Embedded - 136: Let's Try Out Some Broccoli

Episode Date: January 28, 2016

Inventor and Youtube-er, Simone Giertz (@SimoneGiertz) tells us about building robots to "help" her daily life. Simone's YouTube Channel. Some of the videos discussed in the show: Chopping Machine VLOG and its TV commercial (Also: the servo motors used) Listener Feedback with TENS machine Wake up machine  Simone's blog, with additional robot build details is at simonegiertz.com.  For relaxation, Simone visits the Hello Denizen YouTube channel and watches hamsters eating gourmet meals. She also mentioned her preferred Reddit feed. Like robots? Check out the job postings at iRobot. If you like what you see, email Chris Svec. (Yes, the guy who was on 78: Happy Cows.) Contest for Making Embedded Systems will end Feb 5, 2016.

Welcome to Embedded FM. I'm Elysia White, here with Christopher White. This week, we are going to talk to YouTube sensation Simone Yach, a maker by profession who is into robots, programming, and duct tape. Nothing could possibly go wrong with this show. Before we get started, do you all remember Chris Svek from episode 78? It was the Happy Cows episode. We talked about empathy-driven development, writing code that's nice to yourself, other developers and users. He's looking for some other developers. Actually, it's his employer who's looking, iRobot, the maker of Roomba and other bomb disposal and or cat carrying robots.

They're looking for all sorts of embedded help. You don't have to be a robot or roboticist to apply. They're even looking for Androids and cloud developers or Android programmers and cloud devs. Most of the work is in Boston and Pasadena. Check out their openings on the show notes and apply to bribe you into considering it. There is a contest to win a copy of my book, Making Embedded Systems. Send me your favorite fictional robot and I will choose a winner using a random number generator. I hear that iRobot will let you build your favorite robot, so send your resume to csvec at iRobot.com. That'll be in the show notes, of course. If you

get confused and send him your favorite robot and me your resume, that's fine. That's hilarious. I'm good with it. Okay, let's get started. Hi, Simone. Thanks for being on the show. Hi, thanks for having me. Could you tell us about yourself? What do you want to know? What area? Well, like, if we professionally just met you at a random conference or maker event how would you introduce yourself on a panel so i um i'm an inventor and uh youtuber so i run a youtube channel about electronics. And actually, what's become my niche is robots. And I know you're probably going to bleep that. So I mean, it's robots that are very good at being bad. Yeah, or that kind of solve problems that don't exist or solve problems that do exist, but in a not very efficient way. So not evil robots, just not very good robots.

I mean, evil is a finicky word. Depends if they could be evil. I've built some things that actually really scare me. They certainly look evil. They're used for good, so I guess they're not evil. I, the creator, am not very evil, I think. So my robots are also probably pretty nice. Okay, I have a burning question. And we will get to like actually helping other people understand this question. But for my own personal edification, is there really a Chad? Oh, oh gosh. This is funny. That one just kind of took off. So I made a video for, I made a machine that chops vegetables for me. And that one is probably the most terrifying robot I've

built because it just flings two pretty big knives everywhere. And I kind of made a TV shop commercial for it where it was just, I don't know, I was just some very bitter housewife, I think, who was like, oh, this is what will happen to you, Chad. And then I like chopped a zucchini. And people were really like, oh my gosh, who is this Chad guy? Like, what has he done to her? He can't, Simone, I'll marry you instead dumb Chad but it was just really I just chose a random name so I'm sorry to all Chad's out there no offense well that that's probably good I wondered if it was the best worst internet breakup ever well maybe that's a niche too. Fun breakups. Very sad niche.

Okay, before we actually get more into that robot, because I do have lots of questions, we're going to do lightning round where we ask you quick questions that should have one word answers. And then we try not to ask you for explanations. But then that never works. So we'll try to do the one word answers okay okay okay i'm ready okay favorite fictional robot oh oh i never realized you sent me these questions before and i was like oh i really need to think about that one we sent part of them we're getting it more so it gets harder i don't know i feel like i'm put on the spot i can't i can't think of it i'm like the only ones i think of is like r2d2 and wally okay which of those do you prefer okay yeah definitely r2d2 yeah wally i never i actually

never really liked that movie i'm not sure why me neither but at the same time i must admit i'm like not a huge star wars fan she's gonna be terrible lightning round all right uh most important to your daily work a soldering iron a video camera or a band-aid uh soldering iron do you prefer living on a boat or on a space station? Space station. Yeah. Any day.

Yeah. But that is because I live on a boat, so that's like everyday life. Space station would be something extraordinary. Should we bring back the dinosaurs? Yes, but in miniature versions. Oh, excellent. Have you seen the new Star Wars movie i haven't actually i i feel so bad this is like one of my biggest chains because uh as of like a couple of weeks back i had not watched a single one and this is yeah this is terrible i i feel

very embarrassed about that but now i've plowed through five of them. And I'm kind of working my way to, yeah, watching the new one. Which one haven't you seen? She hasn't seen Force Awakens. No, no, she says she watched five. Yeah, but I've watched them in the order in which they were filmed. That's perfect. Yeah.

