The Amp Hour

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An Interview with Dave Vandenbout - Xceptional XESS Xenagogue Jan 22, 2014

Show notes

Though XESS is prounounced "Ex-Ess", the XuLA board is pronounced "zoo-la".
Chris confused INXS and Styx. Sorry, classic rock fans.
Dave worked at Bell Labs for 6 years in the late 70s and then went back to school at NC S tate to get his PhD.
XESS started as a company writing spreadsheet software for the MicroVAX.
This later turned into a one-man enterprise after Dave got sick of doing grant proposals and no hands-on research
His first book (self published ) was The FPGA Workout. It detailed using the Intel FX780. The internal SRAM made it possible to embed a micro.
This trend continued as Dave made hardware to go along with books. The S tudent EPX31 had an 8051 on board.
Dave thinks tinkering with the Commodore 64 allows for comprehension of the system, but that's not as possible anymore.
Xilinx vs Altera isn't really a big battle at XESS. Pick one, use it.
The XESS boards help abstract out some of the hardware confusion by including the mapping file.
The new(er) Stick It family allows easy expansion of peripherals.
One good way to ensure you can build a system is to preserve the tools. Virtual machines are the best way these days.
Dave (Jones) laments FPGAs having too many IO when sometimes you want a powerful part without the IO overhead (and cost).
Rent's Rule - more gates, more IO
These days, FPGAs are basically software companies.
Another book that Dave has written is, "FPGAs?! Now What?" It's a great primer into getting started.
More recently, Dave has been playing around with MyHDL, which uses Python to abstract out more of the design. This is in place of VHDL or Verilog. Dave wants to build a training course with Python Notebooks.
To be a good designer, you really still need to know the hardware and how your code will generate. This also helps portability because you aren't using vendor specific macros.
A small processor can be defined in a couple hundred lines of code.
XESS code and projects are now kept on GitHub. The designs, including the hardware, are open source.
Dave is in the middle of a transition from EAGLE to KiCad. Welcome to the fold.

Thanks again to Dave for stopping by and talking FPGAs with us. He has tons of great experience and makes a great product. You can find him on Twitter @devbisme, where he has been a member since the 555 contest! Or check out the XESS website for more info about tutorials and hardware.

An Interview with Dave Taylor - Multi-talented Meter Maker Jan 15, 2014

Show notes

Welcome, Dave Taylor! He was the designer of the Fluke 8060 and currently works as the Director of Engineering at Rice Lake Weighing Systems!

Most importantly, there is an epic thread on the EEVblog forum where Dave talks about his experiences. That is a must read set of posts!

Dave's first foray into electronics was building audio gear: Fuzz boxes, TA17s, Class D amps using 555 timers, soundboards/mixers.
He was hired by Fluke after a short stint at a job after going to the University of Colorado at Boulder (the Buffalos!)
He assisted on the design of the 8020 and the 8920, but was also sent to work on the production line.
Do young engineers get experience these days when production is elsewhere?
The Fluke handhelds used (and developed) the 429100, an all-in-one measurement chip for all its handheld 3.5 digit devices. It outputs readings directly to an LCD. Intersil then did minor modifications to the design and released it as the Intersil ICL7106.
There was a lawsuit after they decapped an ICL7106 chip and found the silicon said Fluke! It was functionally equivalent to the 429100, except for the range changing (which was patented).
After the experience with Intersil, John Fluke Sr decided to bring sensitive designs in-house and built a 5 micron fab.
Dave worked closely with Caddock Networks and learned a lot about resistors and how they're manufactured/sorted to be precise.
Once the project was over and there were unused 8060s, one was gifted to Jim Williams, who Dave knew.
The 70 series went to a rotary switch which still persists today.
These were a response to competition with Beckman. That company was later purchased by Fluke.
Fluke also bought Datron, a company Dave almost went to work for.
After Fluke, Dave went to WaveTek and designed the Model 52 datalogger. See one in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caQmiw2170A
Once that company folded, Dave went to go work for MSI, which was then bought by Rice Lake Weighing Systems. They make industrial scales and weighing equipment. Dave still works there as the director of engineering.

Thanks again to Dave for putting up with our delays and our usual annoyingness! Find him as drtaylor on the EEVblog Forum. (must be logged in)

Greg Charvat Returns With A Book! - Laboratory Literature Laureate Jan 08, 2014

Show notes

Welcome back, Dr Greg Charvat! Greg was on the show about a year ago, talking about his startup, Butterfly Network and his MIT short course on the RADAR.

