Advertise on podcast: Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast

Parker and Stephen dive into the world of batteries, sparked by the BetaVolt BV100's claim of a 50-year lifespan. With discussions on its construction, potential applications, and recycling challenges, they unpack the implications of this revolutionary energy source. 🚨Contest Announcement 🚨: Introducing a new Circuit Break contest! This contest is themed around building food-related electronic projects. We’re offering over $5,000 in cash prizes, themed trophies, and free prototyping from MacroFab. The deadline to submit is March 31st, 2024. Thanks to Mouser Electronics for sponsoring the contest prizes!  Discussion Highlights:  Introduction to the BetaVolt BV100 Battery: Overview of the Chinese-developed atomic battery boasting a 50-year lifespan, built with a Nickel-63 isotope and diamond semiconductor material.🔋Low Power Output and Future Plans: Discussion on the BV100's low power output and plans for a higher-powered version in 2025, anticipated to be larger in size.Bad Movie Tangent: Parker's love for terrible movies, including Leprechaun 2 with its leprechaun go-kart scene and the Tremors movie series. Sequels that violate their own universe rules.Battery Terminology: Explanation of nuclear vs. atomic vs. beta voltaic batteries, with a mention of photovoltaic technology.Recycling Challenges: Consideration of the challenges associated with recycling radioactive materials, including uranium ore. ♻️Decay Curve and Output Analysis: Deliberation on the decay curve and power output over time of the BV100 battery.Phone Application: Speculation on the potential use of the BV100 battery in smartphones, with the possibility of lasting 50 years without needing to be recharged.📱Quiescent Draw Calculation: Calculation of the quiescent draw that a smartphone would pull from the BV100 battery over a 24-hour period.Limitations and Usage Scenarios: Discussion on the limitations of low power and various usage scenarios for a nuclear-powered phone, including limited functionality and screen usage.Satellite Thrusters Application: The potential application of atomic batteries in satellite thrusters, particularly with the release of the higher-powered version.🛰️Radioactive Safety Concerns: Concerns raised about the proximity of radioactive elements to users' heads in a phone and its potential safety implications.☢️Quantum Entangled Energy Transmission: Extremely speculative discussion on quantum entangled energy transmission and its potential applications in the future. Questions to our listeners: Invitation to Quantum Physicists: How badly did we mess up quantum mechanics? We’d love to have an expert join us to discuss quantum mechanics for a future episode!  Also, if this becomes a real thing, how would you use 100 microwatts at 3 volts? Relevant links: Betavolt BV100 Atomic Battery Quantum Entanglement and Multispace ConceptionOur last design contest: EP188 Design Contest - Useless Machines Wrap UpAbout MacroFab: This show is brought to you by MacroFab, which provides a platform for electronics manufacturing services (EMS), hardware development, designing and prototyping for individuals, startups, and businesses. Key MacroFab services include PCB (Printed Circuit Board) fabrication, assembly, and testing. Customers can use MacroFab's platform to upload their PCB designs, select components, and specify manufacturing requirements.  We Want to Hear From You!  Subscribe to Circuit Break wherever you get your podcasts! And join our online Discourse discussion hub at forum.macrofab.com to keep the conversation going with electrical engineering experts and experimenters! You can also email us at [email protected].

