Embedded

Embedded is the show for people who love gadgets. Making them, breaking them, and everything in between. Weekly interviews with engineers, educators, and enthusiasts. Find the show, blog, and more at embedded.fm.

321: The Edge of Science Fiction 02/21/2020

321: The Edge of Science Fiction Jason Derleth of the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts Program spoke with us about what it takes to win a NIAC award. : Note: Solicitations open in June 2020! We first heard about NIAC talking to Ariel Waldman. Her site has some advice and encouragement for applying. Ariel was on of the show. Elecia’s one-page overview of . /episode/index/show/makingembeddedsystems/id/13241429

320: Why Isn't This Working? 02/14/2020

320: Why Isn't This Working? Chris Gammell of The Amp Hour and Contextual Electronics joined Christopher and Elecia to talk about firmware, learning, and books. Chris is the host of , a podcast about electronics and electrical engineering. Chris is also the founder of , where you can go to learn how to create electronics. Chris has a long running blog called Analog Life, found on his webpage , Chris is learning firmware as part of his consulting business. He likes Elecia’s book. KiCon is happening at CERN in September 2020. More information at . We talked about Jay Carlson who was on Embedded talking about his project () and about teaching embedded systems () We talked about book club books: And a fun book series called (the is especially good). (The outro music is Chris W.’s attempt to troll Chris G. with his “lightning” round answer) /episode/index/show/makingembeddedsystems/id/13145249

319: Squidly Tentacles 02/07/2020

319: Squidly Tentacles Chris and Elecia chat about the year 2038, their projects, their new finds, and future shows. The is real. Elecia read some of about it. Single file libraries list on github: (), including the image handling library Chris was originally looking for. Chris is working on a MIDI project with a NUCLEO-144 (STM32F303ZE) board and various boards from and . Elecia talked about the and . She also talked about and . /episode/index/show/makingembeddedsystems/id/13047575

211: 4 weeks, 3 days (Repeat) 01/31/2020

211: 4 weeks, 3 days (Repeat) Dennis Jackson spoke with us about making the career shift from software to embedded. Dennis buys James Grenning’s for his new hires and often recommends Elecia’s . His tip that everyone should know was “Learn make!” and he has a reference for that: . He suggested Joel Spolsky’s reading lists from , even the ones that don’t obviously apply. Additional suggested-reading articles: 30 Pitfalls for Real Time Systems ( and ) In his previous appearance on Embedded (), we talked about code complexity and measuring . At that time he wanted a tool to monitor the code’s status. He has since found one: . /episode/index/show/makingembeddedsystems/id/12956090

318: Amazed at How Things Are Amazing 01/24/2020

318: Amazed at How Things Are Amazing Darryl Yong is a mathematics professor at Harvey Mudd College (and former classmate of ours, also at HMC). He is working with HMC’s , putting real industry projects in front of teams of college students. He’s also teaching number theory to prison inmates and helping teachers in the chronically underfunded Los Angeles Unified School District. Darryl writes about his career in education at Adventures in Teaching (). You can with the . If you dig into the archives a bit (2009) you can read about teaching at a high school, . What he took away led him to create , a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing the number of secondary school mathematics and computer science teacher leaders in the greater Los Angeles Area. Darryl’s personal page () and his HMC page (). Also, check out . /episode/index/show/makingembeddedsystems/id/12866945

317: What Do You Mean by Disintegrated? 01/17/2020

317: What Do You Mean by Disintegrated? We were joined in the studio by the Lenore Edman () and Windell Oskay (). Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories () produces the disintegrated and . These were made in conjunction with Eric Schlaepfer, who also created the . EMSL also makes the and not-kit (and ). For a history of the pen plotter, check out . (They have too many neat things to list here, go look on their page: . Or stop into their Sunnyvale, California shop.) We talked about the beauty of boards including and ElectroCookie’s and . has interesting including one about seaweed. At one workshop, Lenore and Windell got to talk to Josie Iselin, author of T. Elecia enjoyed by Ruth Kassinger. Windell was previously on Embedded episode , we mainly talked about the book he co-authored: . Lenore was previously on Embedded episode , we talked about EMSL. Our post-show tidepooling was very successful with a variety of nudibranchs, shrimp, seaweed, sea birds, snails, and hermit crabs. /episode/index/show/makingembeddedsystems/id/12773606

