EP#62: Yo Ho Ho and a Technological Bottle of Rum

Podcast Notes

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• MacroFab and Mouser Electronics have teamed up to create a free monthly meetup in Houston (April 26th) for anyone involved with hardware & electronics engineering or manufacturing. Hosted on the last Wednesday of every month, these meetups are designed to build a community of professionals who want to learn from one another, gain new insights on emerging electronics technologies, and expand their network.
  • Sign up here!
  • What to expect
    • Networking
    • Fireside chats with Q&A
    • Individual project sharing and discussion
    • Door prizes
    • Refreshments
• Parker has been working on the next step of the RPI3 LVDS project.
  • Pinout the SODIMM connector for the RPI3 Compute Module. See Figure 1.
    • Part number 1473149-4 by TE Connectivity
    • LVDS DS90C365A IC is net listed up
    • Trying to use the PWM function to control the backlight of the LCD.
      • GPIO40 is PWM0 on the RPI3
    • Still to be done
      • Power 1.8V, 3.3V, 12V
      • SD card
      • HDMI
      • USB and a USB Hub
      • Break out all the pins
      • Test points for clk signals and data streams
• Stephen has a challenge for the listeners.
  • Goal: A design for a ring of LEDs that surround a control knob on a synthesizer and light up according to the position of the knob
  • Requirements
    • The circuit must connect to a potentiometer (this can be a dual gang version) example: rv16a01f
    • The ring of LEDs must be centered on a 12mm radius around the potentiometer.
    • Whole circuit must not be larger 1.2” W x 1.2”H x 1.2”D
    • PCB can solder directly to pins on potentiometer
    • Multiple PCBs is acceptable if needed
    • Color of the leds does not matter although green or red is preferable
    • Number of leds is 16 minimum and 32 maximum
    • LEDs are arranged on a 300 degree arc (potentiometer has 300 degrees of rotation) starting at 240 degrees and ending at -60 degrees
    • The circuit will receive external 5V power so it must have through hole pads for power and gnd
    • CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP! Do this for as cheap as possible
• Rapid Fire Opinion
  • Revealing Capcom’s Custom Silicon Security - Hackaday
    • Capcom developed their arcade boards to die with their secrets through a “suicide” system. System name CSP-2
    • Basically all the game code was encrypted and the key was stored in volatile ram kept alive by a battery.
    • Reminds Parker of the reflow oven that MacroFab currently use.
  • NXP chip checks your booze - Electronics Weekly
    • The Tag uses NXP’s NTAG 213 Tag Tamper technology which checks the origin of the bottle, detects if the bottle has been opened, and creates a