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Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast
Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast episodes
- MEP EP#244: Comic-Con for Engineers - Chris Carter
MEP EP#244: Comic-Con for Engineers - Chris Carter
Chris Carter
- The owner of Mercury Inc.
- Mercury Inc. is a design consulting firm with expertise in electrical mechanical software and firmware development
DFM for PCB Assemblies
- Industrial Design
- What is this?
- Special Assembly
- Unique processes
- Sequences and events
- Design for Serviceability
- Documentation
- Change logs
54 min - MEP EP#243: Schematics and Connectors, Name a More Iconic Duo...
MEP EP#243: Schematics and Connectors, Name a More Iconic Duo...
Parker
- Battery Charger debacle update
- Two batteries recovered, One failed
- Amazon Sidewalk draws electronics from among TI, Silicon Labs and Semtech
- Amazon Sidewalk, a new shared wireless network for IoT consumer device
- DXF to Board outlines?
- Eagles DXF importer doesn’t work all too well
- Suggestions?
- AutoDesk Fusion seems to import just fine
Stephen
- Connectors on schematics
- Rfdave on slack channel asked a question about this
- Am I the only person who hates a schematic consisting of 1 connector, 2 IC’s, 4 bypass caps with all of the interconnects being done with net names, and no interconnecting wires?
- Currently working on a design that has multiple boards with cable interconnects
- How do you like to show this?
- Reference Designator?
- Potentiometer board - one board to rule them all
- Using slots to make panel mount “solder lug” potentiometers into pcb mount
- Not a lot of values in each taper is available in a through hole version
- This means a lot less wiring is required.
- EDA schematic and grounding
54 min - MEP EP#242: The Heartbeat of Cats and LEDs
MEP EP#242: The Heartbeat of Cats and LEDs
Parker
- Battery charger and maintainer died
- Took all my batteries with it
- Company is replacing the unit
- Nothing looks particularly wrong with the PCB Assembly besides it being gross
- SF1565SG
- Current Mode PWM Controller
- FQPF12N60C
- Fet used in the PWM Controller
- HT46R004 HolTek MCU
- Cost Effective?
- Cat Feeder Unreminder
- Ordered a breakout board for the AEM10941
- Super Caps SCCS30B106PRB
- 10F @ 2.7VDC
- Solar Panel AM-1816CA
- 84µA at peak power
- This is specced at 200lx
- Will this be enough?
- LTC2956 draws 0.8μA
- LEDs at 40μA a piece
- Total draw when Cat Feed Indicator is on is 40.8μA
- 5F x (4.5V-3.6V) / 0.0000608 = 74,013 seconds -> 20 and a half hours!
Stephen
- Magnetics
- Transformers arrived!
- Be specific with what you ask for and ask questions. I almost got bit with dimensional issues
- Diy Tag connect
- Made a pogo pin test connector
- Mill-Max 0955-0-15-20-71-14-11-0 Pogo pins with solder cup on back
- Using FR4 as mechanical supports
- Designing a Pawl system to clasp the pcb
- Next Revision
- Make the landing pads bigger
- Add something for strain relief
- Move the pins slightly down for more spring
- Add more anti rotation pins
48 min - MEP EP#241: Failing to Electrocute the Chicken
MEP EP#241: Failing to Electrocute the Chicken
Parker
- Bit of feedback on a live stream
- People suggesting YouTube live
- Will set this up for episode 242
- The little things no one sees that make projects take forever
- 3D printer update completed
- New fans
- TI calls for lower-cost sensors to boost robot adoption
- “We don’t see as many robots as we’d like”
- Elon Musk’s Neuralink implant
- Pig example
Stephen
- High voltage low current measurement - The circuit evolves
- Adding resistance measurements
- The new process
- Use the resistor measurement probes to measure the screen resistors values and record those
- Use the resistor measurement probes to measure the cathode resistors and record
- Plug test harness into the DUT
- Begin test
- Program will read voltages and using the resistance measurements it will give you a target voltage.
- Turn trim pot to set idle current such that the power dissipation is met
- The load is dynamic and this is an unregulated power supply
- Looking for bananas
- Want to have “multi-meter” banana connector
- History of the banana connector
- Technically a binding post
50 min - MEP EP#240: Disturbed Solder Accuracy
MEP EP#240: Disturbed Solder Accuracy
Parker
- Got a fully automatic screen printer!
