Episodes

  • Bamboozled

    Bamboozled
    Feb 3 2025

    Paul and Tod discuss drama in the world of 3D printing, oscilloscope music, inventory management for makers, and more.

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    Show Notes

    bamboozle: To deceive or dupe; hoodwink. synonym: deceive.

    00:00 Welcome

    00:14 Drama in the world of 3D printing

    • Bambu Firmware Update Introducing New Authorization Control System
    • The Verge coverage

    8:36 Oscilloscope music

    • Tutorials and how-to links
    • Oscilloscope Music

    13:00 ucritair

    15:50 Buchla and friends

    19:02 Inventory management for makers

    22:14 Wrap-up
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    23 mins
  • Sunsets, Synths, and Pinball!

    Sunsets, Synths, and Pinball!
    Jan 6 2025

    Happy New Year! Tod and Paul are back, each with three things to share. They discuss sunsetting a popular IDE, Tod’s favorite synth (which does so much more), 3D printing, pinball, and more.

    We’re now on Bluesky! Follow us on Bluesky or subscribe to our newsletter.

    Visit The Bootloader.net for detailed show notes, links, transcripts, and more.

    00:00 Welcome

    00:19 Sunsetting Mu

    3:23 The Synthstrom Deluge

    9:11 Home Assistant Voice (Preview Edition)

    12:13 The Sound of Logic: Klangorium

    15:50 3D Printing News Round-up

    • A 4D axis printer, where the nozzle can rotate.
    • MobiPrint, a mobile 3D printer, without a bed. Hackaday YouTube
    • Make a working PCB using a SLA printer’s UV light.
    • The Lemontron 3D printer costs just over $400 to make yourself and is small enough to transport in an empty filament box. Hackaday and Tom’s Hardware
    • PolyDye adds an ink jet toner cartridge to your 3D printer to allow printing in color. Hackaday
    • PETFusion 2.0 launched a Kickstarter that fully funded in 3 hours to create a bottle recycler and custom 3D printer filament maker. It includes the STL files and bill of materials you need to build your own. STLs start at $39 up to $109 for a commercial license version.

    19:18 Pinball!

    • Pacific Pinball Museum
    • Find machines near you with Pinballmap.com

    23:01 Good-bye RadioFreeFedi.net

    23:15 Wrap-up
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    23 mins
  • Supercon 2024

    Supercon 2024
    Dec 2 2024

    Tod and Paul discuss the recent Hackaday Supercon. They share some of their favorite talks, the Supercon badge, and notable add-ons for the badge.

    For detailed show notes, including pictures, visit TheBootloader.net. And while you’re there, sign up for our newsletter!

    00:00 Welcome

    00:25 What is Supercon?

    3:23 The Supercon badge

    5:25 Supercon badge simple add-ons

    6:44 The 2024 Supercon badge

    7:16 Tod’s simple add-on, the touchwheel SAO

    10:03 Conference talks overview

    10:35 Giving Robotic Friends a Voice (Paul #1)

    12:59 CircuitGraver (Tod #1)

    15:17 Solving the Last Mile with 3D Printed Packaging (Paul #2)

    18:10 In Living Color: A New World of Full Color PCBs (Tod #2)

    19:27 Microcontrollers are Just Radios in Disguise

    24:41 Notable Simple Add-Ons

    29:28 Wrap-up
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    30 mins
  • Welcome Kevin Santo Cappuccio

