Suggestions
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If you have any suggestions of topics you’d like to hear discussed, please leave a comment below and we will try to cover them. We would like to steer away from the tutorial side of things, but other than that anything involving electronics is fair game.
Voice
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[...] Suggestions [...]
Hi, enjoying the shows so far!
What do you both make of photonic computing, do you see much of a future in it, if so when and what advantages would it have over the way we do things now? Thanks.
I’ve loved your shows thus far. Keep up the good work!
I’d love to hear your opinions about the following…
In this microcontroller age, do you think that it’s important for novices and newcomers to learn component level stuff?
I’ve done plenty of PIC and uC stuff, but I’m working up a simple/cheap frequency counter for my website. It would be trivial (and has been done a dozen times) with a PIC, but I feel that there is a benefit for kids and newcomers to string together actual gates and counters, to look at timing diagrams, etc. I’ve received a fair amount of flack for the decision (not that I care). Is there a benefit to learning logic when you can just throw a uC at everything? Why learn about biasing a transistor when you can just stick in a ULN2003? I’m going to publish it regardless, but I’m very curious what you guys think.
Challenge Dave to an hour without mention “The Woz” . He’s besotted by the guy
.
Mike.
Hi Davey/Chris
Like the new podcast show!
As you mentioned, although your videos are always well produced and entertaining, offer is it not practical
to watch them, especially whilst driving or working. So it’s great to see the new podcast idea!
One thing I noticed, and obviously it’s early days, but there is no intro/outro/incidental music on your show.
Having an interest in electronics and being a musician I have music that maybe of interest to you for use on
your new show. If you are interested, check out some of my projects and I there is anything that you like
let me know…
http://www.deepforms.co.uk < ambient music
http://www.concept7.co.uk < rock music
Either way I wish you and the podcast the best of luck!
Dave
http://www.earthspike.com
[...] along with your questions or thoughts. Any suggestions for future shows should be placed on The Amp Hour Suggestions Page so that we can easily separate it out and talk alllllll about you during our next show. Looking [...]
Are you guys planing on having special guest’s on your show, Skype is able to do conference calling, you could get someone like Ada on the show and interview her as a pair, Good cop, Bad cop style.
Mike.
I really like to listen the show and love the background information i get from it. Good listening in work when doing tedious testing tasks of our electronics products.
While this is no suggestion in program content wise i thought i would get the message to you by this page. I listen the mp3 files on my mobile phone and the small problem is that you have tagged all the episodes differently in ID3 data. So consistent naming pattern in Artist field would help a lot when trying to find the downloaded files from the phone’s library. Also making sure that Genre is tagged as podcast helps a lot, because at least my phone then understands that it’s a podcast and remembers the location where i had last been in the file.
I know it’s hard when recording trough skype, but try to level the mic’s evenly. Dave is usually louder than Chris
Keep up the good work! I really appreciate the time and effort you put into this.
Great feedback, thanks Jere!
I had different ID3 tag data previously when we didn’t have a name, I’ll try to standardize it from now on. As for the mics, I do the editing, so I always think I sound too loud. Must be in my head!
We don’t record through Skype, we record our voices separately (I use Audacity to record my USB podcast mic directly).
Skype is only used so we can actually chat.
Dave.
[...] or website. Please leave any feedback or questions about this episode in the comments below and any suggestions for future episodes at our suggestions page. Thanks for [...]
[...] Suggestions [...]
You seem to keep begging for suggestions so I thought about it a while and here’s one;
There seem to be so many newbies on the forums, It might be interesting to hear what you guys might suggest for the first projects a novice should tackle. I know what I’ve suggested…
- A linear 5v power supply
- Several configurations of 555 circuits
- then a little audio amp
etc etc.
Further, to better grow your listener base, you might want to strive to have both a high level topic (advanced functions of different scopes), and a more basic nugget for beginners.
Obviously I a little biased toward supporting and teaching kids and newbies, specially since I found that most high schools around here no longer teach component level electronics.
I’m actually contemplating creating a new website that does just that: Provide a path to learning basic electronics through simple, inexpensive hands-on projects.
Yes, please do so! You might actually want to team up with Chris and Dave/Dave and Chris.
Somebody else mentioned the Khan Academy elsewhere. I’d appreciate something in this style very much!
Thanks guys.
BTW, it might be a good idea to have a genuine beginner in terms of electronics around for testing your teching skills. No, I wasn’t suggesting me!
This would be great! My 11 yr old would love to have simple projects that we could set up and he could just do it with limited help from dad. Could be great to start a “club” for middle school/Jr High kids to come and learn about electronics.
The Arduino has been discussed several times and I am looking for a kit or set of recommended parts (Arduino board and sheilds) that could help capture my son’s imagination and get him started in uProcessors? Chris and Dave could you comment on this sometime too?
Allan–First step is making sure they know how cool it can be. Introduce them to MAKE magazine, Adafruit blog and anywhere else that showcases some of this amazing technology.
Most important, do it with them. It’s good bonding and you can help them along. Just don’t do too much. Let them struggle and answer questions for themselves. It’s an important part of the process.
Other than that, we can try to get something on the books but this has really occurred in so many other places, I’m not sure about it. I’ll talk it over with Dave and see if it makes sense to talk about it again.
Chris, thanks for the response with the recommended magazine and site (have checked out both some time ago). I am definitely a hands on teacher and very much agree with the working together thing. The magazine and Arduino are on both our wish lists for Christmas since these things are currently luxuries for us.
I too am an analogue engineer though I now work in combustion engineering but really want to get back into it. Programmed Z80s (in machine code) then PIC processors 10+ years ago to control my other projects. Thought this could be a great opportunity to get back into electronics as a hobby and do the bonding thing with my kids especially since my 11 yr old wants to be “an electrical engineer just like daddy”.
as a basic new student , I would be interested .. A project I would like to learn and do is a charge controller for a battery bank; such as a home solar charged bank.
In episode seven you discussed the Arduino system. If anyone is interested I publish a regular tutorial series that covers everything from blinking an LED to wireless communication, RFID and more at http://tronixstuff.com/tutorials
have fun!
john
Posted this on the EEVBlog Forum but thought this would be a better place.
I’m a beginner hobbyist and a discussion on how to get started would be great. I know it depends on what you want to do, but a general discussion would be great. Possibly what are good reads to get started, without all the theory BS? What electronics magazines do you guys read? Conferences?
I like the rants, so maybe a rant about theory vs practical electronics.
You’re not likely to get a rant -against- theory from either Chris or Dave, probably the contrary.
The thing is, if all you’ll ever want to do is duplicate other peoples circuits (which is totally fine) you’ll probably never have to know any theory at all.
If, however, you ever want to design your own stuff basic electronics theory will probably be essential.
The gotcha in that is that if you build someone else’s circuit and it doesn’t work, without some knowledge of how the circuit works you’ll kinda be screwed.
Good point. Theory and practice must be balanced as John says. Otherwise it’s just moving wires around and hoping it works (I’ve been there and I felt helpless). Anyway, I’ll put it on the schedule and we’ll see if it gets into the next show. Could be a good topic but we’ll see.
“Otherwise it’s just moving wires around and hoping it works”
In other words … circuit bending *ack*
Yes, I want to know the theory and math behind what Im learning…I am just building some classic audio equipment right now, and really just getting my feet wet… More to learn as time comes…
Im in school right now to become a E.E. and as school goes, it always goes slow…
I will eventually figure out the big picture with circuits…Im just interested on what a good meter for starting out is? I can go get a cheapo meter(BUT) I would rather go get the right one and be done with it…
Thanks for the response guys! JOE
I have some suggestions concerning more on the technical part of the podcast. For instance, Skype makes some problems to you, well, there is Mumble – http://mumble.sourceforge.net/ – Its a Open source project that creates a kind of chat room but with voice, it is cross platform and you have a variety of codecs to choose from. The other suggestion i have is about the audio levels of the voices. sometimes it gets difficult to ear some sentences when I ear the podcast on public transportation, this is because some sentences are said further away from the mic or maybe lower volume speech. you can try to solve this using a normalizer and compressors, so the levels can be more stable.
One “plug” idea for the show, could be a shout out of a project each podcast. something you found interesting or worth spreading, nothing fancy, just let people now.
other than that, great show
[...] through them for ideas and suggestions. Don’t think we don’t still watch our official Suggestions Page though, because we do. Feel free to continue posting ideas [...]
I think you guys should do a show about dating for nerds. I know Dave wrote a book about internet dating so I think you guys should talk about it.
Chris…saw your shows touted on EElife and wanted to listen…but I only have a slow internet connection at home…so tried to download at work…but downloading a few hundred megs would probably be noticed…so could you not put lower quality MP3s on the site for luddites like me?
Thanks
The shows are all in .mp3 format. The average show size is 28 mins and that’s at 64kbps compression with a mono channel; unfortunately that’s about as low as we’re willing to go. It get’s pretty bad at 32kbps. The real problem is that the show goes an hour! Our darn name gets us in trouble again! I honestly don’t think we can get the show any smaller with current technologies. If anyone knows a way, please let me know. Otherwise, I’d suggest you try streaming the episodes at work.
Hi guys,
I have a suggestion for something to discuss during the next show.
You have mentioned open source a few times and I have to say I’m a fan of open source myself. Which is why I was a little stunned to see that the Instructables site, which hosts thousands of peoples free (open source) ideas, has a PAID membership. I realise they also have a free membership but there are some significant limitations compared to the paid version.
Surely this is making a profit from other people’s, open source work. While technically you can still access all the information on the free membership, I don’t think it’s really in the spirit of open source sharing.
