Being an Engineer
Being an Engineer
S6E41 James Davis | Living in Ukraine for $12/Day to Become An Engineer
James Davis, widely recognized as FluxBench, has built a following by making electronics approachable, fun, and practical. With a mission to “keep the magic smoke inside the components where it belongs,” James is passionate about teaching engineers, makers, and hobbyists how to move beyond simple projects and start creating production-ready designs.
On his YouTube channel, FluxBench, James shares tutorials and experiments ranging from ESP32-driven LED displays to embedded development strategies and Proxmox-based Flux Node setups. His videos blend clear explanations with hands-on demonstrations, making them accessible to beginners while still offering technical depth for experienced engineers. Whether it’s wiring up microcontrollers, troubleshooting circuits, or scaling a one-off build into something robust, James shows how to translate curiosity into capability.
With a background in embedded systems and a gift for teaching, James Davis represents the spirit of engineering as both an art and a craft. His work encourages others not just to build projects but to create real products that solve problems, delight users, and push the boundaries of what’s possible with accessible electronics.
Guest website: Flux Bench
Aaron Moncur, host
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About Being An Engineer
The Being An Engineer podcast is a repository for industry knowledge and a tool through which engineers learn about and connect with relevant companies, technologies, people resources, and opportunities. We feature successful mechanical engineers and interview engineers who are passionate about their work and who made a great impact on the engineering community.
The Being An Engineer podcast is brought to you by Pipeline Design & Engineering. Pipeline partners with medical & other device engineering teams who need turnkey equipment such as cycle test machines, custom test fixtures, automation equipment, assembly jigs, inspection stations and more. You can find us on the web at www.teampipeline.us
Hello, and welcome to another exciting episode of the Being An Engineer podcast. Today we've got James Davis, better known online as Flux Bench. He's a maker, engineer and educator who helps people bridge the gap between electronics, tinkering, and building real functional products. Through his YouTube channel and community contributions, he breaks down complex concepts from ESP 32 projects to embedded design into approachable lessons that keep the magic smoke inside the components where it belongs. James, thank you so much for being with us today. Thank you so much for having me. I'm very excited. All right. Tell us a little bit about The Magic Smoke first for, for those who aren't familiar with that reference, what? What the heck is the magic smoke?
James Davis:Well, for those who don't know how to make electronics, you get magic smoke. You put it inside these little black squares. And the thing is, you only really see it when they break and you go p and that's when the smoke release, it's the only time you can actually see the smoke. But I try to teach people how to prevent that from happening.
Aaron Moncur:Yeah, it's the smoke that makes the electronics work. Right? As long as it's inside.
James Davis:it's the magic smoke. Yes. As long, but it's, it's super hard to put it back inside. I've tried.
Aaron Moncur:Yeah. Right. Once it's escaped, you're done. It's not going back in.
James Davis:Yeah. Yeah.
Aaron Moncur:Uh,
James Davis:enough as a, as a beginner, you have, you have to kind of burn up some stuff until, until you plug something in and see the little poof and go, it's like just an instant disappointment and inch instant teaching right there. And so like you put in a different size resistor, you plug it in, it pops, you put in a different resistor, you plug it in, it pops and you go, maybe I should actually do some math and find the right resistor.
Aaron Moncur:actually do some engineering. Right.
James Davis:Actually do get some engineering.
Aaron Moncur:So, James, tell us what made you decide to become an engineer.
James Davis:Ooh, this was the question I was most nervous about.'cause I'm not sure if I am an engineer, so I've been thinking about it. And if you do doctor things, but you're not a doctor. You are not, you're not really a doctor. Like you didn't go through the school, you don't, you're not like the official doctor. I do engineering things, but am I an engineer? That's, that's what I'm not sure about. So work with engineers, I do engineering things, but just like making stuff, been building with Legos my whole life. Like my mom would like come in and be like, honey, do you wanna have a friend over? I'm like, no, I'm just building Legos. And so I just continued on, uh, potato guns, uh, motorcycle jumps and ramps and uh, so I don't know if I'm an engineer, I just build things.
Aaron Moncur:So I, I, I'm gonna push back on that a little bit. For anyone who's watched your channel, I think they'll agree that you are an engineer and these days. I think engineering, I mean, of course there's the degree, right? But like,
James Davis:Yep.
Aaron Moncur:I, I don't think a degree is necessary to be an engineer these days. There's so many
James Davis:Mm-hmm.
Aaron Moncur:sources from which you can learn the, the, the curriculum, the information that you need, and, and really engineering is not about having a piece of paper. It, it's about being able to, to build and create things, and you very much are able to do that.
James Davis:so I, I work with people who make amazing things that like prevent us from dying and like, keep us safe and those, like, I, I kinda wanna say like I appreciate that level of engineering. Those people who like check the resistor math before they plug something in, poof goes a magic smoke. So, as much as I do engineering stuff, I kind of wanna like, dedicate a little bit of respect for, I don't know, the hardcore engineers, I don't wanna call it like the real engineers, but whatever the word is. I appreciate who have gone through like stress mechanics, like people who know how bending forces work on an eye beam and spent a whole month just going crazy before that test. So,
Aaron Moncur:Yeah, I, I appreciate that. Yeah, for sure. Um. Uh, I've, I've met, I've worked with a lot of engineers in my career, including, uh, some who are currently at, at, at my company Pipeline, who are amazing engineers, but they didn't go to school to get an engineering degree. They kind of just picked it up here and there on the job, personal projects, things like that. So, let, let's go back to, you mentioned like building Legos and, and things like that. Growing up, what, what was it that motivated you to, to get into building and creating and engineering?
James Davis:I don't know anything else that, that's the honest truth is that
Aaron Moncur:I.
James Davis:I, I, my first memories are with me in a Lego table in a big pile of Legos and like, good luck telling a two and a half year old use the instructions. So I just remember playing with Legos all day long. And then after that I found out wooden and nails like I. Wanna see was inside my bike. So cut that in half. And there's nothing inside the bike, but it broke the bike. Um, so I, I, I, I think the best thing that I've gotten is just hands-on knowledge and like you're saying, people just pick it up. Uh, I think it's important though, to get that formal training to at least some extent, uh, know the formulas, read the textbook, even if you're not gonna get a degree, read the textbook. Like my, uh, my roommate in college was a construction management. Uh, I think that that's engineer, right? School of engineering.
Aaron Moncur:Yeah, school of Engineering.
James Davis:Yeah, I'd read, I'd read his textbooks and I really appreciate getting that real knowledge. So, and I kind of got a little distracted from your question, but I just like building things and I'm trying to take people from the, that DIY space that just, you know, playing with Legos down instructions to. go and make something that we can send out to a factory and they can manufacture it. There's no, like right angle corners where it needs to be C and seed. Uh, you can pull it out of a mold, you know, tapered edges. And so I think that's kind of my specialty is I'm not quite too much on the DIY side, not on the full on, uh, formal engineer side, but I'm really gotta kind of like bridging the gap in the middle.
