Roger Linn ( @roger_linn ) gave us new ideas about musical instruments, detailing how wonderful expressive control, 3D buttons, and keyscanning can be. Roger’s company is Roger Linn Design . We talked extensively about the LinnStrument , some about the AdrenaLinn for guitar, and only a little bit about the analog drum machine Tempest . A key matrix circuit is a popular way to handle a large number of buttons but it falls prey to n-key rollover . Roger adds force sense resistors to this ( FSR exa...
Mar 02, 2018•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 236
We spoke to author Robin Sloan ( @robinsloan ) about his books and near-future science fiction. Robin wrote Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore and Sourdough . Robin’s website is robinsloan.com . Go there for some short stories, sign up for his newsletter and check out his new ‘zine (also at wizard.limo ). Oh! Don’t forget his blog, including a description of his neural net for audio generation and for writing . Some books Robin suggested: Home: A Short History of an Idea by Witold Rybczynshi Ancil...
Feb 21, 2018•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 235
Dustin Franklin of NVIDIA ( @NVIDIAEmbedded ) spoke with us about the Jetson TX2 , a board designed to bring AI into embedded systems. Dusty wrote Two Days to a Demo , both the original supervised learning version and the newer reinforcement learning version . In general, check out Dusty’s github repo to see what’s new. Also, The Redtail project is an autonomous navigation system for drones and land vehicles based on the TX2. The NVIDIA GPU Technology Conference is in San Jose, CA, March 26-29, ...
Feb 14, 2018•51 min•Ep. 234
Chris and Elecia chatted about listener emails, and other stuff and things. Elecia wrote a book called Making Embedded Systems , if you want to see the chapter about interrupts and timers, hit the contact link on embedded.fm . We also recommend our blog , Chris Svec wrote about the MSP430 from a microprocessor point of view ( ESE101 ) and Andrei Chichak wrote about an ST processor with a more pragmatic and C focused view ( Embedded Wednesdays ). You can support the podcast through Patreon . Kalm...
Feb 09, 2018•44 min•Ep. 233
We spoke with Jackson Keating ( @jacksonakeating ) about Bluetooth Low Energy, going over GATTs layouts and the general BLE usage. While Jackson prefers the Bluetooth spec as the best reading explanation, Elecia liked the Adafruit BLE introduction . She wrote about some of her initial experiences with different chips and Chris Svec wrote about BLE roles . We all agreed that the examples and tutorials from your chip vendor is a good place to get experience. A random UUID generator is uuidgen on M...
Feb 02, 2018•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 232
Tim O’Reilly ( @timoreilly ) talks about economics, books, and the future. Check out Tim’s new book, WTF: What’s the Future and Why It’s Up to Us . And yes, this is Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly books . Elecia’s Making Embedded Systems has a great-eared nightjar, but she’s finally adjusted to a modern dinosaur on her cover....
Jan 25, 2018•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 231
Sunshine Jones ( @Sunshine_Jones ) spoke with us about synthesizers, electronics, and philosophy. Sunshine’s music is most easily found at TheUrgencyOfChange.com . His writing is at Sunshine-Jones.com . We talked about Sunshine’s User’s Guide to the Roland SE-02 . That includes Ahmed, a track produced using only the SE-02. Sunshine also wrote about building a polysynth . The intro music is an excerpt from LELEK, released on Air Texture Vol. V. The exit music is Fall In Love Not In Line, released...
Jan 17, 2018•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 230
Nick Kartsioukas ( @ExplodingLemur ) spoke with us about information security, melting down spectres, lemurs, and sensible resolutions. Nick recommends Aumasson’s Serious Cryptography (also available from NoStarch ) as a good orientation. (Offline, he also recommended Shneier’s Secrets and Lies .) When thinking about security, you need to develop your threat model ( EFF ) and not panic ( Mickens ). As a user of the internet, there are some getting started guides ( Motherboard , EFF , Smart Girl’...
Jan 12, 2018•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 229
The Amp Hour and Embedded join up to send a holiday letter to listeners. Chris G is ever improving Contextual Electronics . Chris W has a new band: 12AX7 . Elecia still has a book: Making Embedded Systems . Amp Hour episodes mentioned in this one: 372: Where Chris and Dave talk about 2017 304: Alexa jokes 281: The first Amp Hour / Embedded show, with call ins 256: The first time Chris W was on the Amp Hour 187: Elecia joined the Amp Hour for the first time Embedded episodes mentioned: 223: Where...
Jan 03, 2018•2 hr 45 min•Ep. 228
Anthony Navarro ( @avnavarro42 ) of Udacity ( @udacity ) spoke with us about learning. We talked about the Dreyfus model of skill acquisition (an education-oriented technical readiness level ) and a little about on trunk skills vs. leaf skills . Elecia took Udacity’s term 1 of Self-Driving Car Nanodegree and is planning to take the free AI for Robotics course next. Anthony is enjoying soldering lessons via Boldport (hear #171: Perfectly Good Being Square and Green ). Anthony noted there is a fre...
