Afleveringen
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Welcome, Massimo Banzi of SuperModerno and co-founder of Arduino
Introduction and SuperModerno: Massimo introduces himself as a “friendly nerd” and discusses his new project, SuperModernoThe project aims to explain the “behind the scenes” of technology to prevent people from becoming “slaves to the platform”The History of Technology: Massimo expresses his passion for technology’s history, emphasizing non-American innovators to show Europeans they can also lead in technology, citing the UK-based origins of the Arm processorThe Legacy of Olivetti: He highlights Olivetti (founded in 1908), which moved from typewriters to creating the Programma 101, the first desktop computer used by NASA to compute orbits for the Apollo programDesign as a Differentiator: Olivetti was the first tech company to apply design to everything (products, posters, and architecture)This inspired Massimo’s concept of the “invisible touch”, the idea that consistent, intentional design creates a unique connection with users and gives a company a competitive edgeThe Interaction Design Institute Ivrea (IDII): Massimo’s path led him to IDII, located in the former Olivetti research building, where he transitioned from a two-week sabbatical to a four-year stayLearning by Making: To help students with no electronics background, Massimo drew on how he learned as a seven-year-old (“learning by making”) to remove the friction of interacting with technologyThe Founding Team: He met Tom Igoe (ITP) and David Cuartielles, and they realized students were afraid to be creative because they feared “blowing up” expensive tools like the Basic StampThe “Pizza and a Beer” Price Point: Massimo aimed for a hardware cost of 20 Euros, roughly what a student would spend on a pizza and a beer, to encourage experimentationBuilding the Platform: Along with David Mellis, the team adapted Processing (a language for artists) by “surgically” replacing Java with C++ to create the Arduino IDEIvrea Manufacturing: Leveraging the industrial base of Ivrea and Torino (the “Detroit of Italy”), Massimo was able to find local PCB manufacturers and assemblers just a short drive awayFrom Hacking to AVR: Massimo’s early work involved hacking satellite TV PIC chips for soccer fans, but mentor Bill Verplank encouraged him to use AVR microcontrollers because they could be programmed simply in CEnabling Creators: Massimo shares stories of how Arduino enabled others, such as Josef Prusa, who started with Arduino as a teenager before building his global open-source 3D printer companyThe Innovation of Simplicity: Massimo argues that Arduino’s true innovation is the user experienceThis is measured by the “Time to First Blink”, the goal for a user to go from downloading software to blinking an LED in five minutesStandardization and “The Core”: Arduino became an ad-hoc standard by providing a compatibility layer across different microcontrollersMassimo believes in having a “small slice of a really large pie” by allowing other architectures to work within the ecosystemHardware Architecture and the “Lasagna”: Inspired by the PC104 format, the board uses a layered approach where modules stack like a lasagnaThe “Shield of a King”: The name Arduino comes from King Arduino of Ivrea; David Cuartielles suggested that since the board was named after a king, the add-on modules should be called “Shields”Hardware Design Choices: The board fits a credit card size (to stay within the free version of Eagle software) and is blue because that color was thought to be less tiring for workers’ eyesHappy Accidents: The unique shape was chosen to be “ourselves instead of everyone else”During the design process, Massimo inadvertently moved a connector by half a step, creating an offset header that they kept for consistency after the first few thousand were madeThe Discovery of Auto-Reset: During a workshop in Germany, Massimo solved the frustration of manual resets by soldering a capacitor to the DTR pin, allowing the software to trigger the reset automaticallyThe US Market and Legal Battles: Tom Igoe’s adoption of Arduino at NYU helped the US become the project’s single biggest marketThis growth led to a difficult legal battle for control of the brand against a former partnerSupport from Arm: Massimo credits Arm Ltd (and CEO Simon Segars) for providing the strategic support that allowed the founders to regain control of the company. Massimo believes this is the first time he has talked about the role of Arm in the difficult legal process.Industrial and AI Expansion: Partnerships with Intel and Microsoft (Windows 10 IoT) led to early forays into TinyML (AI on small boards) back in 2017The Qualcomm Acquisition: In October 2025, Qualcomm acquired Arduino, which Massimo sees as essential for bringing “advanced silicon” into the family to handle the increasing complexity of technologyThe “Arduino Formula” and Layering: Massimo views Arduino as a formula for simplification that can be applied to anything, including complex Linux machines like the Uno QThis is achieved by building in layers, where beginners use high-level abstractions and experts can “strip away” layers to reach the bare metalThe Future Vision: Massimo looks forward to the “Arduino Formula” being applied to new fields, stating he is waiting for someone to develop an “Arduino for biology” using CRISPR and DNA technology -
Welcome Michał Zalewski, AKA lcamtuf!