Aaron Moncur:Yeah. Uh, tell us a little bit about that. How did you see the need for, for bridging that gap? And, and what are the, some of the things that you've done to, to help people bridge that gap?
James Davis:Uh, I think it's our supply chain. Uh, there is this guy on YouTube called Dein, or Destin from Smarter every day. And he tried to make a simple product here in America using all American components. And like he's a big deal. If, if he couldn't do it, he, he, he's one of those realer engineers. Uh, he. He knows what he's talking about. He has a team behind him and still they couldn't do it. They could, they couldn't find the supply chain parts that they needed. You know, it takes nine items to make. They're making a grill scraper, some real simple product, maybe one injection molded piece. But if he couldn't do it, it just, it just kind of broke something inside me. And, if we don't have people who know how to do something from the bottom up, um, most of the supply chain isn't complicated. Some small group of people investing in one expensive machine and just keeping it productive 24 hours a day, whatever that thing is, you do, you specialize. You get a little bit better at it and just crank 'em out. I mean, there's whole people who just make screws, like, just, just, just screws. That's it. So,
Aaron Moncur:Yep.
James Davis:that's what I, I, that's what I, uh, what kind of got me going is how we can actually do that if we don't know how to build those machines. If you wanna build anything, you're gonna buy a machine to do it or make one. But you're probably gonna get a mold from China. You're gonna get your PCBs from China, you're gonna get your everything. I mean, maybe some really good stuff from Japan. There was linear slide rails and stuff like that. Linear guide rails. But I just don't think we have enough stupid basic machines. I mean, they don't need to be complex. They just need to exist and people need to make 'em. So that's why I wanna teach people how to do, is make those stupid basic things, but make it in a real way where it can make a real machine sell to people and kind of start making stuff like, I don't care about making big things in America. Like that's for someone else. I wanna make the screws and the bolts and just get it going.
Aaron Moncur:The basics. Yeah. Uh, tell us a little bit about your, your YouTube channel, um, and why you started it and the impact you hope it's gonna have.
James Davis:Oh geez. Uh, well, I didn't expect it to be successful. I mean, I mean,
Aaron Moncur:It, it's fairly new, right? Like a a few months or something?
James Davis:old.
Aaron Moncur:Yeah.
James Davis:two months old. I've released four, four long form videos. Uh, but once every two weeks. And I have my fifth one out, uh, coming soon. First sponsored video. Big exciting deal. But it's all about how to get into electronics, how to make real things, like everyone's gonna say, go to school for that. Like, just become an electrical engineer. That's all you have to do is just, just spend $80,000, five, four or five years. Go get a job after that. I'm like, no. Like, spend 50 bucks, get a starter kit on Amazon, uh, soldering iron, everyone will tell you, get that $200 soldering Iron Station. And I'm like, the, the one that's$10 on Amazon sold 5,000 units last month and has a 4.6 star review. I'm pretty sure it works. So, uh, like, like that. That's kind, I guess what I'm trying to do with this is there's always people who want to make things. They want to do things, but they're nervous. Like they've seen other videos, they know all the basics. And it reminds me, like at a school dance, like the boys and girls, they want to dance, but they just, they're nervous or you know, everyone's sitting on the side of the pool, they're just, everyone's just sitting there. They wanna go in the pool and I just go push 'em in. I'm just trying to push people in the pool. So I guess I just want people to get started, just get doing it. Like, the hardest part is starting, like in yoga they say the hardest part is getting to the mat, just showing up. And I think it's the same thing with electronics learning. And so I wanna show people how easy it is. Uh, show 'em what they need to do it, but kind of hide, hide some of the scary stuff and more, just kind of push 'em in the pool, get 'em going.
Aaron Moncur:Yeah. That's awesome. Um, so you mentioned you didn't expect the YouTube channel to be successful. What, what were you expecting and what happened?
James Davis:well I got like 50 views on my first video in the first day, and that was great. Like, I was, I was doing good. Uh, I, I spent. I spent 10 hours of my time, uh, making this video that that's a, that's a decent amount of time and video's like five minutes long. And so five times 50, that's 250, that's four hours. Like in one day, half of the amount of time I put in that video was seen by other people. I'm used to on the phone or seeing someone one-on-one. And so working hard and on the very first day, 50% of my time was kind of like, like day two. I kind of broke even. I, I got a hundred people to watch my video, and then it was like 300 the next day and then like 500 and then a thousand. And I'm from a town of like 3000 people. Uh, yeah. Yeah. Like, it, it is weird to kind of think like, how, how do you think in terms of people like stadiums, like, it's not like you're at a, you're in the center of a stadium giving a speech or anything, but like, how do you quantify 3000 people watching, you know, I was gonna say my stupid face or whatever, but you know, it's just. It's, it's just awkward. It's weird. No, I think no one, uh, nothing kind of prepared me for my second video. Getting over a hundred thousand views in the first month.
Aaron Moncur:That's wild. That's so cool.
James Davis:50 views in the first day. That's on the first video. That's something. But then a hundred thousand people in a month, and you're just like, why are they even watching me? What, what, what's so entertaining? Or like, what's worth it? And, and so now I'm getting 30, 40, 50,000 views on these videos, and I'm only two months in. And they get moral every day because I guess they're called evergreen content. Like how, um, know, how to start electronics. What do you buy that's, that's gonna be popular for the next 10? I mean, not popular, but, you know, relevant for
Aaron Moncur:Yeah. Yeah.
James Davis:and a lot of these other things. So just didn't expect, uh, people would like it. Uh, I thought, I thought it'd be like a hundred views on a video. I'd be like, yay for me.
Aaron Moncur:So this was just a labor of love for you, right? When when you started you just thought, ah, it'd be fun to do this. I'm just gonna do it'cause I want to do it.
James Davis:I, I wanted to teach people how to make things, you know, to build the stupid machines for the supply chain and all that stuff. Uh, like that's my grandiose thing. Like, of course I'm, I'm never saying that in the YouTube videos. I'm not saying like, I want you to go build a machine to save America. Like, I'm not, I'm not saying that at all. Uh, but figure you inspire people. Like I was inspired by people on YouTube to get into electronics. Uh, learned by watching people on YouTube, and so I figured I could just get that much more people started. Maybe I, if I, if I talk, if I was a teacher, how many students would I have in a year? 150, 300 And now a hundred thousand people watch my dumb face in this second video. So, uh, it, it's just those, those numbers kind of made it go from, maybe I can kind of like teach someone. Like maybe a hundred people, something to Uh, everyone's really looking forward to that next video, huh?
Aaron Moncur:No pressure.
