How to Read a Datasheet? Why is this article needed? I remember back when I first began designing electronics as a hobby. I would only use an Integrated Circuit (IC) that I could find a tutorial or guide for. It was terrifying for me to read through the massive datasheets that all IC’s have! I think that a lot of people struggle with this as well. Even today, after having used hundreds if not thousands
Read MoreShould You Buy a Pick and Place Machine? Writing an article about pick and place machines has been a suggested video/blog post by many people. In fact, this may be the single biggest suggested topic that I have ever received. This article will be the first part in a series on Assembly Line Basics. Why Should You Listen to Me? While this is something my girlfriend would likely answer “you shouldn’t!”, at least
Read MoreA Pragmatic Approach to Selecting a MOSFET The target for this post is to be a sort of follow up to my original power MOSFET post. While the goal of the prior post was to “de-mystify” issues surrounding MOSFETs, this will put that info into practice. I will outline several important considerations when selecting a MOSFET for a particular application. I will be using three common scenarios in circuit design for the basis of the
Read MoreWith the widespread cultural influences of startup companies and entrepreneurs, manufacturing a product overseas seems to be the “end all, be all” to cut costs. While this certainly can be true, there are some common pitfalls that can cost more than just money. The goal of this article is to highlight some issues that can be easily avoided with manufacturing overseas. “Overseas” can refer to many geographic locations. Assume that English is not the primary
Read MoreI have been suggested to work on more complex, longer term electronic design projects. This Open Source USB hub is my first attempt. I will update the github repository on the fly, before the videos are posted. The repository is on github here. SparkeyinVA from the discord channel (link to join) suggested the concept for this project. There are many Type-C UFP (Upstream Facing Port) USB hubs for sale on Amazon. However, almost all of
Read MoreLithium Ion batteries are one of the best technologies to use for a battery in portable electronics. They can also be one of the most dangerous if safety precautions are not taken. In this video I go into understanding what UL listing for a product means, and how it can help increase the safety of a product. Using this knowledge I show several battery protection techniques to help protect your circuit from catastrophic failure.
Read MorePanelizing PCBs from withing KiCad I’ve posted two YouTube videos (Video 1 & Video 2) going over how we panelize PCBs entirely with KiCad. In doing so, we use several footprints I created. The most important two are the SINGLED_SIDED_TAB and the DOUBLE_SIDED_TAB. These footprints use the Cmts.User layer to show the fab house where a 2mm router should be used. The panel below was DFM’d and rendered using the gerber tool Fab3000.
Read MoreESD (Electro-Static Discharge) is the uncontrolled discharge of static electricity onto a device. When a person builds up static, then touches a component an electrical discharge occurs. When designing a circuit, it is crucial to consider ESD early on to prevent catastrophic circuit damage. In this video, I delve into some common methods to protect circuit boards. It is important to understand that there are many different ways to achieve this. It usually is a
Read MoreFirst and foremost, everyone here at MicroType Engineering hopes that you are staying safe and healthy through the wild times that we are going through. While we have done our best to maintain constant uptime throughout the quarantine, we did have a small shutdown. Using this time to our advantage, we went to work expanding our electronic circuit board assembly line to a larger space next door. This has more than doubled our assembly space,
Read MoreA common question that new hardware companies have is “how to prototype electronics for our new product idea?” An electronic prototype is an important first step for any company – whether large or small – developing a new hardware product or device. Immediately after the prototyping stage comes the MVP (Minimum Viable Product). This is a full-function product ready for sale, with only the minimum amount of features included. The MVP comes directly after the
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