    Welcome Kevin Santo Cappuccio
    Nov 4 2024
    Welcome to the show For detailed show notes and a transcript, visit TheBootloader.net Join our newsletter! Keep up with the show and what Paul and Tod are up to. Visit The Bootloader’s newsletter page to browse the archives or subscribe. Welcome to our second guest, Kevin Santo Cappuccio, the creator of Jumperless. 6:20 The UNO Plus+ (Kevin #1) The UNO Plus+ from John Loeffler is what the Arduino UNO should’ve been all along. It’s the same shape and hardware as the Arduino UNO, with the added bonus of LEDs on every pin to show you the state. 10:36 Manyfold (Paul #1) Manyfold is a self-hosted solution to organize and share your files for 3D printing. It’s also connected to the Fediverse, allowing you to follow instances (aka server) or creators. You can run it in single-user mode or multi-user. You can also make files public or private, which is great for saving models you might have paid for but don’t or can’t share publicly. Suported file formats include 3MF, Blender, FreeCAD, OpenSCAD, STEP, STL, OBJ, GCode, BMP, GIF, JPG, PNG, SVG, and even video files in MP4 or MPEG. It also support Markdown, PDF, and text files. Demo instance Public instances GitHub repository FLOSS Weekly podcast episode with James Smith 13:52 Quake on a SparkFun Thing Plus Matter board (Tod #1) next-hack.com got Quake running on a Feather-sized board The folks at nexxt-hack.com have Quake running on a SparkFun Thing Plus Matter board. This board is in the Feather format (0.9“ x 2“) and sports a MGM240P wireless module for doing Bluetooth and Matter wireless protocols. This module also sports a EFR32MG24 chip, which is a 32-bit ARM Cortex-M33 processor at 39 MHz, 1.5MB flash and 256 kB of RAM. (This is essentially the same specs as the new RP2350 from RasPi, so maybe we’ll see Quake on an Adafruit Feather soon?) After proving the idea using the SparkFun board, they designed a complete Quake-playing gamepad with built-in screen, joysticks, sound, and battery. This time using the Arduino Nano Matter board (which has a similar MGM240-series module on it) Oh also: you can do BLE-based multiplayer and it runs at 35 fps at 320 x 240. SparkFun Thing Plus Matter board Writeup on the Silabs.com tech blog Next-hack gamepad using Arduino Nano Matter board Next-hack gamepad design files 18:00 Evolvable Hardware (Kevin #2) Evolvable Hardware Been around since 1990Developed at the University of Sussex by Adrian ThompsonUsed a XE6200 FPGA (100 gates - 10x10 FPGA)Project IceStorm is reverse engineering a modern FPGA 23:18 FlexiPi Kickstarter (Paul #2) The FlexiPi is a new Raspberry Pi Pico with a few tricks up its sleeve. First - it’s flexible, hence the name and wafer thin. It also includes a few upgrades from the original Raspberry Pi Pico, including using USB-C instead of Micro-USB and a programmable Neopixel built-in. Otherwise, the pinout stays the same as the popular Pico. Kickstarter campaign Tom’s Hardware coverage Update Since recording, the FlexiPi Kickstarter project was suspended by Kickstarter and the reasons why are unknown. To stay updated on the project, you can sign up for their newsletter here. 25:11 EMMG MIDI Synth (Tod #2) A hacker in our community, Johnathan Bisson / @bjonnh, created the EMMG Midi Synth as a teaching tool for a Workshop on MIDI and music synthesis at the Pumping Station One hackerspace in Chicago The workshop taught what MIDI is, from down at the signalling level to how it’s used by performers. The board each student got was custom-designed. It has 8 pots, 12 captouch pads, an OLED display and stereo audio out, all driven with a USB-C 16MB Pico clone. The workshop also talks about how GPIOs work and how capsense works. Looks like it was pretty great! EMMG MIDI Synth homepage Workshop notes Workshop slides Pra32-u synth engine pico-test-synth – my test platform for playing with synths on a Pico picoslidertoy eight_by – my yet-to-used take of adding 8-pots to a single analog in using analog mux chip
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    30 mins
  • Welcome Liz Clark

