Macrofab Engineering Podcast

Letting The Loaf Out Parker MAX6682 breakout board to read the thermistors Engineer Spotlight on All About Circuits Ford Climate Controlled Seat Module Breakdown Peltier setup Temperature feedback is via thermistor 54K to 240K with the resistance around 170K at room temp Possibly a NTC 200K? Fan uses a LB11988HR from OnSemi 3 Wire Interesting setup to control the speed of the fan What part is Dpak with marking 065886A Stephen The uTracer 3 design update Full on scope creep Adding a STM32 mcu to control the relays to make it "safe" RFO Digital circuits: Now with more analog! Using memristors as data storage devices Two memristors into the output totem-pole of a classic CMOS converter, between the usual p-mosfet and n-mosfet – effectively adding a potentiometer, whose wiper is the inverter output Buy memristors? Interviewing engineers? Should you bring your project or not? Visit our Slack Channel and join the conversation in between episodes and please review us, wherever you lis

Jiggling Jumper Cables Stephen The uTracer 3 A tube curve tracer that is very powerful. Some upgrades that are in the mix New interface for selecting socket connections - going to have 8 and 9 pin sockets with rotary switches for each pin Upgraded ground loop for measuring the grid current on triodes Integrated FTDI Transistor curve tracer (only tests the "positive" transistors PNP,N-Channel stuff) Lab Notebook: http://dos4ever.com/uTracerNotebook/Notebook.html#Plate SSPS - The entropy creator Parker New Article: Key Parts of an Arduino: How to Integrate the Arduino Platform into your Product Reading temperature NTC thermistors Voltage divider method Wheatstone bridge circuit Dedicated IC like the MAX6682MUA Others ways? Are space ships and space suits rated for external positive pressure? Relevant Reddit Thread RFO Saelig has a new programmable 128W Power Supply With 1mV/1mA Precision Output: 0 – 16 Volts / 0-8 Amps Resolution: 1 mV / 1 mA Low Ripple & Noise: <= 350 uVrms

Brandon Satrom and the LANoT Brandon Satrom Developer evangelist for Particle The founder of Carrot Pants Press Loves to talk about Javascript, open source, microcontrollers, robots, and what ever new shiny tool or technology that is currently distracting him Kitchen Sink of badges designed for Maker Faire San Mateo. Favorite Bagel Blinky of IoT Parker unboxed a Particle Photon Included in the box is a photoresistor, a LED, breadboard, and some resistors Parker built the circuit and programmed the Photon in under 5 minutes Building an IoT Device Spec Sensors 3SP Ethanol 1000 Low Power Consumption of around 10 to 50 uW 0-1000ppm Ethanol range It has 3 analog outputs Vgas which is proportional to the gas we are measuring Vref which is around half the supply voltage and is used as a fixed zero reference Vtemp is the temperature of the sensor used to set the temperature compensation Particle Photon reading the analog outputs of the Spec Sensors 3SP Ethanol 1000 Posts to the cloud about the

Choose Your Own Adventure Level Shifter Stephen Mute circuit design PDF of the schematic Is it really digital or analog? What is the defining difference between the two Parker Gameboy VGA project Added SN74LVC8T245 level shifters Designing a flat flex cable? Will document it on his blog Left to do on the schematic side of things VGA connector Possible L717HDEH15POL2 part? 3.3V TTL -> Analog VGA signal Going to use a resistor ladder Current dev board uses 4bit VGA with 500Ω, 1kΩ, 2kΩ, and 4kΩ ladder Serial Terminal? Never have done this in verilog FT230X to USB Brewery wiring R.F.O. Summer projects ideas for senior in computer engineering Car counting and just designing a PCB SSPS update? :) Announcements Twitter Chat Info May 25th Friday at 1PM CST Use #MacroFab to join the conversation MacroFab Monthly Electronics Meetup May 23rd 6PM at MacroFab HQ in Houston Brandon Satrom from Particle. Going to give a talk about IoT fundamentals. We will stream it on Twit

Mastery of Skills and Wonder Stephen Moving to Denver, Colorado Podcast will still go on in a remote form, similar to another popular electronics podcast Parker Posted on his blog recently and will be doing more! R.F.O. The Nintendo switch has been hacked – via hardware! First discovered by fail0verflow Switch runs on the Nvidia Tegra X1 platform Put the switch into a USB recovery mode by shorting out some pins on the Joy-Con Controller Then trick the Switch's USB stack by sending a bad "length" argument Allows homebrew and linux to run on the Switch Say Hello to Android Things 1.0 Enables you to build and maintain Internet of Things devices at scale. Provides hardware, rich dev api’s, and back end infrastructure System-on-Modules (SoMs) - 3 year “long term support” Raspberry Pi 3 Model B support for prototyping only Listener email: "A topic I'd be interested in hearing you guys discuss is how you go about intentionally improving your engineering skills. I've been thinking a lot recently ab

