The Amp Hour

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Idiographical Interconnect Intorsion Apr 16, 2012

Show notes

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Logic analyzers use state analysis and timing analysis. They also can do state triggering.
Ask the listeners: What is the craziest errata you've ever seen?
Dave went and picked up 100 kg of Electronics Australia magazines.
Chris still gets tripped up by rules of thumb for the metric system. XKCD has a brilliant chart of different ways of remembering amounts.
The CSIRO are trying out a new wireless data system that can transmit over 10 Gbps!
They also are the rightful inventors of WiFi and receive royalty checks for people that use the standard.
We don't like companies that only defend patents (like Intellectual Ventures) but if they roll the money back into research, that's ok!
Dave was watching a TV special on a software lock technology company that took on Microsoft...and won! (well, settled)
OSHW Association was announced recently. They will be a registered 501c3 corporation.
Followup from the other week: The Raspberry Pi made it through EMC testing and will be manufactured and sold now. Andrew Back does a first look at a beta unit, connecting it up to a vintage CRT monitor.
What other hobbies have home labs? Most chemists are afraid to have labs at home because they might be accused of devious behavior.
Though they still have a ways to go, plastic electronics are getting lower impedance and are still printable.
Molex has mini-fit crimp terminals that have a 1500 mating cycles at 13 amps!
What are your connector design considerations?
Chip of the Week:
- The Linear Technology LTC4366 (yes, LT again). It's a chip that can detect and protect against incoming surges. It's programmable for time and over voltages. Plus it can float on your rails! Cool!

Got anything we've missed? Want to hear something different on The Amp Hour? Let us know in the comments! And be sure to subscribe to make sure you're getting the latest episodes right when they're released!

Chocolate Easter Bunny — **Chaffered Chocolate Coemption** Apr 09, 2012
Show notes

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Dave and Chris discuss the after-Easter candy/chocolate sales. And many other cultural differences.

Injection molding plastics is an art and a necessary skill for high run products. Have you ever worked on molds?

Chris has a new podcast about general engineering topics. This will free his brain to talk more circuits on The Amp Hour!

Dave likes the new OSHW RC controller by Gizmo For You. Design files can be found at OS-RC.com.

Kent Lundberg is still working through Jim Williams' app notes. There is a great "best-of" page that points out the key ones to read.

Though it's still just a rumor, the DARPA grand challenge that could be forthcoming sounds awesome. Robots to save people...then conquer them all?

Is there any use still for Germanium Diodes? Interesting uses in an old Sylvania manual. Have they been supplanted by Schottkey and other low drop variants? Or does an application still exist that *requires* them?

Jack Ganssle calls out a similarly awesome old book for playing with BJT circuits. Lots of great applications for trying out analog circuits.

Do you go to expensive conferences on your company's dollar? Would you go to the forthcoming Hardware Innovation Workshop for $775?

Conferences are good for networking, if nothing else. Chris recommends, "Never Eat Alone" by Keith Ferrazzi, a book on how to do just that.

Chris used CircuitLab to share a SPICE-like circuit with a friend to illustrate a point. If you want to see the Low Pass Filter Chris entered into the program, see here.

If you're interested in sharing schematics (KiCAD only right now) in a more interactive way than PDFs, Circuit Bee is an option.

Chris was trying to illustrate Bode Plots for the friend. Pronounced "Boh-Dee", according to his (impressive!) wikipedia page.

If you're interested in analog filtering, specifically Sallen Key Filters, check out this app note from TI.

We have a winner from last week's contest, Lorin Tauss! Though it was not requisite, the chip he suggested was great and was this week's CotW!

**Chip of the Week**

The AD8555 by Analog Devices is a zero-drift, digitally programmable sensor signal amplifier. You can tweak offsets with a DAC and clamp at a specified input voltage. Pretty cool!

Switch mode power supplies (SMPS) are a topic most younger engineers (Chris included) take a while to get accustomed to (especially when starting with a linear regulator or similar). There was a great application note by Microchip about the basics of SMPS and the different topologies that are available.

Dave has talked about the differences (and similarities!) between SMPS and Linear Regulators before on EEVblog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM7t1Mpu7s4

*Thanks to Patrick Nouhailler for the Easter candy picture!*

Mythbusters — **The Amp Hour #88.5 -- Telematic Tested Tacenda** Apr 01, 2012
Show notes

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Chris and Dave have some big news about the show!