James Davis:Nope. Oh God. Uh, oh. And then having a sponsored video, and now there's money on the line
Aaron Moncur:Oh, yeah,
James Davis:and, uh, oh, the, the weird thing was you make one video on a topic and everyone wants to send you a $50 thing to review in a video. And so just, it's just like, uh, my spam folder is just like, what do you like this free product? And it's just, I, I mean, it's like, it is, it is just, I just don't, I don't know. Like I work a full, real job. Like I make real things for a living. So, so this is just a labor of love. I wake up in the morning and you're like, how much time can I actually dedicate to not my job today?
Aaron Moncur:yeah. Right. How have, uh, how has the response been from the community? I mean, obviously a lot of people are watching your videos, but what, what kind of comments or, or feedback have you received?
James Davis:That's my favorite part of this. So amazing feedback. Uh, you know, there's jerks on the internet. I was told like 10 per like, of course, whoever you are, even if you're a reasonable person, like some people just won't like you, right? Like, no matter who you are, you're like, you'll open your mouth and like, I instantly don't like you. And you're just like, what am I supposed to do with that? So there's, there's that percentage of people, and then there's those people who are just jerks. And so I thought it'd be like 20, 30% comments, like, you're ugly, know, or why, why do you have that thing? But what's on that shelf back there? You need to clean up your room. Or like, you know, I thought it'd be stupid comments, but instead everyone's just like, thank you so much for that video. It's what exactly what I was looking for. And I was like, what was it you're looking for? Like, specifically, I, I'm not, I'm not sure. And, or, or, thank you so much. Uh, the weirdest ones from here are like. I'm a mechatronic student in, in my third year, and I've never done anything with electronics. And I'm like, I got a finance degree and I, I played with electronics. uh, so, so I'm just like, that's, that's kinda, that's like the whole, I wanted to be on the side of the pool, just like pushing these kids in. Like, go play with electronics, go buy Arduino kits, go do something. Just, uh,
Aaron Moncur:That's awesome. That's
James Davis:it's weird how positive the feedback is. I'd say it's 97%
Aaron Moncur:wow.
James Davis:And, and what I love is all the old engineers, like so many retired people are like, you know, I used to go and work on this kind of machine and doing this. And then they're like, do you mind if I just email you a bunch of questions? So like, like, I'm building a CNC machine in my garage. Um, so that way I can start teaching people how to
Aaron Moncur:Oh wow.
James Davis:molding myself. Like at work we've, we've had molds made, but I, I, I make. I, I've been practicing, uh, by 3D printing parts, uh, sanding them, cleaning them up, airbrushing them, putting them in in silicone molds, um, casting epoxy and cement and all sorts of things like that. But I want to get to injection molding because you want to make a product every 20 seconds, like lights out, production, just 24 hours a day, that's the way to do it.
Aaron Moncur:Yep. Yep.
James Davis:um, I, I have a, I have a lifetime experience of programming, programming, firmware is actually my specialty. So, uh, automating a CNC, like I automate houses for a living. I automate businesses. I control all the electricity that's running in a business or a house and kind of make a dance and save you money. And so I can, I can make some motors, go to some predefined coordinates and like spin at this rate. And like, I'm not, I'm not trying to trivialize CNC, but. I know my stuff and I'm gonna screw up. I don't know what I don't know. So all these people in these comments are like, I used to be a CNC operator at this company, and then I started doing this, and nowadays I do injection molding in my basement for fun. And it's like, how many questions can I ask you?
Aaron Moncur:I've seen some injection mold machines that are pretty inexpensive, like desktop injection mold machine for like, you know,$3,000 or, or something like that. And you can 3D print the molds. I mean, they're not gonna last obviously, as long as a steel mold tool is gonna last, but yeah. Right. Exactly. Um, so you, you're building a CNC machine in your garage right now. Tell me more about that, because that sounds like a daunting project for, for anyone, but you're just taking it on.
James Davis:Uh, I am overconfident in the best and worst ways. So, uh, this, this, I, I, I, I, I have my particular. Makes and models of like the best people in the world, like DMG Morey, uh, there's, some amazing companies who have made amazing machines and it turns out they all make YouTube videos and show their latest models. They go and like they'll do a 3D exploded view and show where all the rails are, where all the mounting points are. And, and, and I'm just like, huh, I'm gonna rip off part of that one. And I like the base on that one. And this one's really good at this stuff. And so I'm just going through ripping off the best specs and designs. Uh, and, and I know I'm gonna screw up, so I'm making a first basic one that's gonna work. Okay. But kind of the trick to a CNC machine is you need a CNC machine to make a CNC machine. So I'm making a first kind of basic one, uh, giving myself about a $2,000 budget. And the only reason why I'm kind of doing that is. Experience, or I could have, I could send these off to like send, cut, send or have some other, uh, local machine shop make them for me. Or I could spend $2,000 in a month, sweat, and probably literal tears and get, uh, get some experience. And then that second machine, I'm sure I'll go and back in my CAD program, run optimizations and at that point be like, I really get why you have to do a vibration analysis. So then I'll have to go and try to use my YouTube thing to be like, hi, uh, expensive company that makes really good simulation software. Can I please have your stuff to run?
Aaron Moncur:I, you, you know what, in all seriousness, remind me after we finish this, uh, recording and I might be able to connect you with, uh, one of those companies who, uh, I know is looking for opportunities to, to do co-marketing because we've done some with them and they might be open to some kind of collaboration with you.
James Davis:All right. If you know what, anyone who also does like motors, like, uh, electromagnetic, all right, so you know how lights just like electromagnetic, it's like, what's, why is electricity and magnets related? Turns out like motors are basically just electricity turned into magnets, and it's just this crazy weird physics phenomena. But if you can go in 3D mod or like make a 3D model it, it can tell you basically exactly how it's gonna work. And then you just run these little optimization programs. And so what, all right. I do computer science for a living. I write software, I write firmware. I do optimization. That's like my boring day, well, fun, boring day job. And so. With this whole YouTube thing, I'm excited where I can make a CNC workbench and then I can make a video about it and that video pool will probably pay for the bench or, or the whole, the whole machine. And then I wanna make some motors so then I can reach out and ask some people for some simulation stuff. And then you can go and reach out to someone and saying, I need this other thing. And so as long as you do it in like a genuine way, I think it's just, this is the great thing about being a YouTuber I never expected is that people want to go and say, look at our awesome simulation software. Look at our awesome components or awesome bottle of epoxy resin and you could buy for $200 for all these things. Or just say, like to please use it in a video. I'll mention your company. And I don't know, it's just, it's just, it's so weird. It's all, it's all communication that's, it's at the center of it. It's all communicating with companies, with sponsors, with the viewers in the comments making the videos that that's what I, I'm just realizing is. This podcast, uh, everything in the, in this, in this kind of, in this new YouTube world, it's all about communication through so many mediums, so many forms with so many different types of people.
