
Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast
MacroFab, Inc.
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EP#382: The Danger Pool
Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast
06/09/23 • 65 min
The CHIPS act is in full swing with Texas Instruments, TSMC, Intel and other chip manufacturers scaling up and building new facilities in the United States. There is just one problem however, the engineering manpower required to run these high tech facilities. TSMC is struggling to fill hiring quotas and articles are citing TSMC working conditions as the reason. Stephen and Parker decide to explore the possibility of more reasons for this on this week’s episode of the MacroFab Engineering Podcast.
Chipmaker TSMC needs to hire 4,500 Americans at its new Arizona plants.
- We touched on this in the past with the chip act. 668,000 domestic manufacturing jobs for the chips act on Episode #345 - The Hot List of Tasty Chip Fabs
- TSMC says it will hire 4,500 new workers to support its two Arizona fabs, a sizable chunk of the total new jobs created. So far TSMC has hired ~2000 but say it is tough to hire.
- Compensation and hiring
- TSMC pays up to $160,000 annually for Ph.D.s with some good experience where that same Ph.D. can earn some $30,000 more at Intel
- Intel is giving raises of $10K - $20K over TSMC offers to stay.
- More students in STEM in Taiwan vs US : 31% compared to 17.5%
Apple launches Vision Pro AR headset to ship next year
- $3500 When the VR industry is getting less expensive and in a hardware purchasing decline?
- Pro price but no pro applications?
The Danger Pool
- What would it take to make a “solder pot”
- Simple calculations
- 60/40 specific heat = 0.173 J/g-C
- 60/40 melting temp = 190c
- Energy to raise temp -> specific heat equation
- Energy to raise 5kg temp by 165C = 142.7 kJ
- Enthalpy of fusion = 37J/g
- Energy needed to “melt” = 185kJ
- Total Energy = 327 kJ
- Joule is W.s
- If we wanted to deliver this much power in 30 minutes
- 182 Watts
- Kitchen stove burner
- Small ~1200W
- Medium ~1500 to 1800W
- Large ~2500W
- 500mm x 175mm size

MEP EP#326: The Infinite Finite Grid
Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast
04/29/22 • 50 min
MEP EP#326: The Infinite Finite Grid
PART 2 : Is there a macgyver way to measure voltage without a multimeter?
- Lots of great suggestions in our slack channel
- Recreating older devices before digital multimeters where available
- Galvanometer
- Electrostatic Voltmeter
- Most of these require lots of experimentation or other precision devices to calibrate
- Let's explore the electrolysis method further
- Tools and measuring devices required
- Watch / time keeping
- Container of known volume
- Materials
- Distilled Water
- Equations from Purdue
- Amps & Time <-> Coulombs <-> Faradays <-> Moles of Electrons
- Tools and measuring devices required
Interesting EE homework question
- Calculating actual component resistance by in circuit resistance measurements

MEP EP#294: Twisted Pairs
Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast
09/15/21 • 46 min
USB vs Ethernet for Test Equipment?
- Ethernet comes with free isolation
- No drivers required to get Ethernet working
- USB is faster to get working depending on your network hacking skills
- USB software stacks in test equipment are kinda hit or miss
How to make hardware work with Ethernet?
- Still learning about this
- Trying out Arduino -> Ethernet shields that use the Wiznet W5100
- Managed to get a demo working with SCPI and the shield
Tag Connect : Edge-Connect
- https://www.tag-connect.com/product-category/products/edge-connect
- Spring loaded leaf springs in a connector that slides onto the side of a PCB
- Looks like a great alternative to normal tag connect
Bias test connector - OTC (one time connect)
- PEM smtsss-4mm-6et solderable spring standoffs
- Use in conjunction with through hole pogo pins
- Just add holes and target points on main pcb and plug the connector in for access to the nets

