MEP EP#234: Bashing LEDs Parker Didn’t get to work on the Cat Feeder Unreminder but there are lots of interest and ideas in our slack channel! TheStumbler Found a 12hr egg timer. Defeats the purpose of building and learning a new embedded skill. Eric McFall E-Ink for the persistent display. This is a great idea. I will look through my parts bins for a e-ink. Might have one. Derek Does it count as feature creep if the project is still doing the same thing but is way more complicated? Tony W Jack ...
Jul 22, 2020•45 min•Ep. 234
MEP EP#233: Good Enough for a Bagel Parker The Cat Feeder Unreminder Bagel Pin Toaster Controller usable? PT8A2514APE MC14536B 24 stage stage counter with on board RC oscillator Stephen SPI Code Bytes Working on the second PCB revision of a product Code that worked on previous revision didn't work on the new prototype! Changed Chip Select pin for the SPI buss R.F.O. Grant Imahara passes at 49 Maxim is being purchased by Analog for 21 billion dollars...
Jul 15, 2020•43 min•Ep. 233
MEP EP#232: Chonky Motherboards Parker The Cat Feeder Unreminder Different implementations to accomplish the goal Stephen Synth DSP replacement Korg MS2000 Was pulling an additional 500mA on the power supply Found a blown surface mount fuse The DSP chip XCB56362PV100 was hot to touch Replaced with part found on ebay Wasn’t sure if this part needed programming LED Matrix Driver - IS31FL3741 39x9 LED matrix = 351 individual color leds or 117 RGBs QFN-24 package 256 levels of PWM control and 256 le...
Jul 08, 2020•51 min•Ep. 232
MEP EP#231: Throw The Bacon Across The Stage Danny Rankin An instructor in the creative technologies and design program at the University of Colorado Boulder The courses he teaches and his individual research reflect a diverse array of expertise, including graphic design, material fabrication, game design, hardware hacking, sustainable agriculture and large-scale installation art Danny was a guest on MEP episode #171: Mayonnaise Drone (And Other War Crimes) Danny’s experience with teaching durin...
Jul 01, 2020•46 min•Ep. 231
MEP EP#230: We Are All Idiots Together On This Planet Parker Brewery is autotuned and sight gauges calibrated New Alternator for Wagon Brewery is “done” from a build standpoint for this season Parker’s next podcast project Stephen On track to brew on Saturday! Got the whole box built and wired over the weekend Cheapo pump from amazon just arrived today EDA workflow and footprints Do you do things based on the footprint? When is it ok to rely on someone else's footprint? Standards? JEDEC...
Jun 24, 2020•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 230
MEP EP#229: Get Cute This Weekend Parker Brewery Lives! Test boil and Process Issues with the current iteration of the brewery What is next Take Inventory of Brew Equipment Spare parts Storage on cart Clean and Fire up Fermentation chamber Clean the brewery Ingredients BREW Future? Motorized valves to simplify the fluid transfer process Drains at bottom of vessels? Better way to change set points on the PID controllers? A/C window unit Wine Chiller Parker Kool 2800 Issues and gotchas for future ...
Jun 17, 2020•57 min•Ep. 229
MEP EP#228: Weapons of Mathewson Destruction William Mathewson An entrepreneur, electrical engineer, and user experience designer for his company William Mathewson Devices otherwise known as WMD Began WMD in 2007 Designed over seventy products that inspire artists and sound designers throughout the music industry Starting A Hardware Manufacturing Company The name WMD How did William arrive at deciding to start WMD? What do y'all do at WMD? The story? How did it all start? Pedals to modular synth...
Jun 10, 2020•50 min•Ep. 228
MEP EP#227: Ultrasonic Beer Science - Eli Hughes of Tzero Eli Hughes The CTO of TZero Research and Development TZero was founded in 2016 by 3 Penn State University graduates who have training and experience in embedded systems, acoustics, mechanical engineering and software Technical background is in electronics, software and acoustics Currently also does work for NXP semiconductors Worked at the Penn State Applied Research Lab where he worked on applications in sensors, condition based maintena...
