In a surprising turn of tables, Christopher White (@stoneymonster) joins the show as a guest to talk about his career, burnout, and musical instruments. Christopher attended Harvey Mudd College for his undergrad mathematics degree then got a Master’s degree in physics at San Jose State University . Some things he has worked on include: Multicast OSPF LISP OCT His current band is 12ax7 ( 12ax7.fm ). The outro music is a track called “Solstice”....
Kate Temkin (@ktemkin) explained USB: how to get started, general orientation, useful tools, and when you’d use it in embedded systems. Kate’s website is ktemkin.com . She works at Great Scott Gadgets . References for USB: USB in a Nutshell USB Complete by Jan Axelson USB Embedded Hosts: The Developer’s Guide by Jan Axelson USB Specification, Chapter 9: USB Device Framework USB Stacks we talked about: TinyUSB from Adafruit Lufa Cortex libopencm3 For the host side: libusb Open Source VIDs are ava...
Philana Benton (@TechnoPHILiANA) spoke with us about mentoring: how to be a good mentor, what to expect, and what not to do. If you’d like to try mentoring, sign up for Philana’s DivTekSpace ( divtekspace.org ). You can do a resume review, a mock interview, give career advice, and/or refer students to your company. Philana’s home page is philanaaurelia.com We also mentioned imentor.org...
Joel Sherrill (JoelSherrill) spoke with us about choosing embedded operating systems and why open source RTEMS (RTEMS_OAR) is a good choice. Embedded #307: Big While Loop : Chris and Elecia talk about when and where they’d use RTOSs Embedded #93 : Delicious Gumbo: Joel gave an introduction to the RTEMS RTOS Joel works at OAR Corp ( oarcorp.com ) on RTEMS ( rtems.org ). RTEMS runs on many development boards including the BeagleBone, Raspberry Pi, and two FPGA boards: ARM ZYNQ-7000 and the Arty Bo...
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 ....
Matt Godbolt (@mattgodbolt) joined us to talk about assembly code, becoming a verb, 6502s, exploring compilers, and application binary interfaces. Compiler Explorer can be found at godbolt.org . The code is on github ( compiler-explorer/compiler-explorer ). Matt also has jsbeeb, a BBC Micro (6502) simulator. You can try it out at bbc.godbolt.org . Its code and more information is on github ( mattgodbolt/bbc-micro-emulation ). Matt recently gave a video presentation about jsbeeb for ABUG . Some o...
Bailey Steinfadt (@baileysteinfadt) spoke with us about the makerspaces, communities, following many paths, and misbehaving robots. Bailey works at Dojo Five and Stone Path Engineering . Area 515 is a non-profit maker space in the Des Moines, Iowa area. They supported their local emergency services with over 6000 face shields. If you are looking for something to do with your 3d printer, look at One Shot Bias Tape Maker and the how to use it video . Bailey recommended the Makers On Tap podcast an...
Doug Harriman of Simplexity (@SimplexityPD) spoke with us about motors, controllers, and designing mechatronic systems. Simplexity (or if you want to contact them) Doug recommends Control Systems Engineering by Norman S. Nise . Elecia recommends Notes on Diffy Qs by Jiří Lebl from American Institute of Mathematics list of free and approved math textbooks . They both like the 3 Brown 1 Blue YouTube channel. If you liked the part about how to choose a motor, you might want to watch Doug’s Webinar ...
Dr. Katy Huff (@katyhuff) spoke with us about nuclear engineering, effective software development, and the apropos command. Katy wrote an O’Reilly book describing Python software development to scientists: Effective Computation in Physics: Field Guide to Research with Python . She has been involved with Software Carpentry . Katy is a professor at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering. She uses Bell and Glasstone’s Nuclear Reactor Th...
Chris Svec (@christophersvec) chatted with us about going from engineer to manager and working from home. Chris had many book recommendations (these are affiliate links): Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green (fiction) Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink The Manager's Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change by Camille Fournier Resilient Management by Lara Hogan The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering by Frederick P. Brooks Jr....
