The Spark Gap

Karl and Corey discuss the basics of how to power your electronic circuits. Linear Regulators, LDOs, and Switch Mode Power Supplies are explained. Traps for new engineers and hobbyist working with power supplies are lamented.

Karl and Corey are joined by James Lewis of Kemet Electronics to talk about capacitors.

Karl and Corey talk about PCB layout and some tips for hobbyists. In this part, component placement and power layout.  Part 1 of 2.

Karl and Corey are joined by Chris Gammell to talk about how to pick the right op-amp.  Part 1 of 2.

Karl and Corey discuss the issues with heat in an embedded design, how to prevent it, how to detect it, and how to deal with it.

Karl and Corey discuss the operation of an Adjustable Constant Current Dummy Load.

Karl and Corey are back to talk about design choices you can make when creating schematics and PCB layouts that will make board bring up and debugging much easier.

Karl and Corey explore the analog world a bit by discussing Analog to Digital and Digital to Analog Converters.

Karl and Corey finishing talking with Chris Gammell about parts.io and selecting the right op-amp for a given application. (Part 2 of 2)

Karl and Corey discuss various ways to switch on power to circuits.

Corey and Karl talk about setting up your workbench.

Karl and Corey talk about how knowledge of electronics can cause headaches when looking at products and crowd-funding campaigns.

Karl and Corey finish their talk about PCB layout.  This part talks about signal layout and some manufacturing details.  Part 2 of 2.

Karl and Corey talk about the new Arm Cortex-M7 microcontroller.

Karl and Corey air some grievances about Raspberry Pi, "Hoverboards", and PCB layout practices in this grab bag/Festivus episode.

Corey and Karl explain the different ways to implement USB connectivity on an embedded device, from the physical layer to application layer.

Corey and Karl start off their first episode of "The Great Debates!" Corey takes the position that RTOSes for the most part don't belong in single core embeeded systems. Karl takes the position that the advantages of using an RTOS ,even in single core microcontrollers, far exceed their disadvantages.

Karl and Corey depart from hardware to talk about one of the more interesting bits of firmware, pointers.

Karl and Corey throw out some old boards and discuss lessons learned the hard way.

Corey and Karl discuss the origins and the future of the Raspberry Pi. They explore how a product with an imperfect beginning can still become a huge success.