Join Parker and Stephen as they delve into Japan's decision to phase out floppy disks and CD-ROMs for government submissions. From reminiscing about nostalgic tech quirks to analyzing the challenges and benefits of this transition, they explore the implications for industries and digital competitiveness. Discussing Japan's slow tech evolution, resistance to cloud systems, and the enduring use of floppy disks in various sectors, they ponder the future of outdated tech and its impact on global standings. Tune in to gain insights into the end of an era and what it signifies for technology and society. 🚨Contest Announcement 🚨: Introducing a new Circuit Break contest! This contest is themed around building food-related electronic projects. We’re offering over $5,000 in cash prizes, themed trophies, and free prototyping from MacroFab. The deadline to submit is March 31st, 2024. Thanks to Mouser Electronics for sponsoring the contest prizes!  Discussion Highlights:  War on Floppy Disks 💾: Discussing Japan's decision to end the use of floppy disks in government operations.Implications of Technological Obsolescence: Speculating on the challenges of transitioning from physical media to digital storage.Comparisons to Government Processes: Stephen shares his experience with outdated military specifications and discusses the reliability of military-grade components.Automotive and Military Testing: Comparison of testing standards for automotive, military, and space applications, highlighting similarities and differences.What does this mean for Parker’s FD5? 😭: The implications for Parker's FD5 camera and its reliance on floppy disks, is this a ticking time bomb? Nostalgia vs. Modern Replication: Discussion on replicating vintage aesthetics with modern tech, including Parker's use of a disposable camera lens on a mirrorless camera.Grease Weasel: Explanation of the grease weasel device and its role in preserving data from old floppy disks.Floppy Disk Bombs: Stephen shares a fun and dangerous way of combining matches with floppy disks.  Don’t try this at home kids 🔥. Digital Competitiveness: Japan ranks 32 in digital competitiveness. What are the factors that affect a country's technological advancement?Industrial Use of Floppy Disks: Some industries still use floppy disks, including automotive, medical devices and avionics. Chuck E. Cheese used them until at least 2023.Secure. Contain. Protect. (SCP): Tangent about SCP, a copypasta site about different creatures in an organization called Secure. Contain. Protect. Predictions for Technological Obsolescence: Speculation on the last industrial or commercial use of floppy disks and potential next tech equivalents.We want to hear from you, so head over to our discourse to let us know: What industries that you work in are still using floppy disks?What will be the next tech equivalent of a dinosaur? Relevant links: Japan government accepts it’s no longer the ’90s, stops requiring floppy disksOur last design contest: EP188 Design Contest - Useless Machines Wrap Up Parker’s FD5 Camera: EP379 Taking Pictures With Magnetic Flux SCP Foundation Chuck E. Cheese still uses floppy disks in 2023, but not for longThank you for listening to the MacroFab Engineering Podcast!  We’d love to hear what you think of the show so please tweet at us @MacroFab and join our Circuit Break Community for discussions or email us at [email protected].

Discuss this episode. We welcome Chris Gammell, Developer Relations Lead at Golioth, to explore the exciting world of IoT (Internet of Things) and hardware. Chris brings his extensive engineering background to Golioth, a software company with a unique approach to IoT solutions. Join us as we delve into Golioth's distinct strengths in security, developer experience, scalability, reliability, and interoperability. Discover the future of IoT device provisioning and explore Chris's intriguing projects. If you're curious about IoT, Golioth, or the challenges and solutions in this space, don't miss this insightful episode with Chris Gammell.  Some of the topics we cover include:  Getting the gang back togetherDeveloper relations = Application engineeringA hardware guy in a software worldCloud engineers vs. software engineers: what’s the difference?CockroachDB “will never die”What does Golioth do?Learning about the Constraint Application Protocol (aka CoAP)Golioth vs. other IoT companiesWhat is “Follow Along Hardware?” Security by Default Tales From the EncryptBack to BoschMicrodecisions with huge implications“You don’t know what you don’t know”Individual key sets to minimize multiple device issuesWhen Blu-ray got crackedShout out to Joe GrandGolIoTh…Monitoring in the back endBright, multicolored PCBs“Business in a box”Getting into ZephyrWhat is Golioth’s weakness? About our guest: Chris Gammell, the Developer Relations Lead at Golioth, combines his hardware expertise with Golioth's software focus in the realm of IoT. With a background in electrical engineering, he bridges the gap between hardware and software worlds, ensuring that Golioth addresses potential challenges proactively. Relevant links: Golioth.ioIoT Product Manufacturing with Golioth and MacrofabChris Gammell on LinkedInFollow Along Hardware blog post from Chris Thank you for listening to the MacroFab Engineering Podcast!  We’d love to hear what you think of the show so please tweet at us @MacroFab and join our Circuit Break Community for discussions or email us at [email protected].