    Welcome Liz Clark
    Oct 7 2024
    Paul and Tod welcome their first ever guest, Liz Clark aka BlitzCityDIY. They chat about the itsaSNAP iOS app from Adafruit, the new Raspberry Pi AI camera, maker skill trees, and more. Join our newsletter! Keep up with the show and what Paul and Tod are up to. Visit The Bootloader’s newsletter page to browse the archives or subscribe. Show Notes 00:25 Adafruit itsaSNAP iOS App (Liz #1) I have to say I’m a little biased with this pick because I contract with Adafruit, but I’m mildly obsessed with the new itsaSNAP app. This is the latest iOS app from Adafruit by our iOS developer Trevor. It acts as a bridge between your iOS device and your Adafruit IO feeds. There is support for Apple Shortcuts, which means that you can log health data, home data, any data that’s on your iOS device. You can also read feeds from the device and have Adafruit IO affect tasks on your phone. I’ve worked on two guides with it so far. The first uses a Qualia board with a round display to show photos from my photos app. I’m able to encode the photo in a Shortcut, send it to an IO feed and then decode it with CircuitPython. I’ve also worked with using Matter devices in Apple HomeKit with itsaSNAP to log sensor data and also to control an RGB light strip. I’m really excited about all of the functionality and I’m looking forward to seeing what people do with it. itsaSNAP Intro Learn Guide Qualia S3 Photo Frame Health Status Board 5:09 Raspberry Pi AI Camera Module (Tod #1) There is a new camera module from Raspberry Pi. It’s an “AI” camera. What does that mean? It appears as a regular camera to the Pi, plugs into the CSI camera port. The “AI” part is that it has an RP2040 and 16MB of flash to store a pre-trained AI model you upload to it. Raspberry Pi blog post Hackster hands-on article Getting started Picamera2 repo demo videos: Pose estimation, Object detection 10:05 The Bumpin’ Sticker by Guy Dupont (Paul #1) Guy Dupont creates his take on the “Keep Honkin’ I’m Listening to…” bumper stickers. Using a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W, a screen from Ali Express, a Particle IoT board, and his Last.fm account, the screen dsiplays a bumper sticker with what Guy is currently listening to. Guy Dupont on The CircuitPython Show Guy Dupont MakerChat on CircuitPython Day 2024 The Bumpin’ Sticker YouTube video GitHub Repository 13:40 Nothing To See/Hear : Wireless Fuzz Pedal (Liz #2) I follow quite a few guitar pedal folks on instagram and saw the newest post from @different.noises last week. It’s a “wireless fuzz” that completes the circuit by transmitting it via an infrared LED. The circuit converts the signal from the guitar to headphone audio level and then again into light that is sent out the infrared transmitter to an infrared LED. He includes the schematic in the post as well as an explainer and a few demo videos to prove that the signal is in fact transmitting via infrared. Nothing To See/Hear : Wireless Fuzz Pedal Post different.noises on Instagram 16:10 X1Plus alternative open source Bambu X1 firmware (Tod #2) I’ve been thinking of getting a new 3d printer. My Prusa mk2.5s has seen better days. And I’m wowed at the literal 2x speed improvement I could get out of a Prusa mk4s or a Bambulab X1. So when I discovered this X1Plus alternative firmware for the X1, I was intrigued. The X1Plus firmware runs on the “application processor” (AP) board of the X1, (sort of like what Octoprint does for me currently). It doesn’t touch the motion control system. And seems like all does to the the AP firmware is patch the bootloader to also look for a firmware file on the SD card, and use that if present. So you can always go back to stock firmware quickly. And the team behind it have started a CrowdSupply campaign for an expansion board X1Plus can use for extra features light lights and cameras. I don’t think I’d want this, but I’m glad they’re finding a funding path for the keep them going. X1Plus X1Plus expansion board crowdfunding Hackster article 22:31 Maker (and more) Skill Trees (Paul #2) Steph Piper aka Maker Queen has created Maker Skill Trees as a way to track your progress across a range of skills. These include things like PCB Design, 3D Printing and Modeling, and Dev Boards to crafting skills like Crochet, Knitting and more. There are almost sixty different skill treens to pick from. Each skill tree has 73 skills or experience hexagon tiles, with basic skills at the bottom to more advanced skills at the top. There’s a web app to create your own skill tree apps designed by Shane Gadsby. There’s also a book in development with an even more expansive range of skill trees, tools to track your progress and calculate your life score across all areas.
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    25 mins
  • From Arcade to Synth

    From Arcade to Synth
    Sep 2 2024

    Welcome to a new episode of The Bootloader. For detailed show notes and transcripts, check out TheBootloader.net. Join our new newsletter or check out the archives.

    00:00 Welcome

    00:26 Recap: The Bootloader live on CircuitPython Day

    3:00 MICRORACK (Tod #1)

    08:16: Pimoroni’s Picade Max (Paul #1)

    • Paradise Arcade Shop

    13:17 A bug in the Raspberry Pi RP2350 (Tod #2)

    • Hackster article

    18:36 Stratasys sues Bambu Lab (Paul #2)

    • Ars Technica
    • Tom’s Hardware - Is Bambu being targeted for being successful?

