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 librar...
Aug 12, 2016•31 min•Ep. 28
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 discontinue...
Aug 05, 2016•37 min•Ep. 27
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 ...
Jul 29, 2016•31 min•Ep. 26
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 Q...
Jul 22, 2016•31 min•Ep. 25
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 ha...
Jul 15, 2016•36 min•Ep. 24
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 t...
Jul 08, 2016•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 23
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 ...
Jun 30, 2016•55 min•Ep. 22
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. Part...
Jun 24, 2016•44 min•Ep. 21
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 b...
Jun 17, 2016•56 min•Ep. 20
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...
Jun 10, 2016•49 min•Ep. 19
Podcast Notes Parker has been working on the SAIM (Semi-Automatic Inspection Machine) this week. Work had to pause as Parker broke off a M5 x 0.8MM drill/tap combo bit off inside the extrusion. Should be able to remove the tap when a left hand drill bit arrives from McMaster. Parker also designed a "man in the middle" board for the Altera USB Blaster programmer. This allows the programming cable to also power the device that is going to be programmed reducing the number of cables needed to hook ...
Jun 03, 2016•45 min•Ep. 18
Podcast Notes This week Stephen and Parker have a guest. Greg Sheridan of Octavo Systems . Greg is the Marketing and Sales Manager for Octavo Systems. Octavo Systems builds "System-in-Package" or SiP style chips to reduce the complexity of board layout and offset the costs more PCB layers. Their first product is a Beagle Bone on Chip IC called the OSD3358 . Greg can rattle off the part number no problem as he was the one that came up with the naming convention. OSD3358-512M-BAS. Octavo Systems t...
May 27, 2016•36 min•Ep. 17
Hosts: Parker Dillmann Stephen Kraig Guests: N/A Figure 1: Non working Space Echo RE-201 Figure 2: A NuTube 6P1 straight from KORG. Figure 3: The constant current source Stephen is using for his NuTubes. The equation for the constant current is I ~ Vgs/Rs. Figure 4: Jig of Destiny 3D render. Podcast Notes Parker really wants to get Josh's (the sound guy) Space Echo RE-201 working. There is a digital filter that simulates the effect though. See figure 1. Stephen received his NuTube's from KORG th...
May 20, 2016•44 min•Ep. 16
Hosts: Parker Dillmann Stephen Kraig Guests: N/A Figure 1: SSPS front panel test layout. Miniature version of the real front panel to test physical placement and new parts. Figure 2: Two TPS65982-EVM booster packs. One is powering the other over USB Type-C. Parker was able to pull 20V @ 3.2A before his Re:load Pro overheated. Podcast Notes Stephen is now almost done with the FX Development Board's final layout and enclosure design. He is also working on a new version of his drop in replacement f...
May 13, 2016•33 min•Ep. 15
Hosts: Parker Dillmann Stephen Kraig Guests: N/A Figure 1: SSPS front panel layout. Traces to come soon. Figure 2: Inconsistencies in the LTST-C171CKT datasheets. Podcast Notes Stephen is still working on customer fixtures but managed to get some progress on the FX Development Board . Stephen has been working on the documentation to get the Crowd Supply fundraising going. Still need to prototype the enclosure. Parker has been working on the SSPS front panel design . See Figure 1. Parker is going...
May 06, 2016•35 min•Ep. 14
Podcast Notes Our guest this week is Dustin Holliday , a Production Line Engineer at MacroFab, INC . Dustin programs the My200 paste jetter, the My500 pick and place, and the Rhythm Selective Solder. See Figure 1. Stephen is working on a customers test fixture and is using the Parallax Propeller. He really likes how it is easy to route the package since each pin is just general I/O and you can change around the pin definitions. Parker is almost done with the first test fixture article. Should be...
Apr 29, 2016•40 min•Ep. 13
Podcast Notes Stephen built a power supply for an old school tube microphone for Josh. Josh does the recordings for the Podcast. See Figure 1 for the schematic. Microphone is a Sony C37 tube condenser microphone. Parker has been working on an article for the blog about designing and building simple test fixtures for low to medium volume production runs. See Figure 2. Parker has also been working on code to run a large VFD display . Part number is CU40045-UW1J. This is for Parker's fan controller...
Apr 22, 2016•31 min•Ep. 12
Podcast Notes Parker has been hard at work on the PinHeck Test Fixture. It uses over 160 pogo pins to test every single function of the PinHeck Pinball System . There will be an article about designing pogo pin style test fixtures for production in the next couple weeks. Stephen tested the Diode Compression opamp he built a couple weeks ago on the FX Dev Platform. Sounds great ! Noisebridge , A hackerspace out of San Francisco, wrote an article about the large variety of fuse quality. Cheap and ...