This week Parker and Stephen welcome Brenden Duncombe to the show to discuss the pros and cons of continuous integration and continuous delivery/deployment (aka CI/CD) for hardware. Continuous integration (CI) refers to the practice of automatically and frequently integrating code changes into a shared source code repository. Continuous delivery and/or deployment (CD) is a two-part process that refers to the integration, testing, and delivery of code changes. In theory, CI/CD helps organizations avoid bugs and code failures while maintaining a continuous cycle of software development and updates, but we wanted to learn more about this with Brenden, so Parker and Stephen asked him about CI/CD, and also covered the following: Brenden’s product development background“What is a Director of Customer Engineering?”A brief history of CI/CDWhy it’s the opposite of a nightmareUnit tests for software…how does it work for hardware?Pinball Wizardry A “smearing” vs. a “silo”Test-driven dev benefits over the entire dev cycleIs CI/CD a hard concept to sell?How to make the investment worthwhileThe Hardware Regression StruggleWhen start-ups aren’t really prepared for contract manufacturers What is the ideal development cycle?Building something for your contract manufacturer? Always build twoTeenage Engineering Prep your firmware people with dev boards before the hardware reaches them“Like taking your specification doc and writing a test doc on top of that”Standard Fixtures and Future MacroFab Projects+ more!About our guest: Brenden Duncombe is the Director of Customer Engineering at MacroFab. His extensive experience in Electrical and Systems Engineering, and his leadership in steering engineering teams from concept to manufacturing, make him an essential voice at Macrofab. Relevant links: Enhancing Operational Safety: Cyber-Resilient Approaches for Physically Secure PCB DesignsWEBINAR - January 30Brenden Duncombe on LinkedInWhat is CI/CD?Circuit Break Podcast #15: Ridiculously Blinking LEDA guide to continuous delivery in embedded developmentCircuit Break Podcast #40: Update on the MacroDuino and FX DEV BoardDevOps vs CI/CD – The Key DifferencesThank you for listening to the MacroFab Engineering Podcast!  We’d love to hear what you think of the show so please tweet at us @MacroFab and join our Circuit Break Community for discussions or email us at [email protected].

Prepare to plug into the world of electrical engineering on Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast. Join two adventurous engineers, Parker Dillmann and Stephen Kraig, as they dissect the latest tech innovations, break down industry news, navigate the challenges of DIY projects and engage in compelling conversations with industry experts. Their real-world practical experience fuels their infectious passion and serves as the driving force behind a show that delves into both theoretical concepts and practical issues engineers face.   Parker and Stephen speak with fellow engineers, makers, hackers, and business leaders, creating a dynamic space for discussing challenges in the realm of electrical engineering. They unravel the origins of product updates, ponder the lab-to-marketplace journey of technological advancements and reverse engineer the engineering process. They love to speculate about the decisions dev teams have made and boldly offer their own opinions. The show provides a unique window into electrical engineering for recent graduates and current students, who want a sense of what job markets and workplaces are looking for.  About MacroFab: This show is brought to you by MacroFab, which provides a platform for electronics manufacturing services (EMS), hardware development, designing and prototyping for individuals, startups, and businesses. Key MacroFab services include PCB (Printed Circuit Board) fabrication, assembly, and testing. Customers can use MacroFab's platform to upload their PCB designs, select components, and specify manufacturing requirements.  MacroFab streamlines the electronics manufacturing process, making it more accessible to a wider range of users, from hobbyists to professional engineers and business owners, many of whom Parker and Stephen welcome to the show regularly.  About Parker and Stephen: Parker brings a rich background in Embedded System Design and Digital Signal Processing (DSP). His journey in engineering began in 2005 when he hacked Nintendo consoles into portable gaming units. The following year, he pioneered an Atari 2600 video mod, eliminating RF fuzz and producing over a thousand mods. With a background in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Parker’s areas of interest include robotics, microcontroller theory and design, and image and signal processing with DSPs. Stephen Kraig started his electronics career in 2003 crafting musical-oriented circuits. An avid guitar player, Stephen channels his passion into manufacturing audio electronics, including guitar amplifiers, pedals, pro and other audio gear. He has spent close to a decade perfecting his brewing rig to make the best beer possible, often sharing his experiments with listeners. A Texas A&M Electrical Engineering graduate with a B.S, Stephen has served as the COO of William Mathewson Devices.   We Want to Hear From You!  Subscribe to Circuit Break wherever you get your podcasts. And if you like what you hear or have something to say, join our online Discourse discussion hub to keep the conversation going with EE experts and experimenters! That’s also where we break down additional content based on each episode, and ask you, our dear listeners, to tell us who you want to hear from and what you want us to explore.  

