Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast

MEP EP#324: What Would You Say You Do Here?MacroFab Platform Update Six new component vendors Enabled consignment to the 10-day manufacturing service Exciting update for the platform as it will help address supply chain issues everyone is facing in the industry Better part availability and more flexibility! SparkFun Mousebites White Paper Written by Nick Poole IPC-7351 Max mouse bite width Hakko CHP DP-2 Parker’s only complaint is that the method of measuring breakaway torque was not mentioned Component proximity Total number of bites Panelization Talk So You are New at your Job? Building off our series of resume, interview, and interviewee podcast topics. You just started a new job - what should you do first?

17 Apr 202252min

MEP EP#323: Hyperspace Part PackagesThe Worst Timeline: A Printer Company Is Putting DRM in Paper Now RFID chips inside the label spool What kind of RFID chip are they using that is this disposable? EFF Article Link Component marking with the manufacturer in mind Why put indicator marks? Where? Both inside the footprint and outside Double and triple check that things are right on the design side Diodes - Making Anode and also having the diode symbol on the board Vias and marking Numbers for marking? TSSOP and similar style packaging Own your design and be prepared to support it

8 Apr 202252min

MEP EP#322: Measuring up Your Interview QuestionsPrevious Podcast where we discussed Engineering Resumes MEP EP#279: Avoiding The HR Pit of Doom, Resume and Interview Tricks for Engineers Interviewer Questions and Techniques? Stephen Schematic PDF for the test There is no output when a 10Vp-p signal is injected into the input. Turning the pot or applying a voltage to the input cv jack does not have any effect on the output. It is stuck at zero volts. Alternate – What if the output was stuck at + or – 11V? The output is stuck at unity gain. 10VPP in results in 10VPP out. The pot and CV controls do nothing to adjust the output level. The unit seems to work for all controls other than the CV offset input. That seems to only be unipolar. Positive voltage does not have an effect but negative voltage does. Hint: The output of U5.1 with zero volts in is reading zero volts. Bonus – What is the input range for the cv input if the microprocessor has an input range of 3.3V? The unit turns on and trips the constant current trigger on the power supply – What do you do? What is the input impedance of both the signal input and the CV input? What is the output impedance? What is the purpose of C1, C2, and C3? What is their cutoffs? What does R2 do in this circuit? Parker Resume Data Support Technicians Test Engineers Putting together test question / examples PCB Ruler Don’t want to do just a normal one What do engineers actually want on these?

2 Apr 202251min

MEP EP#321: What Engineer’s SeekComet Grounding After over 7 years of sitting on the shelf I finally got the motivation to finish building the OD3 project. The electronics and chassis are done Finally got to test true star grounding Episode 316 - Chunk 2 Chunk Current Returns Results? Building a wood enclosure right now Need to design and finish the foot controller Western Electric is looking to expand American tube production. New sensor - Expo-pul facility in Saratov, Russia 8 days ago 6 days ago 35% tariff imposed by the US Western Electric in Rossville GA. Looking to expand their offerings from just the 300B Question that Parker was asked by the MacroFab sales team Engineer’s and Sales never get along but What can a salesperson say or do that will spark the interests of an engineer? Especially since they don't like speaking to us, what would make the conversation more intriguing to them?

26 Mars 202246min

MEP EP#320: The Drop Ship ShuffleTesting Ratchet Wrenches Update on the design Found a digital torque wrench adapter that can handle the torque Will hack to get the signal recordable Use a Linear actuator to apply the force Once the parts arrive the design will be finalized Finding Parts Regardless of Industry / Hobby Intake Manifold for the Jeep Grand Wagoneer The Drop Ship Shuffle EU Parliament adopts new draft legislation about batteries and phones Dictating manufacturers of smartphones that batteries must be designed so that consumers and independent operators can easily and safely remove them themselves by 2024

18 Mars 202258min

MEP EP#319: Work to Automate the WorkFeedspot has ranked this podcast #1 for Best 10 Electrical Engineering Podcasts. Thank you everyone for listening and sharing this podcast with others. We are just getting started! MacroFab Updates KiCad 6 support! PI DAY Contest March 14th (3/14) Stop by the MacroFab website to take a pop quiz for a chance to win some free pizza Testing Ratchet Wrenches Wrench qualifications Ratcheting Wrench Non-Reversible Zero-degree offset ½” hex 12 or 6 point Have collected 20 ratchet wrenches so far Why? Broke one and wanted to try out all the different styles and brands before buying a set What are we testing? Thickness of the wrench How does it feel? Max torque to either failure or cam out Any other tests? Thickness to torque rating How much mechanism play Measure ratchet dimension How? Quick tests show I need more than 100ftlbs but less than 250ftlbs of bolt torque Load cells to measure the clamping force between 2 plates Need a “screw” drive to handle the force A normal ½” bolt is usually 5/16-18” which handles ~30ftlbs before pulling the threads Two Paths Take a ¾” bolt and machine the head into a hex Take a ½” allen socket with a ¾” square drive and attach that to a bolt Automate the Boring Stuff Spending 20 hours to save 1 - the engineers life Making API calls with the requests library Requests: HTTP for Humans Openpyxl for creating excel Commenting code Automate the Boring Stuff

12 Mars 20221h 3min

MEP EP#318: Strategic Component Sourcing with Cody EndlichCody Endlich has 10 years experience in electronic component distribution and commodities trade and is currently the head of strategic sourcing at Macrofab. What does Cody do at MacroFab? Strategic Sourcing Cody’s announcement - ERAI What is the ERAI? What does this mean for MacroFab customers? Supply Chain Reports Confidence How can Engineers get ahead of supply chain problems? IHS Life Cycle information Manufacturing supply issues

4 Mars 202257min

MEP EP#317: When an Alien CrapsAutodesk Eagle DRC Problems Via in Pad Detection Is there a EDA tool that actually detects this? Diptrace Eagle Altium FAB3000 MacroFab's Internal tool set does not What do we do about this as Engineers? Write our own tools of course! Datasheet and Schematic Woes TI CD4053 The actual function of the chip was just not in the datasheet One typo made the datasheet unusable Old datasheets strikes again! This has been fixed sort of What matters when you read a datasheet?

26 Feb 202249min