Greg has a new book that is about to be released! It's called "Small and Short-Range Radar Systems". You can pre-order a copy for 20% off the coupon code AJM33.
The book has practical approaches and example data sets.
Greg has been celebrating MSU winning the Rose Bowl...even though most nerds don't know much about sports.
The popular MIT short course is also offered to professionals in June
Greg and Chris visited Hamvention 2013 together where Greg bought his R390 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVKLEGzQdNk
Greg's experiments and hacking of the R390 will be featured in QST magazine in March.
Jack Ganssle did a review of a 1946 Oscilloscope
CRT tubes enabled RADAR. Something something thermionic rf current.
Greg enjoyed the A ntique Wireless Association's coverage of The Titanic's Radio Transmitter.
Another history item, Greg has been reading T he Power Makers which is all about early grid setup and power delivery.
While most people think of Tesla for AC, his biggest contribution was inductive motors. Now it's swinging back to DC delivery of power with DC transmission.
Even white goods are moving back to DC power, with some fridges using a DC power bus and an inverter going to an AC induction motor to drive a compressor.
Greg's book started at the IEEE Phased Array symposium when he met someone from CRC Press.
Instead of working on antique watches at night, his wife encouraged him to work on the book. The entire start-to-finish was 3 years.
When writing a book...write for yourself.
The Coffee Can (Successive Approximation) Radar project covered in the MIT short course is now a kit! Made by Quonset microwave. A little pricey but easier than sourcing everything yourself, including some soon obsolete components.
Automotive radar is an entire chapter in the book and are a large area of interest in the next few years. Some of these operate at 24GHz, 77GHz (!)
Sensors too! RADAR is a great way to bounce low energy signals back to a network.
Greg has been advising a startup called Fybr (c'mon people, use your e's!). They make networked sensors for city wide parking space detection (and charging for parking).
The NSA leak included a hardware catalog with tons of interesting gadgets. The ANGRYNEIGHBOR used RADAR to bounce some of these signals back to a base station for collection/networking. Crazy stuff!
The Space Fence shut down as part of the sequester, but was an awesome way to detect space objects. You could listen on the ham bands.
While at Lincoln Lab, Greg got to work on the huge M illstone Hill RADAR array. 2.5MW of output power
Much smaller, cheaper and available to the public, there is a push to use RTL-SDR dongles to do RADAR.
Greg is editing a book series about practical electronics. Have an idea for one? Email charvatg@gmail.com. Greg is particularly looking for books about:
- Legacy equipment.
- Practical FPGAs (or you could watch the FPGAs 101 talk from CCC)
There are some awesome QSL cards from the 50s, linked by Alexis Madrigal's 5 Intriguing Things newsletter.
What do you think? Should we pay to get on shortwave radio in Maine?

Thanks to Greg for being on the show again to talk about RF and authoring books. We can't wait to have him back on to FINALLY tell us about Butterfly Network. Follow Greg on twitter at @MrVacuumTube.

A 2013 Recap - Year-end Yarn Yakking Dec 31, 2013

Show notes

Another surprise episode? We must be really bored around here!

Dave's Kickstarter is almost over (as of posting this)! He crossed the $100K mark and will likely be shipping over 1500 units. Awesome!
Dave also finally wrote a blog post about his experience with the uRulers.
The EEVblog forum was kicking this morning talking about whether to allow deleted comments.
This is a similar argument to the need for lab notebooks (and the rigor associated with keeping them). It's a matter of historical record vs being an information source.
This is happening in 2014:

[tweet https://twitter.com/Chris_Gammell/status/413543081557118976]

Dave has been building uCurrents for the early batches: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux7WdK6oym4
Revision tracking, especially with in-situ engineering changes can be very difficult (different reels, bodge wires, etc).
Chris has been using GitHub commit numbers and could theoretically continue to track changes in the CAD program and then putting a sticker with the new commit number.
Dave is getting his own Digikey part number. We think it should end in -NERD instead of -ND.
The Kickstarter campaign doesn't account for currency issues (which usually fluctuate +/- 5%). This can impact any overseas project.
Can you get sued if you are willfully ignorant of a patent? What about if you mistakenly step on a patent claim?
We have a new site design! (duh) It should be easier to comment on stuff and see when there are new comments. Use it!
The new site prominently displays our logo by Rachel Rivera of R adcastle.
You can now buy t-shirts of The Amp Hour logo as well! Not as cheap as the teespring campaign because they're being printed "on demand".
Ruckingenur II is a game about reverse engineering hardware. It's quite fun!
The Mooshimeter is a high voltage DMM/datalogger that will isolate you because it's a headless unit (using a smartphone or similar).
There is also a kickstarter project for a 10 Ghz Sampling scope. Note the differences between that and a real time scope. The nature of the design allows for a PIC micro to be used for the ADC.
Alan Wolke has a new video about circuit construction techniques http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH110yjYZ2g
IEEE Spectrum has an article about the Rise, Fall, and Rise of Kits. Dave says the RPi and Arduino are not kits because it's cheaper/easier to just build assembled boards (whereas it wasn't always that way for small run products).
Dave has lots of planned additions for the lab including some dedicated benches and new toys.

