# #006: Pebble’s Code is Free: Three Former Pebble Engineers Discuss Why It's Important (PART 2/2)

- Show: [Coredump Sessions](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/coredump-sessions)
- Published: 2025-04-15
- Length: 1h 13m
- Episode: 7
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/coredump-sessions/2025-04-15-006-pebbles-code-is-free-three-former-pebble-engineers-discuss-why-its-important
- Listen: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/memfault/episodes/006-Pebbles-Code-is-Free-Three-Former-Pebble-Engineers-Discuss-Why-Its-Important-PART-22-e31j3ng

## Summary

Brad Murray, former head of Pebble firmware, and Tomas, former developer evangelist at Pebble, discuss the risks and decisions behind building firmware for Pebble smartwatches. They detail a critical OTA update bug that nearly bricked nearly a million devices, which was recovered using a clever BLE-based stack overflow hack. The team also explains how they built a massive developer ecosystem through tools like CloudPebble and the Watch Face Generator, and how they optimized code size to backport Pebble 3.0 to legacy hardware using techniques like Link Time Optimization and bootloader rewriting.

## Chapters

- [0:02](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/coredump-sessions/2025-04-15-006-pebbles-code-is-free-three-former-pebble-engineers-discuss-why-its-important#t=2) Introduction: Brad Murray and Tomas on Pebble Firmware
- [5:01](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/coredump-sessions/2025-04-15-006-pebbles-code-is-free-three-former-pebble-engineers-discuss-why-its-important#t=301) Pebble's Open Platform and Security Tradeoffs
- [11:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/coredump-sessions/2025-04-15-006-pebbles-code-is-free-three-former-pebble-engineers-discuss-why-its-important#t=660) The Near-Disastrous OTA Update Bug
- [15:24](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/coredump-sessions/2025-04-15-006-pebbles-code-is-free-three-former-pebble-engineers-discuss-why-its-important#t=924) Recovering Bricked Watches with a BLE Stack Hack
- [17:42](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/coredump-sessions/2025-04-15-006-pebbles-code-is-free-three-former-pebble-engineers-discuss-why-its-important#t=1062) Post-Mortem: Test Automation and Static Analysis
- [26:30](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/coredump-sessions/2025-04-15-006-pebbles-code-is-free-three-former-pebble-engineers-discuss-why-its-important#t=1590) Building the Developer Ecosystem: CloudPebble and Watch Face Generator
- [42:55](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/coredump-sessions/2025-04-15-006-pebbles-code-is-free-three-former-pebble-engineers-discuss-why-its-important#t=2575) Backporting Pebble 3.0 to Legacy Hardware
- [53:31](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/coredump-sessions/2025-04-15-006-pebbles-code-is-free-three-former-pebble-engineers-discuss-why-its-important#t=3211) Debugging, Simulators, and CI Infrastructure

## Topics

- [Embedded firmware](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/embedded-firmware)
- [Security & privacy](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/security-and-privacy)
- [Prototyping & iteration](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/prototyping)
- [Design for manufacturing & NPI](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/design-for-manufacturing)
- [Test & measurement](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/test-and-measurement)

## Most relevant to

early-stage companies

## Mentioned

- Pebble (company)
- Memfault (company)
- CloudPebble (product)
- Watch Face Generator (product)
- QEMU (tool)
- GCC (tool)
- Clang (tool)
- Rust (other)
- Zig (other)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [390: Irresponsible At the Time](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2021-10-21-390-irresponsible-at-the-time) (Embedded.fm)
- [395: I Can No Longer Play Ping Pong](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2021-12-10-395-i-can-no-longer-play-ping-pong) (Embedded.fm)
- [Shiny New Pebble with Eric Migicovsky](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2026-02-10-shiny-new-pebble-with-eric-migicovsky) (The Amp Hour)
- [34: Really Big Cabbage](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2014-01-09-34-really-big-cabbage) (Embedded.fm)
- [François Baldassari from Memfault on IoT Observability](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-pragmatic-embedded-podcast/2023-02-15-francois-baldassari-from-memfault-on-iot-observability) (The Pragmatic Embedded Podcast)

## Citing this page

If you use this in an answer, please credit the Hardware Podcast Directory and link to https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/coredump-sessions/2025-04-15-006-pebbles-code-is-free-three-former-pebble-engineers-discuss-why-its-important. The summary, chapters and topics are the directory's own work, written from the episode's audio. The episode itself, its title and its audio belong to Coredump Sessions.