The lcamtuf Substack is where Michał is writing most these daysChris first found and geeked out about the CNC guide on the lcamtuf original site (discussed many times here)Michał is interested in the craft of teaching electronicsHe recently published The Secret Life of Circuits with No Starch PressUse the code AMPHOUR26 for 30% off The Secret Life of Circuits valid from June 1st through June 30thIt was announced on his blog hereDeriving fomulas from basic trigonometry sometimes bugs people who think electronics should only work with calculusSoftware geeks follow the site, often getting lots of attention on Hacker NewsRow hammer DRAMThere were no Information Security degrees in the early days, so the field was made up of folks with backgrounds in math and EEsFuzzing for securitySMBC cartoon for blming humansBooksAmerican Fuzzy LopThe Tangled WebP0f v3Silence on the WireSecurity stuff (including books on the subject) ages over time, as opposed to electronicsOn the subjects of Calculators (and Michał’s collection)Calculators are a footnote in the history of computing, but still intriguingDead ends in calculatorsCRT displays on calculatorsNixie tubesDiscrete moving into logic gates into processorsMechanical calculators are rare and get a high price onlineWorking with transistorsThe Secret Life of Circuits start with FET based transistors vs BJTBJTs are often right after diode chapter because of the multiple junctions in an NPN, but that doesn’t make it easier to understandProjectsA recent project involved making a clock out of current meters Woodworking and AI exampleWant to see all lcamtuf articles in one place?SokobanSir box-a-lot -
Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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Chris just got back from a work trip to MadridHe also got to hang out with Matt Venn (and coworker Mike Szczys) in ValenciaDave has a new data center going in across the street Chris enjoyed this episode of Prof G Markets where they talked about the impact of data centers on power and the rise of “behind the meter” generationDave without internet for a week. Chris has had multiday losses after fiber has been cut in his neighborhood.Humanoid robots…on a plane!Chris has been working on 0201 components on a tiny Bluetooth boardThe Iran War and subsequent rise in petroleum product sourcing issues is starting to impact the PCB industryPCBs we are used to ordering at low cost (JLC, PCBway, etc) are normally loss leaders to get larger business laterChris found his low cost microscope from Florin/Voltlog trinocular video lcamtuf will be on the show soon, Chris bought a CNC mill because of a single webpage of his makingTagMod board is a new breakout Chris made for injecting power through a 10 pin TagConnect cable.NXP devboards somehow have LEDs as bright as the sunDave has been revisiting his solar analytics (update: he figured out he’s getting charged more too!)Chris has been working at Canonical (makers of Ubuntu, new owners of Golioth) for a few months now. That was the trip to Spain.Dogfooding your own productChris created a backronym: “Application Level Program Optimization” or… ALPOChris built a new vibe coded project for talking to Zephyr devices using Web Serial and passing firmware packages over SMPCI/CDDebian now requires “fully reproducable” builds to harden against supply chain attacksVeritasium video about Linux bug
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Welcome back, Jason Kridner!
