Circuit Break Podcast #130

Free Form Jazz Welding

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July 25, 2018, Episode #130

Parker talks LED patterns on the MEP SAO, Stephen uses a CNC machine, and RadioShack returns?
  • Chris Gammel over at The Amp Hour gave the MacroFab Engineering Podcast a shout out for our podcast with Chris Church for our Tariff discussion
  • The Amp Hour also hit episode 400! Congrats!
  • Parker
  • MEP SAO Update
    • Software almost complete
    • What kind of LED patterns should I implement?
  • Wagon skid plate welding
  • Stephen
  • uTracer update
    • CNC work on the enclosure
    • Feed rate and speed calculations
  • R.F.O.
  • Return of RadioShack?
    • HobbyTown will start having a RadioShack Express inside
    • Will be electrical components only but may have cell phone repair as well
    • Better for Hobbytown to team up with Adafruit or Sparkfun?
  • Decimis from the Slack Channel asks
    • A lot of times on the MEP, you guys mention what college did not teach you. So not counting the actual degree, do you feel that going to a college is absolutely necessary to learn what you guys know now or is collage nothing more than just a structured way of learning what can be learned elsewhere through personal study, research, and experience?
  • Jarrett from the Slack Channel asks
    • What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?

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.

MEP Shitty Addon PCB Front.

MEP Shitty Addon PCB Front.

MEP Shitty Addon PCB Back.

MEP Shitty Addon PCB Back.

Building the new Wagon skid with CAD. Cardboard Aided Design.

Building the new Wagon skid with CAD. Cardboard Aided Design.

Mocking up the skid plate with the fuel tank from the Wagon.

Mocking up the skid plate with the fuel tank from the Wagon.

Stephen CNCing the enclosure to his uTracer project.

Stephen CNCing the enclosure to his uTracer project.

uTracer case with complete cut outs.

uTracer case with complete cut outs.

Graphic Stephen is going to print on his uTracer enclosure.

Graphic Stephen is going to print on his uTracer enclosure.

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!

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