
Related Topics
Modern College Education with Derek Fronek
Derek Fronek is a current engineering student at Purdue University. We dive into how education has changed with COVID and a decade of automation.
Other Resources
MacroFab Engineering Podcast
Blog
eBooks & Guides
Webinars
Videos
Case Studies
MacroFab Platform Help
November 14, 2018, Episode #146
Podcast Notes
- John Waidner
- Electronics Engineer with a background in Logic design, analog circuit, system integration and testing
- Currently John is a mentor for the TechHOUNDS and volunteers for the Boy Scouts of America
- Derek Fronek
- High school student from Carmel High School
- Part of the Carmel High School robotics team the TechHOUNDS
- TechHOUNDS
- What are the TechHOUNDS and how did you start?
- Leadership? Who leads the group?
- Divisions
- Robot Ops
- Programming/Electrical
- Construction
- Information Technology
- Public Relations
- How do you handle the overlap between divisions?
- Derek – What division are you most involved with?
- John – How involved are you in the process?
- What is FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology)
- Who can be a part of FIRST?
- How to get involved
- Funding?
- Competing in FRC (First Robotics Competition)
- What are the competitions?
- How does your team prepare for them?
- Who gets to go?
- Who gets to drive the bot?
- The TechHOUNDS youtube channel has lots of videos of the robot and competitions the group has been in
- What is next for the TechHOUNDS?
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.

Carmel High School students mid build in 2018.

TechHOUNDS 868 robot in the ready position right before a match.

The TechHOUNDS robot lifting the crates onto the scale.

Fixing the crate intake on the robot between matches.
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

Modern College Education with Derek Fronek
Derek Fronek is a current engineering student at Purdue University. We dive into how education has changed with COVID and a decade of automation.