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Happy Birthday to us! One year in the bag! Thanks for all of our wonderful listeners!

• From the EEVBlog forums, user “dics” is listening to The Amp Hour on a breadboard! Awesome!
• Tech Shop SF is matching donations on a new campaign to spread the word of Hacker/Makerspaces in the community.
• Chris’s alma mater, Case Western Reserve, is talking about starting something  called “Thinkbox“. Could be a school/hackerspace joint space, hopefully as well stocked as a Tech Shop. If it materializes, we think it should be called a Hackerversity™
• There are other examples out there in existence today, but not quite a fully public/private sharing with good funding. Some examples:
• BUILDS
• MITERS
• SPaRC
• MIT Media Lab
• Dave is excited about the possible re-release of the HP15C calculator.
• Funky Hakko guide to soldering. Perhaps it was lost in translation but some of the “stories” in this are downright creepy. We prefer “Soldering is Easy“
• Another post from the EEVblog forums, a member asks about how much fudge factor a design should have, specifically relating to power budgets.
• Chips continue to pull in system level functionality. Does this affect the role of a hardware designer? Examples of “all in one” type chips:
• Radar front end
• ECG Processor + Front End
• An audio codec (DSP, DAC, ADC, PGAs, op amps, etc)
• COTW: The temperature sensing Texas Instruments TMP006, a thermopile based sensor with a serial output.
• This Day In Nerd History: Joseph F. Enbelberger was born (July 26th). He developed the first industrial robot in the US and is referred to as the “Father of Robotics”. Also co-founded Unimation in 1965.
• New segment, yet to be named (“wank of the week” doesn’t seem to fit the bill). If you hear about bogus products or claims, send them our way. Though not a product, the TI “Thank An Engineer” videos receive honorable mention for having “engineer” in the title but not actually being about engineering…

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Our friend and previous guest, Jeri Ellsworth, returned to the show to talk about her latest projects. And holy wow, they are pretty great!

• Jeri discusses the process of making transistors in your home using household chemicals, silicon wafers and a small kiln or oven. More info on her process of making the chips over at her recently created “JeriEllsworthJabber” channel.
• The making of a silicon ingot (we called it a boule on the show)
• Later, the Japanese industry perfected some of the processes.
• These days, discoveries come in the form of creating an all organic processor.
• In the silicon process used today, they are creating 20 nm line widths while still using 193 nm technology!
• Jeri is talking to Intersil about doing some work for them. Dave mentions that it’s important for chip companies to get their names out there
• An EEVBlog forum member pointed out that the Fluke87 removed expired patents on the latest rev.
• This Day In Nerd History: Intel was incorporated in 1968. The founders were Andy Grove, Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce.
• Jeri explains more about her Software Defined Radio mentioned on a previous episode of The Amp Hour.

Not as many links as usual, but that’s because we were too busy talking about electronics (as requested!). Keep an eye here for a video later today.

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Our initial try of Google Plus “Hangouts”! Hopefully all the interuptions and the concentration on a new medium didn’t interrupt our usual shabby quality of podcast (thereby downgrading our rating to “godawful”). We had fun and hopefully will be able to use it to pull in guests in an easier way and somehow get back to the shabby quality everyone is used to!

• This Week in Nerd History:
• Nikola Tesla was born and reddit was celebrating. There’s a video explaining him to anyone who’s never heard of him. Alternately, stick your finger in your electrical outlet, he’s to thank!

• David Jones (fine,  Bowie) recorded Space Oddity 5 days before the Apollo launch and released it on July 11th, 1969. He also played Nikola Tesla in “The Prestige”
• Everything is in beta at Google, it seems. They recently cancelled their power meter and Microsoft followed suit with their “hohm” service a few weeks later.
• Google+ is fun but do we need more social networks? Chris likes it for the video. Dave likes it for not being Facebook (like XKCD said it)
• Last shuttle launch was this past week. Neil deGrasse Tyson had some choice words and showed obvious disappointment.
• The open source DMM idea was advanced a bit further by a new member of the EEVforum. Great use of Google Sketchup.
• The new DMM could use the recently released Open Hardware License instituted by CERN. The mailing  list also says it’s ok to say “Open Source Hardware”.
• Dino from Hackaweek of tried building the USB “cough switch” we discussed last time. Ended up learning a lot from a webinar about USB.
• The Amp Hour has a YouTube account (but might not get used right away because of length restrictions on YouTube videos)
• WTF?
• Cleveland apparently has a semiconductor company! Cool! It’s called ER Semiconductor and they make image sensors.
• The Phillipines is trying to boost their chip industry by sponsoring the design and manufacture of a new microprocessor, the Rizal.
• Why bring the chip company to you when you can hire out of Silicon Valley? Huawei (out of China) is expanding a design center in SV.
• May be due to the fact that manufacturing in China is less of a deal than previously, according to a recent Time Magazine article.
• Shoutout:
• The ham community. Chris was cleaning out his inbox and amazed at how helpful the community of “elmers” is. Unfortunately, the community is shrinking and mentors don’t create interest in subjects.
• More videos like the one of Shatner explaining microcontrollers. Sponsored by Bell Labs and hosted at the AT&T tech channel.

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• What would be the best way to create a “cough switch” or “kill switch” for a USB based podcasting microphone?
• EMSL created an AWESOME 555 Timer Footstool. Such a great replica!



• Design Spark corrected us on what their new plugin does, in relation to Google Sketchup.
• Dave is wondering what kind of criteria to use to evaluate all different CAD packages objectively. Let us know in the comments!
• Harry from Robogaia linked here. He just started a new business from his home!
• Richard (@SJGadgetGuy) also linked here from his new site. Thanks!
• Dave recently fixed a Leapster for a friend’s child.
• Great segment on PBS about the Maker movement and how it can help education.
• More sexist marketing for electronics, this time from PCB Pool.
• Cool walkthrough tour of Advanced Circuits board house on Base2.us. Shows just how many steps are required to make a board!
• The printed electronics battle rages on! Dave may have won the battle but Chris will win the war!
  • A recent(?) announcement about a pen that can draw conductive lines between components.
  • A recent IEEE Spectrum article discusses a soup of suspended nanotubes could help fabricate new transistors.
• Datasheet of the week! A Hammond Mfg datasheet has a rotating 3D model built into the datasheet. Cool!
• EEVblog forum members working on an open source DMM. Need to watch out for Kickstarter pitfalls.
• EE Times article about a recent TI conference showcases the technology they’ll be focusing on (and likely other competitors will follow suit):

• Medical electronics, especially for personal instrumentation (would you like a portable ultrasound unit to see where your vein is, before we stick in that needle?)
• Touch responsive and touch-feedback haptics for communications and entertainment devices (feel that screen vibrate locally, as you strum the virtual guitar strings)
• Microcontroller-based digital power control (so long, analog closed loops)
• Power management for photovoltaic panels, portable batteries, and electric and hybrid electric vehicles (EVs, HEVs)
• Smart energy grids, power monitoring and home appliances
• Advanced motor control, with smarter algorithms and with improved drivers and FETs
• “Soundbar” electronics for turnkey home-audio system designs
• Data acquisition ICs and subsystems for harsh environments, -55⁰C to +210⁰C (definitely not for the  ”casual” board designer)
• Superspeed USB (USB 3.0) transceivers, which push the standard to 5.0 Gsps raw data-transfer rate (10× USB 2.0) while improving power efficiency, maintaining backwards compatibility, and enhancing data-transfer efficiency