Tell Me How People Hurt You Mashup episode with Embedded.FM Elecia White and Christopher White are the hosts of the Embedded.FM podcast It is a podcast dedicated to the many aspects of engineering Elecia and Christopher talk about the how, why, and what of engineering, usually devices The focus is bringing on guests and experts onto the podcast How to make Software and Hardware Engineers work better together Schematics for the Apollo Guidance Computer and their Kicad replica on github Announcements Twitter Chat Info May 11th Friday at 1PM CST MacroFab Monthly Electronics Meetup May 23rd 6PM at MacroFab HQ in Houston Brandon Satrom from Particle. Going to give a talk about IoT fundamentals. Houston Hardware Happy Hour June 7th at Slowpokes Bring hacks and hang out Visit our Slack Channel and join the conversation in between episodes and please review us, wherever you listen (PodcastAddict, iTunes). It helps this show stay visible and helps new listeners find us.Tags: Christopher, Elec

Battlestar Gallactic Grounds Stephen Fixing Jerry's Amp that picks up radio signals The Johnson Noise E34L Tubes Parker DAC Article Part 3 Complete DAC fixture parts arrived to finish Part 4 of the article series Details on the MacroFab plans for DefCon 26 Gameboy Update Check out the youtube video from the BenHeck Show Tried out the new Eagle V9 PinHeck update on the software side RFO PCB Grounding Star Grounds Plane and Plunge Galactic Grounding Analog devices article on grounding Tiny Arduino + FPGA = Sno Altera MAX10 based development board The MAX10 comes preprogrammed with functions that match the Arduino API These built in modules do the analog to digital conversion, servo control, operate NeoPixels, and a host of other functions HackaDay Article by Al Williams who has been on two previous podcasts: EP#57 and EP#94. Analog-rich MCU shoots for sensor nodes Microchip PIC16F18446 ADC can run with the processing core shut-down, waking the core when required You can sign up for

Trey German Strikes Back Trey German First guest on the MEP way back on EP#10 Second appearance was EP#38 Icarus Trophy Polymorphic Labs Stewart & Stevenson M1083 Announcements Twitter Chat Info April 27th Friday at 1PM CST MacroFab Monthly Electronics Meetup May 23rd 6PM at MacroFab HQ in Houston Brandon Satrom from Particle. Going to give a talk about IoT fundamentals. Houston Hardware Happy Hour May 3rd at Slowpokes Bring hacks and hang out Visit our Slack Channel and join the conversation in between episodes and please review us, wherever you listen (PodcastAddict, iTunes). It helps this show stay visible and helps new listeners find us.Tags: electronics podcast, Icarus Trophy, M1085, MacroFab, macrofab engineering podcast, MEP, Podcast, Polymorphic Labs, Trey German  

Standard-ish Stephen Using an oscilloscope as a dynamic signal analyzer Analog scopes Parker Gameboy update Code compiles! Quartus II still compiled my Gameboy Project 1.25mm? pitch 21 pin. Connectors are hard to find. Custom flexi cable to solve the problem? Should have board laid out next week Arduino Article Raspberry pi addon boards are called HATs - Hardware attached on top Missed opportunity for calling them pi plates :( RFO Fatberg follow up First mentioned on MEP EP#85 Space Engineers VS Caffeinated Chipmunks QHL600/750 Series DC-DC Brick Converters by XP Power 600 W or 750 W and are designed for 300 VDC nominal input applications 180V to 425V DC input 4.60" x 2.40" x 0.50" Ideal for AC input applications with PFC, baseplate cooled ESG solutions and high voltage battery applications such as electric vehicles Found a 300V capacitor repackaged as 450V How to test the voltage rating on caps? Have listeners ever purchased counterfeit or fake parts? Let us know! Announceme

From A Current Perspective Stephen LM13700 Dual Operational Transconductance Amplifiers With Linearizing Diodes and Buffers built by Ti? All passive filter Not just a zero ohm resistor ;) Shift the phase Fixing a Kegerator Kegerator was out of gas R-134A Parker USB Type C article? Updating old USB 2.0 from MicroUSB to Type C? Going to finish my Gameboy VGA adapter Move to HDMI afterwards? BenHeck Show Giant Game boy runs an early version of the code RFO Amazon’s in-home delivery service now supports eight smart locks Help avoid porch pirates FTC says “Warranty void if sticker removed” is not valid Companies can't put repair restrictions on their products unless they provide the parts or services for free or receive a waiver from the FTC. regulation for right to repair, is more about the posibility for getting the spareparts, and maybe cutting down on electronics waste. Avoiding side entry to SMT pads? Announcements Twitter Chat Info April 13th Friday at 1PM CST Meetup I

