Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast

MEP EP#228: Weapons of Mathewson DestructionWilliam Mathewson An entrepreneur, electrical engineer, and user experience designer for his company William Mathewson Devices otherwise known as WMD Began WMD in 2007 Designed over seventy products that inspire artists and sound designers throughout the music industry Starting A Hardware Manufacturing Company The name WMD How did William arrive at deciding to start WMD? What do y'all do at WMD? The story? How did it all start? Pedals to modular synth Products Fatman Envelope Filter Geiger Counter Distortion Protostar Services Manufacturing Business Hardware is Hard How did this begin? How did you build this service? Best thing about it all Worst thing about it all War stories The future?

10 Juni 202049min

MEP EP#227: Ultrasonic Beer Science - Eli Hughes of TzeroEli Hughes The CTO of TZero Research and Development TZero was founded in 2016 by 3 Penn State University graduates who have training and experience in embedded systems, acoustics, mechanical engineering and software Technical background is in electronics, software and acoustics Currently also does work for NXP semiconductors Worked at the Penn State Applied Research Lab where he worked on applications in sensors, condition based maintenance, robotics, undersea vehicles and space science Taught part time in the Penn State University EE Department Plays guitar and keyboard and enjoys woodworking.

3 Juni 20201h 14min

MEP EP#226: Chickens and Tea leaves, Al's Simulation RecipeAl Williams One of the authors behind Hackaday, a website that features electronic projects and other things that appeal to people interested in computers, electronics, and technology Ham radio operator Author of many books Has worked on everything from underwater technology to the International Space Station and just about everything in between Was on previous episodes EP#57: Mr. Williams, your book changed my life EP#94: Al Williams and the Field Programmable Gate Arrays EP #160: Al Williams and the One Instruction Wonder Simulations What do you think of simulation? Analog? Digital? Different simulation software LTSpice Xyce from Sandia TINA from TI KiCad integrated spice Microcap 12 EasyEDA FALSTAD LTSpice to Python bridge Hackaday's Circuit VR Where simulated or logical performance doesn’t match real world behavior

27 Maj 202058min

MEP EP#225: Clipping and Clamping OpAmpsStephen DC heaters continued Tested the new values Last episode was shooting for ~250mW of dissipation in the regulator and transistor Measuring closer to 350mW Quiescent current and some balancing and tolerance Opamp clamping circuit A useful voltage clamping circuit with independent upper and lower thresholds Pros Much more accurate than the simple clipping circuits Hard turn on characteristics Can be overdriven without much issues Not terribly expensive Downsides 3 or 4 opamps needed Not particularly fast - starts to show issues past 20k and is pretty bad at 30k Small overshoot that is frequency dependent Does not work with opamps that have input protection diodes Parker Brewery Updates! Installed Tubing Pumps Pots Waiting on Stainless mesh basket What is left Design and build the grain crane Mount electrical box Finish wiring Paint and sealant Electrical Box Might have put the power input in the wrong spot! Need to finish the wiring.. Need to order more wire I think... R.F.O. Rules of thumb - Are they obsolete? Next week we have Al Williams on from Hack a Day If anyone has any questions for him let us know in slack!

20 Maj 202055min

MEP EP#224: The Normal ChaosStephen DC Heating and Thermal Testing A low voltage moderate current linear power supply 12.6V dc @ 0.55A 6.93W LM2940T-12.0 LDO TIP42 bootstrap transistor to share the load 12V @ 2A transformer supplies ~16.2vdc with 200mV ripple ~2W of heat to be handled Shooting for about 250mW in the regulator and the transistor then the rest will get dumped in some resistors PCB heatsinking Diptrace 4.0 is finally here! Snapping and aligning items Circles and arcs actually have a center now… Paste and Mask layers are finally visible Pad angles other than 0 and 90 are now available in the pattern editor One button for removing silkscreen from pads Progressive searching for components instead of the seizure it used to be Export options now can export all the manufacturing files as a single zip Teardrops! Parker Wagoneer Engine Work Timing cover Water pump Timing chain Distributor gear Distributor camshaft gear Harmonic Balancer All the gaskets Radiator next Dash Cluster Fixing a wine chiller

13 Maj 20201h 6min

MEP EP#223: The Inverted Success Funnel - IdeaFabThe Idea Tank Podcast Scott Hansen and Eric Benzenhoefer are idea men who, not humbly, seek to change the world through sharing their million dollar ideas, and humbly, seek to make a podcast talking about their idea Scott and Eric where last seen on the MEP on Episode 77: The IdeaFab Podcast The Ideas King...or Queen... of Cooking Saving the restaurant industry Allow entry level chiefs compete in restaurants Big Brother Brands You already have a gig job and you should be earning money TVs are subsidized by selling your data to marketing companies You should get that money instead! Go Aw-ai An automated texting service for continuing conversations that you no longer want to have Measures and records all of your other conversations and gives appropriate responses DMPR.io The #1 app for those going #2. Chat/dating with other dmprs Yelp for bathrooms What is the closest bathroom

6 Maj 20201h 6min

MEP EP#222: Turning It On - New Design Checklists with James LewisJames Lewis His passion for teaching non-engineers has led him to create the Baldengineer Blog and the AddOhms video tutorial series With 20 years of experience in electronics, marketing, sales, and teaching, James boils seemingly difficult concepts down to the core, so that anyone can learn what they need to finish that next great project James was on the previous MEP EP#141: It Depends – An In Depth Look at MLCCs with James Lewis How to test and validate if your new PCB Assembly is working properly What do you do before power on? Component checks? Current limiting? Voltage limiting? The Smoke Test What do you do if it all goes up in smoke? Validating power systems or supplies Equipment for testing IR cameras for looking for hot spots Minimal viable electronic lab equipment Digital Multimeter auto ranging true RMS measure/verify caps (but gotta take it out of circuit) Consider bench style Power Supply Power output, watch the power ratings Current limiting (critical) Output control Avoid the cheap ATX route Oscilloscope bandwidth vs sample rate channel count built-in AWG serial decodes Probes Function Generator Great for filters and to replace a clock, but how useful are they? All-In One devices Analog Discovery 2 Great for turning-on boards from home Compromised specs, but could be "good enough." Soldering Station Think about rework Can you remove SMT? Hot air, etc. Will you need to add debug headers?

29 Apr 20201h 21min

MEP EP#221: ThunderOhm StyleJosh Rozier Been on the previous MEP episodes MEP EP#152: Third Annual MacroFab Star Wars Christmas Special – Vader’s Fake Fingers MEP EP#174: Apply Inspiration Here MEP EP#178: Little Shop of Transformer Horror MEP EP#204: Fourth Annual MacroFab Star Wars Christmas Special – C3PO Steals the Show Layout Experiences The What-A-Booster Reverb Pedal Power supply Through hole to SMD transition EDA tools What and how did you get started? Analog stuff? Starting to mess with opamps Making PCBs from scratch What methods did you try? Will you ever do it again? Ordering fresh boards hot from the oven

22 Apr 202058min