Podcast Notes

• Stephen has been running tests on the Energon Cube for the SSPS. So far everything is working great. Check out Stephen's blog post update:  Super Simple Power Supply "SSPS" Design (Part 3).
• The FX Dev board enclosure arrived and it looks great. See Figure 1 for some sweet powder coated goodness.
• Parker has been working on streamlining all the MacroFab Engineering Github Repositories. Most of them should look consistent in layout and information now.
• All the Eagle footprint libraries have been updated with MPN and Populate attributes. Check them out here. Should be adding these features to DipTrace and KiCad footprints by next week.
• Releasing MF-CON-2.54mm-01xXX pinheaders. Check out the house parts section on the MacroFab website.
• Parker had an article come out earlier this week about Eagle Part Attributes. This way designers and engineers can easily add the MPN and Populate field to their own parts.
• In Episode 26 of MEP, Parker had a hacked together USB Type C prototype. Now Parker has a full on development board he designed using a FTDI FT230X and a Parallax Propeller. See Figure 2.
•  ‘Transient electronics’ research develops dissolving battery. Basically is a battery that has a polyvinyl alcohol-based polymer casing that swells causing it to dissolve, except for some nanoparticles, in around half an hour after contact with water. It supposedly can power a laptop for 15 minutes but Parker did some napkin math and found out it was a bunch of crap.
•  PokeBall Wiggles when Pokemon are Nearby. Cool project that uses servos inside a 3D printed pokeball to wiggle when it finds pokemon nearby for the Pokemon Go App. Uses Particle IoT's "Photon" hardware and the Pokemon Go's API.

Special thanks to whixr over at Tymkrs for the intro and outro theme!

Podcast Notes

• Our Guest this week is Kwabena Agyeman who runs OpenMV. See Figure 1.
• The OpenMV project is about creating low-cost, extensible, Python powered, machine vision modules and aims at becoming the “Arduino of Machine Vision“. See Figure 2.
• Parker is using an OpenMV camera for the first iteration of the Semi-Automatic Inspection Machine.
• The great thing about Open Source is you can fix bugs.
• OpenMV started as a  kickstarter.
• The original OV2640 Omni Vision camera sensor was discontinued and gray market parts where found but didn't work. Replaced with the OV7725.
• KeySniffer sniffs cheap wireless keyboard protocols. We should take a page from BSG and go all wired to prevent Cylon infiltration.
• Facebook has a new Area 404 Hardware division. Could see some interesting hardware come out of this? Possibly similar to Bell Labs of ole?

Special thanks to whixr over at Tymkrs for the intro and outro theme!

Podcast Notes

• Stephen has been working on making the copper buss bars for the SSPS Energon cube. See Figure 1.
• We calculated that the resistance of the copper buss bars is 0.00458 ohms or 4.58 mohm. Our measurements show 2.5 mohm. See Figure 2.
• The Macro Amp board is populated. Now the enclosure needs to be made. Stephen thinks he will use Parts Badger to make the mounting plate for the amp.
• Parker has been updating the MacroFab part libraries for Eagle and will move onto Diptrace soon. He also has been writing articles for eagle that will be coming out soon.
• Parker got USB 2.0 working on a Type C connector using the  FTDI FT230X chip.
• Parker is working on a new layout to add to pre-existing designs which utilizes  MacroFab's standard PCB specifications (5 mil trace width, 12 mil drill, 6 mill annular ring).
• Analog Devices is in the process of  purchasing Linear Technology for $14.8 billion. We discuss what will happen to the datasheets and LT Spice.
•  Avnet outbids Daetwyler to purchase Farnell for $691 million (the owner of Element 14 and supplier of the Raspberry pi).
• Parker presents his method of hacking Pokemon Go - tap into the data lines on the hardware and send the software phony GPS data. This would be a true hardware hack.

Special thanks to whixr over at Tymkrs for the intro and outro theme!

Podcast Notes

• Stephen has completed the SSPS Analog board. See Figure 1. Testing will begin early next week.
• The Macro Amp that Stephen has been working on is almost done. He just needs to solder the through hole onto the board. See Figure 2.
• Stephen has been working with Altium this past couple weeks while doing DFM work for customers. He would like the software if it didn't cost $15K.
• Parker finished programming the new revision of the MacroWatch V2. See Figure 3. Uses the  EFM8SB10F2G in a QFN-20 package. EFM8 series has tons of built in peripherals. Reduced power consumption by 5 fold.
• KiCad will be adding built in SPICE simulation to the schematic portion. Stephen is now willing to try out the EDA tool.
•  ARM was purchased by SoftBank for $32 Billion. Parker and Stephen talk about the implications of this purchase. The ARM founder isn't to happy about the deal.
• Microchip will be  boosting the Atmel AVR8 product line later this summer.

