Embedded

Helen Leigh (@helenleigh) joined us to talk about music, electronics, books, and starting a new job at CrowdSupply (@crowd_supply). Helen was previously on Embedded #261: Blowing Their Fragile Little Minds where we talked about subversive geography, her book The Crafty Kid's Guide to DIY Electronics, and the mini.mu musical gloves. Helen has a book coming out in 2021 about DIY Music Tech including a soft version of the Michel Waisvisz' CrackleBox (Kraakdos). Check out some of the projects in HackSpace magazine issue 36 and 37 (the book will be serialised in HackSpace). Or look on YouTube for some examples of Helen's purring tentacle and her circuit sculpture harp. Helen mentioned Bunnie Huang's Precursor, an open mobile phone, on CrowdSupply (campaign ending shortly). The Giant German Congress mentioned is the CCC Congress Festival Helen's preferred thread (the one you can actually get) is Madiera's conductive threads. Hit the contact link for purchasing. (Helen notes you can use it for both sides in a sewing machine!)

Becky Worledge of the Qt Company (@qtproject) spoke with us about application frameworks, organizing large code bases, and automotive regulations. The best place to get started with Qt is the getting started page: doc.qt.io/qt-5/gettingstarted.html Or skip that and head straight for the code: github.com/qt Maybe backtrack to see what is available: qt.io/product/features Hmm, was there talk of Qt and Python? PySide was it? qt.io/qt-for-python But wait, Qt for MCU? What platforms are supported? QtForMCUs/qtul-supported-platforms.html Finally, don't get eaten by a Grue, sense when they are coming: doc.qt.io/qt-5/qtsensors-grue-example.html Qt6 is coming out Dec 2020. So maybe replace all the qt-5 in the links with qt-6 to see if it is ready yet! Oh, and Qt is hiring: qt.io/careers The quote at the end is not from Abraham Lincoln. (Quote Investigator). Still a good thought.

Seth Hillbrand (@SethHillbrand), lead developer for KiCAD (@kicad_pcb), spoke with us about open source development, EDA tools, pronunciation, and inclusion. Check out KiCAD! Seth's company provides support for KiCAD (kipro-pcb.com, @kiproeda).

John McMaster (@johndmcmaster) told us about the process of opening up chips to see how the processors are structured and what the firmware says. See John's website for information on getting started (as well as digging much deeper). John has given some interesting Hardwear.io talks including Capturing Mask ROMs and Taming Hydrofluoric Acid to Extract Firmware. His talks and many others are available on the Hardwear.io archive. Or sign up for the Hardwear.io Online Hardware Security Training, Berlin Jan 2021. As mentioned in the show: John wrote a blog post about his top lab accidents and explosions. Paper: Reverse engineering Flash EEPROM memories using Scanning Electron Microscopy by Franck Courbon, Sergei Skorobogatov, and Christopher Woods Rompar and bitract are the two programs mentioned as helpful for getting from an image to binary code.

Chris and Elecia discuss transcripts, lightsabers, seashells, python, numpy, matlab and how to get into embedded systems development. Embedded show transcripts are available at embedded.fm/transcripts Elecia's origami github repository includes a python script for generating origami shell folding patterns. The paper described was Analysis of Shell Coiling: General Problems by David M. Raup from the Journal of Paleontology , Sep., 1966, Vol. 40, No. 5. Chris used this model to print his lightsaber: Star Wars Lightsaber (Normal version) from YouMagine The episode was sponsored by Triplebyte. If you are looking to prove your skills, develop your knowledge, or find a job you love, check out Triplebyte.

Ben Hencke (@ledmage, @im889) updated us on blinking lights and running a small hardware business. You can find the current PixelBlaze in the Electomage store on Tindie (tindie.com/stores/electromage/) or signup for a shiny new version on CrowdSupply. Ben's personal site (bhencke.com) has lots of projects including a page devoted to the awesome Pixelblaze projects (including the BioTronEsis alien light sea creatures which someone who hosts this show hopes will be in her Christmas stocking). When Ben is making Pixelblaze, the brand is ElectroMage (electromage.com/) so you can see more about Pixelblaze there including the forum. We didn't talk about TapGlo, the arcade ping pong table that Ben is also working on. Favorite solder paste: LOCTITE GC 10 paste (henkel-adhesives) About his favorite acronym, Ben says, "XMLHttpRequest is my favorite because it perfectly illustrates how we're (developers) bad at naming things and like to come up with arbitrary rules for things. The story about how XML is all caps and Html is camel case is just too perfect, and it's popular use rarely has anything to do with XML" Finally, There are 40 different flavors of Kit Kat. There are 12 flavors of candy corn, they all taste the same.

