The Amp Hour · 26 Jul 2021 · 1h 09m · Episode 551
Dave Jones and Chris Gammell discuss the ongoing chip shortages, highlighting how part scarcity forces engineers to redesign products or pay exorbitant prices on the gray market. They review the Luna USB analyzer from Great Scott Gadgets, an open-source tool using an Lattice FPGA for debugging USB 2.0, and critique the Illume COVID-19 home test for its unnecessary electronics and environmental waste. The conversation also covers career advice, including the value of debugging skills, the 'embedded resume' project by Aaron Vorce, and the importance of right-to-repair initiatives like the WAS conference.
early-stage companies
Other shows on the same ground, closest first.
Kate Temkin and Mikaela Szekely from Great Scott Gadgets discuss the challenges and tools of USB reverse engineering. They detail the creation of open-source hardware like the GreatFET and Rhododendron, as well as software tools like USBProxy and the new USB analyzer framework called USB. The conversation covers specific vulnerabilities, such as the Nintendo Switch stack smash, and the difficulties of high-speed signal analysis compared to low-cost logic analyzers.
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'.
Hosts Elecia White and Chris White discuss the 'Zone of Proximal Development' using origami as an analogy for learning to code from scratch. They review news about reanimating dead spiders for robotics and continuous ultrasound imaging, while also addressing the semiconductor inventory glut. The conversation shifts to practical tooling, specifically Elecia's disappointment that her SEGGER J-Link debugger is no longer supported, leading to a debate on future-proofing hardware purchases versus buying cheap.
Hackaday editors Elliot Williams and Mike Szczys discuss a week of hardware hacks, including a Roku TV rooted to drive an Ambilight-style LED setup, a 4-axis 3D-printed camera motion rig using slip rings and ESP32s, and James Bruton’s innovative spherical omniwheel robot. They also cover a VGA-to-composite glitching synth, a scroll saw blade-tracking system using hard drive platters, and a 6-DOF robot arm for non-planar 3D printing. The episode concludes with a community discussion on how the global chip shortage is forcing redesigns and compounding supply chain issues for makers and small businesses.
Antoine van Gelder from Great Scott Gadgets discusses the development of Cynthion, an FPGA-based USB protocol analysis tool, and FaceDancer, a Python library for emulating USB devices. He explains the technical differences between MIDI and USB for digital musical instruments, highlighting latency and timing issues, and details how Cynthion can be used to learn USB standards and debug complex protocol bugs like zero-length packet errors. Van Gelder also shares insights on Great Scott Gadgets' open-source business model and the challenges of implementing robust USB stacks in embedded systems.
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.