Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast

Parker and Stephen speak with Paul V. McEnroe, an award-winning engineer who developed multiple state-of-the-art technologies during his long career, including more than two decades in leadership roles at IBM. McEnroe is best known for his primary role in developing the Universal Product Code (UPC), the barcode used on every product in supermarkets and the retail industry, and the scanners that read them. In 2023, the barcode celebrates its 50th anniversary but now Paul is setting the record straight on the real story with his new book, THE BARCODE - How a Team Created One of the World's Most Ubiquitous Technologies.

The discussion also covered subjects like being car nuts and Paul’s past ownership of a Buick Torpedo, a TR3, a Porsche Super 90, and a Jag XK150S Roadster, his apparent aptitude for being a mortician, control units and mainframes, where lasers were sourced from at the time, buying monkeys from Africa, owning the patent on the pistol grip scanner, what to make of QR codes, and much more! 

Relevant links:

• THE BARCODE - How a Team Created One of the World's Most Ubiquitous Technologies
• MEP EP#320: The Drop Ship Shuffle
• MEP EP#387: Recursive Vending Machines
• MEP EP#398: Duke Nukem v. Parker, Raspberry Pi 5, Weldestroyer!
• Join the Circuit Break Discourse Community!

Thank you for listening to the MacroFab Engineering Podcast!  We’d love to hear what you think of the show so please tweet at us @MacroFab and join our Circuit Break Community for discussions or email us at [email protected].  

Parker and Stephen check in with the new Circuit Break Discourse community and a Chip of the Week discussion initiated by mobius_striptease, a closer look at the LT3073 3A, Ultra-Low Noise, High PSRR, 45mV Dropout Ultra-Fast Linear Regulator, a discussion about in and out pads ensues, Parker digs into Weldestroyer updates and how he found that a footswitch could not handle sourcing much current, which means my analog solution is out of the question, Parker provides a Box Truk update, focusing upon the A/C Selector and Protection Panel, exploring Shore power, and much more! 

Relevant links:

• Chip of The Week
• LT3073 Datasheet and Product Info | Analog Devices 5
• MEP EP#276: Skippy Documentation
• MEP EP#398: Duke Nukem v. Parker, Raspberry Pi 5, Weldestroyer!
• MEP EP#378: Crawfish Conundrum
• Join the Circuit Break Discourse Community!

Thank you for listening to the MacroFab Engineering Podcast!  We’d love to hear what you think of the show so please tweet at us @MacroFab and join our Circuit Break Community for discussions or email us at [email protected].  

Parker and Stephen discuss Parker’s participation in Extra Life Day: Revenge of the Holiday Special on November 4, 2023, in which he’ll be playing and streaming STAR WARS Jedi: Fallen Order for 24 hours to raise funds for kids at his local Texas Children's Hospital, the related but unusual Star Wars Halloween costume he’ll be donning this year, checking in with the new Circuit Break Discourse community, how member Tom_Look prompted a discussion about how people organize projects, ideas, and part numbers, and extensive catch-up and update about Parker’s Box Truk, and  much more! 

Relevant links:

• Extra Life Day: Revenge of the Holiday Special
• Join the Circuit Break Discourse Community!
• Organizing and documenting projects
• Box Truk - Solar Panel Project
• MEP EP#378: Crawfish Conundrum

Thank you for listening to the MacroFab Engineering Podcast!  We’d love to hear what you think of the show so please tweet at us @MacroFab and join our Circuit Break Community for discussions or email us at [email protected].  

Parker and Stephen have a great talk with Greg Norman, a recording engineer, producer, and technician at Steve Albini’s studio, Electrical Audio, in Chicago, who also constructs and repairs various audio devices out of necessity and general interest, under the name, Normaphone. Greg discusses his background and early “pre-Google” experiments and learnings, how to create a low-noise studio space and how your neighbors might unwittingly interfere with such things, why he has had to invent or upgrade certain audio engineering tools and whether or not there’s a market for these products, learning from and helping others in his field, what it’s like working with musicians, plus much more! 

Relevant links:

• Electrical Audio
• Normaphone
• MEP EP#60: JOSH the mastermind behind the audio of the podcast
• MEP EP#56: Gotta Look Pro

Thank you for listening to the MacroFab Engineering Podcast!  We’d love to hear what you think of the show so please tweet at us @MacroFab and join our Circuit Break Community for discussions or email us at [email protected].  

Parker and Stephen celebrate episode 400 of the MacroFab Engineering Podcast and announce its relaunch as Circuit Break starting next week, plus a discussion about MacroFab’s tenth anniversary, the end of our Slack channel and launch of our new Circuit Break Community hub, a brief history of this podcast and its trajectory, key projects that have been completed or else relegated to the shadow realm, plus much more! 

