Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast

MEP EP#180: Chrissy Meyer and Personal Errata DatasheetsChrissy Meyer Has spent the past decade taking hardware products from early concept through high-volume production Received a MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford Led several projects at Apple and Square Founding team member at Pearl Automation, a vehicle technology startup Developed products that have shipped tens of millions of units Spent over a year on the ground in Asia working closely with manufacturers and suppliers Recently joined Root Ventures, a seed-stage hard tech venture capital firm, as a partner At Root, Chrissy invests in deeply technical teams that are solving problems in robotics, hardware, industrial automation, AI, and machine learning Background/Career Engineering - scripting for military applications Project Management Large Scale Manufacturing Very High volume manufacturing What do you need to consider? Documentation? The path from nothing to something Reviews? Test runs? Scaling? Testing and Validation Every unit? Batch? First Article? What do you do with failed units? Working with Tier 1 Manufacturers How do you get started and what do you need to know? Pet peeves of Manufacturing Visit our Public Slack Channel and join the conversation in between episodes!

10 Jul 20191h 11min

MEP EP#179: Mach 3 CheeseburgersThe MacroFab Engineering Podcast Useless Machine Contest Sponsored by Mouser Electronics is in full swing! We have cash prizes up for grabs. Contest Ends August 10, 2019. Check out the Macrofab Blog and Podcast Episode 175 for more contest details. Parker PinoTaur Updates Simulated Mosfet Driving Limiting the 74hc595 driver to 10mA Solenoid Mosfet Current Sensing ACS711KEXLT-15AB-T DOOM SAO Hardware Repo is assembled Software Next Detailed instructions on building the environment How the main code functions Stephen Fredman clip Parker brought up the SM57 microphone holder he 3D printed to compare to the clip that was bought online Text Based Adventure Update Majority of the story, characters, and environment are designed R.F.O. Cheeseburger Wind Tunnel Tests Could this be McDonald's wind tunnel tests so you can eat burgers faster? Millennium Falcon wind tunnel tests at Mach 3! Wire Bender Aims To Take Circuit Sculptures To The Next Level Great example of 3d printing done right! Apparatus For Facilitating The Birth of A Child by Centrifugal Force Patent If you could design something that would operate by using Centrifugal Force what would it be? Visit our Public Slack Channel and join the conversation in between episodes!

3 Jul 201957min

MEP EP#178: Little Shop of Transformer HorrorJosh Rozier Transformer Shop Story What is different between a power transformer and an output transformer? Parker DOOM SAO EEPROM interface working for single read and write bytes Functionality of the base firmware for the Screen functionality Shows the normal Face. GPIO 1 on the SAO connector toggles where the Face looks EEPROM address locations for “damage” and “anger” Github still needs to be cleaned up before public Stephen MacroAmp Enclosure and other parts arrive tomorrow Thank you to Mouser Electronics for sponsoring this project! Kraig Brewing Controller Creating a new controller for controlling my beer fridge 6 temperature probes DS18B20 Averaging is useful Wifi Connectivity Silicon Labs solution External Antenna Processor Silicon Labs Screen and a few buttons Takachi Enclosure R.F.O. Confirmed: NASA Has Been Hacked An audit document from the U.S. Office of the Inspector General was published by NASA this week which revealed that an unauthorized Raspberry Pi computer connected to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory servers was a targeted vector by hackers, who used it to move further into the NASA network. Supposedly, the hackers got as far as the Deep Space Network array of radio telescopes and other JPL systems. Research Platform FLIP (FLoating Instrument Platform) 355-foot-long research platform that can be deployed for oceanographic research Automated Dice Tester Uses Machine Vision To Ensure A Fair Game 62-page report of results Some dice are inherently not fair due to manufacturing process Raspberry Pi 4 Released Type-C for power USB 3.0 MOAR RAM Gigabit 2 HDMI ports and 4K resolution GE Light Bulbs Reset Procedure Taking the internet by storm How would you implement a reset procedure with only a binary input? Visit our Public Slack Channel and join the conversation in between episodes!

26 Jun 20191h 35min

MEP EP#177: Leeroy Jenkins TransistorCheck out our new MacroFab Design Contest: Useless Machine Sponsored by Mouser Electronics! Parker APA-102C-NEW-260 Tested DOOM SAO in production ST7789 LCD Works correctly Type-C works well Got the ATSAMD21 I2C EEPROM interface working SOON to be public Github repo Preorder on the AND!XOR website Atmel SWD to Tag Connect adapter works! ICE ICE BABY SOICBITE Stephen MacroAmp Rev 2: Sponsored by Mouser Electronics Schematic is complete Only grounds left to run and to do a review Completely rethought design Simulated power supplies uTracer data gathering for everything Gain calcs - one or two nutube? Coarse and fine volume controls PCB mounted Tube sockets Terminal blocks for easy assembly Wants to do something not audio related for next project R.F.O. Non-destructive banana ripeness determination using a neural network-based electronic nose Follow up from last weeks discussion with Nick Chelyapov Accuracy of 90.3% was reached using an “electronic nose” Sensors are sensitive to ethylene (the ripening hormone in climacteric fruit, such as apples, peaches, bananas, etc.) Buzzfeed for Electronics? Need More Energy Storage? Just Hit 'Print' Lords call for evidence on impact of digital tech Organic Semiconductors: One Transistor for All Purposes Renewable Energy Won't Make Bitcoin 'Green,' but Tweaking Its Mining Mechanism Might Powering Devices -- With a Desk Lamp? Beyond 1 and 0: Engineers boost potential for creating successor to shrinking transistors A multi-value logic transistor based on zinc oxide Zinc oxide combined to form a composite nanolayer, which is then incorporated with layers of other materials in a superlattice Visit our Public Slack Channel and join the conversation in between episodes!