This week Parker and Stephen welcome Joe Grand to the show to discuss insecure IoT devices. Inspired by a recent incident where Bosch wrenches were infected by ransomware called DRILLCRYPT, the guys asked Joe to join them to talk about how attackers could compromise the safety of the wrench and cause safety issues for users. Of course, this kind of breach could impact almost any company and its products, and so many topics were covered, including: “Actually, it’s Dr. Grand…”If you’re in attack mode, firmware updates are greatSupply chain issues are hard enough to manage without these security breachesA lack of security can be a business decisionGive me convenience or give me threatsThe hardware industry isn’t as well-versed as the software industry isHow to update 10,000 devices in the fieldHacking is problem-solving (someone tell the FBI)“If you’re not being sued, you’re not working hard enough’Sourcing parts and the risk of getting counterfeit partsWhy a firmware update shouldn’t disable your carResisting Big ToiletSubscription models for…everything…The importance of Design For Security measuresIs getting hacked more of a marketing problem than an engineering issue?Engineering ethics and hacking and designAbout our guest: Joe Grand, also known as Kingpin, is a computer engineer, hardware hacker, teacher, advisor, daddy, honorary doctor, and occasional video maker. He has been creating, exploring, and manipulating electronic systems since the 1980s. This is his third appearance on our show and first since 2019! Relevant links: Enhancing Operational Safety: Cyber-Resilient Approaches for Physically Secure PCB DesignsWEBINAR - January 30Bright Minds, Brighter Future Day of Innovation and Networking Event - February 1Meet Joe GrandDRILLCRYPT vs. BoschVulnerabilities on Bosch Rexroth Nutrunners May Be Abused to Stop Production Lines, Tamper with Safety-Critical TighteningsCircuit Break Podcast #73: Joe Grand: The Origin StoryCircuit Break Podcast #185: What You Are Designed To Do - A Joe Grand Manufacturing AdventureThank you for listening to the MacroFab Engineering Podcast!  We’d love to hear what you think of the show so please tweet at us @MacroFab and join our Circuit Break Community for discussions or email us at [email protected].

This week Parker and Stephen welcome Kent Johnson to the show to discuss ethics in engineering. It’s a topic that has been alluded to over the course of Circuit Break, but this is the first time Parker and Stephen have delved into it with a real expert on the matter. Yes, most companies have standards and regulations and a moral code that guide them but, as Kent suggests, there are more ethical gray areas in the realm of engineering than we might realize. Topics covered here include: Discovering something isn’t being done properly at your new jobAgreeing to work on something with life-or-death consequences, and you don’t really know what you’re doingBypassing important project safety tests to meet a deadlineCrediting others in an age of ChatGPT and redefinitions of plagiarismHow do you credit and use open source code?Why siloed departments at companies are causing such harm to work dynamicsThe tyranny of the specThe true dangers of “failure” or “gotcha” work culturesAccepting accountability and being willing to changeAvoiding QC by zipping the lip+moreAbout our guest: Kent Johnson is Senior Corporate Advisor for the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation and a management consultant on religious diversity at work. With over 37 years of experience as a Senior Counsel at Texas Instruments, Kent is a seasoned legal expert who specializes in corporate law, ethics, product liability, antitrust, medical/FDA law, and mergers and acquisitions. Since leaving Texas Instruments in 2018, Kent has been helping companies adopt best practices regarding religious diversity and inclusion in the workplace. He is also Stephen’s father-in-law, so this really a family show this week. Relevant links: Kent Johnson (LinkedIn)Religious Freedom & Business AssociationWhy Are Ethics Important In Engineering?Circuit Break Podcast #14: Discrepant DiodesCircuit Break Podcast #410: Eighth Annual MacroFab Star Wars Christmas Special Somehow this Podcast ReturnedJoin the Circuit Break Discourse Community!Thank you for listening to the MacroFab Engineering Podcast!  We’d love to hear what you think of the show so please tweet at us @MacroFab and join our Circuit Break Community for discussions or email us at [email protected].