- ESE US-2000X
- Potentially lower our minimal paste size
- Twitch Live Stream podcasts?
- Amazon multimeter probes
Stephen
- High voltage low current measurement
- Don't want to break the connection so a traditional ammeter isn't going to work
- Sticking with the read both sides of a resistor method
- Caddock 1776-C681 high voltage high resistance high tolerance divider
- 1/100 so 0 to 500v becomes 0 to 5v
- ADC - MCP3551-E/SN
- 22 bit
- SPI
- 2.4 meg ohm input impedance
- Ideally the voltage divider has a “gain” of 0.01 but if the ADC is directly attached to the divider the gain is around 0.0096
- Full scale would be 4.8V instead of 5V
- Solution: add a buffer
- AD8244BRMZ
- Quad buffer
- Typical offset voltage of 100uV
- Gain error of 0.03% max on +/-15v rails
- 10T ohm and 4pf input resistance/capacitance - 10^12
- Gain error is now 0.009999999901 - Close enough
41 min - MEP EP#239: Frictionless Spherical Cow Transformers
MEP EP#239: Frictionless Spherical Cow Transformers
Parker
- Garage Door opener hacking
- Converting my normal style garage door opener to a “jackshaft” style opener
- Reversing the direction of the A/C single phase motor?
- Split phase motors
- One phase is shifted with a large capacitor by ~90 degrees
- In my application I just had to reverse the wires and the end stop wires
- PyInstaller
- Can take your python scripts and make it into a self contained application
- Useful for non technical inclined people on your team
- Cross Platform!
- GUIs
- Tkinter seems to work well in Win10 and Ubuntu 20 LTS
Stephen
- High voltage low current measurement
- Tony_W Recommended the ACS37002
- Hall effect sensor that can be ground referenced in very high voltage applications
- 0.85m ohm conductor resistance
- 4.8kV RMS isolation voltage
- VCC of up to 6.5V
- -50 to 50A sensing range
- Gain selection of 30mv/A to 60mV/A
- In my situation I would want to monitor 0.1mA or 100uA. With a gain of 60mV/A that would be 60uV/mA so 0.1mA would be 6uV….. This may still not be the best solution because I would likely need a ton of gain and have to correct for any offsets.
- Possibly to a tro prong approach - Measure voltage across known resistances in the circuit
- Getting transformers manufactured for your product
- What do you need to know?
- How do you get started?
- What are the specifications
- Mains transformers
- SMPS and flyback style “yellow tape” Transformers.
51 min - MEP EP#238: Better Encryption than Zoom, Firmware Stacks with AND!XOR
MEP EP#238: Better Encryption than Zoom, Firmware Stacks with AND!XOR
AND!XOR
- Previous podcast episodes:
- Incognito Mode which was episode number 69
- Arduino, The Gateway Drug To #BadgeLife which was episode number 109
- Espress-ify? Designing Products Around the ESP-32 Platform which was episode number 144
- Feel the Hum which was episode number 183
- Firmware
- RTOS vs No OS (i.e. Arduino or pure SDK usage)
- What about a Bootloader?
- Zephyr RTOS
- DTS
- Config
- Drivers
- Whats good about Zephry / What SUCKS about Zephry
- Drivers
- Middle Ware
- GUI
- App Layer
- The Cloud
- Flags and CTF
- Patching firmware in the wild
1 hr 21 min - MEP EP#237: Ice Cream Solder Paste Equipotential
MEP EP#237: Ice Cream Solder Paste Equipotential
Parker
- Cat Feeder Unreminder
- Started designing the parts and symbols in Eagle.
- Will post more on twitter as I build the components and put together the symbols
- Garage Door opener hacking
- Converting my normal style garage door opener to a “jackshaft” style opener
- Why?
- LiftMaster, Chamberlain, Craftsmen are all the same
- Mine is a Liftmaster Formula 1
- Belt drive need to convert to chain drive to attach to the jackshaft
- All of these use similar drive mechs
- Other things that are needed
- Garage door auto lock
- SureLock Garage Door DeadBolt
- Cable tension switch
- LiftMaster 41A6104
Stephen
- High voltage low current measurement
- Resistive dividers?
- Caddock 1776-C681
- 10M ohm
- 0.1% tolerance with 0.05% matching
- Low PPM
- This method is ok but requires a rather large current sense resistor which is not great.
- Floating supplies
- This is how multimeters work. The reference is floating.
- Isolation solution
- May go with an isolated solution - basically a power supply that isolates the secondary.
