The Archive
Every Episode
747 episodes
since 2010
since 2010
Every episode of The Amp Hour, newest first.
#731 E&M Reality Emerges with Robert Fennis
with Robert Fennis
RF
Robert Fennis joins Chris to demystify the black magic of RF and talk about his open-source, Python-based 3D electromagnetic solver, EMerge. They discuss why simulation is like building a pyramid of knowledge, how silk screen can completely de-tune a patch antenna, and Robert's quest to build the "IKEA of FEM solvers" so hardware developers everywhere can simulate their designs without relying on insanely expensive proprietary software.
#730 The Focus Knob Works
Chris & Dave
RISC-V
Dave and Chris celebrate 16 years of the show (1st episode was August 10th, 2010) by launching a brand-new static website featuring searchable transcripts and a "pissed-old amber" SVG scope with a working focus knob--and links to merch!. They also discuss Dave’s new employee, 10 cent RISC-V debuggers, and why naming your startup after an un-Googleable Australian cryptid is a bad move
#729 The Terahertz Frontier with Greg Charvat of Teradar
with Greg Charvat
RF
Dr Greg Charvat, CTO and co-founder of Teradar, joins Chris for a 5th appearance on The Amp Hour to talk about how terahertz frequency radar will revolutionize the automotive space and far outstrips the capabilities of LIDAR and Blobbology
#728 Space Age Bluetooth with Alex Haro
with Alex Haro
AirTag
Alex Haro, CEO of Hubble, joins Chris to talk about building a network of terrestrial and space (!) based Bluetooth infrastructure to track low power devices across the globe, without a data plan or a GPS module onboard.
#727 Boat Anchor Warehouse
Chris & Dave
CH224
Dave and Chris discuss a massive "boat anchor" warehouse clearance, 0201 board assembly, Texas Instruments' stealthy datasheet updates for classic op-amps, the latest in local AI models, and paper-based electronics art
#726 Arduino's Invisible Touch with Massimo Banzi
with Massimo Banzi
arduino
Massimo Banzi is co-founder of Arduino, the worldwide project built upon easily accessible embedded hardware. He joins Chris to talk about the design, rise, struggles, and eventual exit of the company, and what he's now doing with Supermoderno.
#725 The Secret Life of Circuits with lcamtuf / Michał Zalewski
with Michał Zalewski
Calculator
Michał Zalewski (lcamtuf) is a security researcher, author, electronics enthusiast, and calculator collector. He joins Chris to talk about his new book The Secret Life of Circuits and his interest in the field of electronics and explaining things to others.
#724 All Heat, No Useful Work
Chris & Dave
AC
Dave and Chris discuss the infrastructure and massive energy demands of AI data centers, injecting power through a programming header, Linux changes, and dogfooding your own projects.
#723 BeagleBoard's Back with Jason Kridner
with Jason Kridner
Jason Kridner returns to The Amp Hour after his first appearance 15 years ago to talk about the BeagleBadge and Zepto boards that showcase new capabilities in the Linux and Zephyr space. The BeagleBoard.org project is still focused on building open source, affordable, and accessible Linux and embedded hardware.
#722 AI Tooling with Matt Liberty and Luke Beno
with Matt Liberty, Luke Beno
AI
Past guests Matt Liberty (Joulescope) and Luke Beno (Werewolf.us) join Chris to talk through using AI tooling for small businesses in the hardware and firmware space. Both have built custom ERP systems, among many other tooling for their businesses, in a fast moving environment.
#721 Chip Design for Fun (and Waffles) with Julia Desmazes
with Julia Desmazes
Accelerator
Julia Desmazes joins Chris to discuss designing chips for fun and getting an entire design done in 2 weeks to make a tapeout deadline. Julia built accerlators and has continued to dive deeper into on and off chip tooling for greater visibility into the silicon she gets back from the fab.
#720 Hyper Growth and OpenClaw Interns
Chris & Dave
AI
Dave and Chris discuss Golioth getting acquired by Canonical (makers of Ubuntu), trying out OpenClaw in the lab, changes to space plans, big new factories, Arm making chips, and more!
#719 Inventing the Power MOSFET with Alex Lidow
with Alex Lidow
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, …
#718 Layout Review with Zachariah Peterson
with Zachariah Peterson
Altium
Zachariah Peterson joins Chris to discuss doing PCB layout and creating content for engineers looking to learn more about how to build their own PCBs
#717 Back on the road in '26
Chris & Dave
Embedded World
This week we talked about upcoming travel, solid state transformers, battery testing, new small circuit boards, and a bunch more.
#716 Electronics Manufacturing History with David Ray
with David Ray
David Ray joins Dave to talk about the history of electronics manufacturing and how he has built a high mix manufacturing business while regularly educating the public about how electronics work.
#715 Shiny New Pebble with Eric Migicovsky
with Eric Migicovsky
Bluetooth
Founder of Pebble and CEO of CoreDevices, Eric Migicovsky, joins Chris to talk about the history of the Pebble Watch and resurrecting the hardware to serve a very loyal ecosystem. Along the way, Eric has continued to create new gadgets like the Index 01 ring.
#714 The Measurement Blues with Martin Rowe
with Martin Rowe
6G
Martin Rowe is a long time technical editor for publications like EE World, EDN, and Test and Measurement World. He stops by The Amp Hour to talk about the things he has seen and the people he has met in the electronics industry, and he's still going strong!
#713 Rubber Duck Incarnate
Chris & Dave
Adafruit
Dave and Chris discuss staying connected while traveling, building terminal interfaces for custom hardware, using coding tools, the Teensy and recent events surrounding the manufacture, Zephyr, Raspberry Pi PIOs, and more!
#712 Robots Everywhere with Aaed Musa
with Aaed Musa
Aaed Musa
Aaed is a YouTuber who builds a variety of robots and a mechanical engineering student at Purdue. He joins Chris to talk building robots and robotics components from the ground up, with a focus on lowering the cost and barrier to entry. They also discuss modern engineering education.
#711 Medical Electronics Education with Mark Palmeri
with Mark Palmeri
Duke
Dr Mark Palmeri is a professor at Duke University in the Biomedical Engineering (BME) field. He joins Chris to talk about using open tools (KiCad, ngspice, Zephyr, Jupyter notebooks, Python) to build educational resources and how he shares those courses with the world outside of Duke. He also walks through the Tympanometer project, built with Duke BME Design Fellows.
#710 Tugging on the Nerd Heartstring
Chris & Dave
Dave and Chris are back after a long vacation absence to talk about high end events, new scopes, fast board assembly, and nerds nostalgic for the sci fi future that never was.
#709 Nobel Prize Winner Dr Barry Marshall
Chris & Dave
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.
#708 All the Connectors with Davide Andrea
with Davide Andrea
book
Davide Andrea is the author of The Electronic Connector Book and Principal of Elithion, a company that designs Battery Management System. He joins Chris to talk about the wide and wonderful world of connectors.
#707 Welding with an HDMI Cable
Chris & Dave
arduino
This week Dave and Chris discuss test equipment, the Arduino acquisition, Zephyr, Altium pricing, private equity owning YouTube channels, audio circuits, and more!
#706 Leading Edge Analog with Joren Vaes
with Joren Vaes
analog
Joren Vaes is a design engineer at SOFICS working on simulating and delivering analog IP blocks on leading edge nodes like the 2 nm node from TSMC. Listen to how they bend physics to their will to make the chips that power our modern electronics.
#705 Psst...Hey buddy, wanna buy an Octopus?
Chris & Dave
Commodore
This week Dave and Chris discuss DIN rail, IAC (featuring Space Lube), begging for Moonlanders, batteries, 10x-priced connectors, Gridfinity, concrete slabs, and more.
#704 Applied Embedded Electronics with Jerry Twomey
with Jerry Twomey
analog
Jerry Twomey, author of Applied Embedded Electronics, joins Chris to talk about how to build more reliable hardware when there are embedded components involved. And these days, there are almost always embedded components involved.
#703 Building wafer.space with Tim Ansell
with Tim Ansell
Global Foundries
Tim 'Mithro' Ansell returns to The Amp Hour to discuss his new Singapore based wafer sharing service called wafer.space. Now that Efabless is no more, this venture will aim to make silicon even more accessible to the masses, driving down the costs on a per chip basis. For $7K, you get 1000 chips delivered on a 180 nm process from Global Foundries.
#702 Test Point Accupuncture
Chris & Dave
Injection molding
Dave and Chris discuss solar, nuclear, making new injection molds from old ones (or not), and how to probe poorly placed test points with tiny needles.
#701 Electric Propulsion with Todd Bailey
with Todd Bailey
Astra
Todd Bailey has been busy in the 11 years since he was last on the show. He has designed submarine sonar and many different pieces of space electronics, the latest being a hall effect thruster that uses solid propellant for his now sold company Starlight Engines.
#700 Beware of the Overachievers
Chris & Dave
Bluetooth
Dave and Chris record after a long break between episodes together and discuss new electronics designs they're working on, solar and battery installations, dealing with tariffs, and building at JLC.
#699 CircuitHub, 12 Years Later with Andrew Seddon
with Andrew Seddon
CircuitHub
Andrew Seddon, founder and CEO of CircuitHub, joins Chris to talk about how CircuitHub has changed over the past 12 years as a startup and how they are continuing to push the boundaries of high mix domestic electronics manufacturing.
#698 Hardware Security with Matt Brown
with Matt Brown
Matt Brown is a hardware and IoT security researcher. He joins Chris to talk about best practices for securing hardware that talks to the internet and share stories of products that didn't pass muster.
#697 LEDs Everywhere with Tim from Mitxela
with Tim
ATtiny
Tim from Mitxela stops by the show to discuss his extensive portfolio of projects involving, hardware (tiny LEDs), firmware (ridiculously low power processing), software (emulating gameboy), and mechanical (machining jewelry grade objects)
#696 It Works With Option Number 5
Chris & Dave
Bluetooth
This week Dave and Chris discuss solar optimization, short videos, useless products, cameras, energy monitors, Bluetooth, magnets, and more!
#695 Making The Invisible, Visible with Sam Aldhaher
with Sam Aldhaher
Sam Aldhaher is a power engineer and 3D graphic artist, his Blender visualizations have helped many people understand how RF flows in a variety of circuits. Sam joins Chris to talk about how to get started in Blender and the variety of tools available once you do.
#694 Voltage, Vibes, and VOCs
Chris & Dave
Electronex
In this episode, Dave and Chris cover environmental monitoring, trade shows, manufacturing, tariffs, new test equipment, and AI coding.
#693 Small Scale Electronics Manufacturing with Colin O'Flynn
with Colin O'Flynn
Colin O'Flynn returns to The Amp Hour for a 3rd time to talk about recent developments in security, FPGAs, small scale electronics manufacturing, and the world of academia.
#692 Like a steam engine in your house
Chris & Dave
Jumperless
In this episode Dave and Chris discuss solar installs, wacky tariffs, peak power pricing, tiny electronics, oscilloscope triggering, and more.
#691 System Designer Lets You Try Every Part with Michael Gielda
with Michael Gielda
Renode
Michael Gielda returns to the show (for a third time) to talk about the work Antmicro is doing to extend hardware, firmware, and silicon design. Their new tool System Designer allows even more high level testing of full systems, in addition to their popular Renode tool.
#690 Clap on, clap off, lights flicker
Chris & Dave
Bluetooth
Dave and Chris discuss bluetooth boards, what happens when batteries leak, new cellular capabilities in iPhones, AC flicker, old oscilloscopes, and more!
#689 A Jumperless Breadboard with Kevin Cappuccio
with Kevin Cappuccio
analog
Kevin Cappuccio joins Chris to talk about the Jumperless Breadboard, an advanced platform for prototyping and interacting with circuits that you place onto the breadboard.
#688 The Tandy Train
Chris & Dave
Capacitor
Dave and Chris discuss the Tandy 200, test equipment cashflow, the return of the Pebble watch, GPT trying its hand at CAD, solar output...and more
#687 The RP2350 with the Raspberry Pi Team
with Raspberry Pi Team
38C3
The RP2350 from Raspberry Pi is a dual dual-core (Cortex-M33 and Hazard 3 RISC V) microcontroller with extensive peripherals. Some of the Raspberry Pi team (James Adams, Chris Boross, Liam Fraser, Luke Wren) join Chris to discuss how the chip evolved from the RP2040, including interesting security and lower power enhancements.
#686 A Benchtop Pick and Place with Stephen Hawes
with Stephen Hawes
Stephen Hawes started Opulo, a company that builds the Lumen Benchtop Pick and Place. Opulo designs open source hardware and sane software for building your own PCBs in your lab.
#685 Data Provenance in the Home, Server, and Fab
Chris & Dave
This week Chris and Dave discuss the changes at Intel, being in control data in your home lab, bogus copyright claims for repair videos, and more!
#684 Lee Felsenstein: The Computer Revolution & Counterculture
Chris & Dave
computer history
A full 3 hour discussion with the legendary Lee Felsenstein, designer of the Osborne 1, SOL computer, VDM-1, Pennywhistle modem, and the inventor of social media.
#683 Troubleshooting is the skill
Chris & Dave
Chris and Dave discuss updated house wiring, making smart relays capable of switching power, how to design a linear supply, and using AI tools to help troubleshoot code (but NOT layout)
#682 Your Mind Is The Tool
Chris & Dave
2 Layer
Chris and Dave discuss troubleshooting a dead short in a PCB, the slow march of time, retirements, whether 2 layers is sufficient on PCBs, and much more!
#681 Compact High Speed Design with Lukas Henkel
with Lukas Henkel
BSP
Lukas Henkel, CEO of OV Tech, joins Chris to talk about high speed design while utilizing incredibly small form factors. They discuss open source SIPs, a CM4 replacement board, FEM modeling, and more!
#680 Catching Rockets with Musk Sticks
Chris & Dave
Chris and Dave discuss identifying boards, amazing rocket catches, recent travel to trade shows, the impacts of the floods on the supply chain, EV charging, and more!
#679 Satellite Design Engineering with Dan Esparon
with Dan Esparon
Dan Esparon from Inovor Technologies in South Australia joins Dave to discuss all about the engineering of designing and launching satellites!
#678 All About Antennas with Katerina Galitskaya
with Katerina Galitskaya
5G
Katerina Galitskaya is a Senior Antenna Engineer who is currently designing base station antennas. She joins Chris to talk about simulating, visualizing, and thinking about the design of antennas. Listen for everyday design rules and stories of interesting antenna designs.
#677 Watt Is The Deal
Chris & Dave
Conference
This week Dave and Chris talk about Meshtastic (a meshing layer on top of LoRa), new scope specs, cellular modems, power, and a new Embedded Conference in the US.
#676 Moving House (And Lab)
Chris & Dave
Altium
Dave and Chris record together after a long hiatus because Chris spent the summer moving boxes between two houses and reorganizing his lab. Also hardware livestreams, open source hardware, new battery storage, layoffs, and more!
#675 Changing Course with Shawn Hymel
with Shawn Hymel
Course
Shawn Hymel is an engineer and content creator who recently left his developer relations job at Edge Impulse to work on developing courses full time
#674 Turtles as a Service
Chris & Dave
Electronex
Dave and Chris return to talk electronics trade shows, API tools, solar and batteries, automation, and more!
#673 Lifelong Learning with Bitluni
with bitluni
Bitluni joins Chris on The Amp Hour to discuss FPGAs, ESP32 projects, custom silicon, building around memes, and continually challenging yourself to learn something new.
#672 Silicon Revolution with Matt Venn
with Matt Venn
ASIC
Matt Venn returns to The Amp Hour to talk about the successes (and learnings) from many additional runs of TinyTapeout, a shared project service sitting on top of a multi product wafer service. Matt also talks about a forthcoming analog ASIC design class on Zero to Asic, his online course.
#671 NDA Sideshow
Chris & Dave
Altium
Dave and Chris talk about the letdown of signing an NDA and seeing "behind the curtain". Also inverters, programming tools, pricing changes at Altium, and old school web stuff.
#670 Engineering Careers with Circuit Break & James Lewis
with James Lewis
Chris joins the Circuit Break podcast (Parker Dillman, Stephen Kraig) along with James Lewis to talk about engineering careers. This show will also be posted as episode 435 of the Circuit Break Podcast
#669 Freelance PCB Design with Petr Dvorak
with Petr Dvorak
Consulting
Petr Dvorak is a freelance PCB designer and a prolific sharer of knowledge on LInkedIn. He joins Chris to discuss electronic microscopes, traveling to Shenzhen, revision control, KiCad (of course), and much more!
#668 50.0000 Ohms
Chris & Dave
AI
Chris and Dave discuss controlled impedance board traces, classic hacker movies, Location APIs, CHIPS act beneficiaries, power problems in houses, and more!
#667 Long Distance with CNLohr-a
with CNLohr
CH32V003
CNLohr returns to The Amp Hour to talk about LoRa and implementing a solution using harmonics coming out of a standard microcontroller's GPIO
#666 Good Energy Citizen
Chris & Dave
AC battery
This week Chris and Dave discuss EV charging, chip fabs, manufacturing, large airliners, power storage, and more!
#665 Really long needle nose pliers
Chris & Dave
bobiverse
Dave and Chris talk trade shows, demos, light up hardware, bluetooth, obsolete processors, sustaining engineering, and more
#664 Simulating doors falling off
Chris & Dave
This week Dave and Chris talk about upcoming demos, bluetooth, car troubles, new silicon, parts in the lab, and more!
#663 Motors on PCBs with Carl Bugeja
with Carl Bugeja
Actuator
Carl Bugeja joins Chris to talk about building PCB motors and actuators, starting a new business, documenting build processes on YouTube, manufacturing flexible circuits, and much more!
#662 The non-Stinky Car
Chris & Dave
Battery
Dave and Chris discuss EVs, adapting power tool batteries for projects on the bench, robots, software updates, and more!
#661 Blogging Electronics with Pallav Aggarwal
with Pallav Aggarwal
Blogging
Pallav Aggarwal of CAPUF Embedded joins Chris to talk about blogging about learning electronics and helping others learn along the way! Pallav does teardowns, chip walkthroughs (like on the CH32V003), Linux projects, custom hardware, and more!
#660 My Toothbrush Is Broadcasting
Chris & Dave
Chris and Dave discuss SPICE in CAD programs, new software releases, startup paperwork, crazy smarthome stuff, and toothbrushes that give away your data.
#659 Altium...Acquired!
Chris & Dave
Altera
Dave and Chris talk through Renesas acquiring Altium and all its implications. Also Dave gives a history of Altium and they discuss how the industry might change (or not).
#658 Uncle Al's Eating Garbage Again
Chris & Dave
AI
This week Chris and Dave discuss relativistic time differences, building with RISC V components, RF modules, silly consumer hardware, underwater electronics, and more!
#657 Automating the Home with Keith Burzinski
with Keith Burzinski
Automation
Keith Burzinski of Nabu Casa works on ESPhome and making it easier to attach custom hardware to the open source home assistant project. He joins Chris to talk about the realities of offline smart home setups and how you can get started building custom things.
#656 Pneumatic Tubes, Straight To The Home
Chris & Dave
beta voltaic
Dave returns after a few weeks on holiday to chat with Chris about robots, maker companies merging, hyped up tech at CES (and beyond), trains, power grids...and more!
#655 The Twelfth Day of Keyzermas
Chris & Dave
Car
Jeff Keyzer of Mightyohm.com joins Chris for a later-than-usual holiday episode, recording on what will be known as The Twelfth Day of Keyzermas
#654 Pseudo Code...Pseudo Good
Chris & Dave
Dave and Chris discuss moon landings, oscilloscopes, design decisions for limited peripherals on microcontrollers, coding, smart home programs, and more!
#653 Benjamin Cabé Nose Zephyr
Chris & Dave
ADI
Benjamin Cabé, developer advocate for the Zephyr Project, joins Chris to talk about the popular Ecosystem and Real Time Operating System (RTOS). Listen if you'd like to get started with an exciting firmware product that can really enhance your next project.
#652 For a couple weeks there...
Chris & Dave
Big Short
Chris and Dave return after a few guests shows and missed weeks when Chris was out with a new baby in the household. This week we talked about China, chip supply, RISC V, PCB tradeshows, LED factories, and more!
#651 Learning Computing with Jeff Geerling
with Jeff Geerling
Cluster
Jeff Geerling of the Jeff Geerling YouTube channel joins Chris to talk about how to explore the wide variety of computing devices, from an ESP32 monitor on your garage, all the way up to a multi-rack server.
#650 Accessible ASICs with Andreas Olofsson
with Andreas Olofsson
ARM
Andreas Olofsson is the CEO of ZeroASIC, a company that will build you a custom ASIC using chiplets. He returns to The Amp Hour to talk about what has changed in the chip(let) industry in the last 8 years and how they will lower the cost for quasi custom designs for the masses.
#649 History of the Cathode Ray Tube with Kathy Joseph
with Kathy Joseph
Bob Pease
Kathy Joseph from Kathy Loves Physics joins Dave on The Amp Hour to discuss history and physics and we end up discussing the intricate history of the development of the Cathode Ray Tube.
#648 The RP1 and beyond with the Raspberry Pi Hardware team
with Raspberry Pi Hardware Team
Custom Silicon
James Adams and Liam Fraser of the Raspberry Pi hardware team once again join Chris to talk about the RP1 custom silicon on the Raspberry Pi 5
#647 Dave hanging with Fran Blanche
with Fran Blanche
Dave hangs out with Fran Blanche for her 4th appearance on the show. Space, Youtubing, tube testing, storage nightmares, and oopsies.
#646 Fan Fanboys
Chris & Dave
ARM
Chris and Dave discuss selling low volume hardware, old stock of chips, Intel's weird investments, creating oddball PCBs, scopes without fans, and more!
#645 Moving Down The Stack with Scott Williams
with Scott Williams
Camera
Scott Williams returns to The Amp Hour after 6 months to discuss the technical aspects of consulting, including some of the tools he reaches for when building a new product
#644 Garbage Ninjas
Chris & Dave
Boombox
Dave and Chris discuss fitness trackers and smartwatches, boomboxes, buying off of eBay, design decisions, and contract manufacturing.
#643 Calibration & Repair with Ian Johnston
with Ian Johnston
Dave and Ian Scott Johnston discuss the PDVS2mini DC Voltage Calibrator Source, production, China, CERN, ebay reselling, test gear, pick and place machines, assembly, automated test systems, and Youtube repair videos.
#642 Sad Violins for Superconductors
Chris & Dave
2n2222
Chris and Dave recount modems, handsets, trains, 2n2222 transistors, RISC V, and a complete lack of knowledge of how superconductors work.
#641 Power Transmission with Toby Robb
with Toby Robb
AC
Fellow Aussie Toby Robb joins Dave to discuss everything related to mains power generation and transmission and his role as a linesman.
#640 Software Defined Power Supplies with Werner Johansson
with Werner Johansson
Atmel
Werner Johansson of Qoitech has been working on controlling power supplies with software for a long time. He joins Chris to talk about building systems that can quickly respond to the world, including a heavy focus on battery characterization.
#639 Daaaamn We're Duuuummmb
Chris & Dave
Analog Discovery 3
Chris and Dave discuss efficiencies of different types of power generation, building with new chips, new test equipment, building with chiplets and feeling very dumb. All that and more!
#638 Building AR Headsets with Aedan Cullen
with Aedan Cullen
AllWinner
Aedan Cullen has built some amazingly compact electronics in order to create Augmented Reality (AR) headsets. He joins Chris to talk about hardware challenges and building the next (small) big thing.
#637 CH32V003...fun! with CNLohr
with CNLohr
CNLohr joins Chris to talk about doing more with small parts like the CH32V003. CN has been working on the publicly available CH32V003fun library, and recently implemented SW only USB!
#636 Discovering Cursed Connectors
Chris & Dave
Dave and Chris discuss a teardown of a prosumer recording product, choices around cable connectors, 3G cellular networks, and the end of the EAGLE era
#635 Low Power Connected Devices with Andrea Longobardi
with Andrea Longobardi
ARM
Andrea Longobardi from AL2tech joins Chris to talk about consulting, projects in the gas monitoring space, finding early clients, moving outside chip companies, and low power connected device design.
#634 The CAN bus can! with Dr Ken Tindell
with Ken Tindell
Automotive
Dr Ken Tindell joins Chris to explain the CAN bus, including the history and how CAN is used in modern day cars. Also car hacking, self-driving car questions, standards in the trucking industry, and what automotive computing will look like in the future.
#633 Engineering Optimization
Chris & Dave
This week Chris and Dave talk about the regular tasks engineers have in front of them when building a new hardware project: battery, data, features, etc. That plus low cost hardware, hacking devices, figuring out new projects, and more
#632 Steve Sanghi - Microchip CEO for 31 Years!
Chris & Dave
Dave talks with Steve Sanghi who was Microchip CEO for 31 years, now Executive Chair.
#631 A Noisy Rude Bus
Chris & Dave
CAN bus
Chris and Dave discuss how CAN bus is in fact, a "noisy rude bus". Also working with piezo speakers, strain gauges, manufacturing considerations, and getting your proto off the bench quickly.
#630 Renewable Energy Policy with Ari Gerstman
with Ari Gerstman
DC
Ari Gerstman from the Department of Energy SCEP Office joins Chris to talk through US Renewable Energy Policy. They discuss the impacts of growing electrication in the US and how spending is driving new industries.
#629 At least my house isn't haunted
Chris & Dave
circuit breaker
Chris regales Dave with the story of his spooky electrical problems at his house (subject of the puzzler in 628). Also choosing new micros, recently announced micros, and blown up space toys.
#628 Two Dads Puzzlin Things Out
Chris & Dave
Embedded.fm
Dave Young joins Chris in-person to record about learning firmware, weird power issues, and encouraging engineering education.
#627 Works on my machine
Chris & Dave
Chris and Dave discuss compiling code in an automated way, as well as recent Aussie tech events, EE retirement, open source equipment, and more!
#626 Intelligent Routing with Sergiy Nesterenko
with Sergiy Nesterenko
Sergiy Nesterenko of Quilter.ai joins Chris to talk about automating board layout using learning algoritms and parallel cloud compute. Check out how the boards come back with unconventional looks, but well tested electrical characteristics.
#625 Gremlins in the machine
Chris & Dave
AI
This week Chris and Dave get sucked into talking about AI...but question what happens when it's broadly used. Who will understand the underlying systems? Who will be able to troubleshoot? Chris also brings up his learning plan for new tech.
#624 Design & Manufacturing Consulting with Scott Williams from Xentronics
with Scott Williams
Consulting
Scott Williams from Xentronics in Melbourne joins Dave to discuss setting up and running a design and manufacturing consulting business.
#623 Artisanal Crystals
Chris & Dave
BeagleBoard
Dave and Chris discuss prototypes for trade shows, power supplies, current consumption, shipping logistics and much more.
#622 Building Firmware and Hardware for Trade Shows with Mike Szczys
with Mike Szczys
Mike Szczys returns for a second time to talk about creating firmware and hardware for trade shows like the upcoming Embedded World conference in Nuremberg Germany.
#621 The Magic of Calipers
Chris & Dave
Caliper
Dave and Chris discuss calipers, IoT devices, Git, eInk, new chip companies, and more!
#620 Engineering Education with Dr Don Wilcher
with Don Wilcher
Automotive
Dr Don WIlcher is an engineer and an educator. He joins Chris to talk about working inside industrial facilities, designing electronics for autos, and inspiring the next generation of engineers through teaching.
#619 Super Tecmo Bug
Chris & Dave
3D modeling
This week Dave and Chris record during the Superbowl, but ignore sports and talk about finding bugs, creating prototypes, flash based microcontollers, carbon offsets, car wiring harnesses...and more!
#618 Refrigerators and Robots with Amitabh Shrivastava
with Amitabh Shrivastava
Crowd Supply
Amitabh Shrivastava is a physicist turned engineer and a prolific maker. He joins Chris to talk about projects with portable refrigeration and soft robotics.
#617 Conference Room Innovation
Chris & Dave
Audio
This week Dave and Chris discuss interesting PCB features, testing RISC V parts, better recording set-ups, layoffs in the tech industry, solar panels, and more!
#616 Open Source Tapeout with Matthew Venn
with Matthew Venn
ASIC
Matthew Venn of the Zero To Asic course returns to The Amp Hour to talk about what has been happening in the world of Open Source Silicon, both the tools that make things go and the projects that people are creating.
#615 Augmented Engineering
Chris & Dave
AI
Dave and Chris discuss the impacts of AI on electronics design in the future. Also new chips, trade shows, and how to impress your boss.
#614 Reunion Impedance Matching and 2023 Predictions
Chris & Dave
agtech
Past guests of the show (Alvaro, Ariel, Chris) return for an "impedance matching" episode where 4 people get together and discuss electronics. We also discuss things we expect or hope to see in electronics in 2023.
#613 It's a Keyzermas Miracle!
with Jeff Keyzer (MightyOhm)
ham radio
Jeff Keyzer joins The Amp Hour for our annual check in to see what he's up to and what's new in the world of electronics, test equipment, and amateur radio. Merry Keyzermas!
#612 Slapping Industries
Chris & Dave
This week on the show, Chris is supposed to slap Dave for talking about buying a Pick and Place last time. Also new parts, code visualization, Arduino's new target, and low cost chip tooling.
#611 Grad School Time Capsule with Joshua and Zach
with Sonya Vasquez, Zach Fredin
CBA
This show is a before-and-after with Joshua Vasquez and Zach Fredin. A 2019 recording captured the beginning of their grad school journey and this 2022 recording details how grad school went and what they're doing now.
#610 Picking a Pick and Place Pickiness
Chris & Dave
Badge
This week Dave discusses wanting to buy a Pick and Place and Chris doesn't try to talk him out of it. Also low cost RISC V components, Supercon happenings, more on heat pumps, books about the grid, and more!
#609 Open Circuits with Eric Schlaepfer and Windell Oskay
with Eric Schlaepfer, Windell Oskay
555
Eric Schlaepfer and Windell Oskay, authors of "Open Circuits" (a beautiful book looking inside electronic components) join Chris to talk about the book and their other electronic projects.
#608 Vapor Phase with Saber Kaygusuz
with Saber Kaygusuz
EdgeKit
Saber Kaygusuz is the CEO of PCB Arts, makers of the EdgeKit and the Vapor Phase One. He joins Chris to talk about manufacturing and design of electronics systems for prosumers and software developers.
#607 The Joulescope Upgrade with Matt Liberty
with Matt Liberty
AliBaba
Matt Liberty returns to The Amp Hour to talk about the upgraded Joulescope (model JS220) and the trials and tribulations it's been to build a new device during the chip shortage.
#606 Professional Scooter Charger
Chris & Dave
All Things Open
This week Chris and Dave discuss charging batteries, outfitting a lab, heat pumps, conference badges, and more!
#605 The Lightning Tamers with Kathy Joseph
with Kathy Joseph
Edison
Kathy Joseph from the Kathy Loves Physics Youtube channel joins Dave to talk about the history of electricity and her new book The Lightning Tamers.
#604 Robo Fry Guy
Chris & Dave
DALL-E
This week Dave and Chris discuss robots taking low end jobs, power measurement around the house, mechanical work on cases, using AI, and more!
#603 An Interview with Ray Ozzie (Blues Wireless)
with Ray Ozzie
Bill Gates
Ray Ozzie is the founder and CEO of Blues Wireless, a cellular IoT company that makes it easier to send data to the cloud. Ray joins Chris to talk about his background in the software industry, including a role as Chief Software Architect of Microsoft.
#602 Rigorous engineering stuff may be out the window
Chris & Dave
ASML
Dave and Chris talk through custom silicon, old Tek videos, prototyping boards, electric vehicles, and more.
#601 Rebuilding Projects with Dave Young
with Dave Young
Altium
Chris is joined by his old friend Dave Young of Young Circuits Designs (3rd appearance). They discuss consulting, the opportunity cost of learning, coaching students, managing consulting client needs, redesigning circuits, and more.
#600 The Custodial Arts
Chris & Dave
Adafruit
This week Chris and Dave talk about standardized board form factors, cellular devices, logic chips for building clocks, troubleshooting magic, and more!
#599 An Interview with Uri Shaked (Wokwi.com)
with Uri Shaked
arduino
Uri Shaked of Wokwi.com joins Chris to talk about simulating microcontrollers and peripherals, and the challenges of making each layer of the process accurate and fast on the web.
#598 Best way to find a leak
Chris & Dave
74HC164
Dave and Chris discuss designing for high explosive environments, how to reverse engineer products, and the rise of RISC V in the semiconductor space.
#196 An Interview with Mike Engelhardt (Re-broadcast)
with Mike Engelhardt
analog
This is a re-broadcast of the original episode #196, where we interviewed Mike Engelhardt, the creator of LTSpice. Mike is no longer at Linear Technology, and Linear Technology is no longer a company (now part of Analog Devices), but the simulator is still awesome!
#597 Wow, Dave REALLY likes Top Gun
Chris & Dave
China
This week we discuss hardware engineers moving to software, the impacts of funding on the chip industry, long term crowdfunding campaign, and why Top Gun is awesome.
#596 Capacitor Schoopage with Ron Demcko from AVX
with Ron Demcko
AVX Fellow and 40 year capacitor industry legend Ron Demcko joins Dave to discuss film capacitor failures and capacitor technology. This episode is best viewed in video format on the Amp Hour Youtube …
#595 Trade Show or Conference?
Chris & Dave
AI
What's the difference between a trade show and a conference? Chris returns from Embedded World (with COVID) and discusses with Dave, who is NOT going to start DaveCon. Also other news in the electronics space.
#594 AI aren't sentient yet...right?
Chris & Dave
AI
This week on the show, we discuss AI, new kit services, building prototypes, vintage computers, trains, and more!
#593 Publicly Traded Hobby with Ben Jordan
with Ben Jordan
Altium
Ben Jordan was a long time Altium employee and PCB and product specialist and still makes Altium tutorial videos on Youtube. He and Dave discuss their experiences in the EDA world.
#592 Product Design with Simone Giertz
with Simone Giertz
DFM
Simone Giertz returns to The Amp Hour 5.5 years later to discuss all of the things that she has built, things she wants to build in the future, and how she is moving those product designs into the marketplace.
#591 Olive-a The World
Chris & Dave
Construction
Chris and Dave discuss big electric vehicles, finding unmarked parts, test equipment, olive oil, and more!
#590 Finding Hardware Flaws with Laura Abbott
with Laura Abbott
Cortex M33
Laura Abbott of Oxide Computer joins Chris to talk about a vulnerability she found in the firmware update mechanism on the LPC55S69, as well as other topics relating to firmware and hardware security.
#589 Mute Button Discipline
Chris & Dave
Falstad
This week Dave and Chris hold it together while discussing simulations, energy fields, impossible parts, and strapping open source gear to your home.
#588 Siloed Engineering with Leigh Brady
with Leigh Brady
apprenticeship
Engineer Leigh Brady joins Chris to compare and contrast working in different industries in different countries. Leigh has worked in the optics, medical, and defense spaces, including on nuclear weapons.
#587 Biblical Broker Bucks
Chris & Dave
Belkin
Chris and Dave discuss PCB art, failed hardware projects, USB chips, lack of chips, new (to us) wireless network protocols, and more!
#586 Fran Blanche Version 3
Chris & Dave
FranLab
Fran Blanche and Dave discuss publishing, newspapers, Frantone, manufacturing, the kit business, ebay, and pontificate what we would be doing if the Internet didn't exist.
#585 Return of the Trade Show Jedi
Chris & Dave
agtech
Dave and Chris talk about the return to trade shows and how things are the same. Also AgTech, open source boards, self driving cars, and engineering shortages.
#584 Software for Rockets with Charles Aylward
with Charles Aylward
Astra
Charles Aylward is a consultant and software/hardware designer who has worked on mission critical systems at Astra (a "new space" company). He joins Chris to talk about imparting rigor to engineering design, especially when the consequences of not doing so are dire.
#583 The Smart Grid with Paul Zawada
with Paul Zawada
Generation
Power expert Paul Zawada joins Chris and Dave to talk about the grid, the smart grid, the challenges of increasing percentage of renewable sources, and generally how power delivery works.
#582 The Same Wavelength
Chris & Dave
BCI
Dave and Chris talk through brain computer interfaces, reverse engineering, Shenzhen's numbers, the JWST, a new meetup, and more!
#581 Real Time Operating Systems with Brian Amos
with Brian Amos
embedded
Brian Amos joins Chris to talk through his book about learning Real Time Operating Systems (RTOS) with a Hands-on methodology. Discussions around what an RTOS is, when to use one, and how FreeRTOS works.
#580 Electrical Archeology
Chris & Dave
Battery
Chris and Dave take a look at the changing nature of employment for engineers in the pandemic era. Also searching for new MOSFETs, solar farms, smart grid, and blowing up capacitors!
#579 ADC Chip Design with Anthony Wall
with Anthony Wall
ADC
Anthony Wall--PhD design student at Tyndall in Cork, Ireland--joins Chris to talk about the ADC he is designing based on a "current-starved ring oscillator". A deep dive into mixed signal chip design, the Irish chip industry, and having your silicon manufactured.
#578 Histogrammic or Histomagraphical
Chris & Dave
ARM
This week Dave and Chris talk about computer history, chip building news, sourcing parts from the Chinese chip ecosystem, test equipment, and tin whiskers!
#577 Product Lifecycle Management with Michael Corr
with Michael Corr
DFA
Michael Corr of Duro Labs joins Chris to talk about Product Lifecycle Management: what it is, when to start using it, and how our listeners can be certain the correct design files are being used to manufacture their next electronics project.
#576 A literal trainwreck
Chris & Dave
AirTag
Trains are a continual source of fascination for nerds young and old. This week, Chris and Dave discuss recent train experiences and also talk about new chip fabs, shuttering IoT networks, asset tracking for the masses, and really old software.
#575 New Life Skills with Joe Grand
with Joe Grand
Cryptocurrency
Joe Grand recently reverse engineered a Trezor cryptocurrency wallet to recover $2M. He returns to The Amp Hour after 10 years to talk with Chris about hardware hacking, past projects, and what Joe hopes to learn next.
#574 Bubblegum Tap Shoes
Chris & Dave
1N4007
Dave and Chris discuss diode selection, understanding linear regulators, switching CAD programs, organizing lab spaces, and more!
#573 Mixed Signal Education with Philip Salmony
with Philip Salmony
Audio
Philip Salmony of the Phil's Lab YouTube channel joins Chris to talk about electronics education and Philip's new course on designing a mixed signal PCB using KiCad v6.
#572 Technology Instruction with Charlie Larrabee
with Charlie Larrabee
Education
Charlie Larrabee joins Chris to talk about electronics and technology education for kids age 6 to 14. They cover challenges in teaching (and learning) and how to encourage children to get more involved in electronics.
Rube Goldbergs in Spaaaace
Chris & Dave
Connector
Dave and Chris ring in the new year talking about connectors, high stress space missions, and new processors. Happy new year!
#570 Keyzermas All The Way
with Jeff Keyzer (MightyOhm)
Capacitor
Jeff Keyzer returns to The Amp Hour for our yearly holiday tradition of Keyzermas. We discuss test equipment, supply chain silliness, capacitor madness, museums, and more!
#569 Electric Fields, Son.
Chris & Dave
5G
This week Dave recaps the Veritasium video about electricity flowing through wires and Chris announces he has joined a startup working on connecting things to the internet.
#568 YouTube to Consulting with Florin of Voltlog
with Florin
Automotive
Florin of the VoltLog youtube channel joins Chris to talk automotive electronics, consulting, test equipment, and more!
#567 The Rodeo Drive of Electronics
Chris & Dave
Analog Discovery 2
Dave and Chris discuss shopping for new parts, logistics, measuring signals, and mechanical marvels.
#566 Switching Converter Engineering with Carmen Parisi
with Carmen Parisi
AMD
Carmen Parisi, Staff Applications Engineer at Renesas, joins Chris to talk about how high current regulators work and what it's like testing and supporting those chips for a wide variety of customers.
#565 Here for a reason
Chris & Dave
chip
Chris and Dave discuss modularity, programming, new development boards, and power design.
#564 Pavlovian Cheapskates
Chris & Dave
This week Chris records with Parker and Stephen of the Macrofab Engineering Podcast to celebrate their 300th episode.
#563 Grumpy Collaboration
Chris & Dave
Apex
Chris and Dave are grumpy about the hype around collaborative design tools and how silicon valley values tech companies in general.
#562 Electroboom!
Chris & Dave
Electroboom
Mehdi Sadaghdar from the Electroboom Youtube channel joins Dave to talk about his hobby and professional background, and how he got started in YouTubing. Also moving to Canada, the Iranian hobby movement, Maker spaces, and more!
#561 Assembly Chat
Chris & Dave
assembly
Will it work if Chris and Dave record while Chris assembles a board? Listen to find out!
#560 High End Audio with Remco Stoutjesdijk
with Remco Stoutjesdijk
ASK
Remco Stoutjesdijk is an electronics designer for audio. He has been creating audio circuits for high end audio manufacturers for many years via his consultancy ItsOnlyAudio.com. He joins Chris to talk about everything from DSP to streaming, chip design to tubes.
#559 Occam's Engineering Razor
Chris & Dave
3D printing
This week, Dave and Chris discuss troubleshooting, both in the abstract and in the literal. Dave has been troubleshooting his solar panel, and Chris has been building up new 3D printing metholodologies. Also semiconductor manufacturing, workshops, project management, and more!
#558 Toasted Marshmallow Connectors
Chris & Dave
Connector
This week Chris and Dave discuss reflow in the lab, the passing of Sir Clive Sinclair, the importance of cost-down innovations, test equipment craziness, and more!
#557 Generic Nodes with Orkhan Amiraslanov
with Orkhan Amiraslanov
Atmel
Orkhan Amiraslanov of The Things Industries joins Chris to talk about creating hardware for a LoRaWAN network, including working with different microcontrollers and building a sensor platform that will handle many users' needs.
#556 Firmware for Hardware Engineers with Phillip Johnston
with Phillip Johnston
CI/CD
Phillip Johnston of Embedded Artistry joins Chris to talk about building better firmware for hardware devices. This includes high level topics like setting up Continuous Integration pipelines and developing in-situ testing.
#555 Timing is Everything
Chris & Dave
555
Dave and Chris celebrate their 555th show by doing a live Q&A recording
#117 An Interview with Alan Wolke (Re-broadcast)
with Alan Wolke
Alan Wolke
For the original show notes (and much more active comment section) check out the original page: https://theamphour.com/theamphour-117-undulating-utensil-utility/
To listen to all episodes in your …
#554 PLEASE be a die shrink
Chris & Dave
AOI
Dave and Chris discuss the terror of getting a product change notification and hoping it's not something drastic (like an end of life notice). Also test equipment, the M.2 standard, layout, new wifi chips, podcasts, and more!