Christine Sunu (@christinesunu) spoke with us about the feelings we get from robots. For more information about emotive design, check out Christine's website: christinesunu.com. From there you can find hackpretty.com, some of her talks (including the TED talk with the Fur Worm), and links to her projects (such as Starfish Cat and a Cartoon Guide to the Internet of Things). You can find more of her writing and videos on BuzzFeed and The Verge. You can also hire her product development company Flash Bang. Embedded 142: New and Improved Appendages is where Sarah Petkus offers to let her robot lick us. Keepon Robot (or on Wikipedia) Books we talked about: Accelerando by Charles Stross Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less by Sherry Turkle (MIT site) Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age by Sherry Turkle (MIT site) Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness by Peter Godfrey-Smith (Note: Elecia also wrote a whole octopus annotated bibliography in a recent post)

Drew Fustini (@pdp7) spoke with us about building Linux, RISC-V cores, and many other things. Links, so many links! Drew is a board member of the BeagleBoard.org Foundation and of the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA.org). He is an open source hardware designer at OSHPark (he recommends their blog!). He writes a monthly column for Hackspace Magazine, for example The Rise of the FPGA in Issue 26 and Intro to RISC-V. Yocto is a tool to help build a Linux distribution specific to your board and application! Bootlin offers free training material for Yocto and OpenEmbedded (as well as many other things such as Embedded Linux and Linux kernel development). Or there is a video: Buildroot vs Yocto: Differences for Your Daily Job - Luca Ceresoli at Embedded Linux Conference. Or look at Embedded Apprentice Linux Engineer (e-ale.org). Or maybe another video: "Yocto Project Dev Day Virtual 2020 #3: Yocto Project Kernel Lab, Hands-On, Part 1" by Trevor Woerner. RISC-V is an open source processor core. Well, cores. But you can try them out in hardware even if you don't want to play with an FPGA. The SiSpeed Longan Nano has a GigaDevices microcontroller dev board (with an OLED on board!, more info). Did you know you can run Linux on RISC-V? The cheapest method is emulation and Renode is brilliant for that. Here is Drew using it on the train (twitter). Sipeed boards with Kendryte K210 start at only $13 and can even run Linux (tutorial). There are also affordable open hardware FPGA with free software toolchain support like the ICE40 based Icebreaker and Fomu. For a bit more money, the bigger ECP5 can run Linux. Or look at Greg Davill's wonderful Orange Crab. For a lot more money but on silicon, the Icicle with Microchip PolarFire SoC is aimed at corporate use. Or you can produce your own physical chips. For free (for a limited time). See the talk from Tim Ansell - Skywater PDK: Fully open source manufacturable PDK for a 130nm process Drew attends a lot of conferences, here are highlights from the past: OHS 2020 wrist badge OHS 2018 epaper badge ELC-2018 EALE Buildroot - Thomas Petazzoni ELC-2018 EALE Bitbake YP - Behan Webster Linux on RISC-V with open hardware and open FPGA tools Sldies for Embedded Linux Conference Video from FOSS North Linaro Connect BoF: gpio and pinctrl in Linux kernel (Slides) RISC-V: How an open ISA benefits hardware security (Slides) (Hardwear.io video) Here are some future conferences he's planning to attend: Embedded Linux Conference Europe ($50) October 26-29, 2020 (Virtual) Yocto Project Virtual Summit ($40) October 29-30, 2020 (Virtual) Open Hardware Summit March 13, 2020

Whitney Huang of Zipline (@zipline) spoke with us about drone delivery of medical products: technology, operations, and applications. For more information about Zipline, check out flyzipline.com. Also, Zipline is hiring for positions in San Francisco, CA, USA, North America and Ghana, Africa. Tacocopter was a thing in 2011. (Ok, not a very serious thing but still.)