Interested to hear your thoughts.
“Surely this is making a profit from other people’s, open source work.”
I disagree. It’s trying to make a profit through aggregating hundreds of DIY projects into a single, indexed and searchable website. If you published a physical book of a few hundred OS projects, would you give the book away for free?
I do see your point. But a book is quite different to a website.
Not to belittle that amount of work it must take to run and maintain a website of that size, but they are basically hosting other peoples ideas/designs. I just find it counter to the spirit of open source to then hold some of the ideas, or the easy access to the ideas hostage to make a profit.
This is a totally niggly point so feel free to ignore it.
I’d suggest that you make the links on the AH main page and the shownotes open up in new tabs/windows (like Dave does).
Hi,
I’ve just started listening and like the content so far, but some more technical and design related content would be nice.
I’d suggest talking about some less commonly known analog components, e.g. difference amps, instrument amps (the difference between the two), applications and circuits.
I’d also be interested in hearing general design philosophies and discussion. How much time do you spend designing, doing component research, testing, documentation? What is your idea of testing, best practices, etc. The software community spends ridiculous amounts of time taking best design practices but in the EE world I rarely hear it discussed.
Love the show! Now I’ve got a program to listen to when I stumble my haggard arse onto the treadmill for some much needed exercise!
I loved the conversation on self publishing, and it’s very timely for me. I’m working on a project fragment that might make a decent article, but I’m not the best writer. I can probably skate by emulating what’s gone before, but I was wondering if you guys had any tips.
I’m looking for characteristics of good and bad articles, what to do and avoid, that sort of thing. I’m also pondering the problem of technical accuracy, as I’m not very experienced yet. I’d love to run the design by the eevblog community, but I’m not sure it’s ethical to add design improvements if I’m getting paid for the article (which would be an enormous help in building up a lab). Conversely, early release on a public forum has some risk of being beat to press. Seems tough to have it both ways, what would you guys do?
I’d love to hear your impressions, but it’s no rush, as I’ve still got bugs to hammer out!
Thanks for all your hard work, looking forward to my next run to nowhere.
DJPhil
That’s what friends are for! Run the article by your friends, either online or in person. Instead of the “One to many” feedback of the forum, try putting it in a Google doc and sending the link to a few friends to look at it.
As for the articles themselves, you’ll have to find your style. If you’re showcasing a project on your own site, go for lots of pictures and don’t be too wordy (a trap I often fall into myself). Being concise is usually the best solution. If it’s on someone else’s site (esp if you’re getting paid for it), see if they have any guidelines. Also look at other articles and try to pick out what you do and don’t like about their style.
Good luck!
Long winded? I am the KING of long winded!
It’s funny; for projects I’ve put on the web the feedback is always about 50/50 between “you talk too much” and “The detail was awesome … it helped me understand”. For my next few projects I’m going to try to put up two versions of each project. My standard super-detailed writeup, and then a streamlined version for the more advanced reader.
@DJPhil: I wouldn’t mind making/joining a mutual proofreader club.
Sure, I’d give it try. I’m still inexperienced, but that might wind up being an asset. If you can make me understand your project you’re off to a good start!
Right on, I’ll definitely need to read more short form articles to get me started. Up to now I’ve read almost nothing but datasheets, books, and appnotes.
I’ll look in to the whole ‘friends’ thing too, I’ve just been so busy tinkering!
Thanks Chris.
Hey Chris, this page is getting a bit long. Any thought about trimming it up?
Hey! just got to say I love listening to you guys and appreciate the links at the end of each show. There’s always a couple of interesting ones to checkout.
Just wondering if you could add AmpHour as the Album and Podcast as the Genre in your MP3 file info.
This will help organize your show in my MP3 better and seems to be what most podcasts are doing.
Right now you guys are put into an “unknown” folder by default.
Sure thing Bill. Some of the software I use doesn’t have that category so I choose “Other” instead of Podcast. I’ll try to make sure those two tags are in there.
Thanks,
I think I’m behind a bit but have to agree on your babes point of view. If the product is good you don’t need babes to sell it. If you want to look at babes, that’s what the beach is for.
Another thought on the WAV vs. MP3 battery life, WAV is a larger format that requires more writes to flash, which consumes significant power.
BTW, it would be cool to have a place for comments for each episode like Dave does.
Hey Bill, try clicking on the episode title, should take you to the individual pages.
Latest episode: http://www.theamphour.com/2010/10/21/chips-and-fabs-and-garages/
Would you guys consider supplying a machine transcription along with your casts? Unfortunately, I read faster than I type, and often I can’t afford to spend an hour listening to the podcast.
I would consider it if you knew a good (free) resource machine transcription service. With Dave’s accent and my mumbling I can only assume “The Amp Hour” would get translated to something like “Bebam Power” and so on and so on…
Even a bad transcription is better than no transcription. I can’t help with selecting machine transcription software – I haven’t dabbled in it ever since a scarring experience in a DSP class I took. Can’t imagine what the state-of-the-art is like now though.
“Bebam Power” … LOL
I just posted a link for this site on facebook. When you do that it let’s you pick an image from the page to be a thumbnail for the post. Unfortunately the only stand-alone image on the page that facebook finds is Dave sitting in his “studio”.
I’d suggest that you stick the round logo somewhere near the top of the page so that facebook has a better image to find.
I added a “Our logo” widget so it should show up now. Thanks for sharing it on Facebook!
I love the show.
Are you guys into simulation? Have you ever used LTSpice? When are times when simulation is useful/not useful?
CJ
Hey CJ! That was actually on the list for episode 16 but we didn’t get to it (weird, eh?). We’ll try and talk about it next week!
I don’t “do” Apple, I have a Zune player. At the bottom left corner of the following link you can register the AmpHour as a podcaster. The more listeners the merrier, right?
http://social.zune.net/podcasts/#
How about creating a Twitter account for @theamphour and pushing site update notifications to it with a service like http://twitterfeed.com/ ?
Was just listening to episode 17 and the discussion around nanofarads. I remember a few years ago reading some old research papers from the 1960′s where they kept referring to wavelengths of light in units of m mu (i.e. m then the symbol mu). I brought it up with one of the older professors hanging around and he said there was a period where spectroscopy researchers were not comfortable with the prefix nano, so they would instead use the equivalent but ridiculous millimicro.
This is about the DIY chip manufacturing process: I think that it would be possible for anyone to make a chip in the future if some company makes a machine to do all the processes. The only thing is that the company’s technology is so far ahead of the DIY chip machine that no one will make their own more ”primitive” chip but will simply buy it from the company. Big companies are always far ahead of anyone that wishes to do something himself.
I really appreciate the podcast, I’m jonesin for a good EE podcast… there’s tons of “tech” podcasts where they talk about new gadgets and stuff… blah, and then I use to go to the howstuffworks type podcasts but they don’t really dive into electronics, really can’t find any that do. I second one of the suggestions above that mentions bring guests in… I think that would be cool, I like to listen to this comedian podcast where this comedian interviews fellow stand-up comedians and they talk about their craft… it’s really interesting, it would be cool to hear you guys talk to your peers talk about our craft, ladyada would be awesome, it was cool when the mightyohm was on there, maybe yall could get a bob pease or jim williams? or those guys from the australian ee documentary… a second suggestion would be to have a part of the show dedicated to something techy without turning it into a tutorial but to get into the guts of it a little bit, a good spiel on FPGAs and why their better or worst than uC’s, thoughts on filters or ADC’s, or about SPI vs I2C vs RS232 or serial protocols in general… I dunno I’m just blabbing off the top of my head but would love to hear you guys talk a bit on specific electronic things… I think I just ranted… Chris, that’s a nice lookin wurlitzer you got there.
Not really related to electronics, but: Mr. Gammell, you probably already know this as an NPR junkie, but Steve Wozniak was on “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” as a not-my-job guest this past saturday. Something to send to Mr. Jones!
http://www.npr.org/2010/12/11/131967779/apple-co-founder-steve-wozniak-plays-not-my-job
Thanks for running the show, this “kiddie” looks forward to it every week, and wants to get into electronics!
So I watched a video over at EEvBlog with Dave discussing/ranting about being asked if he could fix TVs. Since Im not on his level yet and it is that time of year again, I get the more “entry level” question: “Can you fix the christmas lights?” Granted, the question is limited in time and when visiting family but is this what I have to look forward to? Will I always be asked to fix the light, change the batteries? I take some comfort in that things progress as I will never again be asked to set the clock on the Video.
Hey guys…Found your show recently…and I have to say how great it is! Keep up the good work!
Im wondering what your guys take is on getting a good scope for some audio projects that I am going to be building very soon?
Thanks
What do you guys think is going to be the interconnect technology of the future, to replace the pound of spaghetti behind my stereo? Light, Radio?, Induction?
Is Dave going to have to eat his hat soon
http://mrkimrobotics.com/src/MrKim_Sarik_Printable_Transistors_part1-v1.3.pdf
What about accidents at the workplace? Is it just I who have had the cord of the solder iron snag on something, loosing control of it and trying to catch it only to succeed while grabbing onto the tip? Soldering a polarized electrolytic cap the wrong way? Shortening out things with test leads?
Anyway, keep up the good work, its always fun to listen to the pod cast.
Hey guy happy holidays. Over conversation at dinner my sister brought up the fact that e-waste facilities were shipping their waste to places like China. Is this were the some of the gray market parts are coming from? Also she said that the US government computers have been recycled without wiping there hard drives and this has lead to identity thief. Just thought it would be interesting to talk about how e-waste is being handled and weather or not its being handled properly.
