The Contextual Electronics Podcast

The Contextual Electronics Podcast

By Chris GammellTechnology
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The Contextual Electronics Podcast episodes

  • CEP015 - Finishing Prototypes with Zack Freedman

    This is a crossover episode with The Amp Hour podcast (also made by Chris)

    Welcome, Zack Freedman of Voidstar Lab

    Zack Freedman is a prototyping engineer turned YouTuber who makes bombastic videos about 3D printed creations and getting projects across the finish line. He joins Chris to talk about his past hardware designs and what he will be building next.

    Show Notes
    • 0:00 Introduction
    • 2:05 What Zack is building (a computer)
    • 2:40 A water cooled oscilloscope
    • 3:40 How Zack got started
    • 4:40 Hackaday article
    • 5:20 Bluetooth heads up display
    • 5:40 Hoboken Hackerspace
    • 7:15 NYC electronics scene
    • 8:30 Working with artists
    • 10:00 Working on the set of Mr Robot
    • 11:05 Doing a first run prototype for a startup
    • 13:10 Building skills in high pressure environments and on consulting jobs
    • 17:45 Working on deadlines
    • 19:10 How many projects are in a single video?
    • 20:45 Building subassemblies
    • 21:30 Building projects "backwards" (outside in)
    • 23:00 Not thinking your idea is the last good idea you'll ever have
    • 24:15 The prototyping mindset
    • 27:00 Ranking risk in a project
    • 29:15 Usability in wearable projects
    • 31:30 "The role of most prototypes is to try to kill the idea"
    • 33:30 What makes people want to buy a prototype?
    • 35:45 Minimizing features in any one prototype / test
    • 36:30 Consumer products should be shown to thousands before going to market
    • 38:00 YouTubers' battle for attention (check out Voidstar Lab to see all of Zack's videos)
    • 41:00 YouTube theories
    • 44:45 Zack's persona
    • 47:00 Filming b-roll to keep things interesting
    • 51:00 YouTube comment positivity
    • 52:25 Maker Twitter
    • 54:00 Full time YouTube
    • 54:20 Changes in the hardware space since 2012
    • 56:40 Prototyping tools
    • 58:30 "The Maker Movement"
    • 59:25 Working for industrial clients
    • 1:01:40 Focusing on the technology vs the purpose of the technology
    • 1:03:30 Building a project because you want the thing (output)
    • 1:05:30 Technology being used to move the world forward
    • 1:07:15 What will Zack build in the future?
    • 1:09:40 The Cyberdeck
    • 1:12:15 Cyberdeck cafe Discord
    • 1:13:10 Building on a stream vs on a video (streams happen on Zack's Patreon every Monday and Friday)
    • 1:14:40 Previously wanting to go into game design
    • 1:16:30 Providing a representation of what people think the process is
    • 1:17:20 People think IronMan is reality
    • 1:18:20 Bringing people into the field
    • 1:20:25 "Finish more projects"
    • 1:23:30 Going beyond the getting started projects
    • 1:26:20 People genuinely interested in a topic will skip beginner classes
    • 1:27:35 Engineering is intrinsically solitary
    • 1:29:30 Trying to figure out gender discrepancies in making
    • 1:31:05 "What's it like to put yourself out there?"
    • 1:32:30 Putting yourself out there will help you find more positive feedback
    • 1:35:05 Building community
    • 1:37:00 Finding Zack's work and joining his community
      • Patreon
      • YouTube
      • Discord
      • Twitter
      • Instagram
      • 1:38:40 Conclusion

        • Thank you for supporting The Contextual Electronics Podcast! Here's how you can follow and help us grow:
        • Please follow us on social media:
          • @ContextualElec on Twitter
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            • Spotify
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              • 1 hr 40 min
            • CEP014 - Moving to KiCad V6 with Jon Evans
              Welcome, Jon Evans of the KiCad project!

              Jon Evans is a longtime developer on the KiCad project and practicing EE at Formlabs. He joins Chris to talk about the future of KiCad, including features that are coming in V6.

