Ryan's World of Nonsense

Class 196s at Shrewsbury Station Last month, I was all the way up in Birmingham to attend an event. I thought this would be a great chance for me to have a look at West Midlands' Civity units.  Now, the West Midlands Railway (WMR)'s Civity units, built by CAF and identified as the Class 196s, are purchased to replace the Class 170s, which used to serve the Wolverhampton–Shrewsbury line. The 196s currently run between Nuneaton and Leamington Spa, Birmingham and Hereford, and Birmingham and Shrewsbury, which is the service that I'll be reviewing in this post.  The last time I was on a Civity unit was all the way back in April 2024, while I was travelling in South Wales. I was onboard a packed class 197 from Cardiff to Swansea. As the train is completely full, there's not much of a chance to do a proper review. But if you're interested in my Wales trip, click here . 196113 at Birmingham New St, plat. 4C Anyway, I made my way to Birmingham New Street Station on a sunny ...

  Texas Instruments CD74HCT7046A Phase-Locked Loop IC Phase-Locked Loops. You probably wouldn't have heard of it unless you're studying electronics (like me) or you're extremely enthusiastic about such topics. It's just one of the many unsung heroes that quietly sat somewhere in your phone or computer, quietly keeping the components within to function properly without you knowing. In this post, I'd like to talk about this special circuit and how it revolutionised FM signal demodulation. But first, let's have a look at what a Phase-Locked Loop is: A Phase-Locked Loop (PLL) is a circuit that synchronises two signals (an input signal and a reference signal) so that the two signals will have the same frequency and phase. (The position of the wave, e.g. If two people are jumping side by side on a trampoline and they both go up and down at exactly the same time, their jumps are in phase (perfectly aligned); If one person is going up while the other is going down, thei...

  Hovertravel Griffon 12000TD "Solent Flyer" Hovercraft Back in December last year, I had the chance to ride on the UK's only commercial hovercraft service that runs between Southsea and Ryde, connecting the Isle of Wight with the mainland. This service, as I'm writing this post, is the only regular scheduled passenger hovercraft service in the UK that operates every single day. It's also the fastest way to get from the Isle of Wight to the mainland, with a crossing time of about 10 minutes. (The Wightlink high-speed catamarans take about 22 minutes from Portsmouth harbour to Ryde Pier Head) The SR-N1 prototype hovercraft. Credit: RAF Museum Now, the concept of hovercrafts is definitely not something new. It came up in the 50s and the first prototype (the SR.N1) took flight on 1959. But if hovercrafts are so much faster than conventional boats, that actually has to wade through waters, why aren't hovercrafts dominating the world of sea transportation?  With th...

  Freescale (NXP) Kinetis KL25Z General Purpose Microcontroller Microcontrollers. As electronics students, you either love them or hate them. But there's no denying that microcontrollers are literally everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE. You might not see them directly, but they are hiding in your smartphones and smartwatches, your microwave, and even your washing machine. Each serving various purposes. The fact that microcontrollers can handle tasks efficiently with very little power and minimum damage to your budget makes them ridiculously ubiquitous (oh look I learned a new word).  For those of you that are unfamiliar with microcontrollers, here's a quick microcontroller 101 for you. If you already know what they are, you may skip the following paragraph:  Microcontrollers, sometimes MCUs (MicroController Units), are basically a tiny computer in one single chip. You can program it to do specific things. For example, in a microwave, it listens to the buttons yo...

River Exe Hey fellow humans! So last month I was approached by someone from the parish magazine editorial team of my local church, and I was asked to write a short article about my life in Exeter and etc. I'm very proud to say that it has been published recently. In order to preserve the authenticity of my writing and to share it with you all across the world, I'm posting the original version here, without revision by the parish magazine team. (Well, not that they changed a lot of stuff. I just want to show you the original version of my writing.) Heart in Exeter It is currently my second year studying at the University of Exeter. During these two years, I have fully experienced how wonderful this city is. But first, I would like to take you back to the beginning, if I may. Back when I was doing my A-levels at a college in Sussex, I was told many things about Exeter once I shared my plans to study there with my friends and teachers. All of them were positive. Everyone kept sayi...