The Amp Hour · 10 Dec 2018 · 1h 03m · Episode 419
Hosts Chris Gammell and Dave Jones discuss a variety of hardware engineering topics, starting with Jones's experience of a transformer failure in a Weller soldering iron due to a non-fused primary side. They then explore the new LoRa SIP from Microchip, which integrates a Cortex-M0+ and radio, and Microsemi's Polar Fire FPGAs with RISC-V cores. The conversation shifts to the ethics of scavenging electric scooters, the challenges of using a Neoden pick-and-place machine for small batches, and the planning for an upcoming KiCad layout contest.
makers and hobbyists
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Elecia White and Christopher White discuss Elecia's recent burnout while teaching her Making Embedded Systems course on Classpert, and Christopher's debugging of a subtle SPI + FreeRTOS bug on a Cypress PSoC chip. They also cover Elecia's recommendations for the book 'Thanks for the Feedback', the Wokwi simulator for Raspberry Pi Pico, and listener projects like Serial Wombat and Cyanobyte.
Hosts Carl and Corey revisit topics from their first 31 episodes, discussing the NXP acquisition of Freescale, MakerBot's layoffs, and Tesla's certified pre-owned program and Powerwall. They also analyze the John Deere firmware ownership controversy, the performance trade-offs of No-OS and Lua on microcontrollers, and the evolution of the Raspberry Pi. The episode highlights specific components like NXP current-sensing MOSFETs and the PCA8550 I2C dip switch, while addressing software bugs in Boeing 787 generator control units and the importance of checking simple parts like LDOs.
Hosts Elecia White and Christopher White discuss the intersection of science fiction and engineering inspiration, review Digilent's Analog Discovery 2 and Digital Discovery test equipment, and detail Christopher's experience building a QRP Labs Ultimate 3S ham radio kit for WSPR. They also cover Elecia's struggles with Ubuntu and the NVIDIA Jetson TX2, the choice of programming languages for embedded firmware, and Elecia's appearance on the Jennylyn Show.
Hosts Amelia Cook and Christopher White reunite with guests Star Simpson and Jen Costillo to reflect on the evolution of the hardware hobbyist landscape over the two years since their first appearance. Star Simpson, who works at Orion, discusses her wearable device project and her open-source FPGA toolchain initiative called Balboa, while also recounting the challenges of crowdfunding the Octopart reference card. The group analyzes the shifting attitudes toward privacy and security in the Internet of Things, the rise of accessible prototyping tools like 3D printing and Crowd Supply, and the changing ecosystem of development boards including the Odroid and Arduino.
Hosts Elecia White and Chris Svec discuss a variety of embedded systems topics, including the use of the RTL-SDR dongle for software-defined radio and the challenges of low-quality Chinese Ham radios. They analyze the industry's need to 'grow up' regarding security and ethics, citing the ESA Schiaparelli lander failure as an example of integration testing gaps. The conversation also covers the utility of Compiler Explorer (Godbolt.org) for comparing assembly output and addresses the prevalence of imposter syndrome among engineers.
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