Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast

• Stephen
  • PCB Design - Hexa Precision 
    • Converts MIDI codes to constant voltage
  • What about using constant current to control functions and signals?
  • Teensy 3.6
  • Pro-Level Breadboard
• Parker
  • PCM5122 I2S Audio DAC 
    • Prototyped with a PiFi DAC+ v2.0
    • SMT film caps are hard to find for lead free reflow temps
      • ECH-U1C222JX5
    • 3 Different Versions 
      • Cost difference of $5 per unit in QTY
  • Wima capacitors
  • PinHeck REV8 Prototypes being built
    • Future of the Pinheck Platform?
• Rapid Fire Opinion (R.F.O.)
  • PT8A2514A
    • Toaster Controller
    • Has Defrost, Reheat and BAGEL function
  • If you could have a chip that does a specific function what would you pick? 
    • Stephen: 
      • “Nothing super magical, like a bagel function”
      • “Microwave with butter softening function”
• MacroFab is Hiring!
  • Apply here

Tags: Bagel Function, ECH-U1C222JX5, electronics podcast, Hexa Precision, MacroFab, macrofab engineering podcast, MEP, PCM5122, PiFi DAC+, PinHeck REV8, Podcast, PT8A2514A, Teensy 3.6, Wima

• Derek Brodeur
  • Applications engineer involved in writing control software for atmospheric and vacuum robotics used in the semiconductor robotics industry
  • Runs a YouTube channel called "The Current Source" where the primary focus is around electronics
  • What made you want to go start a Youtube channel?
  • Favorite old Project that you have completed? 
    • Most difficult video was the Doppler Shift
    • SERs and PIN Diodes
  • Projects that you are currently working on 
    • David Kronstein is letting Derek borrow one of his high speed Chronos cameras, so Derek is going to use an High Voltage capacitor and giant SCR to fry some electronic components and hopefully get some good footage
    • Contact bounce in high speed using the camera (and ways to mitigate bounce)
    • 16-bit flip dot array for demonstrations (instead of boring LEDs)
    • Build a TEM cell from aluminum scrap

Tags: Derek Brodeur, electronics podcast, MacroFab, macrofab engineering podcast, MEP, PIN Diodes, Podcast, TEM Cell, The Current Source, YouTube

• Stephen
  • Alternative uses for assembly layers 
    • Assembly, document, and mechanical layers
    • “It’s a way for us electrical engineers to feel like a mechanical engineer”
• Parker
  • HackADay IO talk
    • Friday, January 12, 2018 12:00 pm PST
    • “The moment they invent smell-o-vision, this podcast would be done”
  • MEP101 DSO138 Update 
    • STM32F103
    • Widely cloned
    • If your cocktail of silicone is a little off, you’ll be okay
    • Silicon actually change as the year goes around (according to a professor of stephen) 
      • “The chip just decides only to run on saturdays”
    • Legit STM32F103's are $2.36 in QTY 
      • Can get “questionably sourced “ units for under $1
  • OctoPrint
    • Use a Raspberry Pi to control your 3D printer
    • You can load gcode wirelessly up to the Pi with SSH tunnel on browser
    • Best open source project parker has come across
    • Monoprice Ultimate 3D printer 
      • Had to set up bod rate manually
      • Webcam setup 
  • Printoid 
    • Access OctoPrint over the internet
• R.F.O.
  • Dragonfly 2020 Pro
    • Additive PCB printing
  • Google shuts down its CES booth because it’s not waterproof
    • People said it was one of the better booths there
  • Vishay VOR High Performance Solid State Relays
    • Low turn-on current at 0.25 mA 
      • Does both AC and DC only
    • 400V 140mA
    • What is the application to maximize this part?
• MacroFab Hiring!
  • Apply here

Tags: Assembly Layers, Dragonfly 2020 Pro, DSO138, electronics podcast, HackADay IO Talk, MacroFab, macrofab engineering podcast, MEP, OctoPrint, Podcast, Printoid, solid state relays, STM32F103, Vishay, VOR, Wet CES Google