This is in our list for next week
Hi Guys,
It’d be great if you would be able to make a low res version of the podcast available.
Maybe: Mono, 22 khz, and 24 kbps?
I really enjoy listening to your shows.
Cheers
What do you guys think of PoP (package on package)?
I only came across this today in EPD, ( http://www.epdonthenet.net/article.aspx?ArticleID=37026&Code=1 ) do you think this will be the way forward for higher density boards? According to the article there is only one PCB fab in the UK that uses this process. http://www.axiom-ms.com/uk/1069.htm
I got a rant to add on one of your societies that you like to “discuss”: The IEEE.
I have been underemployed for about 18 months now and so I called IEEE to renew and hope they could reduce the $181 base membership cost. They told me that I would have to make less than $13,000 for any help. Excuse me! Add up some of the basic needs: Electricity, Nat. Gas, food, house payment, insurance/med. expenses, etc and that would be way more than $13,000! Add in costs associated with car, phone, internet etc needed for work and it goes even higher. Don’t forget the expenses of having a family.
I am making more than their required minimum but having a hard time justifying an expensive membership like IEEE.
Happy New Year to The Amp Hour.
I would like to suggest discussion of fail0verflow’s recent hacking of the PS3:
http://psgroove.com/content.php?581-Sony-s-PS3-Security-is-Epic-Fail-Videos-Within&
I know games consoles themselves are a little off-topic, but reverse engineering is very much on-topic and if you watch the videos in the link you will see there is much interesting discussion about how the PS3 works and how they got around all of the security!
It’s also interesting to note that unlike all of the other games consoles, the PS3 remained largely unhacked until now. The reason for this is because the PS3 originally allowed (and in fact adverstised) the option of running Linux. Since the hackers could already run Linux on it, they didn’t bother to hack it. But then Sony announced that they were pulling the Linux feature from the console. The only people this annoyed were the hackers themselves, and hence 12 months later the PS3 security has been broken.
I think this would make for interesting discussion!
In any case, keep up the good work on the show.
I should add that by “hackers” I am reffering to those who take pleasure in discovering how things work, tinkering with and modifiying things.
I am not referring to “crackers”, i.e. those who like to break security for the purpose of piracy. Although, unfortunately, piracy on the PS3 will now be a possibility due to the hacking work that was done. If Sony hadn’t pulled the Linux option, this would not have had to be done.
Hey guys if you get a chance this is worth a few laughs(?) its about people who have Electromagnetic hypersensitivity http://www.motherboard.tv/2010/10/27/the-electrophobes-the-people-who-say-electronics-are-killing-them-video
Reposted from my terrible comment placement earlier:
Just a note of some good analog/mixed signal reference material from ADI that may be of interest to people, The Op-Amp Applications Handbook and The Data Conversion Handbook. I’m currently using them while designing a circuit and PCB for my Masters thesis both books have proven to be invaluable resources. So far I have referenced the filter design chapters while searching for a high Q topology, the interfacing to ADCs chapter, and the PCB Layout Chapters. Referencing these books helped improve the quality of my circuit and PCB because I’ve caught small mistakes I would have otherwise overlooked due to lack of experience despite 5 years of school and 3 internships.
While both books look at converters and amps from a component and apps level, various IC level topologies are also briefly introduced allowing for a deeper understanding of the material.
Links are to older versions available in PDF format for downloading. Newer versions can be purchased from ADI or Amazon.
http://www.analog.com/library/analogDialogue/archives/39-05/op_amp_applications_handbook.html
http://www.analog.com/library/analogDialogue/archives/39-06/data_conversion_handbook.html
Yes, The op amp applications handbook is awesome. If you do analog in any form, you have thumbed through its pages. Great add though, we’ll try and let everyone know next week!
Hi,
I like to download the MP3 for later listening. I have found that the download quite often “gives up” before the full file is downloaded, giving me a partial file. I sometimes have to try 2 or 3 times to get a full show. Has anybody else reported this ? I’m using Firefox and don’t normally get this problem on other sites.
Thanks,
Pete.
Universal Analogue Sensor Interface?
Hi Chris / Dave,
I am currently in the process of jumping on the Helium Weather Balloon band-wagon. I’m designing my own research system for this, which I’m pretty excited about. It’ll have GPS tracking (hopefully via google maps in real time), it’ll have radio comms for sending commands and receiving data, it’ll also support SMS commands, and of course I’m going to design in some support for control of a camera for photographs of the edge of space and curvature of the Earth etc. The system will also support measurement of various sensors and storage of the results on an SD card for later analysis, and this is the part of the design I’d like to put out there for discussion. You should like it Chris, because it has an analogue context!
I intend for the finished system to be completely open source (hardware and software).
Okay, so while I was thrashing out the details of my design, it occurred to me that it would be extremely useful if I could conjure up some kind of universal sensor interface. Then, if other people wanted to make use of my design (perhaps someone who is interested in near space research but isn’t an electronics engineer) then they could reconfigure the universal sensor interface to support whatever sensor they decided to attach to it.
I’ve looked into this, and I’ve discovered that it would be impossible to account for all types of sensor because there are just too many variables (including non-linearity of sensors and also measurement circuits that would have to be accounted for), but I’m still hoping that I can support a range of adjustment so that a number of common sensor types could be captured.
I’ve also considered using digital components within my measurement circuits so that the micro could switch between different ranges. So, for example, RTD’s with different ranges of resistance could then be used. A PC front end for the micro could be used to select between these ranges.
So, what are your general thoughts on this?
If I’m not very successful in designing a “universal” sensor interface then I’ll ditch it in favour of providing support for the specific measurements I want to make. If I support temperature, humidity, pressure, and acceleration, this should account for the types of measurements most people would want to make anyway.
Cheers both! Keep the radio show going.
We’ll try and discuss this soon
Fantastic Show. HEard about it from the LowSWR podcast where your guys were mentioned. I just saw a website about recreating the 6502 CPU in a virtual transistor level simualtion. Intersting Stuff. You may want to check it out.
Hey Guys,
I really like the show and enjoy listening to it in the car. I thought I would comment on your segment about electronic junk and more specifically grab bags.
If your interested in that sort of thing you might check out http://www.tgimboej.org
The page pretty much describes the project, but it essentially is a way for people to box up some of their electronics junk and send it to someone who might want to receive it. Or heck you can even sign up to receive one yourself. I thought this was a great idea and have sent and received a few boxes myself.
When I packed up my first box it was quite a liberating experience. Like most electronics enthusiasts I hang onto everything. You never know when a project might come along needing some seemingly useless component. But when the opportunity came to actually clean out my workshop and ship the stuff off to someone who might actually use it I was all about that. So I made up a few boxes of stuff was “going to get to” and shipped it off to someone who might actually use it.
I received a few boxes of “new junk” myself and found some pretty cool stuff in it. Anyway I liked the idea and thought I’d pass it along to the listeners.
The project does ask that you eventually document what you send and receive as a way of potentially tracking boxes as they change hands and have things added and removed from them. Some boxes “disappear” and are never heard from again. Others have some long travels.
I am not sure how “green” this idea is as it does involve the shipping of your junk to some far away place, but the idea is kind of fun anyway.
I check out the EEV Blog frequently (subscriber) and listen to this Amp Hour show at my shop when I have the time. I’ll photo my work benches soon and submit them.
I figured, if anyone would be interested, this should make an interesting piece for your next Amp Hour. Ran across this on Vimeo website.
Arduino The Documentary (2010) English HD
http://www.vimeo.com/18539129
My web’s are http://www.kbsvr.com and http://www.brightronics.com, they are very out dated but still mostly accurate. I am one of those amateur radio guys too
Really nice you guys have put up your sites and the information they contain is both entertaining and useful. Thanks a lot guys!
Have you heard of the 27C3?
It’s a hacker conference organized by the Chaos Computer Club.
Some of the talks might be interesting for you:
https://events.ccc.de/congress/2010/wiki/Conference_Recordings
There are things like printing PCBs, USB, RFID, GSM,…
It’s a nearly infinite source of hacks.
Apex aka Valentin Buck
[...] Listener Brian J Hoskins is designing what he hopes will be a universal interface for instrumentation on a helium balloon he is designing. [...]
Here is an interesting workshop. This guy is doing serial surface mount production and debugging in his kitchen!
The project is to make low cost SDR radios for amateur satellite work
Take a look at http://www.funcubedongle.com/?p=392
The project is described here: http://www.funcubedongle.com/?page_id=2
Chris, Dave,
I have been listening all along since #1. You are hitting your stride! More polished, better momentum, good planning, good and better topics…. Keep it up.
wrt #26, you will hear US presidents go on and on at length about engineering when they visit industrial plants or any of the National Laboratories. However, not very newsworthy, right? Another tidbit for you Dave, Herbert Hoover (31st US president) was an engineer! A Stanford Grad,”Hoover went to Australia in 1897 as an employee of Bewick, Moreing & Co., a London-based mining company. He served as a geologist and mining engineer while searching the Western Australian goldfields for investments” and ” When visiting the mines at Broken Hill, New South Wales”… he “devised a practical and profitable method to use the then-new froth flotation process to treat these tailings and recover the zinc”.
(from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Hoover)
Looking for topics? How about riffing on “collaboration” with other electrical engineers or with others in different disciplines and the challenges that arise under those conditions? Sometimes it all boils down to effective communication skills, right?
Great job….
and another thing about engineers….
http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2011/01/23/scientists-and-engineers-are-celebrities-in-most-countries/
specifically
“…Scientists and engineers are celebrities in most countries. They’re not seen as geeks or misfits, as they too often are in the U.S., but rather as society’s leaders and innovators. In China, eight of the top nine political posts are held by engineers. In the U.S., almost no engineers or scientists are engaged in high-level politics, and there is a virtual absence of engineers in our public policy debates.
…if American students have a negative impression – or no impression at all – of science and engineering, then they’re hardly likely to choose them as professions. Already, 70% of engineers with PhD’s who graduate from U.S. universities are foreign-born. Increasingly, these talented individuals are not staying in the U.S – instead, they’re returning home, where they find greater opportunities.”
Pretty interesting story out of NCSU. They’ve developed a double floating gate FET that can switch between volatile and non-volatile memory applications allowing for faster, more power efficient computers. While it’ll be used in a digital manner, these devices are a great example of analog electronics at the device level.
http://news.ncsu.edu/releases/wmsfranzondfg/
Have you guys changed how your podcast is posted on iTunes at all? Ever since Episode 26 iTunes refuses to group the new episodes with the old ones and I can no longer download more than 5 episodes back from the current one. I was hoping to work my way back to the very first episode but with these sorting/posting issues I can’t seem to do that… Just curious
Hey guys! Love the show so far!
Any interest in talking about Audio DSP? I’m looking for a starting point, the goal is to have some effects/filters like Flanger, Echo, Reverb, etc… Any suggestions? Kits? Books? Sites? Any awesome audio projects you’d like to show-off?
Thanks!
Matt R
I thought you might enjoy this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75WFTHpOw8Y
Björk does a teardown of her TV!
Hello,
In the UK today 2 horses were killed by electrocution at a race meeting, probably by an underground cable:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/horse_racing/9395743.stm
It was mentioned in the news report that horses are far more vulernable to electrocution than humans, I didn’t realize different animals were differently affected by electricity. Thought this might be of interest, although its not really electronics it is electricity…
Love the show, I listen every week
W
While i’m on the subject of electrocution, this bemused me for a while the other day:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bre/sets/72157611077138836/detail/
Note you can hover over the image to see the comments people have put on them
Great show! I’d like to hear some guests though. I enjoy when Jeff comes on but its yet to be with both hosts. Be sure and tell them to bring some workbench pics. Jeri seems like a good place to start.
Hi Chris
Just thought I’d let you know that I’ve set up a live stream from my work bench:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/makerdino
Might be kind of fun to mention it on WOTW and let others know how easy it is to set up a live video stream with USTREAM. It took less than ten minutes to go live.
Keep up the good work. I’m also enjoying reading the Enigineering Blogs.
Dino
Earl William “Madman” Muntz after whom the epoymous “muntzing” was named is responsible for introducing the practice of reducing part count by trial and error (no doubt plus some intuition too). From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muntzing: “Muntz determined, through trial and error, that he could remove a significant number of parts and still end up with a monochrome TV that worked very well in urban areas, close to transmission towers. He literally carried a pair of wire clippers around and when he felt that one of his builders was overengineering a circuit, he would begin snipping components out. When the TV stopped functioning, they would reinsert the last part and leave the TV as-is.” Gotta love it.
Also, check out “widlarizing”–http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widlar: “Widlar’s irrational behavior is remembered in legends and anecdotes which, according to Bob Pease, are largely true. He did practice widlarising – methodically destroying a faulty component or a flawed prototype with a sledgehammer.”
Thanks guys for taking this topic to your show. Love the pic of Widlar flipping the bird. In Bob Pease’s corner of National’s web site he has “The Best of Bob Pease” — his all-time favorite columns (http://www.national.com/rap/Story/Index/0,1563,0,00.html). Both Widlar and Muntz made the cut:
What’s All This Widlar Stuff, Anyhow? (http://www.national.com/rap/Story/widlar.html)
What’s All This Muntzing Stuff, Anyhow? (http://www.national.com/rap/Story/0,1562,17,00.html)
BTW, I cannot believe Dave missed you dropping the f-bomb on the show. “Fiancée” Well, congratulations.
The Amp Hour #33… sigh…
It may be the internet but it’s “radio” in the sense that YOU are creating a virtual environment in the listener’s mind with your words. WOTW is cool because you guys are describing what you see in a pic. I don’t have to see it, you’re telling me and that’s most of the fun of it! Please don’t kill this segment. Need more submissions? Well then promote it on the site!
Guests? Hell yeah! Who cares if it’s a Skype call and it might glitch. Big deal… lots of hacker space podcasts use Skype and it works out fine. Don’t be too concerned about audio quality as much as quantity! How many times have you listened to a radio interview that was phoned in? Plenty… but wait… maybe you don’t listen to the “radio”. I have to remember I come from a different generation that’s pre-internet.
I noticed that what you guys were talking about was in no way related to the order in which you posted the topics on the site. For those who DO listen while at the computer, keeping this in sync would be a good idea.
Keep each topic to a limited time. No more than 8 minutes on a topic would be my suggestion. Listening to you guys go off on tangents about PCB manufacturers and pick and place and reels of components and and and.. for (I timed it) nearly 15 minutes is too long in my opinion…
….which is what this post is. My opinion, which you asked for.
I love the show. It’s radio. Keep it that way. If sponsors will help make the show better, then get some. Just don’t let it turn into the Ben Heck show for God’s sake!
Keep up the good work guys. I appreciate what you do because I know what it takes behind the scenes to produce a show like this EVERY week. THANK YOU!
Dino
On top of the member cost for under/unemployed members:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110301/03305813311/ieee-decides-that-its-own-profits-are-more-important-than-sharing-knowledge.shtml
Note that The Institute paper discusses charging authors $3000 to make papers available for free to the “public” online.
I’ll leave a vote here to keep WOTW, I listen to the podcast in the car and it’s a great after work relax to hid the website and chase up the links. I was even tempted to send in my bench and self expanding workshop(?), once I’ve cleaned it up a bit! So please find a place for WOTW for all us voyeurs…
uurk meant to say “hit the website” not “hid the website” – maybe something Freudian in that?
I don’t see why you should kill WOTW.
But take a limit.
Maybe 120mAh for each bench, no 1800mAh rants (considering you do 1Ah for each episode)!
Rants should be for topics, that are like “Intel built a new fab”.
Maybe something like a small 555 circuit would do the job.
Or take a 556, so we can hear a beep, when the time is out!
Great show!
Really!
apexys
Hey guys,
I stumbled across some video footage that appears to show a guy using some kind of home-made transmitter connected to his iPhone (along with a hand-held video repeater module) to put his own video footage onto screens in Times Square.
Discussion: real or fake??
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504784_162-20042990-10391705.html#addcomm
I saw that and mentioned it on my Twitter account.
It’s clearly fake.
I thought it was a viral ad campaign for Apple, but someone mentioned it’s actually a viral ad for some video editing software.
Ah okay, sorry I missed that Tweet. I’m more a Facebook person.
I was thinking fake as well, purely from a technical point of view. But I have to say, I thought the video was pretty good – I couldn’t see anything in it that would make it “clearly fake” from a visual point of view.
But from a technical point of view – as in could that actually work – I was a lot more sceptical.
This is quite interesting. Might be worthy of a little discussion on The Amp Hour. Handy for rapid prototyping!
http://protoflex.net/
Is that real or is it an utterly inspired early April Fool joke? If real, I want.
Don’t know if you already mentioned this, but some dude did a “DIY Scanning Electron Microscope”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdjYVF4a6iU
I didn’t watch it yet but he also has video for “low cost diy thermal imaging” which sounds interesting.
Have you guys seen these piezo motors built into a PCB?
http://pcbmotor.com/
They are prohibitively expensive for many hobbyists but they do look very useful for robotics applications suchlike.
Do you think it would be possible to make something like this at home (while you’re waiting for your home-made integrated circuits to finish etching
).
Hi Chris and Dave.
Last week Hack A Day posted a “job offer” for someone to work for them full time doing hacks and documenting the process as well as producing a video for a really low yearly pay rate!
http://hackaday.com/2011/03/24/hackaday-is-looking-for-a-full-time-project-builder-video-host/
It was pretty much a unanimous response from readers that they weren’t willing to pay what the job was worth considering you had to live in Santa Monica California.
I suddenly became inspired to produce a “hack a week” and document each one for at least one year! So, I bought the domain http://www.hackaweek.com and put up a website. I still can’t believe no one had purchased this domain!
Next I started a new YouTube account:
http://www.youtube.com/user/HackaweekTV
…to which I’ve posted a fun little intro video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSkZyI2Pqgk
Should be lots of fun! Hope to see lots of visitors and inspire folks to get into the DIY community.
Keep up the good work guys, and the awesome rants Dave!
DinoSegovis… doin A Hack A Week!
Dino, that’s pretty ambitious! Good for you, I’ll be checking it out.
[...] No guests this week, but lots of rants and items! Suggest future guests you’d like to hear either in the comments section or on the Suggestions Page. [...]
You still didn’t bring something about the 27C3…
That was in http://www.theamphour.com/suggestions/#comment-1420
Well, great show still!
Maybe you could invite Tim Pritlove and talk about the hacker scene!
Here is a link to his contact page:
http://translate.google.de/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=de&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Ftim.geekheim.de%2Fcontact%2F&act=url
(page is in german, but he’s an englishman)
Every show is a great one!
And I’m listening since show #1!
apexys
I remember a while back you talked about the computer virus that (probably) took down many of Iran’s centrifuges. Ralph Langner did a TED talk recently on this exact subject, amazing stuff. http://www.ted.com/talks/ralph_langner_cracking_stuxnet_a_21st_century_cyberweapon.html
Chris, my suggestion would be to add Savage Circuits to your friends list on the site. =) I will have Roy add you guys to our links as well.