MEP EP#242: The Heartbeat of Cats and LEDs
Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast
09/17/20 • 47 min
MEP EP#242: The Heartbeat of Cats and LEDs
Parker
- Battery charger and maintainer died
- Took all my batteries with it
- Company is replacing the unit
- Nothing looks particularly wrong with the PCB Assembly besides it being gross
- SF1565SG
- Current Mode PWM Controller
- FQPF12N60C
- Fet used in the PWM Controller
- HT46R004 HolTek MCU
- Cost Effective?
- Cat Feeder Unreminder
- Ordered a breakout board for the AEM10941
- Super Caps SCCS30B106PRB
- 10F @ 2.7VDC
- Solar Panel AM-1816CA
- 84μA at peak power
- This is specced at 200lx
- Will this be enough?
- LTC2956 draws 0.8μA
- LEDs at 40μA a piece
- Total draw when Cat Feed Indicator is on is 40.8μA
- 5F x (4.5V-3.6V) / 0.0000608 = 74,013 seconds -> 20 and a half hours!
Stephen
- Magnetics
- Transformers arrived!
- Be specific with what you ask for and ask questions. I almost got bit with dimensional issues
- Diy Tag connect
- Made a pogo pin test connector
- Mill-Max 0955-0-15-20-71-14-11-0 Pogo pins with solder cup on back
- Using FR4 as mechanical supports
- Designing a Pawl system to clasp the pcb
- Next Revision
- Make the landing pads bigger
- Add something for strain relief
- Move the pins slightly down for more spring
- Add more anti rotation pins

MEP EP#213: My CNC Will Melt In Your Mouth
Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast
02/26/20 • 58 min
MEP EP#213: My CNC Will Melt In Your Mouth
Parker
- Going to be doing Webinars for MacroFab.
- How MFs tools make you a better electrical engineer and supply chain manager
- Learning AutoDesk Fusion360
- Getting pretty good
- Learning from Youtube and Stephen
- Can be almost as fast and proficient as Parker was in Sketchup
- Getting pretty good
- Braze it 420
- Learning to braze brass radiators and steel gas tanks
- Make sure there is no gas fumes!
Stephen
- CNC
- Trying to buck the standard
- Jointer/Planer -> table -> electrical work -> table saw -> torsion box -> gantry restoration -> new spindle
- New 220V for the following
- Welding
- Brewing
- CNC machine
- Fermentation controller
- Audibles on some design characteristics
- Switches/encoders
- Probably going to go with wiring instead of all PCB mount
- Footprints for Solid State Relays
Rapid Fire Opinion
- Raspberry pi 4 release fixes the USB problem
- This is being treated as a “design for manufacturability” change
- Lumped along with some silkscreen changes to avoid solder bridging and the SD card voltage switch moving
- Why not fully announce this?
- Chinese Tariff Exemption for 2- and 4-layer PCBs
- Valid until Aug. 7, 2020
- Fisher & Paykel PCB Silkscreen Design
- The sad faces are where the hand insert components go
- If any sad faces are showing, the operator hasn't finished their job.

MEP EP#189: Not Even My Final Form - Jeff Garoon on Industrial Product Design
Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast
09/11/19 • 55 min
MEP EP#189: Not Even My Final Form - Jeff Garoon on Industrial Product Design
- Y-Combinator alumni from the Winter 2016 batch
- Currently serves as COO of FlowCommand
- At FlowCommand, Jeff is responsible for all hardware design, firmware development, and operations
- Spent his early career as a Production Engineer and Lead Completion Engineer at Oxy USA
- Has been on Y-Combinator’s alumni application review committee for the last 3 cohorts, has raised three rounds of financing, and manages a staff of 17 engineers
- Member of Incubate USC, where he has assisted in writing undergraduate coursework on accelerators and incubators
Industrial product design and testing
- What makes a product an industrial device?
- Prototyping Industrial Hardware
- Arduino and development boards -> First Article
What kind of regulations and certifications do you have to work with?
- How to make it work when you are bootstrapping
- Class 1 Div 1/2 Testing/validation/documentation
- Explosion Proof Devices and Construction
- Intrinsically Safe Barriers
Visit our Public Slack Channel and join the conversation in between episodes!

