Embedded

William Griffin spoke to us about hardware-in-the-loop testing, simulation, terminology, learning complex topics, and books. We don’t usually expand upon the show title but Wikipedia has a rabbit hole called Evil demon [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_demon] so there you go. Books mentioned: * Make: Electronic Music from Scratch: A Beginner's Guide to Homegrown Audio Gizmos [https://www.amazon.com/Make-Electronic-Scratch-Beginners-Homegrown/dp/1680458094] * CMOS Cookbook [https://www.amazon.com/CMOS-Cookbook-DON-LANCASTER/dp/0750699434] * How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business [https://www.amazon.com/How-Measure-Anything-Intangibles-Business/dp/1118539273] * Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!” Adventures of a Curious Character [https://www.amazon.com/Surely-Youre-Joking-Mr-Feynman-ebook/dp/B077J7F78Z] * Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us [https://www.amazon.com/Drive-Surprising-Truth-About-Motivates-ebook/dp/B004P1JDJO] * Leadership BS: Fixing Workplaces and Careers One Truth at a Time [https://www.amazon.com/Leadership-BS-Fixing-Workplaces-Careers/dp/0062383167] (though we then talked about a different Jeffrey Pfeffer book: 7 Rules of Power [https://www.amazon.com/Rules-Power-Surprising-but-True-Advice-Advance-ebook/dp/B09FPGBG22]. William Griffin and  Bailey Steinfadt (333 [https://embedded.fm/episodes/333]) have started Spark Embedded [https://sparkembedded.com/], an embedded software and simulation consultancy.  Transcript [https://embedded.fm/transcripts/508] Mouser Electronics has a dedicated Empowering Innovation Together hub that covers the latest breakthroughs in tech. Their new series explores how AI is reshaping engineering—from design automation to rapid prototyping and predictive maintenance. You’ll find insightful articles, podcasts, and videos that showcase real-world applications across industries. If you’re ready to see how AI is powering the next generation of engineering, head over to Mouser.com/empowering-innovation [http://mouser.com/empowering-innovation].

Chris and Elecia chat about books, courses, alternate podcasts, electronics, statistics, kidnapping Roo, and journaling failures.  The Embedded Patreon book club is reading Data-Driven Science and Engineering: Machine Learning, Dynamical Systems, and Control by Steven L. Brunton, J. Nathan Kutz. PDF book and links to lectures are at databookuw.com [https://databookuw.com/]. Some recent links of interest: * Datasaurus dozen [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datasaurus_dozen]: a collection of different small data sets that have the same summary statistics. You can see all the graphs here [https://www.research.autodesk.com/publications/same-stats-different-graphs/]. From Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors [https://www.amazon.com/Humble-Pi-Comedy-Maths-Errors/dp/0241360196].  * The I Saved a PNG Image To A Bird [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCQCP-5g5bo] YouTube video was really neat, which led to AudioMoth ultrasonic recorders [https://www.openacousticdevices.info/audiomoth] as well as making a $40 bird identifier with an RPi and some software (BirdNET-Pi [https://www.birdweather.com/birdnetpi]).  Chris is taking a course from Dogbotic. See their workshop list [https://dogbotic.com/workshops]. We interviewed Kirk Pearson from Dogbotic on Episode 491 [https://chris-white-0gal.squarespace.com/episodes/491]. Transcript [https://embedded.fm/transcripts/507] https://Mouser.com/empowering-innovation Mouser Electronics has a dedicated Empowering Innovation Together hub that covers the latest breakthroughs in tech. Their new series explores how AI is reshaping engineering—from design automation to rapid prototyping and predictive maintenance. You’ll find insightful articles, podcasts, and videos that showcase real-world applications across industries. If you’re ready to see how AI is powering the next generation of engineering, head over to Mouser.com/empowering-innovation [http://mouser.com/empowering-innovation].

