Chris and Elecia talked through how security holes can get explored on a fictional product. Thanks to an Embedded listener who enjoyed hearing from Jacob Martinez about helping young adults have access to technology, we have a grant to match donations to DigitalNEST up to $2500. Donate here: give.digitalnest.org/embeddedfm We talked through OWASP Top 10 Embedded Application Best Practices but OWASP Internet of Things and OWASP Mobile Security are also very useful. GREAT explanation of buffer ove...
Dec 06, 2019•1 hr 3 min•Ep 312•Transcript available on Metacast Phoenix Perry ( @phoenixperry ) spoke with us about physical games. Phoenix is CTO of DoItKits ( @DoItKits ). More about Phoenix: Bot Party Her site: PhoenixPerry.com She enjoyed Obelisk Gate by NK Jemisin Physical games are sometimes called Alt Ctrl such as at the Alt Ctrl Game Jam . Phoenix co-founded Code Liberation with Catt Small , Nina Freeman , and Jane Friedhoff . “Code Liberation catalyzes the creation of digital games and creative technologies by women, nonbinary, femme, and girl-ident...
Nov 28, 2019•55 min•Ep 204•Transcript available on Metacast Rick Altherr ( @kc8apf ) spoke with us about firmware security and mentoring. Rick is a security researcher at Eclypsium . His personal website is kc8apf.net . Rick’s deeply technical dive into reverse engineering car ECUs and FPGA bitstreams was on the Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast, episode 24 . He also spoke with Chris Gammell The Amp Hour 357 about monitoring servers, many many servers. Firmware security links: STRIDE threat model OWASP Top 10 Security Risks OWASP IoT Firmware Analysis ...
Nov 22, 2019•1 hr 8 min•Ep 311•Transcript available on Metacast Aimee Lucido ( @AimeeLucido ) is a software engineer and children’s book author. Her first book is Emmy in the Key of Code about music, learning to code, and fitting in. We spoke with Aimee about writing, programming, publishing, and putting beautiful words together. You can get a copy of Emmy in the Key of Code from Booksmith , IndieBound , Barnes & Noble , Target , or Amazon . The music playlist can be found in Google Play or Spotify . Aimee’s website is aimeelucido.com . She also writes cross...
Nov 15, 2019•1 hr 12 min•Ep 310•Transcript available on Metacast Pete Staples of Blue Clover Devices ( bcdevices.com , @theiotodm ) spoke with us about tools for manufacturing hardware. Some posts and products from Blue Clover Devices: PLT Spec Sheet and ICT System How to write PLT Board Test Plans (using YAML) PCB Design Tips and More PCB Design Tips Flying Probe Testers in a Nutshell Zephyr - an OS for IoT BC Devices github Behind the scenes at factories: Shenzhen Tena RT3188 HDMI Stick Factory Tour Inside a PCB Soldering Factory - in China Thank you to our...
Nov 08, 2019•55 min•Ep 309•Transcript available on Metacast Jacob Martinez ( @jacobotech ) spoke with Elecia about DigitalNEST ( @DigiNEST ), a non-profit devoted to giving high school and college age students access to technology, job training, and career development. DigialNEST is based in the agricultural communities of Salinas and Watsonville, CA. Students who work through the course tracks at DigitalNEST can be invited to join the BizzNEST consulting group. The conference we spoke of was NEST Flight ( nestflight.org ), held in September in Watsonvil...
Nov 01, 2019•48 min•Ep 308•Transcript available on Metacast Chris and Elecia explain when and why to use an operating system on a microcontroller (real-time or not). Thank you to our Embedded Patreon supporters, particularly to our corporate patreon, InterWorking Labs ( iwl.com ).
Oct 24, 2019•59 min•Ep 307•Transcript available on Metacast Dr. Loretta Cheeks ( @loretta_cheeks ) spoke with us about implicit bias in text, machine learning, getting a PhD, and STEAM outreach via Strong Ties ( strongtiesaz.org ). Also see: Loretta’s research on identifying implicit bias ( The thumbnail image is from her work .) Lotetta’s TEDx talk on AI and remembering Yoshua Bengio wiki Thank you to our Embedded Patreon supporters for Loretta’s mic, particularly to our corporate sponsor, InterWorking Labs ( iwl.com )....