Matt Godbolt ( @mattgodbolt ) spoke with us about settling arguments with Compiler Explorer . March Micro Madness is here! Compiler Explorer comes in different flavors: https://rust.godbolt.org/ https://d.godbolt.org/ https://go.godbolt.org/ https://gcc.godbolt.org/ You can see the beta version by putting a beta on the end: https://gcc.godbolt.org/beta/ This a fully open source project. You can read the code and/or run your own version: https://github.com/mattgodbolt/compiler-explorer https://gi...
Kate Stewart (@_kate_stewart) of the Linux Foundation spoke with us about the Zephyr operating system (@ZephyrIoT) . Some Zephyr docs: Getting Started Guide Supported boards Two projects using Zephyr: Open Artificial Pancreas System ( openaps.org ) Zephyr on a Hearing Aid talk at Embedded Linux Conference 2019...
Christopher (@stoneymonster) and Elecia (@logicalelegance) discuss listener questions about USB, thesis projects, prototype iterations, motivation, and processor cores. Chris has been using audiomovers.com to mix audio remotely in real time.
Daniel Situnayake (@dansitu) spoke with us about machine learning on microcontrollers. Dan is the author of TinyML: Machine Learning with TensorFlow Lite on Arduino and Ultra-Low-Power Microcontrollers . You can read the first several chapters at tinymlbook.com . TinyML is a part of TensorFlow Lite. See the microcontroller getting started guide . Dan works for Edge Impulse (@EdgeImpulse) which is making tools for easier machine learning integration at the edge. Their tools are free and they also...
Erin Talvitie of Harvey Mudd College spoke with us about machine learning, hallucinating data, and making good decisions based on imperfect predictions. Paper we discussed: Self-Correcting Models for Model-Based Reinforcement Learning Erin’s grant: Using Imperfect Predictions to Make Good Decisions For a reinforcement learning book, Erin suggests Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction by Richard S. Sutton and Andrew G. Barto or the lecture series by David Silver . For a machine learning book, E...
John Saunders (@NYCCNC) spoke with us about building a Johnny Five robot on his NYC CNC YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/saunixcomp) . You can find all of the Johnny Five build videos on a playlist or check out the NYC CNC page . As mentioned, Input Inc did a lot of the preliminary work. John recommends books: How to Win Friends and Influence People The E-Myth Revisited John is also the founder of Saunders Machine Works (they have a contact page). How Johnny Five got his name...
Adam Wolf (@adamwwolf) of Wayne and Layne (www.wayneandlayne.com) spoke with us about making kits, museum exhibit engineering, working on KiCad, and extraterrestrial art philosophy. Adam has a personal blog on www.feelslikeburning.com/blog/ as well as a website adamwolf.org . Adam co-wrote Make: Lego and Arduino Projects If you want to know how to contribute to KiCad libraries, check out their instruction page: kicad-pcb.org/libraries/contribute/ We also mentioned: Evil Mad Scientist’s Guide to ...
Professor Ayanna Howard of Georgia Tech joins us to talk about robotics including how androids interact with humans. Some of her favorite robot include the Darwin , the Nao , and, for home-hacking, the Darwin Mini . Ayanna has a profile on EngineerGirl.org , a site that lets young women ask questions of women in the engineering profession. Elecia has been working on a typing robot named Ty, documented on the Embedded.fm blog . It uses a MeArm, on sale in July 2017 at Hackaday.com , with coupon n...
Carmen Parisi spoke with us about changing jobs from a semiconductor specialist at TI to an electrical engineering generalist at Wasatch Photonics. Carmen was previously on Embedded 216: Bavarian Folk Metal and formerly was the host of The Engineering Commons podcast Carmen works at Wasatch Photonics making Ramen Spectrometers . Spudger...
Ramiro Montes De Oca spoke with us about modular electronics, chiplets, and his company aThing.io athing.io Chiplets Project Tinkertoy (movie) is a 1953 US Navy project on automated manufacturing of modular electronics. Ramiro mentioned his accelerator: CoFoundersLab Accelerator...