• Stephen
  • DSO138 Oscilloscope
    • Comes as a kit (just through hole) but can be purchased assembled
    • The "true" version can be had for ~$30 
      • Counterfeit versions exist for $4
    • Open Source Firmware!
    • Analog bandwidth: 0 - 200KHz
    • Sampling rate: 1Msps max
    • Sensitivity: 10mV/Div - 5V/Div
    • Sensitivity error: < 5%
    • Vertical resolution: 12-bit
    • Timebase: 10us/Div - 500s/Div
    • Record length: 1024 points
    • Built-in 1KHz/3.3V test signal
    • Waveform frozen (HOLD) function available Save/recall waveform
    • In short - it’ll getcha through college
• Parker
  • Pinheck REV 8 is routed 
    • Finishing silkscreen after the podcast
    • Placing an order for prototypes this week!
    • Switched from standard SD card to microSD card
  • Next board is the I2S Audio Amp 
    • TAS5755M
    • Working with the  TAS5755MEVM 
      • So far it kinda works
    • Need to generate a clock for it?
• R.F.O.
  • Making A Classic Chip From Discretes
    • Motorola MC1466 - voltage regulator
    • Stephen has made opamps with Discretes before - that was a project we finished! 
      • MacroFab EP11
  • Apple says sorry
    • iPhone Batteries and Performance
  • Zapp from the Slack Channel asks "If my MCU has internal pullups on an IO why would they recommend additional pull up resistors externally?"
• MacroFab Hiring!
  • Apply here

Tags: Apple Says Sorry, donut transformers, DSO138, eagle autodesk, electronics podcast, MacroFab, macrofab engineering podcast, MC1466, MCU Pullups, MEP, miller capacitance, PinHeck REV8, Podcast, pull-up resistors, TAS5755M

• Iris Weeden
  • MacroFab's Marketing Director
  • Award-winning marketer with ten years of experience
  • Native Houstonian and lover of music, dogs, and beers
• Episode 100!!!!!!
  • The Q&A Episode
  • Thanks to our listeners who submitted questions through email and our Slack channel
• Questions
  • Brandon Drury 
    • How in the hell does one survive engineering school?
    • What should a person expect to get from a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering?
    • What's the dumbest/smartest thing a person can do with shift registers?
    • What's a good resource for learning how to prototype? My wires are always a mess. I have no idea what kind of box can hold panel-style outlets. I'm looking for a resource that will improve my ability to take a circuit that works into a form factor, that will allow it to be tested in a halfway reliable way.
  • Emmett Naughton 
    • What's the best way to get a electrical engineering job? Mostly for somebody with a degree but who doesn't have job experience in the field.
  • Stephen Newberry 
    • What is the best method for us hardware engineers to monetize our side projects? I personally don't have the time to handle manufacturing or customer support in the long term. I've considered contacting companies to sell a design for a lump sum or royalty based model, but I've never gone through with it. What are your suggestions on what will or won't work best?
  • Tom Anderson 
    • I would like to hear the story behind: What is the worst electrical shock that (one of the guys) has ever had? From Episode #85
  • Hyr0n of the AND!XOR team 
    • What is the difference between a duck?
    • All of a sudden one of the following two things no longer exists: Craft Beer OR Lead-Alloy Solder. Which do you pick?
  • Zapp of the AND!XOR team 
    • Would you rather assemble 1,000 duck sized horse PCBs or 1 horse sized duck PCB?

Tags: 1000 Duck sized Horse PCBs, electronics podcast, MacroFab, macrofab engineering podcast, MEP, PCB material, Podcast, Question and Answer

• PCB material as structural elements and enclosures
  • FR4 Material - glass-reinforced epoxy laminate sheets
  • Custom face plates aren’t cheap - the solution? Face plate out of PCB material!
  • Silk screening and milling
  • Easy to order
  • Get to use the same design tool for PCBs
• P.O.W.
  • From Bryan with Poetic.io 
    • "Do you have a guy that knows lots about sensors? I need one that will tell me the distance to any solid material out to a range of about 60 feet. Could be ultrasonic but not sure there's one that's strong enough."
    • Microwave kit 24GHz radar evaluation kit
    • K-LD2-EVAL
    • How do lasers find absolute distance? Comment below with your answers
• R.F.O.
  • Eagle 8.5 Push shove routing
  • Altium Designer 18