#553 Debunking with Shahriar
with Shahriar
5G
Shahriar Shahramian from The Signal Path joins Dave to talk debunking theories and how to teach critcal thinking
#552 Shouting at chips with Colin O'Flynn
with Colin O'Flynn
AirTag
Colin O'Flynn joins Chris to talk about the state of the security industry, and to discuss his recent and upcoming product (Chip Shouter, Chip Whisperer Husky) and book releases (The Hardware Hacking Handbook).
#551 Feed the Mouse
Chris & Dave
ARM
Dave and Chris discuss chip shortages, USB, job seeking tips, meetups, bluetooth waste, electronics fundamentals, moving labs, and more!
#550 Finishing Prototypes with Zack Freedman
with Zack Freedman
3D printing
Zack Freedman is a prototyping engineer turned YouTuber who makes bombastic videos about 3D printed creations and getting projects across the finish line. He joins Chris to talk about his past hardware designs and what he will be building next.
#549 Creative Engineering with Shrouk El-Attar
with Shrouk El-Attar
Art
Shrouk El-Attar is an electronics designer, refugee, belly dancer, activist and podcaster. She joins Chris to talk about creating electronics for interesting problem solving, including FemTech products, robots and art.
#548 The Last Line of Defense
Chris & Dave
Battery
This week Chris and Dave discuss how to keep electronics dry by properly designing an enclosure. Also solar, weather events, patent trolls, outfitting labs, and more!
#547 Open Source Mindset with Michael Gielda
with Michael Gielda
AntMicro
Michael Gielda of Antmicro returns to discuss open source methodology and the wide variety of projects they develop that feed back into the electronics ecosystem, including FPGA, AI, chip design and firmware projects.
#546 Thousands Of Dependencies
Chris & Dave
Altium
This week Chris and Dave discuss the amazing amount of interdependencies in modern web software and how that differs from hardware processes. Also takeover bids for CAD tools, hardware continuous integration, old display drivers, production systems, machine learning, and more!
#545 Fear of Banjos
Chris & Dave
8753D
This week Chris and Dave discuss data retention, manufacturing data generation, moving labs (and homes), and the joys of real estate.
#544 Standardizing Manufacturing with Pete Staples
with Pete Staples
China
Pete Staples of Blue Clover Devices joins Chris to talk about manufacturing and how to automate and standardize device programming and testing. Blue Clover uses their experience manufacturing in China to develop a general purpose production test tool
#543 Cassette decks have browsers?
Chris & Dave
AirTag
Dave and Chris discuss part library strategies, repairing equipment, electric vehicles, corporate buyouts, IoT teardowns, and more!
#542 Component Management with Jan Rychter
with Jan Rychter
BOM
Jan Rychter, creator of PartsBox, talks with Chris about how to manage a personal library of components. This can help to save money, run a small manufacturing business, keep track of parts, reduce waste, and more!
#541 Chip Shortage Denier
Chris & Dave
Chris returns from paternity leave to more mayhem in the semiconductor supply chain. Dave jokingly doesn't believe that it's happening when he can't find parts out on a distributor website.
#540 The Space Time Continuum with Fran Blanche
with Fran Blanche
Dave talks with Fran Blanche about, well, everything including her theory on the space time continuum!
#539 The King of Trash with Big Clive
with Big Clive
Dave talks with the king of trashy youtube channels, Big Clive!
#538 Missle Man with Bruce Simson
with Bruce Simson
Bruce Simpson from the Xjet Youtube channel joins Dave to discuss RC aircraft and creating an international incident by developing a DIY cruise missle!
#537 Firmware Deployment and Troubleshooting with Akbar Dhanaliwala
with Akbar Dhanaliwala
CI
Akbar Dhanaliwala, Founder and CEO of Lager Data, joins Chris to talk about building out firmware testing infrastructure. His experiences deploying software to devices in the field or being manufactured in China inspired the Lager Gateway and platform.
#536 NFT Schematics
Chris & Dave
121GW
This week Dave and Chris discuss the value of a schematic, how chip fabs recover from shutdowns, getting started projects, 3D printing with resin, operating systems and much more!
#535 Efinix FPGAs with Sammy Cheung
with Sammy Cheung
Altera
Sammy Cheung, CEO of Efinix, joins Chris to talk about FPGAs. They discuss designing reconfigurable devices into products that do not traditionally have FPGAs, but will benefit from enhanced capabilities like Computer Vision.
#534 Firmware Update Capabilities
Chris & Dave
COVID
This week Dave and Chris talk about putting firmware onto devices (or not), computer history, Silicon Valley, cabling and extraterrestrial flight.
#533 Microwave measurement with Joel Dunsmore
with Joel Dunsmore
5G
Joel Dunsmore is a Keysight Fellow, an engineer who worked on the HP 8753, and the author of The Microwave Component Measurement handbook. He joins Chris to explain VNAs, the increasing need for multi-port systems, and how to work in an increasingly complex RF world.
#532 Recalling Recalls
Chris & Dave
Airbag
This week Chris and Dave discuss various product recalls and the terror that recalls instill into engineers. Also mars rovers, shuttered retail, high accuracy voltmeters, power outages, and more!
#531 Footprints and Symbols with Natasha Baker
with Natasha Baker
Altium
Natasha Baker, Founder and CEO of SnapEDA, joins Chris to talk about footprints, symbols and other engineering content that helps designers create useful, correct circuit boards. They discuss the chip industry and how the information around it is changing.
#530 Living Through Chipageddon
Chris & Dave
This week Chris and Dave discuss chip shortages, electronics consulting, Raspberry Pi silicon, PCB renders, new coding languages and much more!
#529 Embedded Hardware with the Raspberry Pi Team
with Raspberry Pi Team
Broadcom
James Adams, Liam Fraser and Luke Wren of Raspberry Pi Trading join Chris to talk about new hardware from Raspberry Pi, including the RP2040 chip, the Pico board, the CM4 module and more!
#528 New Year, New Gear
Chris & Dave
This week Chris and Dave discuss a wide range of new equipment, including soldering irons, USB scopes, active loads, and retrofitted DMMs. Also discussion around new boards and chips from Raspberry Pi and Seeed.
#527 Measuring Current with Matt Liberty
with Matt Liberty
Burden Voltage
Matt Liberty, creator of the Joulescope, joins Chris to talk about measuring current in low power devices, including IoT devices that have high current RF pulses. Matt explains how to optimize low power designs and how he created the Joulescope.
#526 Why IoT Is Difficult with Jonathan Beri
with Jonathan Beri
Android Things
Jonathan Beri of Golioth joins Chris to talk about the difficulty of standing up an end-to-end IoT solution, including working with web providers, dealing with firmware updates, interfacing with different business organizations and more.
#525 Open FPGA Toolchains and Machine Learning with Brian Faith of QuickLogic
with Brian Faith
feather
Brian Faith, CEO of QuickLogic, joins Chris to talk about implementing the Symbiflow open source toolchain for QuickLogic FPGAs and how they are using that tool chain alongside the SensiML platform to create flexible, low power devices for machine learning applications.
#524 LEDs and EVs with Mike Harrison
with Mike Harrison
ADC
Mike Harrison of Mike's Electric Stuff join Chris and Dave to talk about new development projects, working with old parts and tinkering under the hood of an EV.
#523 A Keyzermas Story
with Jeff Keyzer (MightyOhm)
Altium
Jeff Keyzer of Mightyohm.com joins Chris and Dave for our annual Keyzermas episode! Jeff updates us on what he's been working on, answers some questions about RF and discusses the state of the electronics world, as he sees it.
#522 High Current Power Supplies with Fredrik Kensander
with Fredrik Kensander
calibration
Fredrik Kensander of KraftPowercon joins Chris to talk about creating very high current output power supplies used for things like plating copper onto circuit boards (and many other industrial applications). They discuss firmware, processors, power output stages, system architecture and more!
#521 Outdoor Laser Projection & Object Mapping with Daryl Tewksbury
with Daryl Tewksbury
Art
Daryl Tewksbury joins Dave to talk about his work on laser projects at Laservision and how he has continued building hardware and software.
#520 Inductance and Stuff
Chris & Dave
Advent
This week Chris and Dave dive into RF...and promptly turn around and walk away from the topic. Also firmware, training repetitions, PCB stackups, satellites, Linux modules and much more!
#519 Simulating Embedded Hardware with Michael Gielda
with Michael Gielda
ABC
Michael Gielda of Antmicro joins Chris to talk about simulating embedded hardware, from the microcontroller core all the way out to multiple units communicating on a mesh network (and beyond). Their open source tool (Renode) enables better firmware testing and more reliable systems.
#518 Satellites and EVs with Joris Aerts
with Joris Aerts
CAN bus
Joris Aerts joins Chris to talk about building electronics for (cube) satellites, the electronics inside the Model S door handle and a new testing platform he is creating.
#517 Depth and AI with Brandon Gilles and Brian Weinstein
with Brandon Gilles, Brian Weinstein
AI
Brandon Gilles and Brian Weinstein of Luxonis (makers of the DepthAI) join Chris to talk about how embedded computing will change in the next 5 years due to depth perception and AI image classification. The DepthAI board uses the Intel Movidius Myriad X chip, which enables many of these advances.
#516 Thermions Aren't A Thing
Chris & Dave
1K
This week Chris and Dave discuss thermal design, bluetooth bootloading, power lines, refactoring labs, and automated layout tools.
#515 Embedded Linux with Jay Carlson
with Jay Carlson
Jay Carlson joins Chris to talk about his recently released opus on building embedded Linux for microprocessors and the process of building 10 different boards to showcase the required steps.
#514 Focus, Dammit
Chris & Dave
Bare Conductive
Dave and Chris discuss the benefits of focusing on a platform for finding work and whether that should tilt the discussion of generalist vs specialist. Also software explanations, downsizing, power stations, remote work, new dev boards and more!
#513 Audio DSP with Shannon Parks
with Shannon Parks
Audio
Shannon Parks of Parks Audio joins Chris to talk about processing phono (record player) audio input using DSP and selling a digital device into a consumer market that goes crazy over analog.
#512 Design For Longevity
Chris & Dave
Accord
Dave and Chris talk about troubleshooting electronics from afar, solar charging, car charging, bus charging and the charge of educational institutions around the world.
#511 Brewing Electronics with Eli Hughes
with Eli Hughes
Brewing
Eli Hughes of TZero joins Chris to talk about creating a business around a connected brewery monitoring system and the technologies that go inside of it. Also working with processors, switching from FreeRTOS to Zephyr and working as a "Pro Support" engineer.
#510 Knob and Tube Wiring
Chris & Dave
Battery
Chris and Dave discuss EV charging, old wiring in houses, working with an RTOS, newly announced open source devices and more!
#509 Cellular IoT with Jared Wolff
with Jared Wolff
Apple
Jared Wolff joins Chris to talk about creating a cellular IoT board and all of the pitfalls along the way. He also describes recovering from tech burnout, using the Zephyr RTOS, taking a board to production, and much more!
#508 Doomed To The Flatland
Chris & Dave
assembly
This week Chris returns from holiday to chat with Dave about board assembly, telepresence, audio gear, pick and place machines, optics tables, and much more!
#507 Right To Repair with Louis Rossmann
with Louis Rossmann
Apple
Louis joins Dave once again to talk about updates to The Right To Repair, his take on NYC real estate, and how repairing Apple products has changed over the years.
#506 Hipster Fodder
Chris & Dave
Battery
This week Chris and Dave record earlier than normal for a special occasion. Also they discuss battery charging, solderpaste application, firmware tutoring, SBIR grants, out of print textbooks, and much more!
#505 Hardware Revision Control with Kyle Dumont
with Kyle Dumont
Allspice
Kyle Dumont of Allspice.io joins Chris to talk about revision control for hardware projects. Allspice takes Altium projects and makes it easier to see changes and do design reviews for new designs. They also discuss the nature of revision control and what makes it difficult in hardware situations.
#504 This Is Just A Tribute
Chris & Dave
Apple
This week Chris and Dave discuss a new podcast by Chris (The Contextual Electronics Podcast), gerber issues, DfM tools, ARM being up for sale again, book recommendations and the future of technology training materials.
#503 Fabless Chip Design with Mohamed Kassem
with Mohamed Kassem
ASIC
Mohamed Kassem, CTO of eFabless, joins Chris to talk about using the OpenLANE tool flow to build custom silicon for the newly announced open source PDK from Google and Skywater. He also describes how and why someone might want their own ASIC and the dropping costs of creating one.
#502 Lowest Common Denominator Design
Chris & Dave
Analog Devices
This week Dave and Chris discuss detailed teardowns of EVs, choosing PCB fabrication based on minimum tolerances, PCB stackup, large chip companies merging, and the untimely passing of an engineering icon.
#501 Discussing the Open Source PDK with Tim Ansell
with Tim Ansell
ASIC
Tim 'Mithro' Ansell of Google talks to Chris about the recently announced open source PDK released by Skywater (a silicon fab) and Google. Also discussions around the implications of open source silicon and how listeners can get their ASIC designs fabbed for free.
#500 Two and a Half Orders of Magnitude
Chris & Dave
AD2
This 500th episode....contained many of the same things we were talking about in our first few episodes! We review part shortages, OSHW licensing, chip printers, RF simulation, past guests, capacitors, FETs, learning, and much more! Also, we have a giveaway this week.
#499 Discussing Chiplets with Ming Zhang
with Ming Zhang
ASIC
Ming Zhang, co-founder and CEO of zGlue, joins Chris to talk about connecting chiplets together to create bespoke integrated circuits, which are much smaller and more power efficient than if placed in original packaging.
#498 Quantum Computing with Andrea Morello
with Andrea Morello
Andrea Morello, Scientia Professor of Quantum Engineering at the University of New South Wales (Australia), joins Dave to talk about the state of the art of quantum computing.
#497 An Interview with Brock LaMeres
with Brock LaMeres
ABET
Brock LaMeres, a professor at Montana State University, joins Chris to talk about distance learning, embedded systems, designing redundant processors for space missions, engineering education, and lots more!
#496 Drab Olive
Chris & Dave
747
This week Dave and Chris discuss determination, connectors, signal analyzers, insecure components, new designs, and the future of universities.
#495 An Interview with Eric Klein
with Eric Klein
Electric Vehicle
Eric Klein of Lemnos Labs--a hardware focused venture capital firm based in San Francisco--joins Chris to talk about the future of hardware investing and exciting new opportunities for hardware startups.
#494 The Two Person Rule
Chris & Dave
Board Bring Up
This week on the show, Dave and Chris discuss troubleshooting and the sense of relief when you find the true problem. Also the importance of PCB stackups, working on high cost projects, working with small teams, vintage technology, and much more!
#493 PITA Package
Chris & Dave
Cellular
This week Dave and Chris discuss eWaste, small pitch soldering, microscopes, low cost components, programming micros, cellular modems and much more!
#492 More Electronics Consultant Impedance Matching
Chris & Dave
Billing
A second episode devoted to electronics design consulting. It features consultants Alex Klimaj, Jeremiah Gillis, Kieran O'Leary and (host) Chris Gammell.
#491 The Almighty Dollarydoo
Chris & Dave
AliBaba
This week Dave and Chris discuss funding hardware companies, connectors, how to teach electronics by talking about current, LED characteristics, modularity, arcade games and a lot more!
#490 An Interview with Ben Heck(endorn)
with Ben Heck
Ben Heck
Ben Heckendorn AKA Ben Heck joins Dave to talk about gaming, building pinball machines, speaking at Maker Faire and building things every week for many years for The Ben Heck Show YouTube channel.
#489 An Interview with Jack Ganssle (2nd)
with Jack Ganssle
Agile
Jack Ganssle returns to The Amp Hour 8.5 years later to follow up on how microcontrollers and embedded programming has changed and to talk about some of his favorite tools for building great firmware.
#488 Sowing Discord
Chris & Dave
3D printing
This week Dave and Chris discuss (from lockdown), repairing devices, part storage at home, our new Discord for patrons, virtual meetups, capacitor requirements and much more!
#487 An Interview with Kerry Scharfglass
with Kerry Scharfglass
Alexa
This week Kerry Scharfglass (@borgel) joins Chris to talk about designing consumer electronics and how things change as you move towards smaller companies. Also #Badgelife, war games with hardware, KiCad, creating solar infrastructure and more!
#486 Medical Kits, They're The Future
Chris & Dave
Battery
Dave and Chris discuss working within the confines of the home, how batteries change over time, changing to lead free reflow processes, the variety of power supply topologies and much more!
#485 An Interview with John Day
with John Day
DEC
John Day is a technical fellow and one of the top FAEs at Microchip. He has spent over 25 years working in various parts of the business and helping their customers design devices for the automotive, commercial, and industrial sectors (and many more!). John joins Chris to talk about microcontrollers and pinball.
#484 Man Behind The Curtain
Chris & Dave
Adafruit
This week Dave and Chris talk about carrying your lab with you because of Coronavirus, conferences going online, parts lists out of Shenzhen, EVs in Australia and more!
#483 An Interview with Adrian Tang
with Adrian Tang
chip
Adrian Tang, the lead CMOS designer at JPL, joins Chris to talk about designing extremely high frequency devices, for both space and terrestrial operations. These are used to detect water and other chemical compounds throughout the cosmos.
#482 Shine A Light
Chris & Dave
C2000
This week Dave and Chris talk about product design, scanning JTAG boundary chains, highly integrated SOMs, chip errata and more!
#481 An Interview with Paul Thompson
with Paul Thompson
DC/DC
Paul Thompson, CEO of Pakton Technology, talks with Dave about building electric fence controllers, including how to generate high voltages, dealing with lightning and how to ensure safety using microcontrollers.
#480 An Interview with Ben Krasnow, 8 years on
with Ben Krasnow
Applied Science
Ben Krasnow returns to The Amp Hour after 8 years, hundreds of hours of YouTube content, a couple of high profile jobs at Valve and GoogleX/Verily and many MANY hours spent in the lab. He chats with Chris about how he approaches learning and working on new projects.
#479 Why isn't this working?
Chris & Dave
audiobook
Chris (Gammell) talks with Elecia and Chris (White) from Embedded.fm. It's a crossover show called Ampbedded! This episode covers learning methodology when doing self study and the surprising aspects of learning firmware.
#478 Optimization Beast
Chris & Dave
ADI
This week Dave and Chris discuss the impact of engineers passing away, the time spent doing different electronics design tasks, new rocket types, a new KiCon being held at CERN and much more!
#477 EcoWoke and Going Broke
Chris & Dave
arduino
Chris and Dave talk about the new Art of Electronics X Chapters book, the impacts of Corona Virus on the electronics world, changes in the IoT landscape and a triumphant return of Chip of the Week!
#476 An Interview with Kendall Castor-Perry
with Kendall Castor-Perry
ADC
Kendall Castor-Perry, the "Filter Wizard", joins Chris to talk about the need for effective filters in different electronics products and tools that help to create them.
#475 An Interview with Christina Cyr
with Christina Cyr
4G
Christina Cyr joins Chris to talk about creating a custom cellphone with an unusual form factor. She also recaps her time at CES, talks about sourcing components with large vendors, discusses market research and much more!
#474 An Interview with Nash Reilly
with Nash Reilly
Amp Move
Nash Reilly is a digital designer at Sonos who has worked on products like the Port, the Amp, and the Move. He joins Chris to talk about emissions testing, project management, audio sound quality and much more.
#473 An Interview with Greg Davill
with Greg Davill
Artic Koala
Greg Davill returns to The Amp Hour to talk with Chris about his wide range of projects, such as the Arctic Koala, Orange Crab and Icosahedron LED sculpture. He also talks about his soldering technique and tools, in addition to his recent travel to events like Chaos Congress in Germany.
#241 An Interview with Chuck Peddle (Repeat, in memoriam)
with Chuck Peddle
6502
We re-air our 2015 episode with Chuck Peddle as a tribute to him. Chuck passed away earlier this month. We'll be back with more interviews in 2020!
#472 Keyzermas Vacation
with Jeff Keyzer (MightyOhm)
3D modeling
Jeff Keyzer of Mightyohm.com joins Chris and Dave to talk about learning 3D CAD, attending a wide range of conferences, long lead time components, and plans for learning in the new year.
#471 An Interview with Matt Berggren
with Matt Berggren
Altium
Matt Berggren is a Director at Autodesk in charge of Fusion 360. He joins Chris to talk about the changes coming to EAGLE and Fusion, his history with the ECAD industry and how he used to be a co-worker of both Chris and Dave!
#470 Just Add Salt
Chris & Dave
747
Chris and Dave discuss electronics textbooks, computers taking over layout, writing firmware, and how to deal with test equipment addictions.
#469 An Interview with Craig J Bishop
with Craig J Bishop
autorouter
Craig Bishop joins Chris to talk about a custom gaming platform built on the Xilinx Zynq, how he uses autorouters to connect chips at packaging facilities, and using more software to build hardware.
#468 The Tiny Lab Movement
Chris & Dave
firmware
Dave and Chris discuss downsized labs, flex PCBs, arsonist robots, PCB manufacturing, FPGA practicality and a lot more!
#467 Stories from Supercon 2019
Chris & Dave
ECP5
Chris talks with 3 different guests about FPGAs and open source toolchains at the Hackaday Superconference 2019. Guests include Jereon "Sprite_tm" Domburg, Sylvain "tnt" Munaut and Matt Venn.
#466 An Interview with Ryan Cousins
with Ryan Cousins
Consulting
Ryan Cousins is a founder and CEO of Krtkl. He talks with Chris about the Snickerdoodle, an FPGA + SOC platform, which allows users to easily design high complexity FPGA products using a pluggable board topology. Listen to the struggles with crowdfunding, building a software and hardware platform, and how FPGAs are being used by companies throughout the world.
