
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?
Datasheet Lore
What lore have you discovered in component datasheets? On this episode, Parker talks about how he picks electrical components and risk management.
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!
Other Resources
MacroFab Engineering Podcast
Blog
eBooks & Guides
Webinars
Videos
Case Studies
MacroFab Platform Help
November 27, 2019, Episode #200
Parker
- Air Raid Siren Completed
- Working on the power sub system for a D.C. Badge
- Based on the successful DOOM SAO power system
- USB Type-C for “cable” power
- 5.1K on both CC pins
- Gives us 1.5A at 5V which is plenty of juice
- Alkaline Primary Cells
- TPS2113 for switching between cable power and the batteries
- SAO connector implementation with proper current limiting
- Gonna try a small little buck switcher
- TLV62568 to knock the USB and battery voltage down to the 3.3V we need.
- Going to design a lithium powered version that can recharge over the Type-C
- Brewery Building is next project
- MacroFab has guided tours in the platform. Let me know how they work.
Stephen
- Multi Layer PCB
- Finishing up a 6 layer PCB with mixed signal
- Top
- GND
- Inner1
- POWER
- POWER
- Bot
- Finishing up a 6 layer PCB with mixed signal
- Multi Transformer solution for preamp power supply
- Should I just go with my already proven SMPS instead?
R.F.O.
- Cheating At Bowling, The Hacker Way
- Star Wars BB8 style robot inside a bowling ball
- Controlled by leaning your body!
- Digikey – Now with more Vacuum!
- Tube Depot – stock on digikey
- NOS
- Matching
- Toshiba TCKE8xx eFuse ICs
- Datasheet is tough to find atm
- Parker has used the Ti TPS25926 in previous projects which is similar
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

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

We Have Clearance, Clarence
On this episode, there are some AND!XOR hints for DC29 and we discuss the difference between PCB DRC specifications for clearance and creepage.

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?

Design For Everything
DFM, DFT, DFA? What does it all mean to product designers and engineers? Stephen and Parker cover what Designing For really means.

Operation Scope Creep
Multi-layer PCB designs. As an engineer, how do you decide when it is time to increase layer count and how do you decide what goes on those layers?

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!