# An Interview with Charles Alexanian

- Show: [The Amp Hour](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour)
- Published: 2019-02-11
- Length: 1h 27m
- Episode: 429
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2019-02-11-an-interview-with-charles-alexanian
- Listen: https://theamphour.com/429-an-interview-with-charles-alexanian/

## Summary

Chris Gammell of Alextronics Controls discusses his family's history in manufacturing irrigation controllers and his pivot into electronics repair, sourcing, and vacuum tube fabrication. He details the challenges of sourcing components, the transition from Eagle to KiCad for PCB design, and the specific technical hurdles of making vacuum tubes in a home workshop. Gammell also explains how his company supports the agricultural industry with reliable, long-life IoT controllers and the importance of trust in B2B relationships.

## Chapters

- [0:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2019-02-11-an-interview-with-charles-alexanian#t=0) Introduction: Chris Gammell and Alextronics Controls
- [1:36](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2019-02-11-an-interview-with-charles-alexanian#t=96) Family Business History and Irrigation Controls
- [19:05](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2019-02-11-an-interview-with-charles-alexanian#t=1145) Electronics Repair and Sourcing Challenges
- [35:11](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2019-02-11-an-interview-with-charles-alexanian#t=2111) Vacuum Tube Manufacturing and History
- [1:07:01](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2019-02-11-an-interview-with-charles-alexanian#t=4021) IoT in Agriculture and Customer Support
- [1:15:29](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2019-02-11-an-interview-with-charles-alexanian#t=4529) Hiring, EDA Tools, and Future Assembly

## Topics

- [Sourcing & supply chain](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/sourcing-and-supply-chain)
- [EDA & CAD tools](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/eda-and-cad-tools)
- [Connected products & IoT](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/connected-products-and-iot)
- [Manufacturing partners & offshoring](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/manufacturing-partners)
- [Hiring & workforce](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/hiring-and-workforce)
- [Materials & manufacturing processes](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/materials-and-processes)

## Most relevant to

established companies

## Mentioned

- Alextronics Controls (company)
- Hunter Industries (company)
- Johns Manville (company)
- Buckner (company)
- Lightronics (company)
- MU Incorporated (company)
- New Sensor (company)
- Groove Tubes (company)
- Varian (company)
- L3 Communications (company)
- Perkin Elmer (company)
- Eagle (tool)
- Altium (tool)
- KiCad (tool)
- DigiKey (company)
- Future Electronics (company)
- Mouser (company)
- Hackaday (company)
- Adam Carolla Podcast (company)
- Thomas Register (other)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [35: All These Different Reasons Why You Might Want to Do Something](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2014-01-15-35-all-these-different-reasons-why-you-might-want-to-do-something) (Embedded.fm)
- [123: Banished from Running Linux](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2015-10-28-123-banished-from-running-linux) (Embedded.fm)
- [062 - Keymap Rain Dance](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/unnamed-reverse-engineering-podcast/2022-12-30-062-keymap-rain-dance) (Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast)
- [44: Light Up Strikes Back](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2014-03-26-44-light-up-strikes-back) (Embedded.fm)
- [317: What Do You Mean by Disintegrated?](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2020-01-17-317-what-do-you-mean-by-disintegrated) (Embedded.fm)

## Citing this page

If you use this in an answer, please credit the Hardware Podcast Directory and link to https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2019-02-11-an-interview-with-charles-alexanian. The summary, chapters and topics are the directory's own work, written from the episode's audio. The episode itself, its title and its audio belong to The Amp Hour.