Aaron Moncur:Everything we do, we do with and through people, and communication is the mechanism by which we collaborate with people. We work together. Yeah.
James Davis:Yeah. And I'm sorry if I get a little ramly there. It's just, it's, it's so weird, uh, to kind of talk meta YouTube. I, again, I'm two months in. It's, it's, it's weird.
Aaron Moncur:Well, congratulations on all the success you've already had and all the success I'm sure you're going to continue having in the future. I'm excited to, to con, continue watching your journey.
James Davis:Yeah. excited for PDX. All right. Uh, so the product development expo, really, like I said, I'm trying to push people in the pool to go get hands-on experience. This, this is the thing I'm most excited about. Like, I know, I know it's your, your thing, but like. The I I, I had, wanted to go and build the CNC machine. I need to go learn how to build robots to go and place a little block of something on the CNC machine. I, I've been working with stepper motors and only electronics for years. I, I, I have no qualms about doing that, where do I learn how to program this like a pro? So this thing like doesn't actually turn around and hit me in the face when I'm trying to program it. I'm sure someone will say, you know, you always disable all the motors before you do X, Y, and Z. You know, PDX is where I'm gonna learn in a session. But then the, the surface modeling all this 3D printing all the, gosh. So, and it's just, I, I think I, I think PDX is the future. I think stuff like that, whether, whether it's your event or more maker spaces where people can get hands-on training, because if you pair these people who do it for a living, people who make the CAD software, who make the, uh, the machines, who make the tools and all that stuff. I think that's just, that's the next form of communication is kind of breaking down that bridge of we don't have to advertise in a magazine anymore. We don't have to go and do ads on some random website or I think there's some, some some next generation thing of kind of without being too sponsoring, if that makes sense.
Aaron Moncur:Yeah. Well thank you for the plug for PDX. And just to be clear, I did not ask James to say that that was all, all James, but I appreciate it. Um, we're also obviously very excited for PDX. One of the things that I think is gonna be super useful for, for folk like folks like you, for all the attendees who are there, is not just the formal training sessions, right, of which there are, uh, one every hour for six hours each day, and that it's two days. So you could conceivably hit up 12 different training sessions, but outside of those formal training sessions, we have. Open office hours. And so you can approach any of these. We have 35 different training partners who are there, all industry experts in one area or another. And all the attendees can approach these industry experts in real time at the event and say, I have this problem at work that I'm not sure how to solve.
James Davis:Mm-hmm.
Aaron Moncur:an expert in this area, how would you solve it? And you can get answers right there on the spot from experts.
James Davis:And I don't know if this is kind of more the, uh, Dale Carnegie had to win friends and influence people type thing. I'm looking for the networking, like meeting people being like, hi, you're a cool person. I'm a cool person. Let's exchange emails. And now you have a great contact. So, uh, it's, it's, it's that, it's, it's meeting the individual people who go like, hi, I'm also a attendee. What are you here for? This and this, me too. So I like, I don't, I'm not trying to like go to there to make friends, but I'm looking forward to it.
Aaron Moncur:Yeah, it's gonna be, uh, it's gonna be really fun. Um. As, as you have, I mean, throughout your life, right? Learned how to, to build things, to program. You're getting into the mechanical side of things as well. What, what is a mindset shift that you think needs to occur for people to go from, you know, tinkering, doing things in their garage, DIY, to actually developing something that can be mass produced? What, what are some of the mindset shifts that you think are important?
James Davis:Well, I think there's a difference between making something and mass producing something. I, I would almost, say that, I don't wanna say that they're two different skills, but I, for example, you can make a product, but can you sell it like that? That's someone's, someone else's game is be good at selling. Like, I might be really good at prototyping. I'm not good at, at well, okay, but I'm, I'm not great at, at the factory where they're saying, you know, if you did this little thing, it would shave off 30 seconds a unit, which is, I mean, it's small, but we, we we're doing it on every single unit. And, and so that design for manufacturing, I think, I think you need to realize in the average person needs to realize who's getting into this. That a difference between having a 3D printer and having something that can be manufactured 10,000 units a month. Uh, it's, it's, for me, it's all about, life is super dang complex. Like engineering is hard. Making products is hard because the problems you run into aren't gonna probably be the problems you're expecting to run into, or at least whatever it is. There's gonna be delays such as we got this great product released, uh, or we're, it was sent out to the factory, they're, they're manufacturing it, it's going well, and they go to program it and they can't program a single one. And I'm like. literally have the same laptop. I do. You have the same thing here. The same thing there. Everything's the same. Gosh. I mean, literally it's just a USB cable that's, it's literally just a USB cable that's different. That's the only thing between our two setups. But it's A USB cable, right? No, our manufacturing was down for two weeks because they tried sourcing Mandy. They started tried sourcing cables in Asia and they couldn't find a good one. We had to ship one from the US all the way into Asia to our factory. They plugged it in and it worked perfectly.
Aaron Moncur:Oh, geez, you're kidding.
James Davis:have guessed A USB cable would tank your production for two weeks? And you go, oh, it's, but it's just, it's like, hmm, I'm gonna make an episode on why I have a love, hate, hate, hate relationship with USB cables,
Aaron Moncur:So that's something I wanted, I wanted to ask you about, about that. Uh, how do you decide what to make videos about?
James Davis:Um. Well, first you make a list of every good, bad idea you have. And, and, and then you start thinking, what am I actually trying to do at this point in time, like my first video was, how do I get people into electronics? Like, how do you go from zero to one? So I made a video eventually about how, what, what you need to buy to start electronics, but I phrased it kinda like how to start electronics for $25 or $50 or a hundred dollars. But then that YouTube title and thumbnail was a horrible combination. It didn't get very many clicks. Well, I mean, it got, it got 50 on the first day and, and all that. But, uh, this FYI, I changed the title to like how to start electronics and, and, and, and change the thumbnail and all of a sudden it got like double the views the next day. Um, but, but so, so the first video, they gotta, they gotta start electronics. The second video is, well gosh, they're just gonna read the tutorials and just know how to do 10 things and that's it. So I have to teach 'em kind of. How to not be dumb about, about doing this because there's so many bad ways to learn electronics, and I'm not, I'm not insulting the viewer. It's like you're given 15 little, uh, lessons and they say how to do this thing, how to do that thing, how to do that thing Well, they never teach you how to make an actual project. They never say, use this and combine it with this, and mix in some random other part to do some logic between 'em. They, they never, they never say, uh, you know, work on your own. Try something yourself. I mean, they might suggest if you use two resistors instead of one, what do you think will happen? But it's not like. Uh, here's your homework. Like, like a good engineering professor will say, here's what we learned today. I want to challenge you to do X, Y, and Z and gi gimme your thoughts or your po your possible solution for this problem. And maybe they're a jerk and there is no solution. And they really just wanted you to kind of like, figure out that some things are just so hard and so insurmountable. You gotta be like, you know, you actually can't do it. So I, I don't know. I, so my second video is all about how to think like an engineer, how to kind of just like bust out that mold of like being a student, reading a book and just how to, how to make anything. So that's kind of what I'm doing is I'm just trying to figure out, made a video about this and now those people kind of get to here. I made this other video and now these people are here. And so I'm making a video about how to find awesome chips because if you buy stuff on Amazon, it's like five years old, but they make new chips every single day. So how to find those new chips on those big companies. But now you need to know. How do you actually make a circuit board with those chips? So now it's, that's what this video's about. So it's all like this arc, this series, this, this whole meta thing of when I listen to the comments, when I, when I talk with these viewers, whether it's in emails or just 10 comments back and forth, replying and going through 'em, where are they? What kind of people am I bringing in and what do I need to do to kind of get 'em to that next step?
