Interview with William Arthur

Featured Engineer

William Arthur

William Arthur - Young Electronics Hobbyist and Inventor

How did you get into electronics and when did you start?

I’ve always enjoyed taking old electronics apart. When I was about seven or eight I started programming text-based games in C++. Somewhere around that time I also got a Lego RCX kit. This really got me interested in robotics. Around age ten or eleven I found a couple of websites where people had pictures of some of the robots they had made from scratch. Up until that point I didn’t know there were hobbyists that did that sort of thing. I immediately wanted to build my own (and I did). My knowledge in electronics has grown from there.

What are your favorite hardware tools that you use?

My favorite tools are the multimeter and oscilloscope. They are often the only tools you will need to debug a circuit.

What are your favorite software tools that you use?

For schematic and PCB design I use Eagle. For circuit simulation I use LTspice.

What is on your bookshelf?

I only keep a few electronics-related books on my shelf as reference material. I’ve found “The Art of Electronics” and “ Teach Yourself Electricity and Electronics” to be the most useful.

Do you have any tricks up your sleeve? (special way to analyze circuits, special process you use to make something, etc.)

A simple LED can work wonders when you are debugging some code on a project. They work great for indicating the start or end of a process in your code.

What has been your favorite project?

None of my past projects really stand out as a favorite. I would have to say my favorite project is always my current one.

Do you have any note-worthy engineering experiences? (blowing up things, getting shocked, etc.)

I’m sure most engineers would like to say they have never made a mistake that has ended in them getting shocked or something getting blown up. The reality is it’s going to happen sooner or later. I made a small coil gun once; a very simple project, but it was still fun! It used a photoflash circuit to charge up a capacitor bank. The capacitor bank was then discharged through a wire coil wrapped around a plastic barrel which then propelled a metal projectile out the muzzle. In the process I accidentally shorted one of the 330v capacitors across my hand (ouch!).

What are you currently working on?

I always have a few projects that I am working on. The most note-worthy at the moment is a nixie tube watch. This project is still in its design phase as I am having trouble coming up with an efficient and small DC to DC converter that can convert 3.6v from the battery to 170v needed by the nixie tubes. For the microcontroller I have chosen the MSP430F169 due to its low power consumption and large amount of digital outputs. I have decided to not multiplex the tubes as constantly turning on and off nixie tubes can decrease their life. Of course this means shorter battery life. For the tubes I have chosen the IN-17 as they are some of the smallest nixie tubes that were made and are readily available. To decrease size, the watch will have only two digits. It will sense when you flick your wrist with an accelerometer and will flash the hours and then minutes. I’m hoping to keep the size of the watch at around 1.3×1.3 inches.

What new trends do you see in circuit designs?

People seem to forget that you don’t need a microcontroller for everything. Sometimes a simple 555 or a couple of logic gates will do the same job. In my opinion, it is much more fun to think about the circuit that you are designing, rather than to just slap a microcontroller into your design and write a few lines of code for it. Of course, there are many times when a microcontroller or FPGA is necessary.

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