Special thanks to whixr over at Tymkrs for the intro and outro theme!

Podcast Notes

• Parker and Stephen have been working on the Super Simple Power Supply. Parker has the test panel done and working. See Figure 1. Stephen has the Analog "Energon Cube" PCB made. See Figure 2. Should be working by next weeks podcast.
• The datasheet for the VFD display Parker is using has an ambiguous pinout for the serial interface. Part number  CU16025-UW6J. Parker had to bridge some wires to fix the problem.
• The entire front panel for the SSPS will draw roughly 60W of power. Will have to have its own transformer inside to power it.
• Stephen is writing a series of BGA footprint and layout articles. Check out the first one.
• Another datasheet rant. This time about the FX Dev boards breadboards. There was a critical dimension that was 1mm off. 1.54mm VS 2.54mm. See Figure 3.
• Parker has been working on USB Type C. Will be writing a couple articles in the future about his findings. Parker made a test dev board to experiment on the Type C connector.
• Intersel made a really interesting buck boost battery charger IC that is perfect for USB Type C Power Delivery. Can boost 5V and buck 12V and 20V to charge a lithium battery pack. Part number is  ISL9237 and Parker wants to get his hands on it to make a battery pack for his phone.
• Pokemon GO goes without saying that it was a huge hit. Sparkfun has a project to build your own Pokédex that has a battery backup to keep you going to catch 'em all.
• Mike of the Useless Duck Company built an  Arduino powered door lock that is activated by opening an incognito window in Chrome on his desktop. He says he uses it for "shopping".

Special thanks to whixr over at Tymkrs for the intro and outro theme!

Podcast Notes

• Dactyl nightmare -  One of the first demonstrations of virtual reality used in a video game at the mall of America in the early 90s.
• Sony/Nintendo console – Before Sony created the Playstation, they had partnered with Nintendo to create a SNES console. The Ben Heck show has featured a tear down of the device.
• Snes star fox voices – Ben shows us his excellent talent of emulating the voices of the characters from the Super Nintendo Star Fox game.
• Parker and Ben tell the story of how they met at the Midwest Gaming Classic.
• Pinheck system – Parker and Ben discuss in detail the design of the  Pinheck pinball system. This control system is used in the America’s most haunted pinball maching made by spooky pinball.
• We determined that the Parallax Propeller utilizes the Von Neumann architecture as opposed to the Harvard architure for its program memory.
• Adafruit recently had an interview with Matt Berggren, the director of Autodesk circuits, to talk about the future of eagle. The interview can be found  here.
• Mega processor – A massive,  discrete-level processor designed by James Newman which uses over 42,000 transistors is finally complete.  His project can be found here.
• A clone of the Apollo Guidance computer, the computer that brought astronauts to the moon and back, has been built by John Pultorak.  schematics can be found here.

Special thanks to whixr over at Tymkrs for the intro and outro theme!

Podcast Notes

• Scott Shawcroft of Chickadee Tech is our guest on this weeks podcast. He is working on a modular flight control system called polystack. It has 13 different boards that can be stacked together. Similar to shields for the Arduino platform. See Figure 1.
• Scott is down here in Houston visiting MacroFab to see his production run being built and working on his test fixture worked correctly.  See figure 2.
• Seattle Multi Rotors is the group Scott is a part of.
• The software stack is based of off Beta Flight which is a fork of Clean Flight which is a fork of BaseFlight. The very first flight controllers where based of the Wii Nunchuck. Scott uses custom pin mappings and uses a larger ST MCU which required another fork.
• Scott got into Quadcoptors after watching the video Crash Session!!! His first quad was a from Flite Test.
• The Tiny Whoop is a small FPV quad that is easy to build.
• Chickadee Tech is Scott's first step into the hardware world. His first build was a lap timer using the radio strength signal. Scott self taught himself KiCad.
• AutoDesk purchased CadSoft from Farnell. Autodesk EAGLE - The perfect tool to designing stuff for PIC16MEGA32u4.
• The FR4 Machine Shield we mentioned in a previous podcast has a kickstarter now. It is a Arduino “shield” CNC machine. It comes on a 18” x 22” PCB panel. Motor controllers are called “Swap Drives”. Driver chips are on PCB cards that go into edge connectors.
• The FAA released new rules for operating rules for unmanned aircraft (Quads).

Special thanks to whixr over at Tymkrs for the intro and outro theme!

