Alex O'Donnell

Happy New Year!

31st December 2025

Just a brief look back at 2025. … More Happy New Year!

Winter Isn’t Everyone’s Season I know that quite a few out there are probably enjoying the winter seasonal break as much as I am. My thoughts are with you and I empathise. There are days when it’s too wet and cold to do your leisure thing. It might be hiking, gardening, pottering around in the … More It’s Wet and Grey!

Wrapping Up Another Year of Blogging.

1st December 2025

Just an update on where I am and why the blog posts slowed down. … More Wrapping Up Another Year of Blogging.

SPI timing diagram from MAX7301 datasheet.

A Confusing Timing Diagram

27th July 2025

I have another RTFM (Read the Manual) story to share: Ever see a diagram and think “what the heck is going on here?” I’ve spent a lot of time developing code for SPI devices or devices that utilize some form of shift register input. This is the first time in a while that I’ve seen … More A Confusing Timing Diagram

Pciture of a marked up document and a red pen for editing.

Content Curation!

17th July 2025

Content curation! How do you cope with evolutionary documents? When do you clean up old wiki pages?

Today’s update is about my switch to curation/edit mode on my website, rather than blogging, for the next few weeks. Clean up is something we all stall on doing, but for me, the time to tidy is now. … More Content Curation!

Three, new to me, I2C issues!

8th July 2025

At dinner on Sunday, an old friend and I were discussing recent issues and anomlies we’e encountered with the I2C bus.

I’ve made a note of them on my blog to help familiarize others with some of the more abstract and uncommon issues on I2C buses. … More Three, new to me, I2C issues!

Circuit boad with test equipment hooked up

Slowing Down to Learn

2nd July 2025

Making time to learn while on the job is sometimes hard to justify. Not making time to learn is hard to defend.

There are two software tools I use frequently, but I know I am barely utilizing them to their full potential. I get good information from them to analyze problems and validate solutions. However, I know there is an additional level of capability that I haven’t had a chance to explore.

I’m making time to learn them better. Knowing my tools will help me speed up my debug efforts, and help me profile system performance. … More Slowing Down to Learn