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My mind whirls- full of ideas, thoughts, things to say. But when I speak, when I try to explain, I stumble over words and am left completely misunderstood.

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RIP Dear Ozzy!

Thank you for everything, Ozzy. Always in our hearts, along with your music.

I'm going to miss you 🤍.

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My Country

I love my country,

not for its politics

or even its lousy economy,

but for its natural beauty ,

it’s vast wilderness

and for the wonderful people,

but only the ones I like.

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Me!

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Commodore 128

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This little fellow was waiting by my car for some food maybe.

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Work in progress.

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That Atari needs some retro brighting, and what's it doing with a Commodore 1702?

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Static Mesh - Unreal Engine

A Static Mesh in Unreal Engine is a 3D model that consists of a fixed (non-deformable) geometry. It is one of the most common asset types used in game levels and scenes for things like walls, props, furniture, weapons, and more.

Key Characteristics of Static Meshes:

Non-animated: Unlike Skeletal Meshes, Static Meshes don’t have bones or animations (they don’t bend or move).

Efficient for rendering: Static Meshes are optimized for performance and are heavily used in environments.

Can be instanced: You can place many copies of a Static Mesh using Instanced Static Meshes to save memory and boost performance.

Used in many tools: They’re used in Foliage mode, Level design, Blueprints, and Procedural systems.

Use Cases:

Buildings, trees, rocks

Weapons, cars, barrels

Static props in indoor and outdoor environments

Example:

If you import a 3D model of a table (say from Blender or Maya), it becomes a Static Mesh asset in Unreal Engine. You can then drag it into your level and place it anywhere you want.

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3 Most Recommended Software Packages for the Electronics Hobbyist.

🔧 1. 3D Modeling for Engineering & 3D Printing

✅ Fusion 360 – Personal Use License (Free for hobbyists)

Why: Excellent parametric CAD tool for mechanical/engineering parts. Fusion 360 also has built-in STL export for 3D printing and includes simulation and CAM features.

Strengths:

Parametric design (great for precision parts)

Freeform modeling for enclosures

Cloud projects, version control

License: Free for non-commercial/hobby use

Platform: Windows, macOS

👉 https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/personal

🖥️ 2. PCB Design & Schematic Capture

✅ KiCad (Free and Open Source)

Why: Industry-capable toolchain for schematic capture and PCB layout. Supports multilayer boards, differential pairs, 3D viewer, and Gerber generation.

Strengths:

Active development and large community

Great library support and custom footprint creation

3D model viewer of final board

License: 100% free, no restrictions

Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux

👉 https://www.kicad.org

⚡ 3. Circuit Simulation

✅ SimulIDE (Free & Real-Time Visual Simulator)

Why: Lightweight, easy-to-use, real-time simulation of microcontrollers and analog components. Run .hex files, test digital and analog circuits together.

Strengths:

Visual layout with live feedback (LEDs blink, motors spin)

Supports AVR (e.g., ATmega328), PIC, basic 8051

Good for testing circuits without physical hardware

License: Free and open source

Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux

👉 https://www.simulide.com

Alternate for purely analog simulation:

✅ LTspice (Free from Analog Devices, great for analog/switching power supply design)

👉 https://www.analog.com/en/design-center/design-tools-and-calculators/ltspice-simulator.html

✅ Final Recommendation Overview

PurposeRecommended ToolWhy It's Great3D Printing (CAD)Fusion 360Precise mechanical design, STL export, free licensePCB DesignKiCadPowerful, open source, industry-level featuresCircuit SimulationSimulIDEReal-time microcontroller + analog simulation

If you're doing advanced firmware testing (e.g. STM32 or ESP32), you could add Renode or QEMU later on.

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Unreal Engine Game Design - What I've Learned So Far

Man, it's damn hard. I'm saying that learning the concepts of creating materials, textures, landscapes, height maps, packed textures, UV coordinates, etc., is very difficult to learn and retain, especially for someone that's a novice like me. So, what I've learned so far is how hard it is. But, am I giving up. Nope.

I'm doing the assignments, exams and projects and scrapping by, but I will go through the material again at a very slow pace and learn and understand each tiny concept bit by bit, until I become great at it.

The only downside to this as that it will take me much longer to learn all the theory than I originally thought. Yes, I could probably get by with understanding concepts at a very high level and then winging it when I need to, but that's not my style. I remember things well when I fully understand the concepts and the theory.

This will be a grand adventure and a mighty challenging one, but I'm in it all the way. Here's to many cigars and liquor along the way.

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10 posts!

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https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/blog/use-thevenins-theorem/

How to Calculate Load Current and Voltage with Thevenin’s Theorem – Keep It Simple

There are a variety of methods available to analyze complex electrical circuits. These include Mesh Analysis, Nodal Analysis, or Kirchhoff’s Circuit Laws. The problem is when you’re designing a DC power network, you’ll have a load whose value will change as your design process unfolds. Rather than having to recalculate the current and voltage of your entire circuit each time your load changes, you can simplify this process with Thevenin’s Theorem. This blog’ll look at simplifying any complex linear circuit into a single voltage source and series resistance. From there, we can use our Thevenin equivalent circuit to calculate our current and voltage quickly. Let’s Begin.