EP#157: Power Hungry Venti-Q
Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast
01/30/19 • 50 min
- Parker
- Star Wars Detonator is 95% complete
- It is inside the enclosure and works!
- Stand needs to be printed and wrap up the paint
- Original STL files for the detonator by Roel Veldhuyzen
- Future of this project?
- USB Type-C Article Update
- USB Type-C -> FTDI FT230X -> Parallax Propeller is completed
- Example is on our githubs
- Next is going to be a direct to MCU style like an ATmega32u4 unless someone else has a better idea from the slack channel?
- Star Wars Detonator is 95% complete
- Stephen
- EQ is functioning!
- Grtyvr from our Slack Channel came up with a good name – The Venti-Q
- Power Hungry
- Most of the bands work
- 1 band has an oscillation problem
- 1 band is pulling too much current
- 2 or 3 bands are weak
- Building a test harness to test each band individually
- The Super Simple Ribbon Mic live design
- Saturday Feb 2 @ 6pm Central on the MacroFab Twitch Channel
- Preamp design for the Microphone
- Mechanical Design (design of the ribbon frame and the case)
- Audio Connection (USB? XLR?)
- EQ is functioning!
- R.F.O.
- One board dev kit has three snap off STM 8 microcontrollers
- One development board with three break off boards
- Has three different tiers of 8-bit STM microcontrollers: STM8L001J3, STM8L050J3, STM8S001J3
- STM8-SO8-DISCO
- Don’t Toss That Bulb, It Knows Your Password
- Smart Bulbs contain your WiFi credentials in plain text. Surprise!
- Common Electrical Engineering Interview Topics
- Luke Metro has been interviewing with Bay Area startups and big tech companies during his last year of college
- A good list to start becoming a better Electrical Engineer
- One board dev kit has three snap off STM 8 microcontrollers
Tags: electronics podcast, EQ Build, FT230X, FTDI, Interview topics, MacroFab, macrofab engineering podcast, Ribbon Mic, ST Microcontrollers, Star Wars Detonator, USB Type-C, Venti-Q

EP#144: Espress-ify? Designing Products Around the ESP-32 Platform.
Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast
10/31/18 • 50 min
Guests
- Zapp
- Chief Bling Officer (CBO) at AND!XOR
- During his limited free time he writes vulnerable C code, dabbles in Kicad, and trolls Arduino bot accounts on Twitter
- Never been seen at the same time and place as Batman...But then again, neither has Stephen
- Hyr0n
- A button pusher, easily replaced by a thousand monkeys with a thousand laptops, but manages to crank out firmware and hacker puzzles
- If you’re reading this statement, he already has root access to your computer
We have had Zapp and Hyr0n on the podcast before. Check out MEP EP#69: Incognito Mode and MEP EP#109 Arduino, The Gateway Drug To #BadgeLife.
Topics
- Hyr0n’s Theremin
- Arduino bot accounts?
- Quick Recap on DEF CON 26 and the Bender AND!XOR Badge
- Engineering Process behind badge design
- idea -> thing
- Come up with all the ideas and Venn Diagram the hardware needed to enable those ideas
- Espressif ESP32
- Pushing it to the limit
- Spec sheet thots "oh shit, nice, lots of ram"
- Developer after math "oh shit, xtensa sdk blows, it needs all that RAM"
- Pros and Cons
- Hardware and software interactions are interesting and poorly documented
- Erratas?
- Pushing it to the limit
- SD Card failures?
- Hackaday Badge and Hackaday Super Conference
- Zapp and Hyr0n are giving a talk about lulzcode and hardware puzzles
- Lulzcode docs
Tags: AND!XOR, Arduino Bot Accounts, Bender, DEF CON 26, electronics podcast, ESP-32, ESP32, Espressif, Hackaday, HyR0n, Lulzcode, MacroFab, macrofab engineering podcast, MEP, Super Con, Theremin, WROVER, Zapp

