Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast

Surfing for Science: Phil Bresnahan of Smartfin

Phil Bresnahan

• Has made the water his playground and office for most of his life
• Senior Development Engineer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography a department of UC San Diego, and the Lead Engineer of the Smartfin Project

SmartFin

• What is SmartFin?
  • The Lost Bird Project
• Why use a Surf Board for this platform?
• What kind of sensors does this fin have?
  • How does it measure the ocean’s chemistry?
• Construction techniques?
• How is the fin charged and powered?
• Hardware challenges with the design?
• How does someone contribute to the project?
• BBC Documentary

Announcements!

KiCon 2019 is a user conference for the popular open source CAD program KiCad. Happening April 26th and 27th 2019 in Chicago IL, this is the first and largest gathering of hardware developers using KiCad. Talks at the conference will span hardware design, revision control, scripting, manufacturing considerations, proper library management and getting  started developing the underlying tools. All announced talks have been listed on the conference site.

Visit our Public Slack Channel and join the conversation in between episodes!

The Golden Integrated Circuit

Parker

• Propeller Development Stick Type-C Addition
  
  • Found the BQ24165RGET to handle the lithium battery power management
  • New battery management IC handles dual inputs thus replacing the TPS2113ADRBR power mux and p-channel mosfet
• Wagon Tach Project
  
  • Signal is a 50V pulse from the distributor
  • Arduinos do not like 50V
• Wagon Powered Mirror PCB Installed!
  
  • 3D printed a bracket and installed into the door
• Tag Connect Probe Ends
  
  • Will give a full report on how well they work

Stephen

• Macro Amp
  
  • Milling the top panel
  • Transformers mounted - check!
  • PCB mounting needs fasteners ordered
    
  • J-Fet buffer for the NuTubes
• Riaa filter with gain options for MM and MC type
  
  • A series of filter specifications for recording
  • If the record is cut with lower bass then the cut width can be smaller allowing for more info to be cut on to the record - More music playing time
  • Two poles and one zero
    

R.F.O.

• Gain ultra-high power density for 100-W USB Power Delivery adapters
  
  • Texas Instruments application document for a very dense, high power AC to DC power supply
  • Designed around providing the power for a 100W USB Type-C charger
    
• Complete 5-Watt Power Supply in IEC Main Filter Case
  
  • Combines a IEC60320 (C13 coupler) connector with EMI filtering and a AC to DC power supply
  • Greatly simplifies product design
  • Due to cost Parker only sees this used in low volume / high margin products and one off art installations
    
• TI Claims Breakthrough BAW Technology
  
  • Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) resonator technology though should it be BAWRT?
  • Will reduce BoM cost and PCB size
• Discussion on how to store parts
  
  • Part bins, boxes for projects, and proper tool storage
  • Parker's fasteners drawer is getting out of hand
  • How do you organize your parts?

Announcements!

KiCon 2019 is a user conference for the popular open source CAD program KiCad. Happening April 26th and 27th 2019 in Chicago IL, this is the first and largest gathering of hardware developers using KiCad. Talks at the conference will span hardware design, revision control, scripting, manufacturing considerations, proper library management and getting started developing the underlying tools. All announced talks have been listed on the conference site.

Visit our Public Slack Channel and join the conversation in between episodes!

Electric Vehicle Charging and Cat Safety

Christopher Howell

• OpenEVSE started in February 2011 with a simple experiment to try to generate the J1772 pilot signal on an Arduino
• One experiment lead to another to another until a prototype J1772 compatible controller was born
• With lots of feedback and interest a few boards were offered to other hardware hackers
• What started as 6 boards built in the first batch turned into many thousands...
• Today, OpenEVSE powers charging stations from many manufactures all over the world.

OpenEVSE

• What is OpenEVSE? Does EVSE stand for something?
• What is the story behind you getting into Electric Vehicle Chargers?
•  Design
  • Generating the SAE J1772 pilot signal from an Arduino. Why Arduino?
  • What kind of regulations do you have to deal with?
  • What approvals or markings does your product have?
  • Are the kits approved?
• Kits
  • Have you seen much interest in these? I would think most people just want a working final product.
  • Safety concerns?
• Compatibility with vehicles?
• Going the other way? Battery management?
• John Cutler from twitter asks:
  • Allowing load sharing for multiple EVSEs sharing a circuit and/or supporting the Hydra style setup?
    • Day based scheduling (i.e. weekdays vs weekends).
    • Smaller, more portable and/or inexpensive models?
    • RaspberryPi based versions?
• Guy Thomas grtyvr from our Slack Channel asks:
  • What is the current state of vehicle charging grid? And what can we do to influence decision makers to move faster on adoption?
  • Super-capacitors for buses/trains:  is there progress in that area?
  • Inductive charging for the bus/trains.  Is that a thing?
• Which EV do you drive? Which do you recommend?
• Github Repo

Announcements!

