MEP EP#258: Chainsaws, Wasps, Doom, and Gloom

MEP EP#258: Chainsaws, Wasps, Doom, and Gloom
Parker PCBA Lead Times in Q1 2021 Supply chain disruption in 2020 started with the Lunar New Year and quickly extended into the COVID-19 2021 LNY falls between February 9 to February 16 COVID-19 Vaccines Logistic capacity being reserved for the vaccine distribution 10 Day service at MF will be the biggest hit. Guaranteed 10 day service will be disabled on January 13th and will resume on February 16th. On Dec. 31, 2020, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) allowed the exclusion for 2-layer and 4-layer printed circuit boards HS code to expire. Any orders for 2- and 4-layer products going forward or that have not yet been received into the U.S. will have a tariff surcharge if built in Mainland China. Other interesting PCB related things Copper – the price of copper has increased 68% YOY Gold – the price of gold has increased 22% YOY Resin – cost of epoxy resin has risen 40% since the recent fires at Epoxy Resins factories in China and Korea UL aims to put a security rating on every connected device Categorizes products according to an ascending five-level scale: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond. For consumer level devices this could take hold if customers pay attention to markings. Do customers look for UL markings? If not who does? The seller/store? Stephen Covid-19 5G Chip Diagram NOW THIS IS NEWS! Is everyone getting more metal? Conspiracy theorists in Italy are warning the public about a ‘5G Chip’ they claim has been planted in COVID-19 vaccines However, the widely circulated image of the chip in question has been outed as a reworked schematic for the Boss Metal Zone pedal Best response to this : “Excellent. Reassured to know that 5G relies on op-amps and some 1n4148 diodes. Proper old school. None of that digital and microprocessor nonsense. I’ll take one in each arm.” Boss metal zone uses a very interesting gyrator circuit within a non inverting opamp configuration Dual gyrator to simulate two inductors to ground. Must be for filtering to get “the right shitty sound” A very interesting frequency response with multiple peaks One before clipping and two after - Interesting choice