Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast

Iris WeedenMacroFab's Marketing DirectorAward-winning marketer with ten years of experienceNative Houstonian and lover of music, dogs, and beersEpisode 100!!!!!!The Q&A EpisodeThanks to our listeners who submitted questions through email and our Slack channelQuestionsBrandon 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 registers?What's a good resource for learning how to prototype? My wires are always a mess. I have no idea what kind of box can hold panel-style outlets. I'm looking for a resource that will improve my ability to take a circuit that works into a form factor, that will allow it to be tested in a halfway reliable way.Emmett Naughton What's the best way to get a electrical engineering job? Mostly for somebody with a degree but who doesn't have job experience in the field.Stephen Newberry What is the best method for us hardware engineers to monetize our side projects? I personally don't have the time to handle manufacturing or customer support in the long term. I've considered contacting companies to sell a design for a lump sum or royalty based model, but I've never gone through with it. What are your suggestions on what will or won't work best?Tom Anderson I would like to hear the story behind: What is the worst electrical shock that (one of the guys) has ever had? From Episode #85Hyr0n of the AND!XOR team What is the difference between a duck?All of a sudden one of the following two things no longer exists: Craft Beer OR Lead-Alloy Solder. Which do you pick?Zapp of the AND!XOR team Would you rather assemble 1,000 duck sized horse PCBs or 1 horse sized duck PCB?Tags: 1000 Duck sized Horse PCBs, electronics podcast, MacroFab, macrofab engineering podcast, MEP, PCB material, Podcast, Question and Answer

26 Des 20171h 7min

PCB material as structural elements and enclosuresFR4 Material - glass-reinforced epoxy laminate sheetsCustom face plates aren’t cheap - the solution? Face plate out of PCB material!Silk screening and millingEasy to orderGet to use the same design tool for PCBsP.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 strong enough."Microwave kit 24GHz radar evaluation kitK-LD2-EVALHow do lasers find absolute distance? Comment below with your answersR.F.O.Eagle 8.5 Push shove routingAltium Designer 18Tags: 24GHz, Altium, Eagle Cadsoft, electronics podcast, FR4, K-LD2-EVAL, MacroFab, macrofab engineering podcast, MEP, PCB material, Podcast

20 Des 201746min

Taylor SmithWorks at MacroFab as the Production Account ManagerManage all of our large customers as they go through prototyping to full productionGraduated from Texas A&M last fallJoined the MacroFam early this yearFavorite Star Wars Character?Organic Taylor: Loves the locks on Qui-Gon JinnStephen: BosskParker: Storm Trooper #38 Robotic Taylor: R2D2 even though he slept through Rogue OneStephen: IG-88Parker: Not K-2SOThrawn BooksTech that stood out in Rogue OneData Storage Devices Three different storage methods USB Flash Drive: small amount of data.Data Tape: looks like an external hard drive. Contains Death Star plans. 8-track tapes styleSome sort of other kind of storage device that the plans get transfered to Looks solid stateNewer format then the empire’s data tape?Why doesn’t C3-PO have a wireless transmitter built in?!There does not seem to be a ton of wireless communication No Drop BoxMost radio transmission seems to be analog in natureTrans-intergalactic data systemStar wars serversData Tapes stored in giant rooms which require physical access by manually manipulating robot armsTransmission of data Besides radio there seems to be a distinct lack of wireless transmissions in StarWars.To transfer Death Star plans they needed a giant dish.No digital communication over RF?No lag with hologram communication via hyperspace Analog data travel through hyperspace? Death Star plans data size? 160km in diameter: 1.72×10^16m cubedCouldn’t find engineering drawings for an aircraft carrier3D file for a building would be around ~100MB but probably 300MB looking at solidworks stuff900m cubed area goes into a death star 19,111,111,111,111.111 times trillion5,733,333.333 (5.7million) petabytesSolar freaking laser roadsNo hacking in Star Wars Reason similar to Battlestar Gallactica?Death Star accuracy Hitting the top of the tower a the end of Rogue OneSee images for maths and figuresScott Manley: Death Star Orbit from Planet SurfaceCGI Tarkins and Leia in Rogue One: Future for The Last Jedi and other Star Wars moviesWill we see CGI Carrie Fisher? Parker hopes she won’t die off-screenTaylor thinks there will be a nice parting gift for herStephen thinks they’re going to kill all of the old cast (including Mark Hamill)Tags: electronics podcast, IoT, MacroFab, macrofab engineering podcast, MEP, Podcast, Rogue One, Star Wars, Star Wars Christmas Special

