Making Life Easier with GitHub

When I'm working on a software program, too often, I've been elbows deep working on a feature, and suddenly my program breaks and I can't compile. I end up having to backtrack my changes or, when I am really at my wit's end, I make a backup of the current version and repeatedly hit "undo" to try to get the program back to a working state.

It's frustrating, so I moved on to "save as"-ing religiously. I end up with a folder looking like this:

I'm slightly embarrassed showing this to you, but it's what I did. It works ok because I can get back to old versions, but

• I have to recall what the titles mean
• It takes up a lot of unnecessary space since I am creating new versions of each file even if only minor changes were made.
• It's not that easy for collaborating. If my colleagues wanted to go through this, I'll have to do a lot of explaining.

Since working with more software engineers, I've learned this amazing thing called version control. It's a system that helps you manage changes of documents and computer programs. Git is a popular program that many developers use.

At first, the idea of learning Git was daunting. I heard my colleagues saying a lot of new terminology and commands. However, when it was time to start a new project, I decided now was the time to buckle down and learn Git. I found a free Udacity course and it was great. This course explained the important concepts in easy-to-learn chunks with useful examples, all in 3 simple lessons. It took me about 20hrs scattered over a period of 3 weeks to finish this course. These are the positives I took away:

• As long as I commit (i.e. save as) often, I will be able to go back to any point in time. When I break the code, I can just go back to the previous commit.
• I currently only know that GitHub works with programming documents. I would love to be able to do this with essays and Photoshop projects. This is something I will look into when continually save as-ing those documents becomes an issue.
• Since I can always return to any point in time, I have the freedom to be creative.
• Everything is centralized online and there aren't multiple copies floating around.
• If I need to collaborate with someone on a project, I can easily share with them my code from GitHub.com, instead of zipping and sending them files. 
• I now am confident with the basic understanding of Git. If I need to google something, I can understand and parse what they're doing. 

I've been using Git more assiduously now and avoid physically "save as"-ing my programs. It's been going great, and I feel a lot more at ease as a programmer. It's as if I've freed up my brain energy from figuring out how to save smartly and can focus on programming.

If you find yourself spending a good portion of your time save as-ing or returning to old versions of your documents, I would recommend learning Git or another type of version control software. It's definitely made my life easier.

Set Up Your Own Electronics Workbench from Nothing

When I wanted to start doing more electronics, I had only a vague idea of what tools I should get or what is even necessary. In school, everything was already set up for me to use. All the equipment looked intimidating and expensive. Is it all necessary?

I did a lot of research and have slowly built up an electronics lab over the course of a year. Additionally for work, I've worked with several PCB assembly houses, and I've copied their efficient set up. I hope this can give you a starting off point. Of course, there are multiple ways of setting up your workbench with differing opinions on equipment. I've used this setup for numerous projects and have been very satisfied. If you have other opinions, I'd love to hear them to improve my setup.

General Equipment:

