Embedded

The hosts share their light-hearted adventures of skunks and dogs. They dive into the world of embedded systems and upcoming talks, blending humor and tech insights. Discussions on the Playdate handheld console reveal its unique crank control and indie game potential. Troubles with Network Time Protocol bring back nostalgic tech drama. They also engage playfully with topics like RSS feeds and the challenges of podcasting, while weaving in charming anecdotes about Winnie the Pooh and friendship.

Jerry Twomey spoke with us about his new O’Reilly book Applied Embedded Electronics which covers embedded topics such as EMI, signal processing, control systems and non-ideal components. Jerry is also the principal engineer at Effective Electrons. His articles are linked from there and you can contact him via the site. Here is a 30-day trial for the O’Reilly Learning System. You can take a look at Jerry’s Applied Embedded Electronics and Elecia’s Making Embedded Systems as well as hundreds of other books about software, hardware, engineering, and origami.  Transcript

Carles Cufí spoke with us about Zephyr, Nordic, learning, open source development, and corporate goals.  Carles had some great suggestions for learning Zephyr: Memfault Interrupt Practical Zephyr blog series Nordic’s Developer Academy  Zephyr’s Discord server Zephyr’s YouTube channel (@ZephyrProject), sorted by views  Macrobatics term is from Zephyr Devicetree Mysteries, Solved - Marti Bolivar, Nordic Semiconductor  There is also the Zephyr website for a full picture. And various Nordic tutorials (see nRF5340 Audio applications).  Carles was an author on Getting Started with Bluetooth Low Energy: Tools and Techniques for Low-Power Networking. The cover animal is a mousebird.  Transcript

Jan Rychter joined us to talk about building a company, electronic components, and software design. Jan is the founder and engineer at PartsBox.com. If you are interested in the meta-analysis of the data, check out his article on the Top Ten Hobby Parts and the Electronic Component Database,  You can find out more about Jan through his website (jan.rychter.com), LinkedIn, or Mastodon. Transcript

Kwabena Agyeman discusses optimization, cameras, machine learning, and vision systems. OpenMV utilizes MicroPython for easy development. They focus on optimization, performance benchmarks, and future speed gains. The podcast explores image processing, machine learning with TensorFlow Lite, wasp identification, and tracking small creatures. Balancing ML and physics in problem-solving, transitioning to full-time work at Open MV, and reflections on the embedded systems journey are also covered.

Lee Wilkins joined Chris and Elecia to talk about The Open Source Hardware Association, the Open Hardware Summit, and zine culture. The Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA) provides certification and support for creating open source hardware. The Open Hardware Summit is happening May 3-4, 2024. It is in Montreal, Canada. It also has many online components including a Discord and online Unconferece. All videos are available for later watching on YouTube.  Lee’s personal page is leecyb.org. Their zines are available in their shop.  Elecia mentioned enjoying There Are No Electrons: Electronics for Earthlings by Kenn Amdahl. Transcript

Chris and Elecia talk about the Embedded Online Conference, their experience learning Zephyr, and some listener questions. Elecia will be presenting on Creating Chaos and Hard Faults at the Embedded Online Conference, Apr 29 - May 3, 2024. Some other talks that look interesting: The Power of a Look-up Table by Nathan Jones Zephyr Tools To Debug Hardware by Chris Gammell Breaking Good: Why Virtual Hardware Prefers Rough Handling by Uri Shaked Beyond Coding: Toward Software Development Expertise by Marian Petre Use the EMBEDDEDFM coupon for a discount (or if your whole team is going, check out the group discounts). Elecia’s book (Making Embedded Systems, 2nd Edition) is shipping (Amazon or Bookshop.org). Zephyr is pretty amazing.  Transcript

Logic gates and origami? Professor Inna Zakharevich joined us to talk about Turing complete origami crease patterns.  We started talking about Turing completeness which led to a Conway’s Game of Life-like 2D cellular automaton called Rule 110 (Wikipedia) which can be implemented with logic gates (AND, OR, NOT). These logic gates can be implemented as creases in paper (with the direction of the crease indicating 0 or 1).  The paper describing the proof is called Flat Origami is Turing Complete (arxiv and PDF). Quanta Magazine has a summary article: How to Build an Origami Computer. Inna’s page at Cornell University also has the crease patterns for the logic gates (pdf). Inna is an aficionado of the origami work by Satoshi Kamiya who creates complex and lifelike patterns.  Some other origami mentioned: Origami Stegosaurus by John Montroll YouTube Folding video (Part 1 of 3) Ilan Garibi’s Pineapple Tessellation (PDF instructions) Eric Gjerde Spread Hex Origami Tessellation (This also has the equilateral triangle grid needed to fold Inna’s gate logic) Peter Engel Amanda Ghassaei’s Origami Simulator (Mooser’s is under Examples->Origami) Some other math mentioned: Veritasium’s Math's Fundamental Flaw talks about Goerthe’s Incompleteness Theorem Physical Logic Game: Turing Tumble - Build Marble-Powered Computers Mathematics of Paper Folding (Wikipedia) Transcript Memfault is making software the most reliable part of the IoT with its device reliability platform that enables teams to be more proactive with remote debugging, monitoring and OTA update capabilities. Try Memfault's new sandbox demo at demo.memfault.com. Embedded.fm listeners receive 25% off their first-year contract with Memfault by booking a demo here: https://go.memfault.com/demo-request-embedded

Philip Koopman joined us to talk about how modulo 255 vs 256 makes a huge difference in checksum error detection, how to get the most out of your checksum or CRC, and why understanding how they work is worth the effort. Philip has recently published Understanding Checksums and Cyclic Redundancy Checks. He’s better known for Better Embedded System Software as well as his two books about safety and autonomous vehicles: The UL 4600 Guidebook: What to Include in an Autonomous Vehicle Safety Case How Safe Is Safe Enough?: Measuring and Predicting Autonomous Vehicle Safety Phil’s YouTube page has a number of videos with great visuals to go along with his books. He also has three(!) blogs: Safe Autonomy  Better Embedded System SW Checksum and CRC Central (including a post on checksum speed comparison) Currently, Phil is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University (his page there). You can follow him on LinkedIn.  Elecia read (and give 2.5 stars to) Symmetry: A Journey into the Patterns of Nature by Marcus du Sautoy: “Interesting but uneven, I kept reading to find out what horrible things math profs do to their children in the name of fun. Worth it when I finally got to a small section with Claude Shannon (and Richard Hamming). It didn’t help with this podcast but it was neat.” Transcript Nordic Semiconductor empowers wireless innovation, by providing hardware, software, tools and services that allow developers to create the IoT products of tomorrow. Learn more about Nordic Semiconductor at nordicsemi.com, check out the DevAcademy at academy.nordicsemi.com and interact with the Nordic Devzone community at devzone.nordicsemi.com.

The podcast discusses the release of a book on embedded systems, piano playing, origami, and upcoming webinars. Topics include challenges in editing, structuring books, choosing the right keyboard mechanism, learning musical instruments, and a whimsical tale from the Hundred Acre Wood.