In my day job, I consult with companies who need to build (electronic) hardware but…
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I just installed a UPS the other day (an older Back-UPS XS1300, pictured) and noticed on the back it’s an “approximate sine wave” output. After reading the bottom closer, it’s specified that the device, under 25% load, has a THD of 55% and a maximum harmonic amplitude of 43% of the fundamental’s amplitude. Sounds pretty bad, but what does that really look like?
I’ve amassed a lot of loose surface mount parts and it finally came time to do something about organizing them – digging through piles of little plastic bags in a box gets real old real fast. I considered buying something like Adafruit’s SMD parts kit and just stuffing my extra parts in the corresponding slots, but I don’t currently have a pressing need for all the parts, and I came up with something a little cheaper. Perhaps more interesting, I’ve got a nice recipe for heat sealing plastic (like anti-static bags) with your soldering iron without messing it up.
Here’s a quick tip I picked up via the Stanford CS193P iPhone Programming (coral) course. Normally, to switch between device and simulator debugging requires going to the Project > Set Active SDK menu. Since I switch between said active SDKs almost every other build at points, the whole menu thing gets annoying. Luckily, it’s easy to put this drop-down menu in your toolbar in Xcode.