236: The Concept of Delayed Gratification (Repeat)

Roger Linn (@roger_linn) gave us new ideas about musical instruments, detailing how wonderful expressive control, 3D buttons, and keyscanning can be.

Roger’s company is Roger Linn Design. We talked extensively about the LinnStrument, some about the AdrenaLinn for guitar, and only a little bit about the analog drum machine Tempest.

A key matrix circuit is a popular way to handle a large number of buttons but it falls prey to n-key rollover. Roger adds force sense resistors to this (FSR example at Sparkfun).

If you have an idea for an instrument, Roger has already written his response to your request for a prototype. Roger gave a keynote address at ADC '16 about the LinnStrument, including showing the sounds it can make.

OHMI Trust is the one handed musical instrument society enabling music making for everyone.

 

Roger mentioned some other expressive instruments including:

341: Big Hugs to Everybody

Phoenix Perry (@phoenixperry) returns to speak with us about education and the importance of merging art and technology.

Phoenix’s website is phoenixperry.com. The art installation crossing the virtual and the physical world was called Forest Day Dream. Phoenix is teaching a free online class: Create Expressive Video Games.

Phoenix is the Master’s degree coordinator for University of the Arts London Creative Computing Institute.

Diversity and accessibility are important, some resources:

Phoenix was previously on Embedded 204: Abuse Electricity

340: The Left Bunny Slipper

Chris and Elecia talk about getting transcriptions, accessibility, operating systems, and networking.

Elecia recommends reading Haben by Haben Girma (@HabenGirma). 

Transcripts will initially be only available to Patreon supporters. To become a Patreon supporter, go to patreon.com/embedded. If you can’t be a supporter and still really want the transcripts, hit the contact link.

Chris Gammell’s nifty new podcast (video!) is Contextual Electronics. 

Want to know more about how operating systems work? Listeners recommended Miro Samek’s video series. 

Chris answered some questions about LISP networking. More information about the layers of the network can be found in the OSI model. The mobile focused LISP project that Chris worked on is now at openoverlayrouter.org and has pointers for more documentation and code.

339: Integrity of the Curling Club

Dan Zimmerman (@dmz) spoke with us about voting, voting machines, building trust in software, and transparency.

Dan works for Galois (https://galois.com/ , @galois) and Free and Fair (https://freeandfair.us/, @free_and_fair). He worked on the US Vote Foundation’s E2E-VIV Project on the Future of Voting. The artifacts from that project are on github: github.com/GaloisInc/e2eviv.

Dan (and Galois) worked with Microsoft on ElectionGaurd, a suite of tools to help make elections end-to-end verifiable,  The tools are open source: github.com/microsoft/electionguard

The Helios verifiable online election system is also open source: github.com/benadida/helios-server

We failed to talk about the DARPA SSITH and FETT programs but if you are still reading the show notes, they might be of interest. We also didn’t talk about the National Academies report on Securing the Vote.

338: Working With People Is Terrible

In a surprising turn of tables, Christopher White (@stoneymonster) joins the show as a guest to talk about his career, burnout, and musical instruments. 

Christopher attended Harvey Mudd College for his undergrad mathematics degree then got a Master’s degree in physics at San Jose State University.

Some things he has worked on include:

His current band is 12ax7 (12ax7.fm). The outro music is a track called “Solstice”.

337: Not Completely Explode

Kate Temkin (@ktemkin) explained USB: how to get started, general orientation, useful tools, and when you’d use it in embedded systems.

Kate’s website is ktemkin.com. She works at Great Scott Gadgets.

References for USB: 

USB Stacks we talked about:

Open Source VIDs are available from Openmoko and Pid.codes

Kate recently gave a talk about making USB accessible. Part of the talk was about Luna, an FPGA based USB multitool.

Some open source FPGA tools:

336: Common Sense Is Not Common Sense

Philana Benton (@TechnoPHILiANA) spoke with us about mentoring: how to be a good mentor, what to expect, and what not to do. 