              Show Notes
              • 0:00 Introduction
              • 2:15 Making changes to the platform
              • 4:00 History of the codebase - Chat with the KiCad team about V6 and beyond
              • 5:05 Jon's work background - Jon works for Formlabs
              • 8:20 What is coming in KiCad v6?
              • 10:45 Working with legacy code in KiCad
              • 13:30 Looking at an example project
              • 14:50 Schematic editor
              • 18:50 Changes to the schematic UI
              • 21:00 Layout tool
              • 22:45 Changes to the layout UI
              • 24:10 The split of beginner vs advanced users
              • 25:55 The benefits of an open source tool
              • 26:25 Comparison to tools that are cloud based
              • 27:45 The KiCad ecosystem
              • 30:45 KiCad Professional Services
              • 32:00 KiCon 2021
              • 33:10 What is DRC? How is it changing?
              • 37:40 The challenges of live DRC
              • 40:15 Example of DRC
              • 46:05 New python API
              • 48:30 Example project for using python scripting with KiCad
              • 50:00 How the KiCad project works with feature requests
              • 52:15 Working with the console inside KiCad
              • 53:55 What else is Jon excited about in V6?
              • 56:20 KiCad as a professional tool?
              • 1:00:05 Following Jon online
              • 1:02:10 Conclusion

                • Other links:

                • Follow Jon on Twitter
                • KiCad User Forum
                • KiCad Discord
                • KiCad Twitter
                  • Thank you for supporting The Contextual Electronics Podcast! Here's how you can follow and help us grow:
                  • Please follow us on social media:
                    • @ContextualElec on Twitter
                    • Contextual Electronics on Facebook
                    • Contextual Electronics on LinkedIn
                    • @Chris_Gammell on Twitter
                    • Please consider leaving us a review
                      • iTunes page for subscribing and reviewing
                        • 1 hr 4 min
                      • CEP013 - Open Source Robotics with Kat Scott
                        Welcome, Kat Scott of Open Robotics!

                        Kat is a developer advocate at Open Robotics, the company behind software like the open source Robot Operating System (ROS). Kat joins Chris to talk about how to create high complexity robotic creations and also how to create the lower level electronics that integrate into larger ROS systems. Kat is a member of OSHWA, which defines and certifies Open Source Hardware.

                        Show Notes
                        • DOT CARMA
                        • NASA VIPER
                        • DARPA Tutorials
                        • Autoware Lecture Series
                        • F1 Tenth
                        • Indy Autonomous Challenge
                        • Virtual Robot X - Maritime Robotics
                        • Njord Robotics
                        • Tahoe Robot
                        • ROS Industrial
                        • ROS for Arms
                        • ROS Nav Stack
                        • Ignition Gazebo Simulation
                        • GazeboSim.org
                        • GazeboSim community
                        • MicroROS
                        • Autoware.ai
                        • The Ministry of Silly Walks
                        • OSHWA
                        • The 2021 Open Source Hardware Summit (now passed, due to delay in releasing this episode)
                        • TurtleBot
                        • The Open Robotics twitter account
                        • Kat Scott's Twitter account

                          • Thank you for supporting The Contextual Electronics Podcast! Here's how you can follow and help us grow:
                          • Please follow us on social media:
                            • @ContextualElec on Twitter
                            • Contextual Electronics on Facebook
                            • Contextual Electronics on LinkedIn
                            • @Chris_Gammell on Twitter
                            • Please consider leaving us a review
                              • iTunes page for subscribing and reviewing
                                • 1 hr 6 min
                              • CEP012 - Mixed Media with Becky Stern
                                Welcome, Becky Stern!

                                Becky is an artist and content producer who works electronics into projects using a wide variety of media and construction techniques. Becky also teaches a class on electronics at SVA in NYC. She is a product manager at Instructables.

