Philip McGaw has over a decade of professional electronics experience in EMC, Testing and Research and Development. He lives between Banbury and Daventry in the West Northamptonshire area.
Philip enjoys working within a fast-paced R&D environment, developing innovative solutions to allow for testing complex systems within regulatory framework testing, Hardware in the Loop, or production line testing of prototypes through to final products.
Philip can apply his Electrical and Electronic Systems Engineering background and his skills in 3D Printing, rapid prototyping and Embedded Systems to develop and test innovative hardware solutions for Devices under test, recently this has included Electric Vehicles and Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment. Previously, this also included hardware supplied for testing by customers.
You can view Philip McGaw’s LinkedIn Profile for more information…
Philip McGaw’s Recent Posts
- IPCC Track Width Calculator
Following on from my two IPC 2221 posts, IPC 2221 standard trace widths and the one where I normalised them for KiCad Traces Net classes, I have built an online calculator that you can use to work out the required track width with different parameters. IPC-2221 PCB Trace Width Calculator Current (Amperes): Allowable Temp Rise (°C): Copper Weight (oz/ft²): 0.5 oz (approx 17.5 µm)1.0 oz (approx 35 µm)2.0 oz (approx 70 µm)3.0 oz (approx 105 µm) Display Units: Millimetres (mm) Mils (thou) External Layer (Outer) — Area: — mil² Internal Layer (Inner) — Area: — mil² Calculations are approximations based… Read more: IPCC Track Width Calculator - Programming an ATtiny 1614 using UPDI
The ATtiny 1614 is an 8-Bit microcontroller available in a SOIC-16 form factor. It has 13 available GPIO pins (Not using Reset/UPDI on Pin 10 as a GPIO). This means that it only requires a three-pin header to power and program it. In a previous post, I wrote up how to make a cheap programmer with a small number of external components. The new ATtiny processors use a system called Unified Program and Debug Interface (UPDI). This interface uses the RESET pin to program and/or debug the device. I don’t yet know how to use it to debug, but if… Read more: Programming an ATtiny 1614 using UPDI - Build a UPDI programmer from a USB to UART adaptor
To build a Unified Program and Debug Interface (UPDI) programmer, I started with a USB-2TTL “USB to TTL Serial Communication Conversion Module” from eBay. The chip on the board is a CH342. This is a USB-to-UART/TTL adapter utilising a chip manufactured by WCH (Jiangsu Qinheng Microelectronics), which provides a USB-C interface. The latest drivers for the CH family of chips are available for download on the WCH website. I chose the two-channel version of the USB-TTL converter so that I can use the second channel as TTL UART (RS232) or RS485 in the future. To build my adaptor, I am… Read more: Build a UPDI programmer from a USB to UART adaptor - KiCad Traces Net classes
I have done the following work on Net classes in KiCad, which is derived from what I wrote about IPC 2221 standard trace widths and Creepage and Clearance a while ago. I have been doing some work on my ROV, where I am trying to make two lights for the front of the vehicle. I want these two lights to be as small as possible while still being fairly bright. I am looking to use a CXA1304-0000-000N00B440F LED in each light; these LEDs are 13.35 mm on a side. The PCBs I am looking to use with it are designed… Read more: KiCad Traces Net classes - UART TX/RX Swapping made simple
When designing boards, one of the things I spend a lot of time checking is if my UART transmit (TX) and receive (RX) lines are the right way round, or switched over. When the design gets to the printed circuit board (PCB) level, it can be nearly impossible to rework. Development of firmware requires it to work; then you have to remember to fix it before re-spinning a new design to correct the issue. This is where the UART Poka/Yoke comes in Poka-yoke is a Japanese lean manufacturing technique for “mistake-proofing” processes to aim to achieve zero defects, which would… Read more: UART TX/RX Swapping made simple
Philip McGaw’s previous responsibilities
Projects that Philip McGaw has worked on previously have included:
- Commissioning of the new EMC and electrical test facilities in Banbury, UK.
- Designing EV EVSE test equipment.
- Development of design validation plans (DVP) and procedures for Electric vehicles (EV) components to meet industry standards [ISO 16750, CISPR 25, ECE Regulation 10, ISO 10605, ISO 11452, ISO 7637] and company requirements.
- Performing validation tests for EV components – HV traction inverters, ECU, DC: DC Converters, BMS, ADAS, HMI, etc.
- Performing R&D and functional tests, and fault analysis for new EV component designs.
- Performing tests with the Vector CANalyzer environment and Python.
- Preparation and release of test reports, hardware bug tracking via Atlassian Jira/Confluence
- Webmaster and Technical Support for Freedom Press and their news website, Freedom News. This involved looking after Linux web servers and WordPress.