Expect bored mr bond

Circuit Break Podcast #96

I Expect You To be Bored Mr. Bond

Related Topics
Recyclable PCBs, EOL Design, Cold Cuts

Infineon’s use of recyclable PCBs to create a soluboard. An examination of the new Arduino Uno, Minima and Wifi, plus a CNC and saw blade update.

The Name Will Arrive

The quest for the right connector for a project! The right of passage for any hardware electrical engineer starts with a connector catalog.

Connector Catalogs

This is the last installment of Stephen's 'Adventures in Injection Molding'. We are going to recap the entire two year sage and close the book on it.

Other Resources

Circuit Break Podcast
Blog
eBooks & Guides
Webinars
Videos
Case Studies
Tour MacroFab's ITAR-Compliant Facility

December 1, 2017, Episode #96

Arduino power usage, IoT Toilet paper, and the aftermath of the Science Museum project.
  • Episode 100 is coming up! It’ll be a Q&A session – so send in your questions to podcast@macrofab.com
  • 2nd Annual Star Wars Xmas Special Engineering Podcast. Check out the video from last year!
  • Parker
    • Built a mounting surface for the Jeep Electronics
  • Stephen
    • Failure of the Science Museum Project
      • Was expecting soft foam at the bottom of the “well” to move the cones of the drill bit
      • Hard plastic was installed instead
      • Coupling bent up that connects the rotational shaft to the large nema 34 stepper
      • Safety first, equal amounts of time spent on safety as engineering the rest of the project
  • Pick Of the Week (POW)
    • How to reduce Arduino Uno power usage by 95% – Deferred Procrastination
      • Replace the linear regulator with a DC-DC converter
      • Adjust the USB-to-Serial circuit so it’s only powered from the USB port
      • Cut out (or desolder) the always-on LED’s on the board
      • Use the processor sleep mode.
      • Before: 53mA After: 2.5mA
      • DC -DC convertor used was a Traco TSRN-1 for $6.07
  • Rapid Fire Opinion (RFO)
    • Internet of Toilet Paper Holder – HackADay
      • Revolutionized entire toilet paper supply management life cycle
      • Tracks usage statistics – Manage wiping data and share on social media
      • Instructables to make your own!
    • Man is about to launch himself in his homemade rocket to prove the Earth is flat – The Washington Post
      • Self-taught rocket builder Mike Hughes – 61 yr old limo driver
      • Holds record for biggest limo jump
      • Plans to launch himself 1,800 feet high
      • U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) “told me they would not allow me to do the event … at least not at that location,” Will have to reschedule the launch
      • Not “atmosphere” it’s “atmosflat”
      • $20,000 rocket had a fancy coat of Rust-Oleum paint and “RESEARCH FLAT EARTH” inscribed on the side
  • Visit our Slack Channel and join the conversation in between episodes!
Figure 1: Platform frame for the Auxiliary Jeep Electronics.

Figure 1: Platform frame for the Auxiliary Jeep Electronics.

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.

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

Related Podcasts

Connector catalogs

Connector Catalogs

This is the last installment of Stephen's 'Adventures in Injection Molding'. We are going to recap the entire two year sage and close the book on it.

Avrdude all the way down

AVRDUDE All The Way Down

The Jeep Prop Fan project rides again! Well some iteration of it at least. Lets design an open source PCM (Power Control Module) for automotive apps!

Recyclable pcbs eol design cold cuts

Recyclable PCBs, EOL Design, Cold Cuts

Infineon’s use of recyclable PCBs to create a soluboard. An examination of the new Arduino Uno, Minima and Wifi, plus a CNC and saw blade update.

The name will arrive

The Name Will Arrive

The quest for the right connector for a project! The right of passage for any hardware electrical engineer starts with a connector catalog.

Illuminati moment

Illuminati Moment

Is there a statue of limitations on open source hardware projects? This week, Stephen and Parker dive into what open source means for both of them.

Biased for arduino

Biased For Arduino

On this episode, Stephen talks about his new bias test system hardware and software. The bias test system is a purpose built test hardware system!