An Interview with Jason Cerundolo

The Amp Hour · 20 Mar 2017 · 1h 09m · Episode 340

What this episode covers

Jason Cerundolo, a hardware engineer at CastAR, discusses the company's transition from its Kickstarter origins to a Series B fundraising phase while developing an augmented reality gaming system. He details the technical challenges of the headset's optical design, sensor fusion, and the decision to partner with Chinese manufacturers for the hub and wand. Cerundolo also shares insights from his personal projects under Reclaimer Labs, including a massive LED panel driver, a connected thermocouple for lab equipment, and a deep dive into the complexities of USB-C power delivery and protocol implementation.

Mentioned

Companies
CastAR, Reclaimer Labs, Playground Global, Magic Leap, Teledyne LeCroy, MacroFab, Adafruit, TI
Chips
Fairchild FUSB302, Particle Photon

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • Embedded.fm · 1h 21m

    156: Black Knight 2000

    Jeri Ellsworth, president of CastAR, discusses the company's mixed reality headset, which uses a belt-mounted console to keep weight and heat off the user's head. She details the decision to refund an early Kickstarter campaign to pivot from a PC peripheral to a self-contained device, a move funded by Playground Global. Ellsworth also outlines CastAR's hiring strategy, emphasizing whiteboard interviews for practical engineering problems over trivia, and their focus on social, tabletop-style gaming experiences.

  • Embedded.fm · 1h 07m

    23: Go For Everything I Want

    Jeri Ellsworth, co-founder of Technical Illusions, discusses the development and Kickstarter launch of CastAR, a projected augmented and virtual reality system. She details the technical breakthroughs that solved motion sickness, including the use of retro-reflective materials and custom FPGA-based tracking, and explains the decision to fund via Kickstarter rather than venture capital to maintain control. Ellsworth also reflects on her time building hardware at Valve, her history with the Commodore 64 toy, and the challenges of transitioning from research to shipping physical products.

  • Embedded.fm · 1h 06m

    7: Lights, Camera, Electrons

    Josh Chan and Theron Pondicherry, founders of Light Up, explain their magnetic electronics kit designed to teach elementary and middle school students how circuits work without soldering. They detail the hardware's magnetic connections, the integrated augmented reality smartphone app that visualizes electron flow and debugs errors, and the inclusion of an Arduino-compatible microcontroller block. The founders discuss their journey through the HAXLR8R accelerator in Shenzhen, their successful Kickstarter campaign which exceeded its $50,000 goal, and their strategy for scaling production and distribution.

  • Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast · 2h 03m

    026 - You Can Lose in so Many Colors!

    Jeri Ellsworth, founder of Tilt Five, discusses her journey from reverse engineering Commodore 64 chips for the DTV toy to launching an augmented reality tabletop gaming platform. She details the technical challenges of emulating legacy silicon quirks, the manufacturing failures in China, and her strategy of using viral marketing to drive early sales. Ellsworth also shares insights on her current startup's upcoming Kickstarter, the importance of genuine brand personality, and her favorite tools for hardware debugging and assembly.

  • 033 - All Over the Place

    Hosts Jen Castillo and Alvaro Prieto discuss their pandemic-era projects, including Alvaro's recreation of his father's 7400-series digital clock, a USB-C power adapter using a Cypress chip, and a t-shirt quilt. Jen details her reverse engineering of a greeting card chip, her exploration of Chinese manufacturing via Alibaba, and her choreography of a remote dance piece. They also cover the cancellation of hardware conferences like Hackaday Supercon and HackRF, and recommend movies such as 'Mood Indigo' and '3 Idiots'.

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.