CCS has a full meeting schedule for the beginning of the new year.  We will be at the following meetings:

• Houston Technology Center’s Life Sciences Acceleration Committee – Jan 21 at noon.
• IEEE Houston Consultants Network General Meeting – Jan 21 at 6 PM.  RSVP with us.
• NASA-area LabVIEW Users Group – hosted by Travis McCarty from NI at the NASA Gilruth Center at noon on Jan 22.  Register at NI’s website for free.
• Rice University’s 2014 Annual Corporate Reception – Feb 26 at 6 PM.

If you are attending any of these events, we hope to see you there!  As always, we’d be glad to discuss you application any time via our Contact Us page.

When specifying the values of components, a few tips:

• You specify the value for the part, not the units.  Example: for a 10 ohm resistor, enter “10” for the value, not “10 ohm”.
• Make use of metric prefixes (listed below) to specify value.  Example: for a 1000 ohm resistor, you can enter “1000” or “1k”.
• The metric prefixes are not case sensitive

Valid metric prefixes in LTSpice (from Linear’s Getting Started Guide):

The most common error is to use “M” for megaohms.  You have to use “Meg” instead.

When viewing a graph, you can attach a cursor to a trace by clicking on the trace’s name:

Attaching a cursor to a trace allows you to see the exact value of the graph at the cursor point.  This is handy for finding -3 dB location, Vgs threshold, etc.

Left-clicking will attach a cursor to the trace.  Right-clicking brings up a menu that allows you to change the attached cursor(s) or remove them.  The menu also allows you to change trace color, or change the node the trace represents.  You can even change the trace into an algebraic expression.  For example, V(n001) – V(n002) would make the trace display the voltage at node 1 minus the voltage at node 2.

When trying out a new circuit concept, it can be time-consuming to breadboard and troubleshoot the design.  SPICE-based simulation tools can help reduce the time it takes to tweak a design idea, reducing the time spent doing physical debugging.

Many companies offer SPICE packages with various features, ranging in price from free to thousands of dollars.  Linear Technology offers a powerful free SPICE package called LTSpice.  Since it is free, it can be taken with you wherever you work without worrying about licensing costs.  Linear has continued supporting it for quite a while, making it my preferred simulation tool.

In this series of articles, I will give some getting started tips I learned from my experiences with LTSpice.  I will also link to articles I found helpful for advanced topics.  Get started by visiting Linear’s website and downloading LTSpice.

The next meeting date for the IEEE Houston Consultants Network (HCN) is Tuesday January 21st at the Looscan Houston Public Library at 2510 Willowick, starting at 6:00pm.

Samuel Terry, who is one of the IEEE HCN board members, will be the presenter.  Mr. Terry will be discussing ARC FLASH HAZARD. Following his presentation, there will be a short Q & A with audience participation. Discussion of past experience with arc flash issues from the audience will be encouraged.

Note that snacks and refreshments will not be provided, as they are not allowed in the library. Attendance at this event may be used for one hour PDH credit for your TBPE continuing education requirement. Certificates will be provided.

Tommy Cooper is the chairman for the IEEE HCN group.  For more information about the group, please visit our Contact Us page and drop us a line!

Tommy Cooper recently attended the Greater Houston Manufacturers Association dinner.  The group ate on board the historic M/V Sam Houston boat as it cruised the channel, heard a presentation about the Houston Ship Channel, then had reception for networking.

Tommy is on the board for the Gulf Coast Medical Device Manufacturers (GCMDM), which is a division of the GHMA.  For more information about the group or to discuss your medical device production needs, please visit our Contact Us page and drop us a line!

On November 19th, Tommy Cooper presided over the IEEE Houston Consultants Network (HCN) annual business meeting.  Two new board members were elected, and board member Richard Gillette gave a presentation on EMI/EMC design guidelines.

Tommy is the chairman of the IEEE HCN group.  The group brings together Houston-area consulting engineers to network and share technical expertise.  If you would like to learn more about IEEE HCN, please visit our Contact Us page and send us a message.

CCS is proud to introduce our newest team member, David Iglesias!  David comes to us from a start-up where he was instrumental in the development of a diagnostic medical device with wireless data transmission.  He completed his MS degree recently, and taught programming classes at the University of Houston while working.  Quite the busy guy!

David has experience with software & firmware, as well as hardware & integration.  We hope to have a short bio for him on the Our Team page soon.  Please join us in welcoming him to the team!

Our friends at Tietronix recently invited Gulf Coast Medical Device Manufacturers (GCMDM) members into their office to see some of their latest technology demonstrations.  Very cool stuff!  Among the demos were augmented-reality training tools, a live update system for the International Space Station, and Liquid Galaxy, which is an immersive Google Earth app with a metadata overlay and many other features.

CCS regularly attends GCMDM events, so we would be happy to meet you at one to discuss your engineering needs!

National Instruments will be hosting its yearly conference, NIWeek, August 5-8 at the Austin Convention Center.  As an Alliance Program member, we plan to attend and see all the slick new products they will be introducing.

Let us know if you are attending as well and would like to discuss your project with us!