Board Outline, Compressor IoT, D&D, Doomed Thermostat, Hello Doom, LSM9DS1, MacroFab, macrofab engineering podcast, MEP, MIDI, Podcast, Raspberry Pi, STM32F429, Synth, Synthesizer, TIDA-01243, VCO
Podcast
70
Parker Dillmann  | 
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MEP EP#70: Bits Flying In

Download: MP3
RSS Feed: Link
Twitter: @MacroFab

Runtime: (47:04)

Hosts:
Parker Dillmann
Stephen Kraig

Guest:
N/A

Podcast Notes

  • Parker
    • Ordered Compressor IoT Board. Will start on the Software side.
    • Wrote an article about PCB board outlines and what to watch out for. Will be released next week.
    • Defining planes in DipTrace with board outlines vs Eagle.
    • Parker has Vias that haunt him. Bad pinout designs for ICs can cause unnecessary vias in board layout. The LSM9DS1TR is an example of one.
  • Stephen
    • Synthesizer Update
      • MIDI code problems and triumphs
      • Audio clip of before tuning and after tuning.
      • Frequency doubles for every ½ volt you put in for the VCO (Voltage Controlled Oscillator).
      • Zener diode – Zener diodes leak – caused huge calibration issues with synth.
      • The Zener diode was installed to prevent over voltage of the ADC.
      • Lower frequencies were really sharp, higher frequencies were flat. Plot of IV curve now matches with data sheet.
      • Basically Stephen characterized the Zener Diode leakage current!
    • Article series for the synth – on modules and theory of operation. Block diagrams and explain how these work.
  • Pick Of the Week (POW)
    • Doomed Thermostat
      • Honeywell Prestige Thermostat
      • STM32F429 processor ARM9 processor
      • This is starting to be the 1337 version of blinky. Hello Doom?
      • It runs doom!
  • Rapid Fire Opinion (RFO)
    • TI reference design TIDA-01243
      • USB Type-C™ and Power Delivery Minidock With Video and Charging Support Reference Design
      • 20V 3A (60W)
    • Procedural generating random medieval cities – HackADay
      • Great for D&D.
      • Generate a city on the go.
      • Cool color scheme.
      • 3D printing D&D figurines? Stephen goes back on his opinion of 3D printers.
    • Raspberry Pi named a finalist for national engineering award – Electronics Weekly
      • Raspberry Pi has been named as one of this finalists for this year’s coveted MacRobert Award, the innovation prize awarded each year by the Royal Academy of Engineering.
      • 1% of the Global PC Market

Are you interested in seeing a blog series for the synth we’re working on? Let us know! 

Figure 1: Parker's routing problem with the LSM9DS1TR.
Figure 1: Parker’s routing problem with the LSM9DS1TR.
Figure 2: The offending zener diode in Stephen's synth design.
Figure 2: The offending zener diode in Stephen’s synth design.
Figure 3: Graph of the error at a sweep of frequencies of the VCO in the Synth.
Figure 3: Graph of the error at a sweep of frequencies of the VCO in the Synth.

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

About The Hosts

Parker Dillmann is MacroFab's Co-Founder, and Lead ECE with backgrounds in Embedded System Design, and Digital Signal Processing. He got his start in 2005 by hacking Nintendo consoles into portable gaming units. He also runs the blog, longhornengineer.com, where he posts his personal projects, technical guides, and appnotes about board layout design and components. Parker graduated with a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Texas.

Stephen Kraig began his electronics career by building musical oriented circuits in 2003. Stephen is an avid guitar player and, in his down time, manufactures audio electronics including guitar amplifiers, pedals, and pro audio gear. Stephen graduated with a BS in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University.

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