Jason has previously been on the showEpisode 59 (!)Episode 378 alongside Robert NelsonThe BeagleY AI was the first board that mimic’ed the RPi form factorPocketBeagle 2 is still a small altoid tin form factor with a new processorThe Zepto is a new product targeting a $1 price point for microcontrollersMany boards in the Beagle catalog now run Zephyr, and BeagleBoard.org recently joined The Zephyr Project as members and contributorsClick Brand is the official bards from MikroElectronika that implement the open source MikrobusChris started using Mikrobus while designing early prototypes of the BeagleConnect FreedomThe Freedom board talks over wireless to boards like the BeaglePlayApplication spaces for different boardsFPGA based boardCheeseburger robot? Well yes, but also Cheeseburger robotMitchells vs the machineKrazamClick boarfds now have eeprom / ClickID as a 1-wire identifier with a uuidBeagleplay has 802.15.4Project ARA popularized the idea of GreybusMotoMods from Motorola was another implementation that worked on the Moto ZUsing Freedom for prototypingWebAssembly…on microcontrollers?Jason says he doesn’t really like MCUbootEntering the linux ecosystembb-imagerTechlab is a way to easily extend peripherals for the PocketBeagleKnown working targetsMichael Welling designed the baconbits mini cape as a learning platformThe BeagleBadge is a new formfactor shown in the title image for this episode. It runs on a new low cost TI part running Linux and yes… it runs DoomThe Badge can also talk on MeshtasticWorking with the memory shortageBao – Bunie and XobsBella / GemBeagle5fireRISC V boardsRV32 ClaireFind Beagle and Jason onlineSchedule a meeting with JasonThere is also a DiscordAnd a Zulip instanceYou can get Beagle merch -
Welcome back Matt Liberty (Joulescope) and Luke Beno (Werewolf.us)
Matt has been a guest on episodes 527 and 607Luke was a guest on episode 272Luke launched a new cable manufacturing and power supply company in the US called Werewolf.usMatt is working on the JS320We discussed how PartsBox is a great ERP solution but Matt and Luke decided to go fully custom with Claude Code. Jan Rychter was a guest on episode 542We discussed the differences with Product Lifecycle Maintenance. Michael Corr of the recently acquired Duro Labs was on episode 577CAM workflowA fully verticalized PCB factory is something Jonathan Hirschmann talked about on episode 299Jeff Bezos is investing 100B in a fund that is looking at automation in the factory using AIMatt recently had success with Claude Code and verilog programmingSaleae for hardware in the loop using their APIsOther tools to check outpyelfpdfdk blastsuperpowers skill (by past guest at Teardown Jesse Vincent)Luke used OpenClaw to power a chat agent in his ERP systemWorking with distributorsTI backlogChris recently learned that Digikey has a developer APICocotb verification framework (in Python)Luke is working on vision experiments for inhouse developed AOI solutions -
Welcome Julia Desmazes of Tales on The Wire
Follow along with the blog post we discuss Two Weeks Until TapeoutMatt Venn – TinyTapeout – Episode 616 and 672Andreas Olofsson – openroad/openlane – Episode 254 and 650Tim Ansell – Wafer.space – Episode 375, 501, and 703JTAGHow do you know that tooling is or isn’t working?AcceleratorRabbithole with floating point (post updated after recording)BFloat16Follow Julia on GitHubhttps://github.com/EssenceiaKapla (official website, not the much cheaper alibaba version):Dimity Grinberg personal blog -
Canonical (the makers of Ubuntu) acquired Golioth, meaning Chris is moving from a 12-person startup to an organization of over 1,200 peopleDave found this chart of Canonical products on wikipedia to be usefulAn increase in professional travel from zero weeks to six weeks per year following the acquisition, including “sprints” in cities like LondonThe naming convention for Ubuntu releases (Year.Month) and the importance of Long Term Support (LTS) versions for backporting security vulnerabilitiesUbuntu Core’s role in embedded Linux devices, utilizing an immutable kernel and “snaps” for field updateDave believes he influenced the Emergency Situation Surcharge at DHL after asking why it is still happeningDave’s transition to a “Hipster Dave” persona, complete with a secondhand Mac and a goateeThe implementation of OpenClaw, a scripting service that interfaces with LLMs to act as an “automated intern” for repetitive administrative tasksChris really likes this video showing how to use OpenClawUsing OpenClaw to automate forum registration approvals to combat high volumes of bot activityThe security implications of AI agents, emphasizing that they should be treated like interns with limited access to sensitive data and separate accountsARM released its first physical server chip, measuring approximately 70mm, marking a shift from a pure IP company to a hardware competitor.The Super Micro CEO smuggling scandal, where the founder was accused of smuggling $2.5 billion worth of Nvidia chips.The Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) and its requirement for nearly all CE-marked electronic products to be updatable by December 2027.Potential impacts of the CRA on one-time programmable (OTP) devices and the necessity of maintaining firmware support for five years post-product life.SpaceX’s plans for a “Terafab” a manufacturing facility ten times larger than a Gigafactory designed to verticalize the entire supply chain from silicon wafers to final packaging.Editor’s note: despite cool tech stuff happening, Elon is…so lame.NASA’s cancellation of the Lunar Gateway project in favor of a direct path to establishing a moon base within the next five to seven years.Pop culture recommendations including the series For All Mankind and The Expanse, along with the book Delta V.
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Alex is founder and CEO of Efficient Power Conversion, a leading manufacturer of GaN MOSFET’s.
Alex is also the inventor of the original Power MOSFET and HEXFET at International Rectifier.
