
Related Topics
Breadboarding for Success
This week we are talking about Breadboards. Is breadboarding a circuit or design still applicable in today's SMT component dominated world?
It is 2023, Why Does Footprint Design Still Suck?
Why is there such a disconnect between component datasheet drawings and EDA footprint layout tools? Stephen and Parker dive into this on this podcast.
Datasheet Lore
What lore have you discovered in component datasheets? On this episode, Parker talks about how he picks electrical components and risk management.
Other Resources
MacroFab Engineering Podcast
Blog
eBooks & Guides
Webinars
Videos
Case Studies
MacroFab Platform Help
December 2, 2020, Episode #253
Benjamin Jordan
- A Computer Systems and PCB Engineer with over 25 years of experience in embedded systems, FPGA, and PCB design
- Is an avid tinkerer and is passionate about the creation of electronic devices of all kinds
- Holds a Bachelor of Engineering with First Class Honors from the University of Southern Queensland
- Currently Senior Product Manager for ECAD in Autodesk Fusion 360, and 16 years prior with Altium
- Recently licensed HAM radio operator
- Call Sign?
- Lots of Ham radio operators that listen to the podcast
- Do you still build and design PCBs?
- What EDA Tool do you use?
- History in the industry
- Eagle and Fusion 360
- How they integrate
- Is the plan to change the name to Fusion PCB?
- Eventually one program?
- Layout from inside of fusion?
- The Future
- Of Eagle?
- Any juicy news?
- Trends in the EDA tools
- YouTube
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

When an Alien Craps
The things that change the world, according to Chaos theory, are the tiny things. An Alien craps in Space and subsequently this podcast gets made.

Breadboarding for Success
This week we are talking about Breadboards. Is breadboarding a circuit or design still applicable in today's SMT component dominated world?

Datasheet Lore
What lore have you discovered in component datasheets? On this episode, Parker talks about how he picks electrical components and risk management.

Perpetual Prototypes
Did Stephen and Parker complete there holiday projects as mentioned in last weeks episode or will they slip further behind with feature creep?

The PCB Plague
Ever have PCBs that solder just will not wet and solder to? You probably thought it was improper soldering technique but that was probably not it!

It is 2023, Why Does Footprint Design Still Suck?
Why is there such a disconnect between component datasheet drawings and EDA footprint layout tools? Stephen and Parker dive into this on this podcast.