The Amp Hour Electronics Podcast

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#96 – Senseless Saccadic Shemozzle

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  1. Rothco makes a lot of nice stuff, other than messeger bags, and their products come in many manly colors. 😉

    Besides for a weekend hack/nerd/make meeting one definitely needs a big pack for wire, leatherman, roll of ductape, multimeter, power and usb cords etc..

  3. Was Chris’s comment under his breath at 36:01 directed at what Dave was talking about, or something else?!

    • Ha! Guess Dave’s editing didn’t catch that. Our Mumble session cut out THREE different times. That was me losing contact with Dave and losing control of my temper (think it was the third time so we had already been dealing with it).

        • 🙂 It didn’t bother me, I was just not sure whether my ears were working right!

          What happened to Dave at the end of the show (around 1:04:50)? At first it sounds like he’s just ignoring you but then you suddenly stop mid-sentence and it sounds like you’re talking to the voices in your head! More editing woes?

  4. The new ‘smart meters’ in Victoria Australia “have two-way remote communication with the power company, sending energy use data” (at least) “48 times a day”.

    The reason why many people don’t like ‘smart meters’ in Australia at least is for three reasons.

    1) They either don’t or haven’t been given access to their own usage data in real and historical time;

    2) ‘smart metering’ means consumers will pay more for power during peak energy times. With the old meters this wasn’t possible.

    3) Your power company will be able to connect and disconnect your home at the touch of a button.

    http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/smart-meters-look-dumb-for-users-20101016-16od9.html

    In Australia it turns out that consumers actually have the legal right to refuse the upgrade but some power company’s have done it anyway in breach of the law.

    http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/surge-in-electric-hostility-20110813-1isah.html

    I think the advantages of ‘smart meters’ have been poorly communicated to the community. If people could actually monitor their usage interactively I think they would be far more amenable to they change as they would be conscious of their energy usage and able to self moderate their own demand.

    Also there are some significant security issues with ‘smart meters’ being hacked. If the network were hacked households could be disconnected either sporadically or on mass. In some countries ‘smart meters’ are already being hacked to reduce power bills.

    http://www.theage.com.au/it-pro/security-it/smart-meter-hacks-likely-to-spread-fbi-20120410-1wm84.html

    • This show was a real disappointment.
      Would be a cool idea too to install a smart meter in your car and double the gas price whenever your tank is empty, wouldn’t it? Who gives a shit to tell the oil industry about your gas consumption? You could drive your car only if your tank is full to save money, or drive to your workplace at midnight as the gas price would be low at these times.
      I wonder how many power plants have to be built to power the power meters all over the world?
      Shure, they only want our best – our money, nothing else.

      • Electricity prices are regulated on the high side. And those prices are driven by demand. As for the meters, those take mere watts, compared with the kilowatts your house consumes (think refrigerator vs an embedded device).

        However, I will agree that this show was a bit of a disappointment. I should have had my thoughts together some more on that topic before I brought it up.

  5. @Dave: Wouldn’t you like to make a video about conformal coating? I have a project in mind that might benefit from this, but I haven’t the slightest idea about the process (just thinking of getting a conformal coating spray and just coat the sucker). Any ideas, pointers or suggestions regarding to this matter?
    Thanks.

  6. I wonder if you guys consider putting episodes out just after completion, as opposed to every Sunday or Monday night. I understand the consistency, but there are those who at times may find it more convenient to listen earlier than the scheduled posting.

  7. hey guys,

    You mentioned PCB footprints. Recently you have been down on Eagle but I am liking the changes in Version 6. With text base files I can easily copy symbols and packages of other libraries into my own. Rather than do this in Eagle I do it with a text editor. Like this.

    Start copying at

    end copying at

    and place all the text at the end of the packages. right before

    it also works for symbols – or at least has worked so far.

    I agree it is tough to have a standard library because individuals and companies sometimes have preferences but for sure there is some % of parts and cases in which it works out ok.

    the 3D Gerber viewer is awesome!

  8. That having a messenger/shoulder bag as a male in the US is even an issue to talk about is really sad. American males are so afraid of being considered gay it’s ridicoluous. That Dave defended himself (the bag’s color is olive, therefore “it’s manly”) is telling.

    • I more want to differentiate myself from the local Hillsong (religious) nutters who carry these styles of bags en-masse…

  9. Excellent!!!, we have a fashion column for electronic guys!!!, LOL. I imagine Dave on the catwalk exhibiting his purse…

    The religious guys at the door on the show, and Chris alone missing Dave….. is a reality show now. Brilliant.

    Ok, not much about electronics, but it was very funny. Thanks for taking the time to do a podcast in advance preventing a discontinuity this week. Your podcast is great, I don’t wanna have a week without it.

    Cheers.