Jun 03, 2020•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 227
MEP EP#226: Chickens and Tea leaves, Al's Simulation Recipe Al Williams One of the authors behind Hackaday , a website that features electronic projects and other things that appeal to people interested in computers, electronics, and technology Ham radio operator Author of many books Has worked on everything from underwater technology to the International Space Station and just about everything in between Was on previous episodes EP#57: Mr. Williams, your book changed my life EP#94: Al Williams ...
May 27, 2020•59 min•Ep. 226
MEP EP#225: Clipping and Clamping OpAmps Stephen DC heaters continued Tested the new values Last episode was shooting for ~250mW of dissipation in the regulator and transistor Measuring closer to 350mW Quiescent current and some balancing and tolerance Opamp clamping circuit A useful voltage clamping circuit with independent upper and lower thresholds Pros Much more accurate than the simple clipping circuits Hard turn on characteristics Can be overdriven without much issues Not terribly expensiv...
May 20, 2020•55 min•Ep. 225
MEP EP#224: The Normal Chaos Stephen DC Heating and Thermal Testing A low voltage moderate current linear power supply 12.6V dc @ 0.55A 6.93W LM2940T-12.0 LDO TIP42 bootstrap transistor to share the load 12V @ 2A transformer supplies ~16.2vdc with 200mV ripple ~2W of heat to be handled Shooting for about 250mW in the regulator and the transistor then the rest will get dumped in some resistors PCB heatsinking Diptrace 4.0 is finally here! Snapping and aligning items Circles and arcs actually have...
May 13, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 224
MEP EP#223: The Inverted Success Funnel - IdeaFab The Idea Tank Podcast Scott Hansen and Eric Benzenhoefer are idea men who, not humbly, seek to change the world through sharing their million dollar ideas, and humbly, seek to make a podcast talking about their idea Scott and Eric where last seen on the MEP on Episode 77: The IdeaFab Podcast The Ideas King...or Queen... of Cooking Saving the restaurant industry Allow entry level chiefs compete in restaurants Big Brother Brands You already have a ...
May 06, 2020•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 223
MEP EP#222: Turning It On - New Design Checklists with James Lewis James Lewis His passion for teaching non-engineers has led him to create the Baldengineer Blog and the AddOhms video tutorial series With 20 years of experience in electronics, marketing, sales, and teaching, James boils seemingly difficult concepts down to the core, so that anyone can learn what they need to finish that next great project James was on the previous MEP EP#141: It Depends – An In Depth Look at MLCCs with James Lew...
Apr 29, 2020•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 222
MEP EP#221: ThunderOhm Style Josh Rozier Been on the previous MEP episodes MEP EP#152: Third Annual MacroFab Star Wars Christmas Special – Vader’s Fake Fingers MEP EP#174: Apply Inspiration Here MEP EP#178: Little Shop of Transformer Horror MEP EP#204: Fourth Annual MacroFab Star Wars Christmas Special – C3PO Steals the Show Layout Experiences The What-A-Booster Reverb Pedal Power supply Through hole to SMD transition EDA tools What and how did you get started? Analog stuff? Starting to mess wit...
Apr 22, 2020•58 min•Ep. 221
MEP EP#220: Blinky is 90% of Your Project Parker Hoppes #9 for the printer seems to work well Will it hold up long term? Still waiting on fans for the printer and other various parts Jeep Fan Evolution Fabio and Roger on the MacroFab Slack channel has suggested the nRF Series NRF52-DK Arduino compatible Stephen Connector Woes JST style connectors A family big enough to have their own wiki Hackaday has a good article Looking at XH series 2.5mm RC battery pack connector CNC radiator 5 gallons of D...