Aaron Moncur:I think this is, uh, so valuable, right? Your channel and other channels out there like this, who, who are. Teaching people the practical ways of how to do these things, whether it's engineering or law or dentistry or whatever, right? Like teaching people the actual practical things, how to do something. Uh, when I was in college, I, I didn't love college, to be honest. I, I was very excited to be done with the, uh, the, the academic part of engineering. You just get into the actual engineering, and the, the primary reason for that was there wasn't a lot of doing in college, right? There were labs here and there where there was some doing, but it was mostly learning about doing, not actual doing. And I have a motto, I I say that doing is better than learning about doing it. So
James Davis:So
Aaron Moncur:was all about the learning, about doing, but, but then you graduate and get, get into, you know, the actual role and, and, okay, now we're, now we're cooking with butter here, now we're actually doing things. But the, the, your channel and, and channels like that, they're, I think, so valuable because they actually show people how to do these things.
James Davis:Yeah. I, I think I'm also kind of a, uh, you know, product of my environment in the way that when I was, when I was getting my finance degree, just Northern Arizona University, figured it was either between an engineering degree at Arizona State University, mechanical engineering or finance degree, and well. If I want to have my own business and work for myself, I need to know the money side. I can always figure out the engineering side later. Well, here I am, you know, kind of figuring out the engineering side, but I know the money side. Uh, but still just super bored. I mean, you take science courses and, and you just read about it in a textbook. So my job in college, because my parents said, you have to get a job. So I said, alright. I applied for three months in a college town with more college kids than other people. Uh, no one was hiring, so she said, fine, just go volunteer someplace. So I volunteered at the coolest place in town, Lowell Observatory, that
Aaron Moncur:Oh, cool.
James Davis:Observatory on the hill.
Aaron Moncur:Yeah.
James Davis:and so my job was to be a tour guide. And when you, you have all these awesome telescopes, all this great history, and then you have all these science majors, uh, not trying to diss my old co my old colleagues. There, there's, there's, there's, there's good people and bad people who give tours. The bad people are the people who say to a 4-year-old. black hole is a blah, blah, blah. And they go, well, what's that? And you go, science, science, science. Jargon, jargon, jargon. And, and for me, I'm like, you wanna see something cool on a telescope? You wanna see something that looks like spray paint in the
Aaron Moncur:Uh
James Davis:cluster. You want to go move the telescope? Like, they're like, I'm not allowed to touch you. You're like, why not? Like, here, come here, come push on the telescope. And they go, oh, that's so easy to move. And you're like, it's, it's'cause it's balanced with weight. And, and you're like, and you're kind of subtly explaining these,
Aaron Moncur:hmm.
James Davis:these physics and these, uh, these big concepts. Just like you're not trying to bore 5-year-old, indicate lots of kids up there and, but you also have to talk to their parents. And so I think being a tour guide, uh, just being sick of school, wanting to go play with a telescope, you know, by the way, if anyone is traveling through Flagstaff, I'd recommend checking it out. And the best thing is if you go there in the wintertime, this is where I think I really got my whole persona, is in the wintertime you have this big telescope. And no one in line I'm being paid here to man a telescope and show you Saturn. We're watch, we're looking at Saturn tonight 'cause that's what's in the sky. Normally you have, you have a line of 300 and you say, that's Saturn. Alright, next person, that's Saturn. Hey, wanna see some rings? That's Saturn. You know, you just don't have time. But in the winter time you have this amazing telescope in like one family. And you're like, what do you guys want to see? What interests you? And you just start pointing around. And then you start going and taking out star maps and, and asking their parents, what, what sort of fairytales are lower about the sky? Do you remember? And we'll go and we'll find it. Turns out that's, that's that star over there. You wanna go look at that? Sure. Alright, kids, Hey, do you think you can point the telescope over there? Like, like, don't worry. You're not gonna, you're not gonna hurry anything. Just, just move the telescope. So I think that that's really what I'm bringing to electronics is. Don't worry, like your house is not gonna burn down. Go, go spend $50, don't spend 500. If you spend five, if you spend more than a hundred dollars, you're doing it wrong. You're spending too much money too soon. Uh, and so I'm just trying to get people and it show 'em, Hey, look, we wanna see some spray paint in the sky. Let's go look at a cluster. You know, that version of, of electronics. It's, it's fun, it's interesting. It gets 'em engaged. Uh, 'cause how else are you gonna get someone engaged? I mean, you kind of have to meet them where they are. So where I, I, I think I got a lot of my zest or my jovie or, you know, style or whatever you wanna call it.
Aaron Moncur:Well, this is why I think your YouTube channel is. Gaining so much popularity so quickly, you know how to communicate with people, right? I, I loved your science, science, science, blah, blah, blah. That's, that's not what you're doing, right? You're like, you're, you're using normal words that people understand and, and communicating this stuff in a very approachable, practical way. Um, so thinking back over these projects that you've done, and it doesn't need to be just out of the projects you have on your YouTube channel, even going back further, what, what's one of the most challenging projects that you've taken on and accomplished?
James Davis:Oh, oh, you had to say accomplished. Um hmm.'cause there's, there's a lot of
Aaron Moncur:We,
James Davis:failures. There's,
Aaron Moncur:we can define accomplished loosely.
