The Amp Hour

By The Amp Hour (Chris Gammell and David L Jones)

The Amp Hour is a weekly conversation about electronics and the people who design them.... more

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FAQs about The Amp Hour:

How many episodes does The Amp Hour have?

The podcast currently has 745 episodes available.

The Amp Hour episodes:

January 11, 2011NASA, WOTW & Modular Design - The NASA Nostalgia
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WotW
JP Wack from Santiago, Chile
Bench with awesome labels!
Other work
Troy Rank from Rochester, NY
Bench page
Stynus from Belgium
Project page (tons'o'projects!)
Workbenches
And workbenches with Stynus in the picture
Followup
The 6502 was laid out by hand by one person!
A new study out found that ASUS was the most environmentally friendly company of large commercial manufacturers.
Suggestions
Eddie suggested we were being hypocritical for railing against eWaste and promoting CFLs simultaneously. Chris and Dave want to have low power DC in the home to cut down on ballast electronics needed.
Discussion Point
CES is going on this week but is way commercial. Who cares?
Listener Brian J Hoskins is designing what he hopes will be a universal interface for instrumentation on a helium balloon he is designing.
Is anyone younger than 30 still wearing watches these days?
VOTE FOR DAVE in the iiNet Top Geek competition!
(no need to sign up, just click the VOTE button!
EDIT: A new user-made promotional video about NASA (credit goes to reddit). Inspiring and beautiful:
http://www.youtube.com/v/oY59wZdCDo0
And one that’s much more rock and roll:
http://www.youtube.com/v/NXkuo1yihjs
...more
1h 4min
January 05, 2011Solar Cells, SparkFun, TSMC - The Detroit Debunking
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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 unemployed engineers? And why does the cutoff for waiving the fee occur at 13k(and below)? Is that a realistic point at which people start being able to pay dues?
Discussion Points
California gives 100W incandescent bulbs the boot!
The mentioned EETimes article explaining the switcher circuit innards of a CFL
Why do LCR meters (like the kind Dave reviewed) output 6 digits of "resolution" through USB when only 3 are displayed on the device screen?
Electronic junk is back in the public eye. There is some research starting on the topic, but in the mean time 3rd world countries are still burning circuit boards to get the precious metals from them.
New site about electronic waste and recycling by the people that brought you "The Story of Stuff"
http://www.youtube.com/v/sW_7i6T_H78
And what contributes to electronics junk more than putting electronics in everything? While this can be a boon to new products, is it oversupply of cheap chips or actual consumer demand of the new functionality?
TSMC is planning a solar cell manufacturing plant in Mississippi. Good for the local economy (1k jobs, $500M invested). Are we nearing an inflection point where lower income areas in American labor (plus deals from local gov'ts) can compete?
New list out about trends in 2011 from JWT. Topping the Amp Hour's pick's from that list are: 3D printing (#1), Microbusinesses (#51), NFC (#56), Self-powered devices (#76) and Tap to pay (#88).
Also on the list was Detroit and the transformation it's going through currently, as documented in Requiem for Detroit.
http://www.youtube.com/v/yIgC5whSP8E
Not all predictions go well...Ray Kurzweil responds to the scorching review in the latest issue of the IEEE Spectrum.
And since we like IEEE Spectrum so much, we wanted to go over their list from a few months back about the top 25 chips of all time. Really great reading.
WOTW
Ack! Sorry! We didn't get to it this week! Thanks to the submissions, we'll promise to do those first thing next week.
...more
1h 3min
December 29, 2010The Innovation Speculation
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WotW
Adam C of Onecircuit.com submitted the first workbench of the week submission by video!
http://www.youtube.com/v/EDzBi5mTT4w
[con't]
Bob of Ambientsensors.com took a picture of his bench with his pup, including a signed HP 300A!
Lieven Blancke of Belgium submitted two pictures of his 7 year old maker son at their bench. Also included a picture of their recent project.
Kevin Smith from the UK sends in pictures of his compact bench (and one in B&W for the old school look). Cool setup!
Shoutouts
Jon Oxer has been dedicated to improving shieldlist.org, even donating Arduinos to others. (Correction: Arduino Proto Shields. Still, very awesome)
Rants
EDN's Hot 100 list could be something cool...if it had any credibility. When all the links are directly to a press release, who believes them?
Discussion Points
Jeri and Mike came up with a new unit of measure. A unit of annoyance known as The Jones.
Nice piece on Leo Laporte in the NYT detailing the advertising for all his podcasts on Twit.tv. Chris and Dave are veeeery interested (but not expecting much).
IBM released a list of 5 innovations coming in the next 5 years. We don't agree with all of them, but they're not bad! And we're looking forward to 3D holographic technology for user interface design.
Speaking of the future, even with the ridiculous amount of data that could some day be stored by spintronics, we'll run out of usable matter for storing data in about 600 years (if we have similar rates of technology advances).
...more
1h 5min
December 22, 2010The Hard Work Hypothesis
We wanted to try out a title similar to the style of The Big Bang Theory…we love it!
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Shoutout
Another Ham-like video podcast called Amateur Logic. We like it! Thanks to the queen of science videos (Jeri) for the link!
Dave got scooped! Afrotechmods did an AWESOME video about ultracaps. He arc welded a coin!
http://www.youtube.com/v/EoWMF3VkI6U
ShoutDown
Even though it's Chris' favorite news source, NPR recently used Dave's Kindle teardown video without attribution! Booo.
WotW
Frank from (cold!) Finland
View 1 of the bench
View 2 of the bench (-1 point for not being in the shot!)
Nathan from ASoberNewt (website, not a place)
The bench by itself
And Nathan in the shot while in the garage
Follow Up
More about last week's discussion about PhD's: they only make 3% more on average than those with a Master's, according to a recent article from The Economist. Monetarily, PhD's don't seem worth it (though they may be otherwise)
Discussion Points
Is there a competitive advantage to being a squeaky wheel? Dave's new videos got good responses from DigiKey and Maxim.
Matt from the Antipasto Hardware Blog talks at length about the need for continued innovation in the Open Source Hardware Community.
In the US, they are opening up the FM bands for the first time to non-commercial enterprises. Can Dave and Chris buy their way onto the airwaves? ;-)
There is also more talk about the Nearfield Communication capabilities of cellphones in the near future, as led by Google. There's an open standard, but how much will be accessible to the user/hacker/maker?
More tech executive foolishness. Some were caught "consulting" while holding a high ranking position in a company. What a bunch of dopes!
Dave doesn't want to work anymore. He would much rather retire now and do electronics as a hobby, who's in?
An early submission from @wa7iut:
...more
1h 2min
December 15, 2010More Freeagle, More Benches and More Engineers on Twitter
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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 Belgium
Bench setup for RF projects.
David from Portland
Portable bench setup. Taking your electronics on the road is impressive!
Mike from the UK (mikeselectricstuff)
MASSIVE panorama of his amazing lab. Breathtaking how well he uses the space and how much he crams in there!
Shoutouts
IEEE has a podcast. Not the easiest thing to find but there are a lot of different topics and interviews!
Discussion Points
Are squishy circuits the beginning of the circuit printing we've been talking about? Too soon in the technology to tell.
Listener Harry tells us about The Woz being on "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me"
The Freagle Campaign is still going. While we appreciate the Cad Soft team getting on Twitter, we still think the revenue generated from EAGLE BOM pushes will offset costs. And if not, RS Design Spark is free!
EAGLE also just added a script for getting a PCB quote, apparently. No word who the vendor is but Dave thinks this will extend far beyond PCBs into entire supply chains.
Fluke could use a little work on their Tweeting. Not all engineers care about American football!
It seems the foundries may be buying into opening up their standards to the EDA vendors. Could this mean more open source tools (like Electric) or will it just open it among the big players?
Dave and Chris get asked to fix peoples' stuff because we're engineers, but Chris much more often gets asked to be IT. Google has a new site to help with that.
What's the payoff from getting a PhD? Is it even worth it for all the effort required?
Inventables, an awesome site with small quantity, weird new materials for use in hobby projects.
Dave's Lab:
A video tour of Dave’s EEVblog lab:
http://www.youtube.com/v/LXIoZBCr3Xk
This is the “Summer Oasis” that Dave’s wife made him build her. Dave thinks it’s a waste of space and it should have been used for a big shed!"
(yes, that tiny tool shed is behind the opening fence.
Before and after shots:
...more
1h 3min
December 07, 2010Military Electronics and The Free Eagle (Freagle) Campaign
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Our first WOTWs!
Mike, who works at Ascot TV in Christchurch New Zealand! More info about Mike's is here.
