The Amp Hour Electronics Podcast

Chris and Dave discuss PCB art, failed hardware projects, USB chips, lack of chips, new (to us) wireless network protocols, and more!

Fran Blanche and Dave discuss publishing, newspapers, Frantone, manufacturing, the kit business, ebay, and pontificate what we would be doing if the Internet didn’t exist.

Dave and Chris talk about the return to trade shows and how things are the same. Also AgTech, open source boards, self driving cars, and engineering shortages.

Charles Aylward is a consultant and software/hardware designer who has worked on mission critical systems at Astra (a “new space” company). He joins Chris to talk about imparting rigor to engineering design, especially when the consequences of not doing so are dire.

Power expert Paul Zawada joins Chris and Dave to talk about the grid, the smart grid, the challenges of increasing percentage of renewable sources, and generally how power delivery works.

Dave and Chris talk through brain computer interfaces, reverse engineering, Shenzhen’s numbers, the JWST, a new meetup, and more!

Brian Amos joins Chris to talk through his book about learning Real Time Operating Systems (RTOS) with a Hands-on methodology. Discussions around what an RTOS is, when to use one, and how FreeRTOS works.

Chris and Dave take a look at the changing nature of employment for engineers in the pandemic era. Also searching for new MOSFETs, solar farms, smart grid, and blowing up capacitors!

Anthony Wall–PhD design student at Tyndall in Cork, Ireland–joins Chris to talk about the ADC he is designing based on a “current-starved ring oscillator”. A deep dive into mixed signal chip design, the Irish chip industry, and having your silicon manufactured.

This week Dave and Chris talk about computer history, chip building news, sourcing parts from the Chinese chip ecosystem, test equipment, and tin whiskers!

Michael Corr of Duro Labs joins Chris to talk about Product Lifecycle Management: what it is, when to start using it, and how our listeners can be certain the correct design files are being used to manufacture their next electronics project.

Trains are a continual source of fascination for nerds young and old. This week, Chris and Dave discuss recent train experiences and also talk about new chip fabs, shuttering IoT networks, asset tracking for the masses, and really old software.

Joe Grand recently reverse engineered a Trezor cryptocurrency wallet to recover $2M. He returns to The Amp Hour after 10 years to talk with Chris about hardware hacking, past projects, and what Joe hopes to learn next.

Dave and Chris discuss diode selection, understanding linear regulators, switching CAD programs, organizing lab spaces, and more!

Philip Salmony of the Phil’s Lab YouTube channel joins Chris to talk about electronics education and Philip’s new course on designing a mixed signal PCB using KiCad v6.

Charlie Larrabee joins Chris to talk about electronics and technology education for kids age 6 to 14. They cover challenges in teaching (and learning) and how to encourage children to get more involved in electronics.

Dave and Chris ring in the new year talking about connectors, high stress space missions, and new processors. Happy new year!

Jeff Keyzer returns to The Amp Hour for our yearly holiday tradition of Keyzermas. We discuss test equipment, supply chain silliness, capacitor madness, museums, and more!

This week Dave recaps the Veritasium video about electricity flowing through wires and Chris announces he has joined a startup working on connecting things to the internet.

Florin of the VoltLog youtube channel joins Chris to talk automotive electronics, consulting, test equipment, and more!

Dave and Chris discuss shopping for new parts, logistics, measuring signals, and mechanical marvels.

Carmen Parisi, Staff Applications Engineer at Renesas, joins Chris to talk about how high current regulators work and what it’s like testing and supporting those chips for a wide variety of customers.

Chris and Dave discuss modularity, programming, new development boards, and power design.

This week Chris records with Parker and Stephen of the Macrofab Engineering Podcast to celebrate their 300th episode.

Chris and Dave are grumpy about the hype around collaborative design tools and how silicon valley values tech companies in general.