7 Daily Habits of Exceptionally Successful People (Success)

Interesting article in "Success":

Success breeds success. Take these tips to improve your life:
  
Exceptionally successful people…

1. Plan each day with purpose and action. Sunday night gets a bad rep because it means having to face another week, back on the treadmill, spinning the wheel once again. Successful people plan their days (yes, even Sundays) different, better, more exciting, more purposeful, more meaningful. Tony Robbins says action without a higher degree of purpose is a waste of time. How much of your life are you designing?

2. Step outside their comfort zone. Successful people thrive when they are stretched beyond what they think they can handle5. They consistently push the boundaries of what’s possible and don’t accept settling. This means stepping outside our comfort zone and questioning the world around us, looking for opportunities to constantly improve. How long have you been in your comfort zone?

3. Surround themselves with smart people. Some of the world’s trailblazing entrepreneurs, such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson and Mark Zuckerberg, had a solid team around them from the beginning—they knew their team was crucial to their success. Collaboration allows you to refine your thinking and challenge yourself and be challenged. We become the average of the five closest people we surround ourselves with. Who are you spending your time with?

4. Focus on the big picture. Focusing on details allows you to track results and make improvements based on facts, not guesswork. But sometimes, we get lost in the doing and forget the building and creating. If you are not designing and creating a better life for yourself, who will? Never lose sight of the big picture and always work on your why. 

5. Get the job done. It’s human behavior to procrastinate. High achievers have developed laserlike focus when it comes to getting things done. At times they can be obsessed and selfish, often making sacrifices most of us would not be prepared or willing to make. Prioritize better; set aside time to focus on your goals list, not your to-do list.

6. Refuse to take no for an answer. When you’ve hit a wall, it’s easy to consider that the end of the road and tend to give up. Only the most stubborn among us will persevere long enough to climb the rest of the mountain. Think of the Wright brothers trying to get people in the air. Can you imagine what their peers said? Today we can’t imagine a world without planes. What’s your dream?

7. Never stop learning. One of our great capacities is the ability (and urge) to learn. Unfortunately, most of us stop actively learning once our formal education stops. We allow ourselves to remain stagnant in our careers and personal lives. One of my mentors, Dale Beaumont, once said, “If you are not green and growing, you are ripe and rotting.” How much of your week do you dedicate to learning? Success breeds success. Take these tips to improve your life. Challenge yourself on a daily basis. Never give up. Surround yourself with great people who will encourage you to move forward. 

IMS (IEEE MICROWAVE SHOW) 2016 SAN FRANCISCO

The recent IEEE Microwave Show in San Francisco's Moscone Center gave an excellent opportunity for me to meet with nine of our suppliers in one place: Owon, Windfreak, Telemakus, Triarchy, Rigol, Siglent, AnaPico/Berkeley, Teledyne LeCroy, and Pico Technology, as well as some customers who had booths. 

OWON: In addition to its value-priced oscilloscopes and powers supplies, Own demoed some new handheld DMMs that link with iPads etc. They feature datalogging; data can be downloaded later via BT. 

TRIARCHY - showed some as-yet unavailable products in metal housings and discussed plenty of product ideas for their future.  Their RF modules - spectrum analyzers and vector signal generators - are ideal for incorporation in larger products.

RIGOL - exhibited their complete range of high quality oscilloscopes, as well as some nice-looking new Nearfield Probes at $499 to go with their DSA range of spectrum analyzers.  

PICOTECHNOLOGY - showed the 9000 seriesTDR scopes and the new 2000B scopes.

WINDFREAK: The new (not yet released) SynthHD PRO will be based on the SynthHD but with a few updates: improved calibration for higher amplitude accuracy; re-calibrate at the Windfreak factory when needed or self-calibrate; milled aluminum case for better electrical performance and use in more rugged environments;70uS frequency step time (option) and even higher amplitude accuracy later in 2016; CE certification; easy stackability.  Price will be ~$2,000. 

ANAPICO/BERKELEY - have a new fast-switching unit that suit the radar market. 

