Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast

By MacroFab, Inc.Science Technology

Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast episodes

May 13, 2020MEP EP#224: The Normal Chaos
MEP EP#224: The Normal Chaos
Stephen
DC Heating and Thermal Testing
A low voltage moderate current linear power supply

12.6V dc @ 0.55A 6.93W

LM2940T-12.0 LDO

TIP42 bootstrap transistor to share the load

12V @ 2A transformer supplies ~16.2vdc with 200mV ripple

~2W of heat to be handled

Shooting for about 250mW in the regulator and the transistor then the rest will get dumped in some resistors

PCB heatsinking

Diptrace 4.0 is finally here!
Snapping and aligning items

Circles and arcs actually have a center now…

Paste and Mask layers are finally visible

Pad angles other than 0 and 90 are now available in the pattern editor

One button for removing silkscreen from pads

Progressive searching for components instead of the seizure it used to be

Export options now can export all the manufacturing files as a single zip

Teardrops!
Parker
Wagoneer Engine Work
Timing cover
Water pump

Timing chain

Distributor gear

Distributor camshaft gear

Harmonic Balancer

All the gaskets

Radiator next

Dash Cluster

Fixing a wine chiller
1 hr 7 min
May 06, 2020MEP EP#223: The Inverted Success Funnel - IdeaFab
MEP EP#223: The Inverted Success Funnel - IdeaFab
The Idea Tank Podcast
Scott Hansen and Eric Benzenhoefer are idea men who, not humbly, seek to change the world through sharing their million dollar ideas, and humbly, seek to make a podcast talking about their idea

Scott and Eric where last seen on the MEP on Episode 77: The IdeaFab Podcast
The Ideas
King...or Queen... of Cooking
Saving the restaurant industry

Allow entry level chiefs compete in restaurants

Big Brother Brands
You already have a gig job and you should be earning money

TVs are subsidized by selling your data to marketing companies

You should get that money instead!

Go Aw-ai
An automated texting service for continuing conversations that you no longer want to have

Measures and records all of your other conversations and gives appropriate responses

DMPR.io
The #1 app for those going #2.

Chat/dating with other dmprs

Yelp for bathrooms

What is the closest bathroom
1 hr 7 min
April 29, 2020MEP EP#222: Turning It On - New Design Checklists with James Lewis
MEP EP#222: Turning It On - New Design Checklists with James Lewis
James Lewis
His passion for teaching non-engineers has led him to create the Baldengineer Blog and the AddOhms video tutorial series

With 20 years of experience in electronics, marketing, sales, and teaching, James boils seemingly difficult concepts down to the core, so that anyone can learn what they need to finish that next great project

James was on the previous MEP EP#141: It Depends – An In Depth Look at MLCCs with James Lewis
How to test and validate if your new PCB Assembly is working properly
What do you do before power on?
Component checks?

Current limiting?

Voltage limiting?

The Smoke Test
What do you do if it all goes up in smoke?

Validating power systems or supplies

Equipment for testing

IR cameras for looking for hot spots

Minimal viable electronic lab equipment
Digital Multimeter
auto ranging

true RMS

measure/verify caps (but gotta take it out of circuit)

Consider bench style

Power Supply
Power output, watch the power ratings

Current limiting (critical)

Output control

Avoid the cheap ATX route

Oscilloscope bandwidth vs sample rate
channel count

built-in AWG

serial decodes

Probes

Function Generator
Great for filters and to replace a clock, but how useful are they?

All-In One devices
Analog Discovery 2

Great for turning-on boards from home

Compromised specs, but could be "good enough."

Soldering Station
Think about rework

Can you remove SMT?

Hot air, etc.

Will you need to add debug headers?
1 hr 22 min
April 22, 2020MEP EP#221: ThunderOhm Style
MEP EP#221: ThunderOhm Style
Josh Rozier
Been on the previous MEP episodes
MEP EP#152: Third Annual MacroFab Star Wars Christmas Special – Vader’s Fake Fingers

MEP EP#174: Apply Inspiration Here

MEP EP#178: Little Shop of Transformer Horror

MEP EP#204: Fourth Annual MacroFab Star Wars Christmas Special – C3PO Steals the Show

Layout Experiences
The What-A-Booster

Reverb Pedal

Power supply

Through hole to SMD transition

EDA tools
What and how did you get started?

Analog stuff?
Starting to mess with opamps

Making PCBs from scratch
What methods did you try?

Will you ever do it again?

Ordering fresh boards hot from the oven
59 min
April 15, 2020MEP EP#220: Blinky is 90% of Your Project
MEP EP#220: Blinky is 90% of Your Project
Parker
Hoppes #9
for the printer seems to work well

Will it hold up long term?

Still waiting on fans for the printer and other various parts

Jeep Fan Evolution
Fabio and Roger on the MacroFab Slack channel has suggested the nRF Series

NRF52-DK Arduino compatible
Stephen
Connector Woes
JST style connectors

A family big enough to have their own wiki

Hackaday has a good article

Looking at XH series
2.5mm RC battery pack connector

CNC radiator
5 gallons of DI water with automotive antifreeze

Warmed up after 3 hours of cutting
Rapid Fire Opinion
The Myth of the three capacitor values
Could this be the next project for the MEP?
1 hr 3 min
April 08, 2020MEP EP#219: Virtual Earth Mixers
MEP EP#219: Virtual Earth Mixers
Parker
Brewery Update
Still bending tubes

Going cheap and buying a roll of stainless steel tubing was a mistake

Started looking into the Jeep Fan controller project again
Evolving into a Body control module

Investigating the best way to add wireless remote control?

