Circuit Break Podcast #252

Kicking Troglodytes Off The Stage

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November 25, 2020, Episode #252

PCB serial numbering? Parker and Stephen cover their thoughts on applying a unique identifier to PCBs in production for inventory and testing control.

Parker

  • PCB serial numbering or other unique marking
    • I have batches of boards and need to put some unique numeric identifier and a MAC address on each board.
    • Besides stickers, laser etching, scratching or DIY stencil and paint, what are folks doing?
  • PinoTaur REV 3 boards arrived
    • REV 4 changes already 😉
  • Ben Jordan of Autodesk will be a guest on the podcast
    • Product manager and is responsible for the EAGLE product
    • Get your Eagle questions in early!

Stephen

  • Adventures in Rpi 4
    • Midi overkill
    • Clock master
    • Possibly be a usb midi device?
    • Reset?
  • Repairs
    • Roland TR-606 drum matrix
      • Looks like a possible ram IC issue. The unit functions and does things that only a processor could do like blink leds at a particular rate
      • None of the buttons have memory – they do not “store” anything
      • Upd444c obsolete – 6514 SRAM is a drop in replacement
  • The FX Dev board returns
    • 2 versions of the fx dev board now exist
    • Both look like they ditched my ac power supply for a charge pump design
    • Both opted to not do the integrated soldered breadboard
Roland tr606 pcb
Roland tr606 pcb inside

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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