Tags: 24GHz, Altium, Eagle Cadsoft, electronics podcast, FR4, K-LD2-EVAL, MacroFab, macrofab engineering podcast, MEP, PCB material, Podcast

• Taylor Smith
  • Works at MacroFab as the Production Account Manager
  • Manage all of our large customers as they go through prototyping to full production
  • Graduated from Texas A&M last fall
  • Joined the MacroFam early this year
• Favorite Star Wars Character?
  • Organic 
    • Taylor: Loves the locks on Qui-Gon Jinn
    • Stephen: Bossk
    • Parker: Storm Trooper #38
  •  Robotic 
    • Taylor: R2D2 even though he slept through Rogue One
    • Stephen: IG-88
    • Parker: Not K-2SO
  • Thrawn Books
• Tech that stood out in Rogue One
  • Data Storage Devices 
    • Three different storage methods 
      • USB Flash Drive: small amount of data.
      • Data Tape: looks like an external hard drive. Contains Death Star plans. 
        • 8-track tapes style
      • Some sort of other kind of storage device that the plans get transfered to 
        • Looks solid state
        • Newer format then the empire’s data tape?
      • Why doesn’t C3-PO have a wireless transmitter built in?!
    • There does not seem to be a ton of wireless communication 
      • No Drop Box
      • Most radio transmission seems to be analog in nature
      • Trans-intergalactic data system
      • Star wars servers
    • Data Tapes stored in giant rooms which require physical access by manually manipulating robot arms
  • Transmission of data 
    • Besides radio there seems to be a distinct lack of wireless transmissions in StarWars.
    • To transfer Death Star plans they needed a giant dish.
    • No digital communication over RF?
    • No lag with hologram communication via hyperspace 
      • Analog data travel through hyperspace? 
  • Death Star plans data size? 
    • 160km in diameter: 1.72×10^16m cubed
    • Couldn’t find engineering drawings for an aircraft carrier
    • 3D file for a building would be around ~100MB but probably 300MB looking at solidworks stuff
    • 900m cubed area goes into a death star 19,111,111,111,111.111 times trillion
    • 5,733,333.333 (5.7million) petabytes
  • Solar freaking laser roads
  • No hacking in Star Wars 
    • Reason similar to Battlestar Gallactica?
  • Death Star accuracy 
    • Hitting the top of the tower a the end of Rogue One
    • See images for maths and figures
    • Scott Manley: Death Star Orbit from Planet Surface
• CGI Tarkins and Leia in Rogue One: Future for The Last Jedi and other Star Wars movies
  • Will we see CGI Carrie Fisher? 
    • Parker hopes she won’t die off-screen
    • Taylor thinks there will be a nice parting gift for her
    • Stephen thinks they’re going to kill all of the old cast (including Mark Hamill)

Tags: electronics podcast, IoT, MacroFab, macrofab engineering podcast, MEP, Podcast, Rogue One, Star Wars, Star Wars Christmas Special

• Agustin Pelaez
  • Electrical engineer from UPB/FH Münster
  • Helped engineer a remote monitoring solution for Airbus Germany
  • Founded the IoT Application Enablement platform Ubidots.com
• Cameron Klotz
  • Joined Ubidots as the Director of Operations
  • Graduate of UC Berkeley
  • Previously worked in Operations and Project Management at Getaround Inc. and UBS Financial Services
  • Always focusing on efficient team/client dynamics and quality assurance
• About Ubidots
  • Difference between their IoT platform and others
  • Long tail solution - through app development for engineers
  • What can Ubidots do for me?
• How to get started in IoT
  • Overview of what IoT actually is 
    • Devices
    • Connection protocol
    • Cloud
    • Application development
  • What makes a device IoT? 
    • Convergence of digital to physical
    • Embedded design
  • What is an API and how is it tied into IoT?
  • Hardware? 
    • Stephen’s arduino with temperature control sensor and valve
    • Program to send data; Ubidots library; search for existing HTTP libraries, put API token into firmware
    • What a payload looks like, what a token is
    • Create alerts within Ubidots Designing the app - see your device online, create widgets, email, web hooks, SMS,
    • Different ways to display data or act on it
  • Exporting data 
    • Can send data out or pull it in from outside sources
    • Supports CSV downloads
  • How humans interact with the web and how devices interact with the web
• How do you view the term “Internet of Things”?
  • Agustin - it’s a concept, solutions to a proble.
  • Cameron -”IoT” is a buzzword, getting hardware to connect to systems, “IoT solutions” get purchased. Gateway to finding solution
  • Stephen - something that exists today b/c the idea hasn’t fully coalesced. It’s a buzzword - protoword for what it will become.
  • Parker - data management and analytics, in a single spot. In the cloüd.