Oct 17, 2019•1 hr 2 min•Ep 306•Transcript available on Metacast Amanda “w0z” Wozniak ( @kainzowa ) spoke with us about her career through biomedical engineering and startups. Amanda contributed a chapter to Building Open Source Hardware: DIY Manufacturing . (A book we spoke with Alicia Gibb about in # 289 .) Amanda’s chapter was titled Design Process: How to Get from Nothing to Something. For more information about the companies we discussed, check out Amanda’s LinkedIn page ....
Oct 03, 2019•1 hr 5 min•Ep 305•Transcript available on Metacast What do you get when you connect the open-source reverse engineer of Valve’s Steam Controller and the main electrical engineer of said device? Jeff Keyzer ( @mightyohm ) and Gregory Gluszek ( @greggersaurus ) join us to talk about building and taking apart devices. Greg’s project is on github as the OpenSteamController . He used pinkySim , an ARM simulator. Jeff has left Valve and is now a freelance engineer as well as selling kits on mightyohm.com . The incredibly useful comic on how to solder ...
Sep 26, 2019•1 hr 16 min•Ep 304•Transcript available on Metacast Jay Carlson ( @jaydcarlson ) is back on the show to discuss education and the techniques he’s using to teach embedded systems. Jay has some great posts on his jaycarlson.net blog. The one related to this show was entitled “ How I Teach Embedded Systems .” Jay was also on Embedded 226: Camp AVR Vs. Camp Microchip where we discussed his fantastic survey of micros in The Amazing $1 Microcontroller . We also mentioned one of his recent posts about 3 cent micros . Teaching has many different approach...
Sep 19, 2019•2 hr 46 min•Ep 303•Transcript available on Metacast Jen Costillo ( @rebelbotjen ) joins Elecia and Christopher to discuss their experiences interviewing (both as interviewer and interviewee). Elecia did an hour long webinar on how to conduct technical interviews. In this show, she mentions a good post-interview ratings system . Google discovered that their brainteasers are not a very effective way to interview. Despite the news that swearing is good for you, we tried to bleep everything. Also, it is minesweeper , not minefield. What were we think...
Sep 12, 2019•1 hr 22 min•Ep 51•Transcript available on Metacast Christopher interviews an embedded systems engineer with ~25 years of experience across medical, scientific, industrial and consumer products. He asks about career trajectory, field stories, and assorted destruction. Making Embedded Systems: Design Patterns for Great Software Tony’s show about Kalman Filters was 43: A Lot of High-Falutin’ Math...
Sep 05, 2019•1 hr 11 min•Ep 302•Transcript available on Metacast Carter Frost spoke with us about the Cabrillo College Robotics club and winning the 2019 NASA Swarmathon . Cabrillo has many student clubs . Cabrillo Robotics has a Facebook page and is @CabrilloRobotic on Twitter. The club gets its funding from the Cabrillo Foundation (to donate, make sure to note “Cabrillo Robotics Club” in your contribution). Please RSVP for the Embedded 300 party on Eventbrite.com....
Aug 29, 2019•1 hr 7 min•Ep 301•Transcript available on Metacast Christopher and Elecia talk about the upcoming Embedded 300 party (Sept 7th!), podcasting, and listener emails. Please RSVP for the party. If you didn’t hear the link in the show or don’t recall it, contact us . Thank you to iRobot for sending us Root Robots as prizes! Embedded Patreon Merchandise! We send the Samson Meteor as our guest mic. Thank you for listening!...