James Davis:yeah. Well, think the most satisfying thing that I've done, the most challenging thing was, I got a finance degree. I'm not, I was not a programmer, but I'm a nerd, right? Like, I love science. I was working at the observatory. Uh, I had this, this idea for a new type of solar optic system, and I wanted to see if it, if it could be done. I mean, I thought it, it, it could work. So. I, I hired someone on like Fiverr, like wherever Fiverr was called 15 years ago, like Upwork or, or, or, there's, there's some, some random, uh, freelancer site. And I spent $200 of my hard earned money making $8 an hour at the, at the, uh, observatory, you know, so that's like 50 hours of work. And what I got back was just abysmal. was like, I spent this, I spent that much money for you to make me a little scientific simulation thing. Uh, someone, I pay someone else to program it. And, and it, it came back so horribly. I was like, you know what? I'm gonna see how I can program this better. So, uh, I tried to learn how to program and it didn't go well. Uh, it took like five years and I ended up traveling around Eastern Europe, uh, because I didn't have a lot of money. So I was either gonna go and live in Mexico and learn how to program or live in Eastern Europe and learn how to program. And
Aaron Moncur:Okay. Ho, hold on. You were gonna go live in a different part of the world, SS because the cost of living was low enough that it would allow you to live and learn how to program. Is that
James Davis:exactly. Yeah,
Aaron Moncur:Dang, man, that that is inspiring right there. That's dedication.
James Davis:yeah. So I know all the best park benches in Poland and Ukraine and their big cities. Uh, I, I, I had so many good times I'd bring a ba, I'd bring my backpack with about eight laptop batteries. And because this is like way back, this is back when the laptop battery would last like an hour. So you want a full workday, eight batteries in the backpack
Aaron Moncur:That, that's gotta be one of the best quotes I've heard on the podcast so far. I know all the best park benches in Poland and Ukraine.
James Davis:Well, where else are you
Aaron Moncur:Uh.
James Davis:I could be boring, go work in a building or study in a building, but I decided I had to download free, uh. Free books and free lectures and that this was like when Open Courseware and, and, uh, other Stanford, MIT Harvard, all of them were starting to put out their, their, uh, their courses on YouTube and stuff like that. So I would just download whatever I could. I'd find some old textbook that someone scanned into A PDF from 10 years ago. Maybe I shouldn't say that, but, you know, get that knowledge wherever you can, right. So, uh, yeah, I was just traveled around and eventually learned enough to where I was, felt comfortable learning about ai. And so I was in, uh, let's see. At that point I was in Croatia, a penthouse suite overlooking this great bay.'cause it was the middle of the winter time and there was no tourist there. And I'm like a penthouse suite that sounds fun. Like, and then I realized. You had to pay for the heating. There was bolt holes in the wall. So like the ventilation was just constant. Like, like, uh, you'd, you'd, you'd go to take a bath and then you'd run the washing machine, uh, or the clothes washer and, and you'd get this weird taste in your mouth. It's because electricity was running through the pipes to slowly electrocuting you.
Aaron Moncur:oh.
James Davis:I, it wasn't the, it wasn't quite the deal and bargain, I thought it was, but it did give me three months to read chapter one to chapter 15 or whatever of this AI textbook. And every chapter I would try to apply to my scientific simulation.'cause at this point, I learned how to program. I made my simulation. I was having to go and, uh, use generative design to try all these designs and optimizations. And every new chapter you learn about a new different type of AI thing. And, and it's never large language models. It was about clustering how to, how to search through these possibilities to find a good outcome. Uh. But yeah, so, so that's where I learned how to, how to program is traveling around. Then I got to the end, I got this amazing simulation going and it, the results weren't great. So, uh, so I spent five years, or six years, or probably maybe eight at that point. Uh, I know, I know how to program amazingly now. Uh, but that, that specific solar optics thing, it just put it bluntly, if it was this big, it'd work, but it was supposed to be like, you know, infinitely small.
Aaron Moncur:Okay.
James Davis:small optics and just at that point you're, you're dealing with more waves and instead of light being like a particle, it's more of a wave. And that's quantum stuff way over my head. I didn't know that. So that was the hardest thing I've ever done. Work-wise, I ended up in a failure, but I know how to program. I've been writing firmware for electronics for years. Uh, that's kind of how I got to where I am today.
Aaron Moncur:Yeah, I mean, maybe the end result of that specific intention was not a success, but the skills you picked up along the way were hugely successful and, and continue to serve.
James Davis:my dad, uh, he's so wise and it was so annoying when he'd say this. Uh, I, I, I helped my dad. I wrote some great software for his company, so he's in, like in a sales industry and I wrote some great stuff to help his salespeople talk to his, quote people better and exchange information and help find how they can make a lot more profit with some existing stuff they already had. my dad said, I know you wanna sell this to a lot of other companies, but even if it doesn't work out, you still got some great experience learning how to make a webpage, how to, how to go and make a cloud application, and then a server and all that. I'm like, dad, don't wanna do that. I wanna make money. I want this to be successful. And, and it turns out due to a lawsuit thing, like it turned like I Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, that's the only thing I learned is. When a lawyer says, stop doing something, you just gotta stop. So,
Aaron Moncur:Oh, there sounds like a fascinating story behind that.
James Davis:oh, yeah, yeah. It's, it's, it's nothing you can say out out loud on a podcast, but spent, uh, a lot of time and my dad a lot of good money on that and
Aaron Moncur:Oh,
James Davis:cease and desist operating it. But at that point, I learned how to build a cloud platform. Uh, you know, the next step was learn how to build an app. And then, and at that point, you know, what's soup to nuts? You know how to build a, you know, how to make your circuit board design the chips program, the chips have to talk to other chips using wires or talk wifi. Go up to the cloud store in the cloud, make an app, make a website, send it to Alexa and say, hi Alexa, how much power is my house using? Or, you know, whatever. And it's just, that's the fun world. So yeah, I could be working for a big corporation making a lot more money, but I'm having a lot more fun doing this.
Aaron Moncur:that's important. You gotta love what you're doing, right? I mean, if, if we spend so much of our lives working, if we're not enjoying the work, then it's time to make a change. Money isn't everything. It's up there with air and water, but it's not everything.
James Davis:Exactly.
Aaron Moncur:Okay. Um, let's see. I had a question in mind.
James Davis:a question about, about, about your, your company?
Aaron Moncur:Go for it. Yeah.
James Davis:So what do you guys look for when you have young engineers, such as, I have so many young engineers watching my channel, and there was something, uh, someone you had on, on your podcast maybe five, 10 episodes ago. Uh, and they're all about recruiting people and hiring engineers. And one of the things I really took away is they said, if you're not sure what the question is or how to answer it, don't give some 30 minute long answer. Give maybe some concise thing and say, is that what you meant? Or can you clarify? Is this a, you know, so little things like that. What, what's kind of like those, those hidden gems like that young engineers would want to know? Like if I know this skill or if I act like this and this interview, what's kind of the best ways to kind of get these people watching my YouTube channel to being where you would actually hire them, type thing.
