The Amp Hour Electronics Podcast
A weekly podcast about the electronics industry. Occasional guests. Lots of laughs.
Episodes
#666 – Good Energy Citizen
This week Chris and Dave discuss EV charging, chip fabs, manufacturing, large airliners, power storage, and more!
08/05/24•1h 6m
#665 – Really long needle nose pliers
Dave and Chris talk trade shows, demos, light up hardware, bluetooth, obsolete processors, sustaining engineering, and more
25/04/24•1h 9m
#664 – Simulating doors falling off
This week Dave and Chris talk about upcoming demos, bluetooth, car troubles, new silicon, parts in the lab, and more!
04/04/24•1h 3m
#663 – Motors on PCBs with Carl Bugeja
Carl Bugeja joins Chris to talk about building PCB motors and actuators, starting a new business, documenting build processes on YouTube, manufacturing flexible circuits, and much more!
26/03/24•56m 42s
#662 – The non-Stinky Car
Dave and Chris discuss EVs, adapting power tool batteries for projects on the bench, robots, software updates, and more!
20/03/24•1h 6m
#661 – Blogging Electronics with Pallav Aggarwal
Pallav Aggarwal of CAPUF Embedded joins Chris to talk about blogging about learning electronics and helping others learn along the way! Pallav does teardowns, chip walkthroughs (like on the CH32V003), Linux projects, custom hardware, and more!
11/03/24•1h 3m
#660 – My Toothbrush Is Broadcasting
Chris and Dave discuss SPICE in CAD programs, new software releases, startup paperwork, crazy smarthome stuff, and toothbrushes that give away your data.
05/03/24•1h 6m
#659 – Altium…Acquired!
Dave and Chris talk through Renesas acquiring Altium and all its implications. Also Dave gives a history of Altium and they discuss how the industry might change (or not).
20/02/24•1h 13m
#658 – Uncle Al’s Eating Garbage Again
This week Chris and Dave discuss relativistic time differences, building with RISC V components, RF modules, silly consumer hardware, underwater electronics, and more!
13/02/24•1h 7m
#657 – Automating the Home with Keith Burzinski
Keith Burzinski of Nabu Casa works on ESPhome and making it easier to attach custom hardware to the open source home assistant project. He joins Chris to talk about the realities of offline smart home setups and how you can get started building custom things.
05/02/24•1h 23m
#656 – Pneumatic Tubes, Straight To The Home
Dave returns after a few weeks on holiday to chat with Chris about robots, maker companies merging, hyped up tech at CES (and beyond), trains, power grids...and more!
22/01/24•1h 14m
#655 – The Twelfth Day of Keyzermas
Jeff Keyzer of Mightyohm.com joins Chris for a later-than-usual holiday episode, recording on what will be known as The Twelfth Day of Keyzermas
09/01/24•1h 20m
#654 – Pseudo Code…Pseudo Good
Dave and Chris discuss moon landings, oscilloscopes, design decisions for limited peripherals on microcontrollers, coding, smart home programs, and more!
19/12/23•1h 6m
#653 – Benjamin Cabé Nose Zephyr
Benjamin Cabé, developer advocate for the Zephyr Project, joins Chris to talk about the popular Ecosystem and Real Time Operating System (RTOS). Listen if you'd like to get started with an exciting firmware product that can really enhance your next project.
11/12/23•1h 6m
#652 – For a couple weeks there…
Chris and Dave return after a few guests shows and missed weeks when Chris was out with a new baby in the household. This week we talked about China, chip supply, RISC V, PCB tradeshows, LED factories, and more!
28/11/23•1h 7m
#651 – Learning Computing with Jeff Geerling
Jeff Geerling of the Jeff Geerling YouTube channel joins Chris to talk about how to explore the wide variety of computing devices, from an ESP32 monitor on your garage, all the way up to a multi-rack server.
