Logbot (Jan 16 2025 at 00:42): Logbot (Jan 16 2025 at 00:42):Elecia White, host of Embedded.fm and author of Making Embedded Systems, joins us to discuss all things embedded systems. We discuss programming non-computers, open source resources for embedded, self-driving cars, embedded system like the GoPro, Traeger smokers, and even birthday cards. According to Elecia, embedded is going everywhere. :link: https://changelog.fm/624
| Ch | Start | Title | Runs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | 00:00 | This week on The Changelog | 01:07 |
| 02 | 01:07 | Sponsor: Augment Code | 03:30 |
| 03 | 04:36 | Start the show!! | 02:04 |
| 04 | 06:40 | When NPR calls | 01:42 |
| 05 | 08:22 | What is embedded? | 03:46 |
| 06 | 12:08 | Programming non-computers | 04:32 |
| 07 | 16:40 | How Elecia got started | 02:32 |
| 08 | 19:12 | The moment of discovery | 01:36 |
| 09 | 20:48 | Mentoring for embedded | 02:54 |
| 10 | 23:42 | Wokwi is cool | 03:34 |
| 11 | 27:15 | The chasm between sim and real | 04:33 |
| 12 | 31:48 | The constraints of embedded | 04:13 |
| 13 | 36:01 | Sponsor: Fly.io | 02:29 |
| 14 | 38:30 | How big is the embedded world? | 03:57 |
| 15 | 42:27 | Open source + embedded | 01:30 |
| 16 | 43:57 | Elecia loves Kalman filters! | 03:45 |
| 17 | 47:42 | Elecia's thoughts on self-driving cars | 09:23 |
| 18 | 57:05 | Self-driving on a closed-system | 02:02 |
| 19 | 59:07 | GoPro is embedded | 04:00 |
| 20 | 1:03:07 | Traeger smokers are embedded | 06:07 |
| 21 | 1:09:14 | Sponsor: DeleteMe | 01:55 |
| 22 | 1:11:09 | What do you want to build next? | 03:21 |
| 23 | 1:14:30 | CrunchLabs! | 03:07 |
| 24 | 1:17:37 | What else is cool? | 01:52 |
| 25 | 1:19:30 | Embedded is going everywhere | 05:20 |
| 26 | 1:24:49 | IoT, let us 'opt out' | 03:37 |
| 27 | 1:28:26 | Embedded.fm and other places | 04:08 |
| 28 | 1:32:34 | Wrapping up | 00:24 |
| 29 | 1:32:58 | Closing thoughts and stuff | 02:56 |
| 30 | 1:35:54 | BONUS teaser :) | 01:45 |
Ricky Hussmann (Jan 16 2025 at 23:39):Big fan of embedded.fm and super glad you had Elecia on the show. Enjoyed the conversation
Andrew O'Brien (Jan 17 2025 at 13:44):Loved the episode!
I’ve had the exact same project idea/use case as Jerod in the ++ bonus. Then I thought “I’m sure this exists” and got rabbit holed into Amazon reviews. But they all want me to install apps, which seems overkill.
I keep thinking “I’m a big boy programmer. Is it too much to ask for something that uses OpenTelemetry to send the data along to the monitoring infrastructure I should (but don’t) have in place for my home network and the home automation I may one day (but not today) build?” And ultimately I end up doing nothing about the problem.
James McNally (Jan 17 2025 at 19:01):Great episode, really enjoyed it. Need to renew my ACM membership so I can look at the book!
Ricky Hussmann (Jan 19 2025 at 16:52):@James McNally if you’re referring to the access to O’Reilly bookshelf with an ACM membership, unfortunately they ended that program a few years ago. I suppose they may have restarted it, haven’t checked.
James McNally (Jan 20 2025 at 08:22):You have to pay a little extra now but it is still much cheaper than the membership directly. Think it's about $50 over the standard sub
Tim Uckun (Jan 22 2025 at 21:41):Listening to this brought back memories of working on extremely limited chips back in the day. At the dawn of computing just about every chip was like an embedded chip today, probably even less capable.
Andrew O'Brien (May 23 2025 at 18:28):Really enjoying the latest Embedded.fm where they talk to an ecologist and hardware developer who collaborated on camera traps for data collection (as well as some other interesting projects). Giving my positive feelings about what technology can do to help the world.
https://embedded.fm/episodes/501
Tim Uckun (May 23 2025 at 21:53):I remember I wrote some code to graphically depict the motions of people who were physically impaired except that there were no graphics, just letters. I ended up coding something akin to ascii art. As the patient was attempting some task I displayed different motions with different characters that scrolled up the 80 character monitor on an 8086 machine. I wrote some of it in assembly, some of it in C. I used the joystick port to receive signals from the electrodes. I also turned the signals into sound which could be recorded on tape for the doctors to listen to.
It was super interesting and apparently turned out very insightful for the doctors. Turing motions into sounds and characters was kind of an innovation back then.
Last updated: Jun 28 2025 at 12:32 UTC