Newsletters

OnTrack Newsletter: Music & Electronics, MCU Selection, Brain Food - October 2019

OnTrack Newsletter: Music & Electronics, MCU Selection, Brain Food - October 2019 OnTrack Newsletter October 2019 VOL. 3 No 5 PianoArc: A Circular Piano Fit for Princes and Mega Stars Earlier this year I met a fascinating designer at the San Diego Altium^® Users Group. Dave Starkey told me about a circular piano he and his partners had designed and built called the Pianoarc. In this interview, learn more about Starkey’s background and how he came to co-create this unique instrument that now graces a Middle Eastern Palace and is Read Article

PianoArc: A Circular Piano Fit for Princes and Mega Stars

PianoArc: A Circular Piano Fit for Princes and Mega Stars Earlier this year I met a fascinating designer at the San Diego Altium Users Group. Dave Starkey told me about a circular keyboard piano he and his partners had designed and built called the Pianoarc. In this interview, learn more about Starkey’s background and how he came to co-create this unique instrument that now graces a Middle Eastern Palace and is played around the world by PianoArc visionary Brockett Parsons, keyboardist for Lady Gaga Read Article

OnTrack Newsletter: Student Hackers, Crosstalk and Design Blogs - August 2019

OnTrack Newsletter: Student Hackers, Crosstalk and Design Blogs - August 2019 OnTrack Newsletter August 2019 VOL. 3 No 4 Major League Hacking Fuels Students Passion for Engineering To bridge the gap between theoretical university-level electrical and computer science education and the kind of practical hands-on experience young engineers need and crave, Jonathan Gottfried co-founded Major League Hacking (MLH). In this interview Jonathan shares the inspiration behind MLH and talks about the impact of the hundreds of Read Article

Major League Hacking Fuels Passion for Engineering Students

Major League Hacking Fuels Passion for Engineering Students Judy Warner: Jon, please share briefly about your background and what inspired you to co-found Major League Hacking. Jonathan Gottfried: I grew up tinkering with technology, but when I went to college to study Computer Science it was so much more academic than the creative building that I loved to do. I switched majors to history, started doing programming work as a consultant on the side, and ended up graduating and becoming a Developer Read Article

OnTrack Newsletter - July 2019 Vol 3. No. 3

OnTrack Newsletter - July 2019 Vol 3. No. 3 OnTrack Newsletter July 2019 VOL. 3 No 3 AltiumLive 2019: The Hat Trick The third annual AltiumLive: Annual PCB Design conference is almost here again and will be located in San Diego and Frankfurt. Learn more about all that’s in store for this year’s event and how we plan to pull off a perfect hat trick! Read Article EIPC: A European Community of PCB Professionals In mid-June, I had the great pleasure of attending my first EIPC Conference in Read Article

EIPC: A European Community of PCB Technology Professionals

EIPC: A European Community of PCB Technology Professionals and Manufacturers In mid-June, I had the great pleasure of attending my first EIPC Conference in Leoben, Austria (pictured above). EIPC (European Institute for the PCB Community) is an organization that has been around for over 50 years and serves the European Electronics Industry and supply chain while maintaining activities that involve the global industry. In this article, I speak with Tarja Rapala, the technical director for EIPC to discuss the purpose Read Article

OnTrack Newsletter: PCB Design Zen, Component Management and Brain Food - June 2019

OnTrack Newsletter: PCB Design Zen, Component Management and Brain Food - June 2019 OnTrack Newsletter – July 2019 VOL. 3 No 3 To view this email as a web page, click here OnTrack Newsletter July 2019 VOL. 3 No 3 AltiumLive 2019: The Hat Trick The third annual AltiumLive: Annual PCB Design conference is almost here again and will be located in San Diego and Frankfurt. Learn more about all that’s in store for this year’s event and how we plan to pull off a perfect hat trick! Read Article EIPC: A European Community of PCB Read Article

The Zen of Electronic Product Design and Wellness

The Zen of Electronic Product Design, Meditation Devices, and Wellness When you think of a hardware startup, chances are your first thought isn’t about a meditation training device. Yet in our very noisy, stressful world, meditation is becoming a pervasive and effective way to reduce stress and improve overall mental wellness. In this article, you’ll learn about how Core Wellness Co-founder, Sarah McDevitt, left Microsoft to launch Core Wellness and develop the Core personal meditation trainer. Judy Warner: Please Read Article

