The Toggle Boggle

The Amp Hour · 5 Mar 2018 · 1h 04m · Episode 382

What this episode covers

Dave Jones and Chris Gammell discuss the importance of rigorous testing and skepticism in engineering, illustrated by Jones's experience with a 'free energy' claim and a test jig failure for his 'Toggle the Bot' project. They analyze the collapse of UK electronics retailer Maplin, Amazon's acquisition of Ring (and its subsidiary Blink) for its low-power chip technology, and Microchip's acquisition of Microsemi. The hosts also debate user interface design for power supplies, the value of Gantt charts in hardware development, and Gammell's personal efforts to learn embedded firmware using tools like the J-Link debugger and TI development boards.

Mentioned

Companies
Amazon, Maplin, Radio Shack, Adafruit, SparkFun, Pimoroni, Jcar, Bantam Tools, Other Mill, Glowforge, TI, LifeX, Microchip, Microsemi, Atmel, Actel, Xilinx, Altera, DigiKey, Oshpark, Keithley, DigitalOcean
Products
Ring, Blink, Rigol, Toggle the Bot, BeagleBone, Echo
Chips
iCE40
Tools
J-Link
Also
AEV Blog, Contextual Electronics, Shark Tank, Jason Kreidner, Robert Nelson, Jerry Ellsworth, Ben Krasnow, Carl von Möller, The Art of the State of Electronics, Andy Goh, Clifford Wolf, The Prepared, Zach, Spencer, user testing, Patreon, STEM-based charities

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