#465 An Interview with Ted Yapo
with Ted Yapo
Diode
This week Ted Yapo joins Chris to talk about tritium lights, diode based logic, and optimizing network analyzers.
#464 KonnectorPanik
Chris & Dave
Chris and Dave discuss designing and testing antennas, production moving out of China, designing flash into products, building flex PCB based cash, hinged PCB construction, and a lot more!
#463 An Interview with Trammell Hudson
with Trammell Hudson
Camera
Trammell Hudson is a hardware and firmware security researcher who has a wide range of projects. He joins Chris to talk about robotics, firmware reverse engineering, driving vector displays, retro computers and a bunch more.
#462 Boat Anchors
Chris & Dave
Antenna
This week Dave and Chris discuss satellite communications, PCB milling, measuring RF, and uncertain datasheets. Please consider filling out our 2019 listener survey. We will do a drawing for DMMs, USB scopes and Amp Hour notebooks.
#461 An Interview with Jonathan Georgino
with Jonathan Georgino
Binho
Jonathan Georgino is creator of the Binho (pronounced BEAN-yo), a USB host adapter that simplifies the process of creating test stands for production. He talks to Chris about his history of hardware design and how it influenced his new product.
#460 Rubber Ducking
Chris & Dave
This week Dave and Chris discuss low cost finds from China, learning embedded toolchains, the value of engineering notebooks, and how to get better at troubleshooting.
#459 An Interview with Tom Lee
with Tom Lee
Analog Devices
Tom Lee is a professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University and the head of the Stanford Microwave Integrated Circuits lab. He also is the author of Planar Microwave Engineering, a text about RFIC design. He joins Chris to chat about scopes, Maxwell's equations, and a lot more.
#458 An Interview with Ken Burns
with Ken Burns
Akron
Ken Burns of TinyCircuits talks to Chris about starting an electronics company that was really a manufacturing venture. Also working on electronics in the midwest, including a new sensor platform that just launched.
#457 Dotty Ernest Annty Frost
Chris & Dave
CCCamp
This week Chris and Dave discuss hiring tutors for faster learning, where WiFi was invented, low cost PCB services and how the US / China Tariffs are affecting every day electronics.
#456.3 - Discussing Fomu with Tim Ansell and Sean Cross
with Tim Ansell, Sean Cross
Fomu
In this final episode from CCCamp 2019, Chris discusses the Fomu with Tim Ansell, Sean Cross and Michael Ossmann.
#456.2 - Crossover Camp with Hackaday and Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcasts
with Hackaday, Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcasts
Camping
This week, Chris records a podcast live at CCCamp with Alvaro Prieto (Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast), Mike Szczys (Hackaday Podcast), and Elliot Williams (Hackaday Podcast). They talk about their experience at camp.
#456.1 - An Interview with Schneider and Rahix of the Card10 Badge Team (CCCamp 2019)
with Schneider, Rahix
Badge
Chris and Alvaro (UNRE) talked with Schneider and Rahix of the Card10 badge team at CCCamp 2019
#455 Bill and Dave's Excellent Equipment
Chris & Dave
ASIC
This week Chris and Dave talk about various bits of test equipment, long lead time parts and the importance of user interface when interacting with critical devices.
#454 An Interview with MG (Mike Grover)
with MG
ATtiny
MG (Mike Grover) is a security researcher who has done fantastic things with PCB milling machines. He now creates cable implants, making tiny boards that do devious things.
#453 Vertically Integrated Design Engineering
Chris & Dave
Antenna
Dave and Chris discuss designing a remote controlled blinky device, tips around doing RF layout, low cost components, the Apollo 50th celebration and much more.
#452 An Interview with Kieran O'Leary
with Kieran O'Leary
Analog Devices
Kieran O'Leary joins Chris to talk about consulting, EMC testing, Signal Integrity issues, working as an application engineer and a lot more!
#451 An Interview with Scott Miller (2nd)
with Scott Miller
Scott Miller of Dragon Innovation returns to The Amp Hour after 7 years. He and Chris talk about how manufacturing continues to evolve and how Dragon is creating a "product as a service" company inside of their larger distributor parent company.
#450 Stories from Teardown 2019
with Jeff Keyzer (MightyOhm)
AIS
Chris talks to Jesse Vincent, Adrian Studer, Zach Archer, Piotr Esden-Tempski and Jeff Keyzer during a social event at Teardown 2019.
#449 Pulled From A Working Environment
Chris & Dave
Altera
Dave and Chris discuss FPGAs, toolchains, workshops, cross vendor support, new dev boards and how to find a deal on used test equipment.
#448 An Interview with Jean Rintoul
with Jean Rintoul
ADuCM350
Jean Rintoul is the founder of Mindseye Biomedical and creator of the Spectra, an impedance tomography device. Jeans joins Chris to talk about medical imaging and impedance measurement techniques.
#447 Voltnuts for Flashlights
Chris & Dave
AAAA
Chris talks with an ailing Dave about how to specify battery packs, why electronics engineers should stay out of mechanical design and improving design by thinking about manufacturing early in the design cycle.
#446 An Interview with Pete Bevelacqua
with Pete Bevelacqua
50 Ohm
Pete Bevelacqua joins Chris to talk about antenna design and testing at companies like Apple, Boeing and Nest. Pete reviews what is required to take a design from an initial sketch all the way through FCC testing and deployment to the field.
#445 Ludicrously High Frequency Interference
Chris & Dave
ARM
Chris and Dave return to talk about part numbers in manufacturing, doing box builds for low run prototypes, how to pass FCC compliance and what happens when your frequencies go plaid.
#444 An Interview with Ben Eater
with Ben Eater
8 bit
Ben Eater joins Chris to talk about building an 8 bit computer on breadboards and how low level construction is a great project for learning more about the field of electronics.
#443 An Interview with JP Norair
with JP Norair
Antenna
JP Norair joins Chris to talk about setting up networks using LoRa transceivers and his work on the DASH7 standard. Also making antennas, consulting for startups and how solar storage might be moving to your roof.
#442 An Interview with Travis Goodspeed
with Travis Goodspeed
Chronos
Travis Goodspeed joins Chris to talk about his past projects (GoodFET, GoodWatch, M380 tools, P25 Jammer, Facedancer, more) and how each new project spawns communities large and small.
#441 Motivational Speaker
Chris & Dave
Anki
Chris and Dave recap KiCon, talk about the future of KiCad, discuss standing up new brands and trademarks and remark on the state of robotics.
#440.3 - Interviews with Anool Mahidharia, AJ Keller, Uriel Guy, Ste Kulov, and Craig Bishop at KiCon 2019
with Anool Mahidharia, AJ Keller, Uriel Guy, Ste Kulov, Craig Bishop
3D
Anool Mahidharia (Lumetronics), AJ Keller (Neurosity), Uriel Guy (Light Art), Ste Kulov (HD Retrovision), Craig Bishop (Craigjb.com) talk with Chris, Alvaro and Piotr at KiCon2019
#440.2 - Interviews with Greg Davill and Michael Ossmann
with Greg Davill, Michael Ossmann
We sit down with Greg Davill and Michael Ossmann for two brief chats at KiCon 2019
#440.1 - An Interview with the core KiCad development team
with KiCad development team
Developer
This is the first of a couple episodes that will be posted from KiCon 2019. This interview was in two parts with some of the developers from the KiCad project. We talked with Wayne Stambaugh, Maciej "Orson" Suminski, Tomasz Wlostowski, Jon Evans, and Seth Hillbrand.
#439 Grow A Superbrain
Chris & Dave
Allegro
Chris and Dave discuss signal integrity, Kirchoff's current law and building up a new base of knowledge.
#438 An Interview with Bart Dring
with Bart Dring
CNC
Bart Dring joins Chris to talk about CNCs, motion control and building custom robots.
#437 An Interview with Chrissy Meyer
with Chrissy Meyer
Apple
This week Chrissy Meyer of Root Ventures joins Chris to talk about DfM at large companies like Apple and Square. Also how these and other skills have translated into working with hardware startups in the venture world.
#436 Downward Sloping Trace
Chris & Dave
Compliance
This week Dave and Chris discuss logic analyzers, layout practice, CPLDs and how heat can stack up inside a design.
#435 An Interview with Andreas Spiess
with Andreas Spiess
ESP32
Andreas Spiess, "the guy with the Swiss accent" on YouTube, joins Chris to talk about connected devices and the importance of rules.
#434 Use The Protection Circuit
Chris & Dave
Dave and Chris discuss freezing LCDs, the cost of prototypes, swapping layer polarity in layout, designing with custom parts, and how to interface to unprotected battery cells.
#433 An Interview with Sam Stranks
with Sam Stranks
ABX3
Sam Stranks is a researcher, professor, and entrepreneur focused on making Perovskites into a commercially viable solar cell. The efficiency has been climbing at a rapid pace over the past 10 years. He joins Chris to talk about how Perovskites could lead to more prevalent (and printed!) solar cells.
#432 Check The Dummy Box
Chris & Dave
Conference
This week Dave and Chris discuss designing hardware without specifications, upcoming conferences, working with software services on distributed hardware and how to measure current over a large dynamic range.
#431 An Interview with Adam McCombs
with Adam McCombs
30 kV
Adam McCombs joins Chris to talk about his love of scanning electron microscopes and all things in the world of minuscule measurements. Listen as he discusses repairing, moving and troubleshooting high complexity, high voltage machines.
#430 Shahriar Discusses 5G
Chris & Dave
5G
Shahriar from The Signal Path returns to talk with Dave about 5G and the practical implementation of new broadband technologies. This discussion ranged from phased signal arrays to the importance of processing new information via the internet.
#429 An Interview with Charles Alexanian
with Charles Alexanian
Amplifier
Charles Alexanian joins Chris to talk about manufacturing in the agriculture space, repairing and sourcing components for the music industry and hobbies that take you far afield.
#428 Setting Fire To The Tracks
Chris & Dave
AI
Dave returns from his walkabout to talk with Chris while he's shivering in Chicago (-23F the day of recording). They discuss dev boards, new chipsets, machine learning, checklists, high speed design, microcontroller features and much more!
#427 An Interview with Maarten Engelen
with Maarten Engelen
Cloud
Maarten Engelen is the CTO of Hiber, a low earth orbit satellite company that offers low data rate connectivity to remote applications. He joins Chris to talk about building and deploying satellites and modems for modern applications.
#426 An Interview with Dean Pick
with Dean Pick
16 bit
Dean Pick joins Chris to talk about founding 3 different companies working on automatic transmission motorcycles, shape memory alloy linear actuators and large scale installations of biomass power generation.
#425 An Interview with Chris Osterwood
with Chris Osterwood
CMU
Chris Osterwood joins Chris to talk about the constraints of building ground robots, designing reliable machines and making components that robot companies can easily integrate into their next product.
#424 An Interview with Julia Truchsess
with Julia Truchsess
Adaptive Filter
Julia Truchsess, founder of Pragmatic Designs, joins Chris to talk about consulting, the audio industry, toy production and creating products that end up in popular music and millions of households.
#423 Open FPGA Toolchains at 35c3
Chris & Dave
35c3
In this special episode recorded at Chaos Communication Congress (35c3), Piotr Esden-Tempski, Clifford Wolf and Dave Shah talk about the state of open FPGA toolchains and the recently announced nextpnr toolset.
#422 Stick 'Em On Whales
Chris & Dave
This week Chris joins Elecia and Chris White of Embedded.fm to talk about the state of the electronics/embedded world and to recap favorite episodes of the year.
#421 The Legend of Keyzermas
with Jeff Keyzer (MightyOhm)
CES
Jeff Keyzer (Mightyohm) joins Dave and Chris to celebrate the state of the electronics world and to chat about what's on the horizon.
#420 An Interview with Joe Long
with Joe Long
Attorney
Joe Long joins Chris to talk about subscription boxes of electronics (Hackerboxes.com), learning through project based education and working as an IP attorney writing high tech utility patents (Long Tech Law).
#419 Feels over reals
Chris & Dave
LoRA
This week Chris and Dave discuss letting magic smoke out of transformers, building with highly integrated SIPs, the ethics of scooters and how to craft a layout contest.
#418 An Interview with Josh Datko
with Josh Datko
blockchain
Josh Datko joined Chris to talk about embedded security, military contracting and to tell stories about his time on nuclear submarines and as a naval officer in the middle of Afghanistan.
#417 Cash Is King
Chris & Dave
Accounting
Dave and Chris talk about the ins and outs of running product and consulting businesses and dealing with cashflow. Also Chris announces that KiCon 2019 will be taking place in April 2019 in Chicago IL
#416 An Interview with James Bruton
with James Bruton
Alpha Dog
James Bruton, xrobot creator and YouTuber, joins Chris and Dave to talk about robots, video documentation and the challenges of carrying your 40 kg robotic dog up the stairs.
#415 Ergs Per Second
Chris & Dave
3D printing
Chris and Dave catch up about conference talks, designing PCBs into cases, thin PCB design and solar panels fading into the background.
#414 An Interview with Scotty Allen (Strangeparts)
with Scotty Allen
China
Scotty Allen travels the world documenting technology stories while learning new skills. He sits down with Chris in LA to talk about building iPhones, living in Shenzhen and The Engineers Journey.
#413 A House of FR4
Chris & Dave
AMCA
This week Dave and Chris discuss micros going in and out of style, building electronics for philanthropy, bogus water harvesting techniques, spy chips and much more!
#412 3 Cent Micros And 1000s of LEDs
with Mike Harrison
7 Segment
This week Mike Harrison of Mikes Electric Stuff joins Dave to talk about LEDs, low cost parts and tiny tiny components.
#411 An Interview with Chris Denney
with Chris Denney
Automated Optical Inspection
Chris Denney, CTO of Worthington Assembly, joins Chris to talk about contract manufacturing in the US, DfM and doing more efficient board assembly.
#410 Secret Buzzer Handshake
Chris & Dave
Battery
This week Chris and Dave discuss PCB layout best practices, how batteries are made, landing probes onto asteroids, joining the IEEE and much more!
#409 Electronics Consultant Impedance Matching
Chris & Dave
Billing
Piotr Esden-Tempski, Eric Thompson and Dave Young join Chris to talk about working as electronics consultants and what to look out for when joining the world of consulting.
#408 Tronnort Software Rises Again!
Chris & Dave
Aliexpress
Dave and Chris discuss part libraries, hacker movies, buying from China, how to read measurements and much more!
#407 Gregory Charvat and Three New Companies
with Greg Charvat
ALVIN
Dr Gregory Charvat returns to The Amp Hour for a fourth time to discuss the three startups he has been working on since his last appearance: an ultrasound company, a stealth mode startup and a company that just released a new cm accurate "indoor GPS" system for factory automation.
#406 Nerds In A Corner
Chris & Dave
3D printing
Dave and Chris chat about meetups, new PCB creation methods, flying machines, power supplies and more!
#405 An Interview with Spencer Wright
with Spencer Wright
3D printing
Spencer Wright is the host of The Prepared podcast and runs the Prepared newsletter. He joins Chris to talk about the state of the manufacturing industry, 3D printing, sourcing parts and trends driving manufacturing in the future.
#404 Proof Of Blink
Chris & Dave
Altium
Dave and Chris discuss moving into the consulting world, high end scopes, low cost CAD and why your next LED project probably won't involve blockchain.
#403 An Interview with Mike Szczys
with Mike Szczys
AndNotXor
Mike Szczys ("stish") joins Chris to talk about DEF CON 26, building electronics badges for fun, other low level embedded projects and utilizing pick and place machines.
#402 An Interview with Ben Einstein
with Ben Einstein
Bolt
Ben Einstein, founder of Bolt, talks to Chris about how hardware startups can get off the ground and how Bolt helps guide them with advice, design resources, and prototyping facilities.
#401 An Interview with Brent and Bryce Salmi
with Brent, Bryce Salmi
AMSAT
Brent and Bryce Salmi are avionic electronics engineers who recently completed a 5 year tenure at SpaceX. They talk to Chris about designing for extreme reliability and creating open source digital radios.
#400 Once Every Couple Months
Chris & Dave
Altium
Dave and Chris chat again for episode 400 after a couple of weeks and many shows apart! They discuss video games, CAD tools, tariffs, LCDs and PCBs!
#399 An Interview with Steve Kreuzer
with Steve Kreuzer
Battery
Steve Kreuzer is a mechanical engineer who consults on projects involving everything from Lithium Ion batteries to BGAs to human heart cells. He talks to Chris about their shared past and how he does consulting for Exponent.
#398 An Interview with Felix Rusu
with Felix Rusu
arduino
Felix Rusu of Low Power Lab joins Chris to talk about home automation projects built using subgigahertz radios and small batteries. Learn about how to build your own battery powered home projects!
#397.10 - An Interview with Jeremy Hong
with Jeremy Hong
Military
Jeremy Hong does reverse engineering during the day and has an RF addiction all the time. He sits down with Chris for a final interview from ToorCamp.
#397.9 - An Interview with Dominic Spill
with Dominic Spill
EMF
Dominic Spill is a software engineer at Great Scott Gadgets who helped architect the Ubertooth One, The Yardstick One and the HackRF One. He talks about the full software stack with Chris at ToorCamp.
#397.8 - An Interview with Chris Gerlinsky
with Chris Gerlinsky
Car
Chris Gerlinsky is an embedded engineer and hacker who reverse engineers protocols for the automotive sector. He sits down with Chris (Gammell) at ToorCamp to talk through decapping chips to extract information.
#397.7 - Impedance Matching with Jeff Keyzer and Michael Ossmann
with Jeff Keyzer (MightyOhm), Michael Ossmann
Badge
Jeff and Mike sit down with Chris on a beach at ToorCamp to talk about learning electronics, feeding dessert to an entire camp and hobbies outside of electronics.
#397.6 - An Interview with Matt Knight
with Matt Knight
LoRA
Matt Knight talks to Chris while at ToorCamp about using SDRs to research RF protocols and creating new tools to test security.
#397.5 - An Interview with Loial from Krontech
with Loial
Demosaic
Loial Otter from Krontech talks with Chris around the challenges of signal processing inside high speed cameras and making VFD based watches.
#397.4 - An Interview with ShadyTel
with ShadyTel
Line
Chris chats with 4 members of Shadytel about running phone lines all over a campsite to tents and boats and also the plans for a new modular system for future Shadytel installations.
#397.3 - An Interview with Jared Boone of Sharebrained
with Jared Boone
HackRF
Jared Boone of Sharebrained Technologies talks to Chris at ToorCamp, along with past guest Piotr Esden Tempski. They discuss the PortaPack and the various modes that are possible.
#397.2 - An Interview with Gareth from Greenpeace
with Gareth
Greenpeace
Gareth from Greenpeace joins Chris at ToorCamp to talk about tracking illegal fishing and dealing with high volume spammers.
#397.1 - An Interview with Monica Houston and Alessandra Nölting
with Monica Houston, Alessandra Nölting
Boat
Monica and Alessandra talk with Chris while aboard the Infinite Sloop, a sailboat on its way towards ToorCamp. This is the first of a series of mini episodes recorded from camp.
#396 The Synergy Bus
Chris & Dave
C
Chris and Dave discuss i2c troubleshooting, assistive technology, coding guidelines, and putting the application specificity into "ASIC"
#395 An Interview with Luke Valenty
with Luke Valenty
APio
Luke Valenty of TinyFPGA.com joins Chris to talk about creating FPGA devices and using open source toolchains to control them.
#394 Jeri Ellsworth and the demise of CastAR
Chris & Dave
Augmented Reality
Jeri Ellsworth returns after a 4+ year hiatus on The Amp Hour to talk about the rise and fall of CastAR and how the company's assets are fueling Jeri's next enterprise.
#393 I've bitten myself
Chris & Dave
BGA
This week Dave and Chris dive into PCB layout and how to spec soldermask relief. Also the scourge of footprints, driving LCD panels, fanning out BGAs and much more!
#392 An Interview with Matt Duff
with Matt Duff
ADC
Matt Duff of Analog Device joins Chris to talk about analog design, explaining amplifiers via YouTube and creating webtools so that engineers can design filters (mostly) without human interaction.
#391 Only A Transmitter
Chris & Dave
1 Wire
This week Chris and Dave discussed using out of spec software defined radios, how to lower the cost on production devices, the rising cost of prototyping and the threat of money laundering.
#390 An Interview with Sam Zeloof
with Sam Zeloof
chip
Sam Zeloof is making chips in his garage for fun with a homespun semiconductor fab. He tells Chris about what inspired him to learn and build and how the process works
#389 Sipping Coulombs
Chris & Dave
ASIC
Dave and Chris discuss debunking theories, designing low power systems and creating art for conferences.
#388 An Interview with Earl Sharpe and Collin Kidder
with Earl Sharpe, Collin Kidder
arduino
Earl Sharpe and Collin Kidder of Macchina join Chris to talk about automotive electronics, car hacking, how an ECU works and why you might want to consider tinkering under the hood of your car.
#387 Microfichery
Chris & Dave
Apple
This week on the show Chris and Dave discuss self driving cars, finding the right LED, finding projects in the lab and saving silicon valley history.
#385 An Interview with John Davis
with John Davis
Automation
This week John Davis joins Chris to talk about the crossover into sales and designing electronics for the industrial market. John also describes the wide range of industrial customers he works with every day.
#384 A++++++ Will Buy Again
Chris & Dave
Broadcom
Dave and Chris brainstorm ways to deal with the long lead times in the marketplace right now. Also noise measurements, soldering irons, large semiconductor firm buyouts and a new Raspberry Pi.
