Chris Gammell @chrisgammell.bsky.social · 03/10/2026Today I relaunched the Contextual Electronics site. It's a focus on simplicity, speed, and the core promise: building real hardware and learning through doing. contextualelectronics.com 060
Chris Gammell @chrisgammell.bsky.social · 28/09/2026I wrote a new post on my blog about firmware. Apparently I am still able to do new posts there, my previous 5 year silence would say otherwise 😅 chrisgammell.com/posts/aspiri...chrisgammell.comAspiring Firmware EngineerFor almost 3 years now, I have had the LinkedIn headline of “Hardware Engineer, Aspiring Firmware Engineer”. That latter title remains, and feels l 121
Reposted by Chris GammellJeff Geerling @jeffgeerling.com · 25/09/2026I'm starting a homelab festival (you're invited): www.youtube.com/watch?v=7I0p...youtube.comI'm starting a homelab festival (you're invited)YouTube video by Jeff Geerling 89110
Chris Gammell @chrisgammell.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Can you operate electronics without a battery? Well, yes! Not something I have done, because of the work involved...but that all changes with chips from ONiO. I had Kjetil, the founder and CEO on TAH this week theamphour.com/735-the-onio... 040
Chris Gammell @chrisgammell.bsky.social · 23/09/2026This week Dave and I caught up on the shift toward practical hands-on engineering education at universities, open-source robotics, calculator forensics, mentoring young engineers, AI-assisted PCB layout tools, reverse-engineering scope RF sections theamphour.com/734-the-walm... 021
Reposted by Chris GammellTomb💀Time @tubetime.bsky.social · 18/09/2026new book just landed on my bench: The Secret Life of Circuits, by @lcamtuf ! (soldering iron not included) 9759
Chris Gammell @chrisgammell.bsky.social · 12/09/2026Sam, Dario, math nerds...call me, think I've got this Navier-Stokes thing licked ...wait, was I too late? Darn 020
Chris Gammell @chrisgammell.bsky.social · 10/09/2026It's like hyper-miling but for electronics! Andy Kong has been working on a wearable that just keeps going and going while still monitoring your vitals. We also talked about his other experiments like powering electronics over the skin (!). theamphour.com/733-perpetua... 020
Chris Gammell @chrisgammell.bsky.social · 29/08/2026Here's a silly thing I created for myself. I have noticed that sci fi often uses Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP) devices as a plot element. But they never talk about where they get them or how unrealistic they are. So I made an old-timey garage ad for them, like you'd see painted on a barn 060
Chris Gammell @chrisgammell.bsky.social · 27/08/2026I was standing in front of a robot in our booth #ew26 when a guy walks by and says "I helped build that!" Whoa! Kevin is the North American Lead for Physical AI at CapGemini. He joined me on the show to help me understand how to get started in robotics theamphour.com/732-hands-on... 020
Chris Gammell @chrisgammell.bsky.social · 20/08/2026Do you have thousands of dollars lying around AND you're interested in learning RF? No? Me neither! Robert Fennis developed "the IKEA of FEM solvers for E&M", which is a Python based solver that makes it easier to understand the invisible signals around you. theamphour.com/731-e-m-real... 020
Chris Gammell @chrisgammell.bsky.social · 05/08/2026I recently reworked the entire site of TheAmpHour.com to be static and hosted on Cloudflare. The new site is fast and has a scope animation that emulates an old analog scope in XY mode. We discussed the changes on the show this week, along with many other topics: theamphour.com/730-the-focu... 020
Reposted by Chris GammellMike Szczys @szczys.bsky.social · 26/07/2026Just got done watching Jeroen Domburg's (Sprite_TM) keynote from Hackaday Europe back in May. Wow! As always, he throws down the gauntlet by building an SBC around a vintage 486 chip, then packages it in a handheld form factor. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojQ9...youtube.comHackaday Europe 2026: Jeroen Domburg - Building a Retro-PC from ComponentsYouTube video by HACKADAY 042
Chris Gammell @chrisgammell.bsky.social · 23/07/2026I got to talk to my old friend Greg Charvat about his new company Teradar on The Amp Hour this week. I think it has a huge opportunity to positively impact the #automotive industry replacing things like #radar and #lidar. I could see #robotics benefitting as well! theamphour.com/729-the-tera... 040
Chris Gammell @chrisgammell.bsky.social · 10/07/2026Wait...#bluetooth devices to like...SPACE space? Like ☝ 🛰️ 🌙 🌟 ?? theamphour.com/728-space-ag... I chatted with Alex Haro, the cofounder and CEO of Hubble Network about building out a terrrestrial network and a #satellite network to create connectivity for Bluetooth devices...just about anywhere. 020