I asked a Star Wars fan friend i think you should just proper way of doing it skip skip the next one skip the next one it's not important i mean you know what happens like obi-wan throws darth vader into a volcano you just spoiled the whole movie oh what you're spoiling it you just spoiled the movie i thought everybody knew that no no everybody doesn't know that if they haven't seen the movies they don't know that i doesn't know that. If they haven't seen the movies, they don't know that. I didn't know that. Before I saw the movies. Now I know that. Well, now you've ruined it. Skip to Force Awakens. It's so much better.

Okay, okay, okay. Point taken. That number three was just so depressing. Just skip it. I mean, the first half is great. Watch the first half, and then when they all get cranky and stuff. You're just ruining it. You just ruined Star Wars.

Can we just skip to the next one? Next question. Next question. Full of spoilers. Introvert or extrovert? you just ruined star wars can we just skip to the next one next question next question introvert or extrovert i can't believe you just spoiled star wars me you uh extrovert all right definitely with a sprinkle of introvert a favorite of your videos i think i i i my upcoming one spoilers said like a true true promoter i actually have i don't have a planned upcoming one, but I assume it will be great. 4 p.m. drink, champagne, coffee, or Mountain Dew? I don't drink coffee after lunch because then I can't sleep.

What is Mountain Dew? Oh, right. It's yellow. Caffeinated soda. It's caffeinated yellow. It's yellow. I would say beer, which was not an option. That is an not an option. No, that is an often added option.

Can I just throw in a disclaimer? Sure. The reason I don't know what Mountain Dew is, is because I'm Swedish. That's right. For those of you who don't know. It's probably called something else in Sweden. I don't think we have it, actually. There are a lot of stuff that we don't have. We got Skittles just like two years back and only in like special stores

okay last lightning round question favorite muppet gosh i have never watched the muppets oh man i haven't watched the muppets sorry i blame that on being Swedish, too. You blame a lot on being Swedish. Yeah. But it's a good, I mean, as long as there aren't any other Swedes listening to this, then I can get away with a lot of stuff. I mean, I can just be like, for not having watched any Star Wars episodes, I can be like, oh, but we didn't get them in Sweden until 2007. Because it's a socialist country and uh yeah and their capitalist message was interfering yeah it was just filtered out by

the government i don't think that's true well it could be only sw Sweden and North Korea have never seen snow. No, it's totally not true. If she's unfamiliar with the Muppets, she won't be offended when I ask you to say bork, bork, bork. I'm not saying that. Bork, bork, bork. I'm not saying that. Okay, let's get off of lightning round. It was the slowest lightning round ever.

I think that was more like it. We've had worse. Yeah, okay, good. Yeah, we did it to each other one time and it was the slowest lightning round ever i think that was more like we've had worse yeah okay good yeah we did it to each other one time and it was yeah yeah okay but you're married yeah everything is just longer maybe not okay so chopping vegetables um you built this thing that's too large i mean really larger than necessary chef's knives attached to servos attached to an arduino yes and they and then you put this on a chopping block and you just let it chop clunk clunk clunk clunk yeah i just let it chop away um why but that's actually i mean i that's actually a serious question i mean i get a lot of whys in general i think that is probably my most frequent question like people are always like why

do you build these things and um i mean i'm more like why not like why why do you build these things? And I mean, I'm more like, why not? Like, why aren't you building these things? I like my fingers. You like your fingers. Okay, good reason. The chopping machine is maybe a bad example. But I think overall why I build stuff is just, I mean, I'm not an engineer. I'm definitely not an engineer. I mean, I'm just a hobbyist who really recently have just really fallen in love with robotics and DIY electronics. And the way I learn is by just having fun and playing around with the different tools. But as for the chopping machine more specifically, I think the thought process went along the ways of like, yeah, I chop a lot of vegetables. It's boring.

How can I make it more fun and automate it? Do you think not being an engineer by training makes you less afraid to try certain things? I think so, because I'm not very concerned with doing things in a correct way, because I don't know if there is a correct way. So I think overall, I just have the mentality of trying stuff out and learning by doing. And I mean, I fail a lot, but that's just kind of the way I learn. So, yeah, I think definitely it's a different mindset. Well, actually, my why question was why Arduino? Why Arduino?

Oh, sorry. I just jumped right on it. Why don't you build stuff? I was getting all snarky. Why Arduino? You know what? The true answer is I could probably try to pull something fancy off. But the true answer is like, Arduino is the only microcontroller I feel comfortable with using,

because it's the only one I've actually really used. So that's just kind of what and I think it's to me, like, I just kind of want to show like, I don't know, give people who are beginners a chance to feel that that is something that they could do. And I think Arduino is very beginner friendly. And also I'm wondering, because I had a lot of people ask me like why I use it at all and why I just didn't have the continuous servo motors connected to a power outlet or just to a power supply. But I mean, they kind of just, the servo motors just slowly lift up the knives in the beginning, which gives me a chance to kind of put them in. And to have that kind of speed control, I thought I needed an Arduino. Maybe I don't.

You two are experts, right? I think an Arduino actually is a good choice, especially since you did describe how to build this on your blog. So you're not just building it for your own entertainment and chopping purposes. You also are building it for an audience. And the Arduino expands your audience. But I'm thinking overall, because a continuous server motor is controlled through PWM. Right.

