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Simon PTH Video and a Few Other Bits and Pieces
A new tutorial on how to remove layers in Eagle, plus a helpful Simon PTH Video, and check out the new ad we shot!
Check out this video by our very own Chris Rojas!
This is one of our first tries at a video tutorial so let us know what
you think. This clip will guide you through making your own Simon PTH kit.
Eagle PCB is our go-to program for PCB design. There is a non-profit version that will let you design a few layers, and then a professional version that will let you design boards with up to 16 layers. This is great if you're building a motherboard, but for our general purposes, 16 is way too much. To make matters worse, Eagle assumes we want to work with 16 layers. Um, no thanks. So we wrote a tutorial on how to remove the extra layers.
Lastly, we shot a new ad! Keep an eye out for our next ad in MAKE Magazine, Servo, Circuit Cellar, Elektor, or Nuts and Volts. The ad features Steven Kennedy - a high school teacher in upstate New York that uses embedded electronics as material for a class. It's awesome to see high school kids playing around with electronics. Check out the video for more on Steven and his classroom!
It's not so awesome to see another all male group in the photo. With women way outperforming men in college these days we have to get more involved in engineering and science early (we also have to get more men in college).
We most definitely do! Almost ten years ago I was the only girl at my local robotics camp and it sucks to see that it has been so slow to change.
Great ad! I wish I'd had electronics in high school. If I'd have jumped into engineering earlier in life I may never have had to worry about meeting a woman that would actually talk to me, paying for a wedding, kids... Life would have been so much easier. :)
When my daughter brought home a 555 timer board she had soldered and got working, my eyes welled up with tears. Engineers aren't usually associated with emotion, but I really got choked up when I saw what she had made. I knew she was at the right high school.
I'm glad to see some high schools returning to trade related activities. Most high schools used to offer electronics classes, usually focusing on radio electronics. By the time I got to high school those programs had all but vanished.
So, you're saying that when you got to high school you had those programs?
Looks good! Though I hate to be a jerk, Orchard Park is really in Western New York. I'm not sure why but it seems like it's common for people to think our neck of the woods is upstate. Anyway I hope programs like these continue to be adopted at more high schools.
Great video! Considering this is a video & kit geared towards 1st time solderers, you might want to show how to identify/avoid cold solder joints.
I love when high schools implement an actual engineering course, it really lets the students explore their creativity and build something they can be proud of.
Very nice video by Chris, it is encouraging me to try myself some soldering.
Thanks.
No Way! this is my high school Way to go OPHS.
they have a come a long way. if they had offered this 10 years ago there would have been a lot more electrical engineers in college. glad to see it.
Cool!!! I always wanted to build a Simon game just like this one. I didn't go to a high school that had electronic courses or clubs so, I was pretty much on my own in learning electronics. But anyway, I love the tutorial would make a good beginners project. Can't wait to buy one.
That's great to see that teachers are starting to do these kinds of things at a high school level. I would have loved to have a class like this at my school, but the opportunity was just never there. I ended up taking programming instead for 2 years (which is still fun), but this would have been a lot cooler.
Oh well, off to University next year :D
The video method of tutorial ROCKS because it allows for a single point of information that can be paused and replayed while still covering all of the build critera. Way to go. Oh and a picture is worth a thousand words and a video is hundreds of pictures so....
Great video! Do more just like it. You covered just enough to gain interest in the product without being boring. You may want to consider doing an indepth solder techniques video.