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The Amp Hour: Daily Summaries Delivered
by The Amp Hour (Chris Gammell and David L Jones)
The Amp Hour is a weekly conversation about electronics and the people who design them.
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- 1 weeks ago1h 20m
The Terahertz Frontier with Greg Charvat of Teradar
Dr Greg Charvat, CTO and co-founder of Teradar, joins Chris for a 5th appearance on The Amp Hour to talk about how terahertz frequency radar will revolutionize the automotive space and far outstrips the capabilities of LIDAR and Blobbology
- 2 weeks ago1h 6m
#728 – Space Age Bluetooth with Alex Haro
Welcome Alex Haro, CEO of Hubble Chris welcomes Alex Haro, co-founder and CEO of Hubble, to discuss the ambitious task of connecting billions of Bluetooth devices directly to space The “banner level spec”: Hubble enables any off-the-shelf Bluetooth chip to communicate with low Earth orbit satellites using a software-only firmware update Alex describes the system as a global “Find My” for enterprise that also handles sensor readings and arbitrary data Addressing the “Bluetooth in space” skepticism: Alex explains that while the standard is optimized for high-fidelity audio, the chips can be repurposed to emit a custom software-defined waveform in the 2.4 GHz band The true innovation is on the satellite side: massive antenna arrays with thousands of elements perform advanced digital beamforming to pick up weak signals (0-20 dBm) from hundreds of kilometers away The “Dinner Table Analogy”: Traditional networks “yell” to be heard, but Hubble has the device talk slower (lower bit rate) and enunciate (error correction) while the satellite uses thousands of “microphones” to isolate a single voice Why Bluetooth instead of LoRa? Hubble co-founder and CTO of Ben Wild, is the architect of Amazon Sidewalk. He chose Bluetooth because it is globally ubiquitous and the 2.4 GHz band is unlicensed worldwide Technical trade-off: While LoRa uses spread spectrum chirps, 2.4 GHz allows for much smaller antenna arrays on the satellites compared to the 900 MHz band The hybrid network approach: Devices use the same SDK to communicate via a crowdsourced terrestrial network (apps and gateways) or directly to satellites when out of range Constellation roadmap: Hubble currently has four production satellites in orbit (covering the globe twice daily) and aims for 64 satellites by 2029 for continuous real-time coverage Removing the GPS chip: By using Angle of Arrival (AoA) on the satellite, Hubble can determine a device’s location to within tens of meters, reducing BOM costs and power consumption Future “Reverse GPS”: Once multiple satellites are overhead, Hubble can combine AoA with Time of Flight (ToF) measurements for even higher accuracy Network capacity: Each 10km satellite beam can handle roughly 100,000 simultaneous devices before hitting saturation, with terrestrial gateways offloading density in major metros Dealing with the “grumpy engineer”: Alex discusses lowering friction for developers by investing in the Zephyr Project and partnering with Texas Instruments to pre-flash the Hubble stack on Bluetooth SOCs Stack coexistence: The Hubble SDK allows the radio to time-slice, maintaining a standard Bluetooth connection to a phone while sending satellite packets during idle periods Payload specs: Data packets are 13 bytes, transmitted at 400 bits per second Business model: Pricing starts around $2 per device per month and scales down with volume to hit the “price elasticity” needed for tracking billions of assets Enterprise use cases: From tracking shipping pallets to monitor loss, to cold chain monitoring for pharmaceuticals and agriculture The SpaceX experience: Alex describes the “visceral” feeling of the double sonic booms from the Falcon 9 landing during their launch party Find out more at hubble.com (or hub of BLE)
- 4 weeks ago54 min
#727 – Boat Anchor Warehouse
AI Data Centers & Local LLMs: Dave discusses his noise concerns regarding a new AI data center and its diesel backup generators being built near his office. Chris shares his experience running local AI models like Gemma 4 on a laptop using the Hermes orchestrator for tasks like coding and internet research. USB Power Delivery Chips: Discussion of the CH224, a USB PD negotiation chip that works via DIP switches or pin strapping without requiring programming. They also touch on the CH32 X33/X35 series, which integrates similar PD functionality into a microcontroller. CH224 LCSC Product Page Dave’s Werewolf USB PD Review The Art of (Paper) Electronics: The hosts admire Manabu Kosaka, a Japanese artist who creates 1:1 paper replicas of retro gadgets, including meticulously hand-cut lettering