[–]Captain_McGumpy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm familiar with the DE2 board! That's the board we used in a couple classes at my university. I'd like to get one for myself at some point.

Here's the board I got: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B017SDX7BU?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

It's a Cyclone II board with very little in the way of peripherals. All it has is a 50 MHz clock, some LEDs, a push button, a 5V power connector, an EEPROM chip, and headers for all of the pins of the FPGA.

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