Elon Musk's WARR Hyperloop SpaceX Team Pushes Last Year’s Design Concept Even Further WARR Hyperloop team with Elon Musk after their 2017 win of the Hyperloop Pod competition II. Judy Warner: Please share briefly about the history of the WARR Hyperloop and the Technical University of Munich. Martin Riedel: WARR Hyperloop started out as a group of six students in the fall of 2015 and has since grown to nearly 40 students that compete in the SpaceX Hyperloop Competition every year. WARR Hyperloop is part of a larger student Read Article Bill Brooks Accelerates Design-based Over Tool-based Curriculum Judy Warner: How long have you been designing PCBs and what led you to the profession? Bill Brooks: I’ve been designing boards since about 1970. My father introduced me to electronics. He was an aerospace professional working in R&D at Hughes Aircraft Company, UCSD, and later at Aerospace Incorporated. He decided to open up a printed circuit shop out of our garage in Vista, CA while I was still in junior high school. In 1969 he taught my brothers Read Article Identifying Minimum Trace Spacing and Track Width in PCBs Taking the time to set up routing rules to govern a PCB's minimum trace spacing and width for your layout can be tedious. Many designers would prefer to jump in and start trace routing without going through this setup process first. This can be dangerous though as you may inadvertently route a trace routing at the wrong width, or pack your routing in so tightly that you don’t have the room to make any width corrections later on. The more rigid Read Article Developing 3D Printed Electronics to Minimize PCB Design and Manufacturing Costs After moving to a new city, I couldn’t resist visiting the local library to pick up my library card and explore educational resources. As I walked in, the librarian cheerfully handed me a pamphlet on using a 3D printer. I was thrilled to see how easy it is becoming to access a 3D printer. Once restricted to research universities and high-budget labs, 3D printing is now ubiquitous. 3D printed electronics are also starting to become more reliable Read Article Manufacturing Cost Tradeoffs with FR4 PCBs My frugal nature means that I tend to be a slow shopper. I don’t go to the mall too often, but when I do, I spend too much time weighing the costs and benefits of two different pairs of jeans. Such neurotic behavior will probably annoy your spouse, but it pays to be neurotic when you are debating which material and board thickness to use in your PCB. Most designers consider the PCB fabrication costs associated with FR4 PCBs to be a rather simple Read Article Use Interactive Routing to Mitigate EMI Issues from High-Speed PCB Traces Having a robot clean the house and perform laundry chores continues to elude modern technology given intricate steps to complete each chore. Given the repetitive nature of the chores, you’d think robotic automation would be the perfect application to turn over to a robot. It turns out that cleaning the house and doing the laundry is much more complicated and too advanced for robot understanding. Only simplistic chores, like vacuuming the floor Read Article Rigid-Flex Command Set-up and Layer Stack Design Once you take that nose dive into PCB design, you start to realize how many of your home electronic devices actually work. From DVD drives to laptop monitors, and just about anything that folds, it is all made possible with rigid-flex PCBs. Rigid-flex PCB design can be a tricky beast depending on the software you’re using to create it, but at the end of the design, your printed circuit board will bend and flex like a gymnast. A rigid-flex PCB, at Read Article How Much Does Cad Software Cost and Is It Worth It? We've all been there, we buy bargain products to save money only oftentimes for disappointment. This might happen when that knock-off shirt doesn't fit you properly or the cost CAD software ends up being far from what you were looking for. Although it takes money to make money holds true at times - the question still stands: How much should I invest in this software in order to achieve my desired result and how much does CAD software cost? The Read Article PCB Routing Options to Maximize Design Adaptability Amusement parks often feature small raceways with gasoline-powered, two-passenger mini-cars going around a multi-lane track. Drivers can experience the thrill of steering and accelerating while trying to beat friends or family to the finish line. There’s a catch though. A rail-like barrier positioned in the middle of each lane prevents cars from moving from one lane to another. Consider the amusement park like a circuit: designing the amusement Read Article Specialty Product Design and Manufacturing Duplicates Success Across Campaigns No matter what stage of business you’re at, if one of your designs has turned from circuit board ideation to fully manufactured product then you’ve already accomplished a great deal. But, the hardware arena that you reside in will always have opportunities for product development, expansion, and growth. There are a handful of considerations that should be taken into account before you get too giddy. Product designs, to be specialized, have to Read Article Surface Finishes on Printed Circuit Boards with Mike Carano, Chemist and Expert on Surface Finishes Curious about what Surface Finish to use? Many PCB Designers are! Lucky for you we have an expert in Surface Finishes on this episode of the OnTrack Podcast to give you insights and tips, listen now. Read Article Menu Changes and Switching Units in Altium Designer When I was a kid, the one place I always felt safe and secure was at home. Regardless of what happened outside, my childhood home was my refuge and I wanted to live there with my parents forever. Of course, as I grew older, I longed to do new things, meet new people, and have new experiences, but to do so meant changing where I lived. Just as I had to embrace change to grow as a person, it is sometimes necessary to make changes in order to Read Article Strength of BOM Applications for Everything from Hobby Boards to Large Systems I’m currently building a new tool shed and I was fortunate enough to find some plans for exactly what I need. Or at least I thought that I was fortunate until I started noticing some errors in the plans. At one point it instructed me to cut two door headers to a precise measurement, but that measurement was wrong and the headers ended up too short for assembly. I must confess, I may have uttered a few choice words concerning those shed plans on Read Article Sporty 3D Component Part Models Drivers for Layout in PCB Design Driving for most of us is an intuitive utility given the majority’s need to move around our current infrastructure. Many of us don’t think twice as we grab the car keys and head to the store for another latte. Although complex machines, drivers intuitively rely on fingertip commands to move the car down the road. Using PCB layout tools could be the same with cleverly built platforms emphasizing ease of use over knowledge of intricate operational Read Article PCB Layout Considerations: Differential Pair Length Matching Tolerance and Avoiding Violations Detangling my daughter’s hair reminds me of detangling PCB traces. Everything needs to be set into layers, and crossover should be avoided. Detangling the hair of a 9-year old doesn’t take as long as routing PCB traces, but the results are just as painful if not done correctly. Ideally, though, your daughter’s hair isn’t causing short-circuiting of electronics or small fires to spark up. Routing traces in a layout is arguably the most important Read Article Using Project Templates for PCB Design Development If you've ever had the opportunity to use a bush ax to clear out an overgrown plot of land, then you have glimpsed the hardship and difficulties that early pioneers experienced as they carved paths across North America. The efforts of these pioneers were an exhibition of the best aspects of the human spirit. Although being a member of that group is no longer possible, you do have the means to be a trailblazer for the fellow PCB designer. When Read Article Mary Elizabeth McCulloch and Project Vive’s Medical Device Innovations Listen to this OnTrack Podcast Episode and find out how Mary and Project Vive are using low cost sensors and changing lives by leading the development of innovative medical devices and technology. 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