Also, former CEO of International Rectifier (founded by his father!),
https://epc-co.com
We cover everything from inventing the power MOSFET on his first day on the job to silicon physics, AI data centres and humanoid robots. Enjoy. -
Welcome Zachariah Peterson of Northwest Engineering Solutions!
Zach listed the various places people can find his work, includingThe Altium YouTube channelZach’s YouTube channelHis personal technical blogThe Altium Blogvarious industry conferences like PCB West 01:10Zach mentions that he has been creating video content and seminars for several years, traveling to places like Denmark to teach high-speed design. 01:10They discuss the recent acquisition of Altium by Renesas and how the company is trying to balance enterprise features with the needs of individual users. 03:15He notes that the pricing for professional design software has recently become more accessible for freelancers and consultants. 11:15He suggests that learning the fundamentals of EMC is one of the best ways for an engineer to become more valuable in the industry. 14:00He warns against relying solely on semiconductor data sheets for EMC guidance because they often contain outdated or incorrect information. 18:45They talk about the massive costs and delays that happen when a product fails its initial testing runs in a lab. 21:00Zach shares how his background in applied physics and lasers made it easier for him to transition into high-speed RF and digital design. 25:15He explains that he relies on mental models and specialized software tools more than solving complex equations by hand on a daily basis. 27:00He stresses the importance of understanding the physical manufacturing process, such as how circuit boards are pressed and laminated. 30:00They discuss the common problem of engineers over-specifying expensive materials when a cheaper option would work perfectly fine. 32:45Zach predicts that the most useful AI tools will eventually be built directly into existing PCB design software rather than living in separate browser tabs. 35:30He shares how he uses AI to quickly find generic part numbers, which saves him a lot of tedious manual searching. 42:00He compares different AI design tools, noting that some generate schematics from data sheets while others use proven building blocks. 46:30He describes an internal tool he is building to help him search through and reuse circuitry from his own past projects. 49:30He admits he isn’t a fan of code-based schematics because he prefers graphical tools and doesn’t consider himself a professional coder. 51:00He tells the story of how his popular one-minute design reviews started as a spontaneous way to manage the many requests he receives on LinkedIn. 54:00He points out that many designers fail to use their software’s built-in design rule checks, leading to thousands of avoidable errors. 58:45They talk about the decline of mentorship in the industry and the risk of companies losing important tribal knowledge as senior engineers retire. 61:15Zach shares his goals for the coming year, including a deeper focus on manufacturing nuances and advanced EMC testing standards. 66:00He encourages engineers of all levels to attend industry conferences like PCB West and DesignCon to learn directly from experts. 70:00They conclude the episode by sharing where listeners can find more of his technical articles and videos online. 1:02:30 -
Chris will be having a meetup in London March 8th, 2026 click here for more info. He will also be at Embedded World the following week at various events.Dave is also headed to a meetup in Sydney that he has presented at in the past.The “lazy man move” for meetup organizers: scheduling events within walking distance of home to simplify travel logistics.Chris provides details on his latest high-density hardware project, a 22mm circular board packed with 0201 components, Bluetooth, and a suite of sensors, noting a move from BGA to QFN for better assembly reliability.There is significant skepticism regarding “solid-state transformers” and tech articles claiming they will replace the traditional power grid, with the hosts citing efficiency losses that become massive at megawatt scales.A fascinating look into global supply chains reveals how a single AI prompt can be traced back through layers of manufacturing to sugarcane fermentation and high-purity quartz mines in Spruce Pine, North Carolina.The creeping normalization of biometric face scanning in public spaces, from water park lockers to international airport terminals.The marketing tactics behind Donut Lab’s solid-state battery claims, explaining how “independent third-party testing” can be carefully hand-picked to avoid industry standards. They want us to talk about it like thisThe nuances of UL certification explains how companies sometimes use specific lab reports to imply broader official endorsements that do not actually exist.Dave shares his experience watching the show Silicon Valley with his son and discusses the “hideous accuracy” of the Australian public service comedy Utopia.The pros and cons of modular hardware are debated, covering the Framework laptop’s “Ship of Theseus” repairability model versus high-end gaming tablets like the Asus ROG Flow Z13.Dave’s viral social media quest for the best Linux distribution leads to a consensus on Linux Mint as the top choice for beginners, fueling the ongoing joke about the “Year of the Linux Desktop”.Recent industry news highlights the release candidate for KiCad 10 and the discovery of a three-cent Paduk microcontroller performing auxiliary functions inside Rode wireless microphones.Pimoroni did extreme an cooling project back in 2024 that successfully overclocked the RP2350 microcontroller to 800 MHz. We just found out about it from a post from Jeff Geerling.
