Charming Engineering

Charming stuff

Driving a train through a curve
Some train wagons have no differential gearboxes, but they still manage well in curves.

Deep diving in a submarine - why titanium?
Why do you need a titanium hull to make a submerine go deeper? Why can't they just make thicker steel submarine?

Electric power generation and distribution
Some background information on electric power generation and distribution. Are all generators turning at synchronized speed?

Nuts and bolts - are you sure you know how they work
The simplest possible machine. Is there anything more to know about it? Maybe - check it out.

Plutonium production article
Very general article about alchemy. Real alchemy of today.

Delta-sigma converter and noise-shaping
There are many ways to convert an analogue signal to digital. You may use a brute force, or maybe some more elegant method.

Differential gearbox
If you still don't understand how a differential gearbox work then it is time to learn it now.

Switching-mode power supply (the simplest one)
The most basic design of a switching-power supply is one of most amazing. If you know nothing about switching-mode you may find it interresting.

Broiler farm
Is it just a horror story, or can you still see a charming stuff behind? A broiler farm is a controversal living machine.

Heat pump - an efficiency wonder
How can anything be more than 100% efficient? A heat pump can. It also complies to the laws of thermodynamic. At the end, it all depends how you define efficiency.

Squirrel cage induction motor - nothing inside
There is almost nothing inside but it still works perfectly. If you ask me, it works perfectly just because there is nothing inside.

Other stuff (more or less charming)

Orbital-ring-type Space Elevator
Quite a science-fiction stuff. But also a quite charming one... Check this proposition on how to build a space elevator on slow rotating planets

Helicopter steering - how do you handle a chopper
I was most amazed when learned that a helicopter moves by changing the atack angle of rotor blades. A cool thing.

Sailing faster than the wind blows
At first thought you may think that it is not possible for a sailboat to sail faster that the wind blows. It turns out that it is possible. And is not complicated to understand either.

Thermal power plant - steam/water circulation
If you look at some thermal power plants photos, you will see that the most prominent structures are cooling towers. Do they have to be so huge?

Jet engine - pressure diagram
As a child it puzzled my mind - why don't the burning gases exit at both ends?

Natural gas distribution
For example, did you know that they intentionaly add some odor to the natural gas? They also heat it prior delivery.

Steel - the most precious of all metals
Did you ever consider the steel to be so precious? It is. And you should know at least the basic stuff about how it is produced.

Gasoline and Diesel engine
Only a slight modification in the Otto cycle makes for a very different engine. And as you use these everyday, you better make sure you know some charming details. Also, read about torque versus power.

World of money and banking
...here on Charming Engineering. Check out what is so charming and so engineering about money and banking. I found a lot of beauty burried somewhere at the bottom of the monetary world.

Feedback and regulation (PID controllers too!)
The feedback, being positive or negative, is one of most important concepts in engineering. It is cahrming because it is simple but powerfull. You will learn how regulation depends on negative feedback. You will also learn what do bistables have to do with positive feedback...

Oscillators, small rings of power
Oscillators do have the will on its own - they just want to oscillate. Read about relaxation oscillators and sine wave oscillators.

Dealing with stepper motor vibrations by 'sensorless' rotor position sensing
Not exactly I would call stepper motors charming. Stepper motors are just too 'vibrant' for my taste. But still, understanding some underlying effects is not only fascinating, but can help us fight vibration and instability issues. A somewhat lengthy article.

Semiconductors: the p-n diode and the bipolar-junction transistor
It is not intuitive to understand how semiconductors work. But still it is possible to roughly describe their operation even without any math. It would be a shame not to understand at least theory basics.

Charming tricks

Three-way and four-way light switches
Of course you know how three-way switch is used to control your staircase light bulb from two different places. But do you know about four-way switches?

Battery charger - how simple can it be
Very simple indeed... You will find hundreds of designs on the web but this one strikes with its simplicity. Sure, it can also strike you with a "thunder" if you put your fingers in it.

RS232 splitter cable
The RS232 serial line is intended for point-to-point communication. However, in some cases it is useful to connect more than two units together

Coming soon

Sewing machine
How do you hook two treads together? Thousand times in a minute.

Autocorelation function
Finding the invisible signal burried into tons of noise

Tomography
Constructing 3D images from outside.

Fast Furier Transformation
Rarely anything is so useful but yet so efficient.

Inductrak
Maglev of a new sort - read the induction motor article first.

Computer
Ok, you must admit that at least the theory is charming.