KiCon 2019 is a user conference for the popular open source CAD program KiCad. Happening April 26th and 27th 2019 in Chicago IL, this is the first and largest gathering of hardware developers using KiCad. Talks at the conference will span hardware design, revision control, scripting, manufacturing considerations, proper library management and getting  started developing the underlying tools. All announced talks have been listed on the conference site.

MacroFab will be at SXSW. We are teaming up with Particle.io to put together a Hardware Happy Hour. It will take place this Friday March 8th from 4PM until 8PM at the Jester King Brewery. Join us for food and beer and network with fellow Hardware Engineers to kick off your SXSW weekend.

Visit our Public Slack Channel and join the conversation in between episodes!

Kalashinikaze: The Right to Fly Arms

• Parker
  • Prop Dev Stick Type-C edition update
    • Routing almost complete
    • Moved from 0603 to 0402
    • Parallax Propeller moved from QFP to QFN
    • Changed the voltage regulator from a NCP1117 3.3V to a AP7361C 3.3V
      • Why?
    • Adding Lipo battery charging support
      • BQ24075 Ti part
  • Testing my USB Type-C example boards
    • Interesting Dongle Type-A to Type-C
  • Wagon power mirror controller works!
• Stephen
  • LND150 feedback tone stack for a Roz amp
    • Similar to the Venteq this is a variable impedance filter inside a feedback loop
    • Uses a modified architecture
    • LND150 makes up the active element
      • From ~80V to 400V it is linear and does not shift amplitude
    • High voltage power supply still working great
  • Macro Amp
    • Looking at the component layout
    • Need to get octal sockets and J-Fets for the buffers
• R.F.O.
  • Know your fits and tolerances
    
    • Great video covering tolerances and fits for mechanical design
    • New engineers - selecting tolerance too tight. Most of the time this is not needed.
    • Fits - Ansi standards
    • Machinists handbook 30th edition $35 on Amazon.
  • Pillow Flight game
    • Pico-8 game
  • The Kalashnikov assault rifle changed the world. Now there’s a Kalashnikov kamikaze drone.
    • How will the future of hobby drones be affected by this?
    • FAA Mandates External Registration Markings for Drones
    • Hunting traps in most states have this requirement
    • Kalashnikov also makes an Electric Vehicle?
    • This reminds us of when the Media was scared that 3D printers could make "Ghost Guns"

Visit our Public Slack Channel and join the conversation in between episodes!

Al Williams and the One Instruction Wonder

• Al Williams
  • One of the authors behind Hackaday, a website that features electronic projects and other things that appeal to people interested in computers, electronics, and technology
  • Ham radio operator
  • Author of many books
  • Has worked on everything from underwater technology to the International Space Station and just about everything in between
  • Was on previous episodes
    • EP#57: Mr. Williams, your book changed my life
    • EP#94: Al Williams and the Field Programmable Gate Arrays
• FPGA bootcamps on Hackaday
  • 5 out now, 6 soon
• FPGA development boards
  • Upduino
  • Max10 Arrow
  • Digilent
  • iCEstick
• Dr. Dobbs
  • The One Instruction Wonder
  • A Universal Cross Assembler
  • The Commando Forth Compiler
• Write 8-bit code in your browser
  • Atari 2600 programming in browser with simulation!
  • Verilog compiler for designing a 8-bit platform from scratch
• Jone's forth compiler: JONESFORTH
• Project Jupyter
  • IPython Interactive Computing
  • The Jupyter Notebook
• Space suit decompresses in outer space

Visit our Public Slack Channel and join the conversation in between episodes!