And how could I do that? I mean, it's not just power on or off. It would have been a fixed speed. You might have been able to put a resistor in there and a pot and twisted the potentiometer so that you could change the speed. Right, right. Everybody reaches for a microcontroller now. It's a nice, easy way.

It's simpler and it's it's flexible you know if you want the knives to do something different the next day you don't have to build a new circuit yeah if you put a cleaver on there i need a different pw exactly or if you want to add a laser light show to the knives yeah that's good it's always good to have an arduino but but and i also kind of initially the idea was that i was going to have it chopped to like the da, da, da, da, da, dum, dum, dum, dum. And then I needed it, uh, the Arduino. But I think, but this is like a really good example of how I learn and how having a pretty like smart audience has helped me a lot because just talking to you people, you people, sorry. I mean, I, I learn a bunch of stuff because people are like, oh, why did you use an Arduino? And I have

to think like, oh, why did I do that? And, and just kind of explain a smarter way of doing things. So, I mean, I, I learned so much from the people watching my videos so yeah so what other ways do you plan to nominate yourself for the darwin awards wait a minute maybe do we need to explain what the darwin awards are i think most of our listeners get it if not this is called google all right google google i mean All right. Google, Google. I mean, it's an award for people who die in stupid ways. And yeah, people often joke that I am on the way of getting myself a Darwin Award because I've just kind of built more and more dangerous things. I don't know. I'm pretty secret about my future projects. I don't really talk about them.

I have, I think... Is that because they're currently exploding right now? Yes. I just want to get them under control before I talk about them. No, but actually the upcoming ones that I have are not that dangerous. They're a little bit friendlier. I can see that. The dangerous ones, it's hard to encourage people to build them. Yeah. If only for liability reasons. And waiting for that lawsuit.

But that's not really, I think it's, I mean, I've kind of in the beginning with my projects, I like wrote very precise step-by-step tutorials or like how people can build it. And then I realized it's ridiculous. Like nobody really wants to reproduce my stuff. And also that's not really the idea. I mean, to me, it's like my goal is just to inspire people

to learn about electronics and just build their own stuff. So I don't think really my goal is for people to kind of duplicate my projects, but maybe get ideas from them and just get started with their own stuff. So I don't think really my goal is for people to kind of duplicate my projects, but maybe get ideas from them and just get started with their own ideas. Yeah. But your videos seem to emphasize your failure of design more than well and successful implementation of such failure of design. Is there some sort of subtext we should be getting from them? I mean, it's kind of funny because I think, I mean, a lot of people just write off the projects that I do as like, as stupid, which they obviously are, like, the ideas aren't the smartest. But I

think there's definitely a lot of thought behind it because this is the way that I realized that I learned the most efficiently. And I mean, I started teaching myself programming about two and a half years ago and I got an Arduino starter kit two years ago. And to me, the way I learn is not by sitting down with a book. It's very idea-driven. And I just have an idea that I feel strongly for, and then I just have to learn all these things along the way. And to me, it's like, when I was in school and I was studying, the learning process was very duty-driven. The main fuel that you have to learn is that it's it's because of duty because you have a test coming up and all these things that you have to do but but I realized that to me it's it's a lot

more efficient if I'm my my main fuel is is enthusiasm and and excitement and and I think that to me I mean that's a very serious thing because I see that getting people enthusiastic about something is, I mean, to me, that's everything. And I happen to be enthusiastic about robots. So to me, I mean, it's then I'm like, okay, that's what I will build because that is how I will keep a very sustainable learning process and just kind of sharing that enthusiasm i have with other people so but i mean if i would have be enthusiastic about something else and that is where i would put my effort so that it happens to be like dorky stupid robots just is because that's like what i like well and it yes, this maintenance of enthusiasm by building what you enjoy is so

important, especially for things you aren't necessarily being paid for. Yeah, exactly. And I think that's, I mean, and I understand that a lot of people just, yeah, just kind of see it as stupid. But to me, I think people should really cherish their enthusiasm because it's so valuable. I mean, it's such a key ingredient in any enjoyable career or hobby or anything. I mean, it's your enthusiasm that is the thing. So to me, I just really cherish my enthusiasm and try to kind of kindle it. I think that that is so great because that is what gets you through the drudgery of reading about Arduino PWMs. Yeah, exactly. I mean, it's like building the chopping machine. I had to learn a bunch of stuff about continuous servo motors and PWM signals.

And I had to go through, I mean, obviously not very complicated things for many people, but for me it's just kind of as layman. I mean, it was kind of tricky because like the continuous servo motors I had could only read PWM signals in a certain window. I mean, it was only like a certain pulse length that they could read if they were shorter or longer, they couldn't read them. And that didn't translate to the Arduinos like PWM write zero or, or analog write zero to 255. And just for me to like kind of

convert that it took me a long time just finding that. But I kind of powered my way through that because I was really enthusiastic about getting the chopping machine working. So, yeah. The other thing I think is cool is in your videos, you kind of demonstrate the sense of humor when things go wrong. And often for myself, when I'm working on a project for work uh when things go wrong i get very angry and i don't find it funny at all and i think having a more more light attitude toward failure might be helpful for for people yeah seeing seeing oh well i did this well that's hilarious not oh god i got it wrong but i mean i mean yeah. But it's definitely, I mean, it's not always that things go wrong in a fun way. Right.

