
Related Topics
Power Hungry Venti-Q
The Venti-Q gets nears completion, USB Type-C example circuit completed, and EE interview topics.
Void Copper Donuts
Parker wraps up his Wagon Chime Module and looks at USB Power Switches and Stephen covers his EQ build.
Connector Confusion
Stephen continues his march into madness with his 20 band EQ amplifier design.
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November 28, 2018, Episode #148
The podcast got mentioned in an article! 12 Great Podcasts for Engineers from the Mind Tribe blog. Mind Tribe is a design driven engineering firm based in San Francisco. The list spawns from a survey from the engineering team at Mind Tribe. Thanks Mind Tribe for mentioning our podcast!
“This is a technical podcast by a Texas-based PCB fab and assembly house where the two hosts (Parker and Stephen) have conversations about electrical engineering. Parker and Stephen provide a unique perspective on hardware and the show is both entertaining and educational.”
- Parker
- RPI3 Compute Module
- EFM8 Universal Beeeeeeeeeee
- Com port native! VCP driver
- Secret Project
- It may DOOM everything
- ST7735
- Common SPI TFT Screen Module
- 1.44” 128×128 pixels
- Wagon Update: YouTube videos
- Stephen
- “Feature creeped” my way into designing a 20 band graphic eq and a fancy solid state effects loop
- 20 band eq with +/- 12ish (simulation shows 13.8) db of gain per band
- Each band has a Q of 2.87 so they end up being ½ octave
- Using the 1kHz standard
- Designed with “constant Q” in mind
- W taper pots and ways to convert that
- Both the FX loop and the EQ interface with 200v input signals
- Applied a 1:50 reduction to get within a reasonable range.
- “Feature creeped” my way into designing a 20 band graphic eq and a fancy solid state effects loop
- R.F.O.
- STM releases STM32 Cube MX V5.0
- Redone UI and cleaner look
- Better searching options
- Looks like a more streamlined approach to configuring your uC. Sort of a “left to right” path
- What is your path? Pins first? Clock First? Communication? Timers? Interrupts?
- CNC Router options?
- Need a 2’ x 4’ CNC machine
- CNC Router Parts
- Vacuum Table
- Get a Guest for DIY CNC
- Picking out lead screws
- Motor specifications: Stepper Vs Servo
- Controllers
- Need a 2’ x 4’ CNC machine
- Cheeseburger Compass
- GPS and Raspberry Pi combined to let you know where the nearest Cheeseburger fast food place is.
- STM releases STM32 Cube MX V5.0
Visit our Slack Channel and join the conversation in between episodes and please review us, wherever you listen (PodcastAddict, iTunes). It helps this show stay visible and helps new listeners find us.

Parker has lots of routing work left on the RPI Compute Module board.

Diagram of the potential PCB stack up for Stephen’s EQ design.
About the Hosts

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

Void Copper Donuts
Parker wraps up his Wagon Chime Module and looks at USB Power Switches and Stephen covers his EQ build.

Make Electrons Flow Right?
Stephen finishes his Synth and jams some tunes!

Power Hungry Venti-Q
The Venti-Q gets nears completion, USB Type-C example circuit completed, and EE interview topics.

Surgical Synthesizers
On this episode, Parker and Stephen talk about EFM8 MCUs and Hotwheel Capacitors.

Connector Confusion
Stephen continues his march into madness with his 20 band EQ amplifier design.

Reverse Biasing Opamps
Parker learns Python and OpenCV and Stephen gets silly with transformers.