Welcome back Matt Liberty (Joulescope) and Luke Beno (Werewolf.us)

• Matt has been a guest on episodes 527 and 607
• Luke was a guest on episode 272
• Luke launched a new cable manufacturing and power supply company in the US called Werewolf.us
• Matt is working on the JS320
• We discussed how PartsBox is a great ERP solution but Matt and Luke decided to go fully custom with Claude Code. Jan Rychter was a guest on episode 542
• We discussed the differences with Product Lifecycle Maintenance. Michael Corr of the recently acquired Duro Labs was on episode 577
• CAM workflow
• A fully verticalized PCB factory is something Jonathan Hirschmann talked about on episode 299
• Jeff Bezos is investing 100B in a fund that is looking at automation in the factory using AI
• Matt recently had success with Claude Code and verilog programming
• Saleae for hardware in the loop using their APIs
• Other tools to check out
  • pyelf
  • pdfdk blast
  • superpowers skill (by past guest at Teardown Jesse Vincent)
• Luke used OpenClaw to power a chat agent in his ERP system
• Working with distributors
• TI backlog
• Chris recently learned that Digikey has a developer API
• Cocotb verification framework (in Python)
• Luke is working on vision experiments for inhouse developed AOI solutions

The post #722 – AI Tooling with Matt Liberty and Luke Beno first appeared on The Amp Hour Electronics Podcast.

For the first week of the new year, we welcome back some past guests to talk about electronics in 2023.

• Alvaro Prieto is a co-host of The Unnamed Reverse Engineering podcast and has co-hosted The Amp Hour before. He currently works at Sofar Ocean.
  • 363 
  • 456.2
  • 440.2
  • 440.3
• Ariel Briner was on episode 260 of the show talking about CartesianCo, a now defunct startup. Ariel now runs an 8 person consulting shop in SF called Electron Labs.
• Chris Osterwood was on episode 425 talking about Capable Robot Components, which he is still working on. They are preparing to release new hardware in 2023.
• State of robotics
• Possible to have consulting with robotics?
• We were recording during CES 2023
• AgTech
• Robotic pizza
• 3H meetup
• Modex Fulfilment(conference)
• IoT
• Electron labs projects are 30% IoT, but more are connected (50%+)
• iPhone globalstar connection is now possible and Iridium is coming soon.
• Alvaro uses Blues Wireless modems to do firmware updates on buoys near the shore. Ray Ozzie (founder and CEO of Blues) was on episode 603.
• Bugs in different locations due to unicode characters (or null characters)
• FreeRTOS vs Zephyr
• STM32U5 has DMA in stopmode, which is a low power option for DMA
• Alvaro has been creating Joulescope front plates
• What kind of mix of hw and software are each person doing?
• USB C cable tester
• ESP32-C3 is a RISC V wifi chip from Espressif. There is also support for Rust on that and some other Espressif chips (Chris Osterwood has been trying it out)
• Hubris OS from Oxide. Oxide engineer Laura Abbott talked about this when she was on the show. Another Oxide engineer Rick Altherr was on the show (before he worked there)
• Board bringup is a hardware activity for fimware engineers.
• Firmware with hardware when the power rails are controlled by the micro
• CM4 / Linux
• Buildroot vs Yocto
• Custom vs dev board
• Chaos camp
• Mark Rober video (car breakins)
• RISC V
• AI
• Midjourney
• ChatGPT
• Is it all just “Stochastic BS”?

The post #614 – Reunion Impedance Matching and 2023 Predictions first appeared on The Amp Hour Electronics Podcast.

Another episode with people talking about consulting for electronics! Welcome to our guests, listed clockwise from the top left in the episode photo.

• Alex Klimaj from ARK Electronics in Utah in the US.
• Jeremiah Gillis from Embedded Bytes, Inc in Wyoming in the US.
• Kieran O’Leary from Mixed Signal Systems, Ltd in Scotland in the UK. Kieran has been on the show on his own in the past.
• We all know each other from the Electronics Consultant Forum. If you’re interested in joining you can apply here.