• Parker
  • Wrote an article about the past three years of the MacroFab Engineering Podcast
  • Chime Module
    • MC14069UB
      • Hex inverter
    • MC14001UB
      • Quad NOR gate
    • Other Circuit components
  • What is the best way to reverse engineer a PCB?
  • Ray Alert
• Stephen
  • Rebuilt and rewired 3 amplifiers
  • Soldano clone went from being somewhat noisy to virtually nothing
    • Very interesting grounding scheme
    • Lots of dos and donts
  • Utracer tube testing
  • The Macro Amp
    • Nu Tube
  • Always remember to over buy parts
• Game idea?
  • Zork derivative game that comes on a "com stick"
• RFO
  • Power Supply Design for Clean Jazz Amps
    • This is a cool blog about building power supplies
    • Vasily Ivanenko
    • Lots of images and good analysis
    • Heavy focus on component selection and managing grounds
  • Bees can do simple arithmetic, offering hop to low-gate-count AI
    • Now that is kinda click baity
  • Flow Chart on Electrical Component Selection
    • This accurately describes part buying for personal projects

MacroFab will be at SXSW. We are teaming up with Particle.io to put together a Hardware Happy Hour. It will take place on Friday March 8th from 4PM until 8PM at the super cool Jester King Brewery. Check the show notes for full details and to RSVP. Join us for lite bites and refreshments, network with fellow Hardware nerds and kick off SXSW.

• Jason Cerundolo
  • An engineer experienced in mechanical, electrical, and firmware engineering
  • Jason has over nine years of experience as a hardware engineer and working on electronic designs in Silicon Valley
  • In his free time, he works on open source projects, such as USB Type-C tools and projects
• USB Type-C Power Delivery PHY Breakout Board
  • A breakout board for the FUSB302
    • USB-PD PHY for BMC communication used in USB-C connectors
  • Determine plug orientation (normal or reversed)
  • Determine or advertise Type-C power levels (5 V at 0.5, 1.5, or 3.0 A)
  • Use BMC communication to negotiate USB Power Delivery Explicit Contracts up to 20 V and 5 A (100 W of power)
  • Negotiate Alternate Modes to reuse the pins in the Type-C connector for other purposes
• One of the problems that I always run into with USB designs is the “Am I doing this right?”
  • Testing, debugging, and evaluation
    • What hardware and software should you look at when building a test setup for USB?
    • Low Cost Alternatives for home designers and startups?
      • Jason has some tools like the FUSB302 break out board and USB-C Explorer 
      • Teledyne LeCroy Mercury T2C USB HS/PD Protocol Analyzer
      • Cypress CY4500 EZ-PD Protocol Analyzer
• What is a good place to start if a hardware designer wants to get into USB Type-C?
  • Jason has articles that cover a solid foundation of USB Type-C in his USB-C for Engineers, Part 1
  • Reclaimer Labs
• Quick hardware layout tips for USB signals
  • Standard high speed signal routing applies
  • For USB 2.0 just keeping them the same length should be enough
  • For Superspeed USB 3.0+ length matching for each pair is more important

MacroFab will be at SXSW. We are teaming up with Particle.io to put together a Hardware Happy Hour. It will take place on Friday March 8th from 4PM until 8PM at the super cool Jester King Brewery. Check the show notes for full details and to RSVP. Join us for lite bites and refreshments, network with fellow Hardware nerds and kick off SXSW.

• Parker
  • Star Wars Detonator is 95% complete
    • It is inside the enclosure and works!
    • Stand needs to be printed and wrap up the paint
    • Original STL files for the detonator by Roel Veldhuyzen
    • Future of this project?
  • USB Type-C Article Update
    • USB Type-C -> FTDI FT230X -> Parallax Propeller is completed
    • Example is on our githubs
    • Next is going to be a direct to MCU style like an ATmega32u4 unless someone else has a better idea from the slack channel?
• Stephen
  • EQ is functioning!
    • Grtyvr from our Slack Channel came up with a good name – The Venti-Q
    • Power Hungry
    • Most of the bands work
      • 1 band has an oscillation problem
      • 1 band is pulling too much current
      • 2 or 3 bands are weak
    • Building a test harness to test each band individually
  • The Super Simple Ribbon Mic live design
    • Saturday Feb 2 @ 6pm Central on the MacroFab Twitch Channel
    • Preamp design for the Microphone
    • Mechanical Design (design of the ribbon frame and the case)
    • Audio Connection (USB? XLR?)
• R.F.O.
  • One board dev kit has three snap off STM 8 microcontrollers
    • One development board with three break off boards
    • Has three different tiers of 8-bit STM microcontrollers: STM8L001J3, STM8L050J3, STM8S001J3
    • STM8-SO8-DISCO
  • Don’t Toss That Bulb, It Knows Your Password
    • Smart Bulbs contain your WiFi credentials in plain text. Surprise!
  • Common Electrical Engineering Interview Topics
    • Luke Metro has been interviewing with Bay Area startups and big tech companies during his last year of college
    • A good list to start becoming a better Electrical Engineer