Website suggestion…
How about a single page that has links to every MP3 (in chronological order, of course). I started listening at episode 33 or something and I had a hard time flitting hither and thither downloading ALL the episodes. It was awkward.
But I do now have a kickass 36 hour MP3 playlist!
What about this page? Apache does all the heavy listing: http://www.theamphour.com/wp-content/uploads/
The guys over at ThinkGeek are considering giving their broken and returned electronic goods over to hackerspaces, makers, DIYers, etc. for them to use as spare parts in projects. Nothing’s official yet but all it seems to take is to fill out a form.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/blog/2011/03/take-these-broken-things.html
Hey guys looking forward for this weeks show! I know your not going to feature wotw anymore but just thought it would be cool to have a flicker pool were people could post their projects to and every could look at them and if there is something that is totally amazing it could then get a mention on the show or the site, just a thought. Keep up the great work!
So now that Dave is jobless and i am coming to the end of my engineering degree, can Dave do a video blog possibly a drive time thing or here on the AMP hour about the state of Electrical/electronics/computer systems industry in australia.
Basically it would be cool to know from him what companies he thinks do cool stuff around here etc. Basically we do not want a careers fair version but a “no wanker words” report on the companies
I know it will be interesting for me and a lot of other people like me who are now starting to apply for their first jobs as engineers.
I could do a drive-by rant on each company! :->
That would be pretty awesome
Looking forward to it
TI already had 32bit ARM7s when they purchased Luminary Micro.
Hi guys,
I have a bugbear, and would like to know if it just a Ben heck thing or do all Americans do it.
Ben heck calls a multimeter a mul-tim-eter strung together as one word (watch his last episode for example) he’s does this in several episodes. In New Zealand we say Multi Meter(two separate words), because that is what they are Multi meters not mul-tim-eters. Is this an American thing or a Ben Heck thing?
Mike.
I thought the yanks call them “Mul-Tie-Meter”, is that what you mean? Sorry, haven’t watched Ben Heck.
In Oz we called them Multi-Meter, as in Mul-Tee-Meter, usually slurred together as one word.
Hi guys… got a WOTW for you… I know you said you wouldn’t do this for a while, but this is cool! It’s a build video of my new work bench for the Hack A Week shop.. AND it’s time lapse.
Video link:
http://youtu.be/X0cDdnMQmuA
Project page on http://www.hackaweek.com
http://hackaweek.com/hacks/?p=100
Keep up the good work!
PS
I have a Shure SM57 mic all warmed up here any time you need a guest hacker…
No this is worse he calls it a mole-timiter all one word, a new word not multi meter or multie meter.
Mike.
Hello,
Are chip fabs sensitive to seismic vibrations? Do companies such as Intel or AMD determine the location of their fabs based on seismic activity? If so does this exclude some countries from ever developing their own production fabs? Did production have to stop anywhere in the world due to the recent events in Japan? Is or how much of a problem is vibration to any future development even from on site plant machinery, i mean what are they down to now 20, 15 nm? There must be some issues with vibration. Anyway recent earthquake in Japan and David Jones banging a table with a test probe made me think of this. May or may not be of any interest.
I’d be interested in hearing how you guys stay up-to-date on new parts. It seems like there must be a better way than digging through product listings for 10-20 different companies every week. I’ve tried subscribing to manufacturer’s press release RSS feeds, but it seems to be more about business stuff than interesting new parts. I’m mostly interested in embedded processors, but the same goes for new analog chips and whatnot. Thanks. Love the show!
This is an interesting way of generating electricity. Getting hydrogen from a reaction of aluminum and some sort of acid and then putting it into a fuel cell. I’m not a chemist but if this is not a hoax it is a pretty interesting way of generating electricity.
http://www.dalh2orean.com/dAlH2Orean/Video.html
Alex, yes the aluminum/acid combination will produce hydrogen. The problem with it is that the aluminum and the acid are consumed very quickly, on the order of minutes! Then the waste product has to be dealt with.
OK for a lab experiment, but not for the real world. The aluminum and carbolic acid have more cost effective uses.
Thanks, Bob
This company builds amazing robots:
http://www.festo.com/cms/de_corp/11369.htm
By the way: Is there any alternative to nitinol you know of?
apexys
I’ve been releasing my hardware schematics under the GPL so far (because that’s what I’m used to releasing my software projects under). But I think it would be better to find a more hardware targetted licence. Can you guys recommend a suitable licence, or perhaps compare a few on the show? I’ve had a look around but there doesn’t seem to be a single popular standard licence for the sort of projects I’m doing.
The kind of project’s I’m building are small microcontroller (arduino / PIC) based robotics projects. I’d be releasing CAD drawings, electronics schematics and maybe PCB layouts too.
What licences (if appropriate) do you guys release your homebrew designs under?
Cheers,
ANW
Just linked up the amp hour on my new blog… planning on getting a domain soon.
Strube09.wordpress.com
Thanks!
[...] As always, if you see issues or know how to improve things on the site, leave a note on the Suggestions Page. Thanks! … other posts by Chris [...]
Minor suggestion: Can you get the suggestion page in descending date order? You have to scroll through several pages (of stuff you have already read) to find the latest entries. Just a thought.
Chris, I’m a new listener and so far your show is pretty good. There was one annoyance that was making me rip my hair out which was how many times you said “yeah” or “yes” or dear god “no doubt”. I swear if you checked the transcript 99% of your diction was a yes variant. Silence is ok sometimes!
Hopefully that was in earlier episodes. I’ll try to work on it in the future! If you know of any good resources online to eliminate this kind of habit, I’d appreciate it.
Saw this on TheRegister today…
http://www.reghardware.com/2011/04/11/russian_duped_by_chinese_ssd_scammers/
Intel are hailing their new 3D chip technology as the biggest break through in silicon electronics since the invention of the transistor,including to say it will continue to prove Moore’s law for the foreseeable future. any thoughts on this?
Any idea when The State Of Electronics doc. Will be released?
I am an american but there is somthing about Ausi. electronics community
I posted a link back to “the amp hour” on just about evey fourm that i could think of.
Hi,
Great podcast chaps ! I really appreciate the production quality. I listen to a number of podcasts and i thought your listeners may also be interested in this episode of another podcast i listen to:
http://www.se-radio.net/2011/04/episode-174-chip-manufacturing-and-waferscanners/
Cheers
What I’d really like is a pop-up when hovering through the links describing the subject content of the podcast indicating the time when that link/subject is addressed.
Sometimes I just don’t have an hour to listen to it all and would like to jump right in where I’m interested.
Hi,
Enjoying your podcast! Maybe this is old news for you but you talked about Eagle and other schematic/PCB software, check out DipTrace as well, I like it alot myself…
http://www.diptrace.com
/Cain
yes i realy like diptrace
Cosmic ray article by Paul Verhage from Nuts & Volts magazine. This article talks about coronal discharge and cosmic rays as noted on podcast 43.
http://nutsvolts.texterity.com/nutsvolts/201007/?folio=67#pg70
Thanks for the mention. I finally got my name ‘in print’. Was this really my 15 minutes of fame? LOL
Hey dave, Any idea when The State Of Electronics doc. Will be released?
Using nitric acid to expose bonding wires on an IC in order to forcibly extract proprietary firmware…
http://hackaday.com/2011/05/25/extracting-secured-firmware-from-freescale-zigbee-radios/
Do you still have sound problems?
Maybe you could try TeamSpeak3.
http://www.teamspeak.com
It is mostly used for gaming,
but it also works really fine over greater distances.
You can customize everything, from the codec to the recording.
Great show!
Keep it up!
apexys
Possible topic, even though it’s about the “A” word …
Is Arduino oozing into the EE mainstream? Digikey is now stocking Unos and shields, and even the Atmega chip with the bootloader preprogrammed.
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?site=us&lang=en&v=1050&WT.z_supplier_id=1050&WT.z_page_type=SP&WT.z_page_sub_type=SS&WT.z_oss_type=View+All&chp=0
RS have been stocking various arduino gear for at least a year or so, probably longer.Weirdly enough that’s the first time I heard of them – while browsing RS!
I’d love to hear an episode with a discusion of the Parallax Propeller, perhaps that would save some puppies after all the aggro over the A word. I know it’s been mentioned in passing before on the show but it’s an interesting platform.
On another topic…
I’ve been seriously considering learning how to use EDA software properly. I’m not a circuit designer by any means but I recognise that there is some value in being able to take an existing circuit design and turning it into a PCB. I’d be interested in your opinions on this topic. Specifically relating to the viability of doing EDA work without necessarily having an established background in circuit design.
I was blogging just now about how I’ve started using DipTrace (having never used any kind of EDA programs before). I’m very excited at the prospect of learning how to use this technology even to a very basic level – a lot of it makes sense and is very interesting.
Do you think it is actually possible to make a career as an EDA operator if you have little to no background in practical electronics?
Re your episode #45 discussion of the insane LinkedIn IPO, check out this recent paper showing strong evidence (proof?) of collusion in the US IPO market. Fees are always 7%. Everybody gets screwed except the folks running the IPO.
http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/06/07/the-us-ipo-cartel/
I’ve listened to a half dozen or so episodes here is some feedback
- A large portion of the show is taken up by rants. Rants are OK now and then but I don’t think they should be the focus of the show
- I like it when you have guests on, it would be good to have more guest and have focused interview questions prepared. Guests could be anyone from the open source community members to non-engineers working in the field.