Chris Gammell @chrisgammell.bsky.social · 02/07/2026This week on The Amp Hour we discussed a massive “boat anchor” warehouse clearance, 0201 circuit board builds, Texas Instruments’ stealthy datasheet updates for classic op-amps, the latest in local AI models, and paper-based electronics art theamphour.com/727-boat-anc... 010
Reposted by Chris GammellDion Dokter @diondokter.nl · 23/06/2026The real question is: Do I need to use MBI-A-I-LA-TZ-CBV-HK-EATZCB-ERS or MBI-A-I-LA-CBV-MD-IST-EACBM-EES for my chip? I know I don't need to use MBI-A-RT-LA-I-TZ-CBV-HK-KS-HM-CIV-EATZCBE-ERS-EHKSF, since we don't want to load to RAM. 131
Reposted by Chris Gammellkscottz @kscottz.bsky.social · 23/06/2026Excuse me, did you just call me a vibe coder? I went to college for this stuff! I'm a professional slopware engineer. 41668
Chris Gammell @chrisgammell.bsky.social · 17/06/2026#Arduino has morphed in my mind over the years. From "low cost dev board" to "ad hoc standard" to "API interface to hardware". Abstraction away from specific hardware while still allowing users to stay very close to the hardware. Really enjoyed chatting w/ Massimo theamphour.com/the-amp-hour... 011
Chris Gammell @chrisgammell.bsky.social · 04/06/2026Michał Zalewski (lcamtuf) is a security researcher who deep dives into electronics for personal edification. So much so that he recently published a book on #electronics called The Secret Life of Circuits (published by No Starch Press, coupon code in the show notes linked below). 160
Reposted by Chris GammellDaniel Mangum @danielmangum.com · 30/05/2026**JLink JTAG Access on the Pinecil** I've been doing more work on the Pinecil recently with Bouffalo Lab BL706 (SiFive E24 core complex) support landing upstream in Zephyr. I wrote a short post detailing how to use a JLink for JTAG access to the RISC-V debug unit. danielmangum.com/posts/jlink-... 043
Chris Gammell @chrisgammell.bsky.social · 26/05/2026What are the impacts of infrastructure and massive energy demands of AI data centers? We also discussed injecting power through a programming header, Linux changes, and dogfooding your own projects. theamphour.com/724-all-heat... 020
Chris Gammell @chrisgammell.bsky.social · 10/05/2026Mike and I took a side quest from Madrid to Valencia to see the Tiny Tapeout master Matt Venn! 0182
Chris Gammell @chrisgammell.bsky.social · 07/05/2026I saw that BeagleBoard.org recently joined Zephyr and I also saw the BeagleBadge at #ew26 a few weeks back, so I asked Jason to come back on The Amp Hour to talk about the latest and greatest in the world of Beagle. theamphour.com/723-beaglebo... 030
Chris Gammell @chrisgammell.bsky.social · 05/05/2026I figured out the building where they store all the capacitors in Madrid 190
Chris Gammell @chrisgammell.bsky.social · 03/05/2026A classic mistake: thinking the Assembly would be the majority of the work, when it's always the testing/fixing 150
Chris Gammell @chrisgammell.bsky.social · 23/04/2026Are #hardware and #firmware engineers keeping up with new #AI? The space is moving fast and I am clueless :-D I asked past guests Luke Beno and Matt Liberty to join me to talk about how they are using it in their businesses theamphour.com/722-ai-tooli... 030
Reposted by Chris GammellThe Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 14/04/2026In case anyone is still confused 16569433051
Chris Gammell @chrisgammell.bsky.social · 02/04/2026I ignored all the OpenClaw stuff as hype and wild stories (because let's be honest, there's alot of that). But I have since tried it and I can see where it fits in the ecosystem. On The Amp Hour this week I also discussed how Golioth is now part of Canonical & more! theamphour.com/720-hyper-gr... 020
Chris Gammell @chrisgammell.bsky.social · 17/03/2026Zach is a PCB expert who does a bunch of content for Altium and other toolmakers. He joined me on The Amp Hour to discuss the changing tooling landscape around designing PCBs and how engineers can improve their work theamphour.com/718-layout-r... 010
Chris Gammell @chrisgammell.bsky.social · 17/03/2026I missed this when Mike posted it, but...ditto what he said! 060
Reposted by Chris GammellColin O'Flynn @handle.invalid · 04/03/2026For an upcoming talk I built a stand-alone #hardwarehacking tool out of a R-Pi Pico that does Serial + #SPI Dump + #eMMC Dump with a bunch of stuff I wanted. It only needs your browser, and serves the webpage that is the interface from the micro. No internet, no install. github.com/colinoflynn/... 4194