A recent Circuit Break Community thread about K-map design inspired a tangential conversation about how well certain subjects are taught in college. Parker and Stephen love a good tangent, thank you, and so they dug in by recalling their own experiences at school with excellent professors who clearly wanted electrical engineers to succeed, while other instructors and their teaching methods were challenging or else just downright bizarre. Other topics covered here include: How a terrible electronics professor can impact someone’s careerIs a “self-paced” classroom really just lazy teaching?Still not knowing how Bode plots workA strange digital circuits analogy where chickens and snakes are shockedWatching videos like you’re in A Clockwork OrangeA grade curve so severe, a 17% was a BClasses and profs we lovedWas a class hard, or was the professor just absolute garbage?Still having nightmares about forgetting to go to class for a whole semesterHeat Shrink Voltage Ratings+moreRelevant links: Attend MacroFab Founder Chris Church’s Presentation at Orbweaver’s Current 2024Using K-maps in circuit designHeatshrink Voltage ratings?Circuit Break Podcast #297: Modern College Education with Derek FronekCircuit Break Podcast #18: Classy Capacitors and Lab War Stories[WEBINAR] Enhancing Operational Safety: Cyber-Resilient Approaches for Physically Secure PCB DesignsThank you for listening to the MacroFab Engineering Podcast!  We’d love to hear what you think of the show so please tweet at us @MacroFab and join our Circuit Break Community for discussions or email us at [email protected].

This week Parker and Stephen welcome James Lewis back to the show after a rather long absence! The occasion stems from James chiming in on a Circuit Break Community thread that Stephen started, asking all about component aging effects. Stephen posed questions like, “What happens to resistors over 5 years? How about 20 years? Are there rules of thumb or better yet, calculations for aging?” And helpful engineer that he is, James got in there and tried to provide some answers before agreeing to appear on the show to elaborate. Other topics covered here include: How no one is completely sure about how to approach component agingWhen component aging actually affects designersThe difference between aging and reliabilityThe impact of components lasting longer than they were meant toVariables, parameters, and other factors that can inhibit and exacerbate agingLevels of violence in polymer tantalum explosionsThe history of constantsDevice longevity lawsHow to define rated voltage for a capacitor+more!About our guest: James Lewis aka Bald Engineer, is a freelance electronics content creator. You might recognize James from the YouTube channels AddOhms and Workbench Wednesdays from Element 14. His interests include talking too much about capacitors, repairing vintage computers, and making unique PCBs that go into poorly designed 3D-print enclosures. James has been on the show a few times now, including episode #141 and #222 to discuss testing and validating PCB assembly design. The episode about ceramic capacitors is still one of Parker’s all-time favorite episodes!  Relevant links: Bald EngineerComponent Aging EffectsCircuit Break Podcast #141: It Depends – An In Depth Look at MLCCs with James LewisCircuit Break Podcast #222: Turning It On – New Design Checklists with James LewisCircuit Break Podcast #306: Removing The BarriersJoin the Circuit Break Discourse Community!Thank you for listening to the MacroFab Engineering Podcast!  We’d love to hear what you think of the show so please tweet at us @MacroFab and join our Circuit Break Community for discussions or email us at [email protected].

