general-tech

[icy moth]

Not always, in some areas it’s mandatory for power grid management during extreme events like excessive heat waves

[queen hill]

Update: I pinged support and apparently that's a video, and my laptop is dumb

[undone socket]

In the states? Even then I don't think so. Or at least then it's opt-out versus in.

[queen hill]

Dumb question -- with EYESPI, if you have the breakout and then want to wire the display directly, it's the exact same pins, right?

[cold pebble]

utility company installed a 'smart' electric meter here, no choice, but the thermostat doesn't talk to it or to any outside service

[plush light]

i opened up an old design. has a featherwing with tft and joystock. but no room for a feather. what was i thinking? 😛

[queen hill]

QT PY?

[plush light]

my meter is not very smart. it keeps telling me how much power im using to heat my house in winter.

?

i dont see any logic to it. i expect i might have wanted to wire to another board but the pins are blocked off.

nowhere near enough room to stack a feather

[queen hill]

Maybe you were gonna clear the pins but never got to it

[plush light]

no,the metal housing block is predetermined

[queen hill]

Ah... Maybe you weren't thinking, lol

[plush light]

and an encoder board lives on top

yeah

not thinking

or, i had some genius idea and forgot

[queen hill]

I do that a lot

[plush light]

ha

[queen hill]

Either not think or have a genius idea and forget XD

[plush light]

or, there was another all in one board. a feather with the mcu and tft onboard

[queen hill]

I feel like that's a thing

So, back to the earlier year-long "advent calendar" idea with a keyboard as the thing... Watching a Big Clive video where he has a screwdriver set that was itself an Advent calendar, and he said it "was just the most frustrating thing because you almost wanted to rip all the tools out at once" because it gave you a bit a day. I realize now that a keyboard may be similarly frustrating to only get a piece every day

[plush light]

it may have been. the holes id cut out do not match the featherwing button placement and screen size.

it is also possible it was a placeholder for a custom board

bah

[queen hill]

Yeah, I knew it was a thing when you mentioned it! https://www.adafruit.com/product/5483

adds to cart

[plush light]

saw that. thats a new thing. my design is 4 years old.

[queen hill]

hmmm

[plush light]

doesnt have joystock/buttons

but, a plausible board to use

[queen hill]

The things we lose to the sands of time...

[outer brook]

So my PC (i913600k, 32GB DDR5, ASUSz790, Samsung evo SSD, Windows 11) has started doing this weird thing where when I lock it for the night, it doesn't go to sleep, it shuts down at some point during the night. What might cause that?

[queen hill]

Windows 11 has some weirdness with power settings sometimes. No idea how to fix it, not a problem on 10

[outer brook]

Hm I checked all my known power settings and nothing said to do this

[queen hill]

Yeah, it's not an issue with your settings... just an issue with how 11 handles power stuff.

[outer brook]

Anything to be done?

[queen hill]

I've had similar issues on a test system. Reinstalling several times sometimes fixes it? Maybe? Seems to just be an 11 problem

[outer brook]

oof

[queen hill]

Yeah... 11/10 do not recommend

[outer brook]

"Sorry about your patient, doc, the breathing machine shut down, it's a windows 11 problem"

^hyperbole

[plush light]

this will work i think if i solder the boards together with short headers. also have to remove the battery port

m4 is overkill but i have one here sooo.

[queen hill]

Microsoft has an unfortunate habit of playing with your shutdown and power stuff... I can't tell you how many times and ways I've had to work to get Windows 10 to not auto-reboot after updates -- they keep changing things. This is a huge problem when you have something that can't be interrupted and runs for weeks...

[queen hill]

Pshh, battery, who needs that

[plush light]

with windows 10 pro, you can turn them off easily. with windows 10 home, you cant

has not changed in years that i know of

[queen hill]

Unfortunately, no, you can't -- they have at least 5 things you have to change to prevent it from auto-restarting in Pro. Occasionally they push updates that revert some of these, and change which one overrides which... I've had machines that were fine for months suddenly start restarting

Home you can make it not restart with even more hackery, but it's easier on Pro

[plush light]

nah. i just did it on my new machine yesteday

easy as cake

[queen hill]

Well, this is an issue I've had for years on multiple machines. Change group policy, change registry, and sometimes on some systems it STILL does it

[plush light]

i disabled update outright, but you can also just disable the reboots

never touch registry

[queen hill]

I don't disable the updates because I do want to get them, but the reboots are the issue

[gloomy mango]

But registry is fun!!! 🤪

[plush light]

yeah. we have hundreds of machines. reboots is disabled on all of them

[queen hill]

Changing the registry is fine if you know what you're doing

[outer brook]

This is all Win10?

[plush light]

yes

[gloomy mango]

...and make backups

[plush light]

win 10 pro

[queen hill]

yee

Hourly backups always

[gloomy mango]

Lel

[plush light]

win11 is not an option yet

[gloomy mango]

I just export before making a change. 😁

...which is exceedingly rare.

[queen hill]

Windows 11 is a scourge and should not be allowed into anyone's home

[gloomy mango]

...or place of work.

[queen hill]

Especially places of work

[plush light]

id still have xp64 is i had my way

[queen hill]

I'm in the process of getting off Windows personally, and have a long-term plan to maintain 10 at work and switch to 12 when that's a thing

[plush light]

we went form 2k to xp64 to grudgingly 7, then 10 just before the pandemic

[queen hill]

Hopefully 12 will be a good one again...

[plush light]

skipped vista and 8 entirely

[queen hill]

I jumped from 2000 to XP to 7 [used 7 from the very first RC], and same for 10... I remember 10 having the new Spartan browser on one of the early Technical Previews and was like "oh hey, we're gonna have all Halo named stuff!" and then they named it Edge

I still have 2000, XP, and 7 machines in my retro stuff

[plush light]

knows nothing about halo named stuff

[queen hill]

Lol. Spartan and Cortana are names from the Halo games

Only Cortana got out of development with the in-dev name

[plush light]

i work on the halo tv show

only the good parts though

:x

[queen hill]

https://tenor.com/view/what-huh-monkey-shocked-mouth-open-gif-16459002

Wait is this a joke because you think it's bad

[plush light]

the fans seems to think its bad. haha

anyhow

[queen hill]

I liked it XD

Anyway, everyone use Linux, lol

[plush light]

fusion is crashing a lot on my new machine. but fusion always crashes a lot, so im not sure if its a driver issue or an adesk issue

[queen hill]

Software life is hard

[plush light]

on the bright side, its fast

[queen hill]

Still haven't figured out why media is weird on this stupid laptop

[gloomy mango]

The first season is really good.

[plush light]

puts that on the promo material

[queen hill]

I'm not super up on the Halo game lore [only ever played CE with friends], but from what I understand the story is very very different, and for some people, different == bad

[gloomy mango]

Pfft

[plush light]

story is basically unrelated to the games

[gloomy mango]

"But the MCU is nothing like the comics!!!"

[plush light]

the look is identical (literally, i used the game assets for the ships)

[queen hill]

Yeah, just like, names and design related.... Some people can't appreciate that

[gloomy mango]

Personally, I really enjoyed it.. especially Kai.

[queen hill]

Despite how long the MCU has been going on, and so disconnected from the comics it's been, some people still complain that characters or events aren't like the comics...

[gloomy mango]

Yup.... 😐

[queen hill]

Kai.... https://tenor.com/view/yeison-gif-26182240

[plush light]

as a non gamer, i dont care much about it being the same. there was a lot of script and story issues though

also it took like 4 years

ha

i started that show in 2016

[queen hill]

Personally I don't care if two SEPARATE show/game/movie/book versions of an IP are different. Actually I think that can be good -- like Battlestar Galactica, the old show and new show are COMPLETELY different, and I love them both in different ways. I don't think it would have been good to try to remake the original in the same way -- it was much better that they were creative and unique while following the same beats

[gloomy mango]

"He!! Let Loose is nothing like Band of Brothers!!"

[plush light]

ha

[gloomy mango]

Discord is having a janky moment

[plush light]

fans predetermine if they like it before it even comes out. weirdos. most of the shows we do people have liked because the source is more obscure. like the boys. few people have read those comics

and then theres wednesday, where all the critics seemed determined to kick it down, but the fans love it

anyhow, back to feathers

[queen hill]

Indeed, it keeps greying my message for a minute or 2

[queen hill]

I had never heard of The Boys before the show. Still haven't watched the show yet, lol

[queen hill]

I had to order the TFT feather because of you XD

[plush light]

imagine the most over the top violent gory show you can... then consider that teletubbies compared to the boys.

[gloomy mango]

I love that Jack Quaid is also the voice of Boimler. 🖖😁

[queen hill]

Boimler is one of The Boys?!??

[gloomy mango]

Yarp

[queen hill]

I must watch it

[plush light]

i like that show. better than the live action shows they are doing by far

[queen hill]

I love all the shows

[gloomy mango]

Strange New Worlds was decent enough for the first season..
Prodigy is quite good too.

[queen hill]

SNW great

Prodigy is EXACTLY what we need to get kids into Trek

[plush light]

hm

maybe i can fit a connector on the little proto area, and jumper it to pins on the other side.

it needs to talk to an accelerometer, and the motor drive

[queen hill]

Hmmm

[plush light]

and the encoder (SSI)

[lost lily]

i had a heart attack today rescuing a microcontroller - thought i bricked it after uploading a program. it wldn't respond to uploads or flash erases after that 😬
thankfully it was just bc it was an esp32 and it likes to not auto-reset so a capacitor between EN and GND fixed it

[queen hill]

Oop

[outer brook]

Is it possible to get this exact product in 2m length? https://www.adafruit.com/product/4915

[woeful whale]

Turns out the A89301 BLDC driver IC has FOC, but it's not able to turn to a certain angle, only turn at slow speeds. But I guess I can make a janky piece of code in my library that spins the motor at a slow speed for a certain calculated duration. It won't be accurate without an encoder though.

[queen hill]

Charge a LiPo up, gets to 1808mAh. Discharging now, it's down to 3.4V after putting out ~170mAh, lol

Definitely doesn't like doing 1A, apparently...

~260mAh before it hit the minimum voltage threshold and shut off XD guess it's a low current, high capacity cell now

[queen hill]

So when drawing ~125mA, this cell drops down under 3.1V; protection board cuts the flow, and voltage jumps back up to 3.6v within moments -- is this cell just really dying? XD

[plush light]

or its not rated for 125ma

a lot of batteries are really bad

[queen hill]

It's a laptop cell, was rated originally for 2A

[plush light]

ah

[queen hill]

But it's very old XD

I think it was a 2200mAh cell originally, now holds about 1800mAh

[queen hill]

Welp, I was able to discharge it by a measured 760mAH. That's 42% of the charged capacity. This 5V boost board isn't super efficient, and my last test was ~60% efficiency, but the other cell I tested would STAY at 3.1V -- this one keeps jumping back to 3.6V

[static yarrow]

hey guys 👋
How do i get started with programming ESP32 with C++ (not arduino, the ESP-IDF) ??

I have researched and found out that there is an extension of esp idf for vs code that does it all , i have installed it
But i dont know what to do from here , where do i get started ?

[timber scroll]

I have finally finished one of the biggest acheivments of the watch. It is the screen!!! Thank you to Adafruit for all of the great products and open source guides on how to wire the tft display. Making every thing fit under a 5- 10 mm size to be able to have key advancemanmts like wirekless charging was really hard but the learn guides and product info really helped with the> I can not wait to show off the finaly project! Coming hopefully this SUMMER!!!

[static yarrow]

I searched youtube for this but there is nothing much about this
people are using some toolchains and esp-idf desktop apps for this, but from what i have read in docs of esp idf, the extension is the easiest one to get started with
But i dont know how to write app, how to upload it , how to test it, how to do serial monitor etc
can someone guide me about this ?
links to resources or yt videos are greatly appriciated

also , am i supposed to know freertos before getting started ? or i dont have to know freertos ?

[outer brook]

Congrats! I remember this project. Very cool

[timber scroll]

I justr used Youtube to solve alot of problem but then i turn here, but sadley youtube will not work. SO i would Keep asking here or on ask an engineer opn Wednesdays

[static yarrow]

ohh ok
what resources did you refer ?

like lets say i want to create an interactive web server , how do i get started with that ?
for arduino i would see one of the examples, look at the library docs and thats it
but for esp idf how do i even get started ?

[steady gulch]

have you looked at the get started guide ? https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-idf/en/latest/esp32/get-started/index.html

[static yarrow]

yup , but it doesnt show how to get started with extension

[timber scroll]

https://tenor.com/view/thank-you-thanks-ty-thanks-to-you-thank-you-so-much-gif-17371482

[steady gulch]

it links to that https://github.com/espressif/vscode-esp-idf-extension/blob/master/docs/tutorial/install.md
which links to that https://github.com/espressif/vscode-esp-idf-extension/blob/master/docs/tutorial/basic_use.md

[static yarrow]

thanks 👍
ill look into it

[timber scroll]

I haveo only used the areduino ide to program esp and i have never used VS Code besides the aruino extentoion. And as i said Adafruit holds a ask an Engineer every Wednesday so mabey you cou7ld ak there? Otherwise, I am clueless.

[static yarrow]

yup, if i get stuck ill use the wednesday

[steady gulch]

I don't know if ladyada has ever used the ESP-IDF directly, I'm pretty sure she goes through Arduino if she ever needs to develop something in C++ on ESP

[timber scroll]

Ok hope you can find what you are looking for! Great luck and hope you can find it

[timber scroll]

SOrry i did not know. DO you have any suggestions on where to ask?

[timber scroll]

Ok hope you can find what you are looking for! Great luck and hope you can find it

[steady gulch]

don't be sorry, actually asking in the live stream might also lead to good answers from other viewers

[timber scroll]

Th\at is true that is how I got the invite to bae abole to come here!

[steady gulch]

I don't know what the main resources are for ESP dev, I think there is an espressif discord and a forum (in english)

[timber scroll]

My typing skills suck today trust me i am usually not this bad!

I am going any suggestions on how to make a smart watch nextt level?

[static yarrow]

youre making a smartwatch ?

can you tell little bit about it ?

like its specs

[timber scroll]

sure

[timber scroll]

it si a smart watch with a arduino nano as its brain. Using a blood ox sensor ei can read vital to the user like blood o2, temp, and even heart rate. It has a solid wirless charging circuit sk there is no need for ports or wires. All that you need is a wireless charger. Mare smart features are coming like auto fall detection and emergency SOS through iPhone. This has been j project that i have been eorking on for a while and finally got a working prototype today. Why are you making a smart watch?

[icy moth]

Are you documenting your project anywhere?

If you’re wondering, I recently completed a smart watch prototype

I’m also working on another smart watch too.. lol

[static yarrow]

that sounds great
have you made a custom pcb or just using modules ?

[static yarrow]

looks cool 🔥

[regal horizon]

TR-Cowbell bodge fix to put both multiplexer chips on a single bus.

[regal horizon]

Instead of making a short video just made some graphics and also added it to the end of the soldering instructions. https://github.com/DJDevon3/My_Circuit_Python_Projects/tree/main/Boards/raspberrypi/Raspberry Pi Pico/TR Cowbell/v1.2 Hardware I2C Bus Fix

[plush light]

there, short feather headers now fit. my work is done :x (on that one part of 600, ha!)

[regal horizon]

tight fit

[plush light]

servo drive no longer fits inside

although there were issues with that drive

[plush light]

removed servo drive. way more room. downside is the need for an external drive and communication. oh well.

[queen hill]

I want cowbell

[regal horizon]

Ask me in about 2 weeks. Have to wait for more parts to arrive.

[queen hill]

I have set a reminder with Siri

[regal horizon]

Unless you're ok with a pico instead of a pico w?

i'm out of pico w's

[queen hill]

I have a Pico W!

[queen hill]

Update to update: it sat overnight, and now has been supplying 100mA for a few minutes and the voltage didn't fall as quickly... strange

[queen hill]

Would you consider sending one without the Pico and I can add it?

[hollow matrix]

My latest project
https://dashboard.darren.ee.eu.org

[queen hill]

Suddenly, a wild login page appears

What unknown mysteries await inside?

[regal horizon]

sure, check your DM's

[timber scroll]

no, but i got a cnc for Christmas so i plan to make a. Custom PCB for it.

[timber scroll]

only place that i am documenting it on is here and mavey on my youtube sometime later. (Ethan Arts)

[icy moth]

Ah very cool 😎

Great work

Weird.. I try to add pictures and it says they are empty 🤔

[timber scroll]

well the bots ket telling me my pictures were expliced when it was only the screen of the watch😅😅

[queen hill]

Silly bots… they often flag my pictures if I show my fingers!

[timber scroll]

that must have been it

[queen hill]

I have no idea why they do it, too. Sometimes moving my fingers a little it’s fine?

[queen hill]

Maybe Clyde thinks you’re making a gang sign or something

[timber scroll]

haha nope i know i am not
Doing that

[queen hill]

I don’t know any gang signs to know XD bots are silly

[timber scroll]

Yep

[timber scroll]

wher are tou documenting yours

[gloomy mango]

Hummm...

That failed before

[queen hill]

Maybe it learned, lol. But I’ve also found sometimes like, 2 nearly identical shots of my hand, one it fails and one it doesn’t

[gloomy mango]

Sure no one needs a prolonged viewing of my scars. Lol

[queen hill]

At least your hand wasn’t bloody XD

[gloomy mango]

Indeed... It's healed nicely after 23 years. 😂

[queen hill]

Lol

[gloomy mango]

To be fair, when it happened.. I was covered from head to foot.

[queen hill]

O deer

[gloomy mango]

Indeed.. doctors thought I was a victim of a terrorist attack.

Big mess.

[icy moth]

I’m planning on doing a write up on my blog: https://oakdev.tech/oak-blog

It’s been a minute since I’ve posted anything

[pine igloo]

there's nothing else (in the market right now) with a similar form factor?
https://twitter.com/SipeedIO/status/1608366512083193857

Sipeed (@SipeedIO)

New Tiny #tinyML #AIoT module M0S coming out~
Based on BL616, WiFi6+BT5.2+Zigbee, 384MHz #RISCV RV32GCP, 4MB Flash + 512KB SRAM, and USB2.0 HS in tiny 10x11mm stamp module!
It would be <2$ ~

Likes

1131

Retweets

212

Twitter · Dec 29, 2022, 7:37 AM

[icy moth]

For less than $2? I haven’t seen anything

[pine igloo]

more?

[icy moth]

Maybe like $5 and up

[hearty karma]

There's the Xiao, the Artemis board, etc.

[icy moth]

Xiao has WiFi6?

[hearty karma]

I have no idea, I was replying to the "has a similar form factor" question. The Artemis module is 10x15mm.

[icy moth]

Some of the ESP32 modules coming up have WiFi6 but I have no idea when they’ll be released

They’ll likely be more than $2 though

[timber scroll]

cool

[violet torrent]

Heh Artemis board

I have many boards XD

[timber scroll]

@icy moth i am trying to shrink the factor of my watch any suggestions on how to make a fpc small enought like 2 and 4 pin connectors. bulky wiring is my enemy in this case

[icy moth]

Use small parts, smaller traces and via, use an assembly service when you can to help minimize assembly issues

[timber scroll]

but what about fpc like some componets will have to get bigger to fit a gps or an esp into the watch so i needd tk turn down the wires while i am at it

[icy moth]

You can do direct solder, or make think PCB that use flat connectors like mezzanine connectors

[timber scroll]

that is really cool like the apple watch where can i get those

[icy moth]

This for instance is a 6+2 mezzanine connector from Hirose

I bought these from Digi-Key

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/BM29B0.6-6DS%2F2-0.35V(51)/14542975

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/BM29B-6DP%2F2-0.35V(53)/13968995

[timber scroll]

wow that is tiny

thanks for the suggestion

[icy moth]

Using these and flex PCB would allow you to squeeze things around

[timber scroll]

cool where can i get flex pcbs

[icy moth]

PCBWay, OshPark

[timber scroll]

i have had a hard time with both of those companies and that is why now i an making my own pcbs are there any on amazon

[icy moth]

What do you mean had a hard time?

Making your own PCBs is the least efficient way to develop microelectronics like watches

It would be incredibly difficult to get the precision at home that you’d get from a professional fabricator

I would imagine you just need some guidance on making sure your designs fit within the manufacturing process tolerances of fabricators and whatnot.

Once you have that down pat, it’s as easy as ordering your designs

[hearty karma]

I shudder to think how horrible an amazon PCB service would be.

[icy moth]

Same, or trying to make my own flex PCB at home

I think about how I was when I first started PCB design, I wanted to do everything myself

But now I’m like, “I’m just gonna design this and let someone else worry about the fab process” lol

[hearty karma]

While I've had a few wrinkles dealing with PCB services, they're not unreasonable, given the age of the Gerber format

[icy moth]

You kind of have to expect with the sheer scale that you’ll have an issue every now and again

[hearty karma]

I agree, I've been able to get nice boards from several different vendors over the years without undue trouble.

Certainly easier and higher quality than any of my homemade boards.

[queen hill]

Is Santa a robot? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjOGIWa5Ic0

[I'm suspecting, based on oddities in the delivery, ESPECIALLY reading off those URLs, that this Santa may be artificially generated]

There's also stuff that makes it hard to tell if it's simply editing and delivery of a live actor or something generated -- like, at the end, it seems like each video uses the same "Follow this channel for more Santa Explains", but you can see it shifts like an image overlay, and I can't tell if it's just something generating it oddly or a not-perfect edit

[timber scroll]

price and time it took 3 months to get pcbs from pcb way and osh parks prices are outrageous

[icy moth]

For small PCBs, I can get them for usually less than most Chinese fabs with oshpark and free shipping so 🤷‍♂️

As for taking 3 months to get to you, pay for faster shipping? Where are you shipping to?

I did JLCPCB for a 6L board and I’ll have it sometime in the next 10 days

I purposely paid for the cheapest shipping though, I wasn’t in a rush

The equipment needed to do high precision PCBs for product miniaturization is extremely expensive and I have doubts that you’d be able to achieve that with stuff off Amazon.

[timber scroll]

I have used Jlcpcb too but they dont have flex pcbs. I amsked them and they said that they will mabey be getting that operration to do flex latrr

[icy moth]

And flex PCB are a highly specialized PCB product

To get them you’re going to have to make some personal concessions to yourself. Or find a different way like using premade FPC cables. You don’t get the precision sizing that you’d get on your own spun designs.

[timber scroll]

that is true. Are there any mezzanine connectors at adafruit

[icy moth]

Not that I’m aware of

[timber scroll]

Any more tiny connectors that are more common

that are small

[icy moth]

There are different sizes and configurations of mezzanine connectors

Depending on what you need. Some displays have 20 pin mezzanine connectors

[timber scroll]

ok cool

[undone socket]

Are there any mini pcbs that add i2c pull up resistors in a clean way? Like you solder/connect your i2c device like an oled to it, then on the other side solder/connect your controller and it adds the pull up resistor you need?

[hearty karma]

It's just two resistors, you can bodge them directly onto the pins if you want

[undone socket]

It’s so ugly. I guess you can. Although that’s no better than soldering between the vcc and sda/scl wires. Especially if your controller is really small.

A little pcb that you use just for that though would be nice, mount it next to the controller. Even better if it had stemma qt/qwiic.

[hearty karma]

Ah, this is sort of close: https://www.adafruit.com/product/4756

[undone socket]

Hmm. Not quite what I mean but might work. Maybe. Hopefully if it’s just on device on a short wire it’s not an issue. Might actually try it.

Ordered one to give it a try.

[queen hill]

^^^ me in a nutshell

[undone socket]

Just shifting priorities, you’ll get back to it eventually 😂

[queen hill]

Yeah XD Altho sometimes it means starting from scratch… like a project I started in 98 that by the time I pulled it out in 2018, was completely irrelevant in terms of tech XD

Current priority is sleep… nini

[next harbor]

Attempting to install circuitpython onto a feather RP2040 and getting this error. Does anyone know what's causing this?

[steady gulch]

depends, what's your OS version ?

[next harbor]

Ventura 13

MacOS

[steady gulch]

there's known issues with Ventura, you need to update to 13.1 at least

[next harbor]

Oop okay thanks for letting me know.

Oh man

I wonder if there's a terminal fix for it.

Ill see if I can get the developer update (?)

[queen hill]

I think there’s a command to have it force an update when Apple hasn’t pushed it to you?

[next harbor]

Ill look it up

[undone socket]

Yeah that's weird because 13.1 was released to the public

and can confirm it resolves the issue.

[next harbor]

It's doing it now

I had to enable something.

[lean stone]

sometimes the software update process needs a reboot before it'll pick up the most recent version

[queen hill]

Apple usually staggers roll-out of updates to reduce server loads. I don’t think there’s any rhyme or reason as to what devices get which updates first, but I have 3 iPhones and 2 iPads, and have seen it happen a few times in various orders

[queen hill]

Also this

[undone socket]

Oh for sure but it's been almost a month so it's really strange they hadn't received the push yet, let alone when they check manually it says they're up to date.

Mostly likely the 2nd one .

[queen hill]

Oh, didn’t realize that update came out that long ago XD so yes, probably that

[outer brook]

Do we know when the scorpio is coming out?

[queen hill]

I don't think so, and nobody else seemed to last I asked

[outer brook]

ok, thank you

[queen hill]

np

[main hemlock]

@outer brook @queen hill Scorpio did come out, but the first batch sold out. Another batch will be in the works but there is not a public schedule for such things.

[queen hill]

Oh darn! I shall keep an eye out… if you happen to know another batch is about to drop and think about it, please let me know!

[main hemlock]

did you sign up for a notification?

[queen hill]

I didn’t see a product page

When I searched “Scorpio” it showed just a spool of NeoPixels… maybe I wasn’t in the shop or misspelled it?

[main hemlock]

https://www.adafruit.com/product/5650. The Scorpio is in the middle of that video 🙂 . Other pictures on that page show the board by itself

[queen hill]

Or I was dumb and didn’t read XD now signed up

[gloomy mango]

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/linux-and-sysadmin-tools-oreilly-books

[queen hill]

Ok, that wasn’t good…

Thankfully I was sitting right here and I think the battery detected a dead short… but now it shows no voltage ToT

Wait, no, had my meter on the 10A instead of regular port… battery is alive

[lost lily]

Whats the difference if I use a 1 mega ohm to 1 mega ohm voltage divider than if i used a 10 kilo ohm to 10 kilo ohms divider? Less current usage? (If so, at the expense of what?)
My use case is dividing a lipo cells voltage in half so my 3v3 microcontroller can read it.
(edit: grammar)

[hearty karma]

Yes, less current usage, but greater susceptibility to noise and current draw from whatever you connect it to.

[ivory veldt]

How

[queen hill]

Power cables slipped and shorted… that was apparently the weak link

[lost lily]

An evolving monstrosity of wires and breakout boards
Untested too, can't wait to debug this thing

[hearty karma]

Way neater than mine...

[lost lily]

Looks cooler tho lol

What is it supposed to do?

[hearty karma]

It's a prototype for a GPS tracking device that can "phone home" via WiFi, Bluetooth, or literally phone via GSM.

[regal horizon]

https://tenor.com/view/et-et-phone-home-et-the-extra-terrestrial-hentry-thomas-alien-gif-3984699

[violet torrent]

I wish Mu worked on my XP laptop

[violet torrent]

What? I have a laptop, and I want to work on my Pico, but the laptop runs XP

[plush light]

why does the laptop run xp. that is the question

[violet torrent]

It's from 2006

[plush light]

thats no excuse

[queen hill]

I hope it’s offline… as much as I loved XP, and still love it for the sake of nostalgia, INSECURE

[icy moth]

Was this your Homer prototype?

[nova finch]

OK, here's a fun one. I've got a chromebook with a linux VM (debian 11?). Chromeos has a "share with linux" feature. I did this with a directory (stl) that has 574 files in it. In chromeos, all 574 files show up. However, the linked folder, when viewed in linux (under /mnt/chromeos) shows only 100 directory entries. Not sure if this is a bug or a setting. Anyone seen this before?

[icy moth]

How are you counting items in the directory?

[nova finch]

Select all. Also, scrolling through the list, it's obvious the majority of files are missing. I thought it might be some odd permissions issue, but it's always limited to 100 entries, regardless,

[icy moth]

Hmmm

And there’s no hidden files?

[nova finch]

Nope

[icy moth]

Very strange

Maybe there’s unsupported file extensions

[nova finch]

Oh, also, if I do an ls -l, I get
~/stl$ ls -l ls: reading directory '.': Invalid argument

[hearty karma]

Yup.

[icy moth]

Nice

From humble roots, or in this case wires

[nova finch]

I've tried it on several directories containing different types of files (gcode, stl, inkscape, scad). All are limited to 100 entries.

[hearty karma]

That's just how I breadboard, quick and messy. If it works like that, it'll probably work in PCB form.

[lean stone]

nice! you probably have the experience and skills to track down any issues due to the messy wiring. i do a mixture of wiring styles when breadboarding. if there are a lot of parallel buses that i don't expect to have to change, i'll try to use tidy cut-to-length jumpers physically in parallel; otherwise whatever wire scraps are lying around and approximately the right length

[hearty karma]

For that sort of thing, I'm fond of the AdaFruit "make your own custom cable" parts like https://www.adafruit.com/product/3146

Since the 8 bits of the ports on the Mega are in a 4x2 arrangement, the ability to whomp up a 4x2 to 8x1 cable quickly is really handy

[queen hill]

Now I understand why he kept sharing pictures of a project with a display that says "HOMER"

[queen hill]

What are those LEDs? I want some

[hearty karma]

The little flat top T1 LEDs? I got those in an assortment from a surplus vendor.

A quick search finds Everlight EALP03RDDGA0 as a possibility

Or Panasonic LNG477YKY

Although the Panasonic part is apparently obsolete

[icy moth]

Everlight makes some cool stuff

[hearty karma]

I like them, KingBright, Lucky Light, and SuperBrightLEDs

[icy moth]

Like this ambient light/proximity sensor https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/EAAPMST3923A2/11200902

It’s good fun to play with

Which reminds me that I absolutely should finish writing the driver code for it

Add it to the community bundle

And publish the Arduino driver

[queen hill]

Random: I wonder why adafruit doesn't sell NiMH or NiCAD batteries...

[icy moth]

They don’t?

[queen hill]

Not that I can find!

Searches for "NiMH", "NiCAD", "Nickel" don't show anything

The only related thing I found was a discontinued booster that takes a single AA, and gives you 3.3v/5v/other out

And that mentions using NiMH

[icy moth]

Interesting

I wonder if there are some storage requirements they can’t meet for them

[queen hill]

I dunno. I'm surprised they aren't at least a discontinued item, since they've been selling since before LiPo was as easy to work with as it is now, and people used to go towards AA/AAA/9V batteries a lot in the past

[icy moth]

Perhaps most people just tend to use Alkaline and LiPos

Also, I picked up some of these https://m.aliexpress.us/item/3256801393702427.html

I need to get the FPC connector for them still

These are the same as the ones used on the TFT Feathers BTW

[queen hill]

Nice

[icy moth]

And I picked up some nRF52 chips from mouser. The 52811 QFN32, 52480 VQFN73, 52840 WLCSP

The 52840 chips are for the next round of RP Watchy

Which will need to probably change names given I’m moving away from the RP2040

Unless RP would stand for Righteous Peter. Lol…

[queen hill]

I would suggest SWatch if that weren’t already similar to things

[icy moth]

WatchSkerr

Lol

[queen hill]

Hehe

[plush light]

call it the watcher

[hearty karma]

Another pair of tricks I like to use for monitoring groups of signals on breadboards is LED bargraphs and resistor networks

[queen hill]

Hmmm

[formal musk]

is there like a thingiverse but for PCBs? a library of designs i could modify and send to jlpcb?

[keen lichen]

I've found some stuff on github but nothing central

pcbway may allow you to share designs through them. (May be another manufacturer that I'm thinking of.)

[lean stone]

i think OSHPark also lets you share your PCB designs on their site?

[formal musk]

i guess i could email thingiverse and ask if they'd like to open a new category. if there is no big open library.

hmm, oshpark has a fair amount, thanks!

[hearty karma]

I belatedly realized that the resistor networks are available with 10 resistors, to provide current limiting for all 10 LEDs in the bargraph. Bournes part number 4611X-101-102LF for example.

[formal musk]

HUUUUHHHHHH i hadn't considered oshpark because i assumed the shipping cost would be high, but they even offer free shipping overseas.

[cold pebble]

I have a bunch of 5s and 9s, for some reason, the old hot dog and bun problem

and some DIP resistor dividers

[vagrant gyro]

that's a neat trick! much easier than X individual resistors.

[queen hill]

So how exactly do you use a bar graph for signal monitoring? It doesn’t interfere with anything?

[jade dirge]

Surprises me that adafruit doesn't offer any non-lipo battery solutions. There are use cases where lipos are forbidden or dangerous.

[main hemlock]

we have regular AA, etc. battery cases, but they're not meant to plug into Feather battery connectors. I think our thought is that if you need that, you can feed whatever you want to the 5V port

discussion for Feathers here: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-feather-m4-express-atsamd51/power-management#alternative-power-options-3122391

[jade dirge]

I was more talking lead-acid or gel cell options.

[hearty karma]

It's just a compact row of LEDs, so shows whether lines are high or low. I'm using 1k current limiting resistors, so they would draw 5mA, the system seems to run fine with them in place. I could use higher value resistors for less current draw (and lower brightness) or get fancy with buffer circuits, but the simple approach seems sufficient in this case.

[hearty karma]

Come to think of it, the LEDs would draw closer to 3mA due to the forward voltage of the LEDs themselves

[queen hill]

Hmm… does this work to show, say, SPI/I2C activity?

[austere stone]

i just bought 2 of these https://www.adafruit.com/product/328

but the instructions say to keep them at least 50 percent charged

but the little usb charger does not have an lcd to show percentages

[queen hill]

You can measure the voltage to get an idea — 3.7 is somewhere in the middle. 4.2v fully charged, like 3-3.2 “empty”. It really only matters for more extended storage

[austere stone]

ah i see

i bought 2 separate chargers because i was not sure which one to use, but now i think they are both the same just different usb types

https://www.adafruit.com/product/1904

this one

and this one

[queen hill]

baps Dyno bad bot

[austere stone]

arg it keeps removing my post

but it was the 1905

this will be my first time charging them

how do i know when to stop?

[queen hill]

The nice thing is the charger handles when to stop for you — the “DONE” light will turn green when it’s done

[austere stone]

but if i am not around to unplug it

when it stop charging it also

[queen hill]

It automatically stops, so no worries. It just waits at full capacity and doesn’t keep trying to charge it

(Just don’t plug it in and leave for vacation, that’s bad for the battery)

[austere stone]

cool i ended up buying a lipo battery charging case

after watching a video

it was only 10 bucks on amazon but figured i didn't want this little thing to blow

[queen hill]

One of those fire resistant boxes? Can’t hurt. Just be gentle, try to avoid impacts or sharp things

[austere stone]

i bought the battery to support a little battle bot like this

which i gutted the onboard h-bridge and rc, i plan on adding an esp32 s2 mini along with a drv8833

[queen hill]

Hehe, Duck. That one should last you a good while with loads like that

[austere stone]

so now i figure i need to find a mini enclosure for this battery since the bots are ment to be hit

i am barely learning about batteries, and this little duck takes (3) aaa's which is 4.5v

but the battery is 3.7

so i am not sure if there are 5v lipos

i ordered them from aliexpress so they should arrive by march

but most of my stuff is adafruit

[queen hill]

A little foam tape in a plastic box is good. 3.7v LiPo voltages are anywhere from about 3v to 4.2v depending on the charge level; there are 7.4v packs, which are 2 3.7v in series. You have a choice of either boosting a 3.7v to 5v or bucking 7.4v down to 5, but the former is more efficient

[austere stone]

can you paste the adafruit buck hardware link

i keep hearing buck but i am not sure what that is

also i did see some 7.4 batteries but those were bricks LOL. they were actually bigger than the duck itself

[queen hill]

“Buck” means it shaves off excess voltage, or “bucks” it like a bull bucks a rider. I’ll grab a link

Here’s an example one — low current, but you can connect up to 21 and get 5v out https://www.adafruit.com/product/4739

So like, you could use that to convert a car’s 12v to 5v

[austere stone]

ah i see, now i need to learn how to use this

i need to learn power conversions too i think

ohms, amps, volts

not sure if i missed one

[queen hill]

Wattage, which is volts * amps

A lot of these don’t require you really know the maths; you just need to know what inputs it takes and what it puts out for voltage, and the current (amps) it can supply

[austere stone]

ah gotcha!

does adafruit sell lipo enclosures too?

is the 18650 same tech as the lipo

or which is safer

i think that one might be able to take a hit better

[queen hill]

I think there are some LiPo cases? 18650 is a form-factor (size) — 18mm diameter, 65mm length. There are others that use that numbering format, like 16450 (16mm diameter, 45mm length)

18650 cells are usually less sensitive than the flat pouch batteries, but still not happy about any heavy impacts or punctures

[austere stone]

that makes sense, is there a preferred brand on those 18650

[queen hill]

I think Adafruit sells Panasonic? Not sure. But that’s your safest bet to buy is right from Adafruit, because they perform quality checks and buy from known good suppliers

[austere stone]

i agree 100 percent

[lean stone]

yeah, you can take your chances with batteries from other vendors, but you might want to ask whether your increased risk of circuit damage (or fire or explosions!) is worth the small monetary savings

[austere stone]

that is true

[queen hill]

Best to learn about using them first, from known safe sources, before thinking about saving money

[austere stone]

correct! i was just thinking right now... since those 3 batteries equals 4.5 would i use a buck converter to drop it 3.7 to powerup an esp32?

[queen hill]

I would say 3.3v; otherwise your LiPo will only use about half power— regulators can be finicky when the supply is lower than the output

Unless it’s a buck/boost, which can take higher and lower voltages and give a solid output

[austere stone]

well i mean the buck to be used with (3) aaa's

not the actual lipo

but i am not sure if the buck is only meant to be used with lipo

so i was not sure

[queen hill]

Doesn't matter if it's alkaline or LiPo or what; voltage is voltage

[jade dirge]

Do not buy any brand with Sure or Fire in the name because it will surely catch fire.

[austere stone]

😄

[queen hill]

Big Clive calls them "DoubtFire"

[jade dirge]

In all seriousness though Panasonic or Samsung are the good ones.

[queen hill]

BUT THERE ARE FAKES

[austere stone]

that is the terrible part about clones

[austere stone]

but i appreciate the tip!

[queen hill]

Some venders will sell ones stamped "Panasonic" or "Samsung" that are just other random brands

[jade dirge]

I'm in Japan though so Panasonics sourced here are likely real

[lean stone]

US Customs will likely impound/seize forgeries, but that can be really random

[austere stone]

i recently ordered a probe multimeter

but i am considering ordering one of those automatic digital ones

that i do not need to set the dial too

[outer brook]

You mean to AC vs DC vs Cap, etc?

That doesn't seem worth the cost to me

[lean stone]

autoranging is nice, except when you really want to lock a specific range (though better autoranging meters will let you manually lock the range)

[austere stone]

i see, i think i found a decent price one on aliexpress

i figured for that i should be able to be frugal with

or i can review a few videos on using my generic multimeter from excel

darnits chatgpt is down

[queen hill]

F

Personally I like my cheapy cheap meters… but like 10 $5 ones, lol. Then if they explode or get broken, no real loss

[pearl frost]

weird problem- my DPS310 sensor is reading fairly low. Anyone got insight as to maybe why?

it's reading lower than any pressure in the USA currently lel

[woeful whale]

Accidentally left some vias in that go nowhere. Hopefully this has no effect on power things.😬

[pine igloo]

display drivers are limited
for example you get a 20 segment ic with 12 pin, from the docs you can assign a matrix only by doing 10 x 2 pin

I never worked with any of those, so, can I get like two ics and make a 10 x 10 matrix and a 2x2 matrix, or trick in some way the ic driver to behave like that?

wasting months into figuring out which cheapest hardware can I get, and still I haven't done anything

[hearty karma]

It really depends on the ICs. For example, the HUB75 style LED matrices use separate row and column drivers. But something like a MAX7219 can do an 8x8 matrix and a HT16K33 can do 16x8.

[violet torrent]

Tried my first FGM today!

Okay well tried to

[lost lily]

Finished wiring, and display works! Only took a night's worth of head banging. (Considering it's a "cheap Chinese display" using an ST7735, I'd say one day to get working is really good lmao)

[half hollow]

got my outdoor timelapse camera working!

[half hollow]

CM4 + Pixel 3a = unlimited storage!!!!!!

[queen hill]

I wonder what the chances are of these coming back in stock before tonight DX

[sand wagon]

Hello, I need a recommendation on ph and ORP sensors, I want to use these sensors of continuous measurement (meaning that the sensor will be submerged all the time), Can somebody here recommend me?

i wanna use them with the raspberry pi so 3.3v Logic if possible

[hearty karma]

I guess you could go to the manufacturer (I have no idea why the product path contains "shower-curtain") https://www.cxdefa.com/product/shower-curtain/wire-to-wire-type-hard-sotf-wire/

[queen hill]

Lol, maybe they’re like Aperture Labs and had shower curtains in their product line at some point… I was planning to buy that stuff with tonight’s discount

[lean stone]

that kind of thing does happen. for example, 3M (i guess most people know them for adhesives?) used to be called Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing…

[hearty karma]

I just tripped over an interesting chip, the MAX38888 which is a supercapacitor backup chip that just hooks into your power line and charges the capacitor if power is available and drives the power line (via a boost regulator) if power isn't there.

[queen hill]

Hmm

[pine igloo]

is aliexpress sign in via google account broken?

[uncut summit]

Seems to work for me

[outer cape]

Anyone else having trouble with the adafruit web site? When I try to go to adafruit.com I get redirected to the sign in page.

[outer brook]

That's a known issue, at least known to me.

It's mysterious, comes and goes

[outer cape]

Huh. That's a nasty defect.

[outer brook]

I have experienced it in 3 browsers, IIRC

[outer cape]

Looks like they're mishandling the cookies. I can get around it by going into private/incognito mode.

[lost lily]

Bashed my head against the wall all day today because I connected MISO to MOSI, so I wondered why I was receiving nothing when attempting a read. 🫠

[outer brook]

Been there

[icy moth]

Miso, uart, usb. It all gets us at some point

[queen hill]

https://tenor.com/view/anime-dizzy-rolling-girl-gif-16656628

[queen hill]

How do we make product requests/suggestions again? Email support?

[icy moth]

Yeah, the contact page has an option to select for the reason for contact

[queen hill]

Perfect. Gonna request the catalogue to include the individual components for the DIY jumper cables -- the raw cable/spoons, the pins, and appropriate crimper

Actually, before I send that, is that a thing I missed in the store? XD

[hearty karma]

Those are available easily enough from component suppliers, I tend to think of AdaFruit's core business is things that simplify building things, hence the preterminated cables you can just push into the housings for quick custom cables. They don't sell a lot of off-the-shelf components, aside from some harder to obtain ones and some basic staples (transistors, LEDs, etc.).

They do offer a few choices of crimpers

[queen hill]

Hmm... I suppose that's fair. I've thought of them as a one-stop shop for needs somewhat-big to small

[hearty karma]

I tend to think of DigiKey that way (I do buy AdaFruit products from DigiKey sometimes too)

[queen hill]

DigiKey I usually think of as bulk bulk bulk

looks at 1000-count minimum SMD LED order from a couple years ago

[hearty karma]

While they're set up to supply industry quantities, I buy a lot of stuff from them in onesies-twosies quantities. For inexpensive things I use a lot of (10kΩ resistors, for instance), I'll buy a couple hundred at a time. I've also had them cut headers to length for me when I wanted odd-length ones, nicer looking than I'd get just chopping them down myself. I liked this picture somebody posted when they inadvertently ordered a single SMT resistor on cut tape, and DigiKey packaged it up and shipped it.

[regal horizon]

keep in mind a lot of their products are aimed at being beginner friendly

if you want the individual components that's why we have desk of lady and the great search, digikey 😉

[queen hill]

Lol, fair... Sometimes I see the things offered more as convenience than beginner's ease...

[regal horizon]

well if only 1 is ordered they probably figure it's just as a sample, yeah they'll do it np for most things.

[queen hill]

Multimeters are a good example -- they're easy enough to order on Amazon, but it's easier to add it to an Adafruit order with other parts

[hearty karma]

I can see the disconnect: they do offer the crimpers, but not the pins. I'm guessing it's for a couple of reasons: it's hard to find decent crimpers at an affordable price. Also, they only need to stock a few types of crimpers, where there are mind-boggling numbers of pins out there, and those are fairly easy for an ordinary person to purchase.

[regal horizon]

i do prefer to order as many things as needed from 1 supplier and in 1 shipment... but sometimes i'll be like ohhh i forgot that 1 other part and voila now there's 2 orders.

[queen hill]

Yeah, they can't help when we forget something XD

[hearty karma]

I tend to stick to reputable vendors (and yes, this is intended as a slight at amazon) as I do things that could be dangerous, and even though I use appropriate safety gear and procedures, a counterfeit multimeter just might explode into a flaming ball of arcflash if I assume it can meet its stated ratings.

[regal horizon]

would be nice if it hasn't been processed/packed yet to amend an order. saves on shipping materials at least.

[hearty karma]

I do tend to batch my orders to minimize shipping effects (materials, environmental impact, and yes, cost).

[queen hill]

Yyyyeah... $5 meters are better for someone like me, mostly doing smol DC stuff like checking battery voltages and stuff

[regal horizon]

and that yes, cost more to ship that 1 thing you forgot. and you can't edit the order can only cancel the entire thing and i'm just like uggggh why.

[queen hill]

This is one reason I'd love to be able to get all the cable bits from Adafruit instead of some from Adafruit and some from DigiKey

I'm going to submit my request, guess we'll see

[hearty karma]

Oh, I have nothing against $5 meters (I have several of the Harbor Fright ones, they're great when I want to measure several things at once), but you can buy a "Fluke" from amazon that claims Cat IV voltage protection but I wouldn't want to put that to the test.

[queen hill]

Ahh... yeah

[hearty karma]

Hence my DigiKey comment: I'll fold my AdaFruit order into my DigiKey order so there's just one shipment.

[queen hill]

At least my "DMS01" cheapy isn't trying to pretend to be a Fluke Cat IV

[regal horizon]

i prefer mastech, they have idiot proof plugs that light up if your probes are in the wrong sockets.

[queen hill]

Does DigiKey have ALL of Adafruit's catalogue available?

[hearty karma]

That's a sticking point: they don't carry AdaFruit's full line, and not all of it is always in stock. Sometimes it's more practical than others.

[regal horizon]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JQ4O2U this one specifically, i've purchased 5 of them according to amazon. gifted a few to friends and family for christmas.

[hearty karma]

There have been a few times when AdaFruit products (like the pIRkey) were only available from DigiKey. I'm not sure what happened there, I'm guessing it was discontinued but there had already been a shipment to DigiKey.

That Mastech from amazon claims Cat II to 1000V and Cat III to 600V but I wouldn't trust it.

[regal horizon]

i was the first one to get one of Adafruit's 10000mah batteries when they were brand new new new. digikey had 1 in stock and i snagged it. got one before they were even available in adafruit's store. 😛

had a hurricane bearing down on me at the time so i wanted that bigger battery.

and it came in handy, was able to power a wippersnapper device that logged environmental data from inside the eye of a hurricane, that was neat.

[queen hill]

Suggestion in, shall be shared with the relevant AdaTeams!

Unrelated, the most random advertising from 1-800 Contacts, lmao

[steady gulch]

I have a sinking feeling about this

[queen hill]

https://tenor.com/view/monkey-badum-tss-drum-joke-unimpressed-gif-7770998

[queen hill]

I think we’re drifting away from proper comedy at this point

[lean warren]

https://tenor.com/view/why-whatever-gif-23592041

Wassup people! You knwo who it is when he says a name "Sčerba"!

I need an advice 😄

[queen hill]

Mike Hardy?

Sorry we're all out, try again tomorrow

[lean warren]

I better go with Peter Gregory. The thing over here is I've got stuck 🙂

How do you create an output connector instead of output? 🙂

https://tenor.com/view/mind-blow-galaxy-explode-boom-fireworks-gif-5139389

[queen hill]

I am confused by this question. Neradoc, you're up

[queen hill]

https://tenor.com/view/funny-animals-cat-stupid-dumb-brain-gif-12672796

[lean warren]

Of course but a man on a mission came to lift yall with a Slovak undertone 🙂

I need this output exchanged by a connector 🙂

[lean warren]

https://tenor.com/view/pob-proofofbrain-brain-hive-letus-gif-22049893

[queen hill]

Exchanged by a connector? Like, an adapter?

[lean warren]

yes!

it will be a device that will change your life for the better 🙂

[queen hill]

Ahh. Well, since it has JST on it, you can make a cable that's JST to whatever you need, or just soldier whatever you need right to the pads

Hmm... I noticed that one hot air station says "lead free", but this one doesn't -- does that mean it's not lead free? https://www.adafruit.com/product/1869

[steady gulch]

dunno what would make a hot air station lead free, maybe it has a higher temperature range ?

[queen hill]

Maybe? 30C difference between them… this one is 100-450, the “lead free” is 100-480…

[novel ridge]

I looked around to see if anyone had mentioned this and hadn't seen it, but: now that there is getting to be a small ecosystem of BFFs around the QT Py form factor, a double or tripler PCB like the Featherwing ecosystem has could be pretty sweet 👀

Maybe that sort of defeats the purpose, but I'm not a huge fan of the way the BFFs stack back-to-back (hard to design cases for), and if you need more than one BFF (say a Neopixel driver and a battery charger) things get really complicated.

[queen hill]

Hmm… kinda defeats the purpose? Altho if you think about it, if a doubler puts the QT Py and BFF side by side, it’s still probably about as small as a Feather with nothing

[cold pebble]

I have mixed feelings about back-to-back. The majority of cases probably only have one BFF, and that can be very compact and allow more access to displays, controls, etc. Putting headers the 'wrong' way on a board feels odd though.

In theory, any board in a stacking ecosystem should have its controls by an open edge, but that's not the case quite often. Resetting a feather (most feathers?) with a 7-segment display on top is a pain.

[queen hill]

I too have mixed feelings

[cold pebble]

ladyada does good when she can putting a reset on the wings

[queen hill]

If only we could fold space for more space

[cold pebble]

I still have BFFs sitting in the drawer b/c I haven't figured out a header strategy I'm going to be happy with long-term. For feathers, my rule of thumb is generally put stacking female headers on anything that's not a display.

...and in a couple fo soldering frenzies, I even put female stacking headers onto a couple of displays o_O

[queen hill]

I got 10 of the 5x5 BFF and only used one, not on the back of a QT Py, lol

[cold pebble]

my excuse became: "well, it will help protect it"

[queen hill]

Lmao

Put pins on a plastic cover to slip into the header

[steady gulch]

it's for testing, right, you can put duponts in them and connect to a breadboard, perfect !

cue picture of a display covered with wires

[cold pebble]

btdt

[queen hill]

I actually have had displays that I put on wires for breadboards like that, but made sure not to cover the display itself XD

[novel ridge]

lol for a recent project to add neopixels to my 3D printer I made a 3D printed case with snap-fits for the Py and the BFF and just soldered the appropriate wires together. Then I was able to just use velcro on the case to attach it to the printer frame

[queen hill]

Yeah, still smaller than a Feather + ~stuff~

[novel ridge]

yeah exactly, my backup plan was gonna be a feather and a propmaker, which is a good bit bulkier

[queen hill]

I think it all depends on what you're going for, but the BFF makes sense as both backpack and floating companion like that

[novel ridge]

Absolutely. In this project I was trying to go with the least expensive of the options as well. I think this ends up being just over half the cost of a comparable feather + propmaker 😄

[lean warren]

https://tenor.com/view/pob-proofofbrain-brain-hive-letus-gif-22049893

In scene 2: Auxiliary cable. If I have sound on my board, may I create a connector for my aux that would also output ampers as well? 😄

[lean warren]

okay, found a better solution

is 2-pin connector going to work with an electrical output instead of an input into the device

[cold pebble]

this makes me happy, abusing HTTP headers for fun and profit ...LAN (microcontroller) and WAN servers will send a header with the proper time zone offset, so that my timestamps are good (only need HEAD, no GET response body processing needed). store it in nvm, and re-check periodically.

