Hardware Podcasts

Radiation Chips & Old Package Types - Technocratic Toilet Troubleshooting

The Amp Hour · 8 Nov 2011 · 1h 04m · Episode 68

What this episode covers

Hosts Dave Jones and Chris Gammell discuss troubleshooting techniques, the history of UV erasers for EEPROMs, and the challenges of debugging thermal issues. They also cover the 'Chip of the Week,' a nuclear event detection chip from Maxwell, and NXP's new DIP-packaged Cortex-M0 microcontroller. The conversation touches on engineering career statistics, the value of old package types for prototyping, and the importance of accepting failure in learning.

Most relevant to

makers and hobbyists

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Maxwell, NXP, Freescale, UBM
Chips
Cortex-M0
Also
OMART, DigiKey, Electronic Design

Related episodes from other shows

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • Hackaday Podcast · 55m

    Ep 313: Capacitor Plague, Wireless Power, and Tiny Everything

    Hosts Elliot Williams and Jenny List recap Hackaday Europe, detailing the logistical chaos of the SAO badge production, including customs delays and the heroic work of Voyer Antonich in programming PIC microcontrollers. They discuss a retrospective on the early 2000s capacitor plague, analyzing Asianometry’s theory that thermal design failures, rather than industrial espionage, caused the systemic component failures. The episode highlights several hardware hacks, including a thermal microscope using germanium lenses, inefficient but large-scale wireless power transfer experiments, and the use of PCB spring connectors in passive resistance boxes. Finally, they examine the trend of extreme miniaturization, featuring Mike Roller’s tiny PCB blinky and Texas Instruments’ new ultra-small microcontroller, while noting the potential for extracting rare earth elements from coal fly ash.

    PCB design & layoutMicrocontrollers & dev platforms
    7 chapters

  • Hackaday Podcast · 55m

    Ep 313: Capacitor Plague, Wireless Power, and Tiny Everything

    Hosts Elliot Williams and Jenny List recap Hackaday Europe, detailing badge production logistics, customs delays, and the heroic work of Vojta Antonich in programming SAOs. They discuss a retrospective on the 2000s capacitor plague, attributing failures to thermal design rather than just chemical defects, and highlight a thermal microscope using germanium lenses. The episode also covers inefficient wireless power transfer experiments, PCB spring connectors from Decimo, and Mike Roller's world's smallest PCB blinky using an STM32L0 microcontroller.

    PCB design & layoutDebugging & failure analysis
    8 chapters

  • Hackaday Podcast · 53m

    Ep052: Shorting Components, Printing Typewriter Balls, Taking Time Lapse, and Makerspace Movie Prop

    Hackaday editors Mike Szczys and Elliot Williams discuss several hardware projects, including Elliot's discovery of Chinese clone STM32 microcontrollers (CS32, GD32) on 'Blue Pill' boards that caused programming failures with standard tools. They also explore Top Point TV's zero-ohm jumpers in various SOT packages, which offer creative but risky PCB layout solutions. The episode highlights a 3D-printed Selectric typewriter ball, an ESP32-based time-lapse camera project by Bitlooney that battles a shared GPIO bug, and a detailed look at RF modulation using RTLSDR dongles.

    Microcontrollers & dev platformsPCB design & layout
    8 chapters

  • Hackaday Podcast · 1h 23m

    Ep 375: Rebuilding Tech on Our Terms and the Hero Nerd

    Hackaday editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi discuss the shutdown of the RPiLocator.com tool, a nostalgic time capsule from the chip shortage era. They review listener hacks including a fake bike counter, a graphics upgrade for the Nintendo Entertainment System using a second Picture Processing Unit, and building dynamic RAM from discrete components. The episode also covers a drop-in replacement PCB for the Casio G-Shock watch, DIY robot actuators, and the evolution of the 'hero nerd' archetype in film.

    Prototyping & iterationPCB design & layout
    7 chapters

  • The Spark Gap · 1h 19m

    The Spark Gap - Episode 32

    Hosts Carl and Corey revisit topics from their first 31 episodes, discussing the NXP acquisition of Freescale, MakerBot's layoffs, and Tesla's certified pre-owned program and Powerwall. They also analyze the John Deere firmware ownership controversy, the performance trade-offs of No-OS and Lua on microcontrollers, and the evolution of the Raspberry Pi. The episode highlights specific components like NXP current-sensing MOSFETs and the PCA8550 I2C dip switch, while addressing software bugs in Boeing 787 generator control units and the importance of checking simple parts like LDOs.

    Microcontrollers & dev platformsBatteries & low-power design
    11 chapters

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