EP#37: Banned Arduinos and Tuning Software By Ear

Podcast Notes

• MacroFab is moving soon. Fun times! See Figure 1 to see all the stuff we need to move.
• Parker has finished the first version of the Selective Solder Fixture. It uses magnets to support the PCB to prevent sagging. Files here.
• To calibrate the machines MacroFab is designing, Parker is working on the O.A.T.B. or Optical Alignment Test Board. It is a 16"x16" PCB panel that has markings and footprints of all sizes to calibrate computer vision systems.
• As a side project, Parker is gathering parts for the Fantastic Air Realtime Tester. He is going to use a Adafruit Light Tower, the Macro Duino, and possibly the IAQ-CORE air quality sensor. The IAQ-CORE runs $35 however and Parker wants to try the CCS811 which is probably cheaper if he can get his hands on one.
• Stephen has been continuing work on the Synth Engine he was working on the past couple weeks. The AD9833 is up and running along with a 16bit A/D and D/A. He is able to produce a saw wave that ranges from 13.75Hz to 14080Hz. It is 0.5V/octave or 0.041666V/note. Tuning and tracking is excellent.
• It seems the Arduino libraries can not handle floating point calculations past 7 decimal places.
• Stephen has also jumped on the fixture train and has a cut tape strip feeder for placing cut tape and reduce wastage on our My200 Pick and Place.
• Scott Shawcroft, a previous guest on MEP, now writes for Adafruit! His first article is about the Arduino Zero and is a very technical walk through. Go check it out!
• Parker has found that datasheet pin names vary from manufacture to manufacture for the same chips. Example is the 74HC595 and pin 9 which is the serial output of the IC. KiCad uses inverse QH for the 74HC595 pin 9 marking. Wat.
  • NXP: Q7S
  • TI: QH’
  • ON Semi: SQh
  • Diodes Inc. : Q7S
  • STMicro: QH’
  • Philips: Q7’
  • National Semi: Q’h
  • Motorola: SQh
  • SGS-Thomson: QH’
  • Fairchild: Q’H
  • Toshiba: QH’
• Someone should decap different 74HC595's or other 7400 series chips to see how much different they are.
• IoT done right? Mark Rittman using a Amazon Echo to voice control his