Aug 22, 2019•1 hr 1 min•Ep 300•Transcript available on Metacast Monk Eastman ( @MonkFunkster ) joined us for an enlightening conversation about hardware compliance engineering. We covered the basics of CE, FCC, UL, and battery certification. We mentioned that Alan Cohen’s Prototype to Product: A Practical Guide for Getting to Market has a good overview of certification. Alan was on Embedded 269: Ultra-Precise Death Ray . For a deeper view of compliance engineer, Monk suggested this book: Electrical Product Compliance and Safety Engineering . Listener Skippy ...
Aug 15, 2019•1 hr 5 min•Ep 299•Transcript available on Metacast Eric Brunning ( @deeplycloudy ) returns to talk about doing science in the field in this crossover episode with the Don’t Panic GeoCast ’s John Leeman ( @geo_leeman ). Eric is a Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at Texas Tech University specializing in storm electrification and lightning. We spoke with Eric on 268: Cakepan Interferometry about lightning and using baking goods as measurement devices. Eric was also on GeoCast 134: Launching Balloons out of a UHaul . We spoke with John about his Ph...
Aug 09, 2019•1 hr 27 min•Ep 298•Transcript available on Metacast Chris Svec ( @christophersvec ) spoke to us about how hope can improve our software and work environments. Chris is the author of Embedded Software Engineering 101 blog and has been on the show several times since his first appearance in 78: Happy Cows . He mentioned Seth Godin’s Three Wishes post . We talked attentional focus and passing basketballs . Details for the Embedded Cats and Hacks party are in the show. If you can’t attend, well, maybe you can still get a mug ( zazzle ). If you can at...
Aug 02, 2019•1 hr 13 min•Ep 297•Transcript available on Metacast Shruthi Jaganathan spoke with us about recycling, machine learning, and the Jetson Nano ( @NVIDIAEmbedded ). More about the Green Machine , the computer vision, machine learning, augmented reality way to sort your lunch leavings. The code is available . The system was on a Jetson TX2 developer kit and Shruthi has been moving it to the physically smaller and only $99 Jetson Nano developer kit ( buy ). Shruthi has been getting into AI with the Jetson Two Days to a Demo as well as NVIDIA’s free Get...
Jul 25, 2019•46 min•Ep 296•Transcript available on Metacast This week we talk about CircuitPython ( @CircuitPython ) with @adafruit ’s Kattni Rembor ( @kattni ) and Scott Shawcroft ( @tannewt ). The suggested first board is CircuitPlayground Express with LEDs, sensors, and buttons. CircuitPython is also available for many other boards including the BLE Feather (NRF52832). For a basic introduction take a look at What is CircuitPython and see some example scripts . To dig a little deeper, check out the many resources in Awesome CircuitPython . The whole th...
Jul 18, 2019•1 hr 12 min•Ep 295•Transcript available on Metacast Mike Harrison ( @mikelectricstuf ) challenged us to a PIC fight on Twitter . Surprisingly, no blood was shed and we mostly talked about LEDs and art installations. Mike’s YouTube Channel and his website electricstuff.co.uk His professional hire-him-to-work-on-your-neat-stuff site is whitewing.co.uk For driving LEDs, Mike likes the TI TLC5971: 12-Channel, 16-Bit ES-PWM RGB LED Driver with 3.3V Linear Regulator . Mike will be at 2019 Hackaday SuperCon !...
Jul 11, 2019•1 hr 5 min•Ep 294•Transcript available on Metacast Limor Fried of Adafruit spoke with us about engineering, education, and business. Some new boards we talked about include the PyGamer and PyBadge (which also has a lower cost version ). TinyUSB , an open and tiny USB stack from Hathach. In addition to the many excellent tutorials there are some interesting business related posts on Adafruit Learn : How to Build a Hardware Startup and How to Start a Hackerspace Want to get more involved with the extensive, wonderful, and supportive Adafruit commu...
Jun 27, 2019•44 min•Ep 293•Transcript available on Metacast Christopher ( @stoneymonster ) and Elecia ( @logicalelegance ) babble about their current projects involving ants, guitars, machine learning, and party planning. A video of Christopher’s ants Some tweet threads about our tour of Santa Cruz Guitar Company . Arrival (also: very old wood ) Wood is awesome Adding science to precision craft Elecia has been reading Hands-On Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn, Keras, and TensorFlow by Aurélien Géron. While the 2nd edition preview is on O’Reilly’s elect...