                                Show Notes
                                • Her most recent project: Zodiac Embroidery
                                • Slack status updater
                                • Collaboration with Esetfanie and Naomi
                                • 13 ideas for LED diffusion
                                • Raspberry Pi peephole camera
                                • Becky's recording setup
                                • Instagram
                                • Knitting
                                • How a sewing machine (bobbin) works
                                • Tools page
                                • Becky's favoite knife
                                • All of the electronics posts on BeckyStern.com
                                • Becky Stern YouTube

                                  • Time tags:

                                  • 0:00 Introduction
                                  • 1:47 Becky Stern bio
                                  • 3:34 Building out ideas
                                  • 4:57 Learning new things
                                  • 6:36 Collaborations
                                  • 8:46 LEDs and light in projects
                                  • 13:20 #SampleCode
                                  • 14:30 What is a neopixel (WS2812)
                                  • 16:15 Teaching students
                                  • 19:55 Getting started programming
                                  • 21:20 Higher level programming projects
                                  • 24:20 Troubleshooting remotely
                                  • 27:00 Best practices for documentation
                                  • 29:20 Camera tips
                                  • 33:10 Creating documentation from photos
                                  • 36:30 Getting started crafting
                                  • 40:05 "Getting to blinky" for crafts
                                  • 42:15 Finishing projects
                                  • 45:40 Setting a schedule for projects
                                  • 48:30 Making things easy for your future self
                                  • 49:30 Tools
                                  • 53:25 Small workspaces
                                  • 54:00 Future projects
                                  • 58:40 Where to find Becky's work
                                  • 59:20 Wrap up
                                    • Thank you for supporting The Contextual Electronics Podcast! Here's how you can follow and help us grow:
                                    • Please follow us on social media:
                                      • @ContextualElec on Twitter
                                      • Contextual Electronics on Facebook
                                      • Contextual Electronics on LinkedIn
                                      • @Chris_Gammell on Twitter
                                      • Please consider leaving us a review
                                        • iTunes page for subscribing and reviewing
                                          • 1 hr 1 min
                                        • CEP011 - Environmental Monitoring with Conservify
                                          Welcome, Conservify!
                                          Our guests today
                                          • Shah Selbe
                                          • Jacob Lewallen
                                          • Bradley Gawthrop
                                            • Show Notes
                                            • Conservify is creating the FieldKit, a new modular system for environmental monitoring for research scientists and citizen scientists.
                                            • FieldKit goes arboreal
                                            • Testing for wild hardware
                                            • Open source! Check out the hardware and firmware on Github
                                            • The hardware
                                              • FieldKit weather
                                              • Fieldkit enclosure
                                              • Upper / Lower / Modules
                                              • Solar and batteries
                                              • Winning The Hackaday Prize

                                                • Time tags:

                                                • 0:00 Introduction
                                                • 1:11 Conservify team introduction
                                                • 6:20 Deploying electronics into harsh environments
                                                • 10:35 Using off the shelf components
                                                • 12:29 Monitoring water levels in the Amazon river basin
                                                • 14:20 How did scientists measure things in the past?
                                                • 20:23 Correlating data in the past
                                                • 22:49 Open source in field science
                                                • 23:22 FieldKit Hardware
                                                • 28:11 Accomodating different hardware needs
                                                • 31:30 Hardware details
                                                • 34:20 Power requirements for the field
                                                • 36:48 Unexpected customer requests
                                                • 38:40 Community contributed hardware / firmware
                                                • 44:50 Data visualization
                                                • 48:10 FieldKit.org demo
                                                • 52:35 Publishing without hardware
                                                • 55:28 Who is using FieldKit?
                                                • 57:25 Pilot program with NYC
                                                • 58:30 Upcoming air quality kit
                                                • 1:03:10 Giveaway of FieldKit stations
                                                • 1:05:22 Focus on affordability
                                                • 1:06:14 Deploying more non-profit FieldKits
                                                • 1:07:32 Where to find more info
                                                • 1:08:35 Hackaday Prize
                                                • 1:09:32 Summary and wrap-up
                                                  • Thank you for supporting The Contextual Electronics Podcast! Here's how you can follow and help us grow:
                                                  • Please follow us on social media:
                                                    • @ContextualElec on Twitter
                                                    • Contextual Electronics on Facebook
                                                    • Contextual Electronics on LinkedIn
                                                    • @Chris_Gammell on Twitter
                                                    • Please consider leaving us a review
                                                      • iTunes page for subscribing and reviewing
                                                        • 1 hr 12 min
                                                      • CEP010 - Low Volume and Low Cost with Timon Skerutsch
                                                        Welcome, Timon Skerutsch (@timonsku)!
                                                        Show notes
                                                        • Timon and Chris know each other from Twitter and from past Hackaday events (Timon won one of the Hackaday Prize awards for his Linux Tablet)
                                                        • Timon has been doing experiments with the recently released Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 (CM4)
                                                        • This includes creating a carrier board using an Othermill circuit board router
                                                        • This also led to the creation of the Piunora, a Rasberry Pi in the shape of an Arduino Uno.
                                                        • Interested in getting a Piunora? Sign up here for the mailing list (general) and sign up here for the Crowdfunding campaign
                                                        • His dayjob is working on a technical exhibitions, such as museum exhibits and trade fairs.
                                                        • He is the only person there, so there are limited mentorship opportunities
                                                        • He is mostly self taught
                                                        • The low volume nature of technical exhibitions means Timon has had to reduce costs without volume
                                                        • Bunnie Huang's book
                                                          • Chris thought it was the Shenzhen Guide (it was not what Timon meant)
                                                          • The Hardware Hacker: Adventures in making and breaking hardware
                                                          • When finding a manufacturer, it's important to build relationships
                                                          • Reducing cost means that you might need to move outside "western" manufacturers
                                                          • It's easier to find alternative suppliers using sites like LCSC or Alibaba
                                                          • Import costs can be high if manufacturing in China
                                                          • The rough ABC Bill of Materials (BOM) discussed during this episode
                                                          • The ABC Rev A Schematic is available on the course site now
                                                          • "It's often about finding the right keyword for the components you're searching for"
                                                          • Selling a "pro" and a "lite" version can offer the board at a lower price for people that don't care about every feature.
                                                          • Check out Timon's youtube
                                                          • Timon helps out with and participates on the Maker Cast, a monthly show that highlights different people on YouTube who make things and discuss them.
                                                            • Thank you for supporting The Contextual Electronics Podcast! Here's how you can follow and help us grow:
                                                            • Please follow us on social media:
                                                              • @ContextualElec on Twitter
                                                              • Contextual Electronics on Facebook
                                                              • Contextual Electronics on LinkedIn
                                                              • @Chris_Gammell on Twitter
                                                              • Please consider leaving us a review
                                                                • iTunes page for subscribing and reviewing
                                                                  • 1 hr 12 min
                                                                • CEP009 - Meta Learning Electronics with Mike Cheich and Phil FitzGerald
                                                                  • About the guests/host
                                                                    • Mike Cheich runs Programming Electronics academy. He has also been on Chris's other podcast in the past.
                                                                    • Phil FitzGerald is an educational coach via The Compelling Message
                                                                    • Chris teaches at Contextual Electronics
                                                                    • Discussion topics
                                                                      • Teaching how to make a sandwich
                                                                      • Is the knowledge in reach and is it relevant?
                                                                      • Most people that are in Programming Electronics are hardware hobbyists who want to get into programming, usually through Arduino
                                                                      • It can be intimidating learning electronics because of the breadth of knowledge required
                                                                      • Phil-ism: Accreditation, certification, celebration.