I mean, it's like the most terrible robot is the one that doesn't start. But that's not very entertaining. That's true. I mean, so, but yeah, I mean, I try to embrace

when things go wrong because they go wrong a lot. I mean, I have no idea what I'm doing most of the time. So, of course, things are going to go wrong. But that's kind of a part of it. I guess that actually makes me have another question about a different video you've done. What exactly did you learn about motors by building an alarm clock that hits you in the face with a rubber arm? Was it that you shouldn't have long hair?

Alternative A, that you shouldn't have long hair. Alternative B, that getting slapped in the face is not a pleasant way to wake up. I think actually I got a really good learning from that one. So one of the things that a lot of people pointed out after I published it is that I didn't need an Arduino, which I was just, I'm so stuck in the Arduino box that I was just kind of mind blown by that. But,

but basically the, the way or the, the wake up machine, as it's called, the way that it worked is that I wired a clock so I could read the signal when it went off. And I just read that signal with an Arduino Uno, and then I had the Arduino Uno control a relay. But then, as people pointed out, of course, like, why would I need the Arduino Uno in there just passing along the digital signal when I could just have the clock control the relay directly. So that was probably a good learning.

And also, yeah, long hair and things that rotate isn't a great combination because I got, yeah, I got very stuck in it. And yeah, for those of you who haven't watched it, yeah, I have a rubber arm that slaps me in the face. And after a couple of takes, it just kind of, yeah, rolls up with my hair and I get stuck in it. And I was actually, there was like a short moment where I was like, this is like seriously bad. Because I was home alone and I'm like, am I going to have to cut my hair off? And it was just kind of right at the top of my head, like right on the forehead or above the forehead. So it's like not a very charming place to just have a bald spot. But I managed to just kind of tear it off the wall and get myself out of it.

But it was pretty painful. This is where the Arduino could have come in because you could have monitored the speed of the hand and if it slowed down because it was grabbing your hair and scalping you, you could have turned it off. If I would only have had that. Current feedback, yeah. Either speed or the amount of the motor drawing more current would have indicated that it was getting to an obstacle.

Can you get that out of the relay? No. No, you'd have to get it out of the motor. And if it doesn't have any data out? Oh, you would put some resistors in parallel with the motor. Maybe parallel, maybe serial. I'd have to look it up. We're going to get email. Parallel. Hey, don't look at me. In parallel with the motor. Maybe parallel, maybe serial. I'd have to look it up. I think parallel, yeah.

Especially since I just did this. Oh, and you can just read that voltage drop? Yes. Oh. And that will indicate how much the motor is sucking current. And if it suddenly starts sucking a lot of current, then it's being stopped. Of course, you're going to have to balance the amount of additional current from when it hits you versus the constant amount of additional current from when it's tangling in your hair. Or you might have to time it and say, well, it's been drawing more current for a second.

Yeah. That's bad. Or maybe I should just not use it. No, I think we can fix this. I think we can make this safe. i think we can take it to market that's actually a really fun thing i i like one of the comments uh or most frequent comments that i get or like a frequent comment that i get and it always cracks me up is people who don't understand that the projects i built aren't very serious like and there are some people i mean some people are just like oh my god this is terrible why would anyone And there are some people, I mean, some people are just like, oh my God, this is terrible. Why would anyone buy this? But some people are heartbreakingly

nice about it and are like, oh, Simone, you're getting there. Not there yet, but I think you just got to tweak your ideas a little bit and you'll be able to take it to market. That just really both warms and breaks my heart. Well, I mean, without the cloud, none of these are going to take off anyway, so. Yeah, I think you should ditch the Arduino in favor of the SparkFun thing so that you can internet of things these things.

Oh, but this is also... You could have people log in and turn it on to slap you at will. Yeah. It's such a terrible idea idea that's almost worth it i think yeah i think i need i think i need uh to collect some data maybe i'm thinking of the chopping machine that it um collects data like how much vegetables you eat what type of vegetables you eat and actually use that no i don't yeah that's also a thing that actually i find really

funny when people are like how often do you use your toothbrush helmet not often enough probably not often enough i mean i would do that thing every day and the dentist would be like why are your front teeth the only clean teeth which part of of doing this do you like best? The video part or the engineering part? I think the combination, if I can say that, and be diplomatic to me. But I must say, I think making the videos is a lot of fun, but it's also kind of stressful. Those are very exhausting days for me because I mean it takes a long time for me to shoot those things and I'm all alone I mean I do everything

by myself and I'm I mean it just takes a long time and it's kind of draining because being enthusiastic and in that kind of extroverted way is just very, I don't know, it's very draining, but it's also a lot of fun, of course. But I think I actually, I just really like tinkering. I think it's very soothing. And when you're just kind of soldering everything together, I like making like protoboard, just kind of figuring out where to put all the components in a smart way. And it's just, I don't know, I think I like that part the most, actually, just putting everything together when you have all the parts and just putting it together. So do you walk us through your process of like making the chopping block itself and then the video? The chopping machine? Yeah.

