Embedded Computing Design

Since I purchased a DSLR camera several years ago, I’ve been fascinated with taking good photos. This has paid off with (hopefully) better photos of my family and recreational pursuits, but has...

You may have heard the phrase in sales, "always be closing," conveniently abbreviated "ABC." As a MakerPro, I don't think that phrase, though easily a...

Nixie tubes, if you haven’t heard of them, are display devices that look like vacuum tubes, but are actually filled with gas. When electricity is applied to one of the characters inside, it...

Perhaps I should start this article off by talking about my "free" dog, Evie. My wife and I adopted her at no cost when she was few weeks old, and she...

If you grew up in the 1980s (or likely earlier) and were interested in technology whatsoever, you probably thought lasers were pretty awesome. Portray...

When I worked as an engineer in manufacturing, an important part of my job was designing fixtures to help others do their job better. 

If you're reading this, it's likely you grew up with video games, or at least have been exposed to them for the last 30 years or so. 

So you've made something that you think the world - or at least a small segment of it - would be interested in. In other words, you want to go from Ma...

When I'm inspired to make a new project, the last thing I want is to wait several days to make it. 

Recently I constructed an "infinity mirror," a mirror configuration with lights inside that appears to stretch to infinity. 

As a MakerPro, if you have a product or service to offer, Maker Faires can be a natural fit for promotion. Though they vary greatly in size and audien...

As a MakerPro, you likely sometimes produce things for your own use or entertainment. However, you usually have ideas that are good enough to share wi...

Air-powered, or pneumatic, machinery has long been a staple of automated manufacturing. Able to deliver an incredible amount of force at a high speed,...

About three years ago, I was introduced to something called a StrandBeest. This mechanism, which can be translated from Dutch as beach monster, involv...

When I think of the term MakerPro, I think of someone who has established his own business based on being extremely good at what people most consider...

In March of this year, I quit my engineering job at a medium-sized company to work for myself as a technical writer and consultant. People sometimes c...

Lots of people have ideas for new inventions or devices. In my case, I've found that most of them aren't really viable, but a few could be commerciall...

Machine vision systems from companies like Cognex, Keyence, Banner, and others are used to check the quality of parts that an assembly line produces....

In 2004, I graduated with a mechanical engineering degree, and, like most of my classmates, knew a bit of programming, mostly using BASIC and MATLAB....