Ep019: Extreme Clock Accuracy, Mobius Gears and Planetary Stunts, Jamming All Fobs, Pi in Your Wii

Hackaday Podcast · 17 May 2019 · 40m

What this episode covers

Hackaday editors Mike Szczys and Elliot Williams review the week's top hacks, including Mike's digital hourglass built with an ESP32 and cellular automata, and Darren Schwanky's 3D-printed planetary gear transmission. They discuss Michael Osman's analysis of an analog failure in the Great Scott Gadgets HackRF1 production run and Rick McDonald's ultra-accurate GPS clock using an FPGA to eliminate microcontroller jitter. The episode concludes with a look at a neighborhood keyfob jamming incident in Ohio and an investigation into the Supermicro supply chain controversy.

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • Embedded.fm · 1h 06m

    498: To Consume Stickers

    Hosts Elecia White and Christopher White discuss personal projects, including Christopher building a high-frequency GPS logger for a radio-controlled airplane using an ESP32 and Arduino, and Elecia’s journaling habit. They also cover listener questions on breaking into embedded software, the necessity of personal projects for engineers, and strategies for preventing burnout. The episode concludes with a technical discussion on designing event-driven serial communication stacks for bare-metal and RTOS environments.

  • The Amp Hour · 1h 03m

    It Works With Option Number 5

    Dave Jones and Chris Gammell discuss a useless wrist-worn multimeter, the educational value of visual tools like Blender and quantum diamonds, and the pitfalls of camera review content. They detail Dave's struggles with a DI hybrid solar inverter's drifting internal clock and Chris's hack day project implementing a remote shell for Zephyr OS devices using Golioth. The conversation concludes with a comparison of Australian and US electrical systems and a lesson on hysteresis from a car's low-temperature warning.

  • The Amp Hour · 58m

    Artisanal Crystals

    Chris Gammell of Contextual Electronics and Dave Jones of EEVblog discuss the logistical nightmares of shipping trade show prototypes, including Gammell’s lost luggage at Embedded World and Jones’s hand-carried artisanal crystal oscillators. Gammell details a failure where he blew up cheap boost converter modules by incorrectly using a source measure unit with an active load, causing control loop oscillation. The hosts also review new hardware like the Arduino Giga and Beagle Connect, and discuss the rising costs of industrial real estate and shipping logistics for small businesses.

  • The Amp Hour · 1h 12m

    An Interview with Travis Goodspeed

    Travis Goodspeed, an independent hardware hacker and creator of the GoodFet and GoodWatch, discusses his history of open-source projects and the communities they spawn. He details the technical challenges of the GoodWatch, including using the TI CC430 chip for low-power paging and overcoming hardware bugs in the real-time clock. Goodspeed also explains how he reverse-engineered the MD380 radio firmware to add promiscuous mode and how the GoodFet evolved into the GreatFET for USB emulation and security testing.

  • The Amp Hour · 1h 09m

    Feed the Mouse

    Dave Jones and Chris Gammell discuss the ongoing chip shortages, highlighting how part scarcity forces engineers to redesign products or pay exorbitant prices on the gray market. They review the Luna USB analyzer from Great Scott Gadgets, an open-source tool using an Lattice FPGA for debugging USB 2.0, and critique the Illume COVID-19 home test for its unnecessary electronics and environmental waste. The conversation also covers career advice, including the value of debugging skills, the 'embedded resume' project by Aaron Vorce, and the importance of right-to-repair initiatives like the WAS conference.

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