Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast

Louis Rossmann’s fresh start in Austin, Tx

• Moved his business from New York to Austin, Texas
• Learn how to open and fix things
• Classes will be free

Mercedes Makes Better Performance a $1,200 Subscription in Its EVs

• Subscription to make your car vroom vroom faster
• Acceleration from 0-60 mph is said to improve by 0.8-1.0 seconds and the overall characteristics of the electric motors are supposed to change as well

Microjet Spray System

• Started 3d modeling the idea
• Amazon link
• Venturi Mist system with separate air and alcohol controls
• Multiple ball joint nozzles that are individually adjustable

StarWars Christmas Special 

• December 13th?

Jeep Prop Fan Thingy

• Jeep Prop Fan thingy
• Spec Sheet
• Connectors 
  • The Quest for 25 Amps
  • TE Connectivity 1-1418362-3
  • Pg 63 of this catalog
• Haltech released a new PDM
  • 10 8A
  • 4 25A
  • 2 Push Pull

Arduino Opta

• Arduino's First Micro PLC
• supporting standard languages including LD (Ladder Logic Diagram) and FBD (Function Block Diagram)
• STMicro STM32H747XI dual-core microcontroller
• Opta Lite, Opta RS485, Opta WiFi
• High-power relay switching (4 x 2.3 kW)

Manim

• Episode 340 Necrobiotic Synthesizers
• Finally got it installed and playing
• Looking into circuit animation

November 5, 2022 - Extra Life Recap

• Improvements to the script
• Thank you to everyone that hung out, supported, and donated!

What is next for CNC

• Parametric cnc model in fusion 
  • Model by Ed Frazier
  • https://grabcad.com/library/parametric-cnc-router-1
• Changed to a 5x5 cutting surface
• All 8020 construction with good bit of milled aluminum
• Added a 40 series table
• ATP-5 aluminum by vista metals 
  • https://www.vistametals.com/assets/pdfs/products/atp-5-precision-tooling-plate.pdf
  • Precision tooling plate
  • Cast aluminum 5000 series
  • Can be welded and about 5% lighter
  • Excellent corrosion resistance
  • RMS value of 15 to 20
  • Thickness tolerance of +/-0.005
  • Good flatness tolerance 
• Building up Z axis after the pod
• Next steps:  
  • Finish drilling and tapping all the holes
  • Buff all of the surfaces with scotch brite wheels
  • Anodize

Python Demo for Extra Life API

• Stream Date: November 5th, 2022
• Python to OBS functioning!
• Websockets. What are they? 
  • HTTP is unidirectional where the client sends the request and the server sends the response
  • Websocket data is continuously pushed/transmitted into the same connection
• OBS has a built in local server that you can establish a websocket with another application
• Python module obswebsocket 
  • Provides a wrapper for all the OBS websocket functions
  • Can basically control anything in OBS it seems
  • Documentation is a bit lacking and module is out of date
• Build animations and transitions in OBS and modify them with the python connection
• Building a donation progress tracker? 

Signal switching tips

• Maneuvering signals around your design
• Methods of switching on and off portions of your circuit 
  • Series
  • Shunt
  • Series-shunt
• Relays
• DG series of analog switches 
  • Virtually every configuration
  • single, dual, quad SPSTs and SPDTs, 4:1 and 8:1 multiplexers
  • Many have separate control and signal voltage inputs

Estimating project time

• Follow up from slack
• Josh Pieper - Doomcheck
• Takes in a text file and uses probability distribution to estimate timing for projects

Python Demo for Extra Life API

• Stream Date: November 5th, 2022
• Functionality so far 
  • Check Extralife API for donations 
    • This is done with the requests module
    • This endpoint seems to return old and new donations
    • There isn't a “new donation” end point it seems
  • Get the donation IDs and compare them to a local file 
    • Local file is made with the pickle module
    • Pickle allows you to take any data structure in python and “package it” into a binary file for storage. 
  • If there is a new donation ID that isn’t in the local file 
    • Queue up a random audio clip
    • Record the donation ID to the local file
  • Audio is placed through the playsound module 
    • Weird “bug” that short audio clips get cut off
    • Add a little sleep after the call to get around it
  • Auto parses the audio folder for the files 
    • Looks into audio file
    • Gets all the file names
    • Adding a new audio clip is as simple as dropping it into the folder
  • Preventing truly random files 
    • Made a rotating buffer
    • Used the collections module to implement a bi-directional “stack” 
      • Think like a bitwise shift but with an array of strings
  • Multithreading! 
    • Threading module used to setup the API and Audio player queues 
      • API runs every 20 seconds
      • Audio player runs every 30 seconds
    • If a new donation, global mailbox variable increases one for each new donation.
    • Audio player runs and looks at that global variable. 
    • Threading has a “lock” function to prevent race conditions on that global variable.
• What is next? 
  • Play graphics in Open Broadcast Software
  • OBS has some python hooks that I am just starting to learn 

Chip Fab Jobs

• Need practically every engineering discipline
• Mechanical to design and maintain equipment
• Chemical for designing the masking / chemical bath processes
• Electrical for testing and validation 

Estimating project time

• PCB layout
• New project revision 
  • About 1600 parts
  • Lots of duplicates
• Things that impact timing 
  • Components 
    • Parts with pours and complex ground
    • Specific trace routs like differential or snake traces
  • Layers
  • Duplication
  • Rest day
  • Cleanup day

November 5, 2022 - Extra Life

• Haven't had a chance to work on this yet
• Going to stream working on it?

