The Contextual Electronics Podcast

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:

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   Video version of the podcast: <iframe width="600" height="400" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dfAkYMuyhFA" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media

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 <

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</

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 <a h

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 Timo

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 v

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 Video version of the podcast: Audio version of the podcast:

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 <a href="https://ww

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 Video version of the podcast: Audio version of the podcast:

Mike Fikes normally works on software, focusing on Clojure Script and other high level language implementations. Mike joins Chris to talk about bringing similar methodologies to the world of hardware, and how he learned how to work on hardware.

Elen from Fully Automated Technologies joins Chris to talk about building high current battery controllers. She also describes an exciting new site called EDeA, for offering circuit schematic and layout blocks in KiCad. That site will allow users to pull in open source, proven design blocks to their designs. All electronics designed at Fully Automated Technologies is open source.

Today we're talking with, Erik Larson, who is a firmware engineer with some interesting background! He joins Chris to review the Advanced BLE-Cell (ABC) board, which is also a new course on Contextual Electronics. Erik has worked at places like Honeywell Aerospace, Apriva and Hologram (where he and Chris met). Erik is now a full time consultant for his own company, Statropy Software LLC. Erik was the firmware engineer on the Hologram Dash, which was an embedded module that Hologram used to make for people to get started making cellular connected devices. During his career, he had to learn how to code remotely on a VAX! This meant being very careful with code check-ins Erik and Chris review some of the "Must check" sections of schematics, in order to get firmware and hardware talking properly: Pin selection on a microcontroller Programming elements, including the bootloader Understanding the peripherals of the specific chip you're using The board we're reviewing is the Advanced BLE-CELL (ABC) board, which is designed as part of a Contextual Electronics course. You can follow along and watch the entire design of this board if you're a member of Contextual Electronics. Here is the schematic, as shown in the video (has since been updated for the course, as has the layout) Check out the nRF52840 Product Specification (datasheet) Erik recommends getting a development board and breakout boards before the hardware arrives. You can hire Erik to help with your next firmware project on his website, Statropy Software, LLC   That's our third episode, which is the last in our initial release of shows! Please follow us on social media: @Chris_Gammell on Twitter @ContextualElec on Twitter Contextual Electronics on Facebook Contextual Electronics on LinkedIn Please consider leaving us a review iTunes page for subscribing and reviewing Video version of the podcast: Audio version of the podcast:

Today we're talking with, Stephen Hawes, an electronics engineer and maker who is building his own Pick and Place machine and sharing about the process on YouTube Stephen works at Formlabs during the day, and films videos at night! Controlling 30 feeders Using OpenPnP Adding vision to the PnP PnP Controller build The glowtie (which he did a crowdfunding campaign on) Video version of the podcast: Audio version of the podcast:

Sophy Wong is a designer and maker who combines 3D printing, soft goods, electronics and software to make a wide range of projects online. She also shares as she is learning, and creates tutorials so others may follow in her footsteps.

I started Contextual Electronics (CE) in 2014 to teach electronics by pairing theory and practice. We sometimes refer to this as "the online electronics apprenticeship", since our members follow along with electronics builds. Since then, hundreds have participated in project based education to improve their skills. In 2020, we're looking to feature people using electronics in their everyday work. This is a new podcast called, The Contextual Electronics Podcast. Listeners/viewers will gain a better grasp of required knowledge for their personal projects and how to work towards it. This will bring more context to your practice. How did we get here? Podcasting isn't new for me. Contextual Electronics started as the direct result of another podcast, The Amp Hour. Feedback from Amp Hour listeners helped me realized there was a need for a program such as CE. I designed a project based course that pairs theory and practice. Over time, the course and this site have changed. CE started as a 10 week course teaching electronics; then it split out into two 8 week courses instead. Then we released all of our KiCad videos online and kept releasing new ones to the public for teaching people how to use an open source EDA program. Then we moved on to doing smaller boards for more rapid feedback on designs. Then we did a larger project to pull in firmware and build up a system. Then we developed a shortcourse that highlights swappable design. Then we started a public forum to complement the coursework. Most recently, we have been designing an advanced course that shows how to design a board that has bluetooth and cellular capabilities. We hope that the podcast is the next iteration. A free weekly podcast, highlighting guests who pair electronics theory and practice every day. We hope this will help more people discover the world of electronics. What will the show be like? The Contextual Electronics Podcast (CEP) will invite guests on from all parts of the industry. We are looking to feature people at different points in their careers, and with very different backgrounds. Ultimately we want to add context to the world of electronics. Hearing or watching people with different backgrounds than your own, and those who are struggling or have struggled with electronics concepts, should help you realize you're not alone in your learning. This podcast will include video, which is new for me on podcasts (The Amp Hour is audio only). Electronics and the education surrounding it is visual by nature; that's why Contextual Electronics is primarily a video course. We hope that a video podcast will help to give a better view into our guests' experiences. We will always try to make sure we describe what is on screen so that it's possible to listen to the podcast, if that's your preferred way of tuning in. How can you tune in? The best away to make sure you don't miss any episodes is to subscribe! Here are some places you can find the podcast, either video or audio: