Hardware Podcasts

An Interview with Vic Aprea - Federated Firmware Functionalism

The Amp Hour · 22 May 2015 · 1h 32m · Episode 250

What this episode covers

Vic Aprea of Wicked Device discusses his journey from Lockheed Martin to building the Air Quality Egg, a distributed sensor network for monitoring air pollution. He details the technical challenges of using low-cost metal oxide sensors, the decision to manufacture 1,000 units in-house after failing to find a contract manufacturer for that volume, and the architectural shift from a modular 'federated' firmware design to self-contained units with Wi-Fi. Aprea also recounts his experience building high-altitude weather balloons for Project Blue Horizon and the regulatory hurdles involved.

Most relevant to

early-stage companies

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Wicked Device, Lockheed Martin, Mancorp, Spec Sensors
Products
Air Quality Egg, Project Blue Horizon, Wildfire
Chips
AVR, RFM 12B, ENC 28J60, CC3000
Tools
Arduino, Eagle

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