TELEMAKUS also has a new product coming: an RF step attenuator in new larger aluminum housing that can simulate RF fading.  They have a potential customer for 50 pc orders!  Some of their products work on Ubuntu version of Linux.  All load in Windows as HID (human interface device) so drivers are already in Windows.  Telemakus RF modules can mix-and-match to make a custom RF test set-up that is GUI-driven and easy to use.

SIGLENT was showing the XPlus scopes that are MSO-ready, and spectrum analyzers - with hints of new products in the pipeline ... 

TELEDYNE LECROY showed not only the product range of high quality oscilloscopes we carry, but also very high-end, high-cost products too.

Next year the show is in Hawaii, but last time it was there - six years ago - this location brought fewer visitors and exhibitors.

I rounded my trip off with visits to the Google and Apple HQs.

International Microwave Symposium 2016

Next week is IMS week in San Francisco.  The IEEE MTT International Microwave Symposium (IMS) is the premier annual international meeting for anyone involved in aspects of microwave theory and practice. It consists of a full week of events, including technical paper presentations, workshops, and tutorials, as well as numerous social events and networking opportunities. The symposium also hosts a large commercial exhibition. Co-located with IMS2 are the IEEE RFIC and ARFTG conferences.

I'll be visiting the exhibition to meet with our suppliers:
  ANAPICO/BERKELEY        2015
  OWON                                2619   PICO                                    1957   RIGOL                                 2427   SIGLENT                             129
  TELEDYNE LECROY          1739   TELEMAKUS                     649
  TRIARCHY                          2545   WINDFREAK                     1120

Maybe I'll see you there?

Noise cancellation techniques reduce NVH.

ThePicoDiagnostics NVH Kit from Pico Technology is the cost–effective answer to the many NVH (noise, vibration, and harshness) problems facing technicians today. Providing real-time diagnosis to the technician in the form of either: a bar graph, a frequency chart, a 3D frequency chart, RPM order or road speed view. The ability to start the recording before a road test, and play back the recording for analysis on your return, ensures that driver attention remains on the road. Saving the recordings couldn’t be simpler: much like our other automotive software you simply save the file to your laptop’s hard drive.

But EETimes recently posted an article on how to cancel engine noise and enhance driving experience using noise cancellation techniques improve car audio, solving noise issues and reducing NVH.  It's here - http://bit.ly/1syaGc7

   

5 EMI RF Shielded Room Design Considerations

Interesting blog post from our supplier Select Fabricators:

As budgets continue to be scrutinized, design engineers and managers are looking into semi-permanent, temporary or mobile enclosure options including hard-wall relocation, modular units, and soft-sided tent enclosures. Here are five design requirement considerations for fabric-based EMI RF shielded room enclosures:

1. Existing Space: Will an existing structure be used to house an RF EMI shielded test enclosure? If so, custom sized semi-permanent or temporary full enclosures can be configured to meet the test standard and lab size. Design options include floorless, soft-sided RF shielded enclosures where a metal floor already exists or for low level shielding where equipment cannot be moved. When space is tight, a completely collapsible tent enclosure and frame free up needed space when not in use.

2. Design Cycle: How long will the test structure be needed? A week, a month, on-going? The shorter the time frame, a collapsible or semi rigid enclosure may provide needed shielding, easy disassembly, and storage until the next product design cycle. Another option is a semi-rigid or rigid frame which leaves the frame structure in place while the soft-walled RF enclosure is removed and stored. These options allow testing and may provide cost savings including recouped floor space, use at more than one facility and shared use between departments.

3. Shielding Effectiveness: What frequencies will be tested? What shielding effectiveness is needed to complete the testing at those frequencies? This will determine the amount of shielding necessary and can produce cost savings when included in the design specifications. Examples of Shielding Effectiveness (Select Fabricators’ room enclosure design):

• a. Single Layer configuration of floor, door, four sides, roof, and filter box using standard performance AC voltage line filter: -65 to -70 dB average from 150 kHz to 18 GHz
• b. Double Layer configuration of floor, door, four sides, roof, wall mounted I/O plate with high performance AC voltage line filter: -85 to -90 dB average from 150 kHz to 18 GHz

4. Controlling Entry and Exiting: A vestibule keeps the RF integrity of the test setup by controlling access. A larger size vestibule can be used as a control room where test equipment is calibrated. SFi’s double layer, soft-sided EMI shielding enclosure has -85.7 dB minimum shielding effectiveness from 400 MHz to 18 GHz when an internal vestibule design, high performance I/O plate, and AC voltage line filter are used. Most RF shielded enclosures have options for either an internal or external vestibule.

5. Size: Does the entire room need to be shielded? What size are the objects to be tested? What are the space needs for the test setup? A tabletop RF EMI enclosure or wireless RF testing pouch may be helpful for preliminary design testing. At the other end of the range, automotive and aerospace bay area modular RF enclosures can be custom sized as well as meet additional considerations, for example, anechoic foam installation to meet testing standards.

As time and budgets continue to contract, there are a number of new shielded room designs that make in-house shielded room enclosures more affordable. Deciding what is needed and necessary will make justification and sourcing more effective.

Not covered here are design considerations for I/O plates, anechoic foam, LED lighting, and ventilation, taking into account EMI/EMC requirements.

See HERE for more details of shielded enclosures or call us at 585-385-1750 ext2 to discuss your requirements!

Frequency Response Analysis? Yes, with PicoScope!!

Aaron Hexamer's powerful FRA4PicoScope app now works with the new PicoScope 2000A and 2000B oscilloscopes as well as most other PicoScopes. It uses the oscilloscope's signal generator to drive the circuit under test and produces a Bode plot of amplitude and phase response. The app was developed for testing the stability of switch mode power supplies (SMPS) but could also be used to analyze any amplifier or control system with a feedback loop.

Join the FRA4PicoScope discussion on Pico Tedchnology's forum:
https://www.picotech.com/support/topic14311.html

Download the code from Bitbucket:

https://bitbucket.org/hexamer/fra4picoscope/overview

Probe Terminology (from Teledyne LeCroy's Blog)

As oscilloscope users, we know that the probe is a critical element in getting signals from the device under test into the instrument. The ideal probe would have perfectly flat magnitude response and perfectly linear phase response across its entire frequency range. Unfortunately, that probe, though striven for by all oscilloscope manufacturers, does not exist.

What does exist is a good deal of confusion about what can be done to coax probes to behave more like that ideal probe. We often hear terms such as "calibration," "correction," "compensation," and "de-embedding" tossed around, often interchangeably. All of them do involve how the measurement system accounts for the probe's effect on the signal under test. But let's take a look at them and see how they actually differ in practice.

One possible approach is to employ a calibrated, precision instrument -- usually a vector network analyzer (VNA) -- to measure the probe's actual magnitude and phase response. With those measurements in hand, one might build a correction filter that removes the undesired effects of the probe's frequency response characteristics from the acquired signal.

Using a precision instrument to measure a probe's performance and making some adjustment (the correction) to its output to nudge it toward ideal performance is, by definition, a calibration. Why? Because it involves measurements made to traceable standards. The correction is but a part of this overall calibration process.

Then there's compensation, which should be familiar to anyone who's used a common bench oscilloscope and a passive probe. The probes usually come with a little plastic screwdriver. When you connect the probe to the oscilloscope, you use the little screwdriver to turn a trimmer capacitor on the probe's plug end. In doing so, you adjust the probe's output impedance to match the input impedance of the preamplifier on the input channel you've plugged it into.

With high-bandwidth oscilloscopes, the compensation process is a little different in that the probe correction and scope-channel correction are convolved together. As a result, the entire measurement system behaves in a very controlled fashion across the instrument's full rated bandwidth and even beyond.

These days, one will come across the concept of probe de-embedding. which involves accounting for reflections from the probe tip along the transmission line that it's connected to. Using models of the probe tip's loading impedance, the impedance profiles of the transmission line, and components in the circuit, one may account for reflections from components that travel back to the probe tip and affect measurements. Usually, the probe loading is enough that reflections from the probe are minimal, making the need for probe de-embedding a relatively rare one.