CBA Podcast
46 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 2 years ago -A (mostly un-cohosted) podcast where we talk about progress - or lack thereof - of hobby-projects, mostly related to software, electronics or mechanical engineering.
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Episodes
episode 45: glucometer, fuel consumption and vacuum cleaner
April 12, 2022 15:04 - 31 minutes - 17 MB(Michai is too lazy to make shownotes now, check again later. :-)
episode 44: DMX512, ground reference and LED decoration stuff
January 17, 2021 20:53 - 24 minutes - 13.3 MBHi, and an extremely good 2021 to all of you. We start off this brand new year talking about some totally unrelated and slightly more related new year's resolutions, a miniscule car fix, and glueing with a 3D printing pen. All in not much more detail than stated here. Continuing on last episode's VGA generator board, I added a DMX512 interface as suggested by some people - thank you for the idea. I found Q Light Controller Plus (qlcplus) a nice and so far solid piece of software for co...
episode 43: DMM probes, laundry fix and light-hangout
November 01, 2020 19:40 - 11 minutes - 6.14 MBWelcome to a pretty boring episode - just as you're used to by now! Prepare yourself for epic or less epic talk about a mains test jig that proved very useful, some awesome Probe Master DMM probes well worth the money, and both me and occasional cohost Domen fixing household stuff, and the subtle psychology of starting a repair. Homebrew-wise, the only thing I made was a smooth green LED under-plant decoration. For fun, I visited an informal light-art hangout and talked about adding DMX5...
episode 42: exploding cap, 3D-printing and planet decoration
August 12, 2020 00:25 - 17 minutes - 9.87 MBThe thrilling tale of 4 months of doing pretty much nothing interesting is coming to a podcast near you today! After hearing about the hilarious exploding electrolytic, we continue with some lame or slightly-less-lame tools one can just buy off-the-shelf: using H-field probes for injecting magnetic fields into a PCB, the Aim-TTi I-prober 520 for measuring magnetic fields and current, and a simple but superhandy USB power meter. (I guess it's just a matter of time before all this deterior...
episode 41: oversized test-jig, spiky LED ball and knowing your equipment
April 12, 2020 21:55 - 18 minutes - 10.2 MBIn this time of global turmoil, the CBA Podcast once again proves to be your one-stop source of distraction and meh-grade information. We start off by a quick list of how to keep busy in a sort of useful way, followed by a short talk about a 230 Vac test-jig and designing for test-jig repairability. Already mentioned in a previous episode, I finally got around to building a digital driver box consisting of push/pull FET and open-drain drivers for a low-voltage digital input-signal. And t...
episode 40: xmas smoothness, deadlifts and resistive load
March 05, 2020 14:31 - 25 minutes - 14.2 MBWelcome to the first and so far best episode of 2020, the third year of this podcast. Thanks for sticking around and making this happen, or alternatively, thanks for just tuning in - hope you like it. After a quick word on hot glue applied to mains wires, yours truly talks about being surprised by a SOT23 500V constant current driver (BPS BP9918C) in an LED lightbulb. Super-exciting, all of this. A cheap RGB LED strip decoration revealed a 5-24V LED driver (Greeled Electronic Ltd SM167...
episode 39: crossing borders, intensity curves and anti-theft socks
November 11, 2019 23:08 - 17 minutes - 16 MB4.5 months is still not enough to make you forget this podcast, is it? (And also, sorry about the long gap.) Another mixed bag as usual. 2 meetups with the CBA Quality Team for some Quality Time. Eindhoven Hackerspace Hackalot moved to a new location, and I put some LED decorative stuff there, making use of a light intensity curve for a better visual result. Furthermore, a trip down memory lane with an old elevator mock-up project, tests with 2 potting-materials, a hot glue meltdown, a...