Chasing Oscillations Stephen Nasty Analog Oscillations Opamps are drama queens of electronics Solved the oscillation with a small capacitor in the feedback loop to lower the frequency of the feedback Parker Waiting on circuit boards to be built for the DAC Article Reworking the Knowledge Base here at the FAB Suggestions for topics are welcome! RFO Voyager 1 Fires Up Thrusters After 37 Years Trajectory Correction Maneuver or TCM thrusters TCM's where only used for continuous firing mode and not used to angle the craft which requires controlled burst firing Engineers used decades-old data and examined the software that was coded in an outdated assembler language to figure out how to test the TCMs Electric propulsion coaxial 0306 Capacitor Size Odd capacitor size Same dimensions as a 0603 but hamburger style For reducing the parasitic inductance by shortening the current loops in circuits AVX product brief on low inductance chip capacitors A Concise Guide to Ceramic Capacitor Types Cove

Put All Your Power On Blue Stephen AutoDesk Fusion 360 Fusion 360 Tutorial by Lars Christensen Parker Getting the PCM5122 DAC to talk to an Arduino analogRead FAST Cuts the number of cycles needed to do an Analog read on the Arduino platform Albert van Dalen - AVDWEB Beer Brewing Electrical Box RFO Flat-Earther launches himself into sky in steam-powered rocket "Mad" Mike Hughes 350miles an hour ~1850 feet up Previously mentioned on EP #96: I Expect You To be Bored Mr. Bond Video! Ideas for summer projects for students Visit our Slack Channel and join the conversation in between episodes and please review us, wherever you listen (PodcastAddict, iTunes). It helps this show stay visible and helps new listeners find us.Tags: Arduino, AutoDesk Fusion 360, AVDWEB, Beer Brewing, electronics podcast, MacroFab, macrofab engineering podcast, Mad Mike Hughes, MEP, PCM5122, Podcast

Bruce Hamby and Owning Your Product Bruce Hamby Attorney with the Hamby Law Firm The Hamby Law Firm focuses on patents, intellectual property, trademarks and business law Has been an attorney in the Houston region for over 15 years Own your Brand One of first things to consider when bringing a product to market What is the difference between a trademark and a copyright? Register trademarks in U.S. and Internationally Name is important as tt denotes source and ensures that your name is legitimate and authentic Don’t just protect your brand, protect your ideas United States Patent and Trademark Offices (USPTO) International filings Own your Technology Patents Establish ownership Making sure it’s a quality patent to give you the most protection Open Source? Licensing Owning Your Tech in Other Countries China and your intellectual property Establish Freedom to Operate Crucial step that shouldn’t be overlooked - listen to the reasons why Reading/evaluating patents How to conduct IP searches and ev

Logic Commander Stephen "Slow Start" or soft start circuits Bulk capacitance is killing the power supply for the new synth design Capacitance Multiplier Parker Badge Design for DefCon NFC Belt Buckle Lots of LEDs of course Digital Logic Analyzer? Hacker Utility Belt design for DC27? RFO Saleae Logic Pro improvment Performance Boost! Latest Update unlocked all of the USB 3.0 Bandwidth for a 50% gain Tented verse non tented vias Pros and Cons? How to Define them? Visit our Slack Channel and join the conversation in between episodes and please review us, wherever you listen (PodcastAddict, iTunes). It helps this show stay visible and helps new listeners find us.Tags: Badge Design, Brown Note, Capacitance Multiplyer, electronics podcast, MacroFab, macrofab engineering podcast, Mega Zeus, MEP, Podcast, Saleae Logic, Soft Start, Tented Vias  

Dangling Transformers Stephen Ribbon Microphone Turn it into a Hackaday.io project? Make a USB microphone from scratch? PCM2912A Talked about this IC on a previous episode of the MEP Datasheet Stephen will be in Denver next week Contact Info Parker Test results of the PCM5122 Audio DACs Covered in a previous episode of the MEP Ceramic caps sound better? Sound is subjective PinHeck REV8 Update PCM5122 Running I2C and I2S on the Raspberry Pi Compute Module Have to run them on alternate pins Looking into the source code for the dtoverlays to figure out how to pass the correct overrides dtoverlay=i2c1-bcm2708,sda1_pin=44,scl1_pin=45,pin_func=6 dtoverlay=i2s-gpio28-31 REV8 will be used as a test mule for PinoTaur RFO Shortage of Passive Parts Hackaday article MacroFab article Juicero already found at a Goodwill Store Selling for $40 verse the original price of $700 Why is the boardhouse putting on a UL mark on my PCB? The mark means UL recognized which means that it is

