Personal blog covering software development, electronics, and technologyhttps://gerrysweeney.com/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/agileent-e3631a-power-supply-teardown-repair/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/agileent-e3631a-power-supply-teardown-repair/I recently bought a faulty Agilent E3631A bench power supply on e-bay which I thought would be a nice addition to my slightly excessive...Thu, 17 May 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/apple-27-imac-teardown-ssd-hack-and-2tb-upgrade/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/apple-27-imac-teardown-ssd-hack-and-2tb-upgrade/My 2010 27Thu, 17 Oct 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/apple-imac-27-dark-side-screen-failure-the-manufacturing-fault-apple-will-not-admit/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/apple-imac-27-dark-side-screen-failure-the-manufacturing-fault-apple-will-not-admit/I have been an Apple desktop user pretty much ever since they moved to the Intel architecture and I have been pretty pleased with my Apple compu...Sat, 04 Jan 2014 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/ai-code-and-the-emergence-of-product-creators/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/ai-code-and-the-emergence-of-product-creators/Exploring the transformative impact of AI on software development and the emergence of a new type of product creator.Tue, 07 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/are-you-a-software-developer-or-software-engineer/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/are-you-a-software-developer-or-software-engineer/I recently answered this question on [Quora](https://www.quora.com/Why-are-companies-moving-from-using-software-developer-title-to-using-softwar...Tue, 28 May 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/build-a-10mhz-rubidium-frequency-standard-and-signal-distribution-amp-for-my-lab/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/build-a-10mhz-rubidium-frequency-standard-and-signal-distribution-amp-for-my-lab/Having gotten myself a Rubidium Frequency Standard I found that the unit on its own is not that useful, its really just a component and needs re...Sat, 03 Aug 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/compare-video-quality-of-canon-hf-s21-side-by-side-sony-hxr-nx5/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/compare-video-quality-of-canon-hf-s21-side-by-side-sony-hxr-nx5/This is a quick post to demonstrate the video quality of two different cameras. This is not meant to be a side-by-side review and there is no as...Sat, 08 Jun 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/c-multiple-thread-concurrency-with-data-in-classes/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/c-multiple-thread-concurrency-with-data-in-classes/A practical guide to thread-safe class design in C++, covering copy-on-write with shared_ptr and mutex-based locking patterns.Mon, 13 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/diy-hpagilent-53131a-010-high-stability-timebase-option/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/diy-hpagilent-53131a-010-high-stability-timebase-option/Having obtained a reasonably reliable 10MHz lab reference (see [here](/blog/build-a-10mhz-rubidium-frequency-standard-and-sig...Mon, 26 Aug 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/10mhz-rubidium-frequency-standard-and-signal-distribution-amp-follow-up/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/10mhz-rubidium-frequency-standard-and-signal-distribution-amp-follow-up/This is a follow-up to my previous article [here](/build-a-10mhz-rubidium-frequency-standard-and-signal-distribution-amp-...Sat, 10 Aug 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/diy-hpagilent-53131a-030-3ghz-channel-3-option-board/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/diy-hpagilent-53131a-030-3ghz-channel-3-option-board/As part of the process of upgrading my counter to have a DIY high stability OCXO (Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator), someone who watched my vi...Fri, 26 Jul 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/five-decade-programmable-capacitor-a-low-cost-solution/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/five-decade-programmable-capacitor-a-low-cost-solution/As a follow-up to a previous blog post where I created a seven decade programmable resistor substation for use during electronic circuit prototy...Sat, 24 Aug 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/fully-programmable-modular-bench-power-supply-part-10/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/fully-programmable-modular-bench-power-supply-part-10/Well It’s been over three months since my last post so for those of you that have been following the project I am sorry to have kept you waiting...Mon, 14 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/fully-programmable-modular-bench-power-supply-part-11/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/fully-programmable-modular-bench-power-supply-part-11/Here is the latest Revison 0.4 schematic which represents the power supply design as described in this blog and videos with the latest round of ...Sat, 16 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/fully-programmable-modular-bench-power-supply-part-12/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/fully-programmable-modular-bench-power-supply-part-12/It took a while to decide on the final form factor, I wanted to consider cost and ease of mechanical construction before committing to a layout ...Thu, 04 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/fully-programmable-modular-bench-power-supply-part-1/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/fully-programmable-modular-bench-power-supply-part-1/After fixing a high quality power supply (see [here](/blog/?p=63) if you are interested) it spurred me on to have a go at des...Fri, 25 May 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/fully-programmable-modular-bench-power-supply-part-13/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/fully-programmable-modular-bench-power-supply-part-13/It's taken me a while since the last update, I have been real busy of late. Having completed the first physical build, I now need to make variou...Sun, 12 May 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/fully-programmable-modular-bench-power-supply-part-14/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/fully-programmable-modular-bench-power-supply-part-14/I said last time I would look at the software and firmware for this post but I decided I needed to spend more time on the regulator to address t...Sun, 16 Jun 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/fully-programmable-modular-bench-power-supply-part-2/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/fully-programmable-modular-bench-power-supply-part-2/Now