Notes from the show:

• Episode 409 was also about Electronic Consulting. That episode inspired the consultant forum as a place to discuss issues related to the field.
• Working with remote clients, before and during the lockdown.
• All have considered making hardware for sale outside of client work.
  • Alex has made the LiPow
  • Kieran does courses and has made some demo boards for SI issues
  • Jeremiah will be making some mod hardware for his Mazda RX7
• Chris liked the idea of building a reference design after Ryan Cousins from KRTKL was on the show talking about how the Snickerdoodle is a lead generation tool.
• Having a niche is also important.
• The Long Tail (written by past guest Chris Anderson)
• Past guest / co-host Greg Charvat has written niche books that lead to opportunities at startups as a CTO.
• Schedules at home lab are tough, but not that different than before for the attendees. Kieran is used to working in the middle of the night (it was 1 am during the call for him)
• Alex recorded a video of mountain biking using a Skydio drone
• Keeping up on the latest trends via podcasts. We didn’t mention it directly but this included the machine learning episode on embedded.fm.
• Classes are always a good way to learn too, but might be more limited.
• Looking at job postings also calls out what skills are in demand. Chris referenced the HN who’s hiring posts.
• Chris wishes there was an Audm for Engineers, that reads you technical articles and/or summaries. If you’re interested email chris@theamphour.com with the subject line “Audm for engineers”
• How are you rigorous?
  • Standard processes in place
  • Jeremiah is learning from the medical industry, since there are more regulations. This includes things like unit testing that links back to a requirement.
• Tracking time for quality, including how well they are doing for estimates.
• Asana with Everhour
• Book: How to measure anything
• The important thing is to check whether it’s done or not. “Are we happy? Yes or no”
• A great tip: Every block in the schematic gets a number for PCB reviews
• Using a balance sheet as a budget check. Adding custom categories to your Chart of Accounts (with your accountant’s blessing) means you can categorize with more fine control.
• Some of the accounting/tracking tools we use:
  • Xero
  • Quickbooks
  • Zoho
• Spend your time billing hours
• War stories
  • Once there was a layoff, one the employees was nice enough to update Kieran on the situation
  • Jeremiah war story about client
• “I declare Force Majeure!”
• So you want to be a consultant. Also referenced in Jack Ganssle’s series on being a consultant.
• Things to learn in the next 5 years:
  • Business strategy (Trillion dollar coach – Bill Campbell_
  • DC power storage and EVs
  • Measuring progress (Measure What Matters – John Doerr)
• Consulting forum application
• Follow our guests online!
  • Kieran O’Leary on Twitter, LinkedIn and his personal site
  • Jeremiah Gillis on LinkedIn, his company site
  • Alex Klimaj on Twitter, LinkedIn and his company site

The post #492 – More Electronics Consultant Impedance Matching first appeared on The Amp Hour Electronics Podcast.

Welcome (counterclockwise) Piotr, Eric and Dave!