- Chip of the week is great. I’d love to hear more of this sort of thing (eg, tips on design, fabrication, process etc)
Article that might be of interest to the group:
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/06/14/6859435-materials-wizard-wins-500000-prize
I likes the links at the bottom of the article to more in-depth articles about the various materials/technologies these folks have come up with such as:
Miniature photo-voltaic cells with lenses, digital camera modeled after human eye, PRINTED optic sensors and LED’s……
Enjoy! Bob
This is going to come off weird, but I’ve listened to several of these podcasts and in #48 something has changed with Dave’s speech patterns – there are periods of hesitation in his voice. Worth asking a doctor about…
Hi Chris and Dave,
Been listening for a while now, love the show.
I am not an Electronics Engineer, but I have electronics as a hobby of mine. I am in fact a software engineer in a PC environment. Still setting up my elect
I know how Dave and Chris like to discuss home chip fab and 3d printers.
Here is an article about a 3d Printer that creates glass from heating up sand, so can we use the silicon in the sand (if we have the correct sand?).
I am sure Chris will be interested in showing this one to Dave.
Anyhow, here is the link.
http://thisiscolossal.com/2011/06/markus-kayser-builds-a-solar-powered-3d-printer-that-prints-glass-from-sand-and-a-sun-powered-laser-cutter/
Cheers.
Vern.
Hi Chris and Dave.
Five weeks ago you guys talked about the possibility of printing PCBs using inkjet printers. Researchers created roller-ball pen ink to draw circuits. http://goo.gl/IsnCc
IMO the inkjet thing will come next.
BTW have you guys heard about the printable battery.
One year old news but here is the link http://goo.gl/lvc4P
Here’s a piece of furniture that Dave needs. A gigantic 555 footstool:
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/555stool
I’ve missed some episodes so I don’t know if you linked this:
http://techchannel.att.com/play-video.cfm/2011/7/1/AT&T-Archives-Microworld
(direct link not allowed, click the first video on the page)
“William Shatner discussing the magic of the microchip. In hindsight, its view of the future is revealing.”
courtesy of rdist.root.org blog
http://www.sfltimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7447&Itemid=185 changes in the power grid will affect time keeping on your appliances. As of yesterday in New Jersey, all three kitchen appliances are off. Microwave +1 minute, toaster +2 and coffee maker +4.
Interestingly, I noted a small article where NIST was asking the public if the Boulder Atomic Clock should remain in service.
I surmise we will be seeing a lot more RTCC chips in designs. Can a RTCC be created in the analog world?
Well I didn’t mean to post pointless video links but on the same site as that Shatner video there are some other nice(ly produced) archive films. I’ve watched a few now and here’s one very interesting, about quartz crystals:
http://techchannel.att.com/play-video.cfm/2011/4/25/AT&T-Archives-Krystallos
I watched the ones about maser/lasers and vacuum tubes but they weren’t quite as good.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/semiconductors/nanotechnology/tangled-nanotubes-make-speedy-transistors?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IeeeSpectrum+%28IEEE+Spectrum%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
One step closer to a garage chip fab
I am just getting into the electronics industry. I am currently in school and wanted to know which additional lanuages aside from english would benefit me the most. I heard Chris mention something about mandarin and wondered what other languages as well as the best choice would be to spread my accessibility the farthest.
I was lucky enough to go on a site visit to a PCB stuffer plant today…
http://wardyprojects.blogspot.com/2011/07/road-trip-on-site-at-pcb-build-facility.html
I loved it, perhaps other listeners would be interested in such things. I definitely recommend anyone who has a chance to go to a board stuffing plant – they should go for sure.
Hey folks,
I’m really enjoying the shows. It was a delight to hear Jeri Ellsworth on one of them recently. Haven’t laughed so much in a while.
I don’t know if this falls within the format of the show – I’d love to hear about recent developments in solar (panel) technology. I keep hearing about breakthroughs that substantially improve solar-to-energy-output ratios…then, nothing! Reminds me of some of the auto industry innovations that “get swallowed up”, never to surface again.
Great job all of you!
Hi Chris, Dave, Alex here from the EEVblog forum.
I came across these on the front page of Farnell UK:
http://uk.farnell.com/fischer-elektronik/dil-20-smd-m/socket-smd-dil-20/dp/1319818&trackKey=ACC_HMP_MID
I find it ironic how we used to pay an arm and a leg for an SMT to THT adapter board for some ‘state of the art’ oddball IC, and now we are presented with THT to SMT adaptor boards…Given the lower cost boards available, is SMT becoming mainstream even for hobby prototyping? Are THT components the oddballs now? A topic for debate.
A standard DIL socket was used for the silver-loaded ink pen you were talking about, possibly these could be used with printable electronics? :-p
Shameless self promotion:
I’ve started a simple Open Source Hardware project!
It’s a Parallax Propeller chip development/prototyping board. I’m aiming it at beginners and those with small budgets.
http://wardyprojects.blogspot.com/2011/07/protopeller-open-source-parallax.html
It’s also a learning exercise for me to get more experience in hardware design and electronics.
Found this recently and just had to send it in: Talking voltmeter as a final project from Cornell University. Also, I love the pictures of the two gentleman at the top. They HAVE to be fans of the show!
http://people.ece.cornell.edu/land/courses/ece4760/FinalProjects/s2010/ab673_csb88/ab673_csb88/index.html
Hi Chris, I have some good news for you. Now it is possible to print solar cells.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.201101263/full
Dave, printable electronics is one bet you are losing. Admit it man.
100W Incandescent around a little longer. Typical US government at work. 100W light bulbs were slated to be killed by 2012. Now some creative legislative has given them more life. This is the same kind of crap that changed daylight savings a few years back.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/16/light-bulb-efficiency-passes-through-us-house-incandescent-bulb/
Printable electronics *and* wireless power harvesting – Dave’s going to love this one
http://www.gatech.edu/newsroom/release.html?nid=68714
There’s a guy sitting in the cubicle right next to me who used to work at Intersil (in Palm Bay, FL) along with his wife. In fact, that’s where he met her. Anyway, they’ve both worked in the processing of the wafers for making ICs, and I think Intersil still does it. But, the last time I drove by their building, the number of cars seemed pretty sparse. Anyway, if you guys (or Jeri) want to ask him about anything or any connections they still have inside the company, I imagine he’d talk with you. Let me know.
What do you think of this “new” Commodore 64 stuff? I’m surprised it hasn’t been referenced in the show, at least by Dave. Personally, I think they’re gonna go up in smoke, and I have my reasons, although at first I was rooting for them.
Thanks! I’m a religious listener!
Please make the number of the show visable in the title tag of the MP3 file. Preferably in front.
P.S. Dave had a rant about this lately and now he (or Chris) is not clear himself
Regards, Stan
Chris, Dave….
I recall you may have commented on Atmel’s financial condition in the past, here is a link to their latest earnings call:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/284457-atmel-s-ceo-discusses-q2-2011-results-earnings-call-transcript
I would like to hear your thoughts on Atmel and the overall embedded systems, microcontroller market going forward…..
Thanks
Hi guys,
Just been looking through my blog stats, and it appears that about 300 hits came from the AmpHour site! Thanks guys, goes to show that you have inquitisitive hackers eager to explore other content around the web.
Awesome. Long live the Amp Hour.
I’m sure your regular contribution to the conversation helps too. Thanks for participating!
Hey, here are some shonky product suggestions. There are folks selling long-range treasure hunters that are nothing more than jazzed up dowsing rods. They have even found their way to Iraq for use as bomb detection equipment.
This guy (http://www.geotech1.com/cgi-bin/pages/common/index.pl?page=lrl&file=reports/examiner/index.dat) has some hilarious teardowns. The Ranger Tell would work if they used an HP-15C on top!
This one is two wands and a multimeter: http://www.geotech1.com/cgi-bin/pages/common/index.pl?page=lrl&file=reports/me2/index.dat
Here is the Ranger Tell official website: http://www.rangertell.com/Examiner%20Close%20Up.htm
Here is the official page of the ADE651 scam bomb detector: http://www.ade651.co.uk/
James Randi on the ADE651: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruTmqfGJhTI
Enjoy!
-Scott
Here is an article about Silego, a company now making small, cheap, programmable mixed-signal ICs that can be used to replace glue logic and do simple analog things. Sounds like this might be a step in the direction toward what Dave wants for smaller, cheaper programmable logic. I put a suggestion at the end of that article for 5V parts. Pretty cool.
http://www.eetimes.com/design/programmable-logic/4218821/Silego-s-GreenPAK—Design-and-program-a-custom-chip-in-minutes?cid=NL_ProgrammableLogic&Ecosystem=programmable-logic
On OpenSource Ecology, it’s a cool idea but incredibly impractical. Most people in 3rd world countries are not going to be able to get the materials, let alone know what to do with them.
$12,000 for a tractor that doesn’t work very well? In the US, you can get a class Farmall Model A tractor for a thousand or two. These are still widely used.
Besides all this, there is already some crazy hacking going on in some of the developing countries. For instance, in Thailand there is a type of work-truck called e tans that are made out of old water pumps and generators. Once you get into rice and sugar country, these are ALL OVER the place.
http://boingboing.net/2009/08/02/incredible-thai-etan.html
I was listening to some old shows (44) and I think I know why Google has an interest in the autonomous car. Google maps!!!
they have cars driving around all over the planet taking pictures for street view and pretty much the only thing they need the human for is to actually drive the car.
I came across this when searching for a vacuum robot. It seems that they have hacked (a year ago already) the LIDAR inside the NEATO XV-11 vacuum robot.
So u could do 2D/3D mapping for about $500. Neato even states that the LIDAR module itself could be made for $30.
