The Art Of Staying Interested In Electronics - Exponible Electronics Ennui

• Dave has been having troubles with his SD card not recording video footage. Chris has had the same problem with KiCad crashing over and over again (on copper pours).
• Chris has a new video setup that he claims beats out Dave's setup. It uses Xsplit and changing views and pausing makes things a lot easier.
• Chris has been feeling down about "what's left" in the electronics industry as things continue to change.
  • This was prompted by Chris playing his new piano (Korg SV-1) which pulls in tons of different features.
  • The Teensy 3.1 shows how much can be packed into a simple platform (and how little else is needed!)
  • Reading The Art of Electronics version 3 seems like a good start but doesn't feel like it will change much (it likely will).
• yCombinator demo day startups continue to be silly. Day 1 was worse than Day 2.
• Dave has been starting a product design with an outside design firm. He won't say what it is, but we know he'll be able scratch his own itch with something that has his face on it...
• Sam asked about when to pull the trigger on moving to the next stage of a design.

https://twitter.com/samrustan/status/585554711060811777

• Hardware constraints from a target end product can really help decision making for design.
• Being a reseller of hardware isn't a great business model, UNLESS you add value through education like adafruit and sparkfun.
• Chris is looking for help finding micros. Please leave some ideas in the comment section!
• The mBed IDE looks interesting, but a recent Ganssle newsletter points out some of the pitfalls of being dependent upon an online compiler.
• Chris got to see Mike Estee from Othermill talk about the genesis of the machine. The performance is nice but the workflow is nicer.
• The Carbide3D Nomad also looks exciting but has yet to be released.
• Dave has a version of The Art of Electronics vol 3 but has yet to crack the book. Chris just ordered his.
• Chris posted a picture of his #ElectronicsBookshelf on Twitter. You should do the same!

https://twitter.com/Chris_Gammell/status/585586196975394816

• Finally...a good use of a 3D printer: Making a pogo pin holder. However, you could still order this from a provider online (just like PCBs), the tradeoff is time.

Thanks to TRF_Mr_Hyde for the snarky picture!