Post by thread:[OT:] Greetings from Masters 2004

I've had a few dspic courses now, but I didn't see anything all that new to report to the list. My perceptions have changed about the dsp engine though. I've been thinking that the real use of these was just a bigger faster mcu. They are quite a bit less dsp anemic than I first thought. They've done some pretty interesting things with these. The most fun was the dsp sound class. They've also got these running soft modems, 5 band eq's and a few other things in the demos in the mchip displays. I've just been using them as a fast "c" friendly pic --haven't been using the dsp for anything yet. That'll hafta change --there's a good deal of power available in that engine. Anyway, the conference is pretty cool... There have been a couple of classes that weren't up to the standard of some of the other presentations that I took. I've still learned a lot and had a lot of fun in the process. Microchip did a nice job. Does any other vendor do something like this --at the same entrance fee? I'm going to try hard to go next year as well. Have you noticed that the food has changed the last few meals? I think I recognized most of it --no Hopi-indian bread and mud baked turkey the last few times --Still really good though. Frys has good deals --but you need to catch them on a sale --I didn't see anything compelling either ((did the Las Vegas one on the way down). Played with the robots competition last night --didn't fail miserably, but didn't win a place either. It was fun. I also got to meet Olin Lathrop. A very nice guy in person. He's got some pretty varied interests. Anyway, I've met lots of NZ and other nationality folks here, but no one else I recognized from the piclist. There's always next year I suppose. -Dal {Original Message removed}

On Fri, 2004-07-23 at 20:33, picaccount wrote: > I've had a few dspic courses now, but I didn't see anything all that new to > report to the list. Hehe, today was dsPIC day for me too, every class was about it. One bit of "scoop": Mchip will be releasing their own Ethernet PHY/MAC with SPI interface! They are even considering adding it to one of their PICs. All I can say is: it's about bloody time!! :) > My perceptions have changed about the dsp engine > though. I've been thinking that the real use of these was just a bigger > faster mcu. They are quite a bit less dsp anemic than I first thought. > They've done some pretty interesting things with these. The most fun was > the dsp sound class. They've also got these running soft modems, 5 band > eq's and a few other things in the demos in the mchip displays. I've just > been using them as a fast "c" friendly pic --haven't been using the dsp for > anything yet. That'll hafta change --there's a good deal of power available > in that engine. Agreed. Mchip did a really good job today with convincing me that the dsPIC is more then just a super fast PIC, it is capable of doing some VERY interesting things. Unfortunately I just don't have much that needs that sort of stuff, but now that I know I'm sure I'll come up with something in the future. > Anyway, the conference is pretty cool... There have been a couple of > classes that weren't up to the standard of some of the other presentations > that I took. I've still learned a lot and had a lot of fun in the process. > Microchip did a nice job. Does any other vendor do something like this --at > the same entrance fee? I'm going to try hard to go next year as well. Course quality has been spotty for me. Some were REALLY good (the 4 hour Advanced signal processing with the dsPIC was an excellent hands on class, of course it might have helped me if I KNEW anything about the dsPIC before attending, but I still completed all the labs and learned allot). OTOH some were quite bad IMHO. The last one I took today was basically an ad for CMX's soft modem and TCP/IP stack. Now, while their products were interesting, it wasn't really a "course", more like a commercial. My reason for complaining is the course description was IMHO a little misleading on what the course would be about. Oh well. All in all my main problem has been over and underestimating how difficult a course is. Many of the courses I attended were a little on the simple side. My fault really, I guess I didn't rate myself properly when selecting courses. > Have you noticed that the food has changed the last few meals? I think I > recognized most of it --no Hopi-indian bread and mud baked turkey the last > few times --Still really good though. Agreed. Breakfast was very good this morning, as was lunch, we'll see what they have for us for dinner. > I also got to meet Olin Lathrop. A very nice guy in person. He's got some > pretty varied interests. Anyway, I've met lots of NZ and other nationality > folks here, but no one else I recognized from the piclist. There's always > next year I suppose. Actually I saw him too, I was in a rush and he was talking with a bunch of people so I didn't introduce myself. Of course, since I did play a part in his getting taken off the list maybe it's best I didn't say "hello"... :) TTYL ----------------------------- Herbert's PIC Stuff: http://repatch.dyndns.org:8383/pic_stuff/ -- http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us! email spam_OUTlistservTakeThisOuTmitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body

