Hardware Podcasts

Call In Show #5

The Amp Hour · 15 Jul 2016 · 1h 05m · Episode 307

What this episode covers

Hosts Chris Gammell and Dave Jones answer audience questions, starting with a student's struggle with engineering math and the practical relevance of calculus in industry. They then address a technical query about grounding bench power supplies, explaining isolation, stacking, and ground loops. The conversation shifts to career advice for technicians seeking EE degrees, followed by a discussion on retro computing, specifically RPN calculators and die photos of chips like the one in the EEVblog micro.

Most relevant to

makers and hobbyists

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
EEV Blog, Contextual Electronics, Altium, Texas Instruments, Intercell, HP
Products
Frieden EC 132

Related episodes from other shows

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • Embedded.fm · 1h 42m

    181: Work on It for Ten Years

    Chris Gammell of Contextual Electronics joins the hosts of Embedded.fm and The Amp Hour for a crossover holiday episode discussing expertise, prototyping tools, and industry trends. The conversation covers the limitations of MicroPython on custom hardware, the value of analog circuit design, and the importance of writing to clarify technical thinking. They also share personal updates on learning calculus, using VR for exercise, and the future of solar energy and automation.

    Careers & educationPrototyping & iteration
    9 chapters

  • Embedded.fm · 58m

    177: Boba Fett Fell Down

    Hosts Elecia White and Christopher White answer listener emails, discussing career advice for self-taught engineers and physics graduates entering the embedded industry, and technical comparisons between ARM Cortex-M and Cortex-A processors. They also address hardware design questions regarding the use of RJ45 connectors for non-Ethernet signals and discuss the potential of Adobe's Project Voco for audio editing. The episode concludes with show announcements, including a SparkFun contest, a planned meetup in Santa Cruz, and recommendations for educational hardware like the SparkFun Tinker Kit, Sphero, and Jewelbots.

    Careers & educationMicrocontrollers & dev platforms
    7 chapters

  • Embedded.fm · 58m

    122: Glue a Board to Your Resume

    Hosts Elecia White and Christopher White discuss the embedded job market, advising engineers to build hardware projects to demonstrate manufacturing knowledge. They explain bypass capacitors using a software buffer analogy, review development tools like Visual Studio and Visual Micro, and offer advice on contracting rates and contract terms. The episode also covers the VW emissions scandal, drone registration regulations, and the hosts' move to a new recording location.

    Careers & educationAnalog & power electronics
    7 chapters

  • Moore's Lobby · 1m

    Don't Miss Season 2 of Moore's Lobby

    Host Daniel Bogdanoff previews Season 2 of Moore's Lobby, launching January 21st, featuring engineering leaders from Virgin Hyperloop, Formula E, and NS Nanotech. The trailer highlights insights from previous guests at NASA, Tesla, Amazon Web Services, iRobot, and Lockheed Martin Space Systems. It teases discussions on power electronics in electric vehicles, the R&D role of motorsport, and common fatal mistakes in product design and market fragmentation.

    PCB design & layoutAnalog & power electronics
    5 chapters

  • Embedded.fm · 1h 20m

    379: Monstrous Cable Corporation

    Tom Anderson, an engineer at Keysight Technologies, discusses the practical realities of embedded hardware for new college graduates, focusing on the nuances of floating I/O pins, tri-state outputs, and latch-up failure modes. He explains the behavior of inductors in switching power supplies and relays, the importance of pull-up/pull-down resistors, and the differences between ADC types, sampling rates, and bandwidth. Anderson advocates for learning from vintage technical literature, such as TubeBooks.org and 'The Art of Electronics,' and shares his methodology for analog circuit design using symbolic algebra and system-level constraints.

    Analog & power electronicsEmbedded firmware
    8 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.