Charlyn gonda

Circuit Break Podcast #147

Charlyn Gonda and the Ever-Lowering Fence between Software and Hardware

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November 21, 2018, Episode #147

Charlyn Gonda joins the MEP to discuss the shrinking divide between the software and hardware worlds.
  • Charlyn Gonda
    • Coder by day, maker by night
    • A chronic problem solver and is currently in the middle of her year-long project, 12 Months of Makes
    • Has too much fun building circuits, creating things with 3D printing, crafting hats and coding IoT devices!
  • Topics
    • Charlyn what is your background? Day Job ect?
    • Why did you become a Software Developer?
    • How did you go from a Software Developer to building Hardware for the first time?
      • Any particular reason you wanted to start building hardware?
    • How do you approach hardware design? Is it in anyway the same as software development or radically different?
    • What is the 12 Months of Makes
      • Projects you have completed so far?
      • Almost at the end of the 12 Months of Makes. How successful was the experiment?
    • Words of wisdom to other software developers that are thinking about hardware creation?

Visit our Slack Channel and join the conversation in between episodes and please review us, wherever you listen (PodcastAddict, iTunes). It helps this show stay visible and helps new listeners find us.

Charlyn Gonda: Software Engineer by day, Hardware Designer by night.

Charlyn Gonda: Software Engineer by day, Hardware Designer by night.

About the Hosts

Parker Dillmann
  Parker Dillmann

Parker is an Electrical Engineer with backgrounds in Embedded System Design and Digital Signal Processing. He got his start in 2005 by hacking Nintendo consoles into portable gaming units. The following year he designed and produced an Atari 2600 video mod to allow the Atari to display a crisp, RF fuzz free picture on newer TVs. Over a thousand Atari video mods where produced by Parker from 2006 to 2011 and the mod is still made by other enthusiasts in the Atari community.

In 2006, Parker enrolled at The University of Texas at Austin as a Petroleum Engineer. After realizing electronics was his passion he switched majors in 2007 to Electrical and Computer Engineering. Following his previous background in making the Atari 2600 video mod, Parker decided to take more board layout classes and circuit design classes. Other areas of study include robotics, microcontroller theory and design, FPGA development with VHDL and Verilog, and image and signal processing with DSPs. In 2010, Parker won a Ti sponsored Launchpad programming and design contest that was held by the IEEE CS chapter at the University. Parker graduated with a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering in the Spring of 2012.

In the Summer of 2012, Parker was hired on as an Electrical Engineer at Dynamic Perception to design and prototype new electronic products. Here, Parker learned about full product development cycles and honed his board layout skills. Seeing the difficulties in managing operations and FCC/CE compliance testing, Parker thought there had to be a better way for small electronic companies to get their product out in customer's hands.

Parker also runs the blog, longhornengineer.com, where he posts his personal projects, technical guides, and appnotes about board layout design and components.

Stephen Kraig
  Stephen Kraig

Stephen Kraig is a component engineer working in the aerospace industry. He has applied his electrical engineering knowledge in a variety of contexts previously, including oil and gas, contract manufacturing, audio electronic repair, and synthesizer design. A graduate of Texas A&M, Stephen has lived his adult life in the Houston, TX, and Denver, CO, areas.

Stephen has never said no to a project. From building guitar amps (starting when he was 17) to designing and building his own CNC table to fine-tuning the mineral composition of the water he uses to brew beer, he thrives on testing, experimentation, and problem-solving. Tune into the podcast to learn more about the wacky stuff Stephen gets up to.

Special thanks to whixr over at Tymkrs for the intro and outro!

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