The Amp Hour Electronics Podcast

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#82 – Vecordious Vacation Variorum

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Chris is back from Hawaii, and we are joined once again by Jeff Keyzer of Mightyohm.com.

 

Next week on the show, we’ll have special guest Bunnie Huang! Get your questions in for him ASAP!

Comments

  1. Welcome back Chris!

    Junkyard Wars was based on the UK show Scrapheap Challenge, which started in 1998. It was itself based on a 1970s/80s low budget show called The Great Egg Race. Inevitably there is only so much you can do with a junk yard and welding gear. The peak was probably the century of flight special http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pH09RkvuFw

    Regarding the kit-vs-premade debate. I think it depends on what your motives are, and how much money you want to make. the easiest way would probably be just so sell PCBs with a component list. Maybe have a deal with various suppliers to provide a set of parts. Leave debugging and support responsibilities to a forum.

  2. wow. that little known song brings back memories. On power supplies and kits – one of the first things I was commissioned to do when I started my first job was to build a Dick Smith bench power supply kit for my bench. I’m sure Dave and other Aussies know the one. It may have in fact been an EA or SC kit but bought from Dick Smith. Not the worlds greatest, most stable or precise power supply but it worked for what I needed it for and I suspect it mostly served as a soldering and assembly skill test. No modules. All simple thru hole stuff. I beleive it was also cheaper than just buying one.

  3. 1 Daves GPS adventure in Havai – maybe the US navy had maneuvers nearby? They like to do funny stuff with GPS jamming and blanking waves with high powered radar signals (opening all the garage doors in the neighborhood)?

    2 DRM on printed objects – popular computer game Mass Effect has a world where everything is assembled using omnitools (makerbots you wear on your hand). You get real gems in a world like this :
    http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/ML-77_Missile_Launcher

    “Protected by Fabrication Rights Management (FRM) technology, this weapon is nearly impossible to reproduce and is prohibitively expensive.”
    You also get a lot of items that are trivial to replicate, but all the magic is in the software that cant be copied over.

    3 Cube 3D Printer – if the hardware is good people will hack in support for makerbot software

    4 great show like always, left me with a big smile

  6. Hey Dave,

    I’ve actually been working on a version of your power supply based on SMD components. The Plan was to make it modular so I can have multiple supplies in one enclosure.

    In my opinion the biggest value of your supply is the fact that its open hardware so anyone can see the design and learn from it. Whether you sell kits or pre-assembled units is really not an issue, since if you decide to only sell it pre-assembled someone else can come and sell a kit.

    Anyway great show.

  7. Neat idea on Cube’s 3D printer are those preloaded cardridges.. They have managed to find a way to make money on consumables. Reminds me of 2D printer manufacturers and the prices of Ink.

  9. On kits – using a pick and place machine to create a component kit and using a PCB for packaging with parts held in place by solder is just a no-brainer as soon as you are doing a few tens or more.

    For the PSU kit I suggest supplying a board assembled with all surface mount parts and optionally kit the through hole parts.

  10. On Dave’s power supply kit, just the surface mount stuff assembled on the board. all the rest kit form. “Theres something nostalgic about doing a kit.

  11. Junk yard wars came after Scrap Heap Challenge, and was a direct copy with a more American name. Scrap Heap Challenge was made in the UK and was the original. Scrap heap and Junk yard then would meet up for a combined challenge once a year. The girl host from Scrap heap moved to Junk yard, to keep parts of the two programmes the same.

    Mike.

  12. Imagine an engineering TV show like the following:

    Jim Williams, Bob Pease and Robert Widlar form a jury and in an American Idol style engineers have to audition and present their design. Williams, Pease and Widlar then rip them another one, dismissing those without talent.

    Yes I know, they are dead, but I would so like to watch such a show.

  13. I like Chris’ idea of a tech sabbatical. It’s like how my UU congregation sends its ministers on sabbatical to do things like write books. I don’t think it should be seen as charity; it’s more internal entrepreneurship. You have to sell them on the business plan. If they don’t want to fund it, maybe someone else does.

    Doesn’t the spray-on antenna guy call in to your show sometimes from Oklahoma? I only listened to the first minute.

    Troubleshooting by e-mail is hard. I once worked on a project where the SW team was in India and did not own a scope. We did scope by phone in the early morning (Central) late evening (India). They would send me code and I would send them screenshots of what the certain lines did.

    • I do a lot of over the phone debugging of electronics too. The most interesting NASA live feed I saw was dudes on the ground getting the ‘nauts to test bus cable signals and power rails while they pointed the camera at the scope. I think this was during the time when one of the Russian modules had some hiccups.

  14. Kits are fun when they are educating and easy to build. When kits was first introduced (way before my time) as black/white circuit graphic in a magazine (which you photocopied and so on) and you sourced the parts either from the magazine or another distributor, then it was YOUR project and you learned so much more. Today, kits are mostly practice for soldering. I don’t think many kit-buyers today really makes an effort to understand the circuit they’re building. They just want to see it done, so why not deliver it pre-assembled.

  16. Software also requires long periods of uninterrupted time to do well. Did you know you had software people listening?

    Also why can’t you have smt components on a kit? 0805s and soics arent bad at all. QFP and BGA are probably out though.

  17. Love the show – long time listener.

    I agree with the Kyle that smt doesn’t necessarily mean it cannot be a kit. However I noticed that this design is fairly large and probably would take too long to solder even though I think I could do it. My vote – fully assembled board unless I can save lots of money.

    I am a mechanical engineer just learning electronics in part to stay relevant. Truly I think I was meant to be an EE as I am enjoying it a lot. It has been really helpful to me in my learning. I sure hope you guys know what you are talking about! cuz I wouldn’t know the difference. ha ha.

    oh – also about 3D printers.
    I think they are only really good for prototypes. We have had an FDM machine at work for a number of years and use this for first samples as a supplement to what the model shop can build. I don’t see much use for them in so-called real life yet. The main problem is strength and resolution.

  18. About Kit or Not.
    I vote for a throw hole kit that I have to solder. For me it is ok to have support only on forum and stuff like this.
    The reason I prefer it as a kit is that I what to learn more. And build the things is the good way to learn. You have to read the schematic and troubleshoot it. And also I would love to hack the software/hardware to turn in into a function generator (I guess not a good one but it just for fun).