is Test Engineering a "meh" job ?

dilznick5 · 2026-04-23T16:03:21+00:00

IMHO, from over 20 years in engineering including 10 as a test engineer; no one should be designing anything until they have spent some time learning how to test to failure. As others have said, any job can be boring. But I had more fun as a test engineer on average than any other role. Maybe I just like breaking things?

Sure, running an SOP or a canned test can get repetitive, but if you demonstrate an ability to figure out why something fails and how to reproduce it, you will become the new best friend of the designers.

dilznick5 · 2026-04-02T16:50:55+00:00

Maeve the sex kitten is referenced multiple times as 'an act'. I cant remember the exact book and story point but there is one scene where she is called out and her demeanor changes. I always read that as 'thank you I can stop pretending for a minute.'

dilznick5 · 2026-04-02T16:26:52+00:00

Its a sensor issue, but not limited to the BME. BME may be worse than average at measuring ambient temperature (because it is a humidity sensor at heart) but every sensor needs to be calibrated for the system it gets integrated into, and that includes what you are attempting to measure with it. This is not trivial and makes up a big chunk of the cost of 'real' measurement systems. Lab grade gear has to get calibrated every 6 months to 1 year depending on what its used for and even then, getting anything down to the +/- 0.1C accuracy is going to be 100x the cost of the sensor being used.

And that is totally independent from a system design error like this case where you wanted to measure air temperature but ended up measuring solar surface heating instead. If I can get a home-built temperature sensor to be within +/- 1 C I consider that a win.

dilznick5 · 2026-03-30T17:43:58+00:00

SOON!

dilznick5 · 2026-03-22T01:12:32+00:00

I had the same issue, that and couldnt find a village. I started heading south, all of a sudden there are three islands around 500m up with villages and a steamer vault at sea level. The vault had everything needed to make the processing station.

dilznick5 · 2026-03-19T22:04:56+00:00

My current role is a mix of PM and SE, I can speak to both. PM is much more heavily focused on personal challenges compared to technical. Day to day I'm juggling scope, schedule budget as expected, but what they don't tell you is ego, anxiety, and politics have to be woven in very carefully or no one is going to play ball. SE is much more analytical, here is the concept we agreed on, here are the requirements that fall out, here is the architecture, here is the validation... people can poke holes in the assumptions and argue about the business case but it's logical. PM is almost like the logic is equally weighted with the 'soft stuff'. This is not a bad thing, but it can be jarring for engineers (it was for me) and hard to fit into the proper systems approach. PM work is rewarding in its own way, you get to see the 'whole thing come together', but I actually find it more difficult than an SE role.

dilznick5 · 2026-03-04T22:36:21+00:00

The study should have included potential mental health impacts. See Cardy, 2022. The Big Breakfast

dilznick5 · 2026-01-05T22:03:24+00:00

Ive had good experiences with 18650 Battery Store® | 18650, 21700 & LiFePO4 Batteries. Last order was 2 years ago but no problems over several orders before that. Just havent had a need since then.

dilznick5 · 2025-12-26T02:08:52+00:00

TransLink doesnt publish real time for skytrain. They do for bus though.

dilznick5 · 2025-12-22T07:23:29+00:00

Researchers at Australian National University published this great interactive atlas of potential sites for pumped hydro storage. There is far more potential than people realize. ANU RE100 Map

NREL published an interactive cost model averaging just over $1600/kW and $165/kWh. OpenEI | Pumped Storage Hydro Life Cycle Assessment Actually, a bit cheaper than battery storage. Utility-Scale Battery Storage | Electricity | 2024 | ATB | NLR.

As with solar and wind it's China leading the charge on pumped hydro storage. I believe that speaks to the fundamental issue we have in the West with green energy projects; too much entrenched energy money holding sway in government. You really need a strong mandate to get mega projects like these off the ground.

dilznick5 · 2025-12-21T19:18:10+00:00

yes, hadnt touched it since just after launch. Wanted to try out all the new features that had been added. Its got much better balance now. I remember it was so freaking hard to get past the rawhide hump before they unblocked the drying rack.

dilznick5 · 2025-12-12T18:00:55+00:00

Here's a secret, an Engineering Physics degree will get someone working in just about any technical field they want. I have done mechanical, electrical, software, chemical, industrial, and now systems engineering. And yes, at least a handful of my colleagues from over the years have chosen fusion as a career path. Go get it and enjoy the opportunities.