316: Obviously Wasn't Obvious 01/10/2020

316: Obviously Wasn't Obvious spoke with us about the , data abstraction, , and winning a . See , including her . /episode/index/show/makingembeddedsystems/id/12678671

315: Trespassers William 01/03/2020

315: Trespassers William Chris and Elecia talk with each other about non-work activities including music, office rearrangement, and origami. (with Magic knob) is a Japanese print auction house /episode/index/show/makingembeddedsystems/id/12598742

314: Why Are Wings Needed in Space? 12/20/2019

314: Why Are Wings Needed in Space? Mohit Bhoite () makes functional electronic sculptures from components and brass wire. We spoke with him on the hows and whys of making art. , including the . More on his instagram: Jiri Prause has a wonderful tutorial on how to make simpler freeform electronics on . is another artist making phenomenal freeform electronics. uses electronic components in his art (his don’t function but wow). . Mohit likes by the end of 2019 and get your donation matched! Thank you to the listener who is doing the match! /episode/index/show/makingembeddedsystems/id/12472520

313: Where the Paper Knows It Needs to Fold 12/13/2019

313: Where the Paper Knows It Needs to Fold spoke with us about origami, art, math, and lasers. Robert has many origami books, here is a subset: (the one we talked about most, has the hummingbird crease pattern) (his new one, a textbook!) (not a theory book, just fun folds) (not mentioned but probably the book Elecia will be getting next) Robert’s website is full of neat goodies: including a pointer to the by Tomohiro Tachi ! Suggested other books: by Jeremy Shafer has a number of books. Robert uses but it is unobtanium to most people. Unless you are in Maine. (Note: book links are affiliate links, we get a little kickback if you buy from there.) /episode/index/show/makingembeddedsystems/id/12384083

312: Two Meter Exhaust Port 12/06/2019

312: Two Meter Exhaust Port Chris and Elecia talked through how security holes can get explored on a fictional product. Thanks to an Embedded listener who enjoyed about helping young adults have access to technology, we have a grant to match donations to DigitalNEST up to $2500. Donate here: We talked through but and are also very useful. GREAT by Coen Goedegebure /episode/index/show/makingembeddedsystems/id/12298835

204: Abuse Electricity (Repeat) 11/28/2019

204: Abuse Electricity (Repeat) Phoenix Perry () spoke with us about physical games. Phoenix is CTO of (). More about Phoenix: Her site: She enjoyed by NK Jemisin Physical games are sometimes called Alt Ctrl such as at the . Phoenix co-founded with , , and . “Code Liberation catalyzes the creation of digital games and creative technologies by women, nonbinary, femme, and girl-identifying people to diversify STEAM fields.” There is an 8-part workshop in London in Summer 2017 (). Some other interesting people: () Helen Steer ( wearables site I know you only read the show notes because you wanted this link: has the supplies for ghost hunting! /episode/index/show/makingembeddedsystems/id/12213551

311: Attack Other People's Refrigerators 11/22/2019

311: Attack Other People's Refrigerators Rick Altherr () spoke with us about firmware security and mentoring. Rick is a security researcher at . His personal website is . Rick’s deeply technical dive into reverse engineering car ECUs and FPGA bitstreams was on the . He also spoke with Chris Gammell about monitoring servers, many many servers. Firmware security links: Elecia’s (wasn’t mentioned) Thank you to our supporters, particularly to our corporate patron, InterWorking Labs (). /episode/index/show/makingembeddedsystems/id/12130610

310: While Loops Dressed up for Halloween 11/15/2019

310: While Loops Dressed up for Halloween Aimee Lucido () is a software engineer and children’s book author. Her first book is about music, learning to code, and fitting in. We spoke with Aimee about writing, programming, publishing, and putting beautiful words together. You can get a copy of Emmy in the Key of Code from , , , , or . The music playlist can be found in or . Aimee’s website is . She also writes crossword puzzles for and . Some other authors and books we talked about: by Kwame Alexander by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Shane W. Evans After the show, I asked Aimee about resources for learning to read as a writer, she suggested looking at the . Thank you to our supporters, particularly to our corporate patreon, InterWorking Labs (). /episode/index/show/makingembeddedsystems/id/12042269

