Circuit Break Podcast #394

GPUs D.O.A, Reverse Polarity Problems, A 3D Printer Pickle

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Tour MacroFab's ITAR-Compliant Facility

September 8, 2023, Episode #394

Parker and Stephen discuss some MacroFab updates including news about their pod community and Slack, what’s wrong and right about high-end GPUs and the marvels of KrisFix and his YouTube repair channel, what’s up with consumer electronics and their lack of reverse polarity protection, and Parker musing about when it’s time to call it day for a 3D Printer.

Community:

  • New community hub! Shifting away from the Slack channel?
  • Are you in or near Houston, Texas any time soon? Please come out to Beers for Engineers! More info below!

Dead on Arrival for high end GPUs - Nvidia

  • RTX 4090 - The biggest problem with modern cards that the manufacturer refuses to repair
  • KrisFix’s repair skills
  • Popping the pad
  • Too much Board Flex
  • “RTX Technology Package” (air quotes)
  • Decoding NVIDIA
  • 5000 Series Rumours?

Why do so many consumer electronics not have reverse polarity protection?

  • Looking through Windows
  • Can’t turn it up to 11
  • Motherboards of Invention
  • Guitar Pedal Problems
  • The hot leg
  • The P Channel Set-up
  • “Slap a diode on it”
  • Italian Decisions
  • Why Raspberry Pie “Won”

Personal Project Updates:

  • Should Parker replace his 3D printer?
  • When to pull the plug on such a hard-working machine

Good links:

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.

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