Apr 15, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 220
MEP EP#219: Virtual Earth Mixers Parker Brewery Update Still bending tubes Going cheap and buying a roll of stainless steel tubing was a mistake Started looking into the Jeep Fan controller project again Evolving into a Body control module Investigating the best way to add wireless remote control? Pinotaur LED REV2 design is completed Using those APA-102C-NEW-260 Working on a motor controller add-on for the Pinotaur board Socketed motor controllers allow stepper or DC motor control Stephen Rotar...
Apr 08, 2020•53 min•Ep. 219
MEP EP#218: Like Old Cheese Parker 3D printer upgrades Waiting on parts Brewery Printed the pump brackets Bending Tubes and mounting brackets tonight Stephen Frequency counter woes Found the led driver. It is not a pic like was suggested ZLG7289BS Translated the document Page 7 has a schematic that looks like it will help Rotary switching Doing it “right” this time Purchasing the switch before designing the board Part numbers STmicro website? Why? Dave Jones and documentation Rapid Fire Opinion ...
Apr 01, 2020•57 min•Ep. 218
MEP EP#217: Frequency Stability Dependability Parker Reverse Engineering Tools? Calipers Edge profile gauge Dial indicator with radius gauge attachment Angle finder/gauge Good Scanner? 3D printer improvements for the Monoprice Ultimate Maker Stuff it already has Internal RaspPi running octoprint MicroSwiss metal hot end Enclosure BLTouch Better cable management Fixed print surface improvements Fan upgrades Switch to a faster bed heater? Lubrication suggestions? Stephen Hacking a frequency counte...
Mar 25, 2020•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 217
MEP EP#216: I’d Buy That For Five Dollars Parker Python PDF Looked at peoples suggestions and none really did what I needed FPDF will do for now since I have made a template already Most suggestions are building HTML then converting to PDF which is fine but not really a good solution Zebra Printers ZPL or Zebra Programming Language ZT230 ZD420 My process so far for making a ZPL webapp thingy Zebra Designer 3 for Developers Makes the Template Push Template over to printer Use Variables for fields...
Mar 18, 2020•44 min•Ep. 216
MEP EP#215: Just Another Meatloaf Title Parker Brewery Update Pump mount design completed 3D printed brackets Bending tubing this week! Need to finish the last bit of wiring in the electrical box Python PDF Creation Why do they all suck? Currently using fpdf Stephen CNC Update Moving...mostly Still need to get the X-axis moving Sprockets to weld on Will try rotational tig welding Midi to G-Code Motor Cable Igus 16/4 plus braided shield Chainflex Best way to attach the shield? Rack Mount Amplifie...
Mar 11, 2020•56 min•Ep. 215
MEP EP#214: It is Probably Safe Parker Just got back from vacation Have not worked on any projects since last episode Watched lots of old er James Bond movies Should we do a Spy gadget episode if we can get the right guest? Stephen Simulation of the Week: Behringer Model D Oscillator Core Lots of cool stuff going on Exponential converter Constant current capacitor Discrete opamp with discrete comparator CNC Update Base built and topped with a torsion box ¾” MDF construction Gantry is on but need...
Mar 04, 2020•54 min•Ep. 214
MEP EP#213: My CNC Will Melt In Your Mouth Parker Going to be doing Webinars for MacroFab. How MFs tools make you a better electrical engineer and supply chain manager Learning AutoDesk Fusion360 Getting pretty good Learning from Youtube and Stephen Can be almost as fast and proficient as Parker was in Sketchup Braze it 420 Learning to braze brass radiators and steel gas tanks Make sure there is no gas fumes! Stephen CNC Trying to buck the standard Jointer/Planer -> table -> electrical wor...