Chris (@stoneymonster) and Elecia (@logicalelegance) discuss API design and team dynamics. Elecia's book: Making Embedded Systems Embedded Patreon StewMac (Ukulele kits) Transcript: embedded.fm/transcripts/347

Sophy Wong (@sophywong) creates projects she can wear and writes about them so others can make them as well. We talked about fashion, design, inspiration, and motivation. Sophy's website is sophywong.com. We spoke about her book, Wearable Tech Projects. Check out her projects on Adafruit, Hackspace Magazine and Make Magazine. She also did a video interview with Tested. Sophy's space suit was used in Saul's King of Misery music video. Sophy has found inspiration in Debby Millman's podcast Design Matters, Diana Eng's Fashion Geek: Clothes Accessories Tech, and the work of Sagmeister. Transcript: embedded.fm/transcripts/346

Gretchen Walker gave advice on creating a BLE iOS application. Gretchen wrote The Ultimate Guide to Apple's Core Bluetooth on the PunchThrough (@PunchThrough) blog. There are many other good posts on the blog about BLE from a device perspective and app development (iOS and Android). PunchThrough also makes LightBlue, a great BLE debugging app you can find wherever you find your mobile apps. PunchThrough is hiring embedded software engineers in the Minneapolis, MN area. Chris and Gretchen both recommend Ray Wenderlich's site for learning about Swift. Chris also liked the Big Nerd Ranch books: iOS Programming and Swift Programming. Elecia liked the NovelBits.io writeup about getting maximum throughput on BLE. Apple Accessory Design Guide

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 find Ben on Hackaday, Github, and YouTube. We talked with Charles Lohr about ESP8266 WiFi controlled lights and ColorChord on Embedded.fm episode 102: The Deadly Fluffy Bunny (With WiFi). Laser cut mandalas OSHPark Small Batch Assembly More about the 4-bit Radio Shack computer (and an Arduino-based emulator for it!) Santa Cruz Idea Fab Lab

Kitty Yeung (@KittyArtPhysics) spoke with us about the superposition of quantum computing and fashion. If you want to learn more about quantum computing, check out Kitty's series on Hackaday's Quantum Computing Through Comics. Kitty works for Microsoft in Quantum Computing (@MSFTQuantum). Kitty's art and fashion are available on her site, Art By Physicist, and shop shop.kittyyeung.com. Her recent addition is the Constellation Dress. There is a coupon code in the show. Kitty has some other DIY fashion projects: Made of Mars and Saturn Dress. @artbyphysicist on Instagram LinkedIn

Chris and Elecia discuss transcripts, listener emails, and brains. We already have a post about the dangers of using Arduino for professional work. Elecia got a Cricut Maker to help her make origami and then discovered SVG files were editable (Intro to SVG). She's putting her origami crease patterns in a github repo eleciawhite/origami), where else would you put it? About brains, Elecia was reading from Smart But Scattered.

Jess Frazelle (@jessfraz) of Oxide Computer (@oxidecomputer) spoke with us about hyperscalers (large companies that make their own datacenter server hardware) and podcasts. Jess wrote an article about the power efficiency measurements of datacenter servers: Power to the People (ACM Queue August 2020). The Oxide podcast is available on oxide.computer/podcast as well as your usual podcast apps. Jess particularly recommended the episode with Jonathan Blow. Oxide is working to make hyperscaler-style hardware available to everyone. Their goal is to open source all their hardware and software: github.com/oxidecomputer. They use the Rust language for much of their development. Jess has a blog: blog.jessfraz.com Rust

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 example at Sparkfun). If you have an idea for an instrument, Roger has already written his response to your request for a prototype. Roger gave a keynote address at ADC '16 about the LinnStrument, including showing the sounds it can make. OHMI Trust is the one handed musical instrument society enabling music making for everyone. Roger mentioned some other expressive instruments including: Roli Seaboard Haken Continuum Madrona Labs Soundplane Eigenharp

Phoenix Perry (@phoenixperry) returns to speak with us about education and the importance of merging art and technology. Phoenix's website is phoenixperry.com. The art installation crossing the virtual and the physical world was called Forest Day Dream. Phoenix is teaching a free online class: Create Expressive Video Games. Phoenix is the Master's degree coordinator for University of the Arts London Creative Computing Institute. Diversity and accessibility are important, some resources: FeministInternet.org We Are Not Users: Dialogues, Diversity, and Design Archaeologies of Touch: Interfacing with Haptics from Electricity by David Paris Critical Play: Radical Game Design by Mary Flanagan Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy by Cathy O'Neil Gone Home (Steam game) Her Story (Steam game) Bury me, my Love (Mobile game) #selfcare (Mobile game) Phoenix was previously on Embedded 204: Abuse Electricity