Adventures in injection molding

• PINNACLE 5112C3
• 8% haze - this is pretty low. Any lower and it would be considered “clear”
• Low melt flow, excellent processability - Voids
• Two ways to create diffusion 
  • Haze
  • Surface Texture

Jeep Prop Fan 

• Half bridges for each output
• Current sensing 
  • INA219
• Inputs 
  • Found a product that will do the thermocouples on canbus
  • Instead of that crazy LTC2986 chip 
    • Just expose an ADC 0-5V 
• Connectors are the hardest part of this project so far 
  • Dictate the entire specifications

RFAB2 Lab - an expansion of the RFAB1 Lab

• Sept. 29, TI announcedt began initial chip production at RFAB2, a new 300-mm analog wafer lab in Richardson, TX
• 300 analog fab 
  • digital isolator
  • Ethernet transceiver
  • brushless DC motor driver
  • digital-to-analog converter
• 100M units/day within a few years

November 5, 2022 - Extra Life

• Content for the stream
• API for Extralife
• Custom plugin that goes to a Duke Nukem Sound Board
• Trying to get it to play gifs 
• Working with Open Broadcast Software now

Live podcast Nov 22 in Houston

Microchip woes?

• Microchip has got back to us about the firmware - no issues on their end
• Suggested using the command line interface
• Originally thought pullups on the reset line but they are not needed 
  • Tried them with no luck

Jeep Prop Fan 

• Recently talked about designing a PCM (Power Control Module)
• Essentially control all the none engine related functions in a car
• Need a new name since it's not for the Jeep nor uses the Parallax Propeller
• Raspberry pi pico 
  • Do we do Arduino style C or Micro Python? 
    • Micro Python will be cool to try out!
  • PIO will be used for controlling reactionary lights 
    • Turn signals
    • Headlights
• Solid State Relays are EXPENSIVE 
  • Mosfets for sure
  • H-Bridge for bi-directional motors
• Combine with OCTOPROBER?

November 5, 2022 - Extra Life

• • I play games for children's hospitals
  • Raised $5,169.42 last year
  • Was the number one raiser for the Texas Children's Hospital
  • What game for this year?
  • What should I make for the stream? 
    • API for Extralife
    • Duke Nukem Forever and Aliens Colonial Marines 
    • Custom Stream plugin for the games

Live podcast Nov 22 in Houston

Hacking FR4 for light transmission

• Using FR4 as a light diffuser
• Things to consider 
  • FR4 material 
    • Yellow
    • Blue Green
    • Gray
  • Distance
  • LED Angle
  • LED brightness
• Light Bleed 
  • Pipes
  • Dividers  

PCB Ruler Redux

• James Pleger from slack channel
  • “Credit card” style
  • Different stackups of material

November 5, 2022 - Extra Life

• I play games for children's hospitals
• Raised $5,169.42 last year
• Was the number one raiser for the Texas Children's Hospital
• What game for this year?

CNC

• Calibration
• 90
• Dust Collection 
  • 2/4/5/6 in pipe
  • Thinking I will do an overhead PVC solution
• Have to design a skirt capable of interfacing with a 4 in hose

Battleship Texas

• Going to try to get someone on to talk about the restoration 

PCB Ruler Redux

• What do people want to see on them?
• What makes it actually useful? 

Live podcast Nov 22 in Houston?

Pool Shark Update!

Wolfspeed fab for NC is latest on CHIPS Act list

• 668,000 domestic manufacturing jobs
• Global Unemployment. Do we have enough people for this?
• What technology are they aiming for?

Here’s the latest hot list of cool chip fabs coming to the US

• GlobalFoundries 
  • 180nm down to 12nm
• Intel 
  • Ohio
  • New Mexico
  • Arizona
• Micron 
  • Memory Chips
• Samsung 
  • High end computing
• Texas Instruments 
  • 45nm+ analog, embedded electronics
  • Articles say it will complement other factories already in Texas
• TSMC 
  • 5nm
• Wolfspeed 
  • Worlds largest silicon carbide manufacturing facility
  • Much higher power devices with higher voltage capabilities due to large band gap

Failure Friday - Break something at the office this week? We want to hear about it!

• Billed the wrong phase of a project
• Dry air means static buildup, I don't think my 3v test circuit appreciated being a path to ground :'-(
• I ran over a 3D printer with a forklift
• Saw a customer supplied "napkin sketch" that stated 12'x12" (12 feet x 12 inches). 
  • "I read it as 12 inches x 12 inches, product was cut to that size."
  • Customer was not happy
• Sparky sparky boom boom

What to do to make your open source project more accessible - or more popular

• Use popular tool chains and environments for ease of access 
  • If the tool chain is not simple to install, offer a docker or really good instructions
  • Document your process and have someone test your instructions!
• Cherish all feedback
• If someone has a problem, do not say "works for me" 
  • They may have found an edge case to fix!