episode 38: LEDstrip fun, rand, and voltage drops
June 24, 2019 12:57 - 12 minutes - 11.2 MBHi there! Thanks for tuning in (or reading this text and then deciding not to tune in at all). Another episode with a mixed bag of semi-interesting topics. Thanks for the feedback - the inter-segment jingle will be a bit less loud from now on. Poor ears. We start off by counting pass & fail on this year's new year's resolutions, followed by mentioning a small inline PCB for driving LED-strips and so on. The PCB was used for 2 light effects so far - links to videos of both are given belo...
episode 37: past events, lasercutting and fear of breaking the rope
June 04, 2019 00:19 - 18 minutes - 16.1 MBYou thought that we finally learned from our mistakes and abandoned this podcast, and you thought wrong. Once again it's time to lower your standards, and enjoy a new episode of the CBA Podcast. We start with some PCB failures and flaws, followed by a very brief review of the Hackalot lasercutter & vinylcutter workshop. We attended T-DOSE, which is a Dutch open source event hosted in Eindhoven. Then for something slightly out of the ordinary, we talk about back-of-envelope calculations ...
episode 36: triple screw-up, LED lamp biopsy and bodyfat measurement
April 29, 2019 23:34 - 16 minutes - 14.3 MBAfter more than 1 month of laziness, let's kickstart this episode with some failures and apologies. Next up is a summary of Hackalot's part in the Open Hackerspace Day 2019, and a teardown of a cheap and somewhat boring Aldi 230 Vac LED lamp. Finally, some very-voodoo and somewhat-less-voodoo methods of measuring the percentage of bodyfat in humans are briefly discussed. Links to topics discussed: RetroChallenge RC2019/03 Hackalot hackerspace in Eindhoven participated in Internation...
episode 35: home sensors, disco LED hack and airplanes
March 22, 2019 00:37 - 19 minutes - 16.2 MBAfter 5 weeks or so, we're finally back! You'd think this episode is filled with 5 weeks worth of exciting techie stuff, but don't get your hopes up yet. Because it's not. Domen joins in to talk about his experiments with home automation, and a sowing exhibition lacking electronics and software. Furthermore, we talk about a disco LED box hack, and briefly list the difference between WS2812 and WS2813 intelligent LED. Relevant links: push sensordata to cloud for visualisation and retriev...
episode 34: Rust, coroutines and cohosting
February 13, 2019 00:45 - 20 minutes - 17.7 MBFinally, the "we" in announcements doesn't just mean the royal we / majestic plural, but there's an actual co-host! Introduction is in the audio contents, so I guess you'll just have to listen. We talk about first contact with the Rust programming language, coroutines for implementing lightweight tasks/threads, various smaller topics and some upcoming events. Links: Rust programming language: Discover the world of microcontrollers through Rust! The Embedded Rust Book LLVM Inter...
episode 33: new year's resolutions, SD-card interfacing and programming-meeting
January 20, 2019 17:43 - 11 minutes - 10 MBHNY2019! Not a whole lot of stuff to talk about, so this is quite a short episode. You're welcome. After some fluffy and unrelated list of New Year's Resolutions, we talk about progress for a decorative VGA generator device w.r.t. mechanics and software. I had never been to the monthly HCC!programmeren meeting, so let's talk a bit about that a bit as well, and about ways to stimulate collaboration within a group of likeminded people. Bonus Funfact: I tried to destroy the Bluetooth i...
episode 32: a lying oscilloscope, TV repair attitude and VGA generation
December 10, 2018 01:40 - 18 minutes - 16.3 MBApologies for the apparently low volume and low tone of voice - I think someone might have been tired. This episode discusses ongoing PCB failures, oscilloscope overdrive recovery, a BT-enabled headphone that would just keep connecting, some local events (GLOW, Awesome Space repair day, and the HCC Retro quarterly meeting). Finally, an experiment gone out of control resulted in a small PCB for generating colour effects for 4 connected VGA monitors. Ruby is used as "effect description langu...