• Dave is 30% local to 70% remote, 75% fixed, 25% hourly
  • 0h 16m 20s
• Eric is 80-90 local, 10% remote. 50-50 split on hourly vs fixed.
  • 0h 17m 55s
• Piotr was 100% remote and , but his remaining job is local and hourly
  • 0h 19m 21s
• Client archetypes
  • 0h 20m 34s
• Stability
  • 0h 22m 34s
• Past guest Philip Freidin wrote about being a consultant
  • 0h 24m 04s
• “So you want to be a consultant?”
  • 0h 25m 43s
• Do you bill for software?
  • 0h 27m 17s
• Time tracking
  • 0h 28m 51s
• Consulting specialty
  • 0h 29m 31s
• Dave: likes diversity and depth of work
  • 0h 29m 47s
• Eric: smaller projects beginning to end
  • 0h 30m 36s
• Piotr: Vertically integrated
  • 0h 31m 4s
• 0 hour billable weeks
  • 0h 36m 51s
• Let’s figure out what’s best for that
  • 0h 37m 59s
• Learning the personality of a client
  • 0h 40m 58s
• Playing the timeline all the way forward
  • 0h 41m 37s
• Client communication
  • 0h 43m 16s
• Setting expectations
  • 0h 43m 22s
• Firing a client
  • 0h 43m 52s
• 3 strikes
  • 0h 43m 56s
• Growing empathy for customers
  • 0h 45m 24s
• Language barriers with clients
  • 0h 47m 37s
• “This SHOULD be done by…”
  • 0h 48m 2s
• Dealing with impostor syndrome
  • 0h 51m 58s
• Known risks
  • 0h 53m 18s
• Communicating to the client about lack of knowledge
  • 0h 53m 39s
• When your startup client who suddenly gets funding, is woo’d and ultimately stolen by a bigger design firm promising the world….how does one manage ones anger?
  • 0h 55m 22s
• Working through some of the design houses
  • 0h 56m 57s
• Focal points – distributor FAEs, design houses, contract manufacturers
  • 0h 58m 32s
• Getting recommendations from past clients
  • 0h 59m 38s
• How to get started
  • 1h 0m 36s
• Judging potential hires by their pull requests
  • 1h 2m 56s
• Insurance
  • 1h 8m 51s
• Usually on a product basis and not the design basis
  • 1h 9m 35s
• LLCs all around
  • 1h 10m 53s
• Good resources from IEEE
  • 1h 11m 31s
• Consultant survey
  • 1h 12m 28s
• What I really want to know is: why engineers feel they must *undercharge* for time as a consultant? No one should be blanching at $100+/hr.
  • 1h 14m 4s
• Hourly rate goe down for billing more hours
  • 1h 14m 18s
• Dave changes billing for if there’s more risk
  • 1h 14m 35s
• Lowering hourly rate for things you like. Piotr does this for open source hardware.
  • 1h 16m 25s
• Should you work for equity?
  • 1h 17m 18s
• Working with startups
  • 1h 18m 12s
• Changes the nature of the relationship
  • 1h 18m 38s
• Rainy days cash
  • 1h 20m 17s
• Getting personal finance stuff in order
  • 1h 21m 42s
• Check out our guests’ sites to learn more:
  • 1bitsquared.com
  • LowVoltageLabs.com
  • YoungCircuitDesigns.com

The post #409 – Electronics Consultant Impedance Matching first appeared on The Amp Hour Electronics Podcast.

Mike Ossmann and Jeff Keyzer join the show at the same time!

• Mike and the Great Scott Gadgets crew made Creme Brulee for the entire camp, more than 650 servings!
• Chris later had a Creme Brulee delivered via tacocopter
• They also designed the firefly badge, that used the jar.
• Jeff is making more kits these days and also repairing old sports cars.
• We discussed learning KiCad and generally the difficulties of learning electronics and software.
• Alvaro ended up kidnapping Mike when the episode was over…

The post #397.7 – Impedance Matching with Jeff Keyzer and Michael Ossmann first appeared on The Amp Hour Electronics Podcast.

Welcome (back) Dmitry and Mike!

• O1-A visa vs an H1B visa
• Microscope and Soldering station
• Toothless consulting training
• Great Scott Intro to SDR
• ToorCon
• CIISP certification
• Saleae
• GoodFET …. GreatFET
• iMX7 – A7 – NXP Freescale
• Power over ethernet
• OpenHDL
• IceStorm
• ReCon
• Digilent Arty
• libFTDI, libUSB
• OHS
• IMme
• Facedancer
• LPC4300
• BBB + USBproxy
• Sniffing USB traffic with VMware
• Daisho – USB3 core
• medsec (and a NYtimes article about it)
• hardwear.io
• Katie Moussouris – responsible disclosure
• Muddy Waters
• Apple is doing bug bounty for kernel bugs
• Automotive VW emissions
• CCC talk about car stuff
• CCC – Hamburg

The post #318 – Impedance Matching with Michael Ossmann and Dmitry Nedospasov first appeared on The Amp Hour Electronics Podcast.