21/11/23•1h 3m
#650 – Accessible ASICs with Andreas Olofsson
Andreas Olofsson is the CEO of ZeroASIC, a company that will build you a custom ASIC using chiplets. He returns to The Amp Hour to talk about what has changed in the chip(let) industry in the last 8 years and how they will lower the cost for quasi custom designs for the masses.
13/11/23•1h 3m
#649 – History of the Cathode Ray Tube with Kathy Joseph
Kathy Joseph from Kathy Loves Physics joins Dave on The Amp Hour to discuss history and physics and we end up discussing the intricate history of the development of the Cathode Ray Tube.
05/11/23•1h 18m
#648 – The RP1 and beyond with the Raspberry Pi Hardware team
James Adams and Liam Fraser of the Raspberry Pi hardware team once again join Chris to talk about the RP1 custom silicon on the Raspberry Pi 5
23/10/23•1h 9m
#647 – Dave hanging with Fran Blanche
Dave hangs out with Fran Blanche for her 4th appearance on the show. Space, Youtubing, tube testing, storage nightmares, and oopsies.
10/10/23•1h 6m
#646 – Fan Fanboys
Chris and Dave discuss selling low volume hardware, old stock of chips, Intel's weird investments, creating oddball PCBs, scopes without fans, and more!
11/09/23•1h 3m
#645 – Moving Down The Stack with Scott Williams
Scott Williams returns to The Amp Hour after 6 months to discuss the technical aspects of consulting, including some of the tools he reaches for when building a new product
05/09/23•1h 22m
#644 – Garbage Ninjas
Dave and Chris discuss fitness trackers and smartwatches, boomboxes, buying off of eBay, design decisions, and contract manufacturing.
28/08/23•1h 2m
#643 – Calibration & Repair with Ian Johnston
Dave and Ian Scott Johnston discuss the PDVS2mini DC Voltage Calibrator Source, production, China, CERN, ebay reselling, test gear, pick and place machines, assembly, automated test systems, and Youtube repair videos.
22/08/23•1h 9m
#642 – Sad Violins for Superconductors
Chris and Dave recount modems, handsets, trains, 2n2222 transistors, RISC V, and a complete lack of knowledge of how superconductors work.
13/08/23•1h 7m
#641 – Power Transmission with Toby Robb
Fellow Aussie Toby Robb joins Dave to discuss everything related to mains power generation and transmission and his role as a linesman.
31/07/23•1h 12m
#640 – Software Defined Power Supplies with Werner Johansson
Werner Johansson of Qoitech has been working on controlling power supplies with software for a long time. He joins Chris to talk about building systems that can quickly respond to the world, including a heavy focus on battery characterization.
25/07/23•1h 11m
#639 – Daaaamn We’re Duuuummmb
Chris and Dave discuss efficiencies of different types of power generation, building with new chips, new test equipment, building with chiplets and feeling very dumb. All that and more!
17/07/23•1h 4m
#638 – Building AR Headsets with Aedan Cullen
Aedan Cullen has built some amazingly compact electronics in order to create Augmented Reality (AR) headsets. He joins Chris to talk about hardware challenges and building the next (small) big thing.
09/07/23•1h 8m
#637 – CH32V003…fun! with CNLohr
CNLohr joins Chris to talk about doing more with small parts like the CH32V003. CN has been working on the publicly available CH32V003fun library, and recently implemented SW only USB!
25/06/23•1h 15m
#636 – Discovering Cursed Connectors
Dave and Chris discuss a teardown of a prosumer recording product, choices around cable connectors, 3G cellular networks, and the end of the EAGLE era
19/06/23•1h 4m
#635 – Low Power Connected Devices with Andrea Longobardi
Andrea Longobardi from AL2tech joins Chris to talk about consulting, projects in the gas monitoring space, finding early clients, moving outside chip companies, and low power connected device design.
05/06/23•1h 16m
#634 – The CAN bus can! with Dr Ken Tindell
Dr Ken Tindell joins Chris to explain the CAN bus, including the history and how CAN is used in modern day cars. Also car hacking, self-driving car questions, standards in the trucking industry, and what automotive computing will look like in the future.
