# 062 - Keymap Rain Dance

- Show: [Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/unnamed-reverse-engineering-podcast)
- Published: 2022-12-30
- Length: 1h 16m
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/unnamed-reverse-engineering-podcast/2022-12-30-062-keymap-rain-dance
- Listen: https://unnamedre.com/episode/62

## Summary

David Ray of Cyber City Circuits explains his company's transition from a kitchen-table hobby to a small-scale manufacturing hub for electronics and escape room props. He details a specific reverse engineering workflow for PCBs involving high-resolution photo scanning, GIMP, and Inkscape to recreate designs in KiCad, illustrated by his TI-83 calculator project. The conversation also covers the challenges of legacy component obsolescence, the utility of online communities like electronics Twitter, and the technical aspects of building interactive escape room hardware.

## Chapters

- [0:29](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/unnamed-reverse-engineering-podcast/2022-12-30-062-keymap-rain-dance#t=29) Introduction and Cyber City Circuits Overview
- [5:49](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/unnamed-reverse-engineering-podcast/2022-12-30-062-keymap-rain-dance#t=349) Reverse Engineering Workflow: Scanning and KiCad
- [25:20](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/unnamed-reverse-engineering-podcast/2022-12-30-062-keymap-rain-dance#t=1520) TI-83 Calculator Reverse Engineering Project
- [55:08](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/unnamed-reverse-engineering-podcast/2022-12-30-062-keymap-rain-dance#t=3308) Escape Room Prop Fabrication and Sensors
- [1:01:05](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/unnamed-reverse-engineering-podcast/2022-12-30-062-keymap-rain-dance#t=3665) Community, Tools, and Future Outlook

## Topics

- [PCB design & layout](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/pcb-design)
- [Debugging & failure analysis](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/debugging-and-failure-analysis)
- [Design for manufacturing & NPI](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/design-for-manufacturing)
- [Maker community & events](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/maker-community)
- [Sourcing & supply chain](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/sourcing-and-supply-chain)

## Most relevant to

early-stage companies

## Mentioned

- Cyber City Circuits (company)
- HackerBoxes (product)
- KiCad (tool)
- GIMP (tool)
- Inkscape (tool)
- SVG2Shenzhen (tool)
- TI-83 (product)
- Texas Instruments (company)
- Sensor Watch (product)
- Joe Grand (other)
- Digimon (product)
- ESP32 (chip)
- ChatGPT (tool)
- Morbid Entertainment (company)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [#440.3 - Interviews with Anool Mahidharia, AJ Keller, Uriel Guy, Ste Kulov, and Craig Bishop at KiCon 2019](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2019-05-04-440-3-interviews-with-anool-mahidharia-aj-keller-uriel-guy-ste-kulov-and-craig-b) (The Amp Hour)
- [The Spark Gap - Episode 24](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-spark-gap/2015-01-07-the-spark-gap-episode-24) (The Spark Gap)
- [Ep 262: Wheelchair Hacking, Big Little Science at Home, Arya Talks PCBs](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hackaday-podcast/2024-03-15-ep-262-wheelchair-hacking-big-little-science-at-home-arya-talks-pcbs) (Hackaday Podcast)
- [The Tandy Train](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2025-02-12-the-tandy-train) (The Amp Hour)
- [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/unnamed-reverse-engineering-podcast/2022-12-30-062-keymap-rain-dance. 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 Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast.