Hipster Fodder

The Amp Hour · 25 Aug 2020 · 1h 04m · Episode 506

What this episode covers

Hosts Chris Gammell and Dave Jones discuss a range of hardware engineering and business topics. Gammell shares his experience hiring tutors on Upwork to learn FreeRTOS and nRF52 firmware, while Jones details his decision to downsize his office space and his interest in writing a textbook after discovering a lost 1980s circuit design book. The conversation also covers the SBIR grant program for small businesses, the design of Arrival's electric delivery vans, and solder paste application techniques.

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • 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.

  • Embedded.fm · 1h 09m

    527: At The Jellyfish Conference

    Elecia White and Christopher White discuss career development strategies, including using action verbs and the STAR method for resumes and interviews, while Christopher explores porting Python algorithms to embedded Rust on an nRF52840. Elecia details a DIY origami-based thermoforming process for synthetic fabrics, and Christopher describes building a DIY Recording Equipment Colour Duo 2-Channel Colour Channel Strip Kit, noting soldering errors with a HAKKO desoldering tool. The hosts also share that Embedded.fm won a Communicator Award and received an IEEE nomination.

  • Embedded.fm · 51m

    405: Bacta Tank for Your Brain

    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.

  • Embedded.fm · 1h 20m

    123: Banished from Running Linux

    Bob Coggeshall, co-author of sudo and founder of Small Batch Assembly, explains how he transitioned from a career in software to running a boutique electronics assembly service for makers. He details the technical challenges of automating low-volume PCB assembly, including building a custom pricing engine in Python and integrating with the Octopart Common Parts Library to streamline customer workflows. Coggeshall also discusses his personal projects, such as driving Nixie tubes with high-voltage circuits and using microcontrollers like the ATmega328 and Atmel SAM D20.

  • Embedded.fm · 43m

    293: Skateboard Tricks (Repeat)

    Limor Fried, founder of Adafruit, discusses the company's 13-year history of manufacturing open-source hardware in New York, highlighting recent products like the PyGamer and PyBadge. She explains the engineering philosophy behind TinyUSB, an open-source USB stack developed by engineer Hathach to replace proprietary vendor stacks, and details the business model of supporting a community of 4,000 products. Fried emphasizes that while hardware design is easy, the value lies in firmware, documentation, and tutorials, which she balances with business operations and education.

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.