The Amp Hour Electronics Podcast

Sammy Cheung, CEO of Efinix, joins Chris to talk about FPGAs. They discuss designing reconfigurable devices into products that do not traditionally have FPGAs, but will benefit from enhanced capabilities like Computer Vision.

This week Dave and Chris talk about putting firmware onto devices (or not), computer history, Silicon Valley, cabling and extraterrestrial flight.

Joel Dunsmore is a Keysight Fellow, an engineer who worked on the HP 8753, and the author of The Microwave Component Measurement handbook. He joins Chris to explain VNAs, the increasing need for multi-port systems, and how to work in an increasingly complex RF world.

This week Chris and Dave discuss various product recalls and the terror that recalls instill into engineers. Also mars rovers, shuttered retail, high accuracy voltmeters, power outages, and more!

Natasha Baker, Founder and CEO of SnapEDA, joins Chris to talk about footprints, symbols and other engineering content that helps designers create useful, correct circuit boards. They discuss the chip industry and how the information around it is changing.

This week Chris and Dave discuss chip shortages, electronics consulting, Raspberry Pi silicon, PCB renders, new coding languages and much more!

James Adams, Liam Fraser and Luke Wren of Raspberry Pi Trading join Chris to talk about new hardware from Raspberry Pi, including the RP2040 chip, the Pico board, the CM4 module and more!

This week Chris and Dave discuss a wide range of new equipment, including soldering irons, USB scopes, active loads, and retrofitted DMMs. Also discussion around new boards and chips from Raspberry Pi and Seeed.

Matt Liberty, creator of the Joulescope, joins Chris to talk about measuring current in low power devices, including IoT devices that have high current RF pulses. Matt explains how to optimize low power designs and how he created the Joulescope.

Jonathan Beri of Golioth joins Chris to talk about the difficulty of standing up an end-to-end IoT solution, including working with web providers, dealing with firmware updates, interfacing with different business organizations and more.

Brian Faith, CEO of QuickLogic, joins Chris to talk about implementing the Symbiflow open source toolchain for QuickLogic FPGAs and how they are using that tool chain alongside the SensiML platform to create flexible, low power devices for machine learning applications.

Mike Harrison of Mike's Electric Stuff join Chris and Dave to talk about new development projects, working with old parts and tinkering under the hood of an EV.

Jeff Keyzer of Mightyohm.com joins Chris and Dave for our annual Keyzermas episode! Jeff updates us on what he's been working on, answers some questions about RF and discusses the state of the electronics world, as he sees it.

Fredrik Kensander of KraftPowercon joins Chris to talk about creating very high current output power supplies used for things like plating copper onto circuit boards (and many other industrial applications). They discuss firmware, processors, power output stages, system architecture and more!

Daryl Tewksbury joins Dave to talk about his work on laser projects at Laservision and how he has continued building hardware and software.

This week Chris and Dave dive into RF...and promptly turn around and walk away from the topic. Also firmware, training repetitions, PCB stackups, satellites, Linux modules and much more!

Michael Gielda of AntMicro joins Chris to talk about simulating embedded hardware, from the microcontroller core all the way out to multiple units communicating on a mesh network (and beyond). Their open source tool (Renode) enables better firmware testing and more reliable systems.

Joris Aerts joins Chris to talk about building electronics for (cube) satellites, the electronics inside the Model S door handle and a new testing platform he is creating.

Brandon Gilles and Brian Weinstein of Luxonis (makers of the DepthAI) join Chris to talk about how embedded computing will change in the next 5 years due to depth perception and AI image classification. The DepthAI board uses the Intel Movidius Myriad X chip, which enables many of these advances.

This week Chris and Dave discuss thermal design, bluetooth bootloading, power lines, refactoring labs, and automated layout tools.

Jay Carlson joins Chris to talk about his recently released opus on building embedded Linux for microprocessors and the process of building 10 different boards to showcase the required steps.

Dave and Chris discuss the benefits of focusing on a platform for finding work and whether that should tilt the discussion of generalist vs specialist. Also software explanations, downsizing, power stations, remote work, new dev boards and more!

Shannon Parks of Parks Audio joins Chris to talk about processing phono (record player) audio input using DSP and selling a digital device into a consumer market that goes crazy over analog.

Dave and Chris talk about troubleshooting electronics from afar, solar charging, car charging, bus charging and the charge of educational institutions around the world.