If you’d like to try mentoring, sign up for Philana’s DivTekSpace (divtekspace.org). You can do a resume review, a mock interview, give career advice, and/or refer students to your company.

Philana’s home page is philanaaurelia.com

We also mentioned imentor.org

335: Patching on the Surface of Mars

Joel Sherrill (JoelSherrill) spoke with us about choosing embedded operating systems and why open source RTEMS (RTEMS_OAR) is a good choice.

Embedded #307: Big While Loop: Chris and Elecia talk about when and where they’d use RTOSs

Embedded #93: Delicious Gumbo: Joel gave an introduction to the RTEMS RTOS

Joel works at OAR Corp (oarcorp.com) on RTEMS (rtems.org). RTEMS runs on many development boards including the BeagleBone, Raspberry Pi, and two FPGA boards: ARM ZYNQ-7000 and the Arty Board.

Joel recommends the operating systems book by Alan Burns and Andy Wellens. It comes in many flavors and editions including Real Time Systems and Programming Languages: Ada 95, Real-Time Java and Real-Time C/POSIX (3rd Edition).

NASA Core Flight System (https://cfs.gsfc.nasa.gov/)

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) (https://epics-controls.org/)

226: Camp AVR Vs. Camp Microchip (Repeat)

Jay Carlson (@jaydcarlson), author of The Amazing $1 Microcontroller, joined us to talk about comparing microcontrollers and determining our biases. This was an in-depth comparison of different micro features.

Jay is an electrical engineer specializing in electronics design and embedded programming (contact). His blog is new and interesting.

We talked to SEGGER’s Dirk Akeman about JLink on #218: Neutron Star of Dev Boards.

334: Bag of Heuristics

Matt Godbolt (@mattgodbolt) joined us to talk about assembly code, becoming a verb, 6502s, exploring compilers, and application binary interfaces.

Compiler Explorer can be found at godbolt.org. The code is on github (compiler-explorer/compiler-explorer). 

Matt also has jsbeeb, a BBC Micro (6502) simulator. You can try it out at bbc.godbolt.org. Its code and more information is on github (mattgodbolt/bbc-micro-emulation). Matt recently gave a video presentation about jsbeeb for ABUG. 

Some other videos that may be of interest:

The best compiler book seems to be The Dragon Book.

Hyrum’s Law on writing interfaces.

Application Binary Interface (ABI)

333: Project Purgatory

Bailey Steinfadt (@baileysteinfadt) spoke with us about the makerspaces, communities, following many paths, and misbehaving robots.

Bailey works at Dojo Five and Stone Path Engineering. 

Area 515 is a non-profit maker space in the Des Moines, Iowa area. They supported their local emergency services with over 6000 face shields. If you are looking for something to do with your 3d printer, look at One Shot Bias Tape Maker and the how to use it video.

Bailey recommended the Makers On Tap podcast and grill mats for soldering. Elecia recommended the You Can Do It!: The Merit Badge Handbook for Grown-Up Girls as a book she’s only picked up once in a bookstore years ago but has thought about as an excuse to pick up new skills.

332: There Were Fires

Doug Harriman of Simplexity (@SimplexityPD) spoke with us about motors, controllers, and designing mechatronic systems.

Simplexity (or if you want to contact them)

Doug recommends Control Systems Engineering by Norman S. Nise. Elecia recommends Notes on Diffy Qs by Jiří Lebl from American Institute of Mathematics list of free and approved math textbooks. They both like the 3 Brown 1 Blue YouTube channel.

If you liked the part about how to choose a motor, you might want to watch Doug’s webinar on DC Motors & Motion Control Systems (you’ll have to give your info to see it), see his post about What is a Motion Control System and Five Tips for Mechatronic System Integration.

331: Friendly Tea Kettle

Dr. Katy Huff (@katyhuff) spoke with us about nuclear engineering, effective software development, and the apropos command.