    22:18 Wrap-up
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    23 mins
  • Teardown 2024 with Debra Ansell

    Teardown 2024 with Debra Ansell
    Aug 5 2024
    In this episode of The Bootloader, Paul and Tod are joined by Debra Ansell who recaps Teardown 2024. Tod and Paul share a few interesting things including the Tulip Creative Computer, code editors, metal 3D printing, and more. Stay until the end for a special announcement about CircuitPython Day on August 16, 2024. For detailed show notes, transcripts, and to join our newsletter, visit The Bootloader.net 00:28 Interview with Debra Ansell Tod and Paul are joined by Debra Ansell (geekmomprojects on Instagram and Mastodon). Debra recaps her experience at the recent Teardown 2024 conference hosted by Crowd Supply. Building Up Excitement for Teardown 2024 Teardown 2024 14:17 The Tulip Creative Computer (Tod #1) Tod shares the Tulip Creative Computer, a MicroPython powered ESP32-S3 computer and synthesizer with a focus on music creation. Tulip homepage Build your own Tulip Floyd Steinberg’s video on Tulip AMY - Additive Music librarY 18:27 ViperIDE and Zed (Paul #1) ViperIDE is a brand new IDE in a web browser focused on MicroPython, with CircuitPython support created by Volodymyr Shymanskyy. Review from Les Pounder at Tom’s Hardware Live demo with Volodymyr Shymanskyy on Tom’s Hardware Pi Cast Zed is a fairly new code editor and IDE for macOS and Linux users who might miss Atom or Sublime Text. It’s open source, released under the Apache and GPL 3.0 licenses, and focused on speed and collaboration. Zed homepage GitHub repository pyright static type checker for Python 23:03 CeraMetal - 3D printing metal using clay (Tod #2) CeraMetal can be made using a relatively inexpensive clay 3D printer combined with a metal powder fired in a kiln. CeraMetal: A New Approach to Low-Cost Metal 3D Printing with Bronze Clay“ – Leah Buechley, Jaime Gould, Fiona Bell CeraMetal talk on ACM SIGCHI Hackaday blog post on CeraMetal Fermat’s Natural Spirals “Fermat Spirals for Layered 3D Printing” on Two Minute Papers Fun Fermat Spiral toy in Processing 27:08 CircuitMatter (Paul #2) Scott Shawcroft, CircuitPython’s lead developer, shared he is working on CircuitMatter, a pure Python implementation of some of the Matter specification that will be compatible with CircuitPython and potentially MicroPython. What is Matter? - Wired Magazine Matter and Home Assistant Sparkfun Thing Plus Matter dev board 29:47 Special Announcement about CircuitPython Day 2024 Tune in to the Adafruit YouTube channel on CircuitPython Day, August 16th for a special live stream of The Bootloader with Paul and Tod. Stay positive!
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    30 mins
  • Four Topics and an Interview

    Four Topics and an Interview
    Jul 1 2024

    Paul and Tod chat about Professor Gallaugher’s CircuitPython tutorial videos, Embedded Swift, a special interview with Justin Myers, the author of the new CircuitPython ConnectionManager library, and more.

    For detailed show notes and transcripts visit The Bootloader.net

    Show Notes:

    00:21 CircuitPython videos by Professor John Gallaugher

    • Professor Gallaugher interview on The CircuitPython Show
    • Professor Gallaugher’s YouTube channel
    • CircuitPython playlist
    • Raspberry Pi Pico tutorials using CircuitPython
    • Bluefruit School - using a CircuitPython Bluefruit and tutorials
    • Use PyCharm with CircuitPython on macOS video
    • Easily install or upgrade CircuitPython Libraries with Circup video

    4:58 Embedded Swift

    • https://www.cnx-software.com/2024/06/13/embedded-swift-esp32-c6-raspberry-pi-rp2040-stm32f7-nrf52840-microcontrollers/
    • https://www.hackster.io/news/apple-embeds-swift-into-hardware-125131557514
    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqxbsADqDI4
    • Swift Embedded Examples - https://github.com/apple/swift-embedded-examples
    • Swift Matter Examples - https://github.com/apple/swift-matter-examples/tree/main/smart-light

    8:53 Accessibility Matters

    • The Micro:bit Access:bit
    • Adafruit’s TRRS Trinkey

    11:55 CadQuery

    • https://cadquery.readthedocs.io/en/latest/intro.html – good intro
    • https://github.com/CadQuery/cadquery – the main repo
    • https://github.com/CadQuery/CQ-editor – GUI editor, like OpenSCAD, one of the many ways to use CQ
    • https://github.com/Wren6991/CQCAD – Luke Wren (ASIC designer at RasPi)’s collection of CQCAD parts
    • Also simliar: OpenJSCAD but also cannot export STEP
    • And the original: OpenSCAD

    16:47 Interview with Justin Myers, author of CircuitPython’s ConnectionManager library

    • ConnectionManager
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    25 mins