19 Jun 20191h 8min

Some Impedance or Whatever - Nick Chelyapov with BittyNick Chelyapov A freelance Interactive Art Director and Graphic Designer Born in Moscow, Russia and raised in Los Angeles, California Nick has worked on a wide variety of art direction and graphic design projects Nick started Bitty, a pocket drum machine, 3 and a half years ago "I think the edge that I have to bring to a hardware product is graphic design" What is the bitty? Kickstarter project A pocket drum machine Specs on Bitty Sine / square / saw / triangle waves (it's all there, noise too.) Sample playback - 16khz samples Polyphony - 4 voices is easy, depending on the complexity of the patch, 8-16 voices is possible Filters - Low Pass, High Pass, Band Pass, Notch Patterns / Arpeggiation How did you get into hardware design from graphic design? Product look and feel Process of iterations? What do you look for in the design? Links and Callouts The mozzi library Fab Academy Teenage Engineering Gavin Lund Curious Sound Objects Visit our Public Slack Channel and join the conversation in between episodes!

12 Jun 20191h 5min

Are Projects Really Useless?MacroFab Design Contest: Useless Machine Sponsored by Mouser Electronics Four cash prizes! First Place: $1000 Second Place: $500 Third Place: $250 MacroFab Podcast Favorite: $1000 and a Useless Trophy Contest runs 8 AM CST June 1st, 2019 through 8 AM CST August 10, 2019 How to Enter your Useless Project Build an electronic project that is useless Document it as a new project on Hackaday.io Tag it with “MacroFab Design Contest: Useless Machine” More rules and information on the blog R.F.O. Arm gives up control of IP to China Softbank, sold the 51% share of Arm China to the Chinese Major Google Services Outage Nest was down. No A/C and Doors couldn’t be unlocked Services rendered YouTube, Gmail, and Snapchat Google Cloud on the backend Squirrels and Security — It’s a Thing! They’re cute, they’re fuzzy, and they pose a major threat to our cyber-infrastructure. “Frankly, the No. 1 threat experienced to date by the U.S. electrical grid is squirrels” This map lists all unclassified Cyber Squirrel Operations that have been released to the public that we have been able to confirm. Visit our Public Slack Channel and join the conversation in between episodes!

5 Jun 201935min

MEP EP#174: Apply Inspiration HereJosh Rozier Research and Development of Transformers More than meets the eye Josh was a guest on EP #152: Third Annual MacroFab Star Wars Christmas Special – Vader’s Fake Fingers Parker DOOM SAO Screens arrive this week. Going to Test them with the breakout board. Atmel ICE to Tag connect adapter board ordered. Wagon Grill complete Sodium Hydroxide to remove Anodizing Stephen Removing Cosmoline from M1 Garand Rifle Genericized trademark for a common class of brown wax-like petroleum-based corrosion inhibitors, typically conforming to United States Military Standard MIL-C-11796C Class 3 Material Safety Datasheet R.F.O. Engineer tripped on LSD after touching 1960s synthesizer coated in it Does LSD even have a shelf life that long? ARM memo tells staff to stop working with China’s tech giant The SD Association dropped Huawei from the trade group SD card branding Visit our Public Slack Channel and join the conversation in between episodes!

29 Mai 20191h 22min

MEP EP#173: Sidecreeping GyrationsParker DOOM SAO ATSAMD21G18 Will be Arduino compatible Break out the majority of the I/O ST7789 LCD 1.3” 240x240 resolution SPI USB Type-C EEPROM AND!XOR for SAO reference designs Designed some arduino shields boards for the “smart LEDs” for testing PinoTaur update Software for the ATSAMD21G18 going well Lots of SPI and DMA going on to control the shift registers Stephen Macro Amp Differences Surface mount tech with high voltage Wilkinson Audio Fredman Clip Test recording Gyrator - Simulated Inductor R.F.O. Glass Enterprise Edition 2: faster and more helpful Industrial Augmented Reality Safety Glasses Styled Kit converts Raspberry Pi into Alexa-type home automation system They can be understood by anyone, says the Geek Shop, regardless of education or training. Direct link A One-Page Guide to Fixing Radiated Emissions FCC/CE testing for PCBs. Find the Aggressor! Nash Reilly Visit our Public Slack Channel and join the conversation in between episodes!

23 Mai 20191h 6min