Uploads from jurvetson, tagged electronics

Stretchable Electronics

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Sat, 05 May 2012 13:59:53 -0700

jurvetson posted a photo:

Wrapped around this cardiac balloon catheter are temperature and EKG sensors and LEDs. The wires are stretchable coils.

It is manufactured with a lift-off MEMS process. The etched silicon is then stretched and attached to a polymer backing. Silicon usage is minimized over the substrate and the ensemble is quite flexible, to survive inflation and deflation of the balloon.

Opening a Satellite

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 16:40:34 -0700

jurvetson posted a photo:

For each satellite, they build two copies – one that flies, and one that remains for ground testing and troubleshooting.

Needless to say, these custom electronics modules are quite expensive with a unit volume of two.

This LVPS “B” Board from the Spacecraft Electronics Module is a low voltage DC-DC power supply. The designer is proud to say that it’s small, quiet, and extremely efficient, using both resonant and non-resonant topologies.

RHESSI is the first space mission named after a NASA scientist. It takes multi-spectral images of the explosive energy release in solar flares. RHESSI is referenced in a thousand publications and is the first satellite to image the gamma rays of a solar flare. It also imaged the gamma ray flash of a thunderstorm on Earth, and found that they happen more often than cosmic sources. (wikipedia)

iCloud Fail

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 10:52:06 -0700

jurvetson posted a photo:

Not Apple, but Yahoo trying to report on the iCloud announcement and getting overwhelmed. =)

Which reminds me of Sten’s pointer on fB: Is Nokia Worth Less than Skype?

I especially like the poetic quote from Horace:
"this is the end game of disruption. It ends much more suddenly than it begins. It’s the consequence of nobody noticing the beginning that makes the end so shocking."

Financial markets go positively non-linear in the face of unprecedented hyper growth, but have they reconciled the terminal values of accelerating decline?

It also reminds me… has there been a good long-term VC investment in a consumer electronics company since Apple? (a company that has retained billion dollar value for decades…. Thinking about the waves of game consoles, cell phones, handheld computers, and gadgets…).

And a reasonable argument can be made that the resurgence of Apple from near death came via integrated innovation across software and services.

Frenchy Electronique

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Wed, 12 May 2010 16:16:46 -0700

jurvetson posted a photo:

Las Vegas Night Lights

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 17:32:09 -0800

jurvetson posted a photo:

The new City Center towers above the older Vegas, with the Luxor pyramid still shining bright....

Experimental LOC Launch – 2

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 11:30:08 -0700

jurvetson posted a photo:

Preparing the avionics. For the LOC IV, we used the simple tilt sensor seen at the bottom, to electronically ignite the black powder ejection charge after apogee. Since I am flying an experimental motor with an uncharacterized thrust curve, I can’t estimate in advance how long of a delay to use from launch to apogee. So the magnetic tilt sensor can sense when the nose cone starts to point downward, and can pop the chute. (it’s important that the rocket not fall over between arming it and launch =) This avionic package was pulverized into rubble in the flight right after mine as that rocket did a ballistic nose dive into the playa. We recovered all the little bits, even the blue capacitor.

Above it is the more sophisticated MC1 motor controller, prepping for insertion into my Firestorm54. It logs altitude with a barometer and triggers the smaller drogue chute ejection charge at apogee with an accelerometer (since the barometric readings become irregular at the Mach transition). It uses the barometric sensor to deploy the main chute when the rocket slowly falls back to 800ft. altitude.

It interfaces to a PC to give a flight log. So I know that I broke 10K ft. with my Firestorm54 on an Aerotech K185 long-burn motor, and my friend Erik used it to successfully break Mach1 with his Vertical Assault on a K695 redline motor.

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What’s That? (65)

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 12:32:21 -0700

jurvetson posted a photo:

Puzzle Series: What is this, or what do you want it to be?

We are long overdue for a puzzle, and I may need some help explaining this one…

Lab Tour

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Fri, 19 May 2006 09:14:37 -0700

jurvetson posted a photo:

En route to New York, I stopped in Denver to visit a molecular electronics company.

Lab coats and latex are still the vanguard of geek chic

Windows

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Fri, 26 Aug 2005 16:39:59 -0700

jurvetson posted a photo:

…a visual metaphor for Vista awaits….

This is a molecular memory chip. The memory arrays self-assemble in the colored regions from a bath of chlorophyll-like molecules (blog)

SLAC@Home

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Sat, 08 Jan 2005 15:05:20 -0800

jurvetson posted a photo:

A found object. =)

Inspired by the original here on Flickr.

Naked Kodak DC4800

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Mon, 27 Dec 2004 11:47:56 -0800

jurvetson posted a photo:

I was wondering why this camera is so bulky - no flex circuits. Five circuit boards are stacked on top of each other! The connectors between each layer are a possible point of failure (as Apple learned with the Apple ]|[).

What’s That? (#104)

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:04:30 -0800

jurvetson posted a photo:

Puzzle Series: What is this, or what do you want it to be?

Commercial Tornado

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 21:27:39 -0800

jurvetson posted a photo:

hark.... some giant sucking sound....

Canoes in the Desert

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 17:20:50 -0800

jurvetson posted a photo:

"Big Edge" by Nancy Rubins

Aria

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 17:26:06 -0800

jurvetson posted a photo:

The newest hotel in Vegas.... seemed Frank Gehryesque

Virtual Dealer

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 17:16:34 -0800

jurvetson posted a photo:

Seen at the newest casino in Vegas...

Each player’s seat has stereo speakers, so she can talk to you…. Always perky and polit…

Wonder how the dealers union feels about this?

Nosecone Prep

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 18:11:00 -0700

jurvetson posted a photo:

Gene Nowaczyk put an incredible amount of work and craftsmanship into this machined metal rocket. Video camera, x-ray measurements (for atmospheric air quality), avionics for GPS, barometric pressure, accelerometer and other sensors, telemetry…

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malicious code

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Fri, 01 Jul 2005 09:22:44 -0700

jurvetson posted a photo:

Code

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Tue, 21 Jun 2005 15:42:57 -0700

jurvetson posted a photo:

Digitalker

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Thu, 28 Oct 2004 21:14:19 -0700

jurvetson posted a photo:

A wire-wrap artifact from a dusty shelf.

This is the backside of a 68000-based computer with some speech synthesis hardware.