Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast

By MacroFab, Inc.

Dive into the electrifying world of electrical engineering with Circuit Break, a MacroFab podcast hosted by Parker Dillmann and Stephen Kraig. This dynamic duo, armed with practical experience and a p... more

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FAQs about Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast:

How many episodes does Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast have?

The podcast currently has 448 episodes available.

Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast episodes:

July 07, 2021MEP EP#284: Real Engineering for a Real Engineer
MEP EP#284: Real Engineering for a Real Engineer
When to Schedule Python for Engineers Intro Stream?
This Saturday July 10 at 6PM central

Twitch URL for the stream

Overview of the Topics
Setting up a python environment on Windows PC

Python script talking to an embedded device over serial communication

Not a how to write python/code stream

Might get into Tkinter for GUI stuff

Embedded Device will be Arduino

SCPI to handle the coms

List of items
Arduino

Windows PC

PyCharm

PinoTaur Production Update
Production is going well, boards are slated to be completed soon

The Future of the Supply Chain
Finding part alts that work for you

Finding different temperature ranges, packages, and even packaging

Adventures in Plastic Injection Molding
We have reached 1 Mega presses

First analysis - Images below

All “failures” were due to test bed

Could probably go more than 1 million presses
Will repeat 3 or 4 more times

New batch of actuators due any day now

Finally Real Engineering
Ran into my very first honest to god Differential Equation…

Got around it with excel

To all college students - Do well but….

What is the most computational intensive work you have had to do on the job?
...more
52min
June 30, 2021MEP EP#283: You Adapt. You Overcome. You Put in a Pull Request.
MEP EP#283: You Adapt. You Overcome. You Put in a Pull Request.
Custom DIY Multimeter?
Fun article about meter design

Specs
DC Voltage
Range 1000V

Accuracy

Resolution

Autorange?

AC Voltage
True RMS?

DC/AC Current?
Range 10A

Resistance measurement
4 wire kelvin

Communication
USB

2x 16 Character Display for Status

Powering the meter
Isolated DC-DC converter

Enclosure
19” rack 1U

Isolated mounting holes

Safety

HY3131
Digilent has an arduino shield based on this Chip

When to schedule python for engineers intro stream?
Slack channel for poll and discussion
...more
1h 4min
June 23, 2021MEP EP#282: When Print(); Just Works
MEP EP#282: When Print(); Just Works
SMT Connector Considerations
Switching from Though Hole connectors to Surface Mount connectors

Price difference

How many insertions?

Via Stitching pads

Plastic actuator update
420,000 presses and going strong

300 PPM

Damn arduino Serial.println()

Do Not Use Print For Debugging In Python Anymore
Automatic verbose print statements for python!

Easy disable

Bipolar load switch with multiple enables
Would rather not do this in discrete but probably going to have to

+/-12V in with a time delay

on switching in the load

Second time delay that enables regulators after

Preferably one control signal (capacitors charging)

Considering SSR solution

Tasty Chips segment
Keystone 9081
Plastic standoffs that have double sided sticky foam

Keystone 7693
Screw Terminal PTH 6-32 Thread

Banana Jack Install Tool?
No one makes a socket driven one? ¼” drive?

Question for the future.
What would it take to design your own Multimeter?
...more
1h 1min
June 17, 2021MEP EP#281: Through Hole Manufacturing
MEP EP#281: Through Hole Manufacturing
Through Hole Manufacturing
Processes
Hand Soldering

Soldering “robot”

Wave soldering
Design Criteria

Pallets

Selective soldering
Design Criteria

Keepouts

Lead Forming
Pre purchase?

Forming with a die?

Using hand tools?

PCB design
Holes

Non circular?