309: Nature's Engineers 11/08/2019

309: Nature's Engineers Pete Staples of Blue Clover Devices (, ) spoke with us about tools for manufacturing hardware. Some posts and products from Blue Clover Devices: and (using YAML) and Behind the scenes at factories: Thank you to our supporters, particularly to our corporate patron, InterWorking Labs (). /episode/index/show/makingembeddedsystems/id/11951600

308: More Energy 11/01/2019

308: More Energy Jacob Martinez () spoke with Elecia about (), a non-profit devoted to giving high school and college age students access to technology, job training, and career development. DigialNEST is based in the agricultural communities of Salinas and Watsonville, CA. Students who work through the course tracks at DigitalNEST can be invited to join the consulting group. The conference we spoke of was NEST Flight (), held in September in Watsonville. DigitalNEST is a non-profit and is accepting individual and corporate donations: . /episode/index/show/makingembeddedsystems/id/11863892

307: Big While Loop 10/24/2019

307: Big While Loop Chris and Elecia explain when and why to use an operating system on a microcontroller (real-time or not). Thank you to our supporters, particularly to our corporate patreon, InterWorking Labs (). /episode/index/show/makingembeddedsystems/id/11774096

306: What Is in the Magic Box? 10/17/2019

306: What Is in the Magic Box? Dr. Loretta Cheeks () spoke with us about implicit bias in text, machine learning, getting a PhD, and STEAM outreach via Strong Ties (). Also see: (.) Lotetta’s TEDx talk on Thank you to our supporters for Loretta’s mic, particularly to our corporate sponsor, InterWorking Labs (). /episode/index/show/makingembeddedsystems/id/11684291

305: Humans Have a Terrible Spec Sheet 10/03/2019

305: Humans Have a Terrible Spec Sheet Amanda “w0z” Wozniak () spoke with us about her career through biomedical engineering and startups. Amanda contributed a chapter to . (A book we spoke with Alicia Gibb about in #.) Amanda’s chapter was titled Design Process: How to Get from Nothing to Something. For more information about the companies we discussed, check out . /episode/index/show/makingembeddedsystems/id/11508614

304: ADC Channel Six 09/26/2019

304: ADC Channel Six What do you get when you connect the open-source reverse engineer of and the main electrical engineer of said device? Jeff Keyzer () and Gregory Gluszek () join us to talk about building and taking apart devices. Greg’s project is on github as the . He used , an ARM simulator. Jeff has left Valve and is now a freelance engineer as well as selling kits on . The incredibly useful comic on how to solder lives there: was the computer discussed. /episode/index/show/makingembeddedsystems/id/11412338

303: Kids, Turn in Your Chips 09/19/2019

303: Kids, Turn in Your Chips Jay Carlson () is back on the show to discuss education and the techniques he’s using to teach embedded systems. Jay has some great posts on his blog. The one related to this show was entitled “.” Jay was also on where we discussed his fantastic survey of micros in . We also mentioned one of his recent posts about . Teaching has many different approaches. We talked about and mentioned the . /episode/index/show/makingembeddedsystems/id/11322053

51: There Is No Crying in Strcpy (Repeat) 09/12/2019

51: There Is No Crying in Strcpy (Repeat) Jen Costillo () joins Elecia and Christopher to discuss their experiences interviewing (both as interviewer and interviewee). Elecia did an hour long on how to conduct technical interviews. In this show, she mentions a good . Google that their brainteasers are not a very effective way to interview. Despite the news that for you, we tried to bleep everything. Also, it is , not minefield. What were we thinking? It was obviously all Christopher’s fault. Though we should have stood up to him. Elecia's has more interview questions but from the perspective of how do you ask a question and what do you look for in a response. /episode/index/show/makingembeddedsystems/id/11228969

302: Worst Book Ever 09/05/2019

302: Worst Book Ever Christopher interviews an embedded systems engineer with ~25 years of experience across medical, scientific, industrial and consumer products. He asks about career trajectory, field stories, and assorted destruction. /episode/index/show/makingembeddedsystems/id/11143919