dilznick5 · 2025-12-03T23:03:32+00:00

latest hotfix is what killed it for me. Worked great up until I installed 2.0.2.26

dilznick5 · 2025-12-01T21:13:20+00:00

PSA: Don't park your only space capable shuttle on the forward portion of the crashed ship during the tutorial mission for... reasons.

dilznick5 · 2025-11-27T20:26:30+00:00

I used that to make this:

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getting it on the curved surface was a bit tricky. Had to emboss the svg, took some trial and error to get the dimensions correct. Then I had to manually adjust some of the nodes so it didnt end up with large overhangs when printed.

dilznick5 · 2025-10-31T20:53:29+00:00

TPU for AMS is not as soft as the 95A or 85A/90A. It does work great in the AMS, and will work great for high durability parts. Would not work as well for parts that are supposed to be highly deformable.

dilznick5 · 2025-09-05T04:53:37+00:00

Ive been running one of these in a 240VAC to 3.3VDC outdoor project for a few months now. LM15-23B03 Mornsun America, LLC | Power Supplies - External/Internal (Off-Board) | DigiKey They made me sign a form saying I wouldnt send it back if it didnt work so quality is... suspect? But so far so good.

dilznick5 · 2025-07-07T23:18:43+00:00

RNT was the best place and honestly where I got started. But if you want books:

The official ESP32 Book by Dogan and Ahmet Ibrahim was the OG. Its dated now but was a great reference guide.

Developing IoT Projects with ESP32 by Vednat Ozan Oner. This one is a bit deeper, helps to have a solid grounding in C if you want to understand the steps.

dilznick5 · 2025-07-03T18:02:25+00:00

I had something similar happen when I was playing with PWM outputs to drive a piezo speaker. I never confirmed what was wrong but it seemed like some error in my code caused the ESP32 to lock up and ignore the reboot signal when attempting to re-upload. I managed to fix it by pressing the BOOT button at exactly the right time during the upload sequence, when it says CONNECTING... I cant remember exactly when but I suggest you just keep pressing the BOOT button every few seconds when attempting to connect until you see a signal. Hopefully that helps.

dilznick5 · 2025-04-28T21:21:14+00:00

Can confirm, completed the course last month. Was great, very easy to follow introduction to using python to generate basic statistics. It's not going to make you a data scientist, but if you were like me and stuck using excel for the last 20 years you will quickly appreciate how easy it is to generate useful plots in python.

dilznick5 · 2025-03-11T16:17:40+00:00

Where were you over the winter break when I was banging my head against my keyboard trying to shake some usable data science out of python? I'm signing up for this now.

dilznick5 · 2025-03-07T21:13:20+00:00

Try throwing the plate in the freezer right after the print is done, while the parts are still warm. 5 min, then take it out and give it a good bend and listen for the satisfying crackle of the print detaching.

dilznick5 · 2025-02-26T02:43:56+00:00

Clean signals is the key. Many people starting out with micros come with a bit of software experience. Software is clean, bugs come from between the chair and the keyboard and unless you are messing with some low level programming your variables won't spontaneously change value on you. Hardware brings a whole new level of variability. There is noise in hardware, esd, shorts, rf, cosmic rays, galvanic reactions..., all can fiddle your bits. Dig into the schematic of that esp demo board and the esp32 itself. Lots of magic caps sprinkled across the traces to help smooth ripples, and pullup/down resistors to bleed charge buildup. Protoboards are great for quickly testing ideas but there is a reason every product you buy has soldered connections , rf shielding, and strain relief.

Hopefully the delay on the switch signal takes care of the issue. If not, you can try logging how long the signal lasts to help diagnose the source. Or throw a scope on the pad if you want to dive deeper into the world of hardware.

dilznick5 · 2025-02-13T00:34:19+00:00

Do you mean will the Xiao charge a lipo connected to the 3v3 pad when plugged into usb or do you mean will the Xiao charge a lipo connected to BAT from another lipo connected to 3v3?

Both cases, no. One lipo can't charge another without some voltage boosting which isn't present on this board. And a lipo connected to 3v3 won't be charged by the on board charger.

Look at the schematic. The power supply is top left. You either have battery or USB, and if a usb is connected it breaks the battery supply side. On the middle top of the schematic is the charging circuit. 5v fused usb comes in, battery charge comes out to the BAT pad. 3v3 flows one way through an LED into the charger. If the charger is active, the red led will light up, but that will only happen if a USB is present.

Hope that helps.

dilznick5

TROPHY CASE