#383 An Interview with Scott Shawcroft
with Scott Shawcroft
Adafruit
Chris talks with Scott Shawcroft who works at Adafruit on CircuitPython. He helped to port MicroPython to the SAMD21 chipset and discusses the details of getting a language working on a new platform, including how to use debuggers.
#382 The Toggle Boggle
Chris & Dave
Amazon
This week Dave and Chris recount their stories of testing and of learning firmware. Also new t-shirts, big companies continue their buying spree and video tours of manufacturing facilities
#381 An Interview with Derek Kozel
with Derek Kozel
Antenna
Derek Kozel of Ettus Research and the GNU Radio foundation joins Chris to talk about software defined radio, doing more in the amateur space with digital modes and peeking into the spectrum.
#380 Just Terrestrial and Space Things
Chris & Dave
121GW
Dave and Chris discuss a wide range of connected devices on the show this week. Dave also talks through more of the 121 GW issues and Chris recaps his travel to various conferences.
#379 An Interview with John Saunders
with John Saunders
3D
John Saunders of Saunders Machine Works and the NYCCNC YouTube channel joins Chris and Dave to talk about machining, 3D design and the process behind creating a mechanical thing.
#378 An Interview with Jason Kridner and Robert Nelson
with Jason Kridner, Robert Nelson
Angstrom
Jason Kridner and Robert Nelson join Chris to talk about building custom linux packages for the BeagleBone, Beagle xM.
#377 Debugger vs Printeffer
Chris & Dave
121GW
Dave returns from vacation and chats about the issues he's been having with his test gear. Also we discuss travel, debugging code, early programmable chips, manufacturing and control theory.
#376 An Interview with Richard Ginus
with Richard Ginus
AT Commands
Richard Ginus of TWTG joins Chris to explain how LoRaWAN (and LoRa generally) works and why it's important to low power sensor networks.
#375 An Interview with Tim "Mithro" Ansell
with Tim "Mithro" Ansell
CCC
Tim "Mithro" Ansell joins Chris to talk about a range of hardware project which include a tiny USB key, a powerful HDMI capture/buffer and upcoming FPGA training
#374 An Interview with Claire (née 'Clifford') Wolf
with Claire Wolf
Formal Verification
The architect and creator of the first open source toolchain for FPGAs, Claire Wolf talks to Chris about logic synthesis, reverse engineering bit streams, formal verification and why the RISC V processor matters.
#373 Pedantic or Andrantic
Chris & Dave
book
Chris (Gammell) joins Chris (White) and Elecia (White) of Embedded.fm for a holiday crossover episode. We talk about new toys, books, learning code and much more!
#372 Year End, 2017
Chris & Dave
guest
Dave and Chris discuss some of the stuff that's happened over the past week and year and talk about what's up in 2018.
#371 An Interview With Joe Bamberg
with Joe Bamberg
Analog Devices
Joe Bamberg joins Chris to talk about monitoring power usage via power monitoring chips (while at ADI) and larger signal processing techniques (now at Sense).
#370 Alternate Info Sources
Chris & Dave
Autodesk
Chris and Dave discuss where to get info these days. The info they had this week included the impending kickstarter, CAD software, battery technologies, FreeRTOS, competitions and more!
#369 An Interview with Jason Huggins
with Jason Huggins
cartesian
Chris talks to Jason Huggins about robotics, art, holistic product design, taking on small amounts of funding and the benefits of running companies that facilitate testing.
#368 The EEVblog Sparkgap Generator
Chris & Dave
Badge
Dave and Chris recap the weekend hacker conference, discuss product considerations and market fit, peek inside diodes, try new protocols and avoid the invasion of IoT white goods.
#367 Not Reely An Issue
Chris & Dave
CAD
Dave and Chris discuss sourcing issues, conferences, cracked capacitors, cheap microcontrollers, high power LEDs, startups and more!
#366 Loopback
Chris & Dave
Episode 1
After a year's worth of shows (if you listen to one episode per day), we decided to do a replay of episode 1 of The Amp Hour
#365 Wait, why is Jeff glowing?
with Jeff Keyzer (MightyOhm)
Consumer Electronics
Jeff Keyzer (@mightyohm) joins Chris to tell him about his return to self employment after 5 years at Valve and his field trip to early (and large!) nuclear reactors.
#364 The Endless Y2K
Chris & Dave
121GW
Chris and Dave discuss small scale production, conference badges, CAD programs, WiFi vulnerability, self terminating devices and much more!
#363 An interview with Alvaro and Jen from the URE Podcast
with Alvaro, Jen
Amazon
Alvaro and Jen from the new Unnamed Reverse Engineering podcast stop by to talk about designing Consumer Electronics and their quest to learn reverse engineering to use at work and at home.
#362 Secret Squirrel
Chris & Dave
386
Dave and Chris chat about small scale computing, things learned about hardware, DOS programs, working weekends, developing for non-consumer markets and much more!
#361 An Interview with Ken Shirriff
with Ken Shirriff
76477
Ken Shirriff joins Chris and Dave to talk about vintage computer rebuilds, peering at 1970s silicon on die and using reverse engineering to figure things out.
#360 A Total 360
Chris & Dave
Bob Pease
Dave and Chris celebrate their 360th episode by streaming video and taking audience questions live during taping. Watch on YouTube for some small extras.
#359 An Interview with Jeroen Domburg (Sprite_tm)
with Jeroen Domburg
ESP32
Jeroen Domburg (Sprite_tm) joins Chris and Dave to talk about how the ESP8266 and ESP32 are shaking up the world of connected projects and products online.
#358 Mergers and People Acquisitions
Chris & Dave
Altium
Chris announces he is changing jobs, Dave talks about threatened legal action from a shell company and we discuss a range of new mergers in the electronics industry.
#357 An Interview with Rick Altherr
with Rick Altherr
Data Centers
Rick Altherr is a firmware and software designer who works on server technologies; his work on the Open Compute project has produced open source designs for hyper-scale server installations.
#356 An Interview with Piotr Esden-Tempski
with Piotr Esden-Tempski
1 bit squared
Piotr Esden-Tempski from 1 bit squared joins Chris to talk autopilots, debugging code, prototyping hardware, JTAG chains and much more!
#355 The Internet of Septage (with Akiba)
with Akiba
3G
Akiba from Freaklabs returns to give an update on industrial internet projects, talk about reorganizing product lines, discuss building test stands and commiserate on creating a business that suits your lifestyle.
#354 A Meeting Of The Davids
Chris & Dave
arduino
This week David and Dave chat about the upcoming EEVblog multimeter and news from the world of electronics
#353 IoT Degree
Chris & Dave
Analog Discovery
Chris and Dave discuss whether an IoT specific degree program makes sense. Also sad robots, crazy businesses, desoldering parts, low cost test equipment...and more!
#352 Conning with Michael Ossmann
with Michael Ossmann
Black Hat
Michael Ossmann returns to talk about the HackRF, security conferences, working with the spectrum, how GPS works, giving software interfaces to the world and lots more.
#351 The Automation Amish
Chris & Dave
555
Though Dave has sworn off all things automation, it doesn't stop us from talking about developments in the electronics world, new and old! New silicon nodes, new kits, new chips, old topologies, old dies, old kits and more!
#350 An Interview with Zach Dunham
with Zach Dunham
Avnet
Zach Dunham invited Chris to the Kickstarter headquarters to talk US based manufacturing, crowdfunding projects, new KS initiatives and more!
#349 An(other) Interview with Jon Oxer
with Jon Oxer
Automation
Jon Oxer returns to discuss DIY home automation, running a kit business, shaving your head for creating videos and what's coming next for him after selling his last company.
#348 An Interview with Art Kay
with Art Kay
ADC
Art Kay is an analog precision expert and application manager at TI. He joins us to talk about his career in the industry and a new training program for learning about precision electronics.
#347 Re-scoping the problem
Chris & Dave
5 nm
We return this week to discuss the range of new scopes in the market and to give away a few of them as well! Also new tech nodes (5 nm!), new podcasts and new low cost equipment.
#346 An Interview with Joe FitzPatrick
with Joe FitzPatrick
Hacking
Joe FitzPatrick joins Chris to talk about hardware security. They cover topics such as USB-C, hardware implants, ethics in hacking, the NSAplayset and much more!
#345 Milling About
Chris & Dave
Avnet
Dave and Chris delve into the world of mechanical elements, milling circuit boards, certified designs and a bunch of other things they actually don't know about.
#344 Back Into The Swing Of Things
Chris & Dave
Boston
After a month without talking to recover from hanging out, we're back with a new show! We cover events, AI, new sites, chip industry investments, recapping trips and more!
Shahriar and Dave Chat
Chris & Dave
RF
Shahriar is the host of The Signal Path YouTube channel and former guest on episode 228. He and Dave chat live in Sydney about RF design and a whole lot more!
#343 Road trip to the deep space network
Chris & Dave
Canberra
Dave and Chris take a road trip to Canberra to see the 70m tracking dish for the Deep Space Network. We also recap the meetups throughout Sydney and NZ and the great projects we've seen and discuss education.
#342 Our first in-person show
Chris & Dave
BeagleBone
Chris and Dave finally record The Amp Hour from the same room while Chris is visiting Sydney. Discussions about manufacturing, FPGAs, meetups, sci-fi and more!
#341 All the way with DLJ
Chris & Dave
Bell Labs
Chris and Dave's (likely) last recording before meeting in person! Discussions about meetup plans, Bell Labs, op amp stability, hacking tractors and much more!
#340 An Interview with Jason Cerundolo
with Jason Cerundolo
firmware
Jason Cerundolo designs CastAR hardware all day and goes home to develop firmware and hardware via Reclaimer Labs at night. This week we discuss all manner of USB C hardware, connected thermocouples, porting code and much more!
#339 Look at nature and meet nerds
Chris & Dave
AWS
Dave and Chris discuss that they will finally be meeting in less than a month! Also IoT, embedded platforms, Claude Shannon's hobbies, surveys, hacks and more!
#338 An Interview with Jørgen Jakobsen
with Jørgen Jakobsen
Amplifier
Jørgen Jakobsen joins Chris to discuss Analog IC design, designing for hearing aids, how to build super tiny Class D amplifiers and using readily available tools to test everything.
#337 Fake it till you make it
Chris & Dave
3D printer
This week we discuss designing Nixie Tube boards and industrial platforms using RS485. Also failed 3D printers, lab organization, building badges and much more!
#336 An Interview with Bunnie Huang (2nd)
with Bunnie Huang
Biology
Bunnie Huang returns to talk about biology hacking, writing new books, creating secure hardware and finding the next hardware challenge.
#335 When the TV watches you
Chris & Dave
Alexa
This week we discuss the creepiness of smart devices listening in the home, new science projects, biology projects, new company names and Alexa buying you an LCR meter.
#334 An Interview with Gerry Roston
with Gerry Roston
Boston Dynamics
Gerry Roston is a longtime roboticist and entrepreneur. He talks about his time working at JPL, building prototype robots, starting IoT companies and much more.
#333 Science, Not Silence
Chris & Dave
AT&T
Chris and Dave return to talk about the importance of science education and freedom of information. Also subscription software, logistics improvements, making stuff and more!
#332 An Interview with Zach Barth of Zachtronics
with Zach Barth
Bunnie
Zach Barth of Zachtronics stops by to talk about making video games for engineers. Their latest title (Shenzhen I/O) is about an electronics designer trying to make their way in Shenzhen.
#331 An Interview with Simone Giertz
with Simone Giertz
Actobotics
Simone Giertz joins Chris to talk about creating robots, beginner's mind, creating video content, her experiences at CES and more!
#330 An Interview with Zach Fredin
with Zach Fredin
Atmel ATtiny88
Zach Fredin of NeuroTinker talks to Chris about SBIR grants, educational programming, electronics manufacturing, crazy soldering and making things from neuron simulators!
#329 Work on it for 10 years...
Chris & Dave
Analog Discovery
Elecia and Chris White from Embedded.fm join Chris to talk about the upcoming year, improving skills, new books, calculus and a bit of electronics.
#328 The Ghost of Keyzermas Past
with Jeff Keyzer (MightyOhm)
33C3
Jeff Keyzer returns for a special Christmas episode! We talk about travel, prototyping, Bell Labs, high volume manufacturing, radio astronomy and much more!
#327 An Interview with Avidan Ross
with Avidan Ross
Bolt
Avidan Ross from Root.vc joins us to talk about venture funding, building hardware and tinkering with 1000 degree pizza ovens.
#326 Magical Fire Bags
Chris & Dave
3D printing
This week we discuss batteries, prototyping, electric trucks, simple CPUs, 3D printing, shutting down internet service layers and much more!
#325 An Interview with David Kronstein (Tesla500)
with David Kronstein
Camera
David Kronstein (tesla500) joins us to discuss the design of his high speed camera, the Chronos 1.4. Lots of technical detail about camera sensors, FPGAs and how to put the whole thing together.
#324 Mapping Out Nerdery
Chris & Dave
Avnet
This week Dave and Chris discuss how to find out about new nerdy locations, open source chip crowdfunding, documentation, acquisitions, tax write-offs and more!
#323 An Interview with Tony DiCola
with Tony DiCola
Adafruit
Tony DiCola from Adafruit joins Chris and Dave to talk about how to use MicroPython on a variety of microcontrollers! Learn how to use a high level, interpreted language to control low level hardware!
#322 World Trade Futurity (WTF)
Chris & Dave
EMI
Chris and Dave discuss the upcoming trade realities in 2017 and how that might affect the electronics industry. Also EMI, SuperCon, acquisitions, Muntzing, datasheets, Mars and more!
#321 Monster Scale Production
Chris & Dave
737
Chris and Dave discuss Pro Bono engineering work, manufacturing big things in high volume, buying stuff from Shenzhen, attacking IoT devices, crazy VC fundraising and quickly copying kickstarters
#320 An Interview with Brent of OSHstencils
with Brent
BatchPCB
Brent from OSHStencils.com joins Chris to talk about laser cutting stencils for prototype designs.
#319 Photon Rich, Cash Poor
Chris & Dave
AllWinner
Chris and Dave return to chat with one another (at the same time!) about solar power, EMC testing, new chips, pick and place machines, licensing issues for products and much more!
#318 Impedance Matching with Michael Ossmann and Dmitry Nedospasov
with Michael Ossmann, Dmitry Nedospasov
Apple
Mike Ossmann and Dmitry Nedospasov return to talk security, trainings and hardware hacking for profit.
#317 A Decoupled Episode
Chris & Dave
China
Dave and Chris give their opinions like usual...just not while talking to one another. A "call and response" format gives a new perspective on how we discuss news.
#316 An Interview with Robert Feranec
with Robert Feranec
Altium
Robert Feranec of Fedevel Academy stops by to talk about board layout, electronics design, open source hardware, freelancing and much more!
#315 Mashuppery (with MEP)
with MEP
Battery
Chris is joined by Parker and Stephen from the Macrofab Engineering Podcast (MEP) for a mashup episode! Discussing machining, CAD, power supplies, discovering new components...and more!
#314 An Interview with Josh Lifton
with Josh Lifton
Crowd Supply
Josh Lifton of Crowd Supply talks about what it takes to make sure every project is delivered to backers. Also: distributed sensors at light shows and how to become an open source stenographer.
#313 My Kind of Town
Chris & Dave
Bulova
Chris announces his move to Chicago. We also talk about restarting a bench, on demand services, chip mergers, new books, watches, hackerspaces and much more!
#312 Aussie Bound!
Chris & Dave
College
Chris will finally shake Dave's hand...in April 2017! We also discuss advice for Freshman EEs, how to hunt down new gear, building VNAs, tool storage, new offices and more!
#311 An Interview with Louis Rossmann
with Louis Rossmann
Apple
Louis Rossmann talks to Dave about repair, legislation about repair, the best tools for the repair job and philosophy around business and life.
#310 Mergers and Acquiescence
Chris & Dave
ADC
Chris and Dave talk about the tumultuous consolidation of the chip industry. Also books, innovation, solar, knees and more!
#309 An Interview with Stefan Dzisiewski-Smith
with Stefan Dzisiewski-Smith
arduino
Stefan stops by to talk with Chris about High Voltage power supplies, conductive paint sensors, field testing solar chargers and working on HUGE art installations.
#308 An Interview with Samy Kamkar
with Samy Kamkar
2600
Samy Kamkar talks to Chris about all manner of hacking: hardware, software, drones, MITM, RF and even MySpace.
#307 Call In Show #5
Chris & Dave
ABET
Only one actually caller, but lots of great audience questions in this "call in" episode! We discussed power supplies, formal EE education, IC die photos, old calculators, math and more!
#306 Catalyzing Change Agents
Chris & Dave
Altium
Chris and Dave discuss the changes to the CAD landscape, how life changes can bring unexpected benefits and the proper way to approach contacting someone about a job.
#305 An Interview With Dave Young
with Dave Young
analog
Chris is joined by one of his oldest friends and former co-workers, Dave Young. He runs a consulting business helping startup design products and an engineering educational program for high school students.
#304 Alexa joins the fray
Chris & Dave
Alexa
Chris and Dave discuss special tools, mergers and VR...all before getting interrupted by user questions and resolutions.
#303 An Interview with Dmitry Nedospasov
with Dmitry Nedospasov
Berlin
Dmitry Nedospasov is a full time hardware hacker and security researcher. He tells us about how to get into the silicon and learn all about what's going on under the hood of devices.
#302 An Interview with Clint Cole of Digilent
with Clint Cole
Analog Discovery
Clint Cole, founder and president of Digilent, joins us to talk education, electronics, manufacturing, mobile test equipment, open source (or not) and how future engineers will learn.
#301 The Nerd Calendar
Chris & Dave
Boldport
Fill out your monthly nerd calendar! On this episode we discuss antennas, jellybean components, datasheets, RF, DC Power Analysis, Rovers and getting fun things in the mail!
#300 Three Hundred Down, Three Hundred To Go
Chris & Dave
6502
Chris and Dave celebrate their 300th episode by waffling on like usual. Robots, art projects, layout, future predictions (and how they're wrong), crowdfunding scams and more. Bingo!
#299 An Interview with Jonathan Hirschman of PCB:NG
with Jonathan Hirschman
assembly
Jonathan Hirschman talks to Chris and Dave about bringing PCB assembly into the 21st century. Software, PnPs, trading standardization for convenience and more!
#298 Don't Turn It On, Don't Take It Apart
Chris & Dave
Electronics
Chris and Dave discuss why engineers join startups, how to decide how open source a product should be, the role of modules and ego in design, sourcing decisions and more!
#297 An Interview with Jake Baker
with Jake Baker
CMOS
Jake Baker is a chip designer and educator at UNLV. He tells us all about DRAM, Flash, ReRAM, low level design and lots more silicon goodness!
#296 Gotta Update My Dog
Chris & Dave
Atmel
Chris and Dave reunite to talk about travel (past and future), industry layoffs, connected hardware, future hardware companies and finding aliens.
#295 An Interview with Omer Kilic
with Omer Kilic
Automation
Omer Kilic talks about designing redesigning power sockets to be reliable and manufacturable. Also, broader discussions about what's wrong with IoT and where it's all going.
#294 Live from Serbia with Mike Harrison
with Mike Harrison
Belgrade
Mike Harrison joins Chris while in Serbia for various conferences to talk about reverse engineering analogue mobile phones, art installations, trade shows and more!
#293 Call In Show #4
Chris & Dave
ATtiny
Chris and Dave blank on generators, hear about surface wave transmission, give advice on business, hear from past guests and prescribe new product development tips.
#292 An Interview with Timothy Lamb
with Timothy Lamb
blinky
Timothy (Tim) Lamb tells us all about the ups and downs of working on the tech behind the special effects of the movies we have all seen.
#291 Artificially Intelligent Party Platform
Chris & Dave
AMD
Chris and Dave discuss physical interfaces, Design For Manufacturing, former Austin chip companies, engineering based political parties, robots, transistors and lots more!
#290 An Interview with Mark Morin of Nufern
with Mark Morin
Erbium
Mark Morin of Nufern joins us to speak about lasers, optics, obsolete components, books and available jobs.
#289 Documentation Is A Waste Of Time
Chris & Dave
A3 folder
Dave and Chris talk about documentation, new platforms, high speed cameras, superheroes, energy generation, travel and lots more!
#288 Call In Show #3
Chris & Dave
Electrician
This call in show included questions about education, changing careers, learning high speed design, creating PCB buttons, grounding issues and more!
#287 Pull The Trigger
Chris & Dave
bodge
Dave and Chris talk about cash flow, scopes, online dev tools, early microcontrollers, bodge wires, revision control, 3d modeling and more!
#286 An Interview with Saar Drimer
with Saar Drimer
Boldport
Saar Drimer of Boldport stops by to talk about the EDA industry, artistic circuit boards, Chip and Pin security, a new kit subscription service and more!
#285 Something's Serially Wrong Here
Chris & Dave
Aeroscope
Chris and Dave discuss the effects of really bad PR. Also commerce, Chinese New Year, new education systems, assembling boards and much more!
#284 An Interview with Great Scott
with Great Scott
555 Timer Contest
Scott of the popular Great Scott! YouTube channel joins Chris to talk about German education, manufacturing, learning electronics and more!
#283 An Interview with Jonathan Ellis
with Jonathan Ellis
GEARS
Jon Ellis (@profgears), researcher and professor at the University of Rochester, talks about the rigors of being on the tenure track, doing high precision distance measurement and helping define NIST standards
#282 3D Product Logistics
Chris & Dave
3D printer
Dave returns from vacation to a world with one less David Jones. Also 3D prototypes, super low cost dev boards, FIRST robotics and life goals.
