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Making wearable smart devices smarter, is one of the heavily invested research in the tech industry today. Our guest Henry Crandall, a National Science Foundation graduate research fellow and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Utah talks about his electrical research applied to human health monitoring and diagnosis. He will also briefly talk about his involvement in the IEEE, BioHive Utah, and his exciting role as a student board member in the...

If your startup is building the next great electronic product that will massively disrupt your industry, there is a long development process that eventually culminates in volume production. The transition to volume production often requires multiple prototype spins and development iterations, and it ends with a final round of design optimization before submitting a data package to a manufacturer. In this article, I’ll detail some simple steps...

In a previous project article, I showed how to use the CP2102 from Silicon Labs (and the newer CP2109 by default) to build a USB to serial interface converter module that will plug directly into your computer through a USB A port. These modules can be readily purchased off of Amazon, but their reliability varies, so I added ESD protection everywhere I could on my custom module. In this article, I’m taking this project one step further and...

Quality and reliability are a big deal when designing PCB for assembly. Our guest Tony Lentz, Chemist and Field Applications Engineer at FCT Solder will bring us to the PCB manufacturing space while tackling solder beyond basic thermodynamics and composition. Listen or watch through the end. This is a great opportunity for PCB designers to learn about soldering products that are used for printed circuit board assembly. Listen to this episode:...

These days, most PCBs are not hand assembled, save for specialty components or in order to eliminate a reflow pass. When you get a board assembled on an automated line instead of manual labor, you expect your PCBA to be free of defects. In reality, no PCB assembly process is ever perfect, even with top-of-the-line equipment, and a small percentage of your boards might occasionally face quality issues. However, being aware of issues can help you...

Look around any electronics lab at a college or university, and you’re bound to find some dual inline package (DIP) components lying around. Electronics courses that have a lab component still overwhelmingly use DIP components. They are inexpensive, they can be easily mounted in breadboards without soldering, and they have common part numbers across vendors. Given these points, it makes sense that DIP components are so heavily used in educational...

MCAD CoDesigner allows for seamless collaboration between electrical and mechanical domains and has the exact fit and form factor of your printed circuit board and enclosure. It aids in the ease of adding essential features, such as Holes, Cutouts, Keep-outs, and Placement of Components, through a ribbon panel to your design while keeping it secure in the Altium 365 cloud-based server. Using the built-in version control for your project data and...

Pierce Design’s Ethan Pierce will share his insight into reverse engineering with PCEA. We will also discuss firmware reverse engineering. Listen to the Podcast: Download this episode. Watch the Podcast: Show Highlights: Introduction to Ethan Pierce and a quick preview of his upcoming webinar with the PCEA regarding reverse-engineering How to acquire reverse-engineering skill sets? Retrofitting a system versus creating a net new...

Let’s walk down memory lane and discover how circuit boards are being manufactured back in the 50s. In this episode, we have the pleasure to have Gene Weiner, a true gem in the industry! This is a rare opportunity to learn from an expert who has helped shape the electronics industry for more than 60 years now. Watch through the end, and make sure to check out the show notes and additional resources below. Listen to the Episode: Download...