episode 31: one year anniversary, RC2018/09 results, FPGA and Forth
November 02, 2018 14:57 - 21 minutes - 19 MBYay, after one year we're still polluting the virtual airwaves, so let's review the last year of podcasting (only takes about 8 minutes - don't cry). RetroChallenge RC2018/09 has finished, so we take a look at its winners and honourable mentions. Minor topics include a Hackalot visit, USB nullmodem hack, breadboard fail and fried scope probe clip. I briefly tried to generate a VGA image from software, but why not do it using an FPGA next time? Following convo deals with my initial experi...
episode 30: social stuff, Ruby and a USB logic analyser
October 10, 2018 08:04 - 17 minutes - 15.4 MBLots of little topics this time, woven together by clever commentary. That's CBA Podcast for you. In the spotlight this time: a shout-out to the Quality Team behind this podcast, impressions from the recent Eindhoven Maker Faire, HCC Retro and Bonami Homecomputer visits, a look back at the current (finished?) RetroChallenge, how to learn Ruby, a DIY portable voltage-reference, the Open Bench Logic Sniffer USB logic analyser, and fun with my angle grinder. Relevant links to the above: HCC ...
episode 29: feedback, cleaning PCBs, scripting again
September 21, 2018 13:42 - 12 minutes - 6.82 MBYou can, of course, send feedback to the show using the email-adress listed at the top of the page. Today's episode briefly touches on PCB-cleaning, meta- and actual work for the RetroChallenge 2018/09, scripting-languages (again - a never-ending story), and upcoming local events. Relevant links: RetroChallenge 2018/09 Electrolube SWAS flux-cleaner small Aoyue 9050 ultrasonic cleaner a video about the Qibec CPU LOL-edition HCC Retro division meeting: 22 September, Bilthoven (NL)...
episode 28: EMFcamp review, mini-CPU and more PCB-fail
September 06, 2018 15:21 - 13 minutes - 7.81 MBJust back from the ElectroMagnetic Fields (EMF) camp in the UK, so there's a little review of that. Furthermore, we talk about a LED-strip decoration, badge-sized mini-version of an 1-bit CPU, PCB-failures (and successes!), the upcoming RetroChallenge and my entry for that, and 2 small talks I can now get nervous about. Links and shownotes: Electromagnetic Field camp (pics/videos available from link somewhere on that page) RetroChallenge September 2018 and my entry for that HCC (Hob...
episode 27: new TS100-tip, MP3-player innards and controlling a WS2811 LED-strip
August 18, 2018 13:41 - 14 minutes - 7.5 MBRecorded from my cellphone + external mic this time, so feedback w.r.t. sound-quality (or anything else!) is welcome, as usual. This episode is about getting a new solder-iron tip for the TS100 iron, progress for hand-milling PCB's, a look inside a small MP3-player, and looking at how WS281x works and how to control it. Links: Miniware TS100 soldering iron and included TS-B2 conical tip vs nicer TS-C4 tip WS2811 datasheet @ Adafruit My hacked driver (ATmega164):
episode 26: DIN-rail prototyping, coffee-machine revisited and another zap
July 29, 2018 22:09 - 13 minutes - 7.34 MBTo counter the evil midsummer heat, we bring you another cool and refreshing episode. Topics include a 45 Vdc SMD LED, DIN-rail prototyping, reconsidering the workings of a previously disassembled coffee-machine, getting zapped by a vintage coffee-grinder, and an unused yet brand new angle-grinder. Also, I am currently too lazy to make show-notes.
episode 25: zapped by cap, maze-generation and counting steps
July 05, 2018 01:31 - 12 minutes - 7.11 MBThis time, we explore the wonderful world of being zapped by a high(ish) voltage electrolytic cap, some maze-generation algorithms in a nutshell, disassembling a simple step-counter, and starting a scootmobile with a magnet-key.
episode 24: laundry-machine valve, engraving PCBs, and DPS5005 enclosure
June 16, 2018 23:50 - 16 minutes - 9.03 MBNo idea how this episode got so long... Featured(tm): reselling my HP3455A DMM to the person I bought it from, a meeting of the HCC computer-club (.nl) Retro-section, reverse-engineering a overflow-valve for a laundry-machine, making quick electronics-prototypes by manually engraving copper-clad PCB, and making an enclosure for the DPS5005 power-supply module. Links: the HCC computer-club (.nl) and their Retro-section Awesome Space in Utrecht (.nl) a video about quickly prototyping el...