Tags: Agustin Pelaez, Cameron Klotz, electronics podcast, IoT, MacroFab, macrofab engineering podcast, MEP, Podcast, Ubidots

• Episode 100 is coming up! It’ll be a Q&A session - so send in your questions to [email protected]
• 2nd Annual Star Wars Xmas Special Engineering Podcast. Check out the video from last year!
• Parker
  • Built a mounting surface for the Jeep Electronics
• Stephen
  • Failure of the Science Museum Project 
    • Was expecting soft foam at the bottom of the "well" to move the cones of the drill bit
    • Hard plastic was installed instead
    • Coupling bent up that connects the rotational shaft to the large nema 34 stepper
    • Safety first, equal amounts of time spent on safety as engineering the rest of the project
• Pick Of the Week (POW)
  • How to reduce Arduino Uno power usage by 95% - Deferred Procrastination
    • Replace the linear regulator with a DC-DC converter
    • Adjust the USB-to-Serial circuit so it’s only powered from the USB port
    • Cut out (or desolder) the always-on LED’s on the board
    • Use the processor sleep mode.
    • Before: 53mA After: 2.5mA
    • DC -DC convertor used was a Traco TSRN-1 for $6.07
• Rapid Fire Opinion (RFO)
  • Internet of Toilet Paper Holder - HackADay
    • Revolutionized entire toilet paper supply management life cycle
    • Tracks usage statistics - Manage wiping data and share on social media
    • Instructables to make your own!
  • Man is about to launch himself in his homemade rocket to prove the Earth is flat - The Washington Post
    • Self-taught rocket builder Mike Hughes - 61 yr old limo driver
    • Holds record for biggest limo jump
    • Plans to launch himself 1,800 feet high
    • U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) "told me they would not allow me to do the event ... at least not at that location," Will have to reschedule the launch
    • Not atmosphere its atmosflat
    • $20,000 rocket had a fancy coat of Rust-Oleum paint and “RESEARCH FLAT EARTH” inscribed on the side

Tags: Arduino, electronics podcast, Houston Museum of Natural Science, IoT Toilet Paper, Jeep, Low Power, MacroFab, macrofab engineering podcast, Man, MEP, Podcast, Rocket

• The Houston meetup is coming up next week. RSVP here if you are in town!
• Mike 
  • HackerBox - LootCrate for Hardware and Software hackers
• Parker 
  • PinHeck EOTL REV8 Update
  • Another shout out to Chris Gammell and Contextual Electronics
  • Some work on the Pinotaur design
• R.F.O. (Rapid Fire Opinion) 
  • Tesla SemiTruck
    • 500 mile range. In a 30 minute charge it can get up to 400 miles of range back. Roughly what truck drivers do now.
    • 100-mile routes, the Tesla Semi will cost just $1.26 per mile to operate, compared to $1.51 for diesel
  • Emberlight KickStarter shut down
    • Every time a customer wants to turn on a light, it requires the company’s cloud service to process the command
    • Not a problem with kickstarter but with IoT devices
    • Solution to this problem? 
      • Better exit strategy
      • App to connect to them via modem

Tags: electronics podcast, Emberlight, HackerBox, MacroFab, macrofab engineering podcast, MEP, PinHeck, Podcast, Tesla