A+ Certification is gaining a reputation as a new tool for employers to narrow the search for qualified employees. IGT has acknowledged this certification for not on the IT department employees but also the field service technicians.
This certification guarantees the basic knowledge that used to be included in entry level training. It certainly saves companies money not only in training but, depending on the position, some employees can begin being productive is a much shorter period of time. I wouldn't be surprised if it became a requirement for some PC related industries.
As technology moves forward faster each day, PC knowledge is quickly becoming a necessity in almost every job. Even if you don't work directly with the internal components of your PC, just knowing how it functions behind the cover is invaluable.
In addition to numerous PC industry related jobs, there are also endless numbers of people that own home PC's that are clueless about how they work. As I have found out, you could conceivably stay busy 24-7 just helping friends and family with their equipment.
My philosophy is "Keep it fun". If you work on or with PC's and it's just a "job", you might find that it gets old fast. If you find it a challenge and you enjoy a good challenge, then it's no longer just a "job". Doing something fun and challenging and getting paid for it is an awesome combination.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Friday, April 18, 2008
Mulitimeter
The multimeter is probably the bench technicians best friend. These instruments can be portable or bench top and range in price from a disposable $10 to over $7000. The older analog meters have all but been replaced with the digital devices and frankly I don't miss them. The analog were much more difficult to read and you always had to be aware of the range setting and the lead polarity. The newer digital meters are multi-ranging so you don't have the fuse issue you used to have. Not to mention bent needles and having to zero the meter before each use.
There is good news for analog fans though, they are affected less by RFI(Radio Frequency Interference). Unfortunately, I've never had an issue with this and I use an EMI receiver to test for radio frequency events rather than a hand-held meter.
The digital meters are also extremely accurate. I prefer the digital LCD over guessing whether the needle is between two points. I use an older Fluke 187. It's not the top of the line and I don't believe they even support that model any more, but I like the abuse it can take and it never complains. I also have the option of an IrDA connection to my PC which is invaluable for data logging on long tests. You can set several parameters and plot curves or graphs over any length of time. That saves me from hand logging test data all day.
The higher end Keithley bench top meters will run into the thousands of dollars but I think they are the best choice for critical measurements. The accuracy is phenomenal and assuming you can pry it from the engineers hands, make circuit analysis much more enjoyable.
The leads used on your multimeter can also play a big part in your measurement success or failure. The spring loaded retractable clip leads are my favorite followed by the extreme point probes depending on the application. I dislike the alligator clip leads as they have a tendency to pop off at the wrong time and land in the wrong place. A good set of leads is a must since chasing an open circuit with a broken probe wire will send you over the edge. Making this small investment and checking them frequently is my best advice.
There is good news for analog fans though, they are affected less by RFI(Radio Frequency Interference). Unfortunately, I've never had an issue with this and I use an EMI receiver to test for radio frequency events rather than a hand-held meter.
The digital meters are also extremely accurate. I prefer the digital LCD over guessing whether the needle is between two points. I use an older Fluke 187. It's not the top of the line and I don't believe they even support that model any more, but I like the abuse it can take and it never complains. I also have the option of an IrDA connection to my PC which is invaluable for data logging on long tests. You can set several parameters and plot curves or graphs over any length of time. That saves me from hand logging test data all day.
The higher end Keithley bench top meters will run into the thousands of dollars but I think they are the best choice for critical measurements. The accuracy is phenomenal and assuming you can pry it from the engineers hands, make circuit analysis much more enjoyable.
The leads used on your multimeter can also play a big part in your measurement success or failure. The spring loaded retractable clip leads are my favorite followed by the extreme point probes depending on the application. I dislike the alligator clip leads as they have a tendency to pop off at the wrong time and land in the wrong place. A good set of leads is a must since chasing an open circuit with a broken probe wire will send you over the edge. Making this small investment and checking them frequently is my best advice.
Docking Station
Docking stations are commonly used to connect laptops and other portable devices to peripherals such as printers, storage drives, and speakers. The new trend is away from the home and office environment and into your car, boat, motorcycle, and recreation vehicles. Some models allow hot swapping and some require the power to be off or require the system to be in standby to connect.
Another type of docking station is the port replicators. This allows the notebook user to connect to printers via a parallel port, USB device, ethernet, sound, and video (VGA and DVI) at a reasonable price. Port replicators can supply DC power and some have converters to enable you to use European voltages if you travel.
There's quite a market for the mobile docking stations these days. Law enforcement has cut hours of endless paperwork by processing reports right at the scene instead of at a PC at the station. They can now run my expired tags and issue me a slip, sending me on my way in record time. That's great!