the overall high level system design and parameters are set (see Part 1), its time to get down to some practical design. As I specifically d...Mon, 04 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/fully-programmable-modular-bench-power-supply-part-3/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/fully-programmable-modular-bench-power-supply-part-3/Previously in [Part 2](/fully-programmable-modular-bench-power-supply-part-2/) I created a simple regulator circuit using a pass device and an o...Fri, 08 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/fully-programmable-modular-bench-power-supply-part-4/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/fully-programmable-modular-bench-power-supply-part-4/After a fair amount of playing about, measuring and trying things I finally arrived at a working design. I am happy I have what I think is a goo...Thu, 14 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/fully-programmable-modular-bench-power-supply-part-5/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/fully-programmable-modular-bench-power-supply-part-5/I have set the regulator aside for a while, its time to turn to the control circuitry. However, before we get into the circuitry we need to do s...Wed, 11 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/fully-programmable-modular-bench-power-supply-part-6/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/fully-programmable-modular-bench-power-supply-part-6/In [Part 5](/fully-programmable-modular-bench-power-supply-part-5/) I talked about the target ranges that the PSU module should be able to suppo...Sat, 14 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/fully-programmable-modular-bench-power-supply-part-7/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/fully-programmable-modular-bench-power-supply-part-7/Now I have the requirements for the control ranges I need its time to get down to the nitty-gritty and get a DAC up and running so we can make s...Mon, 30 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/fully-programmable-modular-bench-power-supply-part-8/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/fully-programmable-modular-bench-power-supply-part-8/After my initial tests there are two things I now know for sure. The first is I cannot treat the DAC like a programmable voltage source, it's no...Fri, 17 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/fully-programmable-modular-bench-power-supply-part-9/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/fully-programmable-modular-bench-power-supply-part-9/After a fairly disappointing start with the 12-bit DAC from Microchip I have chnaged the DAC to a 16-bit resolution part [LTC2602](http://www.li...Sun, 09 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/galaxy-dimension-g3-520-intruder-alarm-upgrade-reduces-wasted-energy/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/galaxy-dimension-g3-520-intruder-alarm-upgrade-reduces-wasted-energy/I recently replaced my current intruder alarm system with a Galaxy Dimension G3-520. These alarm systems are quite advanced, professional intrud...Sun, 22 Sep 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/getting-better-quality-sound-for-your-video/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/getting-better-quality-sound-for-your-video/Whenever I am faced with watching a video with poor sound quality I feel compelled to stop watching. Its strange that with a media as visual as ...Mon, 01 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/goodbye-apple-imac-its-been-a-blast/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/goodbye-apple-imac-its-been-a-blast/I’ve been an iMac user for a long time, ever since Apple first switched to Intel processors. Over the years, I’ve bought several models, but the...Sat, 16 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/hp-339a-teardown/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/hp-339a-teardown/A piece of equipment I use rarely but when I do I find really useful is my HP 339A Distortion Measurement Set. Built in the 70's this unit has a...Mon, 08 Jul 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/hey-software-guy-how-long-will-that-take/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/hey-software-guy-how-long-will-that-take/I was inspired to write this blog post in response to a post I came across today on LinkedIn about sizing software projects. (link below). Sizin...Wed, 02 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/hp-53131a-frequency-counter-teardown-and-spillage-clean-up/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/hp-53131a-frequency-counter-teardown-and-spillage-clean-up/One of the instruments I have is a HP 53131A Frequency Counter, and putting the positives of this unit aside, its by far the most annoying bit o...Sat, 25 May 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/hpagilent-e3634a-power-supply-teardown-repair/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/hpagilent-e3634a-power-supply-teardown-repair/Over a year ago now I repaired a HP/Agilent E3631A triple output PSU and have been using it very often ever since. Recently I bought an Agilent ...Sat, 06 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/hpagilent-e3646a-power-supply-teardown-repair/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/hpagilent-e3646a-power-supply-teardown-repair/So I present the third in what is starting to feel like a long line of Agilent PSU repairs, but before you read on you should know that I have n...Tue, 16 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/hp-53131a-hard-power-switch-modification/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/hp-53131a-hard-power-switch-modification/Following on from my [previous post](/hp-53131a-frequency-counter-teardown-and-spillage-clean-up/Sun, 26 May 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/i-need-10mhz-how-hard-can-it-be/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/i-need-10mhz-how-hard-can-it-be/It all started when I wanted to calibrate my HP 53131A universal counter, which as it turns out probably has one of the crappiest and most disap...Mon, 24 Jun 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/is-net-the-holy-grail-of-software-development-in-the-modern-age-part-1/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/is-net-the-holy-grail-of-software-development-in-the-modern-age-part-1/I have spent the last 20 years of my working life involved with software development in some form or another. My first programming experiences w...Tue, 01 Jun 2010 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/is-net-the-holy-grail-of-software-development-in-the-modern-age-part-2/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/is-net-the-holy-grail-of-software-development-in-the-modern-age-part-2/I