Dave likes the Bob Parker ESR meter.
David work at Delta-Q Technologies in Vancouver, Canada. More info about David is here (as are many more pictures!).
David plans on doing something similar to the Electric Delorean project
Follow-up
Mario, a reader/listener on Linked In, wrote to let us know about the existence of cross reference sheets for transistors that are still readily available (the sheets, not the transistors).
Frank wrote in the comments of Episode 19 about a different user interface device called "I-love-sketch" from the University of Toronto. Looks like a cool stylus based way of interacting with your designs.
Dave mentioned the video of Scott Adams drawing Dilbert using a similar type of vector based system.
Chris's additional argument for making your own chips...no more obsolescence unless YOU decide you don't want to make it anymore, inspired by companies playing on our emotions i.e. Zilog canceling popular parts back in the day and now IXYS bringing them back. Dave recons it's a straw man argument!
RS DesignSpark contacted us and told us they will be fixing their FAQ section. Hopefully it's soon!
On a separate note, since RS and Element14 seem to trade blows, perhaps E14 should think about making Eagle completely free? (Freagle? - Free Eagle). Dave & Chris start the Free Eagle campaign!
Discussion Points
Engineers in the military-industrial complex. How do you decide whether or not to participate? What about developing weapons with algorithms designed to remove any places left to hide?
There's no right or wrong answers, just personal choices. Do you work for one? Please let us know below, we're very curious.
Badass (military?) hackers are an army unto themselves, they took down the Iranian centrifuges for months!
Is Jones' Diminishing Blog Law already named? Or does Dave need to just update that wiki page?
Right in time for all our WOTW stuff, @UptownGreen posted a list of essentials for the lab you might not have thought of.
And while a crowbar is not on the list, Chris keeps one around his lab for a heatsink...
Hi-Res stuff is expensive difficult! We're impressed by Jeri's new TSA hack but Chris realized how much he expects Hi-res for images. Same for a new project using an Arduino for an IR camera.
Rant
Rambus is going after big chip makers for patents. And worse, now they're sinking their teeth into LED patents! Chris is still pissed at them for closing off RDRAM in his Dell Dimension 8100...
That's all for now. Please submit your (audio or text) questions/suggestions at the suggestions page and your pictures at the WOTW tab if you're interested in being featured!
...more
1h 10min
November 30, 2010CAD programs, Systems Design and Renewable Energy
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Shout-outs
Rich Hoeg of The Northstar Nerd, linked to us from his podcast page! Be sure to check out the others on there!
To Google Sketchup! For offering electro-nerds the opportunity to do 3D modeling (easily!). They have a new contest in conjunction with Ponoko (thanks to @dustynrobots for the link). Check it out if interested in winning free software and stuff.Shoutouts
Dave has used eMachineShop
Rants
An applications engineering job working with Labview requires a PhD?
IEEE Salary Service isn't included with membership fees?? What am I paying for? How are they any better than an eBook company??
CadSoft EAGLE needs a new pricing structure. Perhaps @element14 could take a look at it and make more sense of it? Why not charge by the layer instead of the geography??
Discussion Point
A second edition of the NPR story on Hackerspaces played over the weekend. Mentions how MakerBot started out of NYCresistor (and the BotCave!)
In an age of increasing hardware abstraction, is it better to be a generalist or a specialist?
Jeri has a new video up about her (TSA Body Scanner) backscatter project. Trying to make a Hot Wheels radar gun into a 10 GHz local oscillator. This video is the first in the series and explains the background of radar.
Dave & Chris butt heads over whether or not it will be possible to make your own practical chips at home in the future. Dave calls bullshit, Chris calls why not dude.
New gesture software for the TI MSP430 Chronos watch. Cool idea!
Medical devices are capable of very small form factors, such as this wand/iPhone combo for ultrasound.
Renewable energy investment is politically/militarily driven in Isreal. Planning $500 million in investment in the next few years...wean everyone off oil and some of their adversaries have less money!
Dave likes the plan in Australia to be 100% renewable by 2020.
The molten salt method of storing energy could really help.
We're still looking for submissions for Workplace (and now Workbench) of the week. If you don't, we'll keep posting pictures of Chris in silly hats in my lab. Please email or leave a comment on the WOTW page!