Not unlike Han Solo emerging from cryosleep, the annual MacroFab Star Wars Christmas Special is back! Parker and Stephen welcome Josh Rozier, Chris Kraft, and Hyr0n to Circuit Break for a wide-ranging discussion covering at least the following about the Star Wars universe: The Most Ingenious Pieces of Technology in Star WarsThe Most Underrated Characters Favorite (and Most Profound) Star Wars QuotesPersonal picks for cool lightsaber functionsDo Star Wars ships and vehicles ever need gas?Medical care in Star Wars vs. Star TrekWhether or not you’re sleeping while encased in carbonite or just dead the whole timeA burning desire for vibrobladesThe toilet paper situation in Star WarsDoes Star Wars really illuminate the vastness of space?Chewbacca knows everythingSpider-Man’s gooSo many Star Wars magic tricksTow Cable/Power Harpoon as a reasonable tactic to use against the AT-ATs on Hoth?Science-Fiction vs. Science-Fantasy“Skippy” and The MandalorianFM Radio Transmissions in CavesStar Wars: Thrawn and the curious case of loading cargo and other bureaucratic tasksEngineering ethics in the Empire / Darth Vader and anger managementStewie’s VaderKylo Ren, blasters, and magical gasNot loving JJ Abrams’ elimination of limitations+ much more!About our guests: Josh RozierA business intelligence and data analytics professional for a large, east-coast insurance monolith. In his spare time, Roz spends his time building and tweaking guitar amplifiers and pedals. Co-owner of Empire Engineering with Stephen.Chris KraftA tinkerer currently working as a software engineer in the financial services industry. Extensive background in 3d printing and building anything that seems interesting.Hyr0nA systems engineer. Hardware hacker of AND!XOR, a group that builds electronic badges for conferences, mucks in vending machines, and designs embedded system puzzles.Relevant links: Circuit Break Podcast #357: Seventh Annual MacroFab Star Wars Christmas Special - We’re the Rebel Codebreakers!Circuit Break Podcast #307: Sixth Annual MacroFab Star Wars Christmas Special - The Bad HunchCircuit Break Podcast #255: Fifth Annual MacroFab Star Wars Christmas Special – Neo JediCircuit Break Podcast #204: Fourth Annual MacroFab Star Wars Christmas Special – C3PO Steals the ShowCircuit Break Podcast #152: Third Annual MacroFab Star Wars Christmas Special – Vader’s Fake FingerCircuit Break Podcast #98: Second Annual MacroFab Star Wars Christmas Special: Jar Jar on a HarleyCircuit Break Podcast #46: First Annual MacroFab Star Wars Christmas SpecialThank you for listening to the MacroFab Engineering Podcast!  We’d love to hear what you think of the show so please tweet at us @MacroFab and join our Circuit Break Community for discussions or email us at [email protected].

Parker and Stephen discuss a recent news story about how car manufacturers are increasing their focus on Software-Defined Vehicles (SDVs) which are cars that use more software instead of physical components to control vehicle functions. This prompted a comparison between SDVs and Drive-by-Wire or DbW technology in the automotive industry, which is the use of electronic or electro-mechanical systems in place of mechanical linkages that control driving functions, how DbW relates to Fly-by-Wire tech and the fate of the F-117 Nighthawk, how Marvell Semiconductor is working on technology, particularly Ethernet, to support this change to SDWs, plus we get a brewery project update from Stephen, and much more! Relevant links: Marvell Sees Software-Defined Vehicle Readiness Near at HandCircuit Break Podcast #65: Self Driving Cars With Josh Hartung From PolysyncCircuit Break Podcast #396: PoE - Phantom over EthernetCircuit Break Podcast #107: Orthogonal for Mutual ConductanceCircuit Break Podcast #229: Get Cute This WeekendThank you for listening to the MacroFab Engineering Podcast!  We’d love to hear what you think of the show so please tweet at us @MacroFab and join our Circuit Break Community for discussions or email us at [email protected].  

Parker and Stephen welcome Pete Staples, the CEO and Co-Founder of Blue Clover Devices, to the show! Staples founded Blue Clover in 2003 to explore ways to make the electronics industry more efficient. Prior to that, he worked as a systems engineer at Boeing Satellite Systems in El Segundo near LAX. Blue Clover continues to hone their processes to eliminate waste and provide the best value for their clients. In 2018, those efforts culminated in the release of Blue Clover’s Production Line Tool (PLT), a cloud-native hardware test automation device. Because of his expertise in device testing, Parker and Stephen wanted to catch up with Pete to ask him some questions about such things, and so we’re happy to welcome him to Circuit Break! Relevant links: Blue Clover DevicesCircuit Break Podcast #404: The Barcode is 50 With its Creator, Paul V. McEnroeCircuit Board Testing Methods: What You Need to KnowCircuit Break Podcast #189: Not Even My Final Form – Jeff Garoon on Industrial Product DesignThank you for listening to the MacroFab Engineering Podcast!  We’d love to hear what you think of the show so please tweet at us @MacroFab and join our Circuit Break Community for discussions or email us at [email protected].