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Thanks to our sponsor for this episode, SeaSats! Check out their open positions making autonomous ocean vehicles.
Welcome David Ray of Cyber City Circuits
• The “Retro Electro” Series: David explains his passion for writing historical articles for Digi Key, focusing on “giants” like Orstead whose contributions to electricity are often overlooked.
• Career Background: David details his path from Marine Corps radio repair to cash register and Motorola radio repair.
• Starting the Business: In late 2019, David cashed in his retirement to buy pick-and-place machines and start his own factory.
• Teaching the First Lady: David recounts the story of teaching First Lady Jill Biden how to solder during a summer camp.
• Growth via Twitter: For the first few years, 95% of his revenue came from relationships built on Twitter (X).
• The Kit Business: David discusses his “Soldering Kit of the Month” program, noting that while fun, the kit business is exhausting and low-margin.
• Equipment & Machines: A discussion on why he uses Charm High machines and his strong advice to buy new equipment rather than used industrial machines, which are often sold because they are “used up”.
• Stencils & Paste: David advocates for framed stencils and GC10 solder paste, which is shelf-stable and prevents cold solder joints.
• Soldering Physics: Insights into the thermodynamics of soldering, especially the difficulty of working with 2 oz copper boards.
• John Fluke History: David previews his research on John Fluke, explaining that Fluke meters became yellow because the Navy had trouble finding gray ones on the ground.
• Upcoming Articles: David mentions future work on the history of Op-amps and strain gauges.
• Business Services: Overview of Cyber City Circuits’ services, including reverse engineering, obsolescence engineering, and free DFM (Design for Manufacturing) consulting.
• Success Philosophy: David shares his “Monopoly mindset,” viewing business setbacks as “chance cards,” and stresses that persistence is the only way to avoid failure.Links from David
Website List: Cyber City Circuits Website: www.CyberCityCircuits.comPCB Event Badges: www.BadgesBadgesBadges.comX: www.x.com/MakeAugustaCollection of Retro Electro Articles: https://cybercitycircuits.com/retro-electro-the-little-told-history-of-electronics/Digikey Magazine: https://www.digikey.com/en/emediaGC10 Solder Paste: www.BuyGC10.com -
Welcome Eric Migicovsky of Pebble!
Pebble is back after Eric worked with Google to open source PebbleOS and he reaquired the naming rightsEric returns to the hardware space after 7 years, including working at yCombinator, a famous accelerator for early stage startups, and on Beeper, a cross platform app for messaging.While discussing the difficulties of hardware project, Chris brought up a recent post about a high wattage lamp project HNOne thing Eric likes about hardware projects vs software is that “hardware projects can be done” as in they have a defined end stateA more recent project is a smart ring – The Index 01.The non-replaceable battery is driven by the product specs, also the need for reliabilityThe ring doesn’t immediately need to be in range of a phone, it syncs the memory after the factPebble is no longer a VC backed startup with a subscription model, so that changes a lot of constraintsInitially they sold 2 million watches, and 250 million in salesEric is driven by “gadgets”. He read “pen computing” and “popular mechanics” as a kidConsumer companies vs other types (and why Eric likes the former)Pebble went through different phasesThe team spent 6 months in China, designing the first consumer version and working directly with factoriesCTO of (original) Pebble, Andrew Witte, was a somewhat early guest of The Amp HourHow much did the China ecosystem drive design decisions?There was no such thing as a smartwatch factory (but are there ever now!)The book Apple in China is supposed to be a great read and mirrors the Pebble ExperienceWe heard from Chrissy Meyer when she was on the show about working with the Apple Watch manufacturing procesWater proof methods codeveloping in ChinaIt’s an interative process of submerging designs in a glass vessel with pressure and bubbles seep out of the device at different pointsThe remedy? According to Eric: “More Glue” 😀Eric shares his process on a YouTube channel called Tick Talk (not to be confused with the shortform video site)There is a video with the CEO of SiFli, makers of the Bluetooth chip that is in the most recent Pebble devicesOne interesting feature is a custom bus to the Sharp-made ePaper-like screen used onboardFreeRTOS pebble OSWhat is PebbleOS?It’s targeted at an m33 class ARM chip and the kernel is FreeRTOSThe bluetooth stack is nimBLEEric went back and forth on whether to port to Zephyr for the Bluetooth stack and hw support from vendors like Nordic SemiconductorThe Index 01 ring is Dialog Semiconductor (now part of Renesas) partOne challenge is that rings have different sizes…so they mill the rings based on orders. The larger rings get an extra battery! -
Welcome Martin Rowe of EE World!