Welcome Bob Davidson of Ambient Sensors and Dave Vandenbout of XESS corporation!

• Bob has been developing products, including a new project that will only fit one way in a project box.
• A software asked about building hardware and why it wasn’t as “errorless” as how they build a skyscraper. Chris mentioned that the Peter B Lewis building at CWRU has a design flaw…it dumps snow on kids walking by.
• Dave says Harrelson Hall at NC State is circular so the classrooms are wedge shaped.
• This episode was inspired by a Twitter conversation between Bob and Dave talking about Shop Class As Soul Craft. 
• Bob used to work at HP. Dave used to work at Bell Labs.
• At Bell Labs they tried doing too much vertical integration…instead of being allowed to effortlessly design in a 6801 2K rom…the internal chip design group wanted them to use the Mac4 microcontroller.
• Dave (who owns/runs XESS) has been working in the ZPUino developed by Alvaro Lopez. It allows you to slide in a range of peripherals.
• The ESP8266 is a simple wifi model (with dubious CE certs). Costs $2.70, has an LX170 from Tensilica. However, it’s not low power, it uses 100 mA in transmit. Dave wrote about the ESP8266 here.
• Bob has been working on a sensor array for a grape vineyard. It is networked in a hub and spoke model. It has energy harvesting using the the LTC3330 and solar cells.
• The project stores energy in industrial batteries, the Tadiran TL4935 (about $8 each).
• Both Bob and Dave used to be university professors but stopped because the focus is on grant writing and not building things.
• Dave says that he is looking for all Fs and one A…because that means they’re invested in that one thing.
• Furthermore, the university only rewards one way of success.
• Dave says, “I’ll renounce cynicism when it ceases having predictive powers”
• When asked about how young engineers can excel, both list ham radio and developing embedded hardware as ways to get ahead. Mostly building up a portfolio of projects.
• When a project was cancelled at Bell Labs (often), Dave and a co-worker would sing a song that sounded like the Johnny Carson (tonight show) theme song.
  [tube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keiuXB3dJ0E[/tube]
• Bob says that they used to have “Next bench syndrome“, solving a problem for an internal customers.
• Patents cost $10K to get it, $100K to defend it the first time
• Management by wandering around.
• Dave mentioned a book by Quigley about civilization. It takes three things:
  • People with innovative ideas
  • A surplus of resources
  • An agency willing to invest surplus
• Where do new innovations come from?
  • Dave says, “What’s close to what?”
  • Bob says, “find problems that people have”
• Bob developed an award winning system for how hard football players get hit and whether they have concussions. But it was not a guaranteed commercial success.
• When it comes to quickly iterating hw, Bob brought up our interview with Erie Ries. 
• Lean Hardware is possible, it’s all about how much you’re willing to pay.
• Bob uses both OSHpark and Sunstone for quick turn PCBs.
• For CMs, Bob uses Western Electronics and Computrol.
• Saleae recently wrote about their issues with costs and doing in-house manufacturing (specifically by buying a PnP machine). Bob has a Pro16 and says they are doing things right.
• Bob was a co-author on “Getting started with bluetooth low energy” book. It was written in less than 6 months in order to be ready by SolidCon (where Chris met Bob in person).
• The co-authors were:
  • Kevin Townsend (@microbuilder)
  • Akiba (@freaklabs)
  • Carles Cufí in Barcelona, who is also an employee of Nordic Semi.
• When teaching the main rule is: You have to keep one chapter ahead of the students.

Many thanks to Bob and Dave for returning to the show! To hear their first appearances, check out Bob in Episode 144 of The Amp Hour and Dave in episode 181. Both were great discussions about their pasts.

The post #232 – “Impedance Matching” with Davidson and Vandenbout – Presbytes Pushing Portfolios first appeared on The Amp Hour Electronics Podcast.