Apr 15, 2016•37 min•Ep. 11
Podcast Notes First Guest for the MacroFab Engineering Podcast! Trey German is working on a IoT platform using BLE and a small coin cell. Trey's device worked on the first revision ! How often does that happen? Trey used a really cool side mounted RGB LED. Part number OVSRRGBCC3 by TT electronics . The widget Trey is working on is designed to be very flexible in its use. It is not so much a development platform as a flexible device. Trey used to be an engineer at Texas Instruments and was the La...
Apr 08, 2016•41 min•Ep. 10
**Podcast Notes** * Parker and Stephen continue work on the [Super Simple Power Supply](https://github.com/MacroFab/SSPS). There is a full on simulation of the analog section on MultiSim. * Stephen found a better way to control the analog end with two separate 16bit DACs. One controls the negative end and the other one controls the positive end of the ompamp. 16 x 2 Blast Bit Processing! * Parker is working on a ESP8266 development board for the Parallax Propeller called the [Bit Flicker](https:...
Apr 01, 2016•36 min•Ep. 9
Podcast Notes Stephen and Parker do a live discussion on how the digital and analog side of the Super Simple Power Supply will interface with each other. MultiSim has been a huge part in simulating the power supply design. Stephen has a new blog post about the Super Simple Power Supply. Parker has the 3D layout of the Super Simple Power Supply and the FX Dev board enclosure done. He still needs to draw up the mechanical drawing to send off to the machine shop. See Figure 1 for the 3D layout. Ste...
Mar 25, 2016•39 min•Ep. 8
Parker has almost finalized the front panel design for the Super Simple Power Supply. Going to have a "VU" meter for how much power it is pulling. Parker is also still looking for a proper encoder that is vertical mounted but is also thin enough to squeeze between the PCB and the aluminum front panel. Next week Stephen and Parker will do a "live" discussion on how the Analog and Digital side of the SSPS will mesh. Stephen is working on a Ultimate Pogo Pin Showdown article for the blog. He will b...
Mar 18, 2016•24 min•Ep. 7
Podcast Notes Parker is still working on the Super Simple Power Supply. He is designing the front panel. He is considering using some WP1043 Kingbright LEDs . Super Simple Power Supply will have two decimal places for the LED segmented displays. 10mV and 10mA display resolution. Keypad for punching in numbers directly and encoder for scrolling. The Rigol DP832 is the powersupply Parker and Stephen currently use. Has the funky keypad. ESP8266 is a low cost wifi module that has been in the maker s...
Mar 11, 2016•26 min•Ep. 6
Parker ordered all the parts for the SAIM this week. The v-slot rails and brackets from OpenBuild , iES-1706 servos from Leadshine, and 3D printed parts from Shapeways . MacroFab uses 3D printed parts to make custom spacers and tooling for assembly of PCB boards. Parker will be adding acceleration to the motor controller code to make sure the SAIM does not jerk around to much. Maximum Smoothness as Stephen puts it. Stephen has bee working more on the FX Dev Board . The board has a couple differe...
Mar 04, 2016•47 min•Ep. 5
Audio quality of the podcast leveled up! Stephen and Parker went over to The Pharmacy Recording Studio which is run by Josh Moore . He hooked them up with 2 (!) microphones and a nice an acoustically pleasing room. Big thanks to Josh! Parker has been working on the X-Y Platform which has been code named the SAIM which stands for Semi-Automatic Inspection Machine. Half of Parker's job is coming up with "cool" acronyms. The SAIM will be a PCB inspection machine for low volume runs at MacroFab. See...
Feb 26, 2016•17 min•Ep. 4
Stephen and Parker have been testing the main opamp for the OPA541. Stephen wrote a blog post detailing the opamp tests with simulation and real world testing. GitHub link to the repository for the SSPS. Giant 200W 8Ohm resistor . Liquid Cold Plate Heat Sinks for cooling the opamps in the SSPS. Isolators for the opamps made out of Aluminum Oxide . Part no. 4180. They make Beryllium Oxide Ceramic isolators but not in the right size. Antek transformers is the company that makes the Doughnut (Toroi...
Feb 19, 2016•23 min•Ep. 3
Stephen continues his work on the Stupid Simple Power Supply (SSPS). He decided to go digital voltage control over analog. Also he has been trying out MultiSIM BLUE by Mouser for circuit simulation. See figure 1. Parker has been working on a X-Y gantry platform and an industrial level controller based on the Parallax Propeller P8X32A . See figure 2. OpenBuilds Linear Rail V-Slot. R/C StrandBeest . The original ones are giant monsters of kinetic art. Atmel releases the ATmega328PB . Has essential...
Feb 10, 2016•21 min•Ep. 2
Stephen talks about the Stupid Simple Power Supply (SSPS). He designed a OPA541 breakout board for testing. See figure 1. OPA541 Datasheet : Street price of $21.88. Parker brings up that blinky LEDs are the most important part of a project. He is designing the control panel and chassis for the SSPS. FTDI is again at war with counterfeit parts . Microchip buys out Atmel for $3.8 Billion . The consolidation of semiconductors continues. France building a huge solar roadway. This again? Special than...
Feb 09, 2016•24 min•Ep. 1