Martin is a long time journalist in the electronics space, having worked at magazines like EDN, Test and Measurement World, EE World, and more!Kenneth WyattConcentrated vs diffuse informationProduct reviewsUnitrend scope videoTek 5 series BWirecutter for test equipment / partsSkepticismWebinars – 3 levelsMartin has an HP34401A early modelTouring T&M companiesLittelfuseMartin is in the Boston areaBoxborough has multiple EMI labsArticle on building an anechoic chamberPCB East was in Boxborough now in Worcester (“Wuh – Stah” 😀 )International Microwave Symposium (IMS) inBoston this yearWhat is driving the Boston ecosystem?NYU wireless6G summitComponents trickling down into the other parts of the industryTed Rappaport from NYU writing a paperOpen RAN5G standalone vs nonstandalonePoster sessionISACTest equipment has to test everything leading edge3GPPThe impacts of satellite connectivityIoT still talking about LTE5G modems and battery lifePrivate networksAutomation softwareThe Measurement Blues song, among othersFind him onlineMartin Rowe on LinkedInEEworldonlineMartin sent over some links related the things we discussed during the episode6G discussions: How things have changed. We assembled a timeline of the topics so you can see what’s come and goneNokia Bell Labs’ Peter Vetter talks 6G research Live from the Brooklyn 6G SummitdTeardown: HP 8112A pulse generator – I bought this at a flea market. MIT holds these once a month April through October. I go every year to buy things for teardowns and to take photos.DSL router uses parts from old phones – Heard about this from a European telecom newsletter and just had to get the detailsThe slide keyboard is back, in a 5G phone – Video interview from 2020. I mentioned the Psion Organizer. The designer of this phone used to work for Psion. He designs beautiful products.Tryout: two low-cost USB inline meters and a load – My latest. This was the one where the audio in the videos seemed overdubbed. I uploaded the videos again using different file names. Seems OK now. -
Dave is back from vacation. He should have bought a Starlink mini (not as cheap as we thought) because his coverage was very poor throughout the trip.Space twitterArtemis II is going up soon (early Feb 2026)Billy makes artemis go up Sparkfun and Adafruit are on the outsPJRC (and Paul Stoffregen) makes the Teensy and it is now produced exclusively by SparfkunThe pinout is open but the bootloader is proprietary and sold as the magic black box.Paul’s wrote about what was happening on the EEVblog forumTim Lamb (Trash80) talked about teensy in his devices on episode 292 Chris modified a Tag Connect 10 pin footprint for an upcoming designRAM prices are wild right now!After following a tutorial on “Doom Coding”, Chris picked up using Claude CodeA friend pointed out that more horizontal, open source programs like KiCad (version 10 coming soon) will have an advantage with LLMs/coding assistants over more vertically integrated tools. The vertical tools won’t be able to move as fast.Also in the Doom Coding exercise, Chris found an app called Terminus that allows connecting an Android device (and maybe iOS?) and getting a terminal interface from the phone using a USB-C cable in OTG mode.Zephyr builds in lots of capabilitiesChris loves using Zephyr shells to build interfaces (even custom ones) to standard functions in ZephyrCES wrapped a week or two before this recording. The Donut lab solid state battery proposed impossible specs.Some engineers modified a Rivian to try and make the Cannonball Run. It was an interesting look into battery packs and what it takes to charge them fast.Dave and Chris took a long roadtrip to the Deep Space Network back in 2017.Piers Rocks has a great video about how PIOs work on the RP2xxx chips from Raspberry PiThe Raspberry Pi should always be viewed from the perspective of “what is cheapest”. The RP team mentioned that drove the decisions of external flash on the RP2xxx boardsPast guest Jeff Geerling talked about some of the pricing challenges with RAM prices increasing
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Welcome Aaed Musa!