episode 23: sounding dumb, TS100 and bootloaderless programming
May 26, 2018 07:33 - 23 minutes - 12.8 MBQuite a long episode this time - hope it doesn't bore you too much. Topics include the ability to ask silly questions and do silly things, sharing a serial link to an AVR between programming and debugging without bootloader, the portable TS100 soldering-iron, interesting game-console candidates, and past and upcoming events. Links: YouTube-video of old vs new Qibec CPU Miniware TS100 soldering-iron DPS5005 DC/DC power-supply module ASxxxx Cross Assemblers BASIC 10-liner contest ...
episode 22: software-development on retro-computers, toaster-disassembly and workshop-equipment usefulness
May 11, 2018 15:48 - 15 minutes - 8.57 MBThis episode talks about what happened to my RetroChallenge RC2018/04 project, software-development for yesterday's computers, the last Hackalot-meeting, components with crappy documentation, disassembling a toaster with actual electronics inside, and the usefulness of various engineering-tools found in my workplace. Links: Hackalot - upcoming hackerspace in Eindhoven (NL) the RetroChallenge-event... ...and my project for that fancy JBC CLMS-A soldering tip cleaner
episode 21: finishing up RC2018/04, scripting, and finding a new home-computer
April 28, 2018 14:26 - 12 minutes - 7.26 MBThis episode wraps up my (hobby)work for the RetroChallenge 2018/04, and talks about a favourite scripting-language or the lack thereof, the use of SD-cards, finding a new pet (or PET..?) homecomputer/console, and NE555-sound. Relevant links: RetroChallenge ...and my Bait-a-Cart project for that ...and some videos of that project (YT playlist) Electromagnetic Field camp Outline demo-party --- The hot-glued Bait-a-Cart adapter at the end of the project: In action, displayin...
episode 20: vintage AC PSU, RetroChallenge and disassembling a coffee-machine
April 15, 2018 10:53 - 11 minutes - 6.35 MBMade it to episode 20, and it's still a lot of fun - I hope the feeling is mutual. :-) Topics of interest: a bit of background about this podcast itself, playing around with a vintage Luctor N.V. Multiset AC power-supply, last weeks' effort for the RetroChallenge 2018/04, disassembling a coffee-machine and the upcoming Vintage Computer Festival Europe (VCFe). Relevant links: upcoming Hackalot hackerspace in Eindhoven (NL) RetroChallenge 2018, April (RC2018/04)... ...and my project f...
episode 19: hand-held scopes, disassembling scales, and a digital probe
April 08, 2018 08:10 - 16 minutes - 8.94 MB(First of all, apologies for the many "uhhh"s and "ummm"s you can hear - no idea what was going on there. Edited out a lot, and next time it should be better.) Topics this time are my effort so far for the RetroChallenge 2018/04 (25% in), a short and biased discussion of some available handheld oscilloscopes, disassembling consumer-scales to see what was going on inside, hacking together a small digital probe to distinguish high/low/floating pins, and blowing a fuse while poking at electro...
episode 18: low-current LED, IFComp-effort and toaster-autopsy
March 31, 2018 17:50 - 13 minutes - 7.53 MBThis episode covers one more PCB-failure (see previous episode for more fail), a LED that would still emit light at a rediculously low current, shortcomings of DIY lasercut stencils from a previous episode, my entry for the upcoming IFComp, disassembly of an old bread-toaster, the RC2018/04 Retro Challenge which will start tomorrow, and some more upcoming events. IFComp - Interactive Fiction Competition Retro Challenge RC2018/04 in April... ...and my entry for the RC2018/04 Outline de...