Aaron Moncur:Uh, there are a couple of things that come to mind. Um, the first is an indication that they actually really do love engineering. Right. And, and that typically doesn't come from a resume or, um, grades at college, right? That comes from Oh, yeah. Uh, growing up, I, I, I rebuilt this car engine with my dad and it was like one of the best experiences I ever had. Right? So when I see new engineers that, that actually have some hands-on experience, not necessarily with, you know, developing a new medical device, but with building something, right? I, I. Uh,
James Davis:hands dirty
Aaron Moncur:they got their hands dirty. Exactly right. That's a big one for sure. And then the other thing is just the, the willingness to put in the time. There was, um, a, an aspiring engineer. Uh, he wasn't formally a, a degreed engineer, but he wanted to become an engineer and, and he was going to school for it as well. He asked me one time, how do I accelerate my progress in, in becoming an engineer? Right. And, um, I didn't. I didn't have a great answer for him at the time, but I, I remembered that question and I've thought about it over the years, and I think one of the answers is you just have to spend more time doing it. Like,
James Davis:Mm-hmm.
Aaron Moncur:there's that whole thing about the 10,000 hours, right? You, you, you do something for 10,000 hours and you're an expert at it. I, I don't know if that's true. In fact, I've heard it's apocryphal, but, um, it, there's probably some, uh, element of truth to it. And, and for sure I know that the things I've gotten good at, I've gotten good at because I've spent extra time doing them. I, I haven't stopped, oh, 40 hours. I've hit my 40 hour quota for the work week. I'm done. No, that's not how I operate. It, it hasn't been for a long, long time. And I think the engineers out there who, who come into it being willing, you know, there's of course a work life balance that you need to respect, but you don't have to just cut yourself at 40 hours and say, I'm done. No more, no more work. Right. Um, I, there's a young engineer, a degreed engineer at this time. Who joined our company. And, and when he joined, he said, I could see my step myself happily spending a lot of like, um, overtime just doing the job here because it's, this is what I love to do. And I was like, Bing, okay. I mean, the fact that I'm getting some free labor, hey, I'm not gonna complain about that. But, but just the mindset of like, I love doing this so much that I would, I would happily spend more than the typical 40 hour work week doing it. That's, that's a big deal.
James Davis:Oh yeah. I, I completely agree. It sounds like you and I are in agreement that you have to first like what you're doing, because if you don't like what you're doing, you're not gonna be good at it. And now that you like what you're doing, you're gonna put in not just 40 hours a heck of a lot more. And then what I think is important is of like you're saying, uh, they're, they're willing to go above and beyond, not just that 40 hours. Like anyone can show up and just like occupy a space. Uh, I, I think it's like that, that curiosity to say like, is it okay if I bring in my personal project on the weekend? It's basically very similar to what
Aaron Moncur:Yes.
James Davis:your expensive machine and just do
Aaron Moncur:Yeah.
James Davis:thingy? Uh, just like, yeah, yeah, yeah. If you, if you got that in you, you're welcome in.
Aaron Moncur:Absolutely. Absolutely. And it's those people who want to and do spend all that extra time that really become great at what they're doing.
James Davis:so I'm not trying to brag about me or whatever, but, um, the, I just, I was talking with one of the guys, um, one of the retired guys I've met on YouTube doing this channel and he's doing this lot of 3D printing stuff. Um, and, but it's 3D printing for enclosures for circuit boards. So it's like this way that you can flexibly put in any circuit board, it can just kind of fit into a control panel. So instead of having to design a big control panel custom every time, it's this like modular control panel. And so this, this weekend I'm dead. I'm dang tired. It's Friday long week. Uh, just had my first shower in three days. I was installing off-grid solar for a family friend and Flagstaff, you know, way out on the boonies. And so like, I just want to like kick. Kick, uh, you know, lay back, put my feet up, have an ice cold beer, I have a list of 3D printing objects. I want to, I want to get queued up so I can get going this weekend so I can give him feedback so we can start working on the next iteration of this. Uh, then I got all these other things, like the molding and casting. I got a bunch of stuff. I got outta sand. It's finally starting to be sanding weather. Like most people have like nice outdoor tasks. I like to go outside and wet sand objects. So, so I think it's just you need to, when you're exhausted at the end of your work week, if you have a passion for something, that's probably what you should be doing.
Aaron Moncur:Yeah.
James Davis:At least that, that, that's me. You know, if, if you're still want to do it even when you're tired.
Aaron Moncur:Yeah. Yep. Absolutely. Alright, James, let me ask you one more question and then we'll, we'll wrap things up here. Um, so your, your first video right, was how to start electronics, how to get started in electronics. Most of the listeners on the Being an Engineer podcast are more in the mechanical realm than the electrical realm. And not all of us are sparky. We don't all know. About electronics myself, definitely included. In fact, my team
James Davis:I, I,
Aaron Moncur:won't allow me near. Yeah, yeah. I'm, I'm horrible. I just, I have this mental block. It does not compute. One of these days I really would like to sit down and learn electronics, but right now it's not a priority for me anyway. I, I assume that there are a lot of people listening to this who are mechanical engineers, manufacturing engineers who have maybe dabbled here and there, but don't really know electronics very well. What are some, um, some pieces of advice, some pointers that you can give for, like, how do you get started? What, what's, what's a good practical way for, uh, someone who has, you know, some engineering background experience already to get started in electronics?
James Davis:All right, so first thing, take a breath and realize it's not that complicated. So, uh, what All your worries like, oh no, it's gonna catch on fire. It's not, it's not gonna catch on fire, it's not gonna explode. Um, you know, no one's gonna die. Uh, worst case, a capacity goes poof in the magic smoke escapes and never goes back in. So whatever you do, don't worry about it. Just don't touch grid power. Don't mess with high voltage. Everything else is completely fine. So go buy a starter kit on Amazon if you want. Starter. All right, so explain the world of electronics and little microcosm. There's these little microchips, just like in your computer, like your, like your, um, what it be, CPU. So you have these little logic chips. They call 'em microcontrollers instead of a CPU. They're called an MCUA microcontroller instead of a. Sort, central processor unit or whatever. Uh, so you have your brains and all you have to do is connect whatever else you want to it. If you wanna go and turn on a light, you can simply program this little brains unit to go and just turn on a little. Uh, imagine they have a, they, they have like an extension cord. They can basically turn on and off all these little tiny wires around the chip. So you can program it to say, turn this one wire on, and then turn it off. Do that every one second. And now you're blinking an LED. I mean, that's boring, right? So let's go and put on a relay or a MOSFET or a contact or some big thing to turn on. Huge amounts of power. That same blinking of light, you're now turning on and off a 10,000 watt motor.
Aaron Moncur:Hmm.