This would be great for making robots or measuring a room with 1 click and other cool stuff.
http://robotbox.net/blog/gallamine/open-lidar-project-hack-neato-xv-11-lidar-200-bounty
http://robotbox.net/blog/gallamine/neato-robotics-xv-11s-lidar-hacked
Hi,
I’ve done quite a few projects outlined in my site, jcopro.net. I’d love to be on your show to discuss any of them, or I just did a CNC router – might be an interesting topic for you http://www.jcopro.net/2011/08/30/first-dremel-tool-router-cuts-using-mach3-with-g-code/.
Very excited to run across your podcast. I’ve been looking for an electronics show. Just listened to my first couple of episodes. Only one suggestions – get rid of Dave. He’s annoying, interrupts the flow of the show, and distracts from the interesting topics.
Nope, we’ve heard all sorts of suggestions as such and they’re rubbish. Try listening to later episodes (40+), we really start to hit our stride
I have listened to the newer episodes. You have hit your stride but Dave still gets in the way. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still excited to find you guys. Just tone down the Aussie a bit.
Umm, the whole point is having a funny Aussie.
Wow– really? I’ve been listening since the early days, and I love it. Dave’s abrasive, but he knows his shit. I don’t mind abrasive when I can learn something.
Great show this week guys!
Hey guys, here’s the “Russian EEVblog” describing the 555 timer. Better than those Oddball Hako soldering comics!
http://youtu.be/R0VUfq6rJAk
Any chance of adding your podcast to Stitcher?
I think you just have to ask:
http://www.stitcher.com/contentFAQ.php
Yeah, seriously. The last few episodes have been top notch.
Yeah, so my only suggestion would be that you guys do two shows per week.
Episode 60, with Joe Grand, was excellent ! I’ve been trying to download episode 61 all day and failing ! The download only achieves about 120Kbit/s at best and keeps completing after only a few hundred Kbyte have been downloaded. Is anybody else having problems ?
Pete, in North Wales U.K.
Been listening to your show for almost a year. Enjoy most of it. (Wish you could fix your mic noise and overdrive issues!) Your comment on suggesting that people not using development boards is a mistake in my opinion. It makes it so much easier for people to build a project the world over. It is much better to have a board you can buy ready made and often at a MUCH reduced price than someone supplying a board and having to have it manufactured.
Regards,
Kevin VA3SU
Sesame street does Engineering
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/sesame-street-encourages-kids-engineering-14611898
Here’s your 50mV diode
http://www.electronicsweekly.com/Articles/22/09/2011/51892/lossless-power-diode-drops-only-50mv.htm
(I am responding to what I read above). I think the personality mix of Dave and Chris is great at stimulating conversation. Keep up the good work.
Audio #62 ended with Chris saying to post a comment. So I am posting here under suggestions because I don’t see a comment link under each weekly show. I am in the wrong place or I suggest you add a comment link under each show or maybe “Suggestions” is the “Comment” area.
And my confusion about comments versus suggestions similarly brings me to Dave’s “youtube email versus my real email” rant. For those of us who don’t study a site and all the twitter and facebook and website strategies of an individual, we really do just think one link is as good as another.
EDIT: Holy crap. I just saw the comments attached to the bottom of #62 somehow. Then I clicked HOME and I see audio with no comments. How do I get back to ADD A COMMENT without using backspace? no linky-poo. I’ll look again and continue typing. I FOUND IT! It is the number 20 on top a of a chip. Sheesh. That needs to change. hahahahaha No wonder you get fewer comments than you expect, maybe. I could be daft and you can ignore me at your peril.
Ah, sorry about that. It’s easiest to leave a comment when you click on a.) The number written over the chip, as you said or b.) the title of the episode. Either of these will take you to the specific page of the episode, where you can then leave a comment. If you subscribe in a reader, each link you receive should take you directly to the post as well.
Hi,
Maybe a good topic for the show?
How practical is using a Kindle to read PDF-data sheets etc?
Been thinking of getting one but don’t know how good (or if at all) the work with regular (non converted) PDF-files?
I think the kindle is OK at datasheets but I’d recommend the 9″ version instead of the regular one.
Chris/Dave: Your web server seems to be struggling to serve data at the moment – this suggestions page just too 6 minutes to load! Plus I can’t seem to download some of your episodes (#61 for instance, simply won’t come through). You might want to wiggle the power cord a bit – or whatever you electronics people do all day.
Hey Guys:
Love the show!
Dave frequently challenges listeners/viewers to start creating our own content, and I want to do just that. Could you share some of the technology you’re using to capture and edit the audio on The Amp Hour?
I’ve seen a few videos where Dave reviews a piece of kit, but I’d also enjoy hearing about the cameras and lighting he uses to create EEVBlog. The 1080 vids he shot of the Tek 2225 were beautiful!
Thanks,
Bryan A. Thompson
Rolla, Missouri
Hey Bryan,
We use audacity to capture audio (locally) and use a Mumble server to communicate with one another and to record guests. I use an AT2020 USB mic and Dave uses a Samson C01U USB mic. We both use pop filters. My advice to you is just keep at it with trial and error. I know that’s how we’ve refined the show a bit and that’s how Dave has come to his current video style as well. If you have other questions, let me know and be sure to let us know when you post some stuff.
Chris
I love the show! I have listened to the last four episodes or so… Here are my critical suggestions:
Quit shooting down Dave for the littlest of things. You guys sound better when you are trying to conjure new ideas.
–AH Bingo:
—-Stop mentioning AH Bingo! It kinda defeats the purpose and is more fun as a private joke.
—-(You could ask if everyone has their Bingo Cards Ready at the beginning)
–Develop an “Outro”… The end of the podcasts are kinda flat
–Get a 30 minute buzzer… Talk about your off topic stuff untill the buzzer goes off and then go to your topic list. I like hearing ‘chip of the week’ and ‘shonky product’ and all that stuff.
–Why is Chris so hostile and defensive?
–Chris thanks for talking Dave down from hating on the DIY pick and place! You got him to clarify that it is neat… but the larger topic is ‘When is DIY not worth it? ‘ I didn’t know I can buy reflow ovens on Ebay for so cheap!
– ‘When is DIY not worth it?’ That could be a good topic too. Pick a topic and compare the DIY version vs. the cheapest off the shelf solution. Which is better? Pro/Con.
Love the show and keep up the good work!
-TheKackler
Have you guys looked at the E-cat mysterious-cold-fusion-free-energy thing? Seems very shonky to me. Oct 28 is the big 1 MW test with an unnamed mystery buyer.
http://www.e-catworld.com/what-is-the-e-cat/
I took a look at the videos on the site and there is way, way too much Aluminum foil for this to be legit.
Shaky product(s):
I saw this on a dutch TV channel and they got a complete line of questionable products.
http://www.memon.eu/en/products/
http://www.trosradar.nl/uitzending/item/1840/celstress/
(skipped to 22 minutes into the video for a product tear-down)
Now this is cool, Dave’s probably seen it before though
http://hackedgadgets.com/2011/11/11/laser-soldering-system/
Mike.
Hi, came across this great art piece made out of old computer parts:
http://www.likecool.com/World_Map_Made_from_Recycled_Computers–Projects–Gear.html
I reminded you guys talking about making stuff with old pcb’s.
James Doohan, here is another EE related clip
Trekkies James Doohan Clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsSdLD_YodQ
A nice bit about his fondest memory.
I’ve been reading this recently on my Kindle…
http://www.amazon.com/SolderSmoke-Adventures-Wireless-Electronics-ebook/dp/B004V9FIVW
Bill Meara is the guy who does the “Solder Smoke” Ham radio Podcasts. It’s a good read – an autobiography of a real Ham guy. I’m not into Ham at all but I found it fascinating, maybe some of you guys would as well.
This has to be the ugliest drawing I’ve ever seen in a datasheet. It’s on page 3:
http://www.national.com/ds/LM/LM3686.pdf
Hey guys, just found this picture on Reddit. I think its pretty awesome. http://i.imgur.com/3Pmbx.png look at all the pioneers!
Hey guys,
I’m absolutely in love with the show, became aware of it about a month ago and being hooked ever since.
On a related note I’m not sure whether you’ve ever featured the enamel wiring pen technique on the show but I think it’s very interesting and useful stuff and there’s a guy named Markus Gritsch who is truly masterful at it. Check out http://elm-chan.org/docs/wire/wiring_e.html
Also, I found enamel wiring tools at http://www.rrunner.co.uk/kits/wiring_kits.htm (I don’t get a cent for referring them, just find this topic very interesting.)
Cheers,
Laci
[...] for him or would like to suggest something for the show, either leave a comment on this page, the suggestion page, email us, send Chris or Dave a tweet or leave a comment on our brand new Google+ page for The Amp [...]
Hope I’m not posting old news (it was featured on Wired after all), but I thought I’d throw this out as a nomination for chip of the week.
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20111127/201950/
Not sure that its really news, but its cool to see this used in consumer products. Looks like it might be time for Dave to say goodbye to those hardware switches he loves so much. This thing even has a timer!
Check out this video from the late great Bob Pease explaining really interesting details of LEDs.
http://www.national.com/en/analogu/nationaltv.html
The show includes why CRI and Lumens do not tell the full story, what people ignore when calculating ROI installations, heat dissipation and how it affects lifespan/efficiency. Interesting stuff. Sorry I didn’t forward this prior to your interview with John.
