Recent content by tangodirt

Having a bit of trouble estimating total scale uncertainty. In this experiment, I used four precision weights (error << scale resolution). Each weight has a known mass and is weighted on a scale 20 different times. Therefore, for each weight, I have a mean scale measurement, a standard...

1. Maximize/minimize over a known domain. 2. It is a generic function. A black box with two inputs that returns an output that is noisy. 3. Something that needs to be solved many times, very quickly. Think of this as Excel's "Solver", but with a noisy function.

Are there any established methods for optimizing across a 2D surface with noise? I am trying to find the maximum across a 2D surface, but the surface is extremely noisy. Ideally, I would numerically optimize a function without resorting to computing the entire surface, filtering the surface...

Wow, this is really cool. I am playing with KDE techniques now and the results look great. At the very least, it really helps to "smooth" the discrete data to generate a more accurate PDF.

Yes, estimate is a much better word! Thank you for clarifying.

Say I have a large data set of 1,000,000 points. If I plot a histogram of this data, I get a bar chart with bins along the x-axis and the number of items in each bin along the y-axis. If I take the number of items in each bin and divide this by the total number of items (1,000,000 in this...

I'm just trying to put together a very basic engine model with extremely limited combustion. Basically, I am modeling isentropic compression, combustion (using LHV to calculate the delta T), and isentropic expansion. At the moment, I am calculating a peak cylinder temperature under motoring of...

I have a torque meter using a full-bridge Wheatstone bridge (all legs are strain gauges). The bridge has some non-zero, unknown offset (it's old). I would like to strip this offset out prior to signal amplification. My theory is, under DC conditions, the offset exists, which mucks up the...

Just finished with my B.S.M.E. and now my M.S.M.E. and have been considering a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering. I've been offered research opportunities in both the mechanical and electrical engineering departments, so really it's up to me to decide. Can anyone put an industry spin on what I...

The ADC they use has an input impedance of greater than 10 GΩ, so I do not expect filter loading, although I would assume an active filter would entirely eliminate any concerns. Yes, I suppose I did not explain this very well. The first order filter uses a nominally 0.1uF capacitor and a...

Yes, I did run the experiment again with the separated resistance and capacitance values. The experimental results showed a second order corner, but was marginally worse than the first order filter. I'm assuming this is because of poor component quality, but perhaps there is something else I...

The diagram is on a different machine. I will try to post it later. Thought I addressed this, perhaps not. The load is a high impedance ADC. Regardless, I did go back and rederive the transfer function using KCL. Kirchoff's current law adds the additional loading term into the...

I'm simply trying to put together a small circuit to amplify and filter a thermocouple signal (including, at the worst case, the thermocouple response to a step function, i.e. air to boiling water). The setup previously used was very poor (thermocouple leads connected straight to high impedance...

I do not have simulation software, unfortunately. Perhaps I will just build the circuit and quantify the response experimentally. I'm a mechanical engineer, although probably an electrical engineer at heart. I've worked with transfer functions, frequency response, etc., but it's all been...

Yes, this makes sense. Can anyone clarify the means that cause the response change? Also, how does the response change? Does filtering become more aggressive, less aggressive, or just different?