Katy wrote an O’Reilly book describing Python software development to scientists: Effective Computation in Physics: Field Guide to Research with Python. She has been involved with Software Carpentry.

Katy is a professor at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering. She uses Bell and Glasstone’s Nuclear Reactor Theory in her Nuclear Reactor Theory class. 

Katy’s personal site

Stellerator

Godiva Device

Janelle Shane creates the AI Weirdness blog. (She was also a guest in #275: Don’t Do What the Computer Tells You.)

330: I Just Want a Dog

Chris Svec (@christophersvec) chatted with us about going from engineer to manager and working from home. 

Chris had many book recommendations (these are affiliate links):

Chris is hiring for his team. Check out the iRobot Jobs page or look at the specific jobs he’s hiring for (in Boston, MA): Associate Software Engineer and Principal Software Engineer.

Chris gave a talk to Purdue students about working from home, there is a video and a summary blog post.

An interesting tweet about the difference between working from home and what people are doing now. The Canadian Federal government gave the following advice:

EXxX5B5X0AAhTth.jpg


Finally, Svec’s family wants a cat. They probably won’t get a Sphinx despite it matching all the criteria. Maybe an Abyssinian. Or maybe a dog.

image (3).png

190: Trust Me, I’m Right (Repeat)

Matt Godbolt (@mattgodbolt) spoke with us about settling arguments with Compiler Explorer.

March Micro Madness is here!

Compiler Explorer comes in different flavors:

You can see the beta version by putting a beta on the end:  https://gcc.godbolt.org/beta/

This a fully open source project. You can read the code and/or run your own version:

Matt works at DRW working on low latency software. Note that DRW is hiring for software engineers. You can read about the evolution of Compiler Explorer on their blog.

Matt’s personal blog is xania.org. You might like parts about 6502 Timings. He also has several conference talks on YouTube including x86 Internals for Fun & Profit and Emulating a 6502 in Javascript. Matt was previously at Argonaut Games.

Jason Turner of C++ Weekly and his C++17 Commodore 64

Could a Neuroscientist Understand a Microprocessor? paper (with a nod to Don’t Panic GeoCast’s Fun Paper Friday)

 

327: A Little Bit of Human Knowledge

Daniel Situnayake (@dansitu) spoke with us about machine learning on microcontrollers.

Dan is the author of TinyML: Machine Learning with TensorFlow Lite on Arduino and Ultra-Low-Power Microcontrollers. You can read the first several chapters at tinymlbook.com. 

TinyML is a part of TensorFlow Lite. See the microcontroller getting started guide.

Dan works for Edge Impulse (@EdgeImpulse) which is making tools for easier machine learning integration at the edge. Their tools are free and they also have a getting started guide.

Dan recently posted on the Edge Impulse blog about training a TinyML model to capture lion roars.

For TinyML meetups and a forum, check out tinyml.org

Lacuna Space: low cost sensors transmitting to space

The Rainforest Connection is using small sensors to monitor for chainsaw sounds


326: Wrong in the Right Way

Erin Talvitie of Harvey Mudd College spoke with us about machine learning, hallucinating data, and making good decisions based on imperfect predictions.

Paper we discussed: Self-Correcting Models for Model-Based Reinforcement Learning

Erin’s grant: Using Imperfect Predictions to Make Good Decisions

For a reinforcement learning book, Erin suggests Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction by Richard S. Sutton and Andrew G. Barto or the lecture series by David Silver.

For a machine learning book, Elecia likes Hands-On Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn, Keras, and TensorFlow: Concepts, Tools, and Techniques to Build Intelligent Systems by Aurélien Géron

325: Hasn’t Been R2D2'd

John Saunders (@NYCCNC) spoke with us about building a Johnny Five robot on his NYC CNC YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/saunixcomp). 

You can find all of the Johnny Five build videos on a playlist or check out the NYC CNC page. As mentioned, Input Inc did a lot of the preliminary work.

John recommends books:

John is also the founder of Saunders Machine Works (they have a contact page).

How Johnny Five got his name