Of course, MIL-STD has recommended specifications for the mobile docking station manufacturers. MIL-STD 810E and 810F were developed in conjunction with the Department of Defense and other government agencies which involve testing materials and components to insure they function in various environmental conditions. This would include variations in temperature, vibration, humidity, and impact. There are more tests but we get the idea. For a manufacturer to sell their docking stations and stands to the military and public safety departments, these devices must prove they can withstand difficult to dangerous operating conditions without failure.
Several companies offer the mobile docking stations with anti-theft devices but I'm still all for locking the equipment in the trunk.
Another type of docking station is the port replicators. This allows the notebook user to connect to printers via a parallel port, USB device, ethernet, sound, and video (VGA and DVI) at a reasonable price. Port replicators can supply DC power and some have converters to enable you to use European voltages if you travel.
There's quite a market for the mobile docking stations these days. Law enforcement has cut hours of endless paperwork by processing reports right at the scene instead of at a PC at the station. They can now run my expired tags and issue me a slip, sending me on my way in record time. That's great!
Of course, MIL-STD has recommended specifications for the mobile docking station manufacturers. MIL-STD 810E and 810F were developed in conjunction with the Department of Defense and other government agencies which involve testing materials and components to insure they function in various environmental conditions. This would include variations in temperature, vibration, humidity, and impact. There are more tests but we get the idea. For a manufacturer to sell their docking stations and stands to the military and public safety departments, these devices must prove they can withstand difficult to dangerous operating conditions without failure.
Several companies offer the mobile docking stations with anti-theft devices but I'm still all for locking the equipment in the trunk.
PDA
The first PDA I remember using was the early Palm Pilot. They could store meeting information, some short notes, had a calculator, address book, calendar, and a clock. Pretty basic. They were just one notch above the tape recorder and compared to the Black Berry, fairly barbaric.
With Bluetooth capabilities, Wifi, and IrDA, the Internet is accessible from virtually anywhere with the new portables. Gone is the stylus (still available) replaced by the touchscreens and very small keyboards, and the need to carry a brick cell phone.
Several options have been added to the PDA to adapt to car use as well. They have GPS (Global Positioning System) capabilities which are being installed in new cars and systems that can be added to the older cars. I personally enjoy having one when I travel out of town. I can't read a road map and drive unlike some of our out-of-town visitors.
The medical field is also benefiting from the new technology. The access to reference materials and patient chart updates have enabled some medical professionals to diagnose conditions and prescribe the most up-to-date drug treatments within minutes. Physicians can also dock their PDA and download an entire days worth of notes on patient visits, communicate with other physicians, or update their clinical database.
Updates for your PDA are as simple as downloading them from the Internet just as you would for your desktop PC. Many options for memory stick upgrades can be purchased as well as small keyboards. Newer models even have USB ports to connect directly to your desktop without needing a docking station.
The new touchscreens are even starting to incorporate the keyboards into the displays, but they are still new and have some accuracy issues. There are also some touchscreens that use translators attempting word recognitions for faster entry, but again they face accuracy issues. Given time, these will be standard features in the future.
With Bluetooth capabilities, Wifi, and IrDA, the Internet is accessible from virtually anywhere with the new portables. Gone is the stylus (still available) replaced by the touchscreens and very small keyboards, and the need to carry a brick cell phone.
Several options have been added to the PDA to adapt to car use as well. They have GPS (Global Positioning System) capabilities which are being installed in new cars and systems that can be added to the older cars. I personally enjoy having one when I travel out of town. I can't read a road map and drive unlike some of our out-of-town visitors.
The medical field is also benefiting from the new technology. The access to reference materials and patient chart updates have enabled some medical professionals to diagnose conditions and prescribe the most up-to-date drug treatments within minutes. Physicians can also dock their PDA and download an entire days worth of notes on patient visits, communicate with other physicians, or update their clinical database.
Updates for your PDA are as simple as downloading them from the Internet just as you would for your desktop PC. Many options for memory stick upgrades can be purchased as well as small keyboards. Newer models even have USB ports to connect directly to your desktop without needing a docking station.
The new touchscreens are even starting to incorporate the keyboards into the displays, but they are still new and have some accuracy issues. There are also some touchscreens that use translators attempting word recognitions for faster entry, but again they face accuracy issues. Given time, these will be standard features in the future.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Video Capture Cards
Video capture cards, or TV cards, are designed to be installed into PCI slots, PCI express slots, AGP slots, or USB. The internet is the most popular use for streaming video. Surveillance is another popular application. the analog signals can be converted to digital signals and stored with on a hard disk drive, CD, DVD, or other storage device.