James Davis:that's electronics, right? I mean, what else do you want, like, as an engineer, do you wanna control stuff? Cool. Don't just turn it on for a second and turn it off. it on for like. 60, about like 60 thousandths of a second or let's, and then turn it on for 40000th of a second. Point being you're now turning it off a 60 to 40 ratio instead of a 50 50 ratio. If you want to throttle, you now do a 90 10 ratio or a 99 1 ratio. So whatever it is in electronics, like stop thinking it's complicated. Like program a little tiny black box that just works with basic code and it can just interact with all these physical things around them. You can get sensors for anything. Um, I'm looking for a carbon monoxide sensor because that nice lady, our family friend up in Flag Flagstaff in the off grid cabin, she goes, well, can't I just heat my cabin with the stove? And I go, I kind of wanna show you the calibrated carbon monoxide sensor when it's okay to like heat your coffee. And if you leave on all four burners, you see that, you see that line for that carbon monoxide reading. Just go way up. Uh, so, that's what I love, I love about electronics is you just need to find a project. I don't care what it is. Find a stupid basic project. buy a starter kit, which has a little micro controller, a little logic thing, 2030 sensors, wires a little power supply. It'll come with a little guide saying, here's how to use every one of these little components. But don't be boring. Don't just go and like say, look, I turned on an LED or I made a servo. Go and move 90 degrees. Like that's all boring. What you need is a project saying. I wanna do X, Y, and Z. I need A LED, so I know it's plugged in. I need a second LED to know, is it in cycle A or is it in cycle B? I need a motor. So that way when the sensor detects this, I turn on the motor until the sensor now detects something else and I turn off the motor. Like, you just gotta find some stupid basic thing. Go and buy some stuff and just get your hands dirty. And yeah, you're gonna fail a bunch of times. And the only way you can screw stuff up is connecting power and ground, basically, short circuit. Like, other than that, you're, you're pretty much fine.
Aaron Moncur:That's awesome. Great advice. Find a project that you want to do something real, and then use that as an opportunity to, to learn all the things, the, the technical things that you need. Um, I want you to come, so you're coming to PDX already. I want you to come visit our, our booth because we are showing off our easy motion product. And it's, uh, it's a, a super simple way for controlling motors and, uh, pneumatics and, and sensors that doesn't require any programming. Now, you, of course, know how to do the, the actual coding behind the scenes. You don't need easy motion, but I want to get your feedback, your take on it, because it's just this super, it, it allows people like me who don't know any programming to create automation and motion and, and, uh, process signals and things like that.
James Davis:I tell, i, I give a grandma or remote control to control her house. Like trust me, like I, I have a literal and easy button. Like you, you want to just like press one button and do zero configuration or set up like I get, I get people like that exist. They wanna plug in the product and have their house save money. Other people want to go and control everything and automate it. And so yeah, you have to meet them where they are. You have to give the, the, the one easy button. You have to give 'em the super simple control algorithms. That way you can say, I want this thing to turn on this. Uh, and it's above more higher priority than this thing. Except if it's above 85 degrees outside, then this thing is now the top priority. Like
Aaron Moncur:Right.
James Davis:alright, alright. The real example is my business partner's wife, if she can't use it, she's, um, she's not, she's not, not tech savvy, like she has an iPhone. She knows her basic stuff, but she does not know controls automation.
Aaron Moncur:Most people don't. Yeah.
James Davis:Yeah. And so you have to, you have to find some way to get these crazy complex algorithms like distilled into the like, I'm too hot, I'm annoyed, I wanna press two buttons, max. And you need to fix everything. So I'm excited to see your, your motion controls and, uh, and also don't you do like repeatable test jigs.
Aaron Moncur:Yeah, like cycle test fixtures and Yeah, exactly. That's what easy motion is. That's one of the primary use cases. In fact.
James Davis:So how many times do you think I can press a random button? I buy from like, just a random distributor in Asia. So like, we're talking like, it's like the Walmart of where you buy buttons and capacitors and LEDs and all these stuff. I just grab a random one, throw it on my, on my board, maybe put a little cap on there. What's gonna fail? How many times can you reasonably be pressed? Tell me about that. I'm curious.
Aaron Moncur:So that, uh, again, we did not plan this. I did not ask James to ask me this question.
James Davis:I'm bad about sponsor stuff
Aaron Moncur:It, it's okay. No, it's totally fine. I just didn't want people listening to this to be like, wow. How much did Aaron pay James to ask that question? Um, uh, quick answer. That's exactly, well, one of the use cases for Easy Motion is it's so easy to rig up, you know, you could just do a little 3D printed fixture to hold the button in place. And then the programming and easy motion, it's all visual drag and drop logic blocks. So like literally there's, uh, a block that you can drag onto the programming interface that says, extend cylinder or retract cylinder, or move motor to this position. Or, wait two seconds.
James Davis:Force?
Aaron Moncur:Yeah. All, all of the above. Uh, yes. Yep. There's analog feedback. So you can put a force sensor in there, a load cell, and say, when this load cell goes above two pounds, move this air cylinder. Right? And it's all these super simple logic blocks that literally anyone can program. I taught my 9-year-old daughter, there's a video of this online. I taught my 9-year-old daughter how to program with easy motion, and in half an hour she was up and running, making her own industrial automation. It was pretty cool.
James Davis:So, so what normally breaks with a button? Is it like, let, let, if it's like a keyboard key, is it like the key cap gets like crooked and pressed wrong? Or does the button get like stuck down and due to some stickiness factor on the bottom? Like what happens?
Aaron Moncur:I don't know, I don't have the answer for that. I'm not an expert on what fails in, uh, electronics button, but, um, that, that's something that you'd have to test. Right?
James Davis:right. Alright. Uh, I want to get one of your jigs and I'll test it.
Aaron Moncur:Cool. Yeah. Yeah.
James Davis:Alright. Uh,
Aaron Moncur:Well, James, thank you so much for being a guest today. This is so much fun getting to know you. I've been looking forward to this episode ever since we connected several weeks back, and super excited to meet you in person at PDX as well. Um, tell us, uh, be before we sign off here, where can people find you and what, what's your YouTube channel called and any other social platforms that you wanna share?
James Davis:Well, I'm, uh, I'm just a regular nerdy engineer by trade, but I started doing YouTube and so you can find me on Flux Bench, FLUX. Um, so flux is a thing that you, when you're soldering, it's kinda like welding, how they have those gases for the shielding to make sure it doesn't oxidize and you get a good, um, good weld flux is a electronics equivalent. You put a little bit of flux on the, on the thing you're about to go and solder, and when you solder with flux, everything just works so much better. So, flux bench, it is on YouTube and, uh, just click on my channel. You can click about and then find my email. Or really leave me a comment on any one of my videos. I'm, I'm nerdy, I'm weird. I reply to most comments unless you're like a bad video and I hate you. But,
Aaron Moncur:And you're ugly.
James Davis:like 2%. Oh yeah. It's only like 2% of the comments, so it, it's good.
Aaron Moncur:Terrific. All right, well, James, thanks again for being on the show today.
James Davis:Well, thank you so much for having me. Alright.
