Zero volts reference, also known as ground is always a confusing topic. What if ground is placed at different locations in a circuit? In this 11 minute and 42 second video I use PSpice to show what happens when you move a ground around in a series circuit.
Want to learn more? I’ll be teaching a Systems 1 course online in the fall and a Systems 2 course in the spring at Holyoke Community College. If you are anywhere in the world and interested in taking an online course with me drop an email to gsnyder@hcc.edu Both courses will transfer to most university electrical engineering programs in the United States. Hope to see you there!!
Here's a second PSPice video covering analysis of a simple series circuit with two dc voltage sources and four resistors.
Want to learn more? I’ll be teaching a Systems 1 course online in the fall and a Systems 2 course in the spring at Holyoke Community College. If you are anywhere in the world and interested in taking an online course with me drop an email to gsnyder@hcc.edu Both courses will transfer to most university electrical engineering programs in the United States. Hope to see you there!!
Over the summer I’ll be working on a series of OrCAD PSpice videos. PSpice is one of the most common analog and mixed signal circuit simulator and verification tools used by electrical engineers to rapidly move through the design cycle, from circuit exploration to design development and verification. It is also a lot of fun to play around with!
OrCAD has an excellent academic program that provides students and educators with a complete suite of design and analysis tools to learn, teach, and create electronic hardware.If you are a student or educator you can download the software here for free and follow along with my labs. If you are not a student or educator (or perhaps considering) you can download and install a trial version of the software here.
I’ll be teaching the Systems 1 course online in the fall and the Systems 2 course at Holyoke Community College in the spring so if you are anywhere in the world and interested in taking a course with me drop an email to gsnyder@hcc.edu Both courses will transfer to most university electrical engineering programs in the United States. Hope to see you there!!
Likely, at least in part, due to the 1973-74 oil embargo (I
turned 16 in 1973) followed shortly by the second oil crisis in 1979 (the year I graduated from
college) I’ve always had a passion for small economical cars. My first new car purchase in 1980 was a Chevy
Chevette (remember those?) that I babied and coddled – always Mobile 1 synthetic,
washed, waxed…….. until the motor blew up in 1982 on Route 128 in Massachusetts
one morning during rush hour……. I can still picture the motor parts in the rear view mirror...... I had the motor replaced (Chevy was great about that) but I continued to have problems – the car was so poorly designed and built it was literally falling apart. Swearing off American cars for life it
was Japanese autos after that – a couple of Datsun (now Nissan) vehicles, a
Honda and then a couple of Toyota products.
Well, these days nothing lasts forever and I’ve actually been
looking at couple of Chevy electrics – the Volt and the Bolt. I’m especially
impressed with the Bolt, the car General Motors has been using the past few years as its primary
autonomous-driving testbed. Last week GM unveiled the latest version
of the Bolt, with an EPA-rated 238-mile range and a
base price of $37,495. Looking at older autonomous model Bolts - the lidar units
were mounted on roof mounted rods and the car had sensors stuffed into drilled and
cut holes in the body. The new autonomous Bolt has sensors hidden in the bumpers and
fenders and the lidar unit is hidden in the roof rack. The new model appears to
be a huge step up.
How did GM move so fast? The company acquired San Francisco
startup Cruise Automation last year for $581 million. Cruise Automation was started
by Kyle Vogt and he came along with the acquisition to head up GM’s
automation efforts. Vogt has an interesting background, having cofounded Twitch, a streaming
service used by video gamers to watch others
play video games. Amazon bought
Twitch in 2014 for $1.1 billion and Vogt was on to his next big idea,
originally thinking his new company would develop portable driverless software
that could be attached to almost any vehicle. First experimenting with Audis
and Nissan Leafs, he realized it would be much easier to build the technology
directly into a car’s onboard controls and the Bolt was the only car suitable to
do that.
Cruise Automation headquarters remains in San Francisco and, with GM
backing, Vogt has grown the company from 40 software and mechanical engineers
to over 400. He’s also bought lidar maker Strobe, claiming this will cut spending
on laser gear 99 percent.
GM has big plans for the Bolt, intending to use them as the
backbone of a robo-taxi business it plans to start in 2019.
Thanks for visiting. I'm Gordon, past National Science Foundation Funded Centers of Excellence Director and Co-Director at Springfield Technical Community College and University of Central Florida, past Visiting Engineering Professor at the University of Hartford, currently an Adjunct Professor at Pace University and an Engineering Professor at Holyoke Community College in Massachusetts. I’ve authored four engineering and engineering technology textbooks and have over 40 years of engineering, technology, communications and IT teaching experience. In addition to my teaching and work with NSF Centers of Excellence, I've served as the Verizon Next Step New England telecommunications curriculum leader and on several business and technology boards around the United States including the Microsoft Community College Advisory Council, the Massachusetts Networking and Communications Council and the National Skill Standards Board.
I am one of the co founders of the Hi-Tec Conference that annually brings 500-600 academic, business and industry representatives to explore the convergence of scientific disciplines, engineering and technologies.
In 2001, I was selected as one of the top 15 STEM faculty in the United States by Microsoft and the American Association of Community Colleges and in 2004 was selected as the Massachusetts Network and Communications Council Workforce Leader of the year.
I am also certified by the International Distance Education Certification Center as a Certified Distance Education Instructor.