Dmitry Grinberg joined us to talk about running Linux on small microprocessors (physically small and/or 4-bit). Dmitry does this by emulating a MIPS processor. Boot times vary between minutes and days, depending on the processor.  Dmitry’s projects are on his website (dmitry.gr [https://dmitry.gr/]) including: * 8-pin Linux [https://dmitry.gr/?r=05.Projects&proj=36.%208pinLinux] (Cortex-M0+!) * Linux on an 8-bit micro? [https://dmitry.gr/?r=05.Projects&proj=07.%20Linux%20on%208bit] * Linux/4004 [https://dmitry.gr/?r=05.Projects&proj=35.%20Linux4004] Dmitry recommended NandGame [https://nandgame.com/], an online game about building up a processor. We mentioned Eric Schlaepfer of TubeTime [https://tubetime.us/]. He was on the show on 419: Fission Chips [https://embedded.fm/episodes/419], with EMSL’s Windell Oskay, talking about their book Open Circuits. Transcript [https://embedded.fm/transcripts/506] Mouser Electronics has a dedicated Empowering Innovation Together hub that covers the latest breakthroughs in tech. Their new series explores how AI is reshaping engineering—from design automation to rapid prototyping and predictive maintenance. You’ll find insightful articles, podcasts, and videos that showcase real-world applications across industries. If you’re ready to see how AI is powering the next generation of engineering, head over to Mouser.com/empowering-innovation [http://mouser.com/empowering-innovation].

We spoke with Peter Griffin about Jumperless Breadboards, no-install GUI development, Excel, and puppies. Jumperless Breadboard at CrowdSupply [https://www.crowdsupply.com/architeuthis-flux/jumperless-v5] * Colab GUI for Jumperless Breadboard [https://colab.research.google.com/drive/1yEOxmXHD0K7gNlmyRzH9Iwv6Obwy8wIF?usp=sharing] * Website GUI for Jumperless Breadboard [https://reedspool.github.io/jumperless-gui/] * Excel GUI for Jumperless Breadboard (though it has some USB DTR issues as noted in the show: Jumperless_V5_GUI (Shared).xlsx [https://1drv.ms/x/c/55a63133f6e8bc74/EYJkXCAp6dxItsHSrpG_wQgBNS_uNnEWUUio2bFin89skA?e=d19Yf9]. Note Microsoft Datastreamer [https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/what-is-data-streamer-1d52ffce-261c-4d7b-8017-89e8ee2b806f] is a serial interface to Excel  Teardown 2025 [https://www.crowdsupply.com/teardown/portland-2025] will have talks up soon! Cory Doctorow wrote about ‘Enshittification’ in Wired [https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-platforms-cory-doctorow/]. We didn’t bleep the word for this episode since it’s becoming an essential part of tech criticism. The Flag of Maryland [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Maryland]. You know what you did. Joel Spolsky’s You Suck at Excel [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxBg4sMusIg] Miso Come Here (Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/misocomehere/?hl=en], TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@misocomehere?lang=en]) shows puppy communication buttons. Transcript [https://embedded.fm/transcripts/505] Mouser’s Empowering Innovation Together hub dives into all sorts of topics like renewable energy, energy-efficient systems, and sustainable design. Whether you’re looking for the latest in clean tech trends or just need some inspiration, you’ll find articles, videos, and podcasts all geared toward engineers who want to make a difference. Head over to Mouser.com/empowering-innovation and check out their clean tech [http://mouser.com/empowering-innovation] content.

It’s another episode with Elecia and Chris. This week they discuss people that have influenced their lives and careers, thinking about past career choices and regrets therein, identities, the Embedded Slack book club, and electronic projects. Chris is currently taking Dogbotic’s DIY Rhythm Widgets [https://dogbotic.com/diy-rhythm-widgets] course which covers making an analog drum machine from components. We had Dogbotic founder Kirk Pearson on the show on Episode 491 [https://embedded.fm/episodes/491]. Elecia mentioned the book that the Embedded Slack #book-club channel is working through, Data Driven Science & Engineering Machine Learning, Dynamical Systems, and Control, which you can find for free at https://databookuw.com [https://databookuw.com/] along with code and examples. The group is two sessions in but if you want to join late, join the Slack group via Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/embedded] or Ko-Fi [https://ko-fi.com/embedded]. You can subscribe to the newsletter here [https://embedded.fm/subscribe]. Transcript [https://embedded.fm/transcripts/504]