Things are looking up
Dave and Chris catch up on appliance repair nightmares, major career announcements, and hardware security threats. Dave shares his frustration attempting to fix a top-of-the-line Miele washing machine door interlock, while Chris recalls diagnosing a failed dishwasher sump pump. Chris then announces his new role as Developer Relations Lead at Hubble Network%, detailing their hybrid terrestrial and satellite Bluetooth infrastructure. The discussion shifts to semiconductor physics with Dave’s video on light erasing LCD pixels, cybersecurity supply chain vulnerabilities on Ledger crypto hardware wallets, AI voice-changing phone scams, the official End-Of-Life (EOL) of the Zilog Z80 microcontroller, running WebAssembly SDRs on an ESP32-S3, and open-source silicon with Bunnie Huang’s daBao RISC-V chip. Timeline Dave and Chris kick off the episode complaining about persistent microphone and gain issues in the studio. (00:00:30) Dave details his ordeal trying to find spare parts for a failed Miele W1 washing machine door interlock teardown. (00:01:15) They reminisce about washing machine “fuzzy logic” marketing from back in the day compared to modern AI buzzwerds. (00:01:45) Dave breaks down the complex mechanical solenoid interlock required by European safety standards and the pain of shipping delays. (00:02:45) Discussing the economics of white goods repair: repair technician quotes ($1,300 interlock + mainboard) versus buying a brand-new appliance. (00:06:15) Chris shares his own recent experience diagnosing a failed sump pump on an 8-year-old dishwasher. (00:08:45) Comparing basic household appliance automation to the extreme complexity and risks of home humanoid robots. (00:11:15) The mystery of dishwasher wash cycles: why the 1-hour power wash uses less water than the eco mode according to the display. (00:12:45) Chris announces “things are looking up” with his new role as Developer Relations Lead at Hubble Network, following up on Episode 728 with Alex Haro. (00:14:15) Overview of Hubble’s hybrid Bluetooth architecture: a terrestrial network using 100M+ participating devices alongside satellite relays. (00:15:00) How standard 2.4 GHz Bluetooth commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) chips use FSK narrowband modulation to transmit data directly to orbit. (00:17:30) Satellite link budgets and power requirements: dropping from +20 dBm external preamps today down to +4 dBm for next-gen satellites. (00:19:00) Reviewing Hubble’s terrestrial hexagon coverage map and plans to scale from CubeSats to larger, more sensitive satellites. (00:19:45) How background location partner apps like Life360 help backhaul terrestrial Bluetooth advertisements. (00:21:00) Satellite overpasses in North America (1–2 passes per day) and developer tooling for calculating satellite pass windows. (00:23:00) Chris reflects on his 5-year tenure at Canonical (makers of Ubuntu) and staying dynamic in tech careers. (00:24:15) A look at corporate identity: why Canonical kept its name rather than renaming to match its famous Ubuntu brand. (00:26:30) Dave explains his video on erasing LCD pixels with light, diving into TFT storage capacitors and amorphous silicon band gap physics. (00:27:45) Chris accidentally drops a Seeed Studio 60 GHz radar heartbeat monitor live in the lab while discussing physics. (00:30:00) Teaching kids about phy