So I think in general, I get very bored and my brain just kind of entertains itself by just coming up with a lot of different ideas. And then, I mean, there are so many ideas. I have so many different ideas and most of them don't even pass the filter of me like writing them down. But eventually or like occasionally I get an idea that I feel really strongly for. And then I'm like, oh gosh, I actually really want to build this. And the chopping machine was one of those. So then I think probably the trickiest part is just sitting down. I have some sort of, I kind of know what I want the machine to do, but I need to figure out just how to do it mechanically. So to me with the chopping machine, it was just like, how do I actually create a good like chopping motion where it actually like has some sort of strength in like pushing the knife down and um i was thinking initially

of just like putting knives directly on the heads of the of the servo motors but i was like yeah that's really going to damage the servo motors eventually it will be hard to calibrate it so that it actually hits just right above the cutting board it will the servo motors will need to be really fast to get enough i don't know just enough fling into it so what i ended up doing was that i had the knives just kind of moving freely up and up and down and then i had these metal strings or springs that just pull them back down so i had the servo motor just lift them up and then the spring just pulled them back down. And to me, like figuring something like that out is probably the part that takes the longest,

but it's also very fun. And then I just go on and I try to find parts that make sense to build this with and order parts. And yeah, then I just put stuff together and I test run it a little bit. And then I just think of how, how I want to just kind of tell the story of this machine and like how I want to make a video of it. And then do you write down what you're going to say on the video or do you

just wing it? I kind of just wing it I mean I can have some points but I I find that like when I have a manuscript I mean it depends sometimes I make just or I used to make more just like pure skits and then it was nicer to have a a manuscript because then I'm not really I mean I'm not acting myself I'm kind of acting a character but when I'm myself it's better to just wing it and just have like a general topic that I know I'm not really, I mean, I'm not acting myself. I'm kind of acting a character. But when I'm myself, it's better to just wing it and just have like a general topic that I know I'm going to talk about. Otherwise, you can sound very canned and rehearsed. Yeah.

I understand that. Definitely. Yeah. It's hard. It's like smiling on camera. Yes. I just hate that. It makes me so uncomfortable.

I just want to look grumpy. And then, so do you just take one take and it all, it's as good as it's going to get, or do you end up taking like 12 takes and smashing them together? Oh gosh. It's such a, I mean, I'm always alone when I film stuff. And I think the reason I do that is because it's such an embarrassing process. I think for, for maybe a five minute video, I will have like 40 minutes of material, maybe that I cut down. So I'll just, I have like a sentence that I want to say, and I just say it in 20 different ways. And, um, I don't know. I just had, had the, just had the other day when I was editing a video or the other week and my

sister was just sitting next to me and I wasn't wearing any headphones and she just cracked up because it was actually the video for the chopping machine. And I was like, oh, let's try out some broccoli. And I was like, yeah, let's try out some broccoli. Let's try out some broccoli let's try out some broccoli and then I was like and she was like oh gosh Simone is this what you're doing and I just realized it's so embarrassing because this is what you're doing with your life yes this is what you're doing with life just like shaking a broccoli like a maraca and just be like this will be fun and i just realized it's just such an embarrassing thing because i mean i'm just playing around and seeing what will work and then like i mean most of the stuff i say i just look like a total idiot and i'm like i there's

no way i'm taking this into the video so i just cut everything out until I have like a neat little snippet of a video where I feel that I'm actually representable somewhat and how long does it take you to go from 45 minutes of of raw footage to five minute video that you then put on YouTube I think that's actually one of the most time-consuming steps I spend a lot of in editing. I just get into like this weird kind of tunnel flow where I can just sit and edit a video five hours straight and then be like, oh gosh, I haven't had lunch yet. Um, so I think I spend a lot of time, but I think a couple of hours on every video, I think it's very, it's a very important stuff because like, especially in the media, I mean, YouTube is my main platform i think it's very it's a very important stuff because like especially in the media i mean youtube is my main platform and there it's it's just the videos need to be very

high pace for people to actually watch it all the way through yeah i mean people just stop as soon as it gets the least bit uninteresting because there are a billion other youtube videos yeah so you really yeah you got to keep a high pace and just, yeah, there's always, I mean, yeah, there can be no gaps where you're just like, uh, yeah. Luckily we don't have that problem in podcast land. People put on this podcast and are forced to listen to it. Yeah. They can't turn it off. They don't know how to. Do you have to do a lot of marketing after you've posted the video? No, it been it's been so nice i mean i'm i'm a one woman show all the way through i have no backup from from different companies or anything so my only marketing and and like a very

low budget initially so like my only marketing it has been like posting on reddit actually so what was the first thing how did you first kind of become successful with this was there a viral moment or yeah so i think it was actually i mean it's it's all been reddit um and i feel like i'm seriously forever in debt to that community because that's just kind of where it started taking off for me uh especially like slash r slash robots i know you're gonna be you can bleep that you can't believe i mean yeah s-h-i-t-t-y robots but but when it started taking off i think the first project that I actually published was, uh, the, the toothbrush helmet. So it's a scaper helmet that has a little robot arm attached to it and, and the toothbrush and it brushes my teeth. And I just posted that one on Reddit.

And, um, I, I think it got like maybe four or 500,000 views. And then I made the breakfast machine and that one got a couple of million views. And then I made the breakfast machine and that one got a couple of million views and then I posted the wake-up machine and that one has unfortunately not on YouTube but mainly on Facebook but that one's gotten around 100 million views so pretty crazy yeah it's pretty mad okay that does bring up the other question. One of the other things I wanted to talk to you about comments. Do you read the comments? I do actually.