Annular rings

IPC stuff
IPC-2221 Generic Standard on Printed Board Design

IPC-2222 Sectional Design Standard for Rigid Organic Printed Boards

IPC-2223 Sectional Design Standard for Flexible/Rigid-Flexible Printed Boards

IPC-7351 Generic Requirements for Surface Mount Design and Land Pattern Standard
Performance Classification (1,2,3)

Producibility Levels (A,B,C)

Land Pattern Determination (Density level A,B,C)
...more
59min
June 09, 2021MEP EP#280: Don't Worry About It
MEP EP#280: Don't Worry About It
Adventures in plastic injection molding
Beating the bubble
Finding a new method of shooting the material to adjust for issues

Change ejector pin depth

Change material
Light bleed

Texturing

Right to Repair is going global
NPR business

National Farmers Union

Nebraska Legislature Bill 543

Getting a pro right to repair guest on the podcast?
Louis Rossmann update

Uncle's Brewery Update
Setup the boxes

Boiled water and got all the hoses cut

Next Steps
Mock brew day with lye

Brew a batch!

PCBs for 30W Power Amp
Stephen opens up fresh PCBs for his recent power amplifier project

Resin Printer Update
Liqcreate Strong-X Resin
Strength is amazing

Post processing is a bit more involved

Going to try “chroming” next
Electroless Copper
Caswell kit

This is the process PCB manufacturers use to plate the inside of PCB vias

Copper plating
Thicken up the thin electroless copper layer

Nickel plating
For corrosion resistance and strengthen the plating

Copy Chrome
...more
1h 3min
June 02, 2021MEP EP#279: Avoiding The HR Pit of Doom, Resume and Interview Tricks for Engineers
MEP EP#279: Avoiding The HR Pit of Doom, Resume and Interview Tricks for Engineers
Engineering Resumes
The main goal: To start a conversation
The resume is intended to give a snapshot of you not to be your autobiography
The person doing the interview probably has other tasks that they have to accomplish

Your interview is important but it is likely not their main focus, keep this in mind

Too much information is a bad thing - remember people hiring have to read lots of resumes

The 1 page rule
The HR pit of doom
There is a high likelihood that your resume will not go to an engineer when you apply via any portal/service/online app

Grammar/spelling/design/layout

You may be the best engineer out there but if you can’t get that across to a non-engineer then you are in trouble

Humble Bragging
You are not Engineering Jesus

Use tangible wording and describe cornerstones of your career
Example - I did X task and productivity increased Y%

Do not obfuscate your work with unclear words.

Be clear about your involvement in your tasks
Avoid the following
“Responsibilities included”

Collaborated

Think outside the box

Go-to person

Value add

Team player

Use Verbs to describe your work
Improved

Managed

Created

Designed

Do not Pad your resume
Shorter and clearer are much better than essays

Remember the HR pit and the person reading your resume

Control the white space on your page - This can be more powerful than writing a ton of fluff

Get to the point

Be proud and confident in what you have done and highlight it concisely

Use Technical Writing

Graduate resumes
Probably does not include much other than your schoolwork

Absolutely put anything other than school

Internships should be front and center

Anything that shows your passion for your degree
If you don’t have anything like this get on it

Describe how you used your degree to do something

Only put classwork that is relevant to the job you are interviewing for

Remember - everyone in your degree had to do the same thing, it doesn’t make you special

Objective statement - I can take it or leave it
Dont just put - looking for a job

See if you can make it interesting to read

Better to write a cover letter if you have something to say in an Objective Statement

How to describe things you can’t describe in detail on your resume?

Engineering Interviews:
Research Research Research
The more you know the more you can be prepared
Remember that if you get this job you could spend 1/3rd of your life there

You are interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you

Dress appropriately
Under dressed is not helpful - Avoid if possible

Come prepared - No place is going to fault you for bringing things in
Bring multiple copies of your resumes
Bring your work
Personality Tests
How to prep for these kind of questions?

"What is your greatest weakness?"
...more
1h 22min
May 26, 2021MEP EP#278: Design With Manufacturing - Altium and MacroFab
MEP EP#278: Design With Manufacturing - Altium and MacroFab
Ted Pawela
Altium's Chief Ecosystem Officer

Head of Nexar, Altium's cloud business unit

Holds a M.S. in Engineering Mechanics from Michigan State University, a B.S in. Oceanographic Technology from Florida Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. from IE Business School, Madrid, Spain

Chris Church
Is a founder and the Chief Product Officer at MacroFab

Has been working in the software industry for over twenty years, with a focus on robotics and electronics over the last decade

Prior to MacroFab, he founded Dynamic Perception and Alert Logic

Recent fundraising press release

Altium's goals around connecting design engineers to manufacturing data

Perspective on the role and level of control engineers have in manufacturing?
Will engineers take on a much bigger role with electronics production?