Jun 20, 2019•54 min•Ep 292•Transcript available on Metacast Karl Auerbach of InterWorking Labs spoke with us about how the internet works. We talked about domain name services ( DNS being the primary one), registries and registrars , domain thieves , and the History of the Internet project. Karl runs his own (non-DNS) domain name service on his site www.cavebear.com . The site also includes notes from his time on the ICANN board ( such as this one where they talk about redemption periods)....
Jun 13, 2019•1 hr 24 min•Ep 291•Transcript available on Metacast We spoke with Phillip Johnston ( @mbeddedartistry ) of Embedded Artistry about embedded consulting, writing about software, and ways to improve development. In the Embedded Artistry welcome page , there is a list of Phillip’s favorite articles as well as his most popular articles. Some of Phillip’s favorites include: Embedded Rules of Thumb Improving SW with 5 LW Processes Learning from the Boeing 737 MAX saga We also talked about code reviews and some best practices . The Embedded Artistry news...
Jun 06, 2019•1 hr 14 min•Ep 290•Transcript available on Metacast Alicia Gibb ( @pipix ) joined Elecia to talk about open source hardware, the OSHW association ( @ohsummit ), using trademarks for quality control, and light-up LEGO blocks. Alicia is the editor and author of Building Open Source Hardware: DIY Manufacturing for Hackers and Makers . It is a handy resource for any manufacturing. Alicia is the director of the Blow Things Up Lab , part of the Atlas Institute at the University of Colorado Boulder . Light up LEGO blocks are available at Build Upons . T...
May 30, 2019•1 hr 15 min•Ep 289•Transcript available on Metacast Christopher ( @stoneymonster ) and Elecia ( @logicalelegance ) discuss embedded systems education and project documentation. Elecia wrote about her love of notebooks on the https://www.embedded.fm/blog-index . yEd , for when you don’t have Visio. Asciiflow.com , for when you don’t have yEd (or you want to put diagrams in your comments) We talked about many different documents and tried to note design vs implementation, product vs engineering vs user, and why we wanted them. We didn’t mention mec...
May 10, 2019•1 hr 4 min•Ep 288•Transcript available on Metacast Crossing machine intelligence, robotics, and medicine, Patrick Pilarski ( @patrickpilarski ) is working on smart prosthetic limbs. Build your own learning robot references: Weka Data Mining Software in Java for getting to know your data, OpenIA Gym for understanding reinforcement learning algorithms, Robotis Servos for the robot (AX is the lower priced line), and five lines of code: Patrick even made us a file (with comments and everything!). Once done, you can enter the Cybathlon . (Or check ou...
May 02, 2019•1 hr 12 min•Ep 187•Transcript available on Metacast Kate Compton ( @GalaxyKate ) spoke with us about casual creators, Twitter bots done cheap and quick, and the creativity that is within each of us. Kate’s website is galaxykate.com . Her Phd dissertation defense is interesting, see it on youtube.com . She is joining UCSC’s CROSS to do more work on casual creators and open source software. (We talked to Carlos Maltzan, the head of CROSS in 285: A Chicken Getting to the Other Side .) Tracery is an open source story generator using a specific gramma...
Apr 25, 2019•1 hr 22 min•Ep 287•Transcript available on Metacast Colin O’Flynn ( @colinoflynn ) spoke with us about security research, power analysis, and hotdogs. Colin’s company is NewAE and you can see his Introduction to Side-Channel Power Analysis video as an intro to his training course. Or you can buy your own ChipWhisperer and go through his extensive tutorials on the wiki pages. ChipWhisperer on Hackaday ColinOFlynn.com Some FPGA resource mentioned: Fpga4fun.com TinyFpga.com MyHdl.org (Python!)...
Apr 18, 2019•1 hr•Ep 286•Transcript available on Metacast 
