Monday, February 26, 2024

Software/Firmware Updates Ignorant/Annoying?

When a user installs a software update, why does the user have to answer any questions? The base/previous version is already installed and running. 

If the user has asked/agreed to an update and unless there are new options or other critical user interaction required, the software should just update itself silently.

Millions of person-hours are wasted with the user answering the same questions for every update -- over and over.

Samples of stupid questions:

Agreeing to the license (didn't the user already do that?)

Does the user really want the update - duh?

Click finish to complete the update (like there is another option).



Saturday, February 24, 2024

NPN Transistor Saturation Mode Laboratory Measurement

The WWW has a lot of information, but finding actual circuit measurement of an NPN transistor saturation mode was, well, I never found any. Hence this experiment. I chose a common 2N2222A in a TO-92 package. On the DCA Pro 75, it measured:

hFE = 265 at Ic = 5.01mA

Vbe = 0.755V at Ib = 5.00mA

VceSat = 0.013V at Ic = 5.0mA and Ib = 1.00mA

 

The testing setup is in the following diagram:

 




A good description of a PN junction is give in this video: Forward biasing a PN junction.

A good description of an NPN transistor is given in this video: NPN Transistor Working.

Now for the actual measurements of our sample 2N2222A transistor: