Today on Elixir Wizards, Bryan Green shares how he transformed a vintage 1930s rotary phone into a fully functional cell phone using Elixir, Nerves, and a mix of hardware components. Bryan shares the highs and lows of his project, from decoding rotary dial clicks to troubleshooting hardware issues with LED outputs. He explains why Nerves was the perfect fit for this project, offering SSH access, over-the-air updates, and remote debugging. You’ll also hear how Elixir’s concurrency model helped him manage hardware inputs and outputs efficiently using GenStateMachine and Genservers. Elixir and Nerves really shine when modeling real-world systems. Bryan dives into how he used a finite state machine to track the phone’s states and handled inputs from the rotary dial and hook switch via GPIO. For hardware enthusiasts, Bryan’s advice is to embrace this “golden age” of DIY electronics. Whether you're experienced with embedded systems or just curious on where to start, Bryan's VintageCell can inspire you to tinker with a hardware engineering project. Key topics discussed in this episode: Advantages of functional programming and immutability in Elixir Building hardware projects using Adafruit components Why Nerves was the best choice for the VintageCell project Interpreting rotary dial clicks using GPIO and circuits.gpio Troubleshooting hardware issues with LED diagnostics Challenges in optimizing wiring and PCB design Benefits of Nerves: SSH access, OTA updates, and remote debugging Modeling real-world systems with Elixir and Nerves Implementing a finite state machine with GenStateMachine Managing input with Genservers for rotary dial and hook switch Leveraging community resources like Discord, Elixir Slack, and forums Practical advice for keeping hardware projects on track Potential applications from SMS servers to home automation Links mentioned: Vintage Cellphone: Bridging the Past and Future with Elixir (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4hetzVpjmo) Seven Languages in Seven Weeks https://pragprog.com/titles/btlang/seven-languages-in-seven-weeks/ Seven More Languages https://pragprog.com/titles/7lang/seven-more-languages-in-seven-weeks/ Node.js https://github.com/nodejs https://nerves-project.org/ https://www.arduino.cc/ Adafruit Circuit Playground https://www.adafruit.com/category/965 Adafruit 3D Printed Star Trek Communicator https://learn.adafruit.com/3d-printed-star-trek-communicator Adafruit FONA 3G Cellular + GPS Breakout https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-fona-3g-cellular-gps-breakout/overview https://github.com/elixir-circuits/circuitsgpio Nerves SSH https://hex.pm/packages/nervesssh OTA (over-the-air) Updates with NervesHub https://www.nerves-hub.org/ https://github.com/kicad Waveshare 4G Hat for Raspberry Pi https://www.waveshare.com/sim7600e-h-4g-hat.htm https://hexdocs.pm/genstatemachine/GenStateMachine.html https://hexdocs.pm/elixir/GenServer.html https://www.sparkfun.com/ https://www.digikey.com/ USB-C Gadget Mode with Nerves https://github.com/nerves-project/nervessystemrpi4/issues/18 https://livebook.dev/ https://codestorm.me/ https://github.com/codestorm1/vintage_cell/ Special Guest: Bryan Green.

To kick off Elixir Wizards Season 13, The Creator's Lab, we're joined by Zach Daniel, the creator of Igniter and the Ash framework. Zach joins hosts Owen Bickford and Charles Suggs to discuss the mechanics and aspirations of his latest brainchild, Igniter—a code generation and project patching framework designed to revolutionize the Elixir development experience. Igniter isn’t just about generating code; it’s about generating smarter code. By leveraging tools like Sourcerer and Rewrite, Igniter allows developers to modify source code and batch updates by directly interacting with Elixir's AST instead of regex patching. This approach streamlines new project setup and package installations and enhances overall workflow. They also discuss the strategic implications of Igniter for the broader Elixir community. Zach hopes Igniter will foster a more interconnected and efficient ecosystem that attracts new developers to Elixir and caters to the evolving needs of seasoned Elixir engineers. Topics discussed in this episode: Advanced package installation and code generation improve the developer experience Scripting and staging techniques streamline project updates Innovative methods for smoother installation processes in Elixir packages High-level tools apply direct patches to source code Progressive feature additions simplify the mix phx.new experience Chaining installers and composing tasks for more efficient project setup Continuous improvement in developer experiences to boost Elixir adoption Encourage listeners to collaborate by sharing code generation patterns Introduction of a new mix task aimed at removing the "unless" keyword in preparation for Elixir 1.18 You can learn more in the upcoming book "Building Web Applications with Ash Framework" by Zach and Rebecca Links mentioned: https://smartlogic.io/ https://alembic.com.au/blog/igniter-rethinking-code-generation-with-project-patching https://hexdocs.pm/igniter/readme.html https://github.com/ash-project/igniter https://www.zachdaniel.dev/p/serialization-is-the-secret https://www.zachdaniel.dev/p/welcome-to-my-substack https://ash-hq.org/ https://hexdocs.pm/sourceror/readme.html https://smartlogic.io/podcast/elixir-wizards/s10-e09-hugo-lucas-future-of-elixir-community/ https://github.com/hrzndhrn/rewrite https://github.com/zachdaniel https://github.com/liveshowy/webauthn_components https://hexdocs.pm/elixir/Regex.html https://github.com/msaraiva/vscode-surface https://github.com/swoosh/swoosh https://github.com/erlef/oidcc https://alembic.com.au/ https://www.zachdaniel.dev/ Special Guest: Zach Daniel.