Chris, your Chip Of The Week (week week week…) in episode 70 has really captured my imagination. And has made me realise just how bad at soldering I really am…
http://wardyprojects.blogspot.com/2011/11/soldering-challenge.html
I’ve been brainstorming for ideas that would make good applications for this chip and I’ve got a few…
* super small white-line following robot toy
* on-board special effects controller for something like a model train set
* fan speed controller
* etc etc etc.
Anyway, thanks for the COTW feature!
(You guys seem to be shaping my electronics learning pattern, I’ve also been using Propeller chips ever since you mentioned them several months back).
Thought this might be interesting, since Makerbot got their $10mil and their bot seems a bit difficult and finicky. These guys have done extremely well on kickstarter and it’s a 3d printer that comes almost fully assembled.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/printrbot/printrbot-your-first-3d-printer?ref=card
Hey Guys,
Can you get Afrotechmods from you tube on your show? He makes very cool videos for beginners might make a good guest.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Afrotechmods
Keep up the good work.
He’s on the list of potentials.
Things that could be useful on the web site:
- a search box
- a “donate” button
Hi Maurice,
I’ll work on the search box this weekend. We had never thought of a donate button, but perhaps there’s some merit to it. Maybe we could buy some better server space? I wonder how many people would be interested in donating?
Chris
Chris, I don’t how difficult it is to set up, but a SMS donation would probably work well. It’s where people send a text message to a number and get charged x dollars on their wireless account. public radio uses it.
I’d happily give a dollar a month.
possible shonky product of the week? http://www.erps.com.au/
I will gladly donate if you stop using such goofy titles for the show
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z4iw8Ppo1o
this guy loves his video recorders and made a really great video about it
i just had the best idea… Chris and Dave, you should do another show in a more question and answer style (talkback) and call it, wait for it… The Watt Hour!!!
Ha! I love it. If only there was time.
I have just been severely pissed off by Hackaday.com…
http://hackaday.com/2011/12/15/saleae-logic-analyzer-knockoff-hacking/
So, it’s OK to popularise a product that takes revenue away from small and very worthy start-up companies? I think not.
Man I’m SO angry about this! I know knockoffs come out of China – it’s just a fact of life and I can happily ignore that… but when a (vaguely) respected and high-profile outfit like Hackaday give it column space then I feel that’s just wrong and sloppy.
I just hope Santa leaves coal under Hackaday’s overly-LED-festooned XMas tree.
Something awesome I just found:
http://www.firstspin.tv/
It’s a new podcast that follows a newbie’s attempt to learning to use the Parallax Propeller chip.
Amp Hour regulars will like the format and the production is excellent also.
I do listen to First Spin. It would be nice to hear comments on the show about the Propeller’s particular architecture.
http://www.raspberrypi.org/
Rasberry Pi is a little closer!
Yes! I have that on the list for this week, if we have a chance to mention it.
http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2011/12/26/makers-desiderata/
Hey Chris!
Your dream of headless measurement equipment already exists! Almost everyboyd (including Kiethly) makes test gear with serial or GPIB or USB to remotely read or control with whatever type of device you want, using whatever software you can write. Further, NI makes PXI and PCI instrumentation that you can write your own software for. Bluetooth remote must be added by you, however.
I believe the latest edition of the Black Magic Handbook is from 1993. How does he think the book has held up over time? Assuming he had the time, are there any chapters in particular he would update?
In #76 you were talking about Si-Prefixes and simulations and Dave mentioned that you’d need an “ideal OpAmp” (as you’d only have in a simulation) to make useful measurements when you have circuits with TeraOhm resistors in them.
So I’d like to nominate the LMC6042 OpAmp as “Chip of the Week”. It has a typical input current of 2 fA (!). I’ve used it to build a static E-Field-Sensor (not a field mill):
http://www.clifford.at/gallery/2011-elektronik/2012_01_08_17_51_13
http://www.clifford.at/gallery/2011-elektronik/2012_01_08_17_51_56
Note how the sensor input pin is bent upwards and soldered mid air to avoid the conductivity of the board material.
The resistor that goes to the sensor plate is a 1GOhm resistor and it is pushed down to the sensor plate to charge the sensor cap to the signal ground potential. After that one can measure relative changes in the E-Field by moving the device around.
BTW: Please do more chip of the week. It’s my favorite thing on TheAmpHour.
Looks like your site is down at the moment.
Question for Dr. Howard Johnson:
Can you please explain some real world co planar wave guide considerations on small / dense board designs. Can you put a micro-controller (sub 50mhz) on the bottom side a board (directly below CPW) that has a co planar wave guide to an antenna on the top side?
I haven’t listened to all of the episodes yet so I don’t know how much you’ve talked about shenzhen and the state of manufacturing but I found the following podcast very interesting.
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/454/mr-daisey-and-the-apple-factory
I think it would be a good topic.
Thanks Jeremy. We have a huge list so sometimes things fall through the cracks. But I love “This American Life” and I heard that one was supposed to be great. Will try to listen today.
Hi guys. Is the new intro to the show music track available somewhere? It’s really cool.
CH!
Would love to hear you guys on Stitcher app.
Saw this on HackADay – simulating digital gates with Linux named pipes and a little generic C code…
http://www.linusakesson.net/programming/pipelogic/index.php
Needless to say, Dave will hate this “penguin shit”, but I think it’s pretty awesome and totally relevant.
Cree is lighting the streets of Asheville, NC with LEDs!
http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/01/23/1800792/cree-to-light-up-asheville-streets.html
Hello Guys,
Thanks for a great Podcast.
Can you help? Dave mentioned a good deal on a Pan and Tilt Web Camera but did not say where he ordered it from.
Keep up the good work,
Don
Hi Guy’s. Love listening to the podcast while driving my tractor in Australia….
Maybe for some Aussie content you could talk to these guy’s
who are putting together a pretty cool kickstarter project..
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ninja/ninja-blocks-connect-your-world-with-the-web
I just received my PCBs that I ordered from DorkbotPDX (Laen’s PCB Order).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/adamneilward/6816472835
They are really great quality. Thanks for the tip (although it was like a year ago or something that Jeff mentioned them).
Awesome
Note to Jeff Keyzer: It’s great when guests such as yourself appear on the show, and some of your contributions are interesting. But WOW! You really filibuster the WHOLE show. Go back and listen to your past appearances (especially episode 81). It’s just you yacking on and on about yourself. Believe me you’re not THAT interesting. Tone it down a little and you’ll be a much better guest.
Rob,
Feedback received – it’s not that I am not conscious of this, I’m just not that good at preventing it. But I’ll make a conscious effort to let Dave get a word in next time.
Episode #82. Hearing Chris’s stuffed-up head mouthbreathing noises during the quieter passages.\ was pretty creepy. Especially with earphones. Yuk.
Please look into this spray on antenna. it turns anything into an antenna! (i.e. trees…)
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-02/video-spray-antenna-material-turns-just-about-anything-signal-array
@Dave fyi: Kindle book prices are usually dictated by publishers and not by Amazon.
btw: I’m from Seattle. If there is anything interesting going on here that I don’t know about…well…I’d like to know.
http://blog.makezine.com/2012/02/14/pcb-sprayer-machine-helps-you-etch-your-own/
Hi guys, I really like your show. I have been listening for about one year now. I like the content, topics about the electronics industry, chip of the week, Dave’s rants, and great guest interviews (Howard Johnson). But one thing has been bothering me about your show for a while and I finally decided to write you about this.
Its the dynamics compression of your recording. You seem to set the threshold really low and it brings up breathing, throat clearing sounds etc. making them clearly audible, annoying and quite awkward. For example, in an episode with Howard Johnson, when he was not talking, his background noises were greatly amplified, which made his breathing, nose and throat sounds very noticeable and uncomfortable to hear. Now I am listening to episode 082 and can’t help but notice Chris breathing in the background.
You could use gate or downward expander before compressor stage to attenuate these low level sounds. Or not compress your recordings so much. If you want, I can help you with your audio setup. I am a radio broadcasting engineer and on my free time I make audio equipment such as compressors, mixers, level meters, etc. Email me if you are interested. Thanks and keep up the good work you do making this show.
Adding a gate in post would probably be good enough. It doesn’t have to be a hard gate. One that would drop enough volume that you don’t notice the breathing. It would also need a pretty low open threshold so you don’t get syllables cut off at the beginning of a sentence.
I don’t think the throat clearing/coughing sounds would be handled by this. That is a matter of mic technique [basically moving your mouth away from the mic or muting, as discussed earlier on this show].
Good call Anton.
To clarify, by throat clearing sounds I meant quiet, soft sounds, not loud transients like coughs. To deal with coughs you need mute switches. Sorry I cannot better describe what I mean with my limited English vocabulary. Take a listen to episode 077 around 5 min mark. I do hope that the amp hour guys will correct this issue for their next podcast with Bunnie Huang.
I’m not sure you take shout-out suggestion but I really like “The Signal Path” YouTube content by Dr. Shahriar Shahramian. He gives amazing video tutorials that starts off simple and then takes you down the rabbit hole without getting lost or boring. I sure wish the university instructors I once had could have been as good. He went a while without posting a new video but, WOW, his video posted yesterday on filters was just GREAT!
http://thesignalpath.com/blogs/
I enjoy thesignalpath videos as well. Dr. Shahramian would be a great guest to have on the show, I think.
Something interesting you might want to link to.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open_source_hardware_projects
Its useful for inspiration and to see whats been done. (or to contribute to one)
This gave me a few laughs:
http://www.fuellesspower.com/
(the “free energy receiver” is just a capacitor wrapped in foil that is charged by the coil through that diode)
I should offer my own DIY free energy kit.
I love how he fails to mention the energy it takes to move the magnet. http://www.rense.com/general67/Blister.gif