#281 Crossovers and Call-ins
Chris & Dave
arduino
Chris and Elecia White of Embedded.fm join Chris on The Amp Hour to take calls from guests. Topics include pro makers, early micros, new programming languages and needed debug tools.
#280 New Year Education
Chris & Dave
apprenticeship
Akiba and Chris ring in the new year talking about electronics education reforms, depression in technology, starting a hardware business and prototyping sensor networks.
#279 Merry Keyzermas!
with Jeff Keyzer (MightyOhm)
China
Jeff Keyzer once again visits the show to talk about high volume manufacturing in China and creating a consumer product.
#278 Our Second Callin Show(ish)
Chris & Dave
Atmel
After some technical glitches, we did a not-so-live show with our callers and then continued talking about recent events.
#277 Interconnectorama
Chris & Dave
ARM1
Chris and Dave discuss the woes of designing in cabling and how to avoid the situation altogether. Also CAD programs, ordering out of magazines, "new" silicon valley, even more mergers...and more!
#276 Eating An Elephant
Chris & Dave
arduino
Michael of Programming Electronics Academy and Dan of Rheingold Heavy join Chris to talk about getting started in electronics. It's mind over matter and consistently working towards a goal, people!
#275 No One Even Missed Us?
Chris & Dave
Go
Chris and Dave talk about the Superconference, creating a good environment post-conference and understanding where people went wrong.
#274 Our First Call In Show
Chris & Dave
Call In
Dave and Chris attempt their first call in show with listeners asking questions about electronics "live" on the air. Topics include i2c, ethics, high voltage and through hole parts.
#273 Part Choice Triathlon
Chris & Dave
Georgia Tech
This week we discuss the difficulties involved in running workspaces, how to get through choosing switching converters, online controversies and more!
#272 An Interview With Luke Beno of Analog.io
with Luke Beno
analog.io
Luke Beno of Analog.io clears up some misconceptions from the last show about the layers of IoT. He also talks about analog.io, a charting and data collection site for mapping out sensor data from a variety of sources.
#271 Amazon Moves In, Dave Says Run
Chris & Dave
Adafruit
Amazon getting into the IoT space prompts Dave to call the game for everyone else. Also chip mergers, die shrinks, end of life parts, conferences and more!
#270 An Interview With Dafydd Roche
with Dafydd Roche
5 kW
Dafydd Roche of TI and ExpatAudio talks about how to develop audio chips, learning pick and place to understand customer woes and the deeply held beliefs of audiophiles/phools.
#269 Be Tidy
Chris & Dave
AMU
This week Dave and Chris talk about workspaces and the rapidly shrinking open desktop. Also phones, chip company mergers, open source licenses, online EE education, movies and more!
#268 An Interview with Luke Iseman of yCombinator
with Luke Iseman
Fictiv
Luke Iseman, the head of hardware at yCombinator, talks about the challenges of getting a hardware product out the door, especially one people want.
#267 Standing With Ahmed
Chris & Dave
Ahmed
Chris and Dave talk about fear surrounding unknown projects (as in Ahmed's case), the funding behind new hardware projects (as in the case of the Bolt diagram) and attending technology conferences (both old and new).
#266 An Interview with Ronald Sousa of Hash Define Electronics
with Ronald Sousa
ATEX
Ron from Hash Define Electronics joins Chris to discuss gas metering, flow sensors, embedded applications, intrinsically safe standards, electronics in the UK and more!
#265 A Security Update with Michael Ossmann
with Michael Ossmann
Black Hat
Michael Ossmann returns to The Amp Hour to discuss a summer of security conferences and the newest things in the hardware hacking world.
#264 The Cost Of Doing Business
Chris & Dave
Adafruit
This week we discuss the implications of work culture at engineering companies. Also FPGAs, bootstrapping companies, acquisitions, the falloff of product quality and more!
#263 An Interview with Fran Blanche
with Fran Blanche
8038
Fran Blanche joins Dave and Chris to talk about audio engineering, the future of AI, vintage technology, space electronics, NOT replacing analog chips and much more!
#262 Jobs For Weirdos
Chris & Dave
Badge
This week is all about how to stand out, either for a job interview or by finding a part that no one else has yet heard about. Also conference bagdges, security, nerd movies, USB3.0 and more!
#261 Recycle All Your Microcontrollers
Chris & Dave
BERT
This week we discuss the implications of designing lots of electronics, how to sell your projects, automated installation of platforms, explaining electronics without math and utilizing microcontrollers everywhere.
#260 An interview with Ariel Briner of Cartesian Co
with Ariel Briner
Ascorbic Acid
Ariel of Cartesian Co talks about creating super quick turn PCBs using a 2 part silver ink, using old inkjet printer cartridges. Print on more than fiberglass too!
#259 No More Naming
Chris & Dave
Cuk
Chris and Dave discuss low end components upsetting markets, Kickstarter funding, production environments, Cuk converters and more!
#258 An Interview with Bertrand Irrisou and Gerald Friedland of Audeme
with Bertrand Irrisou, Gerald Friedland
Allwiner
Bertrand and Gerald of Audeme tell us about speech recognition without the aid of cloud processing and without the requirement of audio training. A private, language model based platform for controlling projects.
#257 An Interview with Fabienne Serrière of KnitYak
with Fabienne Serrière
Brother
Fabienne (@fbz) of KnitYak tells us about hardware hacking, creating hardware conferences and making custom, high quality, mathematically defined textiles.
#256 Is This A Show?
Chris & Dave
Bit flip
Chris and Elecia White of the Embedded Podcast join Chris and Dave to discuss flipping a bit on show count and new things happening in the industry.
#255 Inspirations and Aspirations - Recanting Rocket Rationale
Chris & Dave
Applied Science
Our 255th show! Chris recently returned from tours of space companies. Dave is working with manufacturing to get his new device made.
#254 An Interview with Andreas Olofsson - Adapteva's Ampliative Abacus
with Andreas Olofsson
Adapteva
Andreas Olofsson joins us to talk about massively parallel computing using a $99 development platform. We talk FPGAs, processor offloading, kickstarter, getting started, shuttle runs in fabs and more!
#253 Consolidate All The Things - Zonked Zelotic Zaitech
Chris & Dave
Altera
Chris and Dave discuss the mergers and acquisitions of the electronics industry and how it affects users. Also batteries, wifi power, SpaceX and low cost electronics.
#252 An Interview with Eric Bogatin - Tilded Thumb Tenets
with Eric Bogatin
Be the signal
Signal integrity expert Eric Bogatin stops by the show to talk about rules of thumb for making electronics, especially with regard to high speed, wide bandwidth signals.
#251 Shifting Away From DIY - Pedetentious PnP Progress
Chris & Dave
Altium
Chris recaps a visit to Maker Faire and the variety of robots seen, both pro and DIY. Dave talks about automation with new CAD software and the value of getting started in electronics.
#250 An Interview with Vic Aprea - Federated Firmware Functionalism
with Vic Aprea
Air Quality Egg
Vic Aprea of WickedDevice.com talks about weather balloons, federated firmware programming, building distributed air quality sensors and doing it all from manufacturing up through high level web software.
#249 Wearables Might Have Limited Fashion Options - Lachrymogenic Lane Language
Chris & Dave
Apple Watch
This week Dave and Chris talk about failing hardware startups, building hardware overnight, the future of wearables, distributed computing, solar efficiencies and (even more!) consolidation in the industry.
#248 An interview with Greg and Tim of Backyard Brains - Boethetic Bug Brainwaves
with Greg, Tim
axon
Greg Gage and Tim Marzullo of Backyard Brains talk about using low cost electronics to read the electrical signals of the body and using them to control other things.
#247 An Interview with Voja Antonic - Gerontogenous Galaksija Genesis
with Voja Antonic
Engineer
Voja Antonic, the inventor of the the Galaksija 8-bit computer, talks about working on electronics in Yugoslavia (now Serbia) in the 80s and his continuing passion for creating electronics.
#246 Robots are coming - Ominous Operational Overhaul
Chris & Dave
3drobotics
Chris and Dave discuss the rise of robots and automation, new quadcopter technology, the Star Wars trailer and the associated robot and the intellectual property of tractors.
#245 An interview with Akiba from Freaklabs - Dimissory Diagraphical Debt
with Akiba
802.15.4
Akiba from FreakLabs discusses wireless networks, dealing with standards, equipping labs with manufacturing equipment and creating a community haven for technology in the Japanese countryside.
#244 The Art Of Staying Interested In Electronics - Exponible Electronics Ennui
Chris & Dave
Contextual Electronics
Feeling down about the electronics industry is a symptom of not having a direct product goal. Dave is making one, Chris is trying to find his. Startups keep proposing silly ones.
#243 An interview with Macrofab - Macro Manufacturing Mechanization
with Macrofab
CAD
Chris Church and Parker Dillmann of Macrofab talk to us about the future of software enabled contract manufacturing. They focus on low quantity and quick turn production of your next project!
#242 Can't We All Just Get Arduino? - Tardiloquent Trademark Tirade
Chris & Dave
Altium
More discussion about test equipment on the road, how to create 3D models and some talk about what happens when an open source hardware project goes awry.
#241 An Interview With Chuck Peddle - Charismatic Chipmaking Coryphaeus
with Chuck Peddle
6502
Chuck Peddle tells us all about his days inventing the 6502, launching the personal PC revolution, working with other giant names in early technology. Also, a bit about his new work!
#240 Compare and Contrast Tech Entitlement - Worldly Working Wonks
Chris & Dave
Amazon
A discussion of the wide gap between the design decisions of a company like Apple and low cost innovations that are needed to move all of humanity forward. Also mergers, foundry models, USB Type C, logistics, work proximity and more!
#239 An Interview with Colin O'Flynn - Aspirated Adamantine Attacks
with Colin O'Flynn
AES256
Colin O'Flynn joins to talk about embedded device security, using high speed ADCs to do sidechannel attacks and how to script the ChipWhisperer to crack AES256 encryption.
#238 Old Books, New Tricks - Iterant Inscription Irrationality
Chris & Dave
Aficionado
Chris and Dave discuss the text book industry, silicon valley history, past guests, hard drives, new kickstarters, throwing designs over the wall and considerations when bringing up a $100K board.
#237 An Interview with Joe and Mark Garrison - Subtly Spelling SayLeeAy
with Joe, Mark Garrison
0201
Joe and Mark Garrison talk about test equipment, manufacturing missteps, counterfeit devices, designing for FPGAs and making friendly hardware and software.
#236 Questioning Everyday Prototyping - Verrucose Vehicle Vitilitigation
Chris & Dave
Auto
Chris and Dave discuss replacing an auto with an electric vehicle, the usefulness of prototyping services and tools, new startup activity and more!
#235 An Interview with Matt Richardson - Raspberry Risorgimento Regent
with Matt Richardson
ARMv7
Matt Richardson talks about creating new projects from technology blocks, being the first US employee of the Raspberry Pi foundation and where the popular platform is going.
#234 We'll Believe It When We See It - Hiring Hypercatalectic Helpelp
Chris & Dave
Clay Christiansen
Chris and Dave discuss trade shows, DARPA, hiring, making predictions, building open source hardware with open source components and more.
#233 Glass and Gongkai GSM - Unzymotic Ursidae Upbuilding
Chris & Dave
Bunnie
Discussions of the role of cellphones in electronics designs and how they can be utilized to keep costs low or make ridiculous ideas come to life. Also space talk, sniffing bluetooth, the role of mantras, milling machines and dying behemoths.
#232 "Impedance Matching" with Davidson and Vandenbout - Presbytes Pushing Portfolios
with Bob Davidson, Dave Vandenbout
Ambient Sensors
Dave and Bob join up with The Amp Hour one more time. Discussions include IoT, what to study, how to stand out as a student, cynicism in engineering and much more!
#231 Supply Chain Woes And Wares - Nonplussed Neotechnic Nithing
Chris & Dave
Amazon
Dave and Chris talk about the difficulties of the supply chain, disinterest in rockets, how changing education could change hiring practices, what we don't care about at CES and lots more!
#230 Prepping For Hoverboards - Gallionic GitHub Gabble
Chris & Dave
Altium
Dave and Chris discuss the coming year, the promise of hoverboards, iterative design, CAD software, revision control and the importance of presentation when trying to get hired.
#229 MightyHohm For The Holidays - Kaiser Keyzer's Kits
with Jeff Keyzer (MightyOhm)
Adafruit
Jeff Keyzer (Mightyohm) joins The Amp Hour once again to update us on his past 2 years of work and his holiday plans.
#228 An Interview with Shahriar from The Signal Path - Quisquous Quivering Quadripole
with Shahriar
ASIC
Shahriar from The Signal Path joins us to talk about millimeter wave ASIC design, Bell Labs, video blogging, test gear, the learning process and human nature.
#227 Space Bound, Again - Xtreme Xtraplanetary Xenonosocomiophobia
Chris & Dave
Apollo 8
Dave and Chris discuss the difficulties of test equipment and future plans to get humans back to space (and Mars)
#226 An Interview with Colin Karpfinger - Blendling Bean Brio
with Colin Karpfinger
Apple
Colin Karpfinger, founder of Punch Through Design (the makers of the Light Blue Bean) joins Dave and Chris to talk designing bluetooth products, productizing consulting work and how to balance everything.
#225 Worktrips and Workspaces - Junket Jactation Jiltedness
Chris & Dave
Austria
Chris returns from his European adventure to talk about the realities of huge tradeshows. Dave discusses plans to buy a new storage and work space.
#224 Meracious Mike Manuduction
with Mike Harrison
In this technical action packed show while Chris is away at the Electronica show in Germany, Dave & Mike Harrison from Mikes Electric Stuff discuss project design, manufacturing, quick turn PCB …
#223 Space Difficulties and Lost Heroes - Wanzing Workshop Whemmle
Chris & Dave
Antares Rocket
This week we discuss the loss of some great people, tearing down thermal cameras, building hype, building Halloween costumes, building tools and building products.
#222 An Interview With Bil Herd - Zany Z80 Zygology
with Bil Herd
6502
Bil Herd joins to talk about designing the C128, building with fresh silicon, fixing clocks on the fly and the crazy days of the 8 bit computer.
#221 Warming Up To IoT - Tendentious Thermal Tools
Chris & Dave
Akron
Sometimes when you are making small devices you need to consider building a reflow oven. Sometimes those small devices will end up being creepy gadgets that track human behavior.
#220 An Interview with Shaun Meehan - Doctiloquent Dove Deployer
with Shaun Meehan
Antarctica
Shaun Meehan joins Chris to talk about sugar rockets, pet robots, living in Antarctica for 2 years, huge lasers, tiny components and launching electronics into space.
#219 Get Smart About Automation - Caducous Cyborg Concerns
Chris & Dave
3D printer
Is the isolated environment of an airplane a valid test for whether or not an online CAD tools makes sense? Is the rise in automation a reason for concern, for EEs and everyone else?
#218 An Interview with Eric VanWyk - Meiotic Mountenance Mooshimeter
with Eric VanWyk
DEKA
Eric VanWyk, cofounder of the Mooshimeter and adjunct professor at Olin College of Engineering stops by to talk (sociopathic) compliance testing, manufacturing, crowdfunding, LEGO and more!
#217 3D Printed Shark Jumps - Edifying Edison's Energy
Chris & Dave
3D printing
Chris returns from Maker Faire and tells about some of the fun projects and development boards being shown. Dave proves he's still got it 650 videos later.
#216 Last Minute Decisions - Obdurate Onepercenter Obstacles
Chris & Dave
Altium
Dave ponders moving his stuff to another space and moving his loyalty to a new Altium tool. Chris discusses his new component search engine project and talking with CMs. Both discuss breakdancing.
#215 Wrong Hardware, Wrong Software - Fugacious Fan Funding
Chris & Dave
Dave returns from working while on vacation and Chris gets a new kit in the mail. Also purchase speculations, product recalls, noisy cables, chip teardowns and hardware vs software comparisons.
#214 "Impedance Matching" With Charvat And Ossmann - Recurring RF Remontados
with Greg Charvat, Michael Ossmann
Filter
Greg Charvat and Michael Ossmann join Chris to talk about SDR, the HackRF, Coffee Can kits, RADAR, writing books, MURS, filter boards, LabView, FMCW modules, TV shows, project based learning and more!
#213 Travel Recaps and Altium Announcements - Artisinal Aussie Assemblage
Chris & Dave
Altium
Dave talks about the freemium version of PCB software coming from Altium and recount his adventure at Maker Faire Sydney. Also KiCad, connected devices, VC money, talks and more!
#212 An Interview with Trey German - Launchpad Laden Lodesman
with Trey German
C2000
Trey German talks about working with the C2000 at Texas Instruments and the various applications of the processor. He also discusses his past work, hobbies and upcoming quadcopter project.
#211 Design Reviews Are Important - Habitual Hype Hebetude
Chris & Dave
Autorouting
Chris and Dave discuss a current kickstarter project that laments engineers, hacking Teslas, early failures and more.
#210 Risky Components and Hardware Innovation - Slipshod Shack Shutdown
Chris & Dave
Fly Buck
The biggest job of an engineer is to reduce risk in a product or project. This week we discuss risky companies, new topologies, unorthodox printers and how hardware is changing.
#209 Headless Units and Baseless Batteries - KiCad Kickoff Kopophobia
Chris & Dave
Agilent
Chris releases videos to the public domain for KiCad. Dave calculates the ridiculousness behind another round of crowdfunding campaigns.
#208 An Interview With Nadya Peek - Gallant Gcode Gerontology
with Nadya Peek
Center for Bits and Atoms
Nadya Peek tells all about modular, reconfigurable machines that can be configured into a wide variety of CNC tools. We discuss the mechanical, electrical and software components of the systems as well as the thought behind it.
#207 B Plus Boards and D Minus Cities - Uneath Urban Ubication
Chris & Dave
Art
Chris returns from Detroit. Dave hunts through old magazines for "new" tech. Discussions about the role of easy money in the hardware space ensue.
#206 An Interview with Martin Lorton - Variegated Video Vagility
with Martin Lorton
DMM
Martin Lorton stops by Chris's basement to talk to Chris and Dave about test equipment, solar, video blogging and the importance of community when trying to make it on your own.
#205 Solar Factories and HVDC Lines - Pollent Power Pushing
Chris & Dave
ABB
We discuss the role of solar power in the grid and the rise of HVDC transmission. Also Chris reveals his former workplace, we talk 1970s CAD and Dave revisits solar roadways.
#204 An Interview with Noah Feehan - Biloquistic Blinking Blush
with Noah Feehan
Bjork
Noah Feehan of the NYTimes R&D Lab talks about his experience researching new ways to receive information from our technology and how that will change us all.
#203 Tesla, Checklists and Bullies - Emerging External Eupsychics
Chris & Dave
Ceramic Capacitors
Dave and Chris pontificate on the needs of online electronics education, how awesome Tesla is and how not to get consumers on your side (by prosecuting open source projects)
#202 An Interview With Brandon Harris - Impish Internet Iamatology
with Brandon Harris
BlinkUp
Brandon Harris stops by The Amp Hour to talk connected devices, battery life, SD card form factors and how to connect to the internet before gravity gets you down.
#201 Cheap Respins And A Time Machine - Multiscience Mercenary Marketplace
Chris & Dave
CircuitHub
This week we talk about the variety of work marketplaces springing up for electronics designers. Also SpaceX, satellites, bad footprints, troubleshooting and more!
#200 SolidCon and Traveling Tech - Joined Junk Jocularity
Chris & Dave
Digikey
SolidCon provided interesting information about the state of hardware and the Internet of Things. We also discussed the Portalab's maiden journey, amateur NASA missions, switching solder and more!
#199 The 2014 Maker Faire Show - Traveling Technology Trangam
Chris & Dave
BringAHack
Chris discusses Maker Faire 2014 and Dave continues to update his lab to allow for live HD streaming. Also fancy scopes, robots, travelling equipment and more!
#198 Mike Ossmann Returns! - Planetic Portalab Packaging
with Mike Ossmann
Bunnie
Mike Ossmann returns to discuss the Daisho project, starting open source project, upcoming conventions, USB 3.0, FPGAs, GitHub and more!
#197 Spacing Out On Space - Dave's Dongle Designing
Chris & Dave
555 Contest
Dave and Chris discuss sending contest winners to space, dealing with buying components for large builds, changes to CAD tools, portable labs and more!
#196 An Interview with Mike Engelhardt - SPICE Simulator Synteresis
with Mike Engelhardt
Arrow
LTspice guru Mike Engelhardt has spent his career building the fastest SPICE engine in the world. Anyone can download it for free. He tells us all about how it works.
#195 Guns and Mobile Labs - Nuanced Nomadic Non-essentials
Chris & Dave
Dangerous Prototypes
What would it take to design a mobile workbench? What would it take to get it through airport security without issue? Also SPICE, work spaces, robots, travel, BGAs and more!
#194 An Interview With Todd Bailey - Embedded Embrasure Engineering
with Todd Bailey
analog
Todd Bailey is an embedded and analog engineer who has worked in a wide range of industries spanning military, industrial, artistic and commercial (toys!). Our conversation turns somewhat introspective.
#193 We're Sorry! But Apple Ain't! - Remorseless RAM Racketeering
Chris & Dave
Advertising
The supply chain is a difficult terrain to navigate...unless you're so big you get to draw your own map and buy up the mountains. We'll stick to crowdfunding open source projects and hoping for the best.