> -----Original Message----- > From: pic microcontroller discussion list > [.....PICLISTKILLspam.....MITVMA.MIT.EDU]On Behalf Of Anthony Toft > Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2004 9:57 PM > To: EraseMEPICLISTspam_OUTTakeThisOuTMITVMA.MIT.EDU > Subject: Re: [PIC:] Greetings from Masters 2004 > > > > So much for turning off all electronic devices when the cabin crew and > > flight crew requested it, eh? > > I have always considered this more of a 'get them off your laps and out > of the way in case something bad happens and you have to get off > quickly' if the laptop will cause no problems at 37,000 what's the > difference at 1,000 (except the pilot has a bit more time to work > through the problem) exactly that, at 100ft say if a glitch is put into some system somewhere that commands full elevator down. your all dead in a little under a second. given 15 seconds the pilot may well switch over to a backup or pray really hard. look at the cost risk benifit of it. cost, Basically nill, i mean its the most exciting part of the flight except possibly for watching a paticularly cute hostie walking the isles. Risk, instant death for you and several hundred others, big fines for non compliance, jail time perhaps (you could be a terrorist after all). Benifit, well not dying sounds pretty crash hot to me. > And cell phones get turned off to protect the people who invested in > those satellite phones as the plane is continuously flying through cell > phone signals. uhh have you seen what a mobile phone can do to a circuit? hell friend of mine used to leave his phone on silent in the libary at school (wernt sposed to have them on) and he would just put it near a monitor which ever computer he was on, when the screen flashed madly and danced around he knew he had an sms. listen to the ammount of crud that comes through a radios speakers even when the radio is switched *off* when the phone changes cell site. i'd rather it if you didnt pump that same crud into the electrical equivelent of foil and thousand mile an hour tape keeping my ass presurised and well oxygenated at just this side the speed of sound whilst remaning some stupid distance from the ground. {Quote hidden}> But this is just cynical old me! > > > > > At the (great) risk of starting up a thread I don't want to start, I'll > > just say -- perhaps you should take the people who are entrusted with > > your safety more seriously. (And if the thread continues, PLEASE move > > it to [OT:]!) > > > > Of course, if you followed the rules and your comment about mapping the > > "landing" really means that your fixes terminate about 20-30 miles from > > the airport, long before you passed through 10,000' MSL, then my > > apologies. > > > > I have mixed feelings about this. As an electronics hobbyist I have > > read a lot on the topic and realize that there's very little your > > portable GPS and laptop could do to an A-319, which has quite a bit of > > fiber in the fly-by-wire systems, and lots of modern-day shielding > > techniques. > > > > On the other hand, as both a pilot and an Amateur Radio operator who's > > done VHF/UHF direction finding and Aircraft Emergency Locator Beacon > > searches for over a decade, I've seen some VERY strange RF caused by > > "consumer grade" electronics devices doing things they "weren't > > supposed to do". > > > > Extra unaccounted-for RF during an approach and landing in a 200 > > mile-per-hour hollow aluminum and kevlar tube just doesn't seem like > > such a good idea to me. > > > > If you were a "good boy" and turned your toys off when you were asked, > > ignore me... but for those that leave them on -- think about it and > > turn them off next time, okey-dokey? > > > > Most PC's and hand-held GPS receivers spew all sorts of lovely crap > > when viewed with a spectrum analyzer. The only thing protecting the > > aircraft's electronic bits from your "transmitters" is a thin piece of > > plastic and the inverse-square law. > > > > Just how far ARE you sitting from the one avionics box the pilot needs > > to make a successful landing? Can you see the INOP flag from your seat > > in 23B? If not... turn off the gadgets. > > > > -- > > Nate Duehr, natespam_OUTnatetech.com > > > > -- > > http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different > > ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details. > -- > Anthony Toft <@spam@toftatKILLspamcowshed.8m.com> > > -- > http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different > ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details. -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.

Anthony, > From: pic microcontroller discussion list > [KILLspamPICLISTKILLspamMITVMA.MIT.EDU]On Behalf Of Anthony Toft > Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2004 9:57 PM > To: RemoveMEPICLISTTakeThisOuTMITVMA.MIT.EDU > Subject: Re: [PIC:] Greetings from Masters 2004 > > > > So much for turning off all electronic devices when the cabin crew and > > flight crew requested it, eh? > > I have always considered this more of a 'get them off your laps and out > of the way in case something bad happens and you have to get off > quickly' if the laptop will cause no problems at 37,000 what's the > difference at 1,000 (except the pilot has a bit more time to work > through the problem) Errr - ever heard of ILS? (Instrument Landing System) The aircraft receives patterns of radio signals from the ground and the instrument shows whether the aircraft is high, low, left, right or on the correct approach, and with a CAT IIIa approach it virtually lands the aircraft (pilot has to be able to see three runway lights to allow the landing to take place, but that's really poor visibility). Interference with that could cause a disaster, and having a radio-source nearby (eg inside the fuselage) may do just that. Nobody knows how it happened, but there was a near-disaster at Heathrow a few years ago when a 747 "following" the ILS came frighteningly close to landing on the row of hotels just north of the runway. The crew spotted it in time (but only just) and the captain was blamed for not dealing with it earlier, his career was ended and he committed suicide a few years later. I'm not saying that a mobile phone or laptop caused this, but the possibility is a really Bad Thing! On mobile phones, the cellular structure relies on limited range between the masts and handsets, and by going aloft you create the possibility of a handset being able to contact a large number of cells that aren't all expecting it to be "visible" at once, and can screw up the phone network. This is known to have happened in the early days, although the software may have been improved to stop this happening now. Cheers, Howard Winter St.Albans, England -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.