                                                                      • Self evaluation matters at the beginning of education
                                                                      • SME = Subject Matter Expert
                                                                      • Analogy of creating a map within a city (mapping out London)
                                                                      • Selling people on the end point of a learning journey
                                                                      • Learners normally don't care as much about the specifics of the journey
                                                                      • After the fact, learners will rose c0lor the specifics of how they got to the point they're at
                                                                      • DITLO = Day in the life of
                                                                      • Chris struggles with how traditional education was teaching electronics
                                                                      • Mike likes finding the guiding principle within the electronics universe
                                                                      • Two tracks - thinking (theory) and doing (practice)
                                                                      • Designing your own 5 year map of curriculum
                                                                      • Phil-ism: You can't show it if you don't know it
                                                                      • Extending your knowledge of how maps work by being able to create a map in a new city
                                                                      • Creating lists of things to do, or not to do
                                                                      • Mike is learning how to 3D printing, which was a new learning journey
                                                                      • Facing failure and understanding what you should do when that happens
                                                                      • Drawing your map so you understand what you do and don't know
                                                                      • Keeping notes is so you reinforce your own knowledge. In Phil's example, this might take the form of a map. Phil explains in more detail in the video below:
                                                                        • *
                                                                      • The Dunning Kruger Effect
                                                                      • Make It Stick by Peter Brown
                                                                      • Growth Mindset vs Fixed Mindset
                                                                      • Removing barriers to learning when a learner experiences a problem (QR Code example)
                                                                      • Sleeping on a problem (or stepping away from a problem)
                                                                      • Accreditation is someone verifying you know what you claim to know
                                                                      • "What comes before that" is an important question when mapping out the steps required to learn something
                                                                      • Maps start as post-it notes
                                                                      • Creating analogies
                                                                      • Breaking down individual elements of the learning process and relating it back to that analogy
                                                                      • How do you quantify "show it to know it"?
                                                                      • Chris is a proponent of "Build Logs" (which is also a section on the CE Forum)
                                                                      • What do you notice in the thing you want to build?
                                                                      • Thinking about the steps that indicate you're about to get to the next step? (ie. Which stop comes before the stop you're going to get off at on the train)
                                                                      • Dewey Decimal System
                                                                      • Sometimes courses try to constrain the possible paths of research, as that can get overwhelming
                                                                      • The downside to learning in the modern day is how many sources of distraction there are (ie. phones)
                                                                      • Guided path examples
                                                                      • Implementation Patterns by Kent Beck
                                                                      • Learning something well enough to teach is holding yourself to a higher standard
                                                                      • Check out Phil's site The Compelling Message and check out his book!
                                                                      • Mike teaches electronics on Programming Electronics Academy
                                                                        • Thank you for supporting The Contextual Electronics Podcast! Here's how you can follow and help us grow:
                                                                        • Please follow us on social media:
                                                                          • @ContextualElec on Twitter
                                                                          • Contextual Electronics on Facebook
                                                                          • Contextual Electronics on LinkedIn
                                                                          • @Chris_Gammell on Twitter
                                                                          • Please consider leaving us a review
                                                                            • iTunes page for subscribing and reviewing
                                                                              • 1 hr 42 min
                                                                            • CEP008 - Building Rockets with Joe Barnard (Interview)
                                                                              • Joe Barnard is a rocketeer who runs BPS.space
                                                                              • Joe is helping to bring Thrust Vector Control to the field of model rocketry
                                                                              • He got started wanting to work for SpaceX, but has expanded the scope of things he's interested in doing long term
                                                                              • The signal board is available for sale
                                                                              • Check out the evolution of control electronics that have gone on his rockets
                                                                              • The AVA Flight computer, recently released
                                                                              • Watch the "Launches" Playlist on the BPS.space YouTube channel (various were watched during the recording)
                                                                              • Watch the "Landings" playlist on the BPS.space YouTube channel (various were watched during the recording)...these were using the Thrust Vector Control
                                                                              • PID Control loops
                                                                              • Joe uses Simulink to test out different control characteristics
                                                                              • Kalman filters
                                                                              • Reaction wheel
                                                                              • Support Joe and BPS.space on Patreon!
                                                                                • Thank you for supporting The Contextual Electronics Podcast! Here's how you can follow and help us grow:
                                                                                • Please follow us on social media:
                                                                                  • @ContextualElec on Twitter
                                                                                  • Contextual Electronics on Facebook
                                                                                  • Contextual Electronics on LinkedIn
                                                                                  • @Chris_Gammell on Twitter
                                                                                  • Please consider leaving us a review
                                                                                    • iTunes page for subscribing and reviewing
                                                                                      • 1 hr 14 min
                                                                                    • CEP007 - Combining Art and Technology with Sarah Petkus
                                                                                      • Sarah's personal site (shown throughout the video)
                                                                                      • She Bon is a project exploring human sexuality and helping people discuss it in a more healthy way. It has multiple smaller projects we discussed
                                                                                        • HotSpot
                                                                                        • PulsePack
                                                                                        • Sarah shows the hardware to different groups. The hackers at DEFCON are different than the artists at Ars Electronica
                                                                                        • Sarah entered the project into the Hackaday Prize and also gave a talk at the Hackaday Superconference about it.
                                                                                        • Comparing artists and jackets, the former usually want to show completely finished work, instead of something that might be in progress. This means artist sometimes outsource the technical work. Sarah likes doing both.
                                                                                        • "You learn the most when you do it all, when you have the control"
                                                                                        • Howdo we get more art people to be technical? How do we get more crossover?
                                                                                        • "I made this!"
                                                                                        • Noodlefeet is Sarah's robotic offspring. she has been creating an upgrading him for over 5 years.
                                                                                        • The Noodlefeet playlist on Sarah's Youtube channel
                                                                                        • Rebuilding Noodle to make him more sturdy, especially while walking.
                                                                                        • Ship of Theseus
                                                                                        • The Noodle brain uses a Jetson Nano for classifying images. See the 'mother of machine' site for more info.
                                                                                        • End Effectors
                                                                                        • "The tasting channel"
                                                                                        • Sarah got started in 3D using SketchUp, as did Chris. She learned parametric modeling via Fusion360 went on a deadline.
                                                                                        • Sarah and Mark met at SynShop
                                                                                        • Follow Sarah on YouTube
                                                                                        • Sarah shares her regular sketches and thoughts on Twitter
                                                                                        • Sarah also has a patreon
                                                                                          • Thank you for supporting The Contextual Electronics Podcast! Here's how you can follow and help us grow:
                                                                                          • Please follow us on social media:
                                                                                            • @ContextualElec on Twitter
                                                                                            • Contextual Electronics on Facebook
                                                                                            • Contextual Electronics on LinkedIn
                                                                                            • @Chris_Gammell on Twitter
                                                                                            • Please consider leaving us a review
                                                                                              • iTunes page for subscribing and reviewing
                                                                                                • 1 hr 13 min
                                                                                              • CEP006 - Cellular Design Review with Roy Chen

                                                                                                Today we’re talking with Roy Chen from Quectel. He is a field applications engineer and has been helping people design cellular modules into their designs.

                                                                                                • This is the PDF design review document that Quectel created
                                                                                                • This is the powerpoint based PDF document that Quectel created
                                                                                                • BG95
                                                                                                • EG91
                                                                                                • Quectel
                                                                                                • The ABC course for Contextual Electronics

                                                                                                  • Contextual Electronics now has a free week signup for anyone who is interested in trying out the program! See the various options here.

                                                                                                  Thank you for supporting The Contextual Electronics Podcast! Here's how you can follow and help us grow:
                                                                                                  • Please follow us on social media:
                                                                                                    • @ContextualElec on Twitter
                                                                                                    • Contextual Electronics on Facebook
                                                                                                    • Contextual Electronics on LinkedIn
                                                                                                    • @Chris_Gammell on Twitter
                                                                                                    • Please consider leaving us a review
                                                                                                      • iTunes page for subscribing and reviewing
                                                                                                        • 1 hr 4 min

                                                                                                      About The Contextual Electronics Podcast

                                                                                                      From the publisher's feed

                                                                                                      Contextual Electronics features guests who pair electronics theory and practice every day. Hosted by Chris Gammell.