#191 Chairs, Sparks and Devices - Optional Olent Obreption
Chris & Dave
Chris finally got a chair and wowsa does it make a difference!
#190 Let's Hear It For The Buoys - Vanishing Vessel Vexation
Chris & Dave
buoy
This week we discuss the MH370 mystery/tragedy and the technology being used to search for the plane, Sparkfun's DMM problem, imposter syndrome, ageism, investment and more!
#189 An Interview with Marcus Schappi - Kit Ketch Kenophobia
with Marcus Schappi
arduino
Marcus Schappi of Little Bird and formerly of Ninja Blocks stops by to talk about his newest kickstarter, the MicroView. An "Arduino At Heart" device with a build in OLED screen for quick feedback for your devices.
#188 Capacitors, Simulation and Closures - Deonerated Design Dealmaking
Chris & Dave
Dick Smith
This week we discuss companies that are folding, both chip and retail. Also simulation, starting new open source businesses, logistics and capacitors!
#187 An Interview with Elecia White - Wirewove Worshipping Wookieist?
with Elecia White
arduino
Elecia White of Logical Elegance and the Making Embedded Systems podcast stops by to talk bare metal programming, C++, designing gadgets, better interrupts and more!
#186 Someone is watching...we think - Horme Hostility Hypochondriac
Chris & Dave
DARPA
Dave and Chris discuss development platform, designing around existing code, scopes, USA issues and more!
#185 An Interview with Hank Zumbahlen - Zoppa Zumbahlen Zateticism
with Hank Zumbahlen
Accelerometers
Analog veteran Hank Zumbahlen joins Chris and Michael Ossmann to talk about ground planes, ADCs, Accelerometers, Isolators, 7 pole filters and more!
#184 Chris Becomes Self Employed - Quixotic Quitting Quaere
Chris & Dave
ADuCM350
Chris decides to work on Contextual Electronics and consulting full time. Dave continues creating test jigs for his successful kickstarter.
#183 An Interview with Scott Driscoll - Impacable Interdisciplinary Inventor
with Scott Driscoll
Augemented Reality
Scott Driscoll of Curious Inventor talks about teaching himself soldering and then teaching more than a million people on YouTube. Also augmented reality, robots, synthesizers, electronic distribution and more!
#182 Manufacturing By Wire And Skipping Testing - Calefacient Cuculine Cash
Chris & Dave
Chinese New Year
Dave and Chris marvel over the amount paid for hardware companies, discuss reducing test costs and ponder the implications of one click manufacturing
#181 An Interview with Dave Vandenbout - Xceptional XESS Xenagogue
with Dave Vandenbout
8051
Dave Vandenbout of XESS stops by to talk FPGAs with Chris and Dave. Learn about how you can get started and some of the resources that will get you there.
#180 An Interview with Dave Taylor - Multi-talented Meter Maker
with Dave Taylor
8020
Dave Taylor, the designer of the Fluke 8060 multimeter, stops by to talk about his vast experience in the design of test and measurement gear.
#179 Greg Charvat Returns With A Book! - Laboratory Literature Laureate
with Greg Charvat
Butterfly Network
Dr Greg Charvat returns to The Amp Hour to fill in for Dave and to talk about his upcoming book about small and short range radar system. He expounds on the field of RADAR, RF, Ham with Chris listening quietly.
#178 A 2013 Recap - Year-end Yarn Yakking
Chris & Dave
Contextual Electronics
We sneak in one last surprise episode for 2013 and get a chance to talk about manufacturing, new websites, lab notebooks, part numbers, patents, headless units, specsmanship and more!
#177 Discussing Innovation and the Future with Mike Ossmann - Fiesty Festivus Futurology
with Mike Ossmann
Conference
Dave, Chris and Mike Ossmann get together for a holiday episode to air their collective Festivus grievances about the state of electronics. And to chat.
#176 Funding New/Manufacturing Old Projects - Radical Robotic Requisition
Chris & Dave
Boston Dynamics
Dave and Chris talk about launching funding for their respective new projects, space travel, robotics purchases, PCB design, semiconductor manufacturing and more.
#175 An Interview With Andrew Witte - Telistic Timepiece Technomania
with Andrew Witte
Andrew Witte
Andrew Witte, the CTO of Pebble Technology, stops by The Amp Hour to talk about low power embedded design, huge Kickstarter campaigns and manufacturing in China.
#174 Motors And Upgrading Sinclairs - Adapting Apraxiated Automobiles
Chris & Dave
Amazon
We discuss the interesting problems with motors and how Dave might be able to upgrade his Sinclair C5. Also drones, patents, testing, precision resistors and TV!
#173 An Interview with Jeri Ellsworth - Intense Illusion Introduction
with Jeri Ellsworth
Augmented Reality
Jeri Ellsworth stops by The Amp Hour to talk about the recently funded CastAR project on Kickstarter and what it will take to get it to production.
#172 CAD courses and cross platform creation - Printing Propaedeutic Patterns
Chris & Dave
Altium
Dave and Chris discuss utilizing cross platform tools to develop PCBs and whether high level software tools should cross over into the hardware space.
#171 An Interview with Forrest Mims - Snell Solisequious Scientist
with Forrest Mims
555 Timer
Forrest Mims joins Chris and Dave to talk about his prolific authoring career, his lifelong interest in electronics and atmospheric science and what he is working on these days.
#170 What defines an engineer? - Job Judging Jeremiad
Chris & Dave
Ashton Kutcher
What defines an engineer? Who is allowed to call themselves one? Also, how people debug and lots of new podcasts!
#169 An Interview with Vincent Himpe - Escaped Electron Elocution
with Vincent Himpe
Alcatel/Lucent
Vincent Himpe joins Chris and Dave for a 3+ hour conversation about his journey from early hobbyist to staff engineer at a multinational semiconductor company.
#168 Specialized and/or Open Source Test Gear and Dev Boards - Vacation Videography Vorboten
Chris & Dave
Chris and Dave talk about all manner of test instrument, both specialized and open source. Also interest in moving big heavy machines, friends starting Kickstarters and innovation continuing into mid-life and beyond!
#167 An Interview with Adam Wolf - Brick & Board Biuners
with Adam Wolf
Android
Adam Wolf of Wayne and Layne joins Chris to talk about Lego, Arduino, Open Hardware, Linux, KiCad and developing for developing areas!
#166 Prior Art, Wafer Fabs and Guns - Whimsical Wafer Waffling
Chris & Dave
Chris and Dave discuss the fabbing of wafers, guns at radio shows, new Arduino platforms, rapid prototyping classes, ethical patent questions, comment sections, shutdowns and more!
#165 An Interview with Henry Ott - Forced FCC Filtering
with Henry Ott
Henry Ott discusses his near 60 year career in the field of EMC and watching electronics progress as a field of study. His experiences help to illustrate the wide range of application of EMC theory and practice and how it can help your designs.
#164 Agilent's New Name, Molex's New Owner and PCB artwork - Nonsensical Naming Neolatry
Chris & Dave
Airware
We discuss the silliness behind spinning out and rebranding a company, let alone one that's already had that happen once. Also Molex was bought, BoldPort makes beautiful PCBs, TI makes the LDC1000, the Peachy has some interesting low cost hacks and more!
#163 Interview with the Upverter Founders - Ramiform Reciprocity Raconteurs
with Upverter Founders
The Founders of Upverter (Zak, Steve and MIke) join Chris and Dave to talk about online CAD, design collaboration, startups with a hardware focus and more!
#162 Discussing The Open Hardware Summit With MightyOhm - Ostrobogulous Openness Occasion
with Jeff Keyzer (MightyOhm)
Jeff Keyzer returns to the show to talk about the Open Hardware Summit, CAD programs and the future of hardware.
#161 Interview with Michael Ossmann - Gifted Grimgribber Grokker
with Michael Ossmann
What have you done in the past 4 years? Michael Ossmann has had 2 successful Kickstarters, funding over $600k in total. He develops open source hardware tools that allow security researchers to probe the RF spectrum.
#160 Troubleshooting, PCBs and LEDs - Quaintized Quich Quelling
Chris & Dave
Dave and Chris dive into the insanity that troubleshooting can sometimes cause. Also LEDs, hiring help, PCBs, RF backscatter, meetups, quadcopters and more!
#159 Interview with Eric Ries - Transorted Testing Tachydidaxy
with Eric Ries
Eric Ries joins Chris and Dave to talk about a new method of R&D, discovering what customers want and quickly determining if a product (even hardware) has legs in the marketplace.
#158 Hyperloop, Upverter and Soldering - Unbelievable USB Ustulater
Chris & Dave
Batteries and power sources matter when making heat, especially for soldering! Also, development platforms, hyperloops, design sharing, open interfaces & more!
#157 An Interview with the SparkFun Team - Efficacious Engineering Ensemble
with SparkFun Team
The SparkFun Engineering Team joins Chris & Dave to talk open hardware, company culture, teardowns, counterfeit parts, competitions, working with mfg and more!
#156 Tesla, FPGAs and DigiKey - Zesty Zippy Zynq
Chris & Dave
This week we started by talking about electric transport...but ended up devolving into discussions of FPGA SOCs, language translation, bakelite, sheet metal and more!
#155 An Interview with Jeff Rowberg - Mini Module Master
with Jeff Rowberg
Jeff Rowberg of BlueGiga and the KeyGlove Project join Chris and Dave to talk firmware, Bluetooth, wearable computing, reverse engineering and more!
#154 Arduino, IndiGoGo and Hack-a-Day - Doodad Dealer Dancing
Chris & Dave
Sometimes when dealing with vendors you need to take the lead. This week Chris and Dave discuss IndieGoGo, online CAD, catalogs, databooks, non-profits and more!
#153 An Interview with Ryan O'Hara - Keyed, Kerfed Kapton
with Ryan O'Hara
Ryan O'Hara joins Chris and Dave to discuss kapton stencils, pick and place machines, creating flying insect robots and more!
#152 Firmware, Netburner and Semiconductors - Chris's Capitalism Colloquy
Chris & Dave
Chris and Dave discuss the role of investment capital in electronics businesses. Also firmware revisions, beginning designing chips and the systemization of silicon.
#151 Google Glass, Lean Startup and VotC - Initializing Instructed Interviews
Chris & Dave
Chris and Dave discuss the pitfalls of trying to figure out exactly what customers want vs what they say. Also, a new program to try and gather the history of the electronics industry!
#150 Solar, FPGAs and Maxim Integrated - Solar Shopper Sickness
Chris & Dave
Dave soldiers on despite being sick in order to tell us about this new solar power system. Also online tools charging, chip companies charging and new ways to design FPGAs.
#149 An Interview with Laen - Purple PCB Philosophy
with Laen
Welcome, Laen of OSHpark.com!
Now that...is artwork!
OSHPark is out of Portland, OR. The original business grew out of DorkbotPDX and started in December of 2009. The tech scene is still big in "The …
#148 Contextual Electronics, ClubJameco and Solderpaste - Lifelong Learning Likelihood
Chris & Dave
New learning opportunities are popping up everywhere! Chris is starting a new course and Dave continues his popular whiteboard series. Also SERDES, T&M and more!
#147 An interview with Jeri Ellsworth - Absorptive Augmented Actuality
with Jeri Ellsworth
Jeri Ellsworth returns to The Amp Hour to talk about her time at Valve, the unfortunate end to her employment there and the phoenix of a project rising from the ashes! The castAR from Technical Illusions!
#146 Hamvention, Arduino and Intel - Burdensome Background Battology
Chris & Dave
Chris and Dave recap Hamvention, op amp designs, Maker Faire announcements, college tuition issues and Intel's contest winners.
#145 PCB Mills, SDR and Oscilloscopes - Flaunting Furbelow Fanciness
Chris & Dave
Not only are t-shirts arriving, so are conferences and new applications hosted in the cloud! Plus oscilloscopes, workbenches, PCB mills...and even a Delorean.
#144 An Interview with Bob Davidson - Hoodied HP Hijinks
with Bob Davidson
Bob Davidson stops in to talk with Chris and Dave about building early hard drives, the computer industry, sensors, ham radio and a whole lot more!
#143 PCBs, Tektronix & Ham Radio - Habitual Handicraft Hangups
Chris & Dave
Do you find yourself pigeonholed into a certain aspect of electronics? Have you ever moved? That, plus old magazine ads, low cost manufacturing questions & more!
#142 Kickstarter, IndieGoGo & Ignite - Jasperated Jimswinger Jobbery
Chris & Dave
Paying for help can make sense, especially for artistic and design work (like our new t-shirt!). Also: cheap hardware, new hardware and shonky hardware.
#141 FPGAs, Robots & Thermocouples - Wampum's Wavering Worth
Chris & Dave
If you make design decisions based on finances, it might be time to start buying connectors. Also, listener questions about FPGAs and Op Amps,iterations, prototypes, robots, thermocouples and much more!
#140 Project Management, Lasers & Robots - Staunch Specialty Sanctanimity
Chris & Dave
Is it better to run the project and be blamed or to keep your head down and focus on the details? That plus current sources, lasers, robots, manufacturing and more.
#139 Google Glass & Adafruit - Obtaining Ostentatious Oculiforms
Chris & Dave
Winning Google Glass is an interesting proposition, since you still need to buy them. Cloud based tools and registration walls also provide dicey propositions.
#138 An Interview with Ryan Brown - Effortless Equipment Extensibility
with Ryan Brown
Ryan Brown of National Instruments joins Chris to talk about FPGAs, LabView software, the Austin hardware scene, hardware startups, home projects and lots more!
#137 Mars, System Design & NAND - Mercurial Mars Mission
Chris & Dave
Whether or not to volunteer to die on Mars is one thing; what electronics to bring with you is an entirely different (more important?) decision.
#136 Hardware, Surveys and Giveaways - Radular Rental Ranting
Chris & Dave
Hardware can get you places, whether you're headed to Austin for SXSW or just sitting on a plane like a sack of potatoes. Join Dave and Chris as they talk about hardware and announce a new t-shirt giveaway!
#135 An Interview with Mike Harrison - X-ray Examining Xenogogue
with Mike Harrison
Mike Harrison of Mike's Electric Stuff joins Chris and Dave to talk about his work in the field of large LED installation and tearing stuff apart.
#134 Intel, EPA & Brown Field - Google's Ground Gurgitation
Chris & Dave
Sometimes in electronics you need to get your hands dirty. And sometimes that dirt is toxic. Chris and Dave discuss past safety situations and how companies deal with it. And lots more!
#133 An Interview with Ron Quan - Tenacious Transistor Teacher
with Ron Quan
Ron Quan, author of a new book on building transistor radios, joins Chris and Dave to talk about the video industry, his audio and analog experience and of course...the new book!
#132 Melbourne, Hackerspace & Calibration - Vacuuous Vortex Verification
Chris & Dave
Dave returns from sticking his hand in the beam of a particle accelerator without super powers. Chris complains about context in education.
#131 An Interview with Andrew Seddon - Necessary Networked Novelty
with Andrew Seddon
Andrew Seddon joins Chris to talk about CircuitHub, the UK electronics scene, embedded electronics and venture capital funding.
#130 Boeing, PCBs & Startups - Awful Airplane Aeration
Chris & Dave
Chris and Dave discuss recent battery issues at Boeing, finding your startup match, places to practice math and where to find footprints for your pretty PCB
#129 An Interview with Brett Fox and Dr Jeroen Fonderie - Device Doubling Decretum
with Brett Fox, Jeroen Fonderie
Brett Fox and Dr Jeroen Fonderie of Touchstone Semiconductor stop by The Amp Hour to talk shop, low power semiconductors, running a fabless analog startup and much more!
#128 Layout, CAD & Raspberry Pi - Kedogenous Kinetic Knowledge
Chris & Dave
Layout problems and all the time associated with developing a good design dominates the discussion this week. Also how long learning to do something well can take.
#127 FPGA, Xess, 32 Bit - Quirky Qualitative Questions
Chris & Dave
Ringing power supplies, subzero temperatures and learning recommendations. After a break over the holidays, Dave and Chris answer some user submitted questions.
#126 eReaders, datasheets & board assembly - Yearly Yeasty Yapping
Chris & Dave
Chris and Dave take on the final show for 2012 by discussing chip company problems, eReaders, datasheets, board assembly and the decision to manufacture close by.
#125 An Interview with Ian Lesnet - Bus Buccaneer Builder
with Ian Lesnet
Ian from Dangerous Prototypes stops in to chat with Chris and Dave about open hardware, manufacturing in China, distributed R&D and building a large community of electronics enthusiasts.
#124 SpaceX, Enclosures & Startups - Urging Unemployment Ullagone
Chris & Dave
Chris and Dave dive into a topic not yet covered in The Amp Hour: resumes. Also dying on Mars, insourcing,start up salaries, enclosures and more.
#123 An Interview with Jon Oxer - Innoxious Implant Innovator
with Jon Oxer
Jon Oxer joins Chris and Dave to talk about home automation, the electronic kit business, the RFID chip he implanted in his arm and a whole lot more!
#122 Processors, CEOs & Soldering irons - Plentiful Perfunctory Programs
Chris & Dave
Chris and Dave lament the ending of certain eras (processors, CEOs, soldering irons) and the rise of new trends (browser based tools, lack of space focus). We kind of lament stuff a lot, don't we?
#121 An Interview with Zach Hoeken Smith - Creative China Commorant
with Zach Hoeken Smith
Zach stops in from his home base in Shenzhen, where he is working with the HAXLR8R program, recruiting the next generation of hardware startups. Interested?
#120 Prototyping, Machining & Accelerators- Mugwumps Mulling Milling
Chris & Dave
Chris and Dave talk storms, redundancies, power, 7400 series logic, prototyping, elections, millimeter waves, machining, startups, accelerators and more!
#119 An Interview with Dr. Kent Lundberg - Luculent Linear Legacy
with Kent Lundberg
Dr Kent Lundberg joins Chris and Dave to talk analog, scopes, teaching, control systems, consulting, synthesizers, book collecting and lots more!
#118 Kickstarter, Open Source RC & Modelsource - Facinorous Financial Foulness
Chris & Dave
This week Chris and Dave get talking about the intersection of money and electronics and all the craziness that can ensue.
#117 Interview with Alan Wolke - Undulating Utensil Utility
with Alan Wolke
Alan Wolke (W2AEW, @AlanAtTek) joins Chris and Dave to discuss work as an FAE, prior lives working for telecom startups and being a full time ham operator and all the fun that accompanies a rich hobby like amateur radio.
#116 Distribution, Wozniak & Robots - Early Eight-bit Endgame
Chris & Dave
Chris and Dave cover distribution, 8 bit micros, the Woz in Oz, robots and more!
#115 An Interview with Dr Greg Charvat - Watcher of Wraithlike Walls
with Greg Charvat
Dr Greg Charvat joins Chris and Dave to talk radar, ham radio, tube amplifiers, home experiments, hardware startups and lots more!
#114 Kickstarter, Manufacturing, Open Hardware - Judging Jurisdictional Junctures
with Jeff Keyzer (MightyOhm)
Jeff stops by to chat wit h Chris and Dave about open hardware, Kickstarter rule changes and manufacturing electronics.
#113 An Interview with Scott Miller - Sudden SinoAmerican Synthesis
with Scott Miller
Scott Miller of Dragon Innovation joins Chris and Dave to talk about high volume manufacturing in China and how to navigate the common pitfalls.
#112 An Interview with Bob Simpson - Ardent Automotive Artisan
with Bob Simpson
Bob Simpson joins Chris and Dave to discuss his business of designing and building electric vehicles. We talk about batteries, charging, power requirements, heat and more!
#111 DIP projects, OSHW & Trade Booths - Demonstrative DIP Dacrygelosis
Chris & Dave
Dave and Chris wing it after the planned guest needed to cancel last minute. Talk about Shenzhen wages, DIP projects, OSHW logos and trade booths.
#110 Armstrong, Camenzind & Museums - Outstanding Oneirophoros Obituaries
Chris & Dave
We mourn the loss of two greats, Neil Armstrong and Hans Camenzind. We also discuss museums, working with dev boards, high end computing and low court battles.
#109 An Interview with Larry Sears - Hexagram Hardware Holism
with Larry Sears
Larry Sears joins Chris and Dave to talk about his journey from starting design and build company to selling it and sponsoring future innovators
#108 Mars, Makerbot & Power Outages - Reprobate Replicator Replication
Chris & Dave
Dave and Chris discuss the finer points of open projects and dream up starting one of their own. Also landings on foreign worlds and power outages in foreign lands.
#107 An interview with Tony Long - Millimeter Microwave Magician
with Tony Long
Tony Long joins Chris to talk GHz radios, HAM as a hobby, building radios, testing them and machining metal pipes for the frequencies.
#106 Tektronix, ChipReport.tv, & the Signal Path - Temperative Tegmen Temperature
Chris & Dave
Digikey
Chris has a new project, Dave is getting to business on his power supply and much more from two guys that could be Olympic complainers.
#105 An Interview with Chris Anderson - Deambulatory Daedal Drones
with Chris Anderson
Chris Anderson joins Dave and Chris to talk DIY Drones, Makers, Manufacturing, Electronics, Community, Publishing and lots more.
#104 Ceramic capacitors & High end scopes - Kempt Kickstarter Kakorrhaphiophobia
Chris & Dave
Dave and Chris discuss Kickstarter projects, ceramic capacitors, high end scopes, BOM tools, memristors and lots more!
#103 An Interview with Philip Freidin - Xenodochial Xilinx Ex-Employee
with Philip Freidin
Altera
Philip Freidin of Fliptronics joins Dave and Chris to talk about his work at AMD, Xilinx and the state of the industry.