13 Des 20171h 25min

Agustin PelaezElectrical engineer from UPB/FH MünsterHelped engineer a remote monitoring solution for Airbus GermanyFounded the IoT Application Enablement platform Ubidots.comCameron KlotzJoined Ubidots as the Director of OperationsGraduate of UC BerkeleyPreviously worked in Operations and Project Management at Getaround Inc. and UBS Financial ServicesAlways focusing on efficient team/client dynamics and quality assuranceAbout UbidotsDifference between their IoT platform and othersLong tail solution - through app development for engineersWhat can Ubidots do for me?How to get started in IoTOverview of what IoT actually is DevicesConnection protocolCloudApplication developmentWhat makes a device IoT? Convergence of digital to physicalEmbedded designWhat is an API and how is it tied into IoT?Hardware? Stephen’s arduino with temperature control sensor and valveProgram to send data; Ubidots library; search for existing HTTP libraries, put API token into firmwareWhat a payload looks like, what a token isCreate alerts within Ubidots Designing the app - see your device online, create widgets, email, web hooks, SMS,Different ways to display data or act on itExporting data Can send data out or pull it in from outside sourcesSupports CSV downloadsHow humans interact with the web and how devices interact with the webHow do you view the term “Internet of Things”?Agustin - it’s a concept, solutions to a proble.Cameron -”IoT” is a buzzword, getting hardware to connect to systems, “IoT solutions” get purchased. Gateway to finding solutionStephen - something that exists today b/c the idea hasn’t fully coalesced. It’s a buzzword - protoword for what it will become.Parker - data management and analytics, in a single spot. In the cloüd.Tags: Agustin Pelaez, Cameron Klotz, electronics podcast, IoT, MacroFab, macrofab engineering podcast, MEP, Podcast, Ubidots

7 Des 201747min

Episode 100 is coming up! It’ll be a Q&A session - so send in your questions to podcast@macrofab.com2nd Annual Star Wars Xmas Special Engineering Podcast. Check out the video from last year!ParkerBuilt a mounting surface for the Jeep ElectronicsStephenFailure of the Science Museum Project Was expecting soft foam at the bottom of the "well" to move the cones of the drill bitHard plastic was installed insteadCoupling bent up that connects the rotational shaft to the large nema 34 stepperSafety first, equal amounts of time spent on safety as engineering the rest of the projectPick Of the Week (POW)How to reduce Arduino Uno power usage by 95% - Deferred ProcrastinationReplace the linear regulator with a DC-DC converterAdjust the USB-to-Serial circuit so it’s only powered from the USB portCut out (or desolder) the always-on LED’s on the boardUse the processor sleep mode.Before: 53mA After: 2.5mADC -DC convertor used was a Traco TSRN-1 for $6.07Rapid Fire Opinion (RFO)Internet of Toilet Paper Holder - HackADayRevolutionized entire toilet paper supply management life cycleTracks usage statistics - Manage wiping data and share on social mediaInstructables to make your own!Man is about to launch himself in his homemade rocket to prove the Earth is flat - The Washington PostSelf-taught rocket builder Mike Hughes - 61 yr old limo driverHolds record for biggest limo jumpPlans to launch himself 1,800 feet highU.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) "told me they would not allow me to do the event ... at least not at that location," Will have to reschedule the launchNot atmosphere its atmosflat$20,000 rocket had a fancy coat of Rust-Oleum paint and “RESEARCH FLAT EARTH” inscribed on the sideTags: Arduino, electronics podcast, Houston Museum of Natural Science, IoT Toilet Paper, Jeep, Low Power, MacroFab, macrofab engineering podcast, Man, MEP, Podcast, Rocket

