# 134: Diet-Friendly Dog Food

- Show: [Embedded.fm](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm)
- Published: 2016-01-14
- Length: 1h 08m
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2016-01-14-134-diet-friendly-dog-food
- Listen: https://makingembeddedsystems.libsyn.com/embedded-ep134mp3

## Summary

Eric Hankinson, an instructor at Contextual Electronics and developer at Lean Dog, discusses the embedded software components of his online apprenticeship program. He explains how he uses Vagrant and VirtualBox to create consistent development environments for students using STMicroelectronics Nucleo-F030R8 boards and open-source tools like OpenOCD and KiCad. Hankinson also covers the pedagogical challenges of teaching bare-metal C programming, the role of CMSIS in hardware abstraction, and the transition from Arduino to more powerful microcontrollers.

## Chapters

- [0:06](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2016-01-14-134-diet-friendly-dog-food#t=6) Introduction and Background
- [6:26](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2016-01-14-134-diet-friendly-dog-food#t=386) Contextual Electronics and Course Projects
- [9:27](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2016-01-14-134-diet-friendly-dog-food#t=567) Standardizing Dev Environments with Vagrant
- [13:18](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2016-01-14-134-diet-friendly-dog-food#t=798) Teaching Methodology and Community Support
- [30:29](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2016-01-14-134-diet-friendly-dog-food#t=1829) Lean Dog and Agile Practices
- [38:33](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2016-01-14-134-diet-friendly-dog-food#t=2313) Embedded vs. Application Software
- [46:04](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2016-01-14-134-diet-friendly-dog-food#t=2764) CMSIS and Register-Level Programming
- [57:37](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2016-01-14-134-diet-friendly-dog-food#t=3457) Arduino and Learning Pathways
- [1:01:49](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2016-01-14-134-diet-friendly-dog-food#t=3709) Education and Final Advice

## Topics

- [Embedded firmware](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/embedded-firmware)
- [EDA & CAD tools](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/eda-and-cad-tools)
- [Microcontrollers & dev platforms](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/microcontrollers-and-platforms)
- [Careers & education](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/engineering-careers-and-education)

## Most relevant to

early-stage companies

## Mentioned

- Contextual Electronics (company)
- Lean Dog (company)
- ST-Nucleo-F030R8 (product)
- Vagrant (tool)
- VirtualBox (tool)
- OpenOCD (tool)
- KiCad (tool)
- Arduino (product)
- CMSIS (other)
- HashiCorp (company)
- Eclipse (tool)
- TI SensorTag (product)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [Creating Next-Gen Microcontroller Developer Tools and Equipping the People Who Use Them](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/moores-lobby/2025-04-22-creating-next-gen-microcontroller-developer-tools-and-equipping-the-people-who-u) (Moore's Lobby)
- [Just Add Salt](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2019-12-09-just-add-salt) (The Amp Hour)
- [Why isn't this working?](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2020-02-14-why-isnt-this-working) (The Amp Hour)
- [Ep. 4 |The Future Is Coding: Experts from iRobot and STMicroelectronics](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/moores-lobby/2020-06-25-ep-4-the-future-is-coding-experts-from-irobot-and-stmicroelectronics) (Moore's Lobby)
- [An Interview with Dave Vandenbout - Xceptional XESS Xenagogue](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2014-01-22-an-interview-with-dave-vandenbout-xceptional-xess-xenagogue) (The Amp Hour)

## Citing this page

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