30/05/23•1h 8m
#633 – Engineering Optimization
This week Chris and Dave talk about the regular tasks engineers have in front of them when building a new hardware project: battery, data, features, etc. That plus low cost hardware, hacking devices, figuring out new projects, and more
22/05/23•1h 4m
#632 – Steve Sanghi – Microchip CEO for 31 Years!
Dave talks with Steve Sanghi who was Microchip CEO for 31 years, now Executive Chair.
15/05/23•1h 6m
#631 – A Noisy Rude Bus
Chris and Dave discuss how CAN bus is in fact, a "noisy rude bus". Also working with piezo speakers, strain gauges, manufacturing considerations, and getting your proto off the bench quickly.
08/05/23•1h 5m
#630 – Renewable Energy Policy with Ari Gerstman
Ari Gerstman from the Department of Energy SCEP Office joins Chris to talk through US Renewable Energy Policy. They discuss the impacts of growing electrication in the US and how spending is driving new industries.
02/05/23•1h 20m
#629 – At least my house isn’t haunted
Chris regales Dave with the story of his spooky electrical problems at his house (subject of the puzzler in 628). Also choosing new micros, recently announced micros, and blown up space toys.
24/04/23•1h 3m
#628 – Two Dads Puzzlin Things Out
Dave Young joins Chris in-person to record about learning firmware, weird power issues, and encouraging engineering education.
17/04/23•1h 1m
#627 – Works on my machine
Chris and Dave discuss compiling code in an automated way, as well as recent Aussie tech events, EE retirement, open source equipment, and more!
10/04/23•1h 10m
#626 – Intelligent Routing with Sergiy Nesterenko
Sergiy Nesterenko of Quilter.ai joins Chris to talk about automating board layout using learning algoritms and parallel cloud compute. Check out how the boards come back with unconventional looks, but well tested electrical characteristics.
03/04/23•1h 7m
#625 – Gremlins in the machine
This week Chris and Dave get sucked into talking about AI...but question what happens when it's broadly used. Who will understand the underlying systems? Who will be able to troubleshoot? Chris also brings up his learning plan for new tech.
27/03/23•1h 1m
#624 – Design & Manufacturing Consulting with Scott Williams from Xentronics
Scott Williams from Xentronics in Melbourne joins Dave to discuss setting up and running a design and manufacturing consulting business.
19/03/23•1h 6m
#623 – Artisanal Crystals
Dave and Chris discuss prototypes for trade shows, power supplies, current consumption, shipping logistics and much more.
13/03/23•58m 54s
#622 – Building Firmware and Hardware for Trade Shows with Mike Szczys
Mike Szczys returns for a second time to talk about creating firmware and hardware for trade shows like the upcoming Embedded World conference in Nuremberg Germany.
06/03/23•1h 12m
#621 – The Magic of Calipers
Dave and Chris discuss calipers, IoT devices, Git, eInk, new chip companies, and more!
27/02/23•1h 7m
#620 – Engineering Education with Dr Don Wilcher
Dr Don WIlcher is an engineer and an educator. He joins Chris to talk about working inside industrial facilities, designing electronics for autos, and inspiring the next generation of engineers through teaching.
20/02/23•1h 15m
#619 – Super Tecmo Bug
This week Dave and Chris record during the Superbowl, but ignore sports and talk about finding bugs, creating prototypes, flash based microcontollers, carbon offsets, car wiring harnesses...and more!
13/02/23•1h 10m
#618 – Refrigerators and Robots with Amitabh Shrivastava
Amitabh Shrivastava is a physicist turned engineer and a prolific maker. He joins Chris to talk about projects with portable refrigeration and soft robotics.
06/02/23•1h 11m
#617 – Conference Room Innovation
This week Dave and Chris discuss interesting PCB features, testing RISC V parts, better recording set-ups, layoffs in the tech industry, solar panels, and more!
30/01/23•1h 9m