In this episode Ronald (@opticalworm) talks about some of the issues you may have and how to you could better handle maintaining multiple version of the same firmware.

Music

bass_loop_13 by JaZzy JunGgle https://profiles.google.com/jun66le https://freesound.org/people/junggle/sounds/31674/

In this episode Ronald (@opticalworm) talks about the changes to the podcast format and setup, Santa clause project and genetic algorithm.

Show Notes

We now have a video feed for the podcast. Checkout it out over on youtube.

Ronald mention what he been up to during the holidays

he worked on the Santa clause project here

Ronald was inspired to write his own version of the smart rocket code challenge by Daniel Shiffman

Thanks to Daniel Shiffman video, Ronald got to learn more about genetic algorithm

In Video Form

Music

bass_loop_13 by JaZzy JunGgle https://profiles.google.com/jun66le https://freesound.org/people/junggle/sounds/31674/

In this episode Ronald (@opticalworm) talks about data logging and what you can do to make your job easier when processing a large number of data points

Show Notes

Talks about the various reason why you might need to do some data logging

Ronald mention that you traditionaly would store your data in CSV files

Datplot is the windows program for plotting data from a CSV files

Matlab was mention as the tool that you can use to process your logged data

Python and nodeJs could be used to process the data.

Electron is the javascript goto platform for building UI

Sqlite is the database engine that you can you to store and manage your logged data

Ronald mention how SQL query makes it easy to retrieve specific data.

MySql was also mentioned

MongoDB was also mention as an alternative to SQL engines

mongoose Is the javascript module for Mongo database

In Video Form

Music

bass_loop_13 by JaZzy JunGgle https://profiles.google.com/jun66le https://freesound.org/people/junggle/sounds/31674/

In this Halloween-ish special, Ronald (@opticalworm) talks about the patent that scared him and the lack of motivation is the reason he hasn’t made a Halloween project this year.

Show Notes

The Scary patent: Interactive toy

financial advisor patent Link

Our Micro robot project page

In Video Form

Music

bass_loop_13 by JaZzy JunGgle https://profiles.google.com/jun66le https://freesound.org/people/junggle/sounds/31674/

Mummy Zombie :License: Attribution 3.0 | Recorded by Mike Koenig https://soundbible.com/1059-Mummy-Zombie.html

Incoming Suspense :License: Attribution 3.0 | Recorded by Maximilien https://soundbible.com/2046-Incoming-Suspense.html

In this episode Ronald (@opticalworm) talks about image processing and object recognition.

Show Notes

OpenCV tutorial

Nodejs OpenCV binding module

Node.js and OpenCV tutorial

Canny Edge detector wiki page

Our Micro robot project page and hackaday.io project page

In Video Form

Music

bass_loop_13 by JaZzy JunGgle https://profiles.google.com/jun66le https://freesound.org/people/junggle/sounds/31674/

In this episode, Ronald talks about why you should track the time you spend on a project/tasks as well as some of the ways/tools that you could use to track them. Ronald also talks about the plans for the micro robots. Ronald also briefly explains how RTOS work and give an example where you could use it.

Show Notes

For a contractor/freelancer, keep track of your time on a project/task is important. it could mean the deference between making or loosing money

Over estimating the time it takes to complete a project/task could be just a bad as underestimating it

Project tracking is a pain to do and can slow you down in some cases

Its hard to estimate a task because of the nature of the job we do. Its not like we have an IKEA instructions for the product that we design

PERT charts– Program evaluation and review technique

Gantt chart

Ronald went to Embedded Systems Conference 2009. Here’s where I first meet Jack Ganssle but I doubthe remembers Ronald

Should Manager have the same discipline as the people they are managing?

The assumption that your manager makes isn’t necessary same assumption that you are

FreeRTOS

toggl.com – time tracker

OpenMv – Python-powered machine vision modules

You can now follow us at hackaday.io/HashDefineElectronics

mention that we have plans to test out machine learning. Possibly neural network

In Video Form

Music

bass_loop_13 by JaZzy JunGgle https://profiles.google.com/jun66le https://freesound.org/people/junggle/sounds/31674/

In this episode Ronald talks about some of the common issues you could run into when running a contract business.

Show Notes

Keep your running cost low

Do you really need to pay for an office. I only had a small table when I first started out!.

How contract work won’t necessary give you the freedom to work on your own project

Don’t underestimate the time you spend chasing invoices, new client and general paper work

Some people automatically assume that you are well off or rich just because you have your company. Yeah right

Make sure that you really do your math/research when calculating your rates

Don’t forget to make a backup plan and be ready to excuted if things don’t work out. Can you survive without an income stream for three or four month?

be ready for when not if your client don’t pay you

Some bridges are made to burn

In Video Form

Music

bass_loop_13 by JaZzy JunGgle https://profiles.google.com/jun66le https://freesound.org/people/junggle/sounds/31674/

naming things is hard!

In this episode, Ronald @opticalworm introduces himself and what this podcast may or may not be.

He also talks about how naming things can be difficult including code variables and how your naming habits can bite you back. He ends the show by talking about the company robotics project.

Show Notes

Ronald starts by first apologising for not knowing exactly what the show is about and his random nature when explaining stuff

Also Mentions that he won’t be teaching you how to push electrons with firmware in this show

Highlights that even those he’s not cutout to be a traditional teacher his good at teaching you as an apprentice

Mention that his one of the embedded instructor at contextualelectronics.com and what he does in there

Here are some of the awesome podcasts mentioned on the show.

The Amp hour

Embedded fm

The Spark Gap Podcast

List the places that you might have seen Ronald

The Amp hour – Interview

Embedded Considerations For Choosing A Microcontroller – Part 1

Boldport Touchy Project #7

Youtube Channel

Leeds Hackspace

Ronald’s 3rd year university robot project testing the LED status.

talks about how naming things are especial code variables

the names code variables can in some cases give away the author. There’s no hiding from Wipe!

Points out an issue you may have with javascript when creating and naming global variables inside functions

Robot project mentioned: https://www.hashdefineelectronics.com/micro-robot-development-platform-hdec-000745/

In Video Form

Music

bass_loop_13 by JaZzy JunGgle https://profiles.google.com/jun66le https://freesound.org/people/junggle/sounds/31674/