Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Welcome, Eben Upton of the Raspberry Pi Project!

• Chris just got back from Maker Faire!
• Is there a stigma against “Makers” by engineers by profession? There’s an article at Engineer Blogs about this subject.
• There was an article from the Drive for Innovation stating the engineer’s dislike for Makers as well.
• No one recognized Chris because of his Twitter picture.
• Chris built a 555 boost converter for his bring-along project that then powered some HB LEDs.
• Jeff (MightyOhm) was there presenting his open source hardware Geiger counter and showing it off at his booth
  
• The commerce side of Maker Faire was really comfortable, it was different than conferences, where you should use fake emails and probably don’t want to buy from anyone.
• We’ll be shooting for a guest every other week from now on, feel free to call us on it if you don’t hear one.
• The crew from Dangerous Prototypes did a fun video on “How To” for Maker Faire. Look for Chris and Bunnie at 1:20 and then Chris later around the 5 minute mark.
  

Thanks to Eben for talking to Chris during Maker Faire! And thanks to Element14 for helping set up the interview. It was tons of fun.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

• Chris is off to Makerfaire in San Fran
• Dave loves his Classic Messenger bag
• The East Gipslands MakerSpace is starting up, and they have rented a HUGE space. See the Walkthrough
• People don’t want smart meters on their houses.
• OrCAD now has an online marketplace, where you can download footprints and “apps”
• Mayhew Labs have a nice online 3D Gerber viewer
• New package announce by NXPs. Jeez, can’t they get smaller?
• I have a job, but I don’t know what I’m supposed to do!
• Map of ee jobs in the US
• Environmental protection: What is it for? How is it done? When is it necessary?
• Chip Of The Week – STM6524

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Welcome Øyvind Janbu, CTO of Energy Micro!

• Øyvind went to school in Trondheim where there are multiple schools and many tech companies based around them.
• Many early members, including the CEO, were part of ChipCon, which was later purchased by Texas Instruments.
• Energy Micro (EM) is mostly employee owned.
• Since EM is a fabless semiconductor company, the processing (manufacturing) is done primarily at TSMC.
• “Le Sense” is an homage to the movie Pulp Fiction, in the same scene where they mention the Royale with Cheese.
• Energy Micro has a VP of Simplicity, dedicated to making things easier for the customer.
• The radios coming from EM are a variety of radio standards, including Bluetooth Low Energy.
• The royalties of an ARM core are confidential, but ARM has more information about licensing in their annual reports.
• Some of the newest parts in the EM Gecko family use the ARM M0+ core, which many vendors are promoting right now for low power.
• The EM products have some unusual features, like DMA from an ADC while in sleep mode.
• Energy Micro publishes their longevity guarantee right on their website for all to see.
• Chips are available through distributors like Digikey and have been part of their strategy from day one.

Many thanks to Øyvind for being on our show and giving us more insight into chip companies. He was really straightforward with his answers and we hope you learned a lot from him. Please leave any additional questions in the comments and we’ll try to make sure the proper people answer them.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

• We’ll be interviewing Øyvind Janbu, the CTO and co-founder of Energy Micro next week! We’ll have a separate post for asking him questions.
• Chris will be speaking at the Bay Area Maker Faire. If you’re going to be there, find a comfy chair and prepare for a snoozefest
• Second reminder for applying to the Lemnos Labs hardware incubator program, which will be closing soon.
• Our friend Alan Wolke did a really fun tour of his shop…through the screen of his oscilloscope! Lots of fun!
• Dave has finally figured out his MakerBot…with some help from his friends and by reading the (friggin) manual.
  
• Chris brings up a fun direct ink resist print using a vintage Epson printer. Great quality!
• Sometimes process adjustments are necessary to get more life out of a process node. Chris mentioned an Engineer Blogs post about Photolithography, but that actually doesn’t talk about the interference. There is a slide set from the University of Waterloo that does a good job explaining this process.
• Intel continues to win by being the bleeding edge process company. Will be interesting to see if they get into the foundry business.
• Dave mentioned the recently announced scandal involving Silverbrook in Australia, who have failed to produce output for many many years.
• Apparently it’s possible to print super caps with a Laser Scribe DVD burner:
  
• DigiKey instituted a visual catalog…online! Finally! Have they been listening to the show??
• LEDs that are going to be lighting up homes and workplaces almost were not possible. A researcher in the field explains the small margin on the bandgap required.
• Dave mentions Gazumping, which Chris had never heard of.
• Relays are a simple and yet crucial part of electronics. Chris was looking for cheap and small ones and was shown these from Omron. However, they didn’t fit the bill. Instead, we found out about new research into relay-like devices….on silicon! Wow!

Don’t forget to subscribe to us! We suggested Miro (Dave’s favorite for the desktop) and BeyondPod (Chris’s favorite for his Android phone). There are lots of great options out there, we just want to make sure you hear about new shows when they are posted! Thanks for subscribing!