I read almost all comments. Is your skin like two inches thick? But it's not. I think I've been so, I don't want to say blessed, but but i mean people have been so nice to me some of the comment section that you read especially for for youtubers i mean they're just terrible like really really terrible but i people have been so so nice to me uh and i'll read it too so i i actually haven't gotten that much hate. And the hate that I've

gotten is just so, it's just so bad. Like the trolls, and I think overall, trolls are probably pretty bad at being trolls. But the ones, I mean, it's just like, it's just ridiculous stuff. So I mean, I can just, I just laugh at it. You did one video where you responded to comments. You put a TENS unit on your face and whenever you weren't talking, it electrocuted you, which was pretty funny, actually, I have to admit. Although I wondered if you could have pretended instead of continued to electrocute. No, you got to commit to the bit. You got to commit to it. You can't. I mean, it's going to be realistic. It's a little painful at times.

Yeah, it was surprisingly painful. Yeah. Yeah, and then your cheeks were very pink afterwards, as though you'd been electrocuted for hours on end. It really didn't look pleasant. But you did handle some of the trolly comments just head on you just but i'm not sure i thought that any of those comments were trolly well there were all the marriage proposals that's a little odd but you at the beginning you said some things were mean and and just went on

yeah but i think i mean of course it's like all these people are going to be like i mean the the worst i mean the worst ones i get are like oh women can't be funny and that's me i'm just like yeah okay sure dude yeah uh or like oh this is why women shouldn't be engineers i'm like yeah yeah whatever but but i think i think most of the comments i mean yeah i don't think they've been very mean and people being like with a wake-up machine i mean it's always people trying to kind of i think that's kind of a product of being a woman or i don't know what it's like for male male youtubers but it's very people always try to kind of put a sexual twist on stuff. Like with every machine, they're like, oh,

bet she's used that for blah, blah, blah. But I don't know. I mean, it's just ridiculous. There are, you mentioned that some people were trying to help you by taking out Arduino or explaining how to do things better. And that can be very useful. How do you decide what's constructive criticism and what's people just being actually will actually jerks.

I don't know. But the thing is like, even when people are being jerks, there might be a good learning in there. But I think it's maybe when people, I mean, to me, it's getting the amount of attention that my projects have gotten, I've realized that I kind of have a responsibility

to make things or to try to make things in as a correct way as possible. Because I've definitely started taking more care in like my circuits and just how, how I design them, uh, just to try to be as correct as, as possible. But I think, I don't know, maybe when people are like, just write me off as stupid, um, or I don't know. Yeah. Maybe that is like when people aren't very, being very constructive, but I think even then they can have good feedback points but of course I mean I think this is kind of still in

the start ask me in like two years and maybe I'll be like oh gosh all these people just telling you what to do and not to do but but at the moment I don't feel that it's really gotten to me and I think that's because I I mean, I'm definitely not claiming to be an expert in any way. I mean, this is a learning process for me. So I, I mean, I just learn a lot from, from having people discuss like better ways of building it. And I think that's also like a pretty nice product of it. I mean, a lot of the comments that I get is people being like, oh, you should have done it this way. Or like, this is a better way to create this motion. And to me, just kind of getting people trying to solve those ideas or improve the projects that I

do. I mean, that's like a good win for me because that kind of means that people are just getting a lot of ideas and just getting creative with it. I have some trouble that sometimes I know I should appreciate this person telling me how to do a better job. But on the other hand, why haven't they made any X podcasts or videos or projects or anything? They're just taking it from the outside saying you should do X. And I'm like, if X were that easy, I would have already done it.

It's a lot easier to shoot down a flame than fly it. Yes, exactly. That's a good metaphor. Is that sweet? I just came up with it. No. All right.

Yeah, that's a good one. That was to be like on your business card or something. Maybe, but, but I hear you. I mean, it's, but I think, That was to be like on your business card or something. Maybe. But I hear you. I mean, it's, but I think, yeah. I don't know. I think maybe it will start getting more annoying as I go on.

Okay. But I can really understand that you get a little bit tired of it. Well, and I'm currently at a crossroads in what I'm doing and getting a lot of criticism on a lot of sides. And so people criticizing my hobby is just annoying. and you sometimes have to sit down and think, well, what is this person trying to tell me that's useful even though they're in that jerk voice in my head? Maybe if I recast them to be like my mom voice, it will work better. No, that wouldn't work. I think just maybe a baby's voice or something.

Baby's voice. Or I think overall, whenever somebody writes mean stuff, just picture that they're 12 years old and have a little prepubescent mustache going on. That's probably fairly accurate, most of the time. Yeah.

