Circuit Break Podcast #302

A 1 Dollar Chips Matter

What kind of soldering equipment should an engineer look at getting for their bench?

Related Topics
Solder Slugs

We'll dive into nuances of working with contract manufacturers, specifically focusing on the responsibilities of both the designer and the manufacturer.

The Danger Pool

The CHIPS act is driving chip manufacturers like Texas Instruments, TSMC, and Intel to expand in the US, but there's a shortage of engineering manpower.

The PCB Plague

Ever have PCBs that solder just will not wet and solder to? You probably thought it was improper soldering technique but that was probably not it!

Other Resources

Circuit Break Podcast
Webinars
Videos
Tour MacroFab's ITAR-Compliant Facility

November 10, 2021, Episode #302

Thanks for everyone that donated and stopped by the live stream! We where able to raise over $5000 for the Texas Children Hospital Network!

Molex 217175-0001

  • Tasty Type-C connector
  • No data pins?
  • Only power and the CC pins for doing the Power Delivery handshake
  • Datasheet

Non FCC switcher?

  • ICL7660CBAZA-T Super Voltage Converters
  • Power Rail Flipper/Inverter
  • Charge pump voltage “flipper” uses only two capacitors
  • At an input voltage of 5V and an unloaded oscillator pin the switching frequency is 10khz
  • Reducing to less than 9khz only takes one capacitor
  • Price
    • Singles: $1.82
    • Bulk: $1

SMT Bench Equipment for Soldering

  • X-tronic 440 died now I need to replace!
  • Soldering Iron
    • Thermaltronics TMT-2000S-SM
    • Tips
      • S75LR018A
      • S75DS045
  • Hot Air
    • Quick 957DW+
  • Microscope
    • AmScope SM series
    • Get a 0.5x Barlow lens
  • Tweezer set
    • Non magnetic stainless steel is what you want
    • ESD?
    • Aven is a good brand
  • Snips/flush cutters
    • Hakko CHP-170 are king

About the Hosts

Parker Dillmann
  Parker Dillmann

Parker is an Electrical Engineer with backgrounds in Embedded System Design and Digital Signal Processing. He got his start in 2005 by hacking Nintendo consoles into portable gaming units. The following year he designed and produced an Atari 2600 video mod to allow the Atari to display a crisp, RF fuzz free picture on newer TVs. Over a thousand Atari video mods where produced by Parker from 2006 to 2011 and the mod is still made by other enthusiasts in the Atari community.

In 2006, Parker enrolled at The University of Texas at Austin as a Petroleum Engineer. After realizing electronics was his passion he switched majors in 2007 to Electrical and Computer Engineering. Following his previous background in making the Atari 2600 video mod, Parker decided to take more board layout classes and circuit design classes. Other areas of study include robotics, microcontroller theory and design, FPGA development with VHDL and Verilog, and image and signal processing with DSPs. In 2010, Parker won a Ti sponsored Launchpad programming and design contest that was held by the IEEE CS chapter at the University. Parker graduated with a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering in the Spring of 2012.

In the Summer of 2012, Parker was hired on as an Electrical Engineer at Dynamic Perception to design and prototype new electronic products. Here, Parker learned about full product development cycles and honed his board layout skills. Seeing the difficulties in managing operations and FCC/CE compliance testing, Parker thought there had to be a better way for small electronic companies to get their product out in customer's hands.

Parker also runs the blog, longhornengineer.com, where he posts his personal projects, technical guides, and appnotes about board layout design and components.

Stephen Kraig
  Stephen Kraig

Stephen Kraig is a component engineer working in the aerospace industry. He has applied his electrical engineering knowledge in a variety of contexts previously, including oil and gas, contract manufacturing, audio electronic repair, and synthesizer design. A graduate of Texas A&M, Stephen has lived his adult life in the Houston, TX, and Denver, CO, areas.

Stephen has never said no to a project. From building guitar amps (starting when he was 17) to designing and building his own CNC table to fine-tuning the mineral composition of the water he uses to brew beer, he thrives on testing, experimentation, and problem-solving. Tune into the podcast to learn more about the wacky stuff Stephen gets up to.

Credits

Special thanks to whixr over at Tymkrs for the intro and outro!

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