Chris and Elecia talk about getting transcriptions, accessibility, operating systems, and networking. Elecia recommends reading Haben by Haben Girma (@HabenGirma). Transcripts will initially be only available to Patreon supporters. To become a Patreon supporter, go to patreon.com/embedded. If you can't be a supporter and still really want the transcripts, hit the contact link. Chris Gammell's nifty new podcast (video!) is Contextual Electronics. Want to know more about how operating systems work? Listeners recommended Miro Samek's video series. Chris answered some questions about LISP networking. More information about the layers of the network can be found in the OSI model. The mobile focused LISP project that Chris worked on is now at openoverlayrouter.org and has pointers for more documentation and code.

Dan Zimmerman (@dmz) spoke with us about voting, voting machines, building trust in software, and transparency. Dan works for Galois (https://galois.com/ , @galois) and Free and Fair (https://freeandfair.us/, @free_and_fair). He worked on the US Vote Foundation's E2E-VIV Project on the Future of Voting. The artifacts from that project are on github: github.com/GaloisInc/e2eviv. Dan (and Galois) worked with Microsoft on ElectionGaurd, a suite of tools to help make elections end-to-end verifiable, The tools are open source: github.com/microsoft/electionguard The Helios verifiable online election system is also open source: github.com/benadida/helios-server We failed to talk about the DARPA SSITH and FETT programs but if you are still reading the show notes, they might be of interest. We also didn't talk about the National Academies report on Securing the Vote.

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 available from Openmoko and Pid.codes Kate recently gave a talk about making USB accessible. Part of the talk was about Luna, an FPGA based USB multitool. Some open source FPGA tools: Symbiflow.github.io Yosys: http://www.clifford.at/yosys/

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 Board. Joel recommends the operating systems book by Alan Burns and Andy Wellens. It comes in many flavors and editions including Real Time Systems and Programming Languages: Ada 95, Real-Time Java and Real-Time C/POSIX (3rd Edition). NASA Core Flight System (https://cfs.gsfc.nasa.gov/) Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) (https://epics-controls.org/)

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 other videos that may be of interest: CppCon 2016: Jason Turner "Rich Code for Tiny Computers: A Simple Commodore 64 Game in C++17" Matt's YouTube videos on using Compiler Explorer Just enough Assembly for Compiler Explorer - Anders Schau Knatten CppCon 2017: CB Bailey "Enough x86 Assembly to Be Dangerous" CppCon 2017: Carl Cook "When a Microsecond Is an Eternity: High Performance Trading Systems in C++" The best compiler book seems to be The Dragon Book. Hyrum's Law on writing interfaces. Application Binary Interface (ABI)

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 and grill mats for soldering. Elecia recommended the You Can Do It!: The Merit Badge Handbook for Grown-Up Girls as a book she's only picked up once in a bookstore years ago but has thought about as an excuse to pick up new skills.

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 on DC Motors & Motion Control Systems (you'll have to give your info to see it).

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 Theory in her Nuclear Reactor Theory class. Katy's personal site Stellerator Godiva Device Janelle Shane creates the AI Weirdness blog. (She was also a guest in #275: Don't Do What the Computer Tells You.)

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. Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager by Michael Lopp How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie Chris is hiring for his team. Check out the iRobot Jobs page or look at the specific jobs he's hiring for (in Boston, MA): Associate Software Engineer and Principal Software Engineer. Chris gave a talk to Purdue students about working from home, there is a video and a summary blog post. An interesting tweet about the difference between working from home and what people are doing now. The Canadian Federal government gave the following advice: Finally, Svec's family wants a cat. They probably won't get a Sphinx despite it matching all the criteria. Maybe an Abyssinian. Or maybe a dog.