Dec 21, 2017•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 227
Jay Carlson (@jaydcarlson), author of The Amazing $1 Microcontroller, joined us to talk about comparing microcontrollers and determining our biases. This was an in-depth comparison of different micro features. Jay is an electrical engineer specializing in electronics design and embedded programming ( contact ). His blog is new and interesting. We talked to SEGGER’s Dirk Akeman about JLink on #218: Neutron Star of Dev Boards . Please note that our Patreon model has shifted to monthly instead of p...
Dec 14, 2017•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 226
Maria Gorlatova spoke with us about how the combination of devices and cloud computing will change the world as we know it. Maria’s bio , blog , and LinkedIn page . Other topics: Federated Learning from Google AWS Greengrass from Amazon Black Mirror from Netflix Note: we really should have talked about Amazon and FreeRTOS . I heard another podcast might have mentioned it. We’ll try to get more info soon....
Dec 07, 2017•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 225
Windell Oskay ( @Oskay ) of Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories ( @EMSL ) told us about co-authoring a book: The Annotated Build-It-Yourself Science Laboratory . Some great EMSL links: A signed copy of Windell's book Dis-integrated 555 timer kit Candle flicker LEDs Food in specimen jars EMSL blog post Spherical pen plotter ( EggBot Pro! ) The book Chris brought up was Thinking Physics . Windell is also on Google Plus . Contest to get Windell's signed book has already ended!...
Nov 29, 2017•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 124
Andrei Chichak joins Elecia and Christopher to do a deep dive into the world of interrupts. Andrei writes on our blog: Embedded Wednesdays . He has written specifically about interrupts in multiple ways: general introduction , buttons and debouncing , peripheral data transfer via DMA , and so on). The knock-knock joke comes from Chris Svec’s Embedded.fm blog post on interrupts . Jack Ganssle on debouncing buttons...
Nov 22, 2017•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 224
Christopher ( @stoneymonster ) and Elecia ( @logicalelegance ) chat about listener questions and things they’ve been up to. A listener turned Chris on to Ray Wilson and his Music From Outer Space website on DIY analog synths and book Make: Analog Synthesizers . After collecting parts for a total DIY, he found and built a neat kit: Kastle Synth (as heard on the show) and has connected it to his Roland SE-02 Analog Synthesizer (on Amazon). BTW, his ham radio WSPR kit is the Ultimate 3 in case you ...
Nov 16, 2017•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 223
Jonathan Beri ( @beriberikix ) spoke with us about his double life: Particle.io product manager by day, maker by night (and weekends). Jonathan wrote a chapter about piDuino5 Mobile Robot Platform in JavaScript Robotics . Product manager resources from product.careers and Ken Norton's Newsletter . For an alternate take, there is a good cartoon about effective product management from Henrik Kniberg . For getting into open source, see the guide from Github . Also, there is a newi-sh consortium, th...
Nov 10, 2017•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 222
Author Jimmy Soni ( @jimmyasoni ) spoke with us about his biography of Claude Shannon, founder of information theory and digital circuit theory. A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age by Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman. For an introduction to the book, read their post 10,000 Hours With Claude Shannon: How A Genius Thinks, Works, and Lives . Rome's Last Citizen: The Life and Legacy of Cato, Mortal Enemy of Caesar by Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and th...
Nov 02, 2017•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 221
Ben Hencke ( @im889 ) spoke with us about OHWS, Tindie, and blinking lights. Ben sells his Pixelblaze WiFi LED controller on his ElectroMage store on Tindie . It is based on the ESP8266 and uses the DotStar (APA102) lights . To hear John Leeman’s trip report on the Open Hardware Summit (OHWS), listen to Don’t Panic Geocast, Episode 140 – “Juicero of Tractors” Ben’s websites are bhencke.com and electromage.com . Go there if you want to see some of Ben’s projects, including Synthia. You can also f...
Oct 27, 2017•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 220
Josh Bleecher Snyder ( @offbymany ) joined us to talk about PayPal's Beacon , being acquired, the Go programming language, BTLE, computer vision, and working at a large company after founding small ones. Bluetooth Low Energy: A Developer's Handbook by Robin Heydon TI CC2540 BTLE module Learning OpenCV: Computer Vision by Gary Bradski and Adrian Kaehler Gatt is a Go package for building Bluetooth Low Energy peripherals ( video description by Josh from GopherCon 2014) Card.io Machine learning's Th...
Oct 19, 2017•1 hr 6 min
Kelly Shortridge ( @swagitda_ ) spoke with us about the intersection of security and behavioral economics. Kelly’s writing and talks are linked from her personal site swagitda.com . Kelly is currently a Product Manager at SecurityScorecard . Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman What Works by Iris Bohnet Risky Business , a podcast about security Teen Vogue’s How to Keep Your Internet Browser History Private Surveillance Self-Defense from EFF , including security for journalists as mentioned ...
