Author Archives: engineerzero

About engineerzero

Once and future engineer.

Timesense, a science fiction novella

Posted on July 7, 2018

Free July 7-8 on Amazon Kindle: For millennia the starship voyaged from Sirius to Sol. It seemed as dead as any sterile asteroid drifting between the light years. Nothing moved within the frames of its unlit portals. Aside from the … Continue reading →

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The Ten Million Ton Space Elevator

Posted on June 15, 2018

Carbon nanotubes are often assumed to be the sole viable material for the construction of an Earth-based space elevator. However, carbon nanotubes in the lengths required for construction of a space elevator remain a laboratory curiosity. Is there an alternative … Continue reading →

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Graph of IQ vs. US Household Income Percentiles

Posted on May 24, 2018

Here’s a graph that I made of IQ vs. US Household Income percentiles.  In other words, I looked up the percentiles for IQ and cross-referenced them with the percentiles for US Household Income. Of course, financial status is a function … Continue reading →

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Structures: Or Why Elon Musk Recommends This Book

Posted on December 3, 2017

Elon Musk has provided us with a list of fourteen favorite books that inspired him, and amid fantasy novels such as Lord of the Rings and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein is a … Continue reading →

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Multi-mode pen light: ATTiny85 with RGB LED

Posted on September 26, 2017

This is a bread board prototype of a multi-mode pen light. It shines white, red, green, and blue light. Intensity is adjustable. Strobe, emergency flasher, ‘psychedelic,’ and candle simulation functions. It’s powered by a USB phone battery charger pack and … Continue reading →

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Beyond the Blink: RGB LED multiple lighting effects with arduino, push button, and potentiometer

Posted on September 11, 2017

Ever want to do more with an LED than just blink? This circuit and source code demonstrates some creative possibilities for lighting effects with an RGB LED. CC has descriptive subtitles. Sorry for the poor phone video quality. Here’s a … Continue reading →

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Making a flickering candle with an RGB LED and an ATTiny85 chip

Posted on August 24, 2017

Normally you don’t use an ATTiny85 to drive an RGB LED, because an RGB LED needs three pulse width modulation pins and the ATTiny85 only has two.  However, for the application of a flickering candle, you need only two PWM … Continue reading →

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