Tested.com

Hint: The Amp Hour could soon involve more explosions…

*Thanks to LVCHEN for the picture of Jamie and Adam!*

Yodel Right Off — **Yonderly Yodeling Yobbos** Mar 26, 2012
Show notes

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Chris is back in the basement!

How do our listeners deal with having to be in two locations with work?

Thanks to one of our most generous benefactors, Maurice! We are able to do more on this show because of people like him. If others are interested in donating, they can do so on our donation page.

Sick of Dilbert-like meetings that drag on? Pop up this online timer to estimate how much $/s is being wasted in the meeting!

Former guest and friend of the show, Jack Ganssle's salary survey is out and points out interesting datapoints in the consulting side of EE. His newsletter is a great resource as well!

Salary can flatten out as you get older. Chris has written about salary expectations for electrical engineers before.

Margery Conner rightfully calls out Sony for their ridiculous plug for metering and gating wall power. Who would buy that?

They talked about charging electric vehicles on the Science Friday podcast and the need for electrical distribution, but didn't mention the cost aspect.

Someone made a Back to the Future quadcopter! Serves multiple interests on The Amp Hour!

Great video on how reed switches are made (to later go into reed relays).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhUt7VyMKT4

Another article on the basics, there was a wonderful article about re-using transformers on EDN.

Dave has been using DIPtrace while trying out non-Altium commercial packages. Support Dave by buying a license through his site!

Chris has been talking with people about how to best maintain a public repository of part databases.

Stewart Allen has started a GitHub repo to use and contribute KiCAD symbols and footprints.

CJ Gervasi has started a Wordpress based site to get vetted parts and footprints.

In the end, you'll have to decide if any of these work for you, based on your needs and levels of customization.

Should Dave design his PSU for lefties? Chris (a southpaw himself) doesn't think so.

Richard ("amspire") on the EEVblog forums is rebuilding Dave's design in an all-analog, all-discrete version. The control loops are causing him some...headaches.

Ian and the Dangerous Prototypes crew visit another market, this one in Seoul:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_wa2MPbCAM

Chip of the Week:

The INA219 from Texas Instruments (the Burr-Brown arm). A great I2C output high side current monitor that Dave designed into his PSU.

Chris is looking for a better way to find parts than parametric search. Some people on twitter suggested the Adafruit Component Database (good for hobby stuff).

If you're into HV and enjoy (safely!) playing with transformers, check out this great video found via reddit on how to harvest them from microwaves:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRoPHKpCYmg

That's all for this week, be sure to subscribe to the feed or find us on the multitudes of social networks in order to be the first to hear about the new shows being posted.
*Thanks to Tapir Girl for the yodeling picture*

An Interview with Ian Daniher - Nascent Nonolith Numquid Mar 19, 2012

Show notes

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Welcome, Ian Daniher of Nonolith Labs!

Ian was one of two developers on the CEE, a USB analog multitool.
This was kicked off as a Kickstarter Project, which more than trebled their funding goal!
They also pitched the idea to Imagine K12, a funding source similar to Y Combinator (but for educational purposes).
They assembled much of their Kickstarter kits in house (the mechanical sections at least):
Hardware startups are definitely different than the app "startups" that seem to pop up all over the landscape lately.
3D Printing Consortium Rep Rap had a successful funding drive through the Kickstarter alternative, Indie Go Go.
HAXLR8R (mentioned on the show a few times before) is actively investing in hardware.
The Startup Bus was a set of buses the drove to SXSW from different cities, "creating apps" on the way. Oof.
The US based JOBS act could potentially inject more startup capital into the market. Now individual investors can invest up to $10,000 in a company in exchange for stock (up to $1 million).
While the JOBS act could have potential abuse, Kickstarter has similar issues as well. A drones project was cancelled when the product to be delivered was in question.
Another dicey looking project was the bluetooth DVM (or iVoltmeter) , based upon what is promised and the relatively low cost.
Is the CEE test equipment? Ian calls it "Cavalier Instrumentation"
Rigol does call themselves test equipment and are now selling a 2000-series scope (or will be, eventually), a long awaited successor to their 1052E model.
Chip of the Week:
- The Atmel ATXMEGA32A4U, used on the CEE (which Chris then decided to use on his project).