Navigating the Complexities of Component Libraries and Data Management

Navigating the Complexities of Component Libraries and Data Management Keeping your component libraries and data organized, accurate and optimized for team use is critical for all engineers and PCB designers. Unfortunately, it can be extremely tedious and it takes time and energy away from the actual design of the board and products. It’s akin to an artist spending 75% of their time organizing art supplies and only 25% on painting! Below you’ll find a variety of content sources that we hope will help you streamline Read Article

How to Build a Clean and Consistent PCB Data Library

PCB Library Standardization: How to Build a Clean and Consistent PCB Data Library Judy Warner: Cherie, before we get started, please take a moment to define what a “library” is and what the full scope of that entails. Cherie Litson: Most of us would define a “library” as a consistent file of symbols and a consistent file of footprints (decals, land-patterns, etc.) connected with some form of a database. You don’t even need to have the database, just a good schematic symbol file and a footprint file and a method to link them Read Article

Datasheet Reliability with Ben Jordan

Datasheet Reliability with Ben Jordan In this OnTrack episode Judy Warner and Ben Jordan discuss about Datasheet Reliability. Can you trust them? And what does “Gilded” mean? This & more about verifying app notes. Watch the full episode. Read Article

Deep Space Gas Stations Prepare for In-Space Market

Deep Space Gas Stations Prepare for In-Space Market One of our favorite things to do here at Altium is to support entrepreneurs and their innovative startup companies by equipping them with our PCB design tools. Orbit Fab is one such company. In this article, partners Daniel Faber and Jeremy Schiel share their vision for the future of space and the critical need for satellite fueling stations. With help from our partners at Bolt, a technology accelerator, Orbit Fab has developed a preliminary Read Article

Go to Market Fast With Bolt’s In-House Engineering Team

Go to Market Fast With Bolt’s In-House Engineering Team and Accelerators Recently we had the opportunity to get to know Tyler Mincey, the VP of Engineering at Bolt which is a hardware and software accelerator with offices in San Francisco and Boston. In this interview, we talk with Mincey about his passion for engineering and the incredible work being accomplished at Bolt. Their unique model of providing venture capital along with an in-house engineering team continues to fuel a growing portfolio. Bolt is part of Read Article

Young Designer Hits Her Stride at Mil Aero Company

Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions: Young Designer Hits Her Stride at Mil Aero Company Back in August of 2017, a young and impressive PCB designer by the name of Nicole Pacino was featured in this newsletter. Pacino is a second generation PCB designer who has followed in the footsteps of her father who owned, grew and sold his successful design bureau, San Diego PCB. Since the last time she appeared in this newsletter, she has moved to the US East Coast and earned a place on the Cobham Advanced Electronics Solutions design team. At Read Article

OnTrack Newsletter: Tech Predictions, Launching Rockets, and Snapping in a ECAD tool - February 2019

OnTrack Newsletter: Tech Predictions, Launching Rockets, and Snapping in a ECAD tool - February 2019 OnTRack Newsletter February 2019 VOL. 2 No 10 FIVE TECH PREDICTIONS FOR THE NEXT DECADE Duane Benson Predicts What’s to Come in the Next Ten Years This month in the OnTrack Newsletter, we bring you a special guest article from EMS Subject Matter Expert, Duane Benson of Screaming Circuits, in which he shares five technology predictions for the next decade. Benson covers his personal thoughts on what may come in artificial intelligence, highways Read Article

2019 Five Tech Predictions — The Decade of Disruption

2019 Five Tech Predictions — The Decade of Disruption We’re coming in for a wild ride in 2019. The last few years have been pretty crazy, and 2019 looks to continue to amplify this highly innovative and disruptive trend. While some may be nervous about trends in technology such as artificial intelligence, I'm still quite optimistic. The most long-term successful aspects of our civilization are those that rip apart on a regular basis. Frequent disruption allows for people to start anew and create Read Article

Student Rocket Team Oronos Polytechnique Shoots for the Stars with PCB Designs

Student Rocket Team Oronos Polytechnique Shoots for the Stars with PCB Designs In this interview I talk with Nathanael Beaudoin-Dion, Avionics lead for the Oronos Polytechnique Rocket team from Polytechnique Montreal Technical University. Each year in June, Oronos competes in the Spaceport America Cup, the world’s largest rocketry competition which takes place in New Mexico at the only commercial spaceport in the world. Enjoy this article as well as the photos of their rockets and videos from this inspiring team. Judy Read Article