Performance of video capture cards can be adversely affected by which type of mother board and CPU you're using. Care should be taken in selecting a card suited for your particular system.
Video editing can be accomplished with these cards and software designed to allow the rendering of the video. this also includes audio dubbing and some cards have more than one audio channel for more sound options.
For the laptops, these are USB, Firewire, and PC interface cards that can be used. They have the same functions but are designed more for portable systems. Some camcorders can actually output the video to the computer in digital format with some editing function built in.
I have dabbled in the video capture game only briefly but with good results. I have a Plextor USB digital video converter installed on my XP Home system. I've copied old home movies from VHS onto DVD and saved many hours of video that is quietly disintegrating in the box. There's limited sound on some of the tapes and the quality is awful. I've been able to clean up some of it as well as cut some useless video that might have been taken by the kids. Several minutes of feet and sky.
The Plextor unit does have some really bad limitations though. It apparently does not play well with Windows Vista. If you're going to invest in video capture and editing equipment, you should ask around to see what problems other people have had. You could spend a lot of money buying devices that say they work across all platforms but really don't.
Performance of video capture cards can be adversely affected by which type of mother board and CPU you're using. Care should be taken in selecting a card suited for your particular system.
Video editing can be accomplished with these cards and software designed to allow the rendering of the video. this also includes audio dubbing and some cards have more than one audio channel for more sound options.
For the laptops, these are USB, Firewire, and PC interface cards that can be used. They have the same functions but are designed more for portable systems. Some camcorders can actually output the video to the computer in digital format with some editing function built in.
I have dabbled in the video capture game only briefly but with good results. I have a Plextor USB digital video converter installed on my XP Home system. I've copied old home movies from VHS onto DVD and saved many hours of video that is quietly disintegrating in the box. There's limited sound on some of the tapes and the quality is awful. I've been able to clean up some of it as well as cut some useless video that might have been taken by the kids. Several minutes of feet and sky.
The Plextor unit does have some really bad limitations though. It apparently does not play well with Windows Vista. If you're going to invest in video capture and editing equipment, you should ask around to see what problems other people have had. You could spend a lot of money buying devices that say they work across all platforms but really don't.
Solid State Drives
Several companies, dating back to the late 1970's, designed various solid state drives. Storage Tek, Santa Clara Systems, Sharp, Amiga, and Apple were a few of the first. M-Systems designed the first flash-based device which we know as SanDisk now.
Solid state drives are seen by the system as just another drive. These drives are most useful in portable devices since there are no mechanical parts. They operate solely on semiconductor circuitry so there's no real danger in bumping the device. They mostly are produced using nonvolatile flash memory but some are produced with DRAM volatile memory.
As a cost reduction measure, flash memory devices have gone from NOR flash to single-level cell (SLC) NAND flash and multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash. Each chip is capable of being manufactured with more storage and uses about the same size footprint as older chips.
Solid state drives are faster and have lower access time since they have no moving parts, they use less power, make no noise, are reliable up to between 300,000 and 500,000 write operations, and take up considerably less room than a standard hard disk drive. There are down sides to solid state drives though. The price is still high, the storage space is low (but climbing), power disruptions and ESD are more hazardous, they will not necessarily last longer than a hard disk drive, and they have slower write speeds.
That being said, the future of hard disk drives is slowly being reduced except for large computer systems and servers. The development of longer lasting and larger capacity solid state devices are being pursued by many manufacturers and the cost is dropping accordingly.
Solid state drives are seen by the system as just another drive. These drives are most useful in portable devices since there are no mechanical parts. They operate solely on semiconductor circuitry so there's no real danger in bumping the device. They mostly are produced using nonvolatile flash memory but some are produced with DRAM volatile memory.
As a cost reduction measure, flash memory devices have gone from NOR flash to single-level cell (SLC) NAND flash and multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash. Each chip is capable of being manufactured with more storage and uses about the same size footprint as older chips.
Solid state drives are faster and have lower access time since they have no moving parts, they use less power, make no noise, are reliable up to between 300,000 and 500,000 write operations, and take up considerably less room than a standard hard disk drive. There are down sides to solid state drives though. The price is still high, the storage space is low (but climbing), power disruptions and ESD are more hazardous, they will not necessarily last longer than a hard disk drive, and they have slower write speeds.
That being said, the future of hard disk drives is slowly being reduced except for large computer systems and servers. The development of longer lasting and larger capacity solid state devices are being pursued by many manufacturers and the cost is dropping accordingly.
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