• Since we last talked to Greg, he has made many more media appearances.
• Engineering on TV shows continues to be a lame proposition. The auxiliary Mythbusters crew just got laid off. Joe Grand told us about the rigors of being on an engineering show when he was on The Amp Hour.
• Mike has started releasing videos in his SDR series. These are a supplement to the in-person 2 day classes he teaches at security conferences.
• Power and low cost requirements drove choice of no FPGA on the HackRF One (now shipping!).
• Greg has friends at the MIT Haystack observatory that have had doing similar SDR issues and don’t hire FPGA programmers.
• Mike is planning to do some add-on boards for the HackRF; limpkin has already made some of these. The higher sample rates means you could see “farther” (up to 1Km) and more detail of things in the distance. This would also allow for range dopler imaging.
• Greg says that many Signal Processing PhDs talk about spacial frequency domain.
• Mike says he needs to buy Greg’s book. You should too!
• Mike has been playing around with CW radar using “arduino radar” modules off eBay.
• Greg recommends instead using FMCW 24 GHz modules. One good example is RFbeam microwave K-LC1a, which cost roughly $5.
• The coffee can radar kit is currently avaiable from Quonset for $600. Lincoln Labs make one for their grad students and UC Davis are developing an Arduino shield.
• The Amp Hour (and Greg) recommend the upcoming kit of Tony Long, former guest of the show.
• Greg wrote a Circuit Cellar op ed about  the future of small radar tech.
• RADAR is seeing more use in the home. One example is a video game system shown by MIT Media Lab that can detect gestures.
• Mike gave a DEFCON talk about the NSA playset. This is the set of tools used for spying, many of which used RF retroreflectors.
• Greg recommended that Mike skips the cheap Chinese modules and instead get a surplus police radar unit. Another good choice is the hot wheels radar gun which surprisingly runs with a 10GHz chipset. Jeri did a video with the toy:
  [tube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dhp21FxttWM[/tube]
• Mike has been trying spread spectrum for his retroreflector setup.
• There is a research paper about doing arbitrary quadrature modulations in a backscatter device. They discuss a simple passive device that is a MOSFET with an antenna. Awesome.
• Mike uses antennas from WA5VJB (Kent Britton). These are log periodic, PCB based, antennas that can go from 850 to 6500 MHz.
• Chris was embarrassed for not doing more with his USB TV tuner. Mike explained that many don’t because they are lacking PAL connectors (which convert to SMA or BNC).
• Greg talks about how LabView is great for getting set up with quick experiments and validations. Chris used to use this in his FPGA DSP work.
• The HackRF will hopefully be used for derivative/add-on project.
  • Jared Boone (one of the HackRF team members) is working on the PortaPack.
    [tube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koS-RobcKXI[/tube]
  • There are people that are connecting the HackRF with the BeagleBone Black.
  • Mike is working on Filter/LNA board between HackRF and the antenna for extending filtering capabilities.
  • He also wants to possibly do a VNA board that could also do RADAR.
• Greg explains that a prior company he interned for made coversion boxes to make the HP8510 into a RADAR array.
• Mike used to get grant funding (which helped to develop the HackRF/Daisho) from the Cyber Fast Track program (which recently ended).
• Mike also used to work on the P25 digital radio at the Boulder lab of the Dept of commerce (they also do the atomic clock, wwv  & wwvb).
• All were a bit skeptical of the goTenna use cases, but were intrigued by the use of the MURS. This band is similar to the similar to FRS.
• We aren’t completely sure about the goTenna but future filings about their FCC activity will be found on the FCC website.

Many thanks to Mike and Greg for returning to the show! It was great to get them together to hear brainstorming about how the coffee can radar kit and the HackRF might work together some day!

Thanks to the Poland MFA for the picture of the tower.

The post #214 – “Impedance Matching” With Charvat And Ossmann – Recurring RF Remontados first appeared on The Amp Hour Electronics Podcast.