Hardware Podcasts

An Interview with Timothy Lamb

The Amp Hour · 25 Mar 2016 · 1h 05m · Episode 292

What this episode covers

Chris Gammell, an embedded developer and electrical engineer at Spectral Motion, discusses the unique challenges of creating practical special effects for films and theme parks, such as the Hellboy movies and Disneyland parades. He explains how tight deadlines and budget constraints force a reliance on off-the-shelf components like Teensy microcontrollers and SparkFun breakouts rather than custom manufacturing. Gammell details specific failures, including hydraulic actuators shearing off during Robot Combat League and the fragility of flat flex cables, while highlighting his use of visual programming tools like Max MSP and Kinect sensors for animatronics.

Most relevant to

early-stage companies

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Spectral Motion, SparkFun, Adafruit
Products
Hellboy, Kinect, Arduino, Game Boy
Chips
Teensy, SID chip
Tools
Max MSP

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