#102 Gouging Green Gardyloo
Chris & Dave
Dave and Chris start by talking about energy and end up talking about silicon eventually.
#101 An Interview with Matt Ettus - Quality Quadrature Quidam
with Matt Ettus
Matt Ettus of Ettus Research (and NI) stops by The Amp Hour to talk software defined radio and the future of the airwaves.
#100 Bonkers Birthday Badinage
Chris & Dave
Dave and Chris discuss birthdays, discussion forums, fab building, chip building, cheap devices, expensive chips, job seeking and much more! Happy 100th episode!
#99 An Interview with Steve Leibson - Impavid Ideopraxist Insider
with Steve Leibson
Steve Leibson joins Chris and Dave for a chat about the EDA industry, Steve's work with HP and various tech companies and the future of chips.
#98 Proemial Passive Poiesis
Chris & Dave
FET
Dave and Chris discuss active component makers now making passive components! Also kit making, FPGA kits, 4 bits and a bit of news in the Test and Measurement industry.
#97 An Interview with Eben Upton - Morbus Moilsome MakerFaire
with Eben Upton
Eben Upton
[display_podcast]
Welcome, Eben Upton of the Raspberry Pi Project!
Chris just got back from Maker Faire! Is there a stigma against "Makers" by engineers by profession? There's an article at Engineer …
#96 Senseless Saccadic Shemozzle
Chris & Dave
A bit of a mixed bag episode. Chris is off to Maker Faire, and Dave likes to carry a man bag.
#95 An Interview with Øyvind Janbu - Feracious Fabless Facilitator
with Øyvind Janbu
Øyvind Janbu, CTO of Energy Micro, joins to talk about fabless semiconductor manufacturing of low power and low cost microcontrollers.
#94 Gnomic Gazumping Gobemouche
Chris & Dave
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We'll be interviewing Øyvind Janbu, the CTO and co-founder of Energy Micro next week! We'll have a separate post for asking him questions. Chris will be speaking at the Bay Area …
#93 An Interview with Tom LeMense - Cacaesthestic Chronometric Carriwitchet
with Tom LeMense
Tom LeMense joins Chris and Dave to talk about his experiences in designing circuits for autos. He's worked at many different places throughout SE Michigan.
#92 Vellicate Videogame Vocation
with Jeff Keyzer (MightyOhm)
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Another round with the MightyOhm! Welcome back Jeff!
Jeff has a new job! He'll be joining Valve as a hardware designer in June! There is a handbook for working at Valve that was …
#91 Idiographical Interconnect Intorsion
Chris & Dave
Dave and Chris talk connectors, OSHW, Raspberry Pi, Old magazines, more connectors, patents and a lot more!
#90 Chaffered Chocolate Coemption
Chris & Dave
Dave and Chris prepare for cheap chocolate Monday by discussing Jim Williams, old transistor manuals, hardware conferences, component storage, sharing SPICE and more!
The Amp Hour #88.5 -- Telematic Tested Tacenda
Chris & Dave
Dave and Chris have some news about the show!
#88 Yonderly Yodeling Yobbos
Chris & Dave
Chris and Dave discuss reed switches,electric vehicles, CAD programs, design considerations, transformers, power monitoring and of course, yodeling.
#87 An Interview with Ian Daniher - Nascent Nonolith Numquid
with Ian Daniher
Ian Daniher of Nonolith Labs joins to talk about his up and coming measurement device called the CEE
The Amp Hour Theme Song
Chris & Dave
We’ve had a few requests for the files behind The Amp Hour Theme Music. This was generously donated by one of our listeners, Paul Stevenson. You can find the file here on our LibSyn server. All …
#86 Emolumental Evaluation Emporetics
Chris & Dave
Chris and Dave talk about sales and dealing with distributors/salesmen. Dave talks about doing layout with tape and Chris brings up printed electronics (again)
#85 Reputable Radio Reification
Chris & Dave
[display_podcast] We're showcasing other podcasts this week and asking more about you, our listener! Please take the survey on our episode page! New (or previously unannounced) Podcasts: Engineer Vs …
#84 An Interview with Bunnie Huang - Bunnie's Bibelot Bonification
with Bunnie Huang
CAD
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Welcome, Bunnie Huang!
Bunnie is the hardware designer behind the Chumby family of products. He also wrote a book about his experience of Hacking the Xbox. He got a little help from …
#83 Aggravating Agersia Agiotage
Chris & Dave
Lots of talk about CAD, Education, Startups and China today!
#82 Vecordious Vacation Variorum
with Jeff Keyzer (MightyOhm)
Chris is back from Hawaii, and we are joined once again by Jeff Keyzer of Mightyohm.com.
#81 Jersey Jeff Jactitation
with Jeff Keyzer (MightyOhm)
Whilst Chris is on his belated honeymoon, regular cohort Jeff Keyzer from Mightohm.com takes over.
#80 Otiose Ontocyclic Opiniasters
Chris & Dave
Dave and Chris talk Arduino power supplies, MP3 projects, manufacturing on-shore and gray beards in Silicon Valley.
#79 Ludibrious Luxating Layout
Chris & Dave
Chris and Dave discuss the chinese new year, buying parts and boards locally, Jim Williams, kickstarter projects, board cutters, the OSE project and much more!
#78 Alteritous Andy's Absquatulation
Chris & Dave
28c3
Dave and Chris run through their latest projects, favorite chips and say goodbye to a YouTube guy that blew lots of stuff up.
#77 An Interview with Dr. Howard Johnson - Winsome Waveform Wizardry
with Howard Johnson
90 Degree Turn
Dr. Howard Johnson, high speed signal integrity consultant, author and teacher stops by The Amp Hour to talk Black Magic and signals!
#76 Fremescent Floccose Fortification
Chris & Dave
Chris and Dave discuss the Open Source Ecology project, educational refactoring (again), Luddites, engineering certification, new music and lots more!
#75 An Interview with Ben Krasnow - Sprauncy Saccadic Spintherism
with Ben Krasnow
argonated beer
Ben Krasnow joins Chris and Dave to talk about his garage experimentation, education reform, tinkering, cooking and lots more!
#74 Younker Youtube Yarling
Chris & Dave
Dave and Chris talk about music, Youtube, benches, power supplies, R&D spending and the lack thereof.
#73 Horrisonous Holiday Habromania
with Jeff Keyzer (MightyOhm)
BeagleBone
Chris, Dave and Jeff talk holiday wish lists, ham radio call signs, toys, gear, kits and lots more!
#72 Kismetic Keithley Katowse
Chris & Dave
calibration
Chris details his leaving of Keithley Instruments for new ventures and Dave probes about the Test and Measurement industry.
#71 An Interview with John Edmond - Luciferous LED Lucubrator
with John Edmond
Bulb
John Edmond, one of the co-founders of Cree and the current Director of Advanced Optoelectronics Technology stops by to talk LEDs with Chris and Dave.
#70 Idiorhythmic IPC Inconcinnity
Chris & Dave
Atmel
Chris and Dave talk about the pitfalls of consulting, the joys of thanksgiving, the wonders of ham radio and the oddness (to Dave) of moving snow off a driveway.
#69 Control loops & Flying probers - Quassating Quadcopter Quantophrenia
Chris & Dave
China
This week Chris and Dave talk about a quadcopters, control loops, flying probers, engineering salaries and much more!
#68 Radiation Chips & Old Package Types - Technocratic Toilet Troubleshooting
Chris & Dave
7400 Contest
Dave and Chris discuss troubleshooting, decorating offices, radiation chips and old package types.
#67 BeagleBoard successors, CAD & Robots - Haussmannized Halloween Hypostrophe
Chris & Dave
BDI
Dave and Chris talk about nerdy Halloweens, BeagleBoard successors, CAD programs, OSHW, Robots, India and lots more!
#66 Magnets, China & IEEE - Xenomorphic Xerox Xebec
with Jeff Keyzer (MightyOhm)
China
Chris, Dave and Jeff talk about amateur radio, the IEEE's marginal benefit and magnets in China and what happens when they stop selling them!
#65 Silego, ADCs & Seismic Detection - Dave's Dingo Dystocia
Chris & Dave
ADC
Dave and Chris discuss dingo projects, dying pioneers, audio ADCs, seismic measurements, tiny parts and lots more!
#64 OSHW, Makerbot & Memristo - Maundering Memristor Mathematicaster
Chris & Dave
Chumby
Chris and Dave debate the merits of OSHW funding, the possibility of an actual memristor device "on the shelf" and when to rework products based on cost.
#63 Shop bots, 450 mm fabs & redFrog - Pick and Place Palillogy
Chris & Dave
Boston Dynamics
Chris and Dave talk about Dave's new lab space, Pick and Place machines, shop bots, 450 mm fabs, tech campuses and lots more!
#62 Op amps, Microchips & Mergers - Narquois Nerd Nescience - Narquois Nerd Nescience
Chris & Dave
LT1512
Dave and Chris discuss op amps, the TI/National merger, new microcontrollers, printable electronics, switchers, battery charging and much more!
#61 Moore's Law, GaN and SiC devices - Gallimaufry GaN Gabble
with Jeff Keyzer (MightyOhm)
GaN
Dave, Chris and Jeff talk all about the Open Source Hardware convention, GaN and SiC devices, Moore's Law and lots more!
#60 An Interview with Joe Grand - Pancyclopaedic Prototyping Polymath
with Joe Grand
Buglabs
Electrical Engineer and Inventor Joe Grand joins Chris and Dave to talk about hacking electronics, engineering on TV and inventing and manufacturing electronics.
#59 An Interview with Jeff Keyzer and Jason Kridner - Bonafide BeagleBoard Bionomics
with Jeff Keyzer (MightyOhm), Jason Kridner
BeagleBoard
Chris, Dave, Jeff Keyzer and Jason Kridner talk all manner of embedded computing and electronics. Updates on the BeagleBoard project and the chaos communications camp.
#58 Multicopter, DIY drones & Tektronix - Zappy Zendik Zoilism
Chris & Dave
Bingo
Chris and Dave talk about crashing copters, dumbfounding dowsers, brilliant bingo and kickstarter kludges.
#57 An Interview with Alan Yates - Recondite Radiation Raconteur
with Alan Yates
Ham
Guest Alan Yates (VK2ZAY) talks about his ham, pyrotechnic, radiation, software and maker hobbies.
#56 Open Orbific Oratiuncle
Chris & Dave
Dean Kamen
Another week of bouncing from topic to topic. This week included robots, entrepreneurs, OSHW, FPAAs, Ecology and LEDs!
#55 Shonky Stiver Stultiloquence
Chris & Dave
555
We start a new segment about ridiculous electronics products being sold to the public. They also discuss DIY going mainstream and the money associated with it.
#54 An Interview with Jack Ganssle - Embedded Elchee Epexegesis
with Jack Ganssle
Actel
Jack Ganssle joins Chris and Dave to talk about the electronics industry, embedded electronics, micros, FPGAs and lots more!
#53 Biarchy Birthday Bavardage
Chris & Dave
CWRU
Chris and Dave celebrate their 1 year anniversary! Then they talk about hackerspaces in schools, chips inside chips and crazy soldering translations.
#52 An Interview with Jeri Ellsworth - Carnassial Chip Chemicals
with Jeri Ellsworth
chip
Jeri Ellsworth returns to talk home made chips, software defined radios, companies giving the warm fuzzies and how not to spill HF acid.
#51 Vafrous Video Vaniloquence
Chris & Dave
China
Dave and Chris give Google+ a shot and record the video! Once the video gets rolling they discuss NASA, China, chips, OSHW, hams and more!
#50 Callow Cough Coverups
Chris & Dave
555 Timer
Dave and Chris discuss project boxes, designing a cough switch, new technologies from TI, the Maker Movement and much more!
#49 Analog Devices, Design Spark - Unusual Usenet Usurpation
Chris & Dave
Analog Devices
Dave and Chris discuss the runaround of finding a new analog to digital converter and how USENET groups can be helpful.
#48 Bob Pease, Jim Williams - Posthumous Pease Porridge
Chris & Dave
AMD
Dave and Chris remember Bob Pease and Jim Williams and discuss many other smaller, less important tidbits
#47 Apple HQ and Vintage Arcade Games - The Mothership Manifesto
with Jeff Keyzer (MightyOhm)
No Chris this week. Dave & Jeff talk about Apple's new Mothership HQ, vintage computers and arcade games on FPGA's, the death of 8 bit micros, head hunter fees, and more electric car stuff.
#46 Autorouter, Datasheets & Obscure Chips - Cloddish Collegiate Conversations
Chris & Dave
Australia
Chris and Dave talk about cultural differences at universities, finding obscure chips, tablets, datasheets and lots more.
#45 Texas Instruments, OPA & Chevy Volt - Nerdy Neuroelectronic Neurosis
Chris & Dave
3D printer
Dave talks about his role as a new nerd father and we discuss medical, automotive and even static applications of circuits.
#44 BASIC, Chip companies & Robots - Pernicious Projects, Puppies in Peril
Chris & Dave
BASIC
Dave and Chris talk about the perception of chip companies, robots and corporate silliness
#43 An Interview with Jeff Keyzer and Jeremy Blum - Audacious Arduino Arguments
with Jeff Keyzer (MightyOhm), Jeremy Blum
arduino
Dave, Chris, Jeff Keyzer and Jeremy Blum discuss the latest in electronics news, including Google's decision to use the Arduino.
#42 Contests, Ham Radio & TWIT.tv - Ham, Spam, Thank You Ma'am
Chris & Dave
3D transistors
We talked about schools, contests, more contests, ham radio, 3D transistors and our first Chip of the Week
#41 An Interview with Jeff Keyzer - Exhilarating ESC Escapades
with Jeff Keyzer (MightyOhm)
Chris & Jeff are recording from a hotel room at the ESC conference, with Dave sadly back home in Australia.
#40 Adafruit, Chip heist, Hackerspaces - The Kit Conniption
Chris & Dave
555
This week focused mainly around building a kit business, namely keeping costs down, keeping revenues in check and how to license your project.
#39 Dan Pink, Dual Core, level translators - Mumble Mumbo Jumbo
Chris & Dave
Dan Pink
Chris and Dave experience some audio trouble but eventually get talking about level translators, nerdcore rap, design contests and being paid for creativity.
#38 An Interview with Jeff Keyzer - Comical Keyzer Comes a-Callin'
with Jeff Keyzer (MightyOhm)
Altium
Jeff Keyzer of MightyOhm.com joins Dave and Chris to talk about a new soldering comic book and electric vehicles.
#37 EEVblog, National Semiconductor, Texas Instruments - The Chinese Clairvoyancy
Chris & Dave
Altium
Dave discusses recently being let go from Altium, we discuss the TI buyout of National Semi and we cover the April fools jokes that got us best.
#36 Big Business Buffoonery
Chris & Dave
No guests this week, but lots of rants and items! Suggest future guests you'd like to hear either in the comments section or on the Suggestions Page.
#35 An Interview with Jeri Ellsworth - The Ternary Tussle
with Jeri Ellsworth
Assembly Language
Dave, Chris and our first guest Jeri discuss printable electronics, women in engineering, bus controversies, Kickstarter projects and white collar crime.
#34 AD620, DesignSpark, Instrumentation Amplifier - The Rant Rhetorical
Chris & Dave
AD620
Chris and Dave discuss instrumentation amplifiers, new workbenches, stupid company name changes and falling demand for brains.
#33 Bob Widlar, Electronic Design, FIRST Robotics - Monday, Meta Monday
Chris & Dave
Bob Widlar
Dave and Chris discuss format changes to the show, engineering education and robotics competitions.
#32 Cores, Digikey, Electronic Design - The Commercial Competitor Commencement
Chris & Dave
cores
Dave and Chris talk about the new DigiKey/DesignNews radio show and give some (hopefully) constructive feedback.
#31 Freescale, Hackerspaces, Printable Electronics - Publish Popular Parts Please!
Chris & Dave
Arizona
Dave and Chris want chip manufacturers to let us know which are the most popular chip in order to design to parts that won't become obsolete as quickly.
#30 Agilent, Analog, Cold Fusion - Funding Fusion Is Not Futile
Chris & Dave
Agilent
Dave and Chris talk about funding issues in the US and the importance of science research in future product development.
#29 DJ and Jazzy Jeff
with Jeff Keyzer (MightyOhm)
Dave and Mightyohm Jeff Keyzer join forces to talk about conferences, packaging and IPC footprints
#28 Bowie and The Brown Note
Chris & Dave
ADI
The 555 contest continues onward! Everyone is getting excited! Dave's classic 1976 vintage Signetics 555 timer chip (which he destroyed! RIP).
#27 555 Contest, Computer Museum, Octopart - The Green Pen Hornswoggle
Chris & Dave
555 Contest
Dave and Chris talk about the upcoming 555 design contest and stories from listeners.
#26 The Ben & Jeri Show
Chris & Dave
ADI
Chris and Dave ended up talking about Element 14, Ben Heck and Jeri Ellsworth enough that they decided to name show 26 after them.
#25 NASA, WOTW & Modular Design - The NASA Nostalgia
Chris & Dave
6502
This week we didn't get much beyond WOTW but managed to have a good discussion about modular design and the mistakes of NASA.
#24 Solar Cells, SparkFun, TSMC - The Detroit Debunking
Chris & Dave
CFL
[display_podcast]
Shoutouts Sparkfun has a new "grab bag" program for all their pick and place cast off parts. Could be some good pickins! Rants Why does the IEEE still charge membership fees to …
#23 The Innovation Speculation
Chris & Dave
EDN
We discuss IBMs 5 in 5 innovation predictions, the holidays and a few more workbenches (including a video submission!)
#22 The Hard Work Hypothesis
Chris & Dave
Digikey
This week we discussed if there is a competitive advantage to being the squeaky wheel. And if you should bother while working for someone else.
#21 More Freeagle, More Benches and More Engineers on Twitter
Chris & Dave
CAD
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Seasonal What is on your electronics list for the holidays? Dave and Chris both need new chairs for their labs WOTW Henrik from Oslo, Norway Bench setup and explanation. Sylvain from …
#20 Military Electronics and The Free Eagle (Freagle) Campaign
Chris & Dave
Electronics
Our first WOTWs and lots of followups!
#19 CAD programs, Systems Design and Renewable Energy
Chris & Dave
CAD
Chris and Dave talk about all manner of electronics this week, ranging from low end CAD packages to designing whole systems by yourself to renewable energy.
#18 Transistor Types and Where To Get Electronic Gear
Chris & Dave
Adafruit
The continuing trend of hackerspaces. Fabs that only make discontinued chips. Workplace of the Week!
#17 EE Movies, Part Rants and SPICE.
Chris & Dave
Amazon
What do you say? .001uF or 1nF? Not getting into another 555 timer debate, but still it's interesting.
#16 LED Designs, Last Minute Designs and Board Designs
Chris & Dave
After an admittedly non-technical episode last week, we had an abundance of tech topics this week. So why keep writing when we can get to the links and you can get to listening!
#15 Analog Components, First Person Flying and Idea Ownership
Chris & Dave
Not as many links this week but the usual hour's worth of talking. We even managed to work in a comment or two about open hareware development (even though we promised not to previously).
#14 China, Entrepreneurs and Blue Collar Reality
Chris & Dave
Dave made it home safe and sound! This week we jumped right past the videos Dave plans on posting and into talking about current events.
#13 Chips And Fabs And Garages
with Jeff Keyzer (MightyOhm)
Holy YouTube clips, Batman! We have tons of clips this week. Chris and our special guest Jeff Keyzer were talking about lots of stuff and it turns out many of them were video based
#12 Dave Is Back And Blogging!
Chris & Dave
Dave is back! And blogging from a hotel room, just like Chris did in episode 9 of the Amp Hour. He has lots of great videos he made at Renesas Dev Con and some good stories and experiences.
#11 Ardui...no Dave This Week?
with Jeff Keyzer (MightyOhm)
arduino
Dave is rightly saving his voice for his upcoming trip to the US! We were very lucky to have Jeff Keyzer of Mighty Ohm join me in Dave's stead this week.
#10 Open Hardware and Self Publishing
Chris & Dave
Adafruit
This week's discussion revolved around open hardware. The summit definitely provided some interesting conversation points.
#9 From Boston In Boxers?
Chris & Dave
Ben Heck
Chris dials in (wearing pants) from ESC Boston and the Open Hardware Summit on a $10 internet connection. Highway robbery!
#8 Layouts and Design-Outs
Chris & Dave
We took our audience's advice and veered back towards tech talk! We also tried giving some more background on topics that might not be known to everybody.
#7 Love Robots and Pantyhose Screens
Chris & Dave
Buglabs
Curious about the title of the episode? Have a listen!
#6 Open Hardware and The Creative Economy
Chris & Dave
China
See a nerd with a tripod at the Electronex Electronics show coming soon to Sydney, Australia? It's Dave!
#5 Girl Power
Chris & Dave
EDN
We went over a lot of things, but none more than a recent campaign to try and get more young women interested in engineering
#4 Cultural Differences
Chris & Dave
Dave and Chris have been trying to get some thoughts together a bit prior to the show (though the show itself is still quite "off the cuff"). This week compares and contrasts yanks and aussies.
#3 HP, IEEE, and Human Interface
Chris & Dave
Discrete Components
We have a new website! During the show we spanned topics from HP to IEEE to human interface design.
#2 Critical Mass
Chris & Dave
Afghanistan
We discussed MAKE and their Maker Faire, as well as some news about mineral deposits around the world.
#1 What's In A Name?
Chris & Dave
China
Our first show ever! We cover our backgrounds and start getting to know each other. Also...we need a name for the show.
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