Ep011: Weird Keyboards, Salvaging LCD Screens, and Mike Interviews Ivan of Espressif in Shanghai

Hackaday Podcast · 22 Mar 2019 · 1h 07m

What this episode covers

Hackaday editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi review the week's top hacks, including custom mechanical keyboards like Venability, salvaging antique LCD screens with FPGAs, and extracting bismuth from Pepto-Bismol. The episode features an interview with Ivan Grokhotkov of Espressif, who discusses the development of the ESP8266 and ESP32, the challenges of documentation in Chinese semiconductor companies, and hints at a future chip. They also cover DIY RC transmitters, retro-computing festivals, and the debate over teaching computational thinking versus specific coding languages.

Mentioned

Companies
Espressif
Products
Arduino, Venability, Pepto-Bismol, FreeRTOS
Chips
ESP8266, ESP32, NRF24, Raspberry Pi, ESP32-S2
Tools
KiCad, LTspice, Falstad Circuit Simulator, Dip Trace, Xfig, Vivado
Also
Nile Red, Whopper Summit, Trenton Computer Festival, Vintage Computer Festival

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • The Amp Hour · 1h 18m

    An Interview with Jeroen Domburg (Sprite_tm)

    Chris Gammell, a Senior Software Engineering Manager at Espressif, discusses the evolution of the ESP8266 and ESP32 chips and his journey from the Netherlands to Shanghai. He explains how the community's reverse engineering of the ESP8266, including the use of GCC and leaked SDKs, forced Espressif to open up their development ecosystem. Gammell details the technical differences between the ESP8266, designed as a tablet Wi-Fi chip, and the ESP32, designed specifically for IoT with symmetric multi-core capabilities and extensive peripherals. He also covers the challenges of working in China, including visa bureaucracy and the Great Firewall, while highlighting Espressif's strategy of supporting multiple software stacks like Arduino, MicroPython, and their own ESP-IDF.

  • Embedded.fm · 1h 06m

    102: The Deadly Fluffy Bunny (With WiFi)

    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.

  • The Electromaker Show · 27m

    1 Inch HDMI Second Screen, Retro Wall Art, and more!

    Ian from Electromaker presents episode 77, highlighting the new Electromaker Educator series hosted by Robin Mitchell, which covers microcontroller platforms like STM32, AVR, and RP2040. The episode features Aaron Christophel’s project to flash Texas Instruments chips using an ESP32, and discusses the March Electromaker of the Month winners, including a DIY RP2040 Space Mouse and a retro arcade clock. It also covers Mitxela’s 1-inch HDMI second screen hack, the Roendi rotary encoder display on Crowd Supply, and the NXP Cup autonomous vehicle competition.

  • 033 - All Over the Place

    Hosts Jen Castillo and Alvaro Prieto discuss their pandemic-era projects, including Alvaro's recreation of his father's 7400-series digital clock, a USB-C power adapter using a Cypress chip, and a t-shirt quilt. Jen details her reverse engineering of a greeting card chip, her exploration of Chinese manufacturing via Alibaba, and her choreography of a remote dance piece. They also cover the cancellation of hardware conferences like Hackaday Supercon and HackRF, and recommend movies such as 'Mood Indigo' and '3 Idiots'.

  • The Electromaker Show · 27m

    Giant Lego 3D Printing, Self Soldering PCBs, new ESP32 C6 modules, and more!

    The host of The Electromaker Show reviews several maker projects, including Ralph S. Bacon’s exploration of wireless serial debugging, Carl Bugeja’s self-soldering PCB concept, and Ivan Miranda’s giant 3D-printed Lego go-kart. He also highlights the ZS Watch open-source smartwatch, the Puca DSP audio board, the FarPatch wireless debugger, and the newly announced ESP32 C6 module.

The summary, chapters and topics are generated from the episode’s audio by this directory, not written by Hackaday Podcast. The episode itself belongs to its publisher.