Welcome back everyone! This week on the MacroFab Roundup: Helium iPhone testing, the ACT2861, Amazon releases a self driving RC car, and Designing Space-Rated PCBs.
Interesting Links and Articles
- Another update to the helium infiltrating MEMs devices in iPhones
- Applied science tests 32KHz MEMs oscillators to see if helium can cause failures
- Inspection under electron microscope
- Reddit comment thread
- SMT Spacers by Würth Elektronik
- Reflowable spacers and standoffs to reduce post PCB assembly labor
- Power Bank system ICs from Active-Semi
- The ACT2861 supports QC 2.0/3.0/4.0 and USB Power Delivery with Programmable Power Supply
- Interesting solutions that require very little extra components to get working
- Amazon is releasing a $400 self-driving toy car that you can program yourself – and it’s launching a racing league to test your skills
- Interesting way to introduce a new software platform
- The racing league will entice people to become familiar with the AWS platform and machine learning
- A Guide to Debouncing, or, How to Debounce a Contact in Two Easy Pages, by Jack Ganssle
- How switches actually bounces and how to write C code to eliminate that bouncing
- The Ganssle Group has one of the best embedded newsletters out there as well
- Designing Space-Rated PCBs
- PCBs in space are driven by two goals; The PCB has to get to space first and then the PCB needs to survive being in space
- PCB materials, vibration testing, and design constraints
MacroFab Engineering Podcast
Last week on MEP EP #147: Charlyn Gonda and the Ever-Lowering Fence between Software and Hardware – Charlyn Gonda joins the MEP to discuss the shrinking divide between the software and hardware worlds.
This week on MEP EP #148: A Unique Perspective on Feature Creeping – Parker talks about his Embedded System Design process and Stephen explains his 20 band EQ design!