What is Thevenin’s Theorem?

Like all other mathematical and scientific theories/laws, Thevenin’s Theorem was invented by the man himself, Léon Charles Thévenin. Thévenin was a French telegraph engineer born in Meaux, France. After his time in the corps of telegraph engineers, he was appointed as a teaching inspector at the École supérieure de télégraphie in 1882. It was here that he became interested in the measurement of electrical circuits. At that time, he used the two available methods – Kirchhoff’s Circuit Laws and Ohm’s Law.

In an attempt to make complex circuit analysis easier for every engineer, Thevenin developed his now famous Thevenin Theorem. This theorem reduces complex circuits into simplified Thevenin equivalent circuits.

Thevenin’s Theorem states that you can take any linear circuit, which can contain several emfs and restrictive components, and simplify the circuit into one voltage source adn series resistance connected to a load.

Why use Thevenin’s Theorem?

In this case, a linear circuit is one that includes passive components like resistors, inductors, and capacitors. However, if you’re working with a circuit that includes gas-discharging or semiconductor components, then you have a nonlinear circuit. This is not what Thevenin’s Theorem was suited for. So why use this theorem for linear circuit analysis?

Efficiency. Thevenin’s Theorem provides an easy method for analyzing power circuits, which typically have a load that changes value during the analysis process. This theorem provides an efficient way to calculate the voltage and current flowing across a load without having to recalculate your entire circuit over again.

Focus. Thevenin’s Theorem also provides an efficient way to focus your analysis on a specific portion of a circuit. This allows you to calculate the voltage and current at a specific terminal by simplifying the rest of the circuit with Thevenin’s equivalent.

For example, check out the circuit below. Here we have resistor R2 as our load. We want to calculate the voltage and current flowing through this resistor without having to use a time-consuming analysis method like Branch Current, Mesh Current, etc. each time the value of the load resistor changes.

To make this easy, we can use Thevenin’s Theorem to remove the load resistance and voltages. We then simplify the rest of the circuit as a single voltage source and series resistance. In this simplified Thevenin Circuit, the two resistors R1 and R3, along with secondary voltage B2, are all simplified into a single voltage source and series resistance. As far as the load resistor is concerned, the simplified voltage and resistance will operate the same as our original circuit. Now we just have two simple variables to work with in our calculations.

Thevenin’s Theorem in Action

Let’s take a look at an example circuit and calculate the current flowing through a load resistor between two terminals. The process for analyzing a DC circuit using Thevenin’s Theorem requires the following steps:

Find the Thevenin Resistance by removing all voltage sources and load resistor.

Find the Thevenin Voltage by plugging in the voltages.

Use the Thevenin Resistance and Voltage to find the current flowing through the load.

https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/dccircuits-dcp16.gif

Step 1 – Thevenin Resistance

First, we must remove the 40 Ohm load resistor connecting terminals A and B and all voltage sources. Doing this will provide an open circuit at zero volts, leaving just the two resistors wired in series.

https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Resistance.jpg

https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/TheveninVoltage-1.jpg

Step 2 – Thevenin Voltages

This current of 0.33 amperes (330mA) is common to both resistors, so the voltage drop across the 20Ω resistor or the 10Ω resistor can be calculated as:

(VTh=Voc=Vab)

Our current to calculate the voltage drop, which is:

VAB  =  20  –  (20Ω x 0.33amps)  =   13.33 volts

or

VAB  =  10  +  (10Ω x 0.33amps)  =   13.33 volts, the same.

Step 3 – Load Current

https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/equivalent.jpg

https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/TotalCurrent_Equivalent.jpg

https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/TestCircuit_Final.png

Remember the three-step process:

Find the Thevenin Resistance by removing all voltage sources and load.

Find the Thevenin Voltage by reconnecting the voltage sources.

Use the Thevenin Resistance and Voltage to find the total current flowing through the load.

Keep It Simple

Planning to design a DC power circuit? Chances are you’ll be incorporating a load whose value will change during your circuit analysis. Rather than having to recalculate the entire circuit each time you change the value of this load, you now have Thevenin’s Theorem to make your job easy.

This theorem allows you to take any complex linear circuit with a variety of resistive components and EMFs and simplify it into a Thevenin equivalent circuit. With this simplified circuit, you can easily calculate the total current and voltage flowing through a load. This is a huge time saver for any engineer who needs to analyze circuits for power designs and other complex applications efficiently.

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Commodore 1571 Burst Mode

Burst mode on the Commodore 1571 is a high-speed data transfer feature that significantly increases the disk drive’s communication speed with the host computer—but only when used with the Commodore 128 in 128 mode.

Burst mode on the Commodore 1571 is a high-speed data transfer feature that significantly increases the disk drive’s communication speed with the host computer—but only when used with the Commodore 128 in 128 mode.