What about engineers being equally important to the supply chain and procurement process?

What are you hearing from the engineers themselves? Are they pushing Altium to do more to enable manufacturing?

What exactly is Nexar? How do you envision these services evolving?

How MacroFab and Altium will work together to improve the design to manufacturing experience

What are y’all looking forward to the most with this collaboration?
...more
1h 19min
May 19, 2021MEP EP#277: Bunch of Nibbles
MEP EP#277: Bunch of Nibbles
Tasty Chips segment
Harwin EZ-Cable Clips

Mac-Eight CZ series

Update - E-Z Hook Insulation Piercing Wire Clamp - 8507
Built a housing to isolate the wire clamps

COM port snooper / sniffer?
Ended up using 'Free Serial Analyzer'

Automating Testing Clock Drift
Using an oscilloscope?

SCPI or some other method?

115 pages of commands

What is inside a scope probe? 10X?

Rotary switch pcb - interesting bug?
Pcb is 99% done - currently reviewing

MF platform experience

https://github.com/analogeng

49 unique resistor values 92 total resistors
List of most used resistors

Potentially bad bug in Diptrace
Causes lots of headaches

Injection Molded Actuators
They work great

Shrinkage - Identifying and dealing with it

Voids - problematic for light passage
...more
58min
May 12, 2021MEP EP#276: Skippy Documentation
MEP EP#276: Skippy Documentation
Fake LM338 Voltage Regulators?
X-RAY results

Should we Xray legit LM137 and see if the XRAY matches?

SCPI or Standard Commands for Programmable Instruments
IEEE 488.2-1987

Send command strings over serial to configure and get results from test equipment

Test equipment mostly adhere to this with some weird gotchas

COM port snooper / sniffer?
Is there good software out there that can sniff the buffers / communication string between Windows and a hardware device?

Is bad documentation worse than no documentation?
“With no documentation you know immediately you're fucked.”

Bringing back the Tasty Chips segment - E-Z Hook Insulation Piercing Wire Clamp - 8507
Spring loaded clamp that has teeth

When you insert a wire the teeth slice into the insulation making contact

Datasheet specifications are interesting to say the least!

Max Current 1 AMP

Max Voltage 0 V ?!?

Covering the Amplifier
Update on Parker’s Amp “refinishing” project

Adventures in plastic molding
Getting custom actuator parts injection molded

First prototype parts got shot this week

What to expect
Provide model to company

Initial review

DFM report

Release for prototype
5 to 6 weeks for the initial mold to be cut

Prototype units are shot and sent for approval

Second round of mold adjustments are cut - 2 weeks

Second prototype units are shot and sent for approval

Mold is sent to US

Production is run

Mold cost ~12k
Half up front

Remainder at time of delivery

Includes all DFM and both prototypes

Previous solution was about $35/unit
New solution with dome snap switches and injection molded plastic is about $23 to $27/unit
...more
1h 7min
May 05, 2021MEP EP#275: Log Stepping Revision Control
MEP EP#275: Log Stepping Revision Control
Log stepper
Exercise in madness

24 position stepped attenuator

1db steps with step 0 being -infinite and step 24 being 0db attenuation

Requires lots of non standard resistor values

Constant total resistance

Excel sheet

Make before break operation

Revision workflow
How do you document and handle revisions for schematics and pcbs?

Process
Get new rev

Go to testing

Find issues and document

Make new revision

Repeat

Venturing into hobby level SLA printing
Elegoo Mars 2
Quality is amazing

Print speed is interesting

Will have to experiment with different resins to find a high strength, high temperature

Plating process to test

Amplifier update
Live next week on parts replacement?

Recovering it
...more
58min

FAQs about Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast:

How many episodes does Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast have?

The podcast currently has 448 episodes available.

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