must first open this post by apologising for the long delay in my follow up to part one. It was pointed out to me by my social networks Kung F...Sat, 13 Nov 2010 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/keithley-2110-dmm-review-oh-and-puppies/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/keithley-2110-dmm-review-oh-and-puppies/A couple of months ago I joined the element14 community and decided to sign up for a Road Test which I did, for a Keithley 2110 DMM, I was not r...Sun, 15 Sep 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/maynuo-m9711-dc-electronic-load-unboxing-teardown-and-quick-test/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/maynuo-m9711-dc-electronic-load-unboxing-teardown-and-quick-test/I have been working on various power supply projects of late and was finding that my approach to loading PSU with simple incandescent laps was l...Thu, 18 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/low-cost-temperature-measurement/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/low-cost-temperature-measurement/As part of the [Fully Programmable Modular Bench Power Supply](/fully-programmable-modular-bench-power-supply/) project I needed to measure the ...Sun, 01 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/measuring-distortion-with-a-hp-339a-and-a-keithley-2015-thd/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/measuring-distortion-with-a-hp-339a-and-a-keithley-2015-thd/I have had my HP 339A for a long time now and despite only using it a small handful of times it is a really great instrument - but - its big and...Sun, 07 Jul 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/microchip-pic-chips-could-have-been-the-power-behind-arduino/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/microchip-pic-chips-could-have-been-the-power-behind-arduino/So before I get underway, this article is about Microchip PIC micro-controllers. Please understand - I don't want to get into a flamewars with A...Wed, 15 Jan 2014 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/my-e3634a-mystery-explosion-wtf/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/my-e3634a-mystery-explosion-wtf/This is a short follow-up to a video where I was recently testing a Mayyuo M9711 DC Electronic Load ([See Here](/maynuo-m...Sat, 20 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/omnitronic-edp-1000-watt-class-d-amplifier-teardown/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/omnitronic-edp-1000-watt-class-d-amplifier-teardown/Here I describe the basic operation and topology of a Class D amplifier and then tear down an Omnitronic 1000W amplifier to have a look and see ...Sun, 23 Jun 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/microsoft-says-dont-use-ie/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/microsoft-says-dont-use-ie/So I read [this post](https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Windows-IT-Pro-Blog/The-perils-of-using-Internet-Explorer-as-your-default-browser/b...Tue, 12 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/psion-ii-teardown-retro-tech-for-those-yuppies-of-the-80s/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/psion-ii-teardown-retro-tech-for-those-yuppies-of-the-80s/The PSION II was the worlds first PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) and was revolutionary in its time. In reality it was next to useless for most...Sun, 15 Sep 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/racal-dana-1999-teardown-repair-and-calibration/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/racal-dana-1999-teardown-repair-and-calibration/I have been using this Racal-Dana 1999 counter for a long time and in the last few months it started to suffer from an intermittent fault where ...Wed, 04 Sep 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/keithley-2110-dmm-teardown/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/keithley-2110-dmm-teardown/Following on from [my review of the Keithley 2110](/keithley-2110-dmm-review-oh-and-puppies/Sun, 15 Sep 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/racal-dana-199x-diy-high-stability-diy-timebase-hack-for-under-25/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/racal-dana-199x-diy-high-stability-diy-timebase-hack-for-under-25/Having played with a number of OCXO's and a Rubidium standard I tried (after repairing it) to calibrate the standard timebase in my Racal-Dana 1...Sun, 22 Sep 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/schematic-and-pcb-software-i-wish/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/schematic-and-pcb-software-i-wish/A long time frustration of mine has been the lack of good quality, easy to use electronic design software, I have tried a few and I am even a li...Tue, 17 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/seven-decade-programmable-resistor-a-low-cost-solution/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/seven-decade-programmable-resistor-a-low-cost-solution/I have spent a lot of time over the years prototyping electronic circuits and the amount of resistors that have ended up in the trash because th...Sun, 30 Jun 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-schematic-and-pcb-software/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-schematic-and-pcb-software/I have recently been using Diptrace for schematic capture and have just hit the 300 pin limit so I am looking at my options including alternativ...Sun, 24 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/update-diy-hpagilent-53131a-010-high-stability-timebase-option-pcbs-available/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/update-diy-hpagilent-53131a-010-high-stability-timebase-option-pcbs-available/Following on from the project to build a DIY OCXO upgrade option for my HP/Agilent 53131A Frequency Counter I had a large number of requests for...Sun, 27 Oct 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/why-do-write-desktop-gui-desktop-apps-in-html-css-javascript-making-them-just-glorified-web-pages/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/why-do-write-desktop-gui-desktop-apps-in-html-css-javascript-making-them-just-glorified-web-pages/This was a post on [Quora](https://qr.ae/pG0hvt) and I thought I have more to say than I can write in a reply, so here goes, a blog article inst...Tue, 22 Mar 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://gerrysweeney.com/blog/why-does-c-still-exist-when-c-can-do-everything-c-can/https://gerrysweeney.com/blog/why-does-c-still-exist-when-c-can-do-everything-c-can/This was a question asked on Quora and the top voted answer was airing on the side of it being cultural or personal preference. I don't think th...Sat, 22 Dec 2018 00:00:00 GMT