episode 17: connecting stuff, PCB-failure countdown and fixing a microphone/headphone
March 17, 2018 20:36 - 10 minutes - 5.84 MBOnly a short time between the last episode and this one, so I didn't do a whole lot of stuff: spent 1 day volunteering at a local Home Computer Museum, decided on a project for the upcoming Retro Challenge 2018/04, went through all PCB-design I've ever made and made a list of common failures, and fixed a headphone with built-in microphone (that is, removed the microphone-part). HomeComputerMuseum (Helmond, NL) Retro Challenge 2018/04... ...and my entry for that IFcomp: interactive fic...
episode 16: Maker Faire project (again), upcoming stuff and Maker Faires in general
March 12, 2018 17:55 - 10 minutes - 5.66 MBMaker Faire Ruhr (Dortmund, .de) came and went, so this is the last time you'll hear about my project for that - finally. Apart from that, this episode is about hot air soldering and upcoming events, local and remote, on- and offline. recent Maker Faire Ruhr (2018-03-10 & -11) IFcomp (submission for entries starts on June 1st) Retro Challenge (in April) HomeComputerMuseum (Helmond, .nl) opens on March 17th my Maker Faire entry: Qibec 1-bit 1-instruction transistor-CPU Hackalot hac...
episode 15: quickfixing/ignoring weird electrical problems and working on my CPU-project
February 25, 2018 18:37 - 8 minutes - 4.19 MBNot much diversity this time - just doing my best to get ready for Maker Faire Ruhr (Dortmund) on March 10-11. The idea is to bring 2 versions of my CPU-project: the old one (with emulated RAM/ROM on a laptop connected to it), and the new stand-alone one (with RAM/ROM onboard). About 2 weeks to get everything ready, so yeah. Undoing hack (diode between Vcc and 74LVC06) on CPU's I/O-module: New CPU-baseboard: Links of mentioned items: Gigatron TTL microcomputer Hackalot ha...
episode 14: shift-registers, latch-up hunting and simulating small circuits
February 08, 2018 00:09 - 9 minutes - 5.16 MBIt's been more than "approximately a week", but instead of keeping to a preset schedule, we choose to bring you only QUALITY CONTENT! Just kidding. This time, I'll talk a bit about choosing shift-registers instead of a big fat MCU, hunting what may be latch-up in my logic-boards, simulating electronic (sub)circuits using SPICE or QUCS, a repair-session at retro-computing place in mid NL, and some non-tech hobby stuff. simulation using Qucs... ...or Ngspice (or any other SPICE i...
episode 13: scope segmented memory, DIY lasercut stencils, and floating reset-pin
January 16, 2018 15:54 - 9 minutes - 4.96 MBAnother cohostless(tm) episode, talking about assembling and debugging a digital logic PCB using the Rigol DS1054Z's segmented memory ("waveform recording"), the need for an actual logic analyser, possible clipping of silkscreen layer when having PCBs made, DIY PCB-stencils using lasercut removable label-sheets, the Gigatron homebrew TTL-computer, and dual fail getting a LED-driver to work and actually making planned software. Rigol (DS)1000Z series scopes Gigatron TTL microcomputer...
episode 12: test-lasercutting acrylic, Flashing Light Prize 2018, and motor-innards
January 07, 2018 22:10 - 7 minutes - 4.36 MBThis time, the whole CBA Podcast team talks about ongoing redesign for the Qibec CPU (preparation for Maker Faire Ruhr 2018), lasercutting lightpipes and bendable mesh-zones out of acrylic for doing tests, my Flashing Light Prize 2018 entry, the surprising (to me) AH276 Hall sensor / motor coil driver, and a not-too-productive gear-fixing session. Qibec 1-bit 1-instruction transistor-CPU Flashing Light Prize 2018 ...and my entry for that AH276 datasheet ...and a small circuit I ...
episode 11: grinders, layout-fail and lasercutting/milling acrylic
December 31, 2017 19:02 - 13 minutes - 7.33 MBWe talk - again - about angle-grinders, PCB-layout failure because of hasty decisions, and lasercutting vs milling acrylic sheets, in no detail whatsoever. Happy 2018! :-)
episode 10: digital latch-board, interactive tape-adventure and upcoming competitions
December 28, 2017 12:05 - 11 minutes - 6.32 MBHoliday-chat about progress with my Maker Faire Dortmund project, experiments for a possible UV LED project, ideas for an interactive cassette-tape adventure-game, the Retro Challenge, and the Outline and X demo-parties in the Netherlands.