on SMD components. Dave also recounts his success as a “sold modern artist” after selling a printer-glitch masterpiece on eBay. Manabu Kosaka on X Manabu Kosaka Portfolio Article Chris’s 0201 Project: Chris provides an update on his leveling project, which features an accelerometer and 16 LEDs. He is considering a move to a rigid-flex PCB design for future revisions to better manage the two-board sandwich construction . Social Media & Networking: Insights on using LinkedIn for professional outreach (such as contacting Massimo Banzi) versus dealing with “algorithm fatigue” . A recommendation for using chronological feeds on X and Reddit to improve the user experience . MacService Warehouse Clearance: A massive clearance at MacService in Melbourne features rows of vintage “boat anchor” test gear . Dave expresses concern that thousands of items may end up as e-waste if not sold by the pallet. MacService Clearance Forum Thread Bring a Trailer Hyundai EV Recall: Dave recounts the recall of his 2020 Hyundai EV due to a software error that could lead to battery fires. He notes an annoying, repetitive relay clicking sound coming from the dash following the service update. The TI Datasheet Controversy: Dave details how Texas Instruments updated process nodes and designs for classic parts like the NE5532 and OPA134 without changing part numbers. These changes led to reduced slew rates, lower maximum supply voltages (22V down to 18V), and the removal of features like trim pins. Dave’s Video: TI Screwed Up the NE5532 “It Happens” Segment: Dave shares a “repair fail” where he accidentally mangled the 5,000-turn drive coil of his Bulova Accutron 2 watch while attempting to change the battery. Industry and Legal News: Brief mentions of 3D printing regulations in New York, Bambu Lab’s “closed” ecosystem controversies, and Lewis Rossmann suing Samsung over warranty issues. They also discuss Battle Born Batteries suing a YouTuber after their product failed a test conducted to its own datasheet specifications. Battle Born Technical Note
- Jun 17, 20261h 10m
#726 – Arduino’s Invisible Touch with Massimo Banzi
Welcome, Massimo Banzi of SuperModerno and co-founder of Arduino Introduction and SuperModerno: Massimo introduces himself as a “friendly nerd” and discusses his new project, SuperModerno The project aims to explain the “behind the scenes” of technology to prevent people from becoming “slaves to the platform” The History of Technology: Massimo expresses his passion for technology’s history, emphasizing non-American innovators to show Europeans they can also lead in technology, citing the UK-based origins of the Arm processor The Legacy of Olivetti: He highlights Olivetti (founded in 1908), which moved from typewriters to creating the Programma 101, the first desktop computer used by NASA to compute orbits for the Apollo program Design as a Differentiator: Olivetti was the first tech company to apply design to everything (products, posters, and architecture) This inspired Massimo’s concept of the “invisible touch”, the idea that consistent, intentional design creates a unique connection with users and gives a company a competitive edge The Interaction Design Institute Ivrea (IDII): Massimo’s path led him to IDII, located in the former Olivetti research building, where he transitioned from a two-week sabbatical to a four-year stay Learning by Making: To help students with no electronics background, Massimo drew on how he learned as a seven-year-old (“learning by making”) to remove the friction of interacting with technology The Founding Team: He met Tom Igoe (ITP) and David Cuartielles, and they realized students were afraid to be creative because they feared “blowing up” expensive tools like the Basic Stamp The “Pizza and a Beer” Price Point: Massimo aimed for a hardware cost of 20 Euros, roughly what a student would spend on a pizza and a beer, to encourage experimentation Building the Platform: Along with David Mellis, the team adapted Processing (a language for artists) by “surgically” replacing Java with C++ to create the Arduino IDE Ivrea Manufacturing: Leveraging the industrial base of Ivrea and Torino (the “Detroit of Italy”), Massimo was able to find local PCB manufacturers and assemblers just a short drive away From Hacking to AVR: Massimo’s early work involved hacking satellite TV PIC chips for soccer fans, but mentor Bill Verplank encouraged him to use AVR microcontrollers because they could be programmed simply in C Enabling Creators: Massimo shares stories of how Arduino enabled others, such as Josef Prusa, who started with Arduino as a teenager before building his global open-source 3D printer company The Innovation of Simplicity: Massimo argues that Arduino’s true innovation is the user experience This is measured by the “Time to First Blink”, the goal for a user to go from downloading software to blinking an LED in five minutes Standardization and “The Core”: Arduino became an ad-hoc standard by providing a compatibility layer across different microcontrollers Massimo believes in having a “small slice of a really large pie” by allowing other architectures to work within the ecosystem Hardware Architecture and the “Lasagna”: Inspired by the PC104 format, the board uses a layered approach where modules stack like a lasagn
