#717 – Back on the road in ’26

Mar 4, 2026

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Chris will be having a meetup in London March 8th, 2026 click here for more info. He will also be at Embedded World the following week at various events.
Dave is also headed to a meetup in Sydney that he has presented at in the past.
The “lazy man move” for meetup organizers: scheduling events within walking distance of home to simplify travel logistics.
Chris provides details on his latest high-density hardware project, a 22mm circular board packed with 0201 components, Bluetooth, and a suite of sensors, noting a move from BGA to QFN for better assembly reliability.
There is significant skepticism regarding “solid-state transformers” and tech articles claiming they will replace the traditional power grid, with the hosts citing efficiency losses that become massive at megawatt scales.
A fascinating look into global supply chains reveals how a single AI prompt can be traced back through layers of manufacturing to sugarcane fermentation and high-purity quartz mines in Spruce Pine, North Carolina.
The creeping normalization of biometric face scanning in public spaces, from water park lockers to international airport terminals.
The marketing tactics behind Donut Lab’s solid-state battery claims, explaining how “independent third-party testing” can be carefully hand-picked to avoid industry standards. They want us to talk about it like this
The nuances of UL certification explains how companies sometimes use specific lab reports to imply broader official endorsements that do not actually exist.
Dave shares his experience watching the show Silicon Valley with his son and discusses the “hideous accuracy” of the Australian public service comedy Utopia.
The pros and cons of modular hardware are debated, covering the Framework laptop’s “Ship of Theseus” repairability model versus high-end gaming tablets like the Asus ROG Flow Z13.
Dave’s viral social media quest for the best Linux distribution leads to a consensus on Linux Mint as the top choice for beginners, fueling the ongoing joke about the “Year of the Linux Desktop”.
Recent industry news highlights the release candidate for KiCad 10 and the discovery of a three-cent Paduk microcontroller performing auxiliary functions inside Rode wireless microphones.
Pimoroni did extreme an cooling project back in 2024 that successfully overclocked the RP2350 microcontroller to 800 MHz. We just found out about it from a post from Jeff Geerling.