The Spark Gap: Recent Episodes
The Spark Gap
Karl and Corey talk about various aspects of embedded electronics, from nuts and bolts design to high-level discussions and debates. We also talk about some of our hobbies surrounding electronics (3D Printing and CNC Routers).
New episodes are released Wednesdays.
Karl and Corey talk about projects they've been working on in their spare time. Corey discusses his ping pong scoreboard's progress and challenges.
Karl and Corey discuss how to work with development kits, specifically on how to best transition from a dev kit to a custom design.
Karl and Corey talk about various ways to protect a design from other devices that can pull too much power, reverse voltage polarity, and otherwise cause damage.
Karl and Corey discuss various means of user input: buttons, rotary encoders, and resistive and capacitive touch sensing.
Karl and Corey talk about their trip to Portland, Oregon and the 2016 Open Hardware Summit.
Karl and Corey are back to talk about design choices you can make when creating schematics and PCB layouts that will make board bring up and debugging much easier.
Karl and Corey discuss the issues with heat in an embedded design, how to prevent it, how to detect it, and how to deal with it.
Karl and Corey talk about some of the lessons Karl learned (and remembered) at the Signal Integrity Boot Camp at DesignCon.
Karl and Corey air some grievances about Raspberry Pi, "Hoverboards", and PCB layout practices in this grab bag/Festivus episode.
Karl and Corey talk about how knowledge of electronics can cause headaches when looking at products and crowd-funding campaigns.
Karl and Corey finishing talking with Chris Gammell about parts.io and selecting the right op-amp for a given application. (Part 2 of 2)
Karl and Corey are joined by Chris Gammell to talk about how to pick the right op-amp. Part 1 of 2.
Karl and Corey are back! Join them as they talk about design choices and gotchas involving connectors.
Karl and Corey depart from hardware to talk about one of the more interesting bits of firmware, pointers.
Karl and Corey discuss a few submissions they liked from the Hackaday Prize 2015. Disclaimer: Neither Karl nor Corey are affiliated in any way with the Hakaday Prize selection.
Karl teaches Corey about how cars work and how electronics fit into modern automobiles.
Karl's going to Burning Man. Let's talk about some electronics you might want when camping in the desert.
Karl and Corey explore the analog world a bit by discussing Analog to Digital and Digital to Analog Converters.
Karl and Corey are joined by Fouad Kiamilev from the University of Delaware to talk about ASIC design and ways to be a more healthy and productive engineer.
Karl and Corey are joined by Andrew Retallack of Crash Bang Prototype to talk about his work with moving people past their reliance on Arduino.
Karl and Corey talk about mess ups, disasters, and other horror stories from their past.
Karl and Corey are joined by Bob Coggeshall of Small Batch Assembly to talk about designing PCBs that will go through SMT at a professional assembly house.
Karl and Corey are joined by James Lewis of Kemet Electronics to talk about capacitors.
Karl and Corey talk about their personal goals for 2015, the future of the podcast, and discuss a few topics on reverse engineering.
Karl and Corey discuss projects they've left unfinished and wonder why this seems to happen so often.
Karl and Corey finish their talk about PCB layout. This part talks about signal layout and some manufacturing details. Part 2 of 2.
Karl and Corey talk about PCB layout and some tips for hobbyists. In this part, component placement and power layout. Part 1 of 2.
Corey and Karl discuss the benefits of controlling your embedded product with smart software and simple firmware.
Karl and Corey talk about the fascinating topic of In-Circuit Programmers and Debuggers.
Corey and Karl discuss the origins and the future of the Raspberry Pi. They explore how a product with an imperfect beginning can still become a huge success.
Karl and Corey talk about the advantages and challenges of adding Ethernet capability to an embedded system.
Karl and Corey wax poetic about the aspects of embedded electronic engineering that can can worsen your mood and waste your time.
Karl and Corey discuss the practice of Manufacturers charging money to unlock built-in features of Test Equipment.
They give their opinion on whether unlocking those features by means of “hacking” your equipment is actually stealing.
Alternatives to paying exhorbant sums of cash to unlock existing features are considered.
Corey and Karl welcome their first guest Rodney McGee to talk about his research in electric vehicles and Vehicle to Grid (V2G) technology.
Corey and Karl explain the different ways to implement USB connectivity on an embedded device, from the physical layer to application layer.
Corey inquires about Karl's hobby, CNC Machining. Karl discusses his CNC Router and the decision that went into it.
Corey and Karl start off their first episode of "The Great Debates!"
Corey takes the position that RTOSes for the most part don't belong in single core embeeded systems.
Karl takes the position that the advantages of using an RTOS ,even in single core microcontrollers, far exceed their disadvantages.
Karl and Corey discuss the basics of how to power your electronic circuits.
Linear Regulators, LDOs, and Switch Mode Power Supplies are explained.
Traps for new engineers and hobbyist working with power supplies are lamented.
In this episode Karl and Corey talk about Corey's newest hobby, 3D Printing.
Also, Karl gets the outcome of the 3D Systems vs. Form Labs lawsuit wrong.
In this episode Karl and Corey talk about the heart of many embedded electronics projects: The Microcontroller. They discuss their evolving feelings for the maker communities darling, the Arduino. They also give an overview of other potential candidates for a microcontroller.