Nuts & Volts - July 2005

In The Trenches

Your computer ... the floor tiles ... the light fixtures.

It’s natural for people of similar traits to be drawn to certain jobs. It’s very important to understand this. Engineers like (perhaps love is a better word) their profession. (Please note that profession and job are not the same.) They like making things. They like solving problems. What’s more, engineers often take their profession home.

Many engineers have a personal lab. Many engineers made a hobby of “engineering” while in high school.

Quite simply, engineering is a way of life. Obviously, this is very different from administrators and managers. Few of these people go home and read a “Modern Management” magazine for fun or practice with new ways of writing budget reports.

Engineers are generally honest and straightforward, often to the point of being blunt. Subtlety is not something they recognize well. But they have to be this way. If their design fails, there is no one to blame except themselves because their signature is on the drawings. It is also an inescapable fact that you can’t fool Mother Nature. You can fool yourself and others, but the laws of physics prove the truth of any design.

This honesty requirement manifests itself in two very important personal aspects. The first is responsibility. Engineers rarely try to deny responsibility for failure. This is quite unusual. Few others are willing to do this. How many times have you seen finger-pointing and excuses? Have you ever heard an administrator say “That’s my fault. I screwed up.”?

Engineers do this because, as noted above, their name is on the drawings. At the most, they’ll say “It wasn’t designed for that.” Or, “It wasn’t in the specifications.” The fact that they are able to admit mistakes indicates a large ego and strength of character. These are important traits

JULY 2005

in themselves but are often overlooked because engineers are generally somewhat non-social. They do not exercise these traits for social authority as others might do. But, simply because some things are not obvious doesn’t mean that they aren’t there.

The second aspect is that they expect to see honesty from

others. Within the engineering community, this is a reasonable expectation. However, in a social or business setting, it can be somewhat naive. It’s important to understand this. Don’t put them in a situation where it can be detrimental. And never, never lie to an engineer. If an engineer catches you in a lie, he will never (yes never) trust

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The Micro6/128 Development Board takes the Micro64/128 I/O pins and expands them out to solder pads and headers for ease of connection when developing. It also connects USART1 to RS-232 drivers or directly to screw terminals for RS-422 or RS-485 communication. USART0 is also connected to RS-232 drivers. The RS-232 drivers are connected to two DB9 connectors. This board includes a prototyping area so the user can add external circuitry. There is an onboard voltage regulator for powering the Micro64/128 and additional circuitry. The Micro64/64A/128/128A development system comes complete with a Micro64, Micro64A, Micro128 or Micro128A, a Micro64/128 Development Board, and a power supply.