My name is Albert and I am a Hardware Systems Engineer. I was wondering what kind of classes people would be interested in taking if I taught them.
Soldering.
How to use test equipment.
Analog Design.
Digital Design.
Schematic design and PCB layout.
FPGA design.
Microcontrollers.
Robotic kinematics and control.
Software Defined Radio (SDR)
Any other topics y’all can think that would be interesting. Even if it is not a full class I can come up and discuss whatever niche thing you want your project to do. I am looking to help you make your project electrically successful.
Just let me know what you think.
I’ve had some experience as an engineer and as a technician so I’ve been on both sides.
I’m probably not your intended audience, and most of these would be beyond me, but I’d take some of them anyway just to learn something new. My experience is mostly breadboarding or soldering pre-made kits and writing trivial programs for Arduino or Pi.
Hey @MassDisregard, as a fairly new member of Asmbly myself, I think all of your class ideas are great! Asmbly already offers a Microcontrollers class that you can probably augment but your suggestions for Kinematics and Software Defined Radio are definitely dope. Have you already pitched/emailed the Teaching Group (classes@asmbly.org)? Lastly, the test equipment class would be nice!
I’m new to all things electrical so I think I’d need you to explain what you mean by analog vs digital design. We talking the difference between designing with a software tool vs by hand or something?
So when I says analog vs digital I mean 12 precision and higher vs 1 bit (simmer down sigma delta converters). I really mean VHDL, Verilog and FPGAs vs making a measurement you can look back on and go within a tolerance that your measurement was absolute. Digital tends to oversample, which is great but analog really looks at the bleeding edge of absolution.
This might not help but I plan to have an office hours policy where people can come in and ask these kinda questions. I love teaching and collaboration so let me know day or night when I can be of assistance. I work hybrid so I can usually accommodate your schedule.
Feel free to reach out. I love this collaboration.
I love the idea of some more advanced classes, first and foremost.
One of the things that has kept me from digging deeper into electronics and such is a lack of projects; if I don’t use what I learn, I lose it. In the case of your listed topics, I would love to know all of those things, but I don’t know where I would apply them.
My suggestion would be to take those topics and turn them into projects/pitches that can be, at least mostly, completed in a 2-3hr class. It would be helpful to have documentation to allow a student to finish the project on their own time at the makerspace afterwards as well in case the timebox is too tight.
That way students can have the instant gratification of a new completed project while also applying what they learn
Not sure of Austin specifically, but I know Bluebonnet and Pedernales receive their data through the power lines. They are able to send and recieve data from the meters. This keeps them from having to drive to collect your usage
Also how they know when your power is out, or how they shut down your power remotley. If I had to guess, the meters are all probably the same.
I believe Austin uses wireless data to recieve your water usage from their smart meters, and a car drives the neoghborhood collecting it.
Pedernales has teased for a while of provided interent over their power lines, which would help bring hard kine internet to the country folk.