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://github.com/mattgodbolt/compiler-explorer-image Matt works at DRW working on low latency software. Note that DRW is hiring for software engineers. You can read about the evolution of Compiler Explorer on their blog. Matt's personal blog is xania.org. You might like parts about 6502 Timings. He also has several conference talks on YouTube including x86 Internals for Fun & Profit and Emulating a 6502 in Javascript. Matt was previously at Argonaut Games. Jason Turner of C++ Weekly and his C++17 Commodore 64 Could a Neuroscientist Understand a Microprocessor? paper (with a nod to Don't Panic GeoCast's Fun Paper Friday)

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 have a getting started guide. Dan recently posted on the Edge Impulse blog about training a TinyML model to capture lion roars. For TinyML meetups and a forum, check out tinyml.org Lacuna Space: low cost sensors transmitting to space

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, Elecia likes Hands-On Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn, Keras, and TensorFlow: Concepts, Tools, and Techniques to Build Intelligent Systems by Aurélien Géron

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 Improving Open Source Hardware Visual Diffs KiCad Automation Tools: tools to autogenerate KiCad artifacts when committing to git Kivy: open source Python library for making displays Cedux: application framework OKGo Upside Down and Inside Out video and Art in Space project

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 noted in show. (don't use PayPal to check out or you can't apply the coupon). Other robots for trying out robots: Lego Mindstorms (lots of books, project ideas, and incredible online tutorials!), Cozmobot, Dash and Dot. Some robotics competition leagues include Vex, Botball, and FIRST.

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 Flex Circuitry for In-situ Planetary Science Sensor Arrays.

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. He likes Elecia's Making Embedded Systems book. KiCon is happening at CERN in September 2020. More information at 2020.kicad-kicon.com. We talked about Jay Carlson who was on Embedded talking about his Amazing $1 Microcontroller project (#226) and about teaching embedded systems (#303) We talked about book club books: The Practicing Mind Draft No 4 Drift into Failure The Science of Self-Learning And a fun book series called Bobiverse (the Audible version is especially good). (The outro music is Chris W.'s attempt to troll Chris G. with his "lightning" round answer)

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. Elecia talked about the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts Program (NIAC) and curved crease origami. She also talked about PID controllers and Tiny ML. We are now soliciting sponsorship!

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 Systems (part 1 and part 2) Rules for defensive C programming Why are you still using C What every computer scientist should know about floating point arithmetic The Power of Ten -- 10 Rules for Writing Safety Critical Code In his previous appearance on Embedded (#94: Don't Be Clever), we talked about code complexity and measuring cyclomatic complexity. At that time he wanted a tool to monitor the code's status. He has since found one: pmccabe.

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 the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program. If you dig into the archives a bit (2009) you can read about teaching at a high school, for example adapting teaching to different students. What he took away led him to create Math for America Los Angeles, a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing the number of secondary school mathematics and computer science teacher leaders in the greater Los Angeles Area. Darryl's personal page (darrylyong.com) and his HMC page (math.hmc.edu/~dyong). Also, check out HMC's Clinic Program page.

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 list here, go look on their page: https://shop.evilmadscientist.com/directory. Or stop into their Sunnyvale, California shop.) We talked about the beauty of boards including Kong Money and ElectroCookie's candy colored shields and Arduino Leonardo. Jepson Herbarium has interesting workshops including one about seaweed. At one workshop, Lenore and Windell got to talk to Josie Iselin, author of The Curious World of Seaweed. Elecia enjoyed Slime: How Algae Created Us, Plague Us, and Just Might Save Us by Ruth Kassinger. Windell was previously on Embedded episode #124: Please Don't Light Yourself on Fire, we mainly talked about the book he co-authored: The Annotated Build-It-Yourself Science Laboratory. Lenore was previously on Embedded episode #40: Mwahaha Session, we talked about EMSL. Our post-show tidepooling was very successful with a variety of nudibranchs, shrimp, seaweed, sea birds, snails, and hermit crabs.

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 from Mohit on trying this yourself from Bantam Tools. Mohit likes Xuron Pliers Donate to DigitalNest by the end of 2019 and get your donation matched! Thank you to the listener who is doing the match!

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 the book Elecia will be getting next) Robert's website langorigami.com is full of neat goodies: Gallery Origami design software including a pointer to the Origamizer by Tomohiro Tachi Crease patterns! Suggested other books: Tomoko Fuse's Origami Boxes: Beautiful Paper Gift Boxes Origami to Astonish and Amuse by Jeremy Shafer Origamido has a number of books. Robert uses Origamido paper but it is unobtanium to most people. Unless you are in Maine. (Note: book links are affiliate links, we get a little kickback if you buy from there.)