@wolfram_alpha adds features for electrical engineers!
Not too long ago in Boston, Ladyada, Amanda (w0z) and Phil met Stephen Wolfram, they talked about adding features for electrical engineers, as they chatted Stephen typed in notes directly to the “feature request” on his iPad – today we received this email!
Dear Limor Fried,
…you gave us some suggestions for features in Wolfram|Alpha. I thought you might like to see that we finally implemented something in regard to resistance.
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!
Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Select Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: PyCon AU 2024 Talks, New Raspberry Pi Gear Available and More! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey
I’m not sure about the usefulness of the function that displays networks of common resistor values closest to the value entered, though.
That’s because you can’t expect to consistently get within, say, 0.14% of the value entered (as for the 14 kiloohm link above) using 10% tolerance resistors.
The resistor network function could be improved by allowing selection of the tolerance of the resistors available (and not just the range of values to select from, E6 or E12) and using that information to calculate the tolerance for the whole network.
When moving from prototype to production, chaining multiple component errors or tolerances in this way is more likely to affect circuit yield than designing with a single component of a precisely known value that is slightly off from the target value.5
That’s cool.
I’m not sure about the usefulness of the function that displays networks of common resistor values closest to the value entered, though.
That’s because you can’t expect to consistently get within, say, 0.14% of the value entered (as for the 14 kiloohm link above) using 10% tolerance resistors.
The resistor network function could be improved by allowing selection of the tolerance of the resistors available (and not just the range of values to select from, E6 or E12) and using that information to calculate the tolerance for the whole network.
When moving from prototype to production, chaining multiple component errors or tolerances in this way is more likely to affect circuit yield than designing with a single component of a precisely known value that is slightly off from the target value.5