thomasjb

Used Hameg scopes are common and fairly inexpensive, as they were used a lot in schools (at least in my area), and their manuals are very good for learning about oscilloscopes.

To hook up your 1/4" signal, add a splitter to your output, and use one side to drive whatever you're outputting to, and the other side to measure the signal on the oscilloscope. Ready made 1/4" to BNC adapters are available, so you don't even have to use oscilloscope probes

Location: Dublin, Ireland (moving there when I graduate)

Remote: Not preferred, I like electronics labs

Willing to relocate: To areas in East of Ireland

Technologies: Basic Python and C++, mbed, Altium designer, Oscilloscopes, Logic Analysers, Digital Video test equipment, basic Linux sysadmin, HTML, VHDL (Quartus and Modelsim) and CAD (Solidedge and Solidworks)

CV: thomasballantine.com

Email: thomas@thomasballantine.com

Hi, I'm Thomas, a Masters Electronic Engineer, graduating June 2023. I have experience in electronics test (including IC design validation) and a little in Electrical control systems. I aspire to working on FPGA systems of any kind, but would also be keen to explore RF and DSP work, or embedded Linux.

There's no compelling reason why you couldn't have your rails embedded in the roads, most likely for light tram-type vehicles in denser urban areas, although you could go heavier if you like. Then you can have both wheel and rail transport together.

As you're putting up pantographs for the trams, there's no reason to not also have trolleybuses using them. When you have a network density built up to less than 5 minutes walk to the nearest tram/trolleybus stop, with a good timetable for daytime, there is little reason to have any private transport for within-town transport. Add provision of freight carrying by tram (use passing loops and specially designed trams for carrying pallets or delivery cages) and the number of vehicles with good reason to be in the town decreases further.

As you get into lower density areas, it makes more sense to go for links between towns and villages by rail, with ICE or electric buses feeding in. There should be no more than 15 minutes walk for normal users to reach a bus stop (Note: all bus stops should be very nice, with roofs and walls that keep the rain out). In all rural and urban cases, there should be the option of an app or call button which summons a battery minivan (or trolleybus in suitably served areas) to a person's door at anytime, with confirmation after the length of time for estimated collection is received. Automated scheduling systems with 24 hour service for dispatching electric minivans at reasonable cost to the end user to a location would remove the need for a lot of car journeys.

The thing is, none of this requires new technology, and could be marketed as a jobs program alone. Automating parts would be nice, but there's no reason this couldn't have been done anywhere in say, 1920.

This would be rather useful in remote locations which find themselves with surplus plastics (remote islands with no landfill options for example), surplus renewable electricity and big old diesel engines. Those are unusual circumstances, but they are out there, and if there were organisations willing to fund the electricity aspect, the issue of plastic litter could be reduced in many places (and that includes ghost nets and other seaborne plastic). The resulting oil could pay back some of the cost of production, and be sold at a discount to the heavy diesel engine users in the area, on the condition that they uprate their emissions equipment. This may or may not have helpful effects in local markets.

What's your perspective on sustainable biomass usage such as pollarding and coppicing, and bringing energy usage inline with that which can be fueled by them, in addition to small scale wind?

A wood pellet heater can be a fairly complex item, for a backup (depending on what usage frequency backup entails) a wood fired furnace might be more suitable if the owner is happy with having to add fuel every once in a while.

Myself, I would like a ground source system that lets me store in heat from an oil fired AGA, a wood burning furnace and water heater panels on the roof.

Possibly using something comparable to the German Flaschenpfand[1] system? I'm unsure of how to develop a suitable packing system that would be machine-friendly, possibly wooden crates packed with shredded cardboard packing. The lid could be press-in cardboard, something like that used in tinfoil food storage boxes, but reliant on the cardboard bending to get past the lip and into the region where it is secured. Alternately, a suitable slide-in wooden lid with a stopping peg inserted and sealed with a wax-type substance could be used (as per [2], with the addition of a sealing peg setup). Sealing wax would probably be used in the cardboard variant also.

[1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flaschenpfand [2] https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wooden_Matchbox_E_...

It is available [1] as a core for FPGAs (possibly used in some obscure ASICs to boot), and it is very possible that those applications need fairly current support. The ColdFire processors came in up to 300MHz, and modern FPGAs could probably enable even higher speeds. There are variants with Ethernet [2], so security is probably a real concern.

I would very much like to learn how to get one 1) running on an FPGA 2) running Linux and then 3) set it up to automatically run new builds.

[1] https://silvaco.com/design-ip/embedded-processors/ [2] https://www.farnell.com/datasheets/1703092.pdf

In what case is a long haul really required? Other than specialist superheavy or extra wide/long loads, everything should be on a train for those long runs. Modalohr [1] wagons make it very easy, although I have seen a specialised forklift setting semi-trailers onboard [2] trains in Rotterdam. This sort of handling is probably ripe for automation (there is a standard for the trailers, add some tags for computer vision and work on it from there). I saw something recently about a Modalohr-esque system to put hooklift containers on wagons for local waste collection in Switzerland.

My personal dream is that not only is port to industry fully on rails, but local distribution is rail-oriented also, to the point that a significant proportion of deliveries to shops in cities are made using pallets or trolleys loaded on freight trams. I do understand that the unusual nature of America makes this sort of change nigh-impossible, but maybe they could ship their semi-trailers on trains?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modalohr (second picture shows it best) [2] As in this image: https://forwardermagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Pic...

Location: Dublin, Ireland (moving there when I graduate)

Remote: Not preferred, I like electronics labs

Willing to relocate: To areas on East coast of Ireland

Technologies: Basic Python and C++, mbed, Altium designer, Oscilloscopes, Logic Analysers, Digital Video test equipment, basic Linux sysadmin, HTML, VHDL (Quartus and Modelsim) and CAD (Solidedge and Solidworks)

CV: https://cloud.thomasballantine.com/index.php/s/4L3tcfDTWSbRQ...

Email: thomas@thomasballantine.com

Hi, I'm Thomas, a Masters Electronic Engineer, graduating June 2023. I have experience in electronics test (including IC design validation) and a little in Electrical control systems. I aspire to work on embedded control systems, but would also be keen to explore RF and DSP work.