Arduino, The Gateway Drug To #BadgeLife AND!XOR Check out the previous MEP EP#69 Incognito Mode for the last time the AND!XOR group was on the podcast Bitstr3m Did the Android mobile application for the DEFCON 25 badge Zapp Does the hardware design. HyR0n Embedded software, puzzles, ect DEFCON 25 RECAP Last years badge details Hunter S Thompson as Bender, bender on a bender Botnet Changing voltage regulators mid manufacturing run QFN design on PCB Iterative prototyping HotFix to patch BLE exploit Hacking IoT Vodka Badge Sales DEFCON 26 new Badge details Hardware or Software secrets? Double down on botnet Lessons learned to apply to the new badge? WS2812Bs do not reflow well QFN design on PCB is critical Implement OTA updates Iterative prototyping I2C Looking forward to this year? Not flashing badges three times Going to hacker jeopardy Want to see more people hacking badges Visit our Slack Channel and join the conversation in between episodes and please review us, wherev

Crazy Transistor Contraptions Stephen Midi Woes Atleast the Teensy is fast Parker DAC testing update Interesting results looking at the spectrum analysis of the DACs Film caps suppress harmonics better but let more low end frequency through "Audio" grade parts have a higher response over the frequency band All the DAC load outs have a flat frequency response Blind testing resulted in listeners picking the cheaper passive load out for the DAC saying it sounded more "spacious"/"open"/"dynamic" compared to the film caps. Rapid Fire Opinion R.F.O. Discrete Pong Project Goes Big, Adds a Player Two-player color Pong game with audio completely from discrete components EEVBlog build thread Stealth Winners of the new iPhoneX PCB Sandwich mSAP modified semi-additive processes for PCB assembly Can get traces down to .6 to .4mils PDF with good diagrams on how mSAP works Is coding required for Electrical Engineering? Get on our Slack channel and join the conversation! Visit our Slack Chan

Orthogonal for Mutual Conductance Stephen Melted Solid State Relay in electric brewery setup "Finally gave up the smoke" New SSR is rated for 40A Installed a blower fan on the heatsink for extra protection GFCI Breakers Monitors current on both legs of the circuit and makes sure they are within 5mA of each other Parker is going to use a SPA 240V 50A GFCI setup for his brewery setup Parker DAC board update PCM5122 based DAC design Same chip as what is on the HiFiberry DAC+ Had to change out the in series resistors from 1K Ohm to 27 Ohm resistors to get the communication to work Digital Logic Analyzer Verse Oscilloscope Soldering Iron ownership history R.F.O. PCM2912A USB microphone chip USB Interface, Mono Microphone Input and Stereo Headphone Output Found in a Datasheet for LAN9514 pg 15 When disabling port power, the driver will actively drive a ‘0’ The BenHeck show is losing its host Adventures in Autorouting /r/electronics thread It is definitely written by a software perso

John Teel of Predictable Designs John Teel Founder of Predictable Designs, a company which helps startups, makers, and small companies develop new electronic products An award-winning design engineer for Texas Instruments (TI) where John designed numerous successful microchips which are found inside millions of popular tech products Predictable Designs Making product development process as predictable as possible Predicting the pitfalls and costs, with a focus on the initial stages of product development Common questions people ask How much will it cost to develop and manufacture my electronics product? How long will it take to get my product on the market? I don't have tons of money, so how can I get my product to market? I don't have any product development experience, so how can I get my product to market? Common mistakes made by new hardware entrepreneurs Underestimating the complexity and time to develop a manufacturable product Scalability of a product from prototype to mass production. Jumpin

Community Dice Stephen Community Dice Matt Parker - Standup Maths  Thingiverse Shapeways  What’s the highest frequency signal a home gamer can generate? (square and sin waves?) Parker New Engineering Article 3 Steps to Planning Parts Selection for Your Next Electronic Hardware Product Raspberry Pi Compute Module Motherboard Continuation from the Compute Module board from last year Added the PCM5122 audio DAC Learning about USB HUB design TUSB2046B TPS2044 for overcurrent protection Only rated for 500mA USB spec says only 120uF cap per hub required but 100uF per port is recommended with low ESR USB DM/DP signals require around 27 ohm termination resistors Optional filter of 22pF recommended for EMI suppression This creates a “low pass” filter with a cut off of 267.9 MHz 12M bit/sec full Speed USB 12MHz, well under this cut off Rapid Fire Opinion (R.F.O.) Mouser now Authorized Distributor for Espressif They make the ESP8266 Wifi stuff FPGA Dev boards Arrows $30 FPGA Board