NOTE: For those who asked, the Open Source Hardware Definition. Point 4, you cannot call your product "Open Source Hardware" or "Open Hardware" if you use any form of Non-Commercial clause in a license, nor can you use the OSHW logo.

The Amp Hour Theme Song Mar 14, 2012

Show notes

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 we ask is that you don’t misuse the music or put it to something without Paul’s permission (i.e. Please don’t go creating The Bizarro Amp Hour Show or something like that).

Paul also wrote a version with words, also available on our LibSyn server. It’s titled, Chloroform The Amps. Here’s a version on YouTube if you don’t want to download and/or see the lyrics:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buKg2eAX4Z0

Thanks again to Paul and we hope everyone enjoys the music!

Fabric — **Emolumental Evaluation Emporetics** Mar 12, 2012
Show notes

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Survey Results are in! Thanks to the 330 or so people that participated! (Results will show up in a separate post)

Australia lost the SKA to South Africa.

Chris is going to this year's Bay Area Maker Faire! If you're going to be there, let him know!

For our European listeners, Future electronics (the distributor) has a program where you can get dev boards if you trade your information. Decent mount of vendors participating.

Today's show centered around the different types of sales people, Chris has written about this before at Engineer Blogs.

When is it OK to hang out with vendors? Is there an ethical limit to what you should agree to? Is just lunch OK?

IBM creates a quasi-off-the-shelf Terabit Transceiver for network communications at under 5W power. Way outside the range of everyday networking but a good sign for the future!

Altera had a press release this week about their built in optical transceiver.

This is in line with much of the module-based electronics that are being developed by chip vendors these days.

Printed electronics on a machine that cost less than $10K! Does Chris win? Thanks to Cherish from Engineer Blogs for pointing it out!

Want micro machines to go along with your printed chips? Try a printed dragon fly, on a print platform the size of a business card!

ZombieTech.tv did a great interview with James Neal (@laen), who runs the DorkbotPDX service (the purple boards).

Dave has his MakerBot working and printing! He was happy he had to repair the machine so he now knows how it works and what to watch for.

And the recently posted video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdC7kTT-nN4

Dave is getting custom bean bags made for his office made with a custom fabric (if you're interested, you can easily purchase it here):

Chris has been struggling with KiCAD but learning as he goes, similar to the struggles Dave has been having.

Dave used to have to do actual tape out on old boards and could do negative patterns in his head!

**COTW:**

A new(?) chip from Analog Devices, ADM1166, can monitor 10 different power rails and store the continuous voltages for readback after a failure. Can also throw alarms and coordinate power sequencing. Cool chip!

Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, was sick of people emailing him with "better" punchlines to his comics. He now allows you to add your own ending to a comic strip (registration required, however).

If you're still interested in participating in the survey, please see episode 85 to get to the form. If you have any other feedback, you can reach us on Twitter (that's really just the feed, Chris and Dave are both on there as well), Google+, Facebook or email us at theamphour@gmail.com.

Board — **Emolumental Evaluation Emporetics** Mar 12, 2012
Show notes

[display_podcast]

Survey Results are in! Thanks to the 330 or so people that participated! (Results will show up in a separate post)

Australia lost the SKA to South Africa.

Chris is going to this year's Bay Area Maker Faire! If you're going to be there, let him know!

For our European listeners, Future electronics (the distributor) has a program where you can get dev boards if you trade your information. Decent mount of vendors participating.

Today's show centered around the different types of sales people, Chris has written about this before at Engineer Blogs.

When is it OK to hang out with vendors? Is there an ethical limit to what you should agree to? Is just lunch OK?

IBM creates a quasi-off-the-shelf Terabit Transceiver for network communications at under 5W power. Way outside the range of everyday networking but a good sign for the future!

Altera had a press release this week about their built in optical transceiver.

This is in line with much of the module-based electronics that are being developed by chip vendors these days.

Printed electronics on a machine that cost less than $10K! Does Chris win? Thanks to Cherish from Engineer Blogs for pointing it out!

Want micro machines to go along with your printed chips? Try a printed dragon fly, on a print platform the size of a business card!

ZombieTech.tv did a great interview with James Neal (@laen), who runs the DorkbotPDX service (the purple boards).

Dave has his MakerBot working and printing! He was happy he had to repair the machine so he now knows how it works and what to watch for.

