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 craf...
Apr 04, 2018•46 min•Ep. 114
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 Tag...
Mar 28, 2018•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 113
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 yo...
Mar 21, 2018•58 min•Ep. 112
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? Tags: Badge Design, Brown Note, Capacitance Multip...
Mar 14, 2018•39 min•Ep. 111
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...
Mar 07, 2018•38 min•Ep. 110
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 2...
Mar 01, 2018•48 min•Ep. 109
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 ...
Feb 21, 2018•59 min•Ep. 108
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 ...
Feb 14, 2018•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 107
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 peopl...
Feb 07, 2018•44 min•Ep. 106
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 ...
Jan 31, 2018•35 min•Ep. 105
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 C...
Jan 24, 2018•50 min•Ep. 104
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 h...
Jan 15, 2018•43 min•Ep. 103
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 ...
Jan 10, 2018•50 min•Ep. 102
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 get...
Jan 04, 2018•35 min•Ep. 101
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 regis...
Dec 26, 2017•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 100
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 s...
Dec 20, 2017•47 min•Ep. 99
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 Devic...
Dec 13, 2017•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 98
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 Lon...
Dec 07, 2017•48 min•Ep. 97
Episode 100 is coming up! It’ll be a Q&A session - so send in your questions to podcast@macrofab.com 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 steppe...
Nov 29, 2017•33 min•Ep. 96
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, compar...
Nov 22, 2017•37 min•Ep. 95
FPGA Mega Podcast with Al Williams: What is an FPGA? Field-programmable gate array Bunch of logic gates and sea of gates, we tell them what to do Writing hardware description of what it will do - writing requirements language, You’re describing requirements Using VHDL or veralog, syntax is close to the C programming language Why not a microcontroller? Advantage with FPGA = parallel hardware, not a brain with steps and time running out People use FPGAs to get fixed deadline on when processes get ...
Nov 15, 2017•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 94
Episode 100 is coming up! It’ll be a Q&A session - so send in your questions to podcast@macrofab.com 2nd Annual Star Wars Xmas Special Engineering Podcast. Check out the video from last year! Parker Update on the Jeep Electronics LM22678TJ-5.0/NOPB 5V switcher regulator with 5A capacity Used Ti Webench to design it ADP3338AKCZ-3.3-RL 3.3V LDO Linear Regulator with 1A capacity CU40045-UW1J 40 x 4 VFD Propeller code for driving this display Keep Tabs on this project on github ! Decent cheap to...
Nov 08, 2017•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 93
Parker Jeep Cruise Control update Ordered a late model TJ wiring harness Speed Control Servo: 4669979 Cable: 4854156 Vacuum Line: 52109525AD Jeep Electrical Control Have wiring diagram done Bussmann 15303-5-2-4 Stephen Science Museum Almost commission day Last minute preparations and it is working great Adding counterweight Gif! Rapid Fire Opinion (RFO) Beverage Coaster Reference Design - Intersil The beverage coaster reference design lights up, plays music, and indicates beverage drinkability! ...
Nov 02, 2017•59 min•Ep. 92
Kaylan Smith Houston native, rice owl , UX designer, artist, die hard Astros fan, and MacroFaber since July 2016 One of the strange breeds that went from being an artist to software development Attended a talk that Stephen Kraig gave about MacroFab at her school where she was learning to become a developer Mike Williams Fascinated with computers since 7th grade, when he first got to use a TRS-80 model 1 Seen the software development industry advance from MSDOS to smart phones and cloud computing...
Oct 26, 2017•48 min•Ep. 91
Chris Gammell Electrical engineer and electronics instructor Runs an online course is called Contextual Electronics and is host for the podcast The Amp Hour Guest on the MacroFab Engineering podcast episode 33 Currently works for Hologram Consumer Vs Industrial Electronics Longest running devices? HackADay Superconference Chris is doing a workshop on cellular, low level serial commands to modems via AT commands. Rapid Fire Opinion (RFO) MacroFab Announces Production Manufacturing Services, Expan...
Oct 20, 2017•1 hr•Ep. 90
Parker Tom Anderson Long time listener just launched his own podcast called Function . It is a podcast that is about Art and Engineering and where those two meet. Jeep Factory Cruse Control Most of the parts have not arrived. Mopar part 05013979AB Connector for the speed controller that pulls the throttle cable Stephen iSpindel Does it work?! Made a bucket full of prison wine, and measuring with a fancy hydrometer Diatomaceous Transformation aka shifting dirt Stephen and Patrick Renner have an i...
Oct 12, 2017•35 min•Ep. 89
Stephen iSpindel - First time on the MEP: Introduce a tropic and finish it in 2 episodes! Parker Next Jeep Project: Factory Cruise Control RetroFit Currently missing the wiring to go to the PCM (Power Control Module) of the Jeep Buy a used harness for connector pins and modify the current harness PinHeck REV8 EOTL Update Inner layers are 0.5oz copper. Watch out for that. RPI3 CM will have its own power rails to keep the power clean Rapid Fire Opinion (RFO) Google Clips is a new $249 smart camera...
Oct 06, 2017•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 88
Parker PinHeck update! Rev8 EOTL Adding RPI3 CM module to the board. Reorganized the Schematic after 5 years of hacks and additions Printed a new HAKKO key New key costs $15! 3D printed one in 17 minutes Stephen Making an iSpindel - A budget version of the Tilt hydrometer Floats in liquid and by how the device tilts it measures the density and temperature of the fermenting beer GY-521 Gyro & Acceleration Sensor on a breakout DS18B20 Temperature Sensor Lipo charger TP4056 POW 100W Watercooled...
Sep 26, 2017•47 min•Ep. 87
Annika O'Brien Founder and driving force behind both the LA Robotics Club and Houston Robotics Club Focus into creating communities for people of all ages who have an interest in learning more about Robotics and Electronics Houston Robotics Club Working on getting 501c3 status (nonprofit) Outreach and free mentor-ship programs About 100 active users Shout Out to TX/RX Landmine Tracking Robotics Symbiobots Communicates with rat and rat smells TNT Piper the robot sees the rat’s dance Will eventual...
Sep 22, 2017•1 hr 57 min•Ep. 86
Space Engineers VS Caffeinated Chipmunks September 13th, 2017 was the 4th anniversary of MacroFab! Hardware and Electronics Engineering Meetup for September event is live! How to Design Products with Lean Manufacturing in Mind which Stephen is doing. How to Use Mouser's Parametric Search Function Free food and beer and Networking! "Fan" Art for the Pinotaur! Thanks Emmett Naughton , Tom Anderson , and Ekon_Designs ! Parker Fixing Stephens Motorcycle 2001 Honda Arrow VT 1100 c3 Back cylinder does...
Sep 14, 2017•39 min•Ep. 85