Thank you to all of you who listened in 2013...we're looking forward to 2014! Not much will change around here and we'll have lots of new interesting guests on the show to give greater perspective of the world of electronics. If you still enjoy what we're doing around here, please tell your friends!

Thanks to the San Bernadino County Schools for the picture of the Yarn Yak!

Discussing Innovation and the Future with Mike Ossmann - Fiesty Festivus Futurology Dec 24, 2013

Show notes

Welcome back, impromptu guest, Mike Ossmann! (Mike was a previous guest on Episode 161 talking about the HackRF)

Mike was able to join us on a whim after we realized we could record a show this week!
After Dave asked about a fireman's pole in a house, Chris mentioned this watertower house.
Chris just opened up registration for the first session of Contextual Electronics!
Mike continues to work on the HackRF. In fact, he is just about to send it off for the prototype run!
Dave's kickstarter continues to kick, now funded over $80K! Dave is worried he'll tip over into needing to buy two reels of the fancy parts on his board (not available in single quantities).
Dave and Mike (and most KS campaigns) get emails soliciting services to "help" with the fulfillment. The response was very different for Mike for the U
bertooth vs the HackRF (many more people for the latter).
Dave doesn't know who Jay-Z is.
Dave recently had a great score at auction, purchasing lots of test gear. People don't realize there is significant cost in purchasing said gear. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqURkr9YVvM
Mike might need new gear for his lab soon. Most of it is leased as part of his
DARPA CYBER fasttrack grants.
One of those projects includes the Daisho board. The main board was designed by Jared Boone of ShareBrained. Chris looked at this to see the PCB stackup (for sending it to be manufactured).
Could Silcon Valley ever move to Cleveland? No, probably not. But in a modern economy with lots of telecommuting, it seems to be the people and the funding that are most important...not the geography.
Mike will be attending ShmooCon in Washington DC, Troopers in Heidelberg Germany and Hamvention in Dayton OH. He previously attended the Digital Communications conference in Seattle (as did Jeff K), which was put on by TAPR. He also has attended ToorCamp and will again this year. Ruxcon is in Australia but will be too big of a hike.
The antikythera computer was an early example of movement and calculation.
Mike has an awesome hobby in February -- he goes to the Fairbanks (Alaska) world ice carving championship. In the past, he had made penguins. He and his partner focus on kinetic (ICE!) sculptures.

Thanks again to Mike for being on the show again. It was a great way to finish out the year. See you all in 2014!

Thanks to Matthew Keefe for the picture of the Festivus Pole!

Funding New/Manufacturing Old Projects - Radical Robotic Requisition Dec 18, 2013

Show notes

Contextual Electronics is opening for sign-ups this week!
Finding big projects to work on can be tough as a small business. Chris suggests SBIR grants (though those aren't always small).
Dave doesn't get lonely working by himself. Chris enjoys bouncing ideas off co-workers though, which is why he started a Meetup. Dave has resolved to attend or start on in the new year.
China has landed a rover on the moon.
Dave is reading the Buzz Aldrin book, "Mission to Mars"
This is different than the 70s movie about a Mars Mission hoax called C apricorn One.
Chris prefers his Sci-Fi to be more like Star Trek: First Contact
The SETI project still hasn't found any intelligent life. Dave informed Chris that Paul Horowitz is one of the researchers on the project.
Dave thinks no one uses their spare compute cycles on BitCoin mining instead. Chris learned about bitcoin from Martin Lorton https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb5QxUsiqF4
Speaking of money, Dave launched his short Kickstarter for the uCurrent Gold!
On the EEVBlog forum, there was a past smartwatch campaign where the project lead tried to convince Dave it wasn't a scam project (it was).
Dave has been pre-securing his supply chain so he doesn't get stuff with orders but no parts.
The cost of panels (at places like PCBcart) is relatively the same after tooling is paid for. The difference is the control over the panel look and function.
Dave is getting a thermal oven/controller from PCBpool.
Google is going crazy buying R obotics companies.
We're not sure why Google bought B oston Dynamics (the military contractor), but given the brain power there, it likely will enable other interesting projects.
A recent bad episode that a ham radio kit business owner had to deal with shows why customer service can be a tough job.
Six sigma is a system to help reduce and (effectively, but not actually) remove defects from production. Green belt training mostly taught Chris how to do real-world statistics.
Why aren't there fabs in Cleveland? What are the main inputs to building a fab?
There's a great map showing where many of the semiconductor fab facilities are.
Chip of the Week: The Xilinx UltraSCALE made on the 20 nm node. Bring your piggy bank.