Aaed is a YouTuber who builds a variety of robots and a mechanical engineering student at Purdue. He just completed his undergrad degree and is now working on his Master’s degree. I believe he is the first Amp Hour guest who is still a full time student.His channel has a great variety of builds including designing all the way down to gearboxes.Aaed says the MIT “mini cheetah” launched many low(er) costs builds of robots, including his own.Boston Dynamics (and many others) announced their new ATLAS robotics platform at CES this year.FOC motor controllerBacklash is a measure of how much movement you have between the teeth of gears (and thus how accurate you can be with open loop control)Ball bearing balancing robotInverse kinematicsPast guest of the show James Bruton was a model for the builds that Aaed doeswhat does the glue look likeHis recent build uses…rope…to build a robot dog?A Capstan drive has virtually zero backlash“relatively new rope” DM20High precision speed reducer using ropethe impacts of materials on design processesJuiceroRelationship with classmates and professors as a YouTuberPurdue EngineeringAaed picked up electronics from youtubeWhat’s his take on LLMs?Making next CARA open sourceNew video recently came out about a spinning topbulk of the cost is in the motors and motor controllersgrowing up in the age of youtubers -
Welcome Dr Mark Palmeri, professor at Duke University!
Mark has been at Duke since 1996, and has completed undergraduate, graduate, medical, and PhD degrees here (!)He has focused on making medical devices and now teaches others to do the same in his Biomedical Engineering (BME) coursesVerification and Validation (v&v) is a large constraint in getting a regulated medical device to marketBME design fellows is a program that guides students towards real world use cases and design projectsThe courses that Mark runs reminds Chris of “automatic job offers” that Chris has heard about for classes like those taught by former guest Larry Sears (at CWRU). Also SMPS design courses at UT Dallas and microarchitecture courses like those taught at University of Michigan.Teaching the skills of troubleshooting / debugPutting together circuits like LegosThere are difficulties when teaching students with various levels of experience, namely how deep to go on any particular subject and how much background to provide.Mark has been flipping a circuit course on its head, instead prompting students with ideas like “how do you capture bio signals electronically and pull them into a microcontroller”Tools of the trade for Mark’s courses includeKiCadngspice (built in to KiCad)Jupyter notebooksVS codeGitZephyrTalking about power as an intuition builder, as opposed to currents or voltagesV&V requires that you have a quality management system (QMS)IEC60601Going through companies that have QMS can be a shorter path for bringing a device to marketEven face shields needed to go through that process when COVID hitFirmware and embedded in BME at graduate levelMark and students in BME Design Fellows course have been working on a Tympanometer, targeted at resource constrained industriesMark also teaches students how to use Zephyr, as opposed to how most educational programs migrate towards arduinoA challenge for teaching Zephyr is the devicetreedThey target Nordic Semiconductor parts, which have great support and educational resourcesMark experienced a “vertical learning curve” when first migrating designs to Zephyr a few years agoComplicating things is that most students haven’t coded in C, if they have done much code at allTeaching how to lock to a particular version with Zephyr manifestsUsing CI/CD for automated buildsFocusing on state machines early on, using Zephyr’s state machine framework (SMF)All of Mark’s courses are on github under his username mlp6Teaching stack vs heapMark only ever has taken one official progrmming courseThe benefits of experiential learningAccreditation is a constant challenge with non-standard courses and testingDuke is taking retrospective and prospective looks at the space of educationProblem sets are moot these daysMark gave a great example about teaching a student about Bode Plots“Thats a trick problem” is something Mark hears wrt testing (when it’s definitely not)“Getting the reps in” is an important concept in educational contexts, and something Chris really resonates withBuilding open ended problems vs closedThe more open ended a problem, the more time it take to grade / evaluateTI-85 / 83 / 92 calculatorsJupyter notebooks as a way to track progress and have students show their workMore about the tympanometer projectThey have been working with Duke hospital, a major benefit for Mark and his BME colleaguesContinuous middle ear infection that causes scarring that causes lifelong lossSound reflection under vacuum is an indicator that more testing is neededThe key innovation is making it lower cost and allow a layperson to do the screening to hand off a child to get more screening at a pro clinicBME Design Fellow students getting to design the various parts of the designThey have multiple sources of funding: private, nih, etcValue engineering in medical spaceMark points out the philosophical question on whether you can reduce costs by reducing testing … but thinking about whyat that takes to satisfy that needFind Mark onlinemlp6 on GithubHis Duke homepagetymp project articleFind him on LinkedInDuke BME design fellows / on LinkedIn -
Chris got back from his honeymoon to the Galapagos, see photos on the updated version of his blog.Dave encountered a super secret podcast locationBefore leaving on vacation, Chris went to an event mentioned in episode 708 launching a new Tektronix scope.The parent company has been Danaher -> Fortive -> Ralliant (now based out of Raleigh)Large budget eventsDon Mcmillan is technically funnyOpen CircuitThe Way Things WorkDiscman teardownNeo the home robotHumane AI pin ‘tugging on the nerd heartstring’Nikola / Trevor NortonAuto concept carsRigol MHO 900 videos, already hacked, paid hackEEVblog forumUnknown chinese fpgaStephen Hawes working on a PCB that can be laser cut for super quick turn boardsOxide and Friends podcastKiCon (US) 2025 Talks
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Dr Barry Marshall won the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovery of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease.
