Alex
January 2, 2024
July 24, 2022
Alex designed a printed circuit board for an audio amplifier by himself. On July 24, he put the components onto the printed circuit board he designed for the audio amplifier -- after spreading the paste over the solder stencil. Some of the components are much smaller than a grain of rice. He then put the PCB with the components into his toaster over from Goodwill and got the components to reflow solder. Alex then had to take care of a few solder bridges on the audio IC. Lots of flux helped from a flux pen. Then some normal soldering of components and then the moment of truth. Amazingly, it worked, given the sheer number of things that could have gone wrong! Good sound too! There is a video of the moment of truth at the end of the photos.
Video of Alex getting the audio amplifier working.
November 24, 2019
November 23, 2019
November 22, 2019
November 20, 2019
November 19, 2019
November 12, 2019
February 16, 2019
Alex made a robot at HCC Robotics club over the past several weeks. The robot runs a simple Python program on top of Raspberry Pi, controlled remotely using VNC with a simple python program using a $5 toy car, a L298N motor controller board, a USB power bank, and some miscellaneous bits.
Alex showing his robot to fellow HCC Robotics members.
February 3, 2019
Experiments with a green laser.
December 1, 2018
Alex placed 4th out of 29 teams at the Texas CoderZ CRCC competition in Rockwall, Texas.
October 21, 2018
Alex decided he didn't like that his hobbyist power supply fan only came on when the power supply was driven really hard. So, he took the case off, snipped the fan wires and put in a side channel, low-speed circuit with a couple of resistors in parallel with the bi-metal temperature-switched path. The fan will still go to full speed when the power supply driver gets too hot.
April 7, 2018
Texas A&M Physics Festival
April 6, 2018
March 25, 2018
March 20, 2018
March 19, 2018
March 17, 2018
March 9, 2018
March 3, 2018
March 2, 2018
February 24, 2018
February 9, 2018
February 6, 2018
February 4, 2018
February 3, 2018
February 2, 2018
January 25, 2018
January 18, 2018
January 13, 2018
January 7, 2018
January 2, 2018
December 28, 2017
December 24, 2017
December 23, 2017
December 21, 2017
December 12, 2017
December 9, 2017
August 6, 2017
August 4, 2017
Alex and I brought six electronic demos for Take Our Sons and Daugters to Work Day.
July 29, 2017
Alex received an early present for his birthday: a Tesla coil! It can make music.
July 4, 2017
Alex demonstrates that you can transmit sound with light.
July 1, 2017
Alex's entry to the Flashing Light Prize 2017
March 25 16, 2017
Alex used a class-D amplifier, an old iPod box, and some parts from Radio Shack to create his own amplifier. He then hooked it up to some salvaged speakers he put in some cardboard boxes. It worked the first time.
March 16, 2017
March 13, 2017
March 12, 2017
Alex wanted to know what salt and salt water did to an electric motor.
February 26, 2017
December 30, 2016
December 25, 2016
December 24, 2016
December 19, 2016
December 15, 2016
December 10, 2016
December 8, 2016
December 7, 2016
November 15, 2016
Simple calculator in the Scratch programming language
October 16, 2016
Alex and I built this soldering fume extractor. A 20 foot dryer duct vents to a panel that fits in a window.
September 9, 2016
Lego Differential Gear with Motor
August 27, 2016
Alex built a Lego rope crawler with a little help from dad.
July 31, 2016
Alex received a 50 watt and a 100 watt LED array. Here he is testing one of them at 25.8 volts driven by an adjustable boost converter.
June 9, 2016
I have no idea what was going on here. Alex with some... friends.
June 3, 2016
Alex won a Parrot Jumping Race drone.
More photos:
- May 2015-May 2016
- Jan-Apr 2015
- Sep-Dec 2014
- Mar-Aug 2014
- Sep-Dec 2013
- Jul-Aug 2013
- May-Jun 2013
- Mar-Apr 2013
- Jan-Feb 2013
- Nov-Dec 2012
- May-Oct 2012
- April 2012
- Mar 2012
- Jan-Feb 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010 trip to Colorado
- July 2010 trip to Wisconsin
- May-June 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- January-February 2010
- November-December 2009
- October 2009
- July-September 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008 trip to Washington
- July 2008 trip to Wisconsin
- June 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- 2007 Summer Vacation
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- December 2006, Christmas
- October and November 2006
- August and September 2006
- At the hospital
- In utero