Jason Derleth of the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts Program spoke with us about what it takes to win a NIAC award. NIAC program homepage Some of the accepted NIAC studies Key dates : Note: Solicitations open in June 2020! Apply to NIAC A guide for NSPIRES, the payment system We first heard about NIAC talking to Ariel Waldman. Her niacfellows.org site has some advice and encouragement for applying. Ariel was on Episode 255 of the show. Elecia’s one-page overview of Curved-Crease Origami and Fl...
Chris Gammell (@Chris_Gammell) of The Amp Hour and Contextual Electronics joined Christopher and Elecia to talk about firmware, learning, and books. Chris is the host of The Amp Hour , a podcast about electronics and electrical engineering. Chris is also the founder of Contextual Electronics , where you can go to learn how to create electronics. Chris has a long running blog called Analog Life, found on his webpage chrisgammell.com , Chris is learning firmware as part of his consulting business....
Chris (@stoneymonster) and Elecia (@logicalelegance) chat about the year 2038, their projects, their new finds, and future shows. The year 2038 problem is real. Elecia read some of this tweet thread about it. Single file libraries list on github: ( https://github.com/nothings/single_file_libs ), including the STB image handling library Chris was originally looking for. Chris is working on a MIDI project with a NUCLEO-144 (STM32F303ZE) board and various breakout boards from Adafruit and Sparkfun ...
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 ...
Darryl Yong (@dyong) is a mathematics professor at Harvey Mudd College (and former classmate of ours, also at HMC). He is working with HMC’s Clinic Program , putting real industry projects in front of teams of college students. He’s also teaching number theory to prison inmates and helping teachers in the chronically underfunded Los Angeles Unified School District. Darryl writes about his career in education at Adventures in Teaching ( profteacher.com ). You can read about his experiences with t...
We were joined in the studio by the Evil Mad Scientists Lenore Edman ( @1lenore ) and Windell Oskay ( @oskay ). Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories ( @EMSL ) produces the disintegrated 555 Timer kit and 741 Op-Amp kit . These were made in conjunction with Eric Schlaepfer, who also created the Monster 6502 . EMSL also makes the Eggbot kit and AxiDraw not-kit (and mini-kit ). For a history of the pen plotter, check out Sher Minn’s Plotter People talk on YouTube . (They have too many neat things to lis...
Professor Barbara Liskov spoke with us about the Liskov substitution principle , data abstraction, software crisis , and winning a Turing Award . See Professor Liskov’s page at MIT , including her incredible CV ....
Chris and Elecia talk with each other about non-work activities including music, office rearrangement, and origami. The Solarbotics Squid Hunting CearouSol Kit Samson S-patch plus 48-Point Balanced Patchbay Waldorf Blofeld Synthesizer EarthQuaker Devices Rainbow Machine V2 Polyphonic Pitch-shifting Modulator Pedal (with Magic knob) Artelino is a Japanese print auction house...
Mohit Bhoite ( @MohitBhoite ) makes functional electronic sculptures from components and brass wire. We spoke with him on the hows and whys of making art. Mohit’s sculptures , including the Tie Fighter . More on his instagram: mohitbhoite Jiri Prause has a wonderful tutorial on how to make simpler freeform electronics on Instructables . Peter Vogel is another artist making phenomenal freeform electronics. Leonardo Ulian uses electronic components in his art (his don’t function but wow). Advice f...
Robert J. Lang spoke with us about origami, art, math, and lasers. Robert has many origami books, here is a subset: Origami Design Secrets: Mathematical Methods for an Ancient Art (the one we talked about most, has the hummingbird crease pattern) Twists, Tilings, and Tessellations: Mathematical Methods for Geometric Origami (his new one, a textbook!) Origami in Action: Paper Toys That Fly, Flap, Gobble, and Inflate (not a theory book, just fun folds) Origami Sea Life (not mentioned but probably ...