But Barry is also an electronics hobbyist and vintage HP and Tek oscilloscope and vintage computer enthusiast. He visited the EEVBlog lab and sat down with Dave for an impromptu discussion about all sorts of things.
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2005/marshall/facts/
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Welcome Davide Andrea, author or The Electronic Connector Book! And many thanks to Blues for sponsoring this episode of The Amp Hour! Get 10% off your next order in their online store for a development kit by using the code AMPHOUR.
Davide is an engineer working on Battery Management Systems at ElithionHe got into writing and editing books via a postcard sent to him after he gave a talkFor many years he was an editor at Artech houseHe works on Lithium BMS systems for large setupsHow do young engineers learn about connectors, but for tribal knowledge within larger companies?Digikey catalog is a good search for connectors overallIndustrial cinch by HartingShould you design a custom connector (“no”)Davide also built and maintains an online tool for finding connectors called IdenticonnFretting is when vibration causes a connector to failDavide had to go to Bell Labs docs to look up some specsChris remarked that Identiconn is a McMaster (Carr) style browsing experienceVendors divide based on how the fields are set up, because that is actually logical for them selling parts. It’s harder for finding/discovering components though.On distributor sites, the connectors are grouped by how they were boughtChris asked Davide about things that have gone wrong in his career with connectorsFFC doesn’t connect back into the socket after the tab is ripped awayribbon cable vs ffc, CIC vs FPCIDC – insulation displacement connectorDavide has filled in with generated terms where there are no defined language for a family/type of connector, such as with “bump idc” connectors“dual beam?Chris and Davide did a joint search for the high density CM4 connector that mounts the Raspberry Pi module to another boardGender of connectors (note: there is a great discussion about the historical nature of using gender for connectors in the book)Pin vs plastic genderShrouded vs enshroudedgaziatea (sic) – poem from the 1800USB type A connectorSelf matingAPC7 – self mting connectorAnderson connectorsTNC BNC searchPFFE for the dielectric on a BNC/TNCMagnetic connectors with pogo pinsExample connector from HyteCrimps were designed in the 50sThe source of having so many power connectors is … imperialism? tahiti / fiji / nz all have different connectorsWhy antennas are male/female is…money? And regulatory silliness via the FCCDavide has also written about and is working on lithium ion batteriesA sodium ion battery book (self published, unlike the LiIon books) should be out next yearThe Connector Book is self published. Your purchase directly supports Davide’s work…and you get the web tools for free!“peak lithium”What is required when refining sodium for batteries?The voltage range and charging needs are different for Sodium Ion. For instance, the range goes from 4V to 2VFind Davide on his various websites, on LinkedIn, on StackExchange, and on reddit -
Thanks to our sponsor Blues this week! Visit the Blues store and use the code AMPHOUR to get 10% off your first order of a kit.
Capacitors go pop on Dave’s audio setup, the Presonus monitorsGround loops causing HDMI cable sparkingChris was watching Jetman videos and got an ‘Is that real?’ from the kid. We find ourselves asking the same with all the AI generated video these days.Fight between mehdi/electroboom and walter lewin about KVLArduino bought by Qualcomm! They also released the Arduino Uno Q, a single board computer running Debian that also has a beefy microcontroller running ZephyrDaves post on X about the purchaseArduino switched to ZephyrA new enabler of this complex mix of embedded, linux, AI, and ML is a software offering from Arduino called App labSpaceyHardware meetup – ACES Veritasium is PE owned nowChris will be going to a Tektronix event for new gear and past guest Alan Wolke (W2AEW) is giving a classChris has been rebooting his website to follow the ideas of the Small WebFollow #electronicscreators on YouTube to not be subject to algorithmic steeringChris has been getting into gridfinity after discussing it a few shows ago.Altium changed their pricing again…but it might be lower? Hard to tellCheck out the features coming to KiCad in v10YOLO = “You Only Look Once”, Chris learned about it from OpenMV - Laat meer zien