- Isolated digital communication down to LV side.
- Tests for pcb shielding
- Did a shield plane test on a new pcb assembly.
- Top and bottom pours that respect clearance rules.
- 5mm pitch via stitching.
- All terminate to one pin on a 2 pin header.
- Second pin connects to a plated bolt hole that goes to chassis.
58 min - MEP EP#236: Excited Electrons
MEP EP#236: Excited Electrons
Parker
- Lead Forming Topic
- Tools
- 3D printed forms
- Best practices?
- Cat Feeder Unreminder
- Choosing a solar panel
- Solar Panels generally act like a current source across its useable power band
- Specifications that are important
- Power (Watts) - Max
- Current @ Peak Power
- Voltage @ maximum power point (Vmpp)
- Vmpp - Voltage @ open circuit (Voc)
- AEM10941 Solar Panel Chip
- Max V is 5V so open circuit can’t be higher then this
- MPP is set by 2 configuration pins
- Ratio between Vmpp / Voc
Stephen
- Voltage References and dev boards
- MCP1501T-20E/CHY
- 0.1% initial Accuracy
- Low noise
- worst case 50ppm across -40 to +125
- Capable of sinking and sourcing 20mA
- AD584 Dev board
- 0.3% initial accuracy for the J version. The K version is 0.1%
- Linear rail is shitty
- Got 300 mm of knock off chineasium linear rail
- Sounds like sand in the bearings
- Held vertically the blocks get stuck…
1 hr 1 min - MEP EP#235: Solar Freaking Cat Feeders
MEP EP#235: Solar Freaking Cat Feeders
Parker
- Cat Feeder Unreminder
- Pulsing current to light LEDs
- http://donklipstein.com/ledlocup.html
- http://www.discovercircuits.com/H-Corner/lowpwrflasher.htm
- Timer IC
- LTC2956
- Power Management
- Solar with super capacitors
- Panasonic BSG series solar panels
- Will have to do research on specifying solar panels
- AEM10941
- https://e-peas.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/DS_AEM10941.pdf
- Built in LDO regulators
Stephen
- Ball screws
- Bought a small section of ball screw with the associated nut, nut housing, and end block
- SFU1605 300mm - 16mm diameter and 5mm pitch
- Trying to work out linear forces and the RPM range if it were to be driven from a stepper motor or servo
- Mechanical engineering is tough
- CNC work
- Cut the first actual project on the CNC
- Movable cradle for holding chassis - makes working on them super easy
- Had to spend some serious time working on getting the machine to cut 90 degree
- Iterative process
- Flex in the machine - 0.02” accuracy
- Going to cut some speaker cabs next
- Added a simple fan radiator
- 8020 catalog arrives sometime soon….
- ARP 2600 repair
- A client found a unit that was put in a closet in 1984
- It was only pulled out last weekend and is now in my hands to do some repairs
1 hr
About Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast
From the publisher's feed
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 palpable passion for tech, explores the latest innovations, industry news, and practical challenges in the field. From DIY project hurdles to deep dives with industry experts, Parker and Stephen's real-world insights provide an engaging learning experience that bridges theory and practice for engineers at any stage of their career.
Whether you're a student eager to grasp what the job market seeks, or an engineer keen to stay ahead in the fast-paced tech world, Circuit Break is your go-to. The hosts, alongside a vibrant community of engineers, makers, and leaders, dissect product evolutions, demystify the journey of tech from lab to market, and reverse engineer the processes behind groundbreaking advancements. Their candid discussions not only enlighten but also inspire listeners to explore the limitless possibilities within electrical engineering.
Presented by MacroFab, a leader in electronics manufacturing services, Circuit Break connects listeners directly to the forefront of PCB design, assembly, and innovation. MacroFab's platform exemplifies the seamless integration of design and manufacturing, catering to a broad audience from hobbyists to professionals.
About the hosts: Parker, an expert in Embedded System Design and DSP, and Stephen, an aficionado of audio electronics and brewing tech, bring a wealth of knowledge and a unique perspective to the show. Their backgrounds in engineering and hands-on projects make each episode a blend of expertise, enthusiasm, and practical advice.
Join the conversation and community at our online engineering forum, where we delve deeper into each episode's content, gather your feedback, and explore the topics you're curious about. Subscribe to Circuit Break on your favorite podcast platform and become part of our journey through the fascinating world of electrical engineering.
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