Tags: electronics podcast, EQ Build, FT230X, FTDI, Interview topics, MacroFab, macrofab engineering podcast, Ribbon Mic, ST Microcontrollers, Star Wars Detonator, USB Type-C, Venti-Q

• Parker
  • Wagon Chime Module
    • Installed back on Wagon and It works!
    • USB Type-C Article Update
      • Have the Type-C to FT230X complete
      • Design Block for Eagle
      • ESD protection on the CC Pins?
      • IP4234CZ6,125 USB ESD protection
• Stephen
  • Found the old ribbon mic from MEP EP#110: Dangling Transformers
    • Going look at doing a quick spin of a stacked PCB based version instead of the 3d printed chassis
    • Boards can screw together to clamp to the ribbon itself by having a gold pad on the PCB
    • Need a way to do fine tune adjustments on the ribbon tension
    • Embedded transformer
    • 3D printed enclosure – Fusion 360 to 3d printing?
    • PCM2912A
    • Brian Benchoff’s Oreo Stackup PCB
• R.F.O.
  • MIDI Association Announces MIDI 2.0 Prototyping
    • Will be announced at NAMM 2019 (Jan 24-27th)
    • In prototyping phase
    • Fully back compatible with 1.0
  • Solder Surface Tension and Why You Should Care
    • The Current Source aka Derek has a released a really cool video on surface tension and how it relates to PCB Assembly
    • Derek was on MEP EP#103
  • A Choice of Grippers Helps Dual-Arm Robot Pick Up Objects Faster Than Ever
    • Dex-Net 4.0
    • Multi tool picking robot
    • Successfully grasp 95 percent of unseen objects at a rate of 300 per hour
    • Humans do double that at near 100% success rate
    • Learns how to grip things by simulation
      • The physics it uses is slightly randomized to “cover up” sensor defects
  • The Basics of USB Battery Charging: A Survival Guide
    • Maxim app note on Lithium Battery charging over USB
    • A bit dated as it only covers BC 1.1 but still applicable to USB 2.0 devices
  • New Mouser interface?
    • Part Searching just got more time consuming?

Tags:  Chime Module, electronics podcast, EQ Build, MacroFab, macrofab engineering podcast, USB Type-C, ribbon microphone, PCM2912, Oreo Stackup, MIDI 2.0, Solder Surface Tension, Derek, Derek Brodeur, The Current Source, Dex-Net 4.0, Maxim, Mouser

• Parker
  • Wagon Chime Module Repaired
  • StarWars Detonator Prop
  • RPI3 CM Motherboard USB Hub Saga
    • LAN9514
    • MP62551 or TPS2054B
  • Improving the Prop Dev Stick
    • Changing to QFN from QFP Prop
    • USB Type C for USB 2.0
    • Changing the power handling?
      • Original part is TPS2113
      • Only handles 5.5V MAX
      • NCP3901 is a Dual input Mux
        • Handles more power then I need but no built in current limiting
      • Maybe MPS has a good standalone current limiter?
• Stephen
  • Beginning the eq build. There is a lot to do so it is taking a bit of time
  • Gold fingers and connectors - They work!
  • Trying a special coax connection - Different rings on top and bottom
• R.F.O.
  • Bluetooth chip doesn’t need a battery because it harvests energy from the air
    • Wiliot
    • Embedded in consumer products to provide easy access to a digital manual when the original paper version is long lost, or it could be put on a clothing label and used to communicate the optimal settings to a washing machine
    • $30 million financing from Amazon and Samsung
    • Possible release in 2019 but they are shooting for 2020
  • HOWMAX30 - MAX-30 Single User Earplugs
    • Incorrect part listing on Amazon leads to hilarious reviews

Tags: Chime Module, Detonator Prop, electronics podcast, EQ Build, LAN9514, MacroFab, macrofab engineering podcast, MP62551, NCP3091, Prop Dev Stick, RPI3 CM, Star Wars, TPS2054B, TPS2113, Wagon, Wiliot