#	Equipment	What I have	Cost	Comment
1	Workbench			I had thought a lot about the surface top for the workbench, particularly metal conductivity and shorting out components, and thought I needed to get a special type of table. But if you get an anti-static mat, you can work on any general flat surface. I would recommend a table at a height for sitting down so anyone, short or tall, can work at your workbench.
2	Anti-static mat	Sierra FSS100B	41	This grounds your parts (to eliminate static electricity which can damage your electronics) and provides insulation (to prevent shorting out exposed parts.) To ground your mat, here’s a useful instructable.
3	Multimeter	Fluke 115 Extech EX330	113 52	The Extech330 was the first electronics equipment I bought. I chose the Extech330 after watching EEVblog #91 on the multimeter shootout because it was not too expensive and had the basic features I needed. It works fine; however, I do find that I need to replace the batteries quite often, especially when I don’t use it for long periods of time. I think I may take the batteries out when I don’t use it to prevent battery drainage. The Fluke is so highly reviewed, so when I was ready to invest in a better one, I bought one.
4	Tweezers	Aven 18032TT	25	I recommend tweezers that aren’t magnetic because it can be frustrating when your small components stick to the tweezers. Also, you want strong tips that won’t bend after use. If they get bent, it’s difficult to pick up small components. These are titanium tweezers, and I haven’t had any issue with magnetism or bending.
5	Wire strippers	Greenlee PA1118	17	I was just looking for a wire stripper that goes up to 30 AWG wire diameter so I can strip thin wires. I chose this one because it had good reviews on Amazon.
6	Wire	B-30-1000 200M 30AWG Wire	10	30AWG wire is great to use on PCBs. Colors I have found very useful to have include red (power), black (ground), and multiple other colors for variety
7	Tape measure
8	Scizzors
9	X-acto knife			When I visited PCB assembly houses, I noticed that the soldering technicians do most of their small components work with x-acto knives, instead of tweezers. They use the x-acto knives to place components on the board and to remove them. I would get one with disposable blades.
10	Kapton Tape			When I’m using a rework station or heat gun to remove components, I tape surrounding components with kapton tape to protect them
11	Oscilloscope	Rigol DS1052E	400	This is a great entry-level scope. I’ve debugged I2C readings with this and I also like that it has a USB drive on it so I can save images to a flash drive.
12	Power supply	Mastech HY3005D-3	200	Components tend to require different voltages (typically 5V, 3.3V, or 1.8V), so it’s nice to have a variety of power. This power supply has 3 channels.
13	Hot glue sticks			Use hot glue to hold your wires in place. You can use your soldering iron to melt the glue on the board which can give you finer placement precision
14	IC Hook Test Leads	CAB-00501	9	Very useful to hook to tiny pins on development boards and to connect to thin wire leads that you may have placed on your boards.
	Soldering station
15	Soldering iron	Weller WD1000 or OKInternational PS-900	350	Weller was a nice entry-level soldering iron. The PCB assembly house I went to uses the OKInternational one. I think it’s helpful to consider irons with removable tips or at least are replaceable inexpensively.
16	Soldering iron tips	LT Series Tips
17	Microscope	AmScope SM-4TX-144A	510	For very small objects, the microscope really eases eyestrain. The magnification of this microscope is great for my needs. But the threads to hold the light fixture up have broken so the light falls off. I have to tape it up
18	Solder fume extractor		39	I just looked for well-reviewed ones on Amazon.
19	Fan			I would get a battery-power fan for more flexibility
20	Solder	Kester 24-6337-6422	58	This solder is great. It works really well and is thin enough for small components. I’ve worked with other solder which doesn’t melt well at all and can be frustrating.
21	Flux	Oatey 30106	9	I just chose one on Amazon.
22	99% Isopropyl Alcohol			To clean your PCB of flux which can corrode your PCB
23	Tinner	HF Wilson	15	I just chose one on Amazon
24	Rework Station	Aoyue Int852A+	139	This one’s fine. It goes up to 400F and I’ve been able to remove surface mount components (size 0603 and 0402) and some QFNs.

Here is my soldering station setup:
It's extremely important to keep things neat, especially because you are using dangerously hot tools.

 Here are some things I love about my setup:

1. Everything is within reach. I don't usually need to move the equipment around. 
2. The fan blows the solder fumes into the soldering fume extractor to prevent me from breathing in fumes
3. The microscope is close enough to the edge of the table so if I need to view an object from further away, I can pull the microscope neck out and view the object over the edge.
4. The workbench is at a comfortable seat height, and I have a chair with adjustable height. When other people need to work at this station, they just adjust the chair and don't need to adjust the microscope.
5. Cardboard to protect the antistatic mat from heat burns

Things I would improve:

1. I would get a battery-powered fan. You run out of outlets quickly in this concentrated area.
2. I would like to get my tools organized on the wall. I'm thinking of a peg-board wall mount.

Those are my thoughts. Hope this can help.
Happy engineering!

Traveling to Huangshan (Yellow Mountain)

I had the opportunity to visit Huangshan in August 2014, and my group and I found this place breathtaking. When I was planning for the trip in the States, there wasn't much information online, so I made notes during my visit to share what I learned with you. Hopefully people can find this information useful and get the chance to visit this amazing place.

My group and I visited Huangshan from Shanghai over the weekend. There are plenty of 3-5 day tours (>530 USD/person) out there, but we wanted to keep it to the weekend. With our resulting Huangshan schedule, we found we had plenty of time to explore the mountain, and we even got the chance to take a side trip to Hongcun Village! Hongcun Village is where Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was filmed.

Overall, we spent ~370 USD/person, not including food. This post is split into 2 sections. The first section, "General Schedule and Thoughts," contains the main takeaways for those of you that just want a general overview. The second section "Detailed Schedule" contains a comprehensive outline of our trip. Enjoy!


General Schedule and Thoughts

• Our weekend route:



Photo 1. Driving Route



Photo 2. Hiking Route





• Friday
• Evening: Rode 12hr train from Shanghai to Huangshan Railway Station (Tunxi)
• Saturday
• Morning: Arrived at Huangshan Railway Station (Tunxi). Private car drove us to Tangkou (foot of the mountain). Took shuttle bus to Yungu Temple Station
• Hiked up the Eastern Steps
• Afternoon: Arrived at hotel and explored the top of the mountain
• Evening: Slept in Shilin Hotel
• Sunday
• Sunrise: Stone Monkey Watching the Sea
• Morning: Hike down the Western Steps
• Afternoon: Drove to Hongcun Village
• Evening: Drove back to Tunxi. Flight back to Shanghai
• Safety tips from the locals



Photo 3. Paved hiking path

• When the porters pass you, stand on the mountain side, not the edge side
• If there is lightning, do not use your umbrella (use your poncho), and don't stand next to a tree
• Stand still when taking photos - make sure you have secure footing.
• Overall thoughts
• The paths are well paved so you don't have to worry about muddy/dirt paths.
• There are vendors scattered along the trail so you can purchase water and sustenance if you run out. The prices are inflated (ie 8RMB for water instead of 2RMB) but reasonable.
• We walked a total of ~11miles up and down the mountain. 

