453: Too Dumb to Quit

Nathan Jones has been talking about building command line interfaces, good design practices in C, creating MCU boards, wielding the PIC of destiny, and going beyond Arduino. As we are too lazy to attend the conferences, we asked him to give us the highlights. 

Nathan is giving two conference talks at Crowd Supply’s Teardown 2023 June 23-24 in Portland, Oregon:

He spoke recently at the Embedded Online Conference about Object Oriented Programming (well, really good design practices). He has a related github repository so you can look at the examples for yourself. He also gave a workshop on creating a simple command line interface (another excellent github repo full of examples).

Probably the best place to start is his Embedded for Everyone Wiki where he collects all the bits and pieces you might want to know about getting into embedded systems.

Transcript

389: Blobs Are Not Stressful

Alpenglow’s Carrie Sundra spoke with us about frivolous circuits, solder live streaming, and yarn.

Alpenglow Industries sells frivolous circuits, some pre-built (like FUnicorn) and some are buildables such as the cute but evil heart soldering kits called PS-I Hate You.

Carrie’s YouTube channel is alpenglowindustries where she livecasts Wednesday afternoon Pacific Time. You can still watch the Blob Solder sesh with Debra of GeekMomProjects. Please send pictures of your blobs. One of the recent videos talked about Teenage Engineering Pocket Operators. Our favorite is Arcade.

Alpenglow Yarn sells electronic-based tools for dyers and yarn creators. 

On Twitter:@alpenglowind @alpenglowyarn @frivolous_circs

On Instagram:@alpenglowind @alpenglowyarn

Alpenglow also has a Tindie store: alpenglow/ 

386: Not Managing Robots

Ingo Muschenetz spoke with us about software, management, podcasts, and interacting with people. 

Ingo’s LinkedIn page

Ingo works for Axway, they are hiring: Axway Careers

Ingo keeps up with many podcasts, here are some of his favorites:

Podcasts that talk about a complex topic, provide insight

Podcasts with interviews and discussions about lives and careers

Podcasts that don’t fit into a category other than “interesting”:

Podcasts that Ingo didn’t mention but meant to:

157: Explosion of Multicopters

Robb Walters of Flybrix (@flybrix) spoke with us about LEGO-based drones. We graciously let him leave with all his hardware. This time.

For a limited time, you can get an Embedded.fm tshirt: teespring.com/embedded-fm. Order by the end of June or miss out. (More info about the shirts.)

You can order your Flybrix kit and or read their controller code on github (or their controller app code).

Robb mentioned a C++ book he liked, it was Effective Modern C++: 42 Specific Ways to Improve Your Use of C++11 and C++14 by Scott Meyers.

He also noted LEGO bricks resale sites: Brickowl and Bricklink. LEGO Digital Designer looks like a fun way to design builds.

Cascade PID controllers are on Wikipedia (though I found this tutorial a little easier). 

The congratulations offered at the top of the show were to Meshpoint.me for winning the Best Humanitarian Tech of the Year at the Europas Conference.

 

125: I Like Cheat Codes

Dan Shapiro (@danshapiro), CEO of Glowforge (@glowforge), speaks with us about laser cutters and his book, The Hot Seat.

If you succumb to the wonder of 3D laser printers, consider using our Glowforge link so you get $100 (and we get $100).

Dan's book, the one Elecia gushes about, is The Hot Seat: The Startup CEO Guidebook. Some of that information is also found in Dan's blog. 

If you are in the Seattle area, Glowforge is hiring! Check out their jobs page.

We didn't talk much about Robot Turtles, a game to teach programming principles to preschoolers.(Also on Amazon.)

There is another interesting interview with Dan at Tested.com.

 

96: Yarn Is Very Serious Business

Carrie Sundra (@AlpenglowYarn) spoke with us about doing a Kickstarter on her own… and nearly failing.

The SkeinMinder is an automation tool for small yarn businesses (and enthusiastic amateurs). When the successful Kickstarter nearly fell short, Carrie candidly wrote about it (includes a great description of the economies of scale).

Carrie’s yarn company is Alpenglow Yarn. You can use the contact page there to ask for electrical engineering help as well. Carrie is active on Instagram and her blog is a blend of crafts and engineering.

Ravelry is the social media site for knitters and crocheters (requires free account to see anything)

The insanely popular Potato Salad Kickstarter.