Relevant links:

• Celebrating 10 years of MacroFab (twitter)
• *NEW* Join our Circuit Break Community!
• MEP EP#356: Don't Let AI Brew Your Beer
• MEP EP#355: The One They Talk About Football Fields For a Long Time

Thank you for listening to the MacroFab Engineering Podcast!  We’d love to hear what you think of the show so please tweet at us @MacroFab and join our Circuit Break Community for discussions or email us at [email protected].  

Parker and Stephen welcome Josh Manley back to the show to discuss how humans and CAD can interact! Josh is the co-owner and CEO of CADClass.org. Through a comprehensive array of courses and literature, CADClass.org provides education of various software and design methodologies, catering to individuals across all proficiency levels. Since 2010, Josh has been utilizing his experience to create educational opportunities for anyone and everyone who wants to learn engineering skills. Here, he joins us to have a spirited discussion about CAD, 3D, and how such things can communicate and be taught to students who want to dig into this exciting new technological realm!

Relevant links:

• MEP EP#389: The aCADemy of Education - Joshua Manley of CADClass.org
• The Ultimate Online Fusion 360 CAD School
• The Role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the CAD Industry

Thank you for listening to the MacroFab Engineering Podcast!  We’d love to hear what you think of the show so please tweet at us @MacroFab and join our slack channel at Macrofab dot com / slack or email us at [email protected].  

Parker and Stephen discuss Parker’s past and upcoming Extra Life Day charity work, in which he plays video games like Duke Nukem and STAR WARS Jedi: Fallen Order to support Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, a rather deep dive into the newly launched Raspberry Pi 5, personal project updates from Stephen about the Weldestroyer 3000, and much more! 

Relevant links:

• Extra Life Day: Revenge of the Holiday Special
• MEP EP#105: Community Dice
• Introducing : Raspberry Pi 5
• MEP EP#361: Cold Welding This Podcast Together

Thank you for listening to the MacroFab Engineering Podcast!  We’d love to hear what you think of the show so please tweet at us @MacroFab and join our slack channel at Macrofab dot com / slack or email us at [email protected]. 

Parker and Stephen discuss community feedback that led Parker to order a Bambu X1 Carbon 3D Printer, which should be arriving any day now, S to the L to the A, “guardrails” that the U.S. Commerce Department has placed on the CHIPS for America program, the healthy job market for engineers in America right now, flagging down the double E’s, how to teach engineering students properly, new math, and much more! 

Relevant links:

• MEP EP#394: GPUs D.O.A, Reverse Polarity Problems, 3D Printer Pickles
• US Commerce issues final national security guardrails on CHIPS incentives
• How Does the CHIPS Act Affect Manufacturing?
• MEP EP#388: CHIPS Can’t Dip

Thank you for listening to the MacroFab Engineering Podcast!  We’d love to hear what you think of the show so please tweet at us @MacroFab and join our slack channel at Macrofab dot com / slack or email us at [email protected]. 

Parker and Stephen discuss the Cloudlifter mechanism they now use to help enhance the sound of this podcast, what phantom power is and what it actually does, more reverse polarity protections from the community, some of this show’s most audible fans, down with Slack, up with Discourse, an overdue box truck update, and much more. 

Relevant links:

• What Does a Cloudlifter Do (And Should You Be Using One)?
• What is Phantom Power & Why Do I Need It?
• Ideal Diode Bridge Controller
• MEP EP#110: Dangling Transformers

Thank you for listening to the MacroFab Engineering Podcast!  We’d love to hear what you think of the show so please tweet at us @MacroFab and join our slack channel at Macrofab dot com / slack or email us at [email protected]. 

Parker and Stephen discuss power-only USB Type-C connectors entering the marketplace, Apple being forced to convert iPhones to USB-C after the EU established and enforced the Common Charger Directive and what such government legislations might mean for tech innovation, community discussion about reverse polarity protection, how the new Slack GUI is both not good and unnecessary, busy work vs. actual redevelopment, and much more. 

Relevant links:

• UJC Power-Only USB Type-C™ Receptacles
• How to Navigate Apple’s Shift From Lightning to USB-C
• Apple adds USB 3 speeds to iPhone 15 Pro but you won’t get those out of the box
• MEP EP#332: This Podcast Intentionally Left Blank

Thank you for listening to the MacroFab Engineering Podcast!  We’d love to hear what you think of the show so please tweet at us @MacroFab and join our slack channel at Macrofab dot com / slack or email us at [email protected].