So, do you end up working for yourself or do you work for other people? I work for myself. But you do some Kickstarter videos. Yeah. So I used to work at a company called Punch Through. And that was where I learned most of the stuff I know about electronics. So they have an Arduino compatible board that's called the Light Blue Bean, which is like, yeah,

it's an Arduino with Bluetooth lower energy. And my job there was just to build fun stuff with it and just show people what you could do with it. And I also made a Kickstarter video for the Bean Plus, which is like kind of the next generation bean what did you do in the video oh yeah i mean what did you do for light blue i mean what i just what did you make yeah i just uh yeah i just built stuff but i didn't um yeah i built like a little light bulb that you could control the color of with your phone

i made like a smartphone controlled rc car or no actually it was somebody else um but i i don't know i did like a few projects but i realized like one of the good and i had a really i mean my job was really fun there i mean my my job description was just to build cool stuff. So it was a lot of fun, but I, there's just something when you're representing a company, it's kind of harder to go all the way out. I just remember that I wanted to build like a popcorn catapult, um, that you could control with your phone. So if you were lonely and didn't have friends who could throw popcorn at you that you were supposed to catch with your mouth, then you could just do it by yourself instead.

And I just really, because I just got started with building it. And then I was like kind of embarrassed of my idea because it's not, I mean, it will somehow represent the company. And it was, yeah, it was just hard to let your freak flag fly when you were, when you were representing a company. So I just realized it was a lot more fun to build projects for myself because then it's just for me and I'm the only one who needs to stand for it. What's another one of those idea versus implementation. You can have an idea that may be silly or may be what other people think is bad or may just be funny.

And that's separate from doing a good implementation using a good board and everything. And it's the comedy ones that are the best. Do you think having a lot of comedy in your videos is important to getting people interested in engineering? Is that part of the reason you do the videos? I think overall, to me, yeah, definitely. But for me, just the way I work is I just like comedy in general. And I kind of put that into almost everything I do.

But I think definitely. I just like comedy in general and I kind of put that into almost everything I do. But, but I think definitely, I mean, that's also a good learning from when I was working at punch through because like the, the serious projects and the projects that are actually good, nobody shares them. Like people are like money off of them.

I get money, money off them. Or I mean, people, it's just like not as, as shareable as, as other things, but the products that were a little bit more ridiculous,

those were the ones who actually went well. And I, I mean, I see the comedy just in general as like, I mean, it's kind of syrup in, in your, in your medicine.

I mean, it's just something that you kind of sprinkle on top to get people through it. And, and to me, like one of the nice, nicest comments I get is people who are like, oh, I never thought I would watch a six-minute video about transistors, or where it's like a current and transistors, but I just did and I enjoyed it. And to me,

that's such a valuable thing because it means that if you just make it fun, you can reach people who wouldn't normally be interested in this kind of thing yeah i i took apart a robot the bb8 robot and from the new star wars movie you haven't seen it's very cute the robot spoilers come on um and a lot of people read through my article about how the pwm works because it was about bb. It was like I tricked them into learning about motors because they were already so fascinated by the cute little robot. Yeah. I mean, it works like a charm. Yeah.

Your title is creative technologist. What does that mean? I don't know. I think I'm scrapping that title. Why don't you go for CEO? CEO. Yeah, CEO. Then you have a lot of responsibilities.

It doesn't have to stand for chief executive officer. You know that, right? What could it stand for? Serial eater? Chief explosives operator? Yes, I'll go for that one. Comedic explosives

ostrich. Ostrich? I don't think that works. Comedic explosives. Ostrich. Ostrich. Putting my head in the sand. I think I went by the title creative technologist for some time, but that's kind of, it's a nice title because it's very fluffy and you can kind of put what you want into it. No idea what it want into it. I don't, it's like, I think the general creative technologist is somebody who works at an ad agency and who is like the coder who implements all the creative ideas and just kind of has both the creative and the technical side. But I mean, I don't really work in an agency and I don't know what it means. So I've just kind of gone by inventor, but that just also sounds like kind of Donald Ducky.

All titles should sound Donald Ducky. Ducky, yeah. I once had Santa's elf on my business card. It was the best. But that is, oh, that's nice. I like that one. It confused the poor Japanese battery vendors when they came in and took my business card. Oh, but that's maybe a good confusion.

At the time, I was supposed to be a professional, so maybe not. At least you didn't have Santa's Little Helper at Hotmeal.com. But I think, yeah, I think somebody on Reddit gave me the title Inventertainer and I really like that one. Yeah, I can see that one. I can see how that would fit too. But I don't know.

I'm just kind of, I change it like socks every two weeks. So what's it like to live on a houseboat? I love how you just let that one float. Okay. Swim on. Okay.

What's it like living on a houseboat. Living on a houseboat is not as romantic as people picture it, I think. Is it fixed or do you move around? Fixed, mostly. But I could move it around. Is it in Sweden? Yeah. Isn't the water really cold there? what does that have to do with the boat i just think if you're on cold water i would rather have a houseboat in like the bahamas

yeah that makes a little bit more sense yeah i i was thinking it was actually a couple of weeks back when i was hanging out with my mom and i was like what would it be like if you had a house made out of metal? And she was like, Simone, that is what you have. It was just, yeah, not one of my smartest moments. But yeah, you're basically in a metal container submerged partially into water. So it's not, yeah, this is not the most pleasant time of the year, but it's, I guess if it was above water, it would just be covered in frozen water. And so you're just like, this is warmer than it could be. Maybe. I'm not sure how that plays out. But,

but I think, uh, other than it being a total hassle and just, I mean, things constantly break. But that's just kind of boat life. But other than that, I think it's a pretty good living option. I like that it's, I mean, if you live in an apartment, you have certain expectations on the standards. Like the kitchen needs to be a certain standards like the kitchen needs to be a certain way the bathroom needs to be a certain way but but if you live on a boat you can just kind of do whatever you want do you find it gives you ample opportunity for projects yeah because it's also i mean like i'm not very yeah but i mean i'm not very good at building things and like

if i was in an apartment i wouldn't try building a wall by myself. But on my boat, I can kind of do that and just try it out. And like, yeah, it's not, it's a little bit crooked. And I don't know, it doesn't look perfect. But it's, I don't know, I just have more freedom of fixing things myself and building things myself because you don't expect the same standard. There's some really good niceness with I did this. Yeah. The DIYers have some truth there. It is sort of fun to be able to say I did it, except when it comes to sewage. Yeah, sewage. Yeah. And also when you're like, I did this and it looks terrible. Yes.