Chris Gammell @chrisgammell.bsky.social · 04/03/2026In London and enjoy electronics? I'm arranging a meetup on March 8th: theamphour.com/london2026 On The Amp Hour I talked about upcoming travel, as well as topics like solid state transformers, battery testing, new small circuit boards, and a bunch more. Listen here: theamphour.com/717-back-on-... 052
Reposted by Chris GammellJeff Geerling @jeffgeerling.com · 20/02/2026The madlads at @pimoroni.com overclocked an RP2350 microcontroller from the base clock of 150 Mhz to a whopping 861.6 MHz. It looks like 400-500 MHz can be stable on most Pico 2s, which is still wild. See: learn.pimoroni.com/article/over...learn.pimoroni.comOverclocking Raspberry Pi Pico 2Adventures with dry ice and RP2350 - how fast can it go? – Pimoroni Learning Portal 18714
Chris Gammell @chrisgammell.bsky.social · 10/02/2026If you like building things, you will love hearing Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky talk about his adventures building smart watches and rings on The Amp Hour this week. I know I did! theamphour.com/715-shiny-ne... 070
Reposted by Chris GammellChris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · 08/02/2026Good morning. The President of the United States was in the middle of the most serious child sex trafficking ring of the last quarter century. He is referenced not a dozen times in the case files. Not 100 times. Not 1,000 times. He’s referenced 38,000 times. 13603778514248
Reposted by Chris GammellTom Hearden @followtheh.bsky.social · 08/02/2026Look at this specimen. The world has no chance. 10453
Chris Gammell @chrisgammell.bsky.social · 03/02/2026When I meet someone who has covered the industry for 30+ years, I just have to get their stories on air. I asked Martin Rowe to be on The Amp Hour to talk about his experience covering the rise of the electronics industry from 1992 to present theamphour.com/714-the-meas... 020
Chris Gammell @chrisgammell.bsky.social · 03/02/2026TL;DR: Empathy for what customers are going through with their own builds Building hardware gets you into the nitty gritty details of building IoT products, including some of the challenges our customers run into with our services. blog.golioth.io/why-build-ha... 073
Chris Gammell @chrisgammell.bsky.social · 27/01/2026One benefit of coding assistants is in your head: you can ask silly questions and rubber duck your ideas (assuming you don't get too over-confident about the results). We discussed that and other things like Zephyr and rocket launches on The Amp Hour this week. theamphour.com/713-rubber-d... 020
Reposted by Chris GammellMina Kimes @minakimes.bsky.social · 24/01/2026A nurse. A researcher. A helper. 470243563923
Reposted by Chris GammellRobert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 23/01/2026If you saw this happening in another country, what would you call it? [Cartoon by Mike Luckovich] 748137425199
Reposted by Chris GammellRazzball @razzball.bsky.social · 23/01/2026Minnesota is the best of us. 651421649581
Reposted by Chris GammellAaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 24/01/2026Gov. Janet Mills: "If they have warrants, show the warrants. In America, we don't believe in secret arrests or secret police." 438126573587
Reposted by Chris Gammellgeri katz @gerikatz.bsky.social · 24/01/2026ICE just shot another one of my neighbors. They had the person on the ground, being beaten by several agents, and then fired multiple shots. In front of the donut shop where we like to get donuts for our kids. 17397693644
Chris Gammell @chrisgammell.bsky.social · 20/01/2026I think this is the first time we have had a full time student on The Amp Hour? But my goodness, what a student and what a guest! Aaed has been building robots on his YouTube and sharing what he does with others, lowering the cost and barrier to entry into #robotics theamphour.com/712-robots-e...theamphour.com#712 – Robots Everywhere with Aaed Musa | The Amp Hour Electronics PodcastAaed is a YouTuber who builds a variety of robots and a mechanical engineering student at Purdue. He joins Chris to talk building robots and robotics components from the ground up, with a focus on… 051
Reposted by Chris GammellChris Gammell @chrisgammell.bsky.social · 23/12/2025The holidays are a great time to do some personal development (hacking) projects. Dylan and @szczys.bsky.social rebuilt a meme machine on top of @adafruit.com's MagTag board Read more about the project and view the full video here: blog.golioth.io/a-physical-m... 195
Chris Gammell @chrisgammell.bsky.social · 31/12/2025Perhaps 2026 should be a year of less algorithmic discovery. Here's a start www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5Oh...youtube.comBells don't work: Keep up on YouTube channels with RSS and SlackYouTube video by Chris Gammell 041