Chris and his recently re-setup lab
Thanks for listening! And let us know what you think of the music (don't worry, Chris can take it!)
...more
1h 2min
November 23, 2010Transistor Types and Where To Get Electronic Gear
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Shoutouts
Dave's $50 shootout is cited in Adafruit now carrying the Extech meter. Cool! There's also mention of it on extech site.
NPR did a piece covering hackerspaces. Likely many have heard about it , but it's good coverage of the burgeoning trend.
All About Circuits is a great resource if you've never seen it. Huge forum, great open textbook.
Discussion Points
Is it feasible to open a fab that only makes discontinued chips. Places like Rochester Electronics and Lansdale both do it, but at very high cost.
Dave says there are still stores in Australia that sell electronics like Jaycar and Altronics. Chris doesn't know of any in Ohio. Jaycar even sponsor a big Rugby League Football team
However, Freetronix posted to their Twitter that they will get their gear into some shops, it's likely the ones listed above. Congrats!
Where to buy stuff online? If there are no more storefront eShops, where to go?
Elexp, as suggested by LadyAda
Electronics Goldmine
Futurlec
Electronics Surplus (in Cleveland)
BG Micro
Alltronics
Many thanks to Sam of Maker's Alliance in Cleveland! Great suggestions!
An EEVBlog user got a super nice Tek scope off Craigslist. Should he sell it, buy a cheaper one and profit?
Different parts of the world have standard NPN/PNP parts (as well as other types of parts).
North America is the 2N3904/2N3906
Europe and Australia is the BC547/BC548
Japan is 2SC1815
Thanks to Wikipedia for the info about transistors (don't forget to donate while you're there!)
Chris has found the value of plotting realistic timelines in his projects and also trying to figure out the all important "requirements" for the project, one of Jack Ganssle's favorite topics in his writing.
Dave continues to work on his secret project but might trot out the demo soon.
New Segment: Workplace of the Week!
We'll have a dedicated page to workplace of the week where we keep track of people that write to us.
Send in your pictures, what kind of work you do and anything else you'd like to tell us about your work place. The stranger the better!
This week was inadvertently The Riverside Robotics Class from Chattaroy Washington!
They had written to Dave previously and became the first chosen. We'll post pictures later if we get any from them. They are a HS electronics club that works on robotics! Awesome to see HS students working with electronics.
Interested in being the next workplace of the week? Let us know!
Thanks for listening!
...more
1h 3min
November 16, 2010EE Movies, Part Rants and SPICE.
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Links!
Shoutouts
Solder Smoke is back! Bill is out in the HAM shack, broadcasting podcasts for all. Go catch the latest one!
A podcast about DIY Drones, check it out and hear the most about the developing industry of unmanned personal drones!
Rants
Chris loves the Webench tool from National Semiconductor...he just wishes there was a "prototype option".
Dave was right, and not a bit afraid to tell everyone. Open Source Hardware (not just "Open Hardware") is the correct terminology...it's on the license!
Why can't Amazon pay people globally? It's preventing Dave from retiring sooner! And if you live in Colorado, North Carolina or Rhode Island you are screwed.
Discussion Points
What do you say? .001uF or 1nF? Not getting into another 555 timer debate, but still it's interesting.
How much time should be put into simulating in SPICE?
Apparently Oman needs electrical engineers that can speak Mandarin. Guess China is doing some work there?
Free energy schemes are only free to those that run them, don't get fooled (no link, they don't deserve the press).
Lots of component talk around Dave's video about designing for manufacturability.
Jeff from Mighty Ohm found that if you call the IEEE, they'll stop sending worthless insurance offers and junk mail.
There's a new movie about an electrical engineer to be done by the guy that directed "The Blind Side".
The story of how Nathan Seidle got started with Spark Fun. A great read and similar to the Apple guys and how they bootstrapped their first products.
...more
1h 2min
November 09, 2010LED Designs, Last Minute Designs and Board Designs
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!
[display_podcast]
Shoutouts
Troy Rank has a new show about e-bikes. Looking forward to hearing about the electronics in them!
The 555 timer is 40 years old! Talk about a solid design. Potential replacements can't touch all the sales the original still gets.
Google asks about the DEADBEEF register in interviews. Chris is glad they focus a little on memory knowledge (not just the abstract CS type stuff). Dave had no idea what DEADBEEF was, and likes CAFEBABE much better!
Discussion Points
Dave and Chris are both working on LED projects. Dave's is an RGB module for a tradeshow and looks great!
Dave pointed out an useful app note from Agilent/Avago.
about driving LED matrix displays.
The talk about hardware design from Amanda Wozniak (W0z) was called "crass" by some, but Dave and Chris love the tech content...so who cares?
New design contest from Hackaday, Adafruit and MAKE: Buy, Break, Build (using a Dancing Santa for parts)
Rants
Why are software development packages so HUGE? (No link, just feel free to go to any chip maker and download their development package).
Updates
Karl von Moller is continuing work on his documentary about the Australian electronics industry and it will now be in a 3 part series! We're looking forward to it.
Anything we missed? Are you a manager that wants to let us know (anonymously or otherwise) about the fact that your a manager AND you listen to the Amp Hour? Let us hear you in the comments!
...more
1h 3min

FAQs about The Amp Hour:

How many episodes does The Amp Hour have?

The podcast currently has 745 episodes available.

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