- Jun 4, 202659 min
#725 – The Secret Life of Circuits with lcamtuf / Michał Zalewski
s Welcome Michał Zalewski, AKA lcamtuf! The lcamtuf Substack is where Michał is writing most these days Chris first found and geeked out about the CNC guide on the lcamtuf original site (discussed many times here) Michał is interested in the craft of teaching electronics He recently published The Secret Life of Circuits with No Starch Press Use the code AMPHOUR26 for 30% off The Secret Life of Circuits valid from June 1st through June 30th It was announced on his blog here Deriving fomulas from basic trigonometry sometimes bugs people who think electronics should only work with calculus Software geeks follow the site, often getting lots of attention on Hacker News Row hammer DRAM There were no Information Security degrees in the early days, so the field was made up of folks with backgrounds in math and EEs Fuzzing for security SMBC cartoon for blming humans Books American Fuzzy Lop The Tangled Web P0f v3 Silence on the Wire Security stuff (including books on the subject) ages over time, as opposed to electronics On the subjects of Calculators (and Michał’s collection) Calculators are a footnote in the history of computing, but still intriguing Dead ends in calculators CRT displays on calculators Nixie tubes Discrete moving into logic gates into processors Mechanical calculators are rare and get a high price online Working with transistors The Secret Life of Circuits start with FET based transistors vs BJT BJTs are often right after diode chapter because of the multiple junctions in an NPN, but that doesn’t make it easier to understand Projects A recent project involved making a clock out of current meters Woodworking and AI example Want to see all lcamtuf articles in one place? Sokoban Sir box-a-lot
- May 25, 20261h 6m
#724 – All Heat, No Useful Work
Chris just got back from a work trip to Madrid He also got to hang out with Matt Venn (and coworker Mike Szczys) in Valencia Dave has a new data center going in across the street Chris enjoyed this episode of Prof G Markets where they talked about the impact of data centers on power and the rise of “behind the meter” generation Dave without internet for a week. Chris has had multiday losses after fiber has been cut in his neighborhood. Humanoid robots…on a plane! Chris has been working on 0201 components on a tiny Bluetooth board The Iran War and subsequent rise in petroleum product sourcing issues is starting to impact the PCB industry PCBs we are used to ordering at low cost (JLC, PCBway, etc) are normally loss leaders to get larger business later Chris found his low cost microscope from Florin/Voltlog trinocular video lcamtuf will be on the show soon, Chris bought a CNC mill because of a single webpage of his making TagMod board is a new breakout Chris made for injecting power through a 10 pin TagConnect cable. NXP devboards somehow have LEDs as bright as the sun Dave has been revisiting his solar analytics (update: he figured out he’s getting charged more too!) Chris has been working at Canonical (makers of Ubuntu, new owners of Golioth) for a few months now. That was the trip to Spain. Dogfooding your own product Chris created a backronym: “Application Level Program Optimization” or… ALPO CI/CD Debian now requires “fully reproducable” builds to harden against supply chain attacks Veritasium video about Linux bug
- May 7, 20261h 10m
#723 – BeagleBoard’s Back with Jason Kridner
Jason Kridner returns to The Amp Hour after his first appearance 15 years ago to talk about the BeagleBadge and Zepto boards that showcase new capabilities in the Linux and Zephyr space. The BeagleBoard.org project is still focused on building open source, affordable, and accessible Linux and embedded hardware.
- Apr 23, 20261h 9m
#722 – AI Tooling with Matt Liberty and Luke Beno
Past guests Matt Liberty (Joulescope) and Luke Beno (Werewolf.us) join Chris to talk through using AI tooling for small businesses in the hardware and firmware space. Both have built custom ERP systems, among many other tooling for their businesses, in a fast moving environment.
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