EP#140: The Genesis of My Bill Of Materials
Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast
10/02/18 • 59 min
- Parker
- RTL SDR functional setup?
- RTL-FM
- Seems to work fine for FM stuff
- AM works in direct sampling mode but I can’t seem to get that to work with RTL-FM
- Upconverter needed?
- Auto switching signals?
- RTL_FM also does not support stereo sound
- Might need a new option?
- R820T P7K5 Software Defined Radio?
- KiCad User improvements for MacroFab in the future
- KiCad Python API has awful documentation
- Particle Spectra Conference
- Workshops for IoT hardware and software
- MEP EP#122: Brandon Satrom and the LANoT
- RTL SDR functional setup?
- Stephen
- Vox in a box tester layout is complete. Will order tonight
- May use this to also develop a preamp for a friends leslie rotary cabinet
- Vox in a box tester layout is complete. Will order tonight
- R.F.O.
- Parallax Propeller 2 Soon?
- Production samples work!
- Changes from First Prop
- 80Mhz -> 180Mhz
- 32 -> 64 I/O
- Hardware peripherals
- Built in Debugger
- Preliminary Specifications and Datasheet
- Ken Gracey and Chip Gracey on the Podcast?
- Luke Robertson from the Slack Channel
- How do you search for technical information? I am specifically thinking in regards to forums. I realize there is a niche forum for everything but I was wondering if there are a few standouts people prefer (presumably ones that aren't laced with kids looking for answers to their homework).
- Luke mentions Eevblog.com and diystompboxes.com
- Parallax Propeller 2 Soon?
Tags: electronics podcast, KiCad, MacroFab, macrofab engineering podcast, MEP, Parallax Propeller 2, Particle Spectra, R820T P7K5, RTL_SDR, RTL-FM, Vox in a Box

EP#442: Wanting To Be A Wizard - Matt Brown
Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast
08/02/24 • 56 min
In this episode of Circuit Break, Parker Dillmann and Stephen Kraig are joined by Matt Brown, an inventive engineer and YouTube content creator renowned for his electrifying DIY projects and creative automotive builds. The trio delves into the concept of "good enough engineering," where Matt shares insights from his career, including his experiences working at Tesla and on various personal projects like the land speed car and the off-road Viper. The discussion also covers the challenges of engineering in unpredictable environments, the balance between planning and improvisation, and the joy of creating new things.
Key Discussion Points:
- Introduction of Matt Brown and his YouTube channel SuperfastMatt
- The concept of "good enough engineering" and its application
- Matt's background in engineering and his career journey
- Examples of "good enough engineering" in Matt's projects
- The importance of intuition and experience in engineering decisions
- The challenges of off-road vehicle engineering compared to aerospace
- Balancing multiple large projects and knowing when a project is "done"
- The appeal of starting new projects versus finishing existing ones
- Matt's thoughts on building an airplane and the associated challenges
- Discussion on CNC machines and 3D printers in DIY projects
- The difference between real engineering and good enough engineering
- The importance of planning and iterative testing in engineering
- The role of community and feedback in the engineering process
Relevant Links:
Community Questions:
- What are your thoughts on the concept of "good enough engineering"?
- How do you balance planning and improvisation in your projects?
- Have you ever started a project and found it challenging to finish? How did you handle it?
MacroFab:
This show is brought to you by MacroFab, which provides a platform for electronics manufacturing services (EMS), hardware development, designing and prototyping for individuals, startups, and businesses. Key MacroFab services include PCB (Printed Circuit Board) fabrication, assembly, and testing. Customers can use MacroFab's platform to upload their PCB designs, select components, and specify manufacturing requirements.
We Want to Hear From You!
Subscribe to Circuit Break wherever you get your podcasts! And join our online discussion hub at forum.macrofab.com to keep the conversation going with electrical engineering experts and experimenters! You can also email us at [email protected].
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FAQ
How many episodes does Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast have?
Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast currently has 448 episodes available.
What topics does Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast cover?
The podcast is about Electronics, Electrical Engineering, Hacking, Diy, Podcasts, Technology, Science and Engineering.
What is the most popular episode on Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast?
The episode title 'EP#438: Solder Slugs' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast?
The average episode length on Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast is 55 minutes.
How often are episodes of Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast released?
Episodes of Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast are typically released every 7 days.
When was the first episode of Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast?
The first episode of Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast was released on Feb 9, 2016.
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