301: Giant Novelty Check 08/29/2019

301: Giant Novelty Check Carter Frost spoke with us about the Cabrillo College Robotics club and winning the . Cabrillo has many . Cabrillo Robotics has a and is on Twitter. The club gets its funding from the (to donate, make sure to note “Cabrillo Robotics Club” in your contribution). Please RSVP for the Embedded 300 party on Eventbrite.com. /episode/index/show/makingembeddedsystems/id/11051936

300: Introverts Disperse! 08/22/2019

300: Introverts Disperse! Christopher and Elecia talk about the upcoming Embedded 300 party (Sept 7th!), podcasting, and listener emails. Please RSVP for the party. If you didn’t hear the link in the show or don’t recall it, . Thank you to iRobot for sending us as prizes! We send the as our guest mic. Thank you for listening! /episode/index/show/makingembeddedsystems/id/10961849

299: Reasonably Foreseeable Misuse 08/15/2019

299: Reasonably Foreseeable Misuse Monk Eastman () joined us for an enlightening conversation about hardware compliance engineering. We covered the basics of CE, FCC, UL, and battery certification. We mentioned that Alan Cohen’s has a good overview of certification. Alan was on . For a deeper view of compliance engineer, Monk suggested this book: . Listener Skippy wrote about . Monk plays bass saxophone in the . Details on registering for the Embedded 300 party on Eventbrite.com are in the show itself. /episode/index/show/makingembeddedsystems/id/10894143

298: In the Cow Case 08/09/2019

298: In the Cow Case Eric Brunning () returns to talk about doing science in the field in this crossover episode with the ’s John Leeman (). Eric is a specializing in storm electrification and lightning. We spoke with Eric on about lightning and using baking goods as measurement devices. Eric was also on GeoCast . We spoke with John about his Phd research in . The previous Don’t Panic GeoCast crossover was with John and Sridhar Anandakrishnan in . John’s company is . The paper was by Erik D. Demaine, Martin L. Demaine and Duks Koschitz. Elecia is working her way through Erik Demaine’s Phd thesis on the same topic as well as ’s excellent book . . For 3D printed origami, Eric mentioned Henny Seggerman’s twitter . /episode/index/show/makingembeddedsystems/id/10830893

297: Mice to Do My Bidding 08/02/2019

297: Mice to Do My Bidding Chris Svec () spoke to us about how hope can improve our software and work environments. Chris is the author of and has been on the show several times since his first appearance in . He mentioned . We talked . Details for the Embedded Cats and Hacks party are in the show. If you can’t attend, well, maybe you can still get a mug (). If you can attend, iRobot has graciously given us a couple that we’ll be giving away. /episode/index/show/makingembeddedsystems/id/10746011

296: Train Me Later 07/25/2019

296: Train Me Later Shruthi Jaganathan spoke with us about recycling, machine learning, and the Jetson Nano (). More about the , the computer vision, machine learning, augmented reality way to sort your lunch leavings. . The system was on a and Shruthi has been moving it to the physically smaller and only $99 (). Shruthi has been getting into AI with the Jetson Two Days to a Demo as well as NVIDIA’s free online course. For more information about FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), we talked about it with Derek Fronek on . /episode/index/show/makingembeddedsystems/id/10658678

295: In the Key of Lime 07/18/2019

295: In the Key of Lime This week we talk about () with ’s Kattni Rembor () and Scott Shawcroft (). The suggested first board is with LEDs, sensors, and buttons. CircuitPython is also available for many other boards including the (NRF52832). For a basic introduction take a look at and . To dig a little deeper, check out the many resources in . The whole thing is open source so . If you are thinking about contributing (or just want some fun chats), get in touch on the CircuitPython channel of the Adafruit Discord server: Many of the language’s design choices favor ease-of-use over ready-for-production. Imagine teaching an intro to programming class without worrying what computers will be used or how to get compilers installed on everyone’s machines before time runs out. One final note: Kattni did a project that gave us the show title: . After we finished recording, Chris asked her why she didn’t add a kiwi fruit to her mix… Kattni explained she had limes and they were small. Chris only wanted a different fruit so she could rename it Piano in the Kiwi of Lime. It is always sad when we stop recording too early. /episode/index/show/makingembeddedsystems/id/10578488

Embedded

TOPICS