Episode 9: Maker Faire project, PCB-manufacturers and Piotr's Arduino Holiday Gift
December 18, 2017 11:27 - 7 minutes - 3.98 MBAnother Remi/Han/solo episode this time, where I talk about a small success with iTunes podcast-registration, Maker Faire Dortmund / Ruhr (Germany) and my project for that, the great effort of mounting 4 power-resistors to a metal plate, cheap/fast PCB-manufacturing, and finally Piotr's Holiday Gift to me - an Arduino Nano and its bootloader.
Episode 8: iTunes, Maker Faires, and slow digital signals
December 06, 2017 15:39 - 11 minutes - 6.15 MBThis time, we (or rather I) talk about trouble registering this podcast with iTunes, past and upcoming Maker Faires around the Netherlands, EMF camp in the UK, a resistive 230 Vac load - for the last time, a DIY box to show/control slow digital signals, and an idea for an upcoming project consisting of several types of digital drivers/output in parallel.
Episode 7: C64, stumbling-blocks and reasons for making stuff, and a LED-banner board
November 26, 2017 16:47 - 12 minutes - 7 MBWe push the boundaries of lameness by having a solo-episode, where Michai talks about what he did this week, and Piotr is being emulated here and there by modern technology. The aforementioned Commodore 64 adapter-cartridge reached mild failure, short mentioning of stumbling-blocks and reasons for making stuff at all, a bit more info about my DIY resistive 230 Vac load slowly getting ready, a report about fixing a C64, and recycling an old LED banner-board from a store I once worked in.
Episode 6: welding, grinding and equipment that can catch fire
November 18, 2017 22:15 - 20 minutes - 10.8 MBThis exciting episode, we talk about Piotr's welding, angle-grinders, Michai's kettle-alarm and resistive test-load, and equipment that can catch fire.
Episode 5: SPI-fail, generous holiday-gifts and more
November 10, 2017 12:17 - 14 minutes - 7.87 MBThis episode, we talk about Michai's SPI-bridge fail-project, the Bus Pirate, Arduino-connection 101, USB-connectors, and Piotr's Arduino Nano Holiday Gift.
Episode 4: hot air soldering, Arduino-robot, and motors
November 03, 2017 18:53 - 27 minutes - 13.3 MBWe talk about hot air soldering and being scared to break anything, hobby vapour-phase oven, an Arduino-robot as entry into electronics and software, and (lack of clue about) DC-motors.
Episode 3: workspaces, homecomputer-troubleshooting, and how to blow up electronics
October 27, 2017 15:54 - 16 minutes - 8.95 MBThis time, we talk about workspaces near or in the house, homecomputer-fixing and -troubleshooting, the importance of a correct schematic, and how to blow up electronics.
Episode 2: home-computers, welding, slippery salesmen, science behind metal-working
October 21, 2017 14:06 - 14 minutes - 7.93 MBWe talk about planning to fix home-computers, the anatomy of a weldine-machine, being cheated in the computer-store, and the science and skills behind metal-working. Note: the sound-quality is worse than it should be. We're still experimenting and trying. Eventually it will be OK, so don't cry :-)
Episode 1: first co-hosted attempt
October 17, 2017 16:37 - 11 minutes - 5.27 MBThis time, we'll be talking about equipment that gives ideas, long-term investments, a TV-antenna, chiptunes, and a homecomputer-adapter.
Episode 0: introduction
October 16, 2017 18:01 - 1 minute - 1.01 MBThe very first episode, where you can hear what to expect in future episodes.