What suits you?

[Electroenthusiast]

We've had a wonderful thread about the Member's education level. At times, I get a feeling that there are lots of different branches or different field in electrical engineering. If I ask you, you may say that you are an electrical engineer or an hobbyist, and now is the time for you to let know what field you are in.

Ex: You may be a programmer, or an hardware designer or both. Or even, something else too. Tell us what you are, help us find our liking. Of course, it would help people like us who are just into books.

 

[Ian Rogers]

I am classed as an embedded electronic engineer.... Both programming and electronic design.. I also design the mechanical systems that we use.... ( I also make the tea when necessary )

 

[ronsimpson]

I do mostly hardware. Play with software.
Love power supplies, video, audio, test-machines of all kinds, and anything strange.
Help with mechanical systems.
I am willing to do coffee but no one is willing to drink it.

 

[cowboybob]

I've always considered myself an Electronics Technician, i.e., I don't design the components, but I make use of them in the repair and/or alteration of existing circuits, as well as the creation of unique custom circuits, both as a professional and as a hobbyist.

I can also make my own coffee and count backwards from 10... ...

 

[MaxHeadRoom78]

I've always considered myself an Electronics Technician, .

A year ago I couldn't spell Electronics Technician, Now I ARE one!
M.

 

[JimB]

Now retired, but over the years I have been....

An electronics technician (tied to a bench all day)
An electronics technician (wandering around a shipyard)
An instrument technician (wandering around a gas terminal)
A computer service engineer (wandering around an oil terminal)
A project engineer (mostly loosely tied to a desk, but with daytrips to meetings with clients)
A commissioning engineer (two weeks offshore, two weeks at home)
A trainer (mostly in the office but lots of wandering around the UK and abroad)

Coffee?
Get it yourself, I don't drink coffee!

JimB

 

[MaxHeadRoom78]

I was an Industrial Electrical and Electronics Technician that also did Engineering, latter years retro-fitting and designing CNC/PLC and motion control systems, mostly involving servo's of all kinds.
Max.

 

[Ian Rogers]

I was a motor mechanic for a good few years specializing on auto electrical work... I hated it.. This is why I retrained and got myself a degree in EE.... This is why my roots are mechanical!!

 

[JoeJester]

I am an electronics technician

as a high school student:
Field Service Technician for a TV repair company (in home repairs back in the vacuum tube days)
Technician in the engineering department of a class D radio station and engineered remote broadcasts and week night talk shows. I managed 40 hour work week while attending secondary education.

joined the service:
Electronics Technician doing maintenance, repair, and major overhauls
Instructor duty twice
Designed a course of instruction
Section chief in the school supervising the instructors
Supervisor in a major repair depot
Officer in Charge at Loran-C stations, twice
retired from military

radio station contract maintenance and emergency repairs
repaired computers

cabin fever killing:
tax preparation w/a major tax company

As a retiree, I dabble in whatever that strikes my fancy to keep the one brain cell in proper orbit including, shooting pool, participating in four forums, two electronic related, two military.

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

I fall into the jack of all trades, master of none category. You can pick a subject and I may know something about it. HVAC (EPA certified small appliance and auto AC). Ductwork design. Help put an AC in a house in my teens. Automotive: put an AC in a car from a box, replaced a clutch, steering rack harmonic balancer etc. No formal training. Workig on cars since pre-teens. Small engine: Dad said, you break it, you fix it. I through a rod in my early teens. Rebuilt engines from crankcase up.

Making better is always my mindset. So at 15 before I had a driver's license i had a car. A severely broken one (wrecked).
A 1968 model car got 18 miles per gallon. Electronic ignition retrofit, carb rebuild, head rebuild.

A home drainage system design. I have a general 4 year Engineering degree. 2 years in EE and a 2 year AAS degree with a 4.0 GPA. So, thermo, strength of materials, relativity, solid state physics are all in the cards.

So, I spent most of my employment, making measurement systems, doing measurements in a semiconductor electronics lab and maintaining electronics in the said lab. Anywhere from high power high voltage to very small currents to RF 1000 W power supplies. Played with system that generated 100 kV @ 0.1 A and 13 kV at about 2 Amps DC. And system that used 1e-12A and 100 V. Light bulbs that take 40 kV to start and 22V 40 A to run.

Then there is mechanical design and construction having full machine shop access. I was basically trained by the shop personnel. I can't set up systems for welding, but I do nearly perfect welds once set up (MIG/TIG and stick)

Glassblowing and sealing stuff under vacuum is also in the cards. e.g. I basically have the skills to seal a CRT neck or vacuum tube although have never done it.

when our cheap SEM became unserviceable via contract. I did it. I set up a fairly decent EDAX unit using a plug in card and a multi-channel analyzer.

Then don;t forget the maintaining of PDP-11 micro-computers (the PDP-1 mini-computer was another life) and various programming languages. In the 80's a Direct Digital Control system written in Fortran using a real-time OS was a big deal. 7 PID loops and recipes.

And a fair amount of stuff with vacuum systems and pumps. e.g. 1e-9 Torr. Fingerprints matter at that range.

I put together a very comprehensive semiconductor gas safety system which actually worked when the lab blew up.
A1500 lb pressure burst of hydrogen was released into an plexiglass hood by accident, someone thought the Hydrogen cylinder was empty and released 1500 lbs of hydrogen in a line rated for vacuum. No evidence of fire. A safety device failed.

Really had the mindset to look at whatever I'm doing with safety first. You don't always have the ability to evaluate what went wrong in a disaster. It's much better to pre-plan.

Redesigning was hard. My part was somewhat easy. Expand to real hood velocity meters instead of toys. Install the hydrogen alarm that was sitting in a box (per management) and make the valves controlling the cylinder pneumatic rather than direct electric.

The hydrogen explosion destroyed the velocity sensors and shut the gases down at the cylinder. This happened during a cylinder change operation,

It doesn't even touch the surface. Built custom instrumentation. Custom mechanical stuff.

 

[DerStrom8]

I've bounced back and forth between electronics and software for pretty much my entire life. My last three jobs were:

-An electronics lab technician at a university in Boston, MA doing equipment repair, parts organization, distribution of components to students for their labs, as well as office-related odd-jobs (stocking/repairing printers, running between labs, etc)
-An application developer for a branch of ADP (payroll company) that handles recruitment process outsourcing, designing web-based programs to assist in retrieving and storing candidate resumes and job information, as well as a variety of smaller utilities (statistics and metrics monitoring, etc)
-An Electrical Engineering Technician and PCB designer for a branch of Fujifilm that develops industrial printheads

I enjoyed all three, and when I'm at one I miss the other two. I am currently at Fujifilm and still try to do software on the side for fun.