Podcast Notes

• Dustin Holliday is our guest this week. He was on EP#13 of MEP. Dustin has been working on MacroFab's KiCad parser and is currently researching the KiCad Python API Documentation.
• Stephen and Dustin have also been working on a customer test fixture. The fixture can program an entire panel of boards with an ST Link. A brushless motor is attached to the fixture with an encoder to automatically test the boards. See Figure 1.
• Parker has been working on the Jig Of Destiny REV 3. Parts where ordered on Monday.
• The SSPS front test panel is complete with minimal hardware mods needed. Parker didn't get to writing test code for it before the podcast but should have something to show on his twitter by Friday. See Figure 2.
• Parker got a I2C LCD display working. Ran into an issue but it turned out his SDA and SCL lines for the I2C protocol where backwards. He is using a Saleae DLA to debug the information. See his twitter post about it.
• Stephen has the analog test board for the SSPS ordered. Has a Pos/Neg rails of 35V, two OPA541 output opamps in parallel, and 0.08 Farads of capacitance. Beefy! See Figure 3.
• The MacroAmp's PCB has been completed. Stephen ordered the PCB earlier this week. It is a 2 X 10W tube Hi-Fi stereo using Korg Nutubes as the preamp.
• The FCC is going to investigate why the RF noise floor in the US has risen in the past years. Parker thinks its the "cost reduction" of devices after being certified. Will this be good or bad for makers? Does import customers have to test devices now? On the plus side, energy harvesting the RF band is more viable!
• Parker, Stephen, and Dustin get in a rant about Vss/Vdd/Vcc notation for schematics and circuits and Parker offers a solution.
• The AeroScope is a wireless, ultra-portable oscilloscope that uses Bluetooth 4.1 LE to communicate to a phone or tablet for the screen. Would be useful for Maker style field work. 100Mhz, 500M/samples, +-40V input. Fairly typical specifications. Runs $260 on the crowd funding website.

Special thanks to whixr over at Tymkrs for the intro and outro theme!

Podcast Notes

• Matt Keas is a onboarding instructor over at The Iron Yard. Matt has a background in software and startups. He runs tech related conferences like Space City JS.
• Brian Dorton is the campus director for The Iron Yard at Houston. Brian has his background in teaching and has just started to get his chops in programming.
• The Iron Yard will take you from "zero to hero" in web development.
• Brian wanted to not compromise his BBQ so he built an  IoT BBQ. It is based off the Heater Meter by CapnBry. It was Brian's first exploration into hardware. See Figure 1 for his IoT BBQ.
• Stephen, Matt, Brian, and Parker talk about Feature Creep and how it effects personal projects and customer projects. Design specifications are always changing. See Figure 2 for the controller Parker was working on at Dynamic Perception.
• Matt talks about reverse engineering the IoT "cloud". They paused the video to find the parts list. Here is the cloud Matt and Brian built. See Figure 3.
• Hackaday is advising the  United Nations. The UN recognizes that HaD is a technology information aggregator and that the Hackaday community has become a world leader in thinking about new designs, implementations, and increased availability of assistive technologies.
• An  IoT-Enabled Toothbrush Wins America’s Greatest Makers contest that was sponsored by IBM. It is called the "Grush" or the Game Toothbrush. The prize was $1 million USD. Stephen thinks a IoT toilet called "Bombs Away" could help kids become potty trained.

Special thanks to whixr over at Tymkrs for the intro and outro theme!

Podcast Notes

• With the broken tap removed progress continues on the SAIM. Parker almost has the upper gantry is almost done.
• The SSPS front panel test is is scheduled to be built next week. Should have an update on the front panel next podcast.
• Parker is going to make a REV 2 of the MacroWatch. Going to change the PIC16 to a Silicon Labs Sleepy Bee.
• Stephen is learning more about programming the Parallax Propeller. Gotta flush those buffers.
• Parker is going to add a GPS module and a cell module to his Prop Fan project.
• Stephen made a mistake on a large board layout and had to drill out some vias.
• Parker goes on memory lane on learning how to draft and draw in CAD. Stephen talks about Patent Drawings. Patent Drawings have a standard.
• Stephen has been sick with a stomach bug so he wasn't able to get much done this week but he did get some new transformers. See Figure 1. Parker showed how to get gains by lifting them.
• These transformers where designed by the sloclones forums. They are the kitchen sink of audio transformers.
• The Space Echo RE-201 is getting an over haul. Will be getting recapped this weekend. New front plate and a  new wearable kit that replaces all the parts that wear out.
• Dustin and Stephen are working on a python script to control a programming and test fixture for a customer. Computer does everything automatically.
• Stephen brags about his latest dance move, Adjusting the Scope. See Figure 2.
• People are making really awesome modified gameboys. using Raspberry Pi Zeros. Will be a great project to build a all in one emulation board using the Octavo OSD3358.
• The FAA can detect drones/Quadcoptor with an AUDS (Anti UAV Defense System). Can also jam the radio signal.
• Stephen asks Parker a Boat and Rock "interview" question.

Special thanks to whixr over at Tymkrs for the intro and outro theme!