Eli Hughes of TZero joins Chris to talk about creating a business around a connected brewery monitoring system and the technologies that go inside of it. Also working with processors, switching from FreeRTOS to Zephyr and working as a "Pro Support" engineer.

Chris and Dave discuss EV charging, old wiring in houses, working with an RTOS, newly announced open source devices and more!

Jared Wolff joins Chris to talk about creating a cellular IoT board and all of the pitfalls along the way. He also describes recovering from tech burnout, using the Zephyr RTOS, taking a board to production, and much more!

This week Chris returns from holiday to chat with Dave about board assembly, telepresence, audio gear, pick and place machines, optics tables, and much more!

Louis joins Dave once again to talk about updates to The Right To Repair, his take on NYC real estate, and how repairing Apple products has changed over the years.

This week Chris and Dave record earlier than normal for a special occasion. Also they discuss battery charging, solderpaste application, firmware tutoring, SBIR grants, out of print textbooks, and much more!

Kyle Dumont of Allspice.io joins Chris to talk about revision control for hardware projects. Allspice takes Altium projects and makes it easier to see changes and do design reviews for new designs. They also discuss the nature of revision control and what makes it difficult in hardware situations.

This week Chris and Dave discuss a new podcast by Chris (The Contextual Electronics Podcast), gerber issues, DfM tools, ARM being up for sale again, book recommendations and the future of technology training materials.

Mohamed Kassem, CTO of eFabless, joins Chris to talk about using the OpenLANE tool flow to build custom silicon for the newly announced open source PDK from Google and Skywater. He also describes how and why someone might want their own ASIC and the dropping costs of creating one.

This week Dave and Chris discuss detailed teardowns of EVs, choosing PCB fabrication based on minimum tolerances, PCB stackup, large chip companies merging, and the untimely passing of an engineering icon.

Tim 'Mithro' Ansell of Google talks to Chris about the recently announced open source PDK released by Skywater (a silicon fab) and Google. Also discussions around the implications of open source silicon and how listeners can get their ASIC designs fabbed for free.

This 500th episode....contained many of the same things we were talking about in our first few episodes! We review part shortages, OSHW licensing, chip printers, RF simulation, past guests, capacitors, FETs, learning, and much more! Also, we have a giveaway this week.

Ming Zhang, co-founder and CEO of zGlue, joins Chris to talk about connecting chiplets together to create bespoke integrated circuits, which are much smaller and more power efficient than if placed in original packaging.

Andrea Morello, Scientia Professor of Quantum Engineering at the University of New South Wales (Australia), joins Dave to talk about the state of the art of quantum computing.

Brock LaMeres, a professor at Montana State University, joins Chris to talk about distance learning, embedded systems, designing redundant processors for space missions, engineering education, and lots more!

This week Dave and Chris discuss determination, connectors, signal analyzers, insecure components, new designs, and the future of universities.

Eric Klein of Lemnos Labs--a hardware focused venture capital firm based in San Francisco--joins Chris to talk about the future of hardware investing and exciting new opportunities for hardware startups.

This week on the show, Dave and Chris discuss troubleshooting and the sense of relief when you find the true problem. Also the importance of PCB stackups, working on high cost projects, working with small teams, vintage technology, and much more!

This week Dave and Chris discuss eWaste, small pitch soldering, microscopes, low cost components, programming micros, cellular modems and much more!

A second episode devoted to electronics design consulting. It features consultants Alex Klimaj, Jeremiah Gillis, Kieran O'Leary and (host) Chris Gammell.

This week Dave and Chris discuss funding hardware companies, connectors, how to teach electronics by talking about current, LED characteristics, modularity, arcade games and a lot more!

Ben Heckendorn AKA Ben Heck joins Dave to talk about gaming, building pinball machines, speaking at Maker Faire and building things every week for many years for The Ben Heck Show YouTube channel.

Jack Ganssle returns to The Amp Hour 8.5 years later to follow up on how microcontrollers and embedded programming has changed and to talk about some of his favorite tools for building great firmware.

This week Dave and Chris discuss (from lockdown), repairing devices, part storage at home, our new Discord for patrons, virtual meetups, capacitor requirements and much more!

This week Kerry Scharfglass (@borgel) joins Chris to talk about designing consumer electronics and how things change as you move towards smaller companies. Also #Badgelife, war games with hardware, KiCad, creating solar infrastructure and more!

Dave and Chris discuss working within the confines of the home, how batteries change over time, changing to lead free reflow processes, the variety of power supply topologies and much more!