Hardware Podcasts

102: The Deadly Fluffy Bunny (With WiFi)

Embedded.fm · 27 May 2015 · 1h 06m

What this episode covers

Charles Lohr, an electrical engineer at Unity Technologies and prolific hardware hacker, discusses the ESP8266, a $5 Wi-Fi module that revolutionized his hobbyist projects by allowing direct programming rather than just AT command bridging. He details the chip's architecture, including its external flash boot process, GCC toolchain setup, and limitations like 96KB of RAM, while sharing his experiences building the Neon FM arcade game and exploring audio-visual algorithms like ColorChord. Lohr also reflects on the transition from garage prototyping to commercial production, the importance of community feedback from Hackaday, and the financial realities of being a maker.

Most relevant to

makers and hobbyists and early-stage companies

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Espressif, Electrodragon, Adafruit, SparkFun, Hackaday, Unity Technologies, Planet Labs
Products
Neon FM, ColorChord, Particle Electron
Chips
ESP8266, WS2812, FTDI, AVR, STM LSM9DSO
Tools
Arduino IDE, GCC

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