Feb 26, 2020•59 min•Ep. 213
MEP EP#212: The End of Electronics Manufacturing?! Chris Church Founder and current Chief Product Officer of MacroFab Inc The former founder of Dynamic Perception The former Co-Founder and Chief Architect of Alert Logic Was on the previous MacroFab Engineering Podcast episodes #127: Tariff Impacts #142: Supply Chain Conspiracy Securities COVID-19 Outbreak in China Topic today is the Coronavirus or COVID-19 outbreak in China and its impact on the global Electronic Manufacturing Supply Chain If yo...
Feb 20, 2020•49 min•Ep. 212
MEP EP#211: Credit Card Vigilantes - Skim Reaper Patrick Traynor CEO of Skim Reaper The Dasburg Family Preeminent Chair in Engineering in the Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering at the University of Florida Christian Peeters CTO of Skim Reaper Ph.D Student in the Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering at the University of Florida Skim Reaper What is Skim Reaper How does it work? Behind the name Did you know that when your PCB's first hit our pro...
Feb 12, 2020•53 min•Ep. 211
MEP EP#210: Valentina Toll Villagra and Kyle Dumont with Allspice.io Kyle Dumont Experienced electronics designer having launched consumer products at large companies and startups for over 7 years Has developed low volume products for government and military applications and high volume commercial products Valentina Toll Villagra Project Manager exploring the intersection of physical and digital systems at Allspice Worked at Amazon expanding its national customer fulfillment network and rolling ...
Feb 06, 2020•45 min•Ep. 210
MEP EP#209: A Bad User Experience Parker Pinotaur REV2 is flipping a machine now Light strips using APA-102C-260-NEW Brew Cart welded up! Gotta design a hoist to lift the grain in and out of the mash tun Stephen Simulation of the week Bandpass with monte Carlo and gaussian tolerance Fermentation controller More Parts! 40A Solid State Relay BEM-14840DA Tactile switch 700SP7M1QEAP2BLKBLK 4x4 tactile keypad ADC reading? RobotDyn Button Keypad 4x4 Module 4x4 membrane style - kind of industrial Yooto...
Jan 29, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 209
MEP EP#208: Brian Kaczynski with Second Sound Brian Kaczhnski Brian earned his Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 2001 Has worked since 1999 as a mixed-signal/RF ASIC designer focusing mainly on LAN applications such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB, etc His passion for music and desire to bridge the gap between acoustic/electric instruments and music synthesizers (both analog and digital) inspire his current work Second Sound Why the name Second Sound? It sounds co...
Jan 22, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 208
MEP EP#207: Beating Dragons with Quarters Parker PinoTaur Revision 2 Passes smoke and programming test Onward to shipping it off to testers and programmers Have a friend that has a couple empty pinball cabinets List for Revision 3 Change fuse holders to Keystone 3588 Fix a couple none chamfered traces Update Logos Full backside artwork What is next for the PinoTaur project? LED Boards using the APA-102C-NEW-260 that I have been testing Wiring Harness Designs Audio Amp for the RPI PCM5122 + Class...
Jan 15, 2020•40 min•Ep. 207
MEP EP#206: The Analog State of Amazon Brand Names Parker PinoTaur PCBA should be done tomorrow when this podcast comes out PTH parts ordered from Mouser Brewery Setup Brewery Pots complete Tube straightening Need to weld the cart Go to a tiered setup just to reduce footprint? Dunno yet. Stephen Dave Jones to the rescue With spit... New resistor kit 3350 1% 1/4W resistors 134 Different Values Breadboard techniques LT spice Simulation Full Wave Rectifier Three different opamp choices LM741 TL072 ...
Jan 08, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 206
MEP EP#205: Disgusting Surge Parker MacroFab PCB Specification Update PCBs now have advanced PCB specifications Stack Ups Advanced Via management UL Logo control Surface Finish PinoTaur REV 2 PCBs arrive Assembled Soon to a pick and place near you Stephen Hellhound preamp Episode 199 Doing a partial product design prototype. Split into two. Back to back transformer design works well but has some unpredictable operation The primaries are not regulated as well as the secondaries Gyrator episode 17...
Jan 01, 2020•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 205
