About Moser

Hello I’m Andrew Moser! Just another student at Northern Illinois University! I grew up in Peoria IL and my parents continue to live there. I am always positive and my mind is always working on something! I made this site to be able to write about solutions to electrical engineering problems. This site is mainly for my personal reference, but anyone is welcome to reference it too!

Education: I originally majored in Computer Science and Digital Media Arts at Huntington University. After discovering that I can’t sit in front of a computer for the rest of my life, I left the CS/DMA major. I then transferred to Illinois Central College and recently finished two associates in “Engineering Science” and “Arts & Sciences.” I am now at NIU to finish my bachelors in Electrical Engineering.

Hobbies/Social: I love to bicycle! I normally ride on the Rock Island Trail, which is a block away from my parent’s house. I typically ride 20-30 miles at a time, and in summers I ride at least three times a week. I love working with micro controllers, and I normally work with Arduino, AVR GCC, PIC18F series, or the Parallax Propeller. I enjoy shopping too… who doesn’t? Why didn’t I buy that fuzzy hat!?

Social Networking sites: I do not use Facebook, Twitter, Myspace…etc. I must be crazy to be in college and not use any of these! In short: I don’t fully trust these companies, and I’m the type who often strays from the crowd. It’s not that I have anything to hide, but I prefer some privacy. Here are some good articles which influenced my decision. Six Reasons Why I’m Not On Facebook, Social Media Background Check

Blog: I mainly focus on simple component guides for the absolute beginner and occasionally an exhibition post. Due to time limitations I won’t focus on anything real advanced or time consuming. PLEASE tell me if you find a mistake on anything! The equations I reference are from physics books, engineering books, and yes… the internet. The derived equations are copied from notebooks I use, and neatness is often comparable to chicken scratch. I review everything before posting on the blog, but some projects were done a long time before this blog existed and I’m not as fresh on the topic!

Resume: Request it in a comment and I’ll email it to you – I won’t make the comment public. What do I look for in a job? Well pay isn’t everything! Location, type of work, and the work environment is extremely important.

Equipment I use for the posts:

Multimeter: Extech EX330

Logic Analyzer: Saleae 8 channel usb

Of course a digital oscilloscope is a dream, but the HP 1740A oscilloscope is ok too. When I was about 12 years old I purchased it for ~25$ at an electronic flea market. It had a glitch on the refresh, but turns out it was just one of the internal connectors that needed cleaning. Everything else works on it and I have it calibrated fairly well thanks to the original manual.

HP 6105 precision power supply 0-100V, .8-.4A – A gift when I was about 10 years old. I’ve burned out two very nice bench top power supplies. One because it wasn’t galvanic isolated — always a nice surprise. The other? I think I was playing with high voltage. I’m pretty tough on power supplies and the fact that the HP 6105 has survived years of abuse — Incredible.

Of course an Oscilloscope isn’t complete without a signal generator. The WaveTek model 116 which has all the basic features of a signal generator. Last Calibration date: 1997 hmm… Surprising since it was made around 1970.