This may or may not be the last show for the year. We're going to try to sneak a show in around the holidays.

Thanks to tacomic tuesdays for the picture of the robot scarecrow.

Pebble KS Proto — **An Interview With Andrew Witte - Telistic Timepiece Technomania** Dec 11, 2013
Show notes

Welcome Andrew Witte, CTO of Pebble Technology!

The Pebble watch was the largest Kickstarter campaign to date, raising over $10 million and having over 68,000 backers.

The company was started by Eric Migicovsky as a grad student, Andrew joined a year before the KS campaign.

The first project was called the inPulse (the one in the picture above), which worked with Blackberry devices.

There have been others such as the Spot watch and the Meta Watch. There are many others out there, as well as other wearable technologies.

Power consumption is the absolute highest priority.

The screen is a Sharp memory LCD display. This is a "memory in pixel" device. It is manufactured using a TFT process.

Chris didn't know much about LCDs, Ben Krasnow recently made a video showing how to make DIY ones.

FCC and CE were the main regulations Pebble needed to pass. The Bluetooth module meant they needed to pass the Part C "Intentional Emitter" test, similar to how Jeri talked about when she was on the show recently.

There is a developer marketplace for firmware (for the native on-watch apps) and for android (for the companion phone apps).

The watch uses FreeRTOS.

At first they had planned to manufacture locally, but the success of the campaign made them decide to move to China. They hired Scott Miller and Dragon Innovation to help with the manufacturing transition.

There is a Kickstarter update photo of a $1M purchase order.

Not all KS projects work out as planned; Lockitron (the team are friends of pebble) ended up getting rejected and built SelfStarter.

Every unit is pressure tested and tested underwater (for now, soon will just be air tested).

Moved the Bluetooth from a module to circuit on board (and saved lots of money).

The Lithium Polymer batteries are manufactured like capacitors. The Pebble has custom batteries because of this.

The Pebble shown in the Kickstarter video was 1 of 3 prototypes. It had a 3D printed screen which cost $1000+ to manufacture.

Many thanks to Andrew for being on the show and talking about the intricacies of developing and manufacturing the Pebble watch. We can't wait to see what comes from them next!

Motors And Upgrading Sinclairs - Adapting Apraxiated Automobiles Dec 04, 2013

Show notes

Links discussed sourced from the /r/TheAmpHour subreddit:
Links talked about in the course of the show:
- The TI TMS320C2000 Development Kit for high voltage motor applications (shown above). More about the motor application and all the math here.
- Amazon's factories run with robots that bring shelves to the people that pack and pick items at the warehouse.

Remember, next week on the show we'll have Andrew Witte, CTO of Pebble Technologies (creators of the Pebble smartwatch). Get your questions in here!

Photo courtesy of TI

An Interview with Jeri Ellsworth - Intense Illusion Introduction Nov 27, 2013

Show notes

Welcome back, Jeri! Now part of a Kickstarter Funded company, Technical Illusions.

If you didn't see the Kickstarter or the updates, the CastAR was funded for over $1M
Really the discussion was broken down into three parts (with rough time stamps):
- The mechanics of a Kickstarter campaign (0:00 through 30:00)
- The technical side of getting the CastAR built (30:00 through 70:00)
- The realities of getting outside funding and heading to China to get stuff made (70:00-90:00)
If we're missing any critical links, please let us know in the comments.
If you think you might be a good fit (or a unicorn) for working at Technical Illusions, send Jeri and email at jeri@technicalillusions.com

Thanks to karmacappa for the picture of the Technical Illusions team

CAD courses and cross platform creation - Printing Propaedeutic Patterns Nov 20, 2013

Show notes

We’re going to try a new way of posting links this week. It falls in line with how we post them to our twitter feed as well. Each link allows for discussion on a per link basis, which continues from the time the link was posted (reddit account required).

If there are any missing links, please let us know in the comments below!

Reddit links
Videos
- Mike's Electric Stuff Flir teardown http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtqUE67BUDI
- Jeremy Blum's EAGLE series (equivalent to the "Getting To Blinky")
- KiCad push and shove traces http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxHDAHpR5Ls
- The Espruino Javascript Platform http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1TsCmDhFtk
- Ben Krasnow deposits traces onto substrates http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYgIuc-VqHE

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