Oct 12, 2017•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 219
Dirk Akeman of SEGGER ( @SEGGERMicro ) joined us to talk about debugger specifics. Ozone standalone debugger for use with J-Links SystemView visualization tool for RTOS and system debugging Jlink Products Turning an ST-Link on a development board into a J-Link We recently did two other shows on debugging: a general intro with Alvaro Prieto and one with a focus on the development-system’s debugger software interface with Pierre-Marie de Rodat . Herd immunity and find a flu shot And, yes, we did b...
Oct 06, 2017•53 min•Ep. 218
Bob Skala of Interactive Instruments spoke with us about very large servo motors, wind tunnels, and staying current in tech. Hydraulic Press YouTube channel (and our favorite video ) The Wright Brothers by David McCullough Other good tech podcasts included The Amp Hour and HamRadio 360 WorkBench Chris talked about getting into WSPR in 197: Smell the Transistor but we first talked about it in 76: Entropy is For Wimps . The new WSPR mode he mentioned is called FT8 (google it). And a note from Bob:...
Sep 29, 2017•56 min•Ep. 217
Carmen Parisi ( @FakeEEQuips ) joined us to talk about electronics and podcasts. Carmen works on switching regulators. If you want to know more, he sent along some very basic application notes: How to Apply DC-DC Step Down Regulators (Analog Devices) and Switching Regulator Fundamentals (TI). The digital communication method with these switchers is the I2C-like PMBus . If all those make sense, dive a little deeper with chapter 9 of the online and free Linear Circuit Design Handbook . Carmen says...
Sep 22, 2017•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 216
Alvaro Prieto ( @alvaroprieto ) joined us to talk about the basics of debugging, from software to hardware. Some of the programmer devices we talked about: SEGGER JLink and Black Magic Probe . Chris mentioned a visual frontend for gdb called "Vulcan" but which is actually called Voltron . (He's got graphics on the brain). How did we forget to mention the six stages of debugging ? Alvaro Prieto and Jen Costillo's new podcast on reverse engineering ! And on Twitter as @unnamed_show . Alvaro's Chee...
Sep 14, 2017•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 215
Kristen Dorsey explained MEMS sensors: how do they work, how they are made, and what new ones we expect to see in the future. Kristen’s website is kristendorsey.com . She is a professor of engineering at Smith College and runs the MicroSmithie . MEMS stands for microelectromechanical systems ( Wiki ). Used in some sensors, Galistan is a room-temp liquid with interesting properties ( Wiki ). A few interesting MEMS applications: Micronium : a tiny resonator making music 2-stroke gas engine Pinball...
Sep 07, 2017•54 min•Ep. 214
Gretchen Bakke spoke with us about the future of power generation and transmission. Her book is The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future . Gretchen is a professor of anthropology at McGill University . Gretchen’s website The book’s Facebook page Grechen’s first book is Anthropology of the Arts: A Reader...
Aug 31, 2017•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 213
Kwabena Agyeman joined us to talk about making OpenMV ( @OpenMVCam ), an easy-to-use camera and control module with built-in machine vision functions, all interfaced via MicroPython . To learn more about computer vision, Kwabena suggested looking at PyImageSearch or reading the April tags code as it is a good introduction to image manipulation and matrix operations. Some other interesting links: Ferrari World, view from satellite Cloud Atlas (on Netflix ) DIY Robotics from Chris Anderson: DIY Ro...
Aug 24, 2017•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 212
Dennis Jackson spoke with us about making the career shift from software to embedded. Dennis buys James Grenning’s Test Driven Development in Embedded C for his new hires and often recommends Elecia’s Making Embedded Systems . His tip that everyone should know was “Learn make!” and he has a reference for that: Why Use Make . He suggested Joel Spolsky’s reading lists from Joel On Software , even the ones that don’t obviously apply. Additional suggested-reading articles: 30 Pitfalls for Real Time ...
Aug 17, 2017•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 211
Alan Yates ( @vk2zay ) told us about his entries to the 2017 Flashing Light Prize . Alan's entries involved making a light bulb and dripping charge . Alan works at Valve . He told us about making virtual reality hardware in Embedded episode 162: I Am a Boomerang Enthusiast . Hackaday SuperCon is Nov 11-12, 2017 in Pasadena....
Aug 10, 2017•47 min•Ep. 210
Pierre-Marie de Rodat ( @pmderodat ) joined us to talk about how debugger software works (and what compilers tell the debugger). Pierre-Marie works for AdaCore on GNATcoverage (among other things). His github repo is pmderodat . Note that the AdaCore sponsored Make with Ada competition is running right now but you still have time to enter! Last year’s winner, Stephane Carrez with EtherScope, made an Ethernet monitor for an STM32 board ( github ). GDB supports Python scripting!?!!! DWARF is the m...
Aug 03, 2017•53 min•Ep. 209