Detailed Schedule

Friday

• 9:24pm - Took a 12-hr train, No. K8418, from Shanghai Railway Station to Huangshan City (= Tunxi)
• There are 4 railway stations in Shanghai. The other 3 are: 
• Shanghai South Railway Station
• Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station
• Shanghai West Railway Station
• We took Subway Line 1 to get to Shanghai Railway Station (上海火车站)
• It takes about 5minutes to pass through a station
• Hard sleeper = $38USD/person. (Photo 4)



Photo 4. Hard sleeper

• I've taken overnight trains before and was preparing myself for a difficult night. Surprisingly, this experience turned out ok!
• Positives
• I slept really well with earplugs and an eyemask
• I was asleep by 11pm and awoke at 7am
• Negatives
• People smoke at the end of the cars so I got quite a bit of second hand smoke
• If your fellow passengers are loud, you'll hear them throughout the night
• We bought our train tickets on travelchinaguide.com, and they conveniently mailed the tickets to my Shanghai hotel. To buy these tickets, I had to email them a copy of all of the passenger's passports. I paid them through PayPal. You can buy train tickets through other third party sites, so comparing prices is a good idea.
• China Travel Depot
• Chinatraintickets.net
• There was a lady selling Huangshan maps on the train for 5rmb. We bought one because she said it would be more expensive on the mountain.
• When we arrived at the train station in Huangshan, there was a vendor selling the same map for 3rmb. 
• At the beginning of the train ride, they exchange your paper ticket into a plastic card, corresponding to your seat and keep your paper ticket in a binder. 10-30min before you exit, they exchange the tickets back.
• Passengers get off and different passengers come on as the train passes through the ~13 stops. This binder method is their way of tracking who's on the train or not.

Saturday

Photo 5. Huangshan Train Station Exit

• 9:15am - Train arrived in Huangshan City (Tunxi).
• It was scheduled to arrive at 8:58am, but we arrived a little later. 
• At the exit (Photo 5), there is a bottleneck because the guards take a look at your ticket before you leave. 
• The temperature was around 75F. When we were on the train, the rain came and went. Luckily, it stopped raining when we got off the train.

• 9:30am - We arranged for a private car pick us up from the train station and drive us to Tangkou (the town at the foot of the Huangshan mountain.) 
• I arranged the private car while in the US through Shanghaicarrentalservice.com.
• It was 1200rmb total (195USD)
• I really wanted to secure our transportation before arriving in Huangshan because I had heard stories from my friends that it could be quite difficult getting transportation to and from Tangkou. I was mostly worried about getting back to Tunxi from Tangkou because I didn't know when we would get off the mountain, when the shuttles would end, and whether taxis would be available at Tangkou.  
• Plus, since we wanted to visit Hongcun, which is ~50min away from the Huangshan mountain, I wasn't sure how the taxis would work.
• Taxis are supposedly 150rmb each way.
• I assume there are available taxis in Tunxi. I didn't really look for them, but Tunxi is a pretty big town.
• At the Tangkou bus station, there is a little parking lot where the taxis wait. (See Photo 3).
• After this experience, I think getting a taxi is doable if you only go to Tangkou and don't visit Hongcun village. Without a private car, I'm not sure how you would get to Hongcun village reliably.
• Bought water at a local Tunxi store and gas station
• At the local store, it cost ~2rmb for ~16 fl. oz bottle.
• At the vendor stands and at Beihai hotel at the top of the mountain, it cost 8rmb.
• The drive from Tunxi to Tangkou was < 1hr.
• 10:30am - Arrived in Tangkou. Bought tickets for the Huangshan shuttle (National Express Bus) from Tangkou to Yungu Temple Station (云谷寺站). The shuttles leave every 10minutes.  

  

  Photo 6. Tangkou bus station 

• At the ticket office, you can choose shuttles to either Mercy Temple Station (aka Ciguang Temple, which allows you to walk up the Western Steps) or the Yungu Temple Station (which allows you to walk up the Eastern Steps)
• A one-way ticket costs 19rmb
• After buying the tickets, there are plenty of signs that point you in the correct direction to the bus terminal (Photo 7)
• One of the attendants said that the last bus to come down from the mountain back to Tangkou bus station is between 6:30pm-7pm.







Photo 7. National Express Bus

• 10:50am - Left the Tangkou bus station for Yungu Temple Station.
• The drive is ~30min
• 11:30am - We didn't take the cable car and began the journey up the pedestrian path for the Eastern Steps.
• Entrance fee is 230RMB/person
• When talking to Chinese locals, they refer to this path as walking up the back of the mountain (后 山)
• The steps are pretty steep and tire you out.
• As you walk up, the weather gets drier and the temperature cools.
• It rained sporadically
• 3:00pm - Arrived at the top of the mountain or where the Yungu Cableway ends.
• There were significantly a lot more people here
• 3:15pm - Arrived at Huangshan Shilin Hotel and checked in
• Shilin requires a 100RMB deposit when you check in. They give you a deposit slip that you exchange when you checkout to get your 100RMB back.
• 4:00pm - The sky really cleared up at this point. We were exhausted but we decided to scope out out scenic spots for next morning's sunrise. There are several spots that are a 5min walk from Shilin Hotel.
• Refreshing Terrace - This is a nice open spot and has outdoor tables. You can see Beihai Hotel and Shilin Hotel from this spot
• Stone Monkey Watching the Sea
• This was so beautiful and had a view of vast vistas of untouched land.
• There were several lookout points around this area
• We decided we would go here for sunrise
• Lion Peak - unfortunately it was closed
• 5:30pm - Ate dinner at the Chinese restaurant in Beihai Hotel (5min walk from Shilin Hotel)
• The food was delicious because we were starving and had eaten only bars and nuts
• We sat right next to the large windows which had a beautiful view
• The restaurant opens for seating at 5:30pm.
• 7:00pm - Some of us went back to rest for the night. Some of us went back to Stone Monkey Watching the Sea to take more photos.



Photo 8. Stone Monkey Watching the Sea

• Sunset was around 6:45pm. The dusk view was still incredible.

Sunday

• 4:45am - Woke up
• The hotel concierge told us sunrise would happen at 5:40am and that scenic spots would get really crowded. 
• 5:00am - Left Shilin Hotel to get a good spot at Stone Monkey. 



Photo 9. Sunrise at Stone Monkey

• We were the first ones at our lookout, so we got the front spot.
• It was still very dark out. I brought a headlight
• Temperature was nice, brisk, and a bit windy - around 60F. We wore a light jacket and scarf.
• 5:50am - Left the scenic spot and went back to the hotel
• 7:00am - Checked out of hotel.
• It took about 15min to checkout. They had to call someone to review your room before they would return the 100RMB deposit
• 7:15am - Headed to Guang Ming Ding.
• This was all uphill
• We got there around 8:15am. It was very foggy and misty so we couldn't see anything
• 9:15am - Got to Bai3 Bu4 yun2 ti3 (Ladder On The Clouds)
• 9:45am - Arrived at the Yuping cable station and headed for the Welcoming Pine
• 10:45am - Bottom of Celestial Peak



Photo 10. The steps up to Celestial Peak

• This place was incredibly windy. It was amazing and exhilarating. My poncho ripped from the wind 
• 11:30am - Bottom of Tiandu Peak
• 12:50pm - Rested at Candle Stone. 
• 1:15pm - We arrived at the bottom of the mountain at Mercy Light Temple
• 1:45pm - Took shuttle from Mercy Light Temple back to Tangkou
• 2:15pm - Arrived back in Tangkou

Hongcun Village

• 3:30pm - Arrived at Hongcun Village

  

  Photo 11. Lake inside Hongcun Village

• We had plenty of time since our flight was at 10:30pm, so we decided to take a side trip to Hongcun Village.
• Entrance fee: 104rmb/person
• There are plenty of restaurants although some of them don't serve meals during non-traditional meal hours.
• 6:30pm
• Left Hongcun to go to the Huangshan Airport
• 7:30pm - Arrived at the airport
• This is a very small airport.
• They didn't open the boarding pass counter until 2 hrs before takeoff
• 11:00pm - The plane was delayed and we didn't board until 11:00pm
• 12:30am - Arrived at Hongqiao Airport in Shanghai
• Luckily there are a lot of available taxis at the airport.
• There was a disheartening long line when we arrived at the taxi stand, but they've got a very efficient system down. The line moved quickly.

Aftermath

• Walking the next 3 days was incredibly difficult. My thighs and calves were so strained. I walked straight-legged, with unbent knees for the first 2 days so I could spare my leg muscles.
• Walking up stairs was slow. Walking down stairs was impossible and I had to walk down the stairs backwards.