Pinotaur LED REV2 design is completed
Using those APA-102C-NEW-260

Working on a motor controller add-on for the Pinotaur board
Socketed motor controllers allow stepper or DC motor control
Stephen
Rotary switches
Three datasheets and all are wrong…

VAAPA: Variable Architecture And Parameters Amplifier

CNC Update
Working on greater accuracy

Most cuts are within 0.005 but certain situations can make it up to 0.01

Got a O flute bit in.

Feeds and speeds

Analog tricks
Clipping opamp in feedback

Virtual earth mixer is no longer a virtual earth
Rapid Fire Opinion
Arrow Electronics launches European FPGA Developer Contest 2020
Entry via the Arrow European FPGA Developer Contest 2020 web page and choose from the following Intel FPGA development boards: MAX1000, CYC1000 or AnalogMAX /DAQ1/2/3

Projects can involve anything from software, special IPs/interfaces and soft cores, to board modifications, adapter creation, adding a PMOD/Arduino, creating an IoT device, and programming algorithms for AI/CNN
53 min
April 01, 2020MEP EP#218: Like Old Cheese
MEP EP#218: Like Old Cheese
Parker
3D printer upgrades
Waiting on parts

Brewery
Printed the pump brackets

Bending Tubes and mounting brackets tonight
Stephen
Frequency counter woes
Found the led driver. It is not a pic like was suggested

ZLG7289BS

Translated the document

Page 7 has a schematic that looks like it will help

Rotary switching
Doing it “right” this time

Purchasing the switch before designing the board

Part numbers

STmicro website?
Why?

Dave Jones and documentation
Rapid Fire Opinion
Wanted: Practical App Note Suggestions
Chris Gammel posed the question on the The Amp Hour subreddit
58 min
March 25, 2020MEP EP#217: Frequency Stability Dependability
MEP EP#217: Frequency Stability Dependability
Parker
Reverse Engineering Tools?
Calipers

Edge profile gauge

Dial indicator with radius gauge attachment

Angle finder/gauge

Good Scanner?

3D printer improvements for the Monoprice Ultimate Maker
Stuff it already has
Internal RaspPi running octoprint

MicroSwiss metal hot end

Enclosure

BLTouch

Better cable management

Fixed print surface improvements

Fan upgrades

Switch to a faster bed heater?

Lubrication suggestions?
Stephen
Hacking a frequency counter
2 new designs at work that are highly dependent on frequency stability

3156 Amazon wonder

Where and how to read values

Arduino solution?

Simulation: Arbitrary sources
Adding functions to your voltage and current sources

VCA and controls

Non-linear circuits
Rapid Fire Opinion
A NES Motherboard For The Open Source Generation
All but two parts are readily available
CIC lockout chip

UA6527 cpu
Reversed pulse wave from the original cpu

NES Clones Reversed Duty Cycles - Why you should Reject them
1 hr 5 min
March 18, 2020MEP EP#216: I’d Buy That For Five Dollars
MEP EP#216: I’d Buy That For Five Dollars
Parker
Python PDF
Looked at peoples suggestions and none really did what I needed

FPDF will do for now since I have made a template already

Most suggestions are building HTML then converting to PDF which is fine but not really a good solution

Zebra Printers
ZPL or Zebra Programming Language
ZT230

ZD420

My process so far for making a ZPL webapp thingy
Zebra Designer 3 for Developers
Makes the Template

Push Template over to printer

Use Variables for fields you want to “input”

Zebra Setup Utilities
Allows talking to the printer easily

Zebra Browser Print SDK
Makes a USB bridge to a local web server

Web Server for Chrome
Used to point to where your application is at

Application is written in Javascript
Stephen
CNC is fully functional!
Calibrated the three axis
Ran cable “tubes”

Set up spindle control

Table surfacing
4 flute

2&1/32 in diameter surfacing bit

12,000 RPM

100ipm

0.005-0.01 DOC

VFD EMC
Pages 10-12

VFD cables are to have the shield (screen) connected at both ends

This is an impedance thing

Shield should be at least 80% coverage

Foil and braid is best but most expensive typically
Rapid Fire Opinion
Is a $1 Power Supply Any Good?
A pretty good overview of power supply tests
45 min
March 11, 2020MEP EP#215: Just Another Meatloaf Title
MEP EP#215: Just Another Meatloaf Title
Parker
Brewery Update
Pump mount design completed

3D printed brackets

Bending tubing this week!

Need to finish the last bit of wiring in the electrical box

Python PDF Creation
Why do they all suck?

Currently using fpdf
Stephen
CNC Update
Moving...mostly
Still need to get the X-axis moving

Sprockets to weld on

Will try rotational tig welding

Midi to G-Code

Motor Cable
Igus 16/4 plus braided shield

Chainflex

Best way to attach the shield?

Rack Mount Amplifier
Replaced the transformer last week to boost the votlage

Went from a 12:230 to a 10:230 ratio for a 20% increase

Output changed exactly by 20%....go figure!
Rapid Fire Opinion
3D printed forms for sheet metal pressing?
Sort of Worked...

Interesting to see the progress but it still required a mill to get a usable form

With more experimentation and proper design of the part to be bent this could be a real option

3D printed tool punches as well
57 min

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.

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Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast

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