And the recently posted video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdC7kTT-nN4

Dave is getting custom bean bags made for his office made with a custom fabric (if you're interested, you can easily purchase it here):

Chris has been struggling with KiCAD but learning as he goes, similar to the struggles Dave has been having.

Dave used to have to do actual tape out on old boards and could do negative patterns in his head!

**COTW:**

A new(?) chip from Analog Devices, ADM1166, can monitor 10 different power rails and store the continuous voltages for readback after a failure. Can also throw alarms and coordinate power sequencing. Cool chip!

Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, was sick of people emailing him with "better" punchlines to his comics. He now allows you to add your own ending to a comic strip (registration required, however).

If you're still interested in participating in the survey, please see episode 85 to get to the form. If you have any other feedback, you can reach us on Twitter (that's really just the feed, Chris and Dave are both on there as well), Google+, Facebook or email us at theamphour@gmail.com.

Reputable Radio Reification Mar 05, 2012

Show notes

[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 Designer, a podcast about 3D printing, CAD and the conflict between engineers and designers. They have a competition in process to win a MakerBot Replicator.
- IEEE Spectrum Podcast -- Host Steven Cherry talks to industry veterans in 10-15 minute clips about all manner of industry topics.
- Story Collider -- A mashup of science and comedy, this podcast has a different person talking each show about funny stories involving science.
- We'll add a section on the website for other podcasts we like
HAXLR8R is rolling! And we helped inform one of the participants! Tom from Boulder ElectroRide was accepted and is now writing about his experience on a new blog. Star Simpson, another member of the HAXLR8R program, is keeping a journal of her travels as well. Both are super interesting!
So glad that there are hardware startups...and people are starting to notice!
Lattice has a new logo...and it could mess up your ability to spot one of their parts until you learn the new logo. If you need to spot old logos, check out this site.
Dave's video about the anti static bag myth was passed down the chain by Element14 and they should be using the correct bags now.
BoredAtWork writes on the EEVBlog Forum about the silliness of pricing when it's just a software upgrade, but Chris and Dave understand the reality behind it. You need margin in order to work on next generation stuff!
Chris Anderson wrote a series on "Maker Businesses" and makes a similar point. You need to charge 2.4x your costs in order to maintain business! (i.e. $10 in parts means you have to charge $24).
Business Week writes about the true cost of low cost products: managers beholden to shareholders chasing the rock bottom prices will not have time and resources to focus on a good product.
Chris uses Dropbox to maintain CAD files across computers/platforms.
New web-based SPICE program available for the NerdKits guys. It's called Circuit Lab and has some great features!
This Week In Nerd History
- In 1977, the first Freon-cooled Cray-1 supercomputer, costing $19,000,000, was shipped to Los Alamos Laboratories, NM. It was 133 MegaFlops. The A4 processor in an iPhone is 34 MegaFlops!
Chip of the Week
- Dave likes the LT3600, a 15V, 1.5A Synchronous, Rail-to-Rail, Single Resistor, Step-Down Regulator (whew!)

Thanks to kafkan for the radio tower picture

Please fill out the survey!

Loading... If you hit submit, scroll back up to see the confirmation notice.

An Interview with Bunnie Huang - Bunnie's Bibelot Bonification Feb 28, 2012

Show notes

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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 some friends at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
He also recently released the NeTV, which was met with some DMCA resistance due to the method in which he injects pixels.
You can get chumby/NeTV hacker kits over at adafruit.
He gets to go to some of the electronics markets, such as the SEG market in Shenzhen.
Ian from Dangerous Prototypes went to the Japanese version of this market recently:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DHX2FruBog
While in the SEG market, you can even buy an iPhone schematic!
Bunnie discussed Moore's law (and the breakdown thereof) at the OSHW conference and we discussed on episode 61 of The Amp Hour (with Jeff!), around 20 minutes in.
We asked why he decided to use Marvell chips, as opposed to a more open chip company like Freescale (in relative terms).

Thanks again to Bunnie for taking the time to talk about his work and his philosophy on design. We hope you all enjoyed listening as much as we enjoyed talking to him! Please leave any unanswered questions in the comments and we'll try to follow up by next week!

Note: We changed the encoded volume of the podcast so we don’t blow anyone’s eardrums out when they jump from their favorite NPR podcast (Car Talk, duh) to ours or whatever else you’re listening to. Sorry if this has been an issue in the past. Thanks to Joi Ito for the image of Bunnie

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