29 Nov 201732min

The Houston meetup is coming up next week. RSVP here if you are in town!Mike HackerBox - LootCrate for Hardware and Software hackersParker PinHeck EOTL REV8 UpdateAnother shout out to Chris Gammell and Contextual ElectronicsSome work on the Pinotaur designR.F.O. (Rapid Fire Opinion) Tesla SemiTruck500 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, compared to $1.51 for dieselEmberlight KickStarter shut downEvery time a customer wants to turn on a light, it requires the company’s cloud service to process the commandNot a problem with kickstarter but with IoT devicesSolution to this problem? Better exit strategyApp to connect to them via modemTags: electronics podcast, Emberlight, HackerBox, MacroFab, macrofab engineering podcast, MEP, PinHeck, Podcast, Tesla

22 Nov 201737min

FPGA Mega Podcast with Al Williams:What is an FPGA? Field-programmable gate arrayBunch of logic gates and sea of gates, we tell them what to doWriting hardware description of what it will do - writing requirements language, You’re describing requirementsUsing VHDL or veralog, syntax is close to the C programming languageWhy not a microcontroller? Advantage with FPGA = parallel hardware, not a brain with steps and time running outPeople use FPGAs to get fixed deadline on when processes get finished100 arduinos on an FPGA - next HackADay ArticleMike “Hamster” FieldDo you need hardware? No, you can do things via simulation.EDA PlaygroundCan play around for free and don’t have to create loginIceStick/IceStorm IceStick is a Lattice FPGA dev board: good starter toolIceStorm is an open source development tool chainHackADay Learning FPGA Links Learning Verilog for FPGAs: The Tools and Building an AdderLearning Verilog for FPGAs: Hardware at Last!YouTube seriesTags: 100 Arduinos, Al Williams, EDA Playground, electronics podcast, Field Programmable Gate Arrays, FPGA, IceStick, IceStorm, MacroFab, macrofab engineering podcast, MEP, Podcast

15 Nov 20171h 6min

Episode 100 is coming up! It’ll be a Q&A session - so send in your questions to podcast@macrofab.com2nd Annual Star Wars Xmas Special Engineering Podcast. Check out the video from last year!Parker Update on the Jeep Electronics LM22678TJ-5.0/NOPB5V switcher regulator with 5A capacityUsed Ti Webench to design itADP3338AKCZ-3.3-RL3.3V LDO Linear Regulator with 1A capacityCU40045-UW1J40 x 4 VFDPropeller code for driving this displayKeep Tabs on this project on github!Decent cheap toggle switches on AmazonStephen Science Museum UpdateVideo screen that plays animation - in house engineer setting it up and built an Arduino circuit around Stephen’s projectDipTrace update 3.2 You can now rotate and flip by groups, when making patterns WOOT!Rapid Fire Opinion (RFO) Solder? What is the best kind? What about Flux?The Amazing $1 Microcontroller - Jay CarlsonBest comparison of MCUs I have seenGoes through IDEs, Performance, Peripherals of each ICAlibaba buys into CPU company to support AliOS - Electronics WeeklyAlibaba has bought a stake in a Chinese microprocessor manufacturer to promote development of of processors which support Alibaba’s operating system – AliOAliOS has two flavours – called AliOS Cloud Link for cloud computing, and AliOS Things for IoTTags: AliOS, Amazing $1 Microcontroller, electronics podcast, flux, Houston Museum of Natural Science, MacroFab, macrofab engineering podcast, MEP, Podcast, solder

8 Nov 20171h 4min