That's kind of the conclusion that I've come to for the last few years. Yeah, it's like, yeah, I can do most things, but they just turn out terrible when I try to do it myself so I should just hire people to do it instead but it's nice to know and if you've done it yourself you can ask them the right questions yeah yeah you learn a lot of stuff because you're put in a lot of situations where you just need to handle problems and there's nobody to call so I I just, as much as I hate that, it's also pretty nice because you're just forced to learn things and just to get stuff done. And see, this is how I'm tying it back into making robots. Right? What was that?

This is how I'm tying this whole conversation about houseboats back into making robots. Except I think you have more enthusiasms for the robots than you do for your houseboat. I've been a little bit. Yeah. I think, I think my houseboat is like a little wrecked marriage from time to time because I'm just getting very tired of this bad behavior.

It is January. I suspect in July it will be a lot more fun. Yeah. But then I'll probably not be in Sweden. Wait, are you coming back to San Francisco? Bum, bum, bum. You winter in Sweden?

I know. You're doing this wrong. Maybe, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It takes a long time to get visas. I kind of thought I would have my visa in February, but it's more plausible that I have it in April. So it didn't pan out perfectly, but yeah. Well, when I talked to the iRobot Chris Zweck guy

about putting a job ad in the show, he asked who was going to be on the show because he's smart enough not to just accept anybody. And he saw your videos and he said, oh, yeah, ask her to apply for a position. Oh, thank you. Mostly, I think he wanted the chopping robot for himself. Attach it to the front of a robot oh yeah that's a good one apply to battle bots for that one yeah but I think I have some

I have some really epic plans that I'm pretty happy with but that you're not going to tell us about not yet but I think actually already next week happy with. But that you're not going to tell us about? Not yet. Okay. But I think actually already next week it's going to be made somewhat public. Well, then I will look forward to hearing about it.

And I have to wrap this up a little early. I have another appointment that I have to get to. So, Chris, do you have any more questions? No, he's shaking his head. And now he's looking at me like he's confused. You all really should watch the podcast. This was all very abrupt. Oh, was it?

Man, that's another comment we've gotten. I just sometimes end the podcast when I get bored. But I'm not bored. No, look what you're doing. I have to go. I have to shower this week, okay? You have to shower this week. I'm sorry. And then I have to go to lunch.

What am I doing with this section? You should just leave it in. Simone, do you have any last thoughts you'd like to leave us with? Now it's not abrupt anymore, see? I wish I could come up with something smart but i don't have anything uh no but if you're interested in shitti robots or other fun things i don't think that's how you describe my youtube channel isn't it yeah it is i english is not my first language No it's fine Let's get a blame on that

S-H-I-T-T-I No there's a Y She said I? T-T-Y It's called E in Swedish Oh sorry Are you sure you want to end this? This is the most fun I've had in a long time

Yes There will be a link in the show notes are you sure you want to end this? this is the most fun I've had in a long time yes there will be a link in the show notes which we won't bleep I don't know yeah yeah okay well I guess there was one lightning question that I still had that I didn't ask

what's your favorite do you have any other YouTube channels that you personally really enjoy? Oh, that was another one of those that I should have prepared for. There's this YouTube channel of this guy who makes tiny

food for like... The hamsters? Hamsters. Oh, yes. I don't know. Whenever I get sad or tired of life, I just go to that. And it kind of revives me. That's the only one I can think of. That's a fine answer. That is a great answer, yes.

Oh, thank you. All right. I'm going to. Okay. Yes. My guest has been Simone Yatch, inventor and YouTuber. Thank you for being here, Simone, and for being so patient with us. Thank you so much for having me how we should make the show better. Thank you also to Christopher for producing and co-hosting and husbanding. If you would like to talk to us, hit the link on

embedded.fm or email us show at embedded.fm. You can also use that address to enter the favorite fictional robot contest to win a copy of my book or to join iRobot. You can email us there and I will forward it along or you can email Chris directly csvec at iRobot.com. They're both good options. We'll be here next week. In the meantime, I have a final thought to leave you with. It is from Dr. Seuss. It is not green eggs at the ham. Maybe someday I'll do that for you. But today, this is a real, real quote from him. I like nonsense. It wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of the telescope,

which is what I do. And that enables you to laugh at life's realities. Embedded FM is an independently produced radio show that focuses on the many aspects of engineering. It is a production of Logical Elegance, an embedded software consulting company in California. If there are advertisements in the show, we did not put them there and do not receive any revenue from them. At this time, our sole sponsor remains Logical Elegance.