[drifting ice]

beginning to hate windows xp

[pearl frost]

well
I guess I didn't have a bum sensor because now I have two DPS310s which are reading the same wrong value

[drifting ice]

results: i literally cannot boot nor install windows xp on my oldest machine that still works. [WITH the official CD]

i give up

[pearl frost]

🤔 wonder if it's an issue with the micropython lib

[regal horizon]

the activation servers might have been taken offline? even if you use a phone activation option only i'm not sure if windows xp is included anymore.

this is why when you activate by phone and they give you the product id, write it down on the back of the cd sleeve or something. this even applies to current OS's like 10 & 11 because if those activation servers ever go down for good there's little hope of validation a genuine license. you'd be forced to run an illegitimate copy which is almost always heavily infected with slipstreamed badness.

the activation id is unique to the product id and good forever

[regal horizon]

With the amount of BFF's coming out if you stack them all you'd end up with a huge stack... and by that time it would just make more sense to use the feather ecosystem.

[queen hill]

Yes, XP activation servers were taken offline years ago

[queen hill]

Stacking, definitely, they won't be very small, lol. Spreading out is the only way. But BFFs are still smaller than FeatherWings, so if spread... can still be smaller

[regal horizon]

one of the nice things about the charger BFF is you can point the charger plug in any direction you want with the way he wired it up. can't do that with a feather.

that's why all this stuff being modular is so awesome, can put them together in all sorts of ways.

[queen hill]

Options gooood

[drifting ice]

welp, this was a huge waste of time then

[queen hill]

Kinda surprised it wouldn't let you install... I've installed XP a number of times since the servers were taken down

[drifting ice]

First bootup from the CD gave me a BSOD, and every attempt afterwards wouldn't boot at all.

[queen hill]

Oof, that's not an activation problem... sounds like you're having a motherboard or memory issue. Check for puffy caps

[drifting ice]

wouldn't be surprised if it's the motherboard in my scraptop dying.

[drifting ice]

Everything LOOKS ok and it boots into other OS's like Ubuntu and Windows 10 just fine

[queen hill]

Ohh, I thought you meant like, no POST... ok, maybe XP just doesn't like it. If it's too new, XP can't run on it

[drifting ice]

brb

[drifting ice]

...ok yeah, i might need the Pentium D pc for this.

f

[queen hill]

Good choice, era-appropriate but a fairly powerful option

[drifting ice]

at least that would be the case if it wasn't a pain in the neck to work with

but that might be due to the RAM I have installed slowing it down.

[queen hill]

oof

What are you trying to do with XP, anyway?

[drifting ice]

reuse/get the data off of some of my old Floppy Disks.

[queen hill]

Oh, you don't need XP for that, lol

10 can read floppies fine

[drifting ice]

...can it reformat them as well?

[queen hill]

Mhmm

[drifting ice]

ARE YOU SERIOUS-

[queen hill]

Deadly

Amazingly, MacOS can also still do floppies...

[drifting ice]

...

im going offline

[queen hill]

[drifting ice]

this has been

one of the single-most biggest wastes of time

i've ever had

i didn't even learn anything from it

[queen hill]

It happens to all of us at one point or another, it's ok!

At least you didn't nearly blow your fingers off or blind yourself or something

[drifting ice]

yeah, but i am not taking this well at all.

[queen hill]

I can offer virtual hugs and more stories of me wasting time

[drifting ice]

...thanks.

[queen hill]

It's gonna be ok, fren

[subtle flare]

dunno where to ask this but what feather should i use to just like pipe a wing's output and to a display

RP2040 one looks interesting but i may wanna add some kind of bluetooth capability, not sure

[pearl frost]

Windoes literally never breaks backwards compat lmao

And due to some questionable poor design it's all super duper interlinked

So they can't remove large parts of it without breaking stuff

[subtle flare]

A: and B: drives are reserved for floppies right

[pearl frost]

Ie windows explorer uses ie6's toolbar

[strange mountain]

i just got pi pico-w with circuitpython (7.3.2) pre-installed but seem like there is no wifi module since i can't import wifi. How can i install wifi into circuitpython?

[queen hill]

I don't think there's a build of CP 7 with the Pico W -- sounds like it came with the regular Pico's version. I don't think there's a way to add the WiFi stuff itself, so you probably will need to flash the latest CP 8 beta

[cold pebble]

https://circuitpython.org/board/raspberry_pi_pico_w/

beta.6 is pretty old at this point, may as well get "Absolute Newest"

[jaunty socket]

Do any of you mechanic tips have a link to a free pdf tutorial about things like choosing gears to buy, gear ratio etc for when you want to make an electronic vehicle ?

To have a basic understanding of how gears and motors and gearbox and shafts etc on the electronic scale works together to turn a wheel

[jaunty socket]

ok 😦

[austere stone]

hey fellas, can i power up an esp32 s2 with this? https://www.adafruit.com/product/727

is it the same JST?

[jade dirge]

What device exactly are you trying to power?

Devices like feathers that have built-in lipo charging should not be used with non-lipo batteries.

[austere stone]

https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-qt-py-esp32-s2

but not sure if it can, i thing this is 3 pin

not 2

[steady gulch]

there's a note on the BAT pad in the pinout page

BAT/GND pads - On the back of the board are two pads labeled BAT and GND. These are the battery input pads with diode protection for external battery packs from 3V to 6V input.

batpaaaaaad batpaaaaad

[austere stone]

sorry @steady gulch was that meant for me

also does the 3 pins mean its for data?

[steady gulch]

what is 3 pins ?

are you talking about the stemma QT connector ?

that's for I2C data, you shouldn't try to power the board with that

https://www.adafruit.com/category/1005

[steady gulch]

so to answer your question, the stemma qt connector is in no way a battery connector, but the pads on the back of the board can be used to connect a battery (with some soldering)

there is a battery addon but that is only for rechargeable liion and lipoly batteries https://www.adafruit.com/product/5397

[rancid orchid]

Hello all, I am looking for the EagleCAD PCB files for the Flora NeoPixel sewable component. I can find the older version files on GitHub (https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit-Flora-Smart-NeoPixel), but not the v2 files. I also tried searching from Adafruit's repositories, and couldn't find there either (searched separately with "neopixel" and "flora"). Adafruit online store links to the old version files, so no go also from there.

Are the files open source and I just don't find the repo? Or are they yet unpublished and will be published at some point?

[queen hill]

Hmm... I think there was a goof with links? I checked the V2 page, which links to a tutorial, but the GitHub link in that has the V1 you linked

[outer brook]

What are people's thoughts on desktop thermo formers?

Effective? Scam?

[queen hill]

They can be good

[outer brook]

Can you do two parts that fit together in a water tight way?

Maybe with a gasket?

[queen hill]

Probably?

[plush light]

errr

i have no idea what word the bot is blocking now. haha

[queen hill]

Hmmm

Mods can tell you

[plush light]

anyway

[inner linden]

Oops, so I wasted an hour or so last night figuring out why a board doesn't work and it turns out I had the data and clock lines for the dotstar strip quietly swapped in my code.

[icy moth]

I wish I had the UART swapped badge saved in my photos. Or all the variations for moments like this

Basically this lol

[queen hill]

Lol

[inner linden]

Yeah it's the sort of bug UART going to see the end of.

But, yah, the goal was to end up with two Teensy 4.1's, two base boards, and two LED strips because I use these at photoshoots and it means that if something's odd I can swap parts until I get one working thing.

[outer brook]

What steps can I take to figure out why this is? I have a 13900k with 32 GB dual channel ram. I have a few models open but they aren't that complex.

[plush light]

why what is

[outer brook]

95.2% CPU usage

[plush light]

rendering?

[outer brook]

nope

Ah I'm having network issues, maybe that's doing it

[pine igloo]

wild guess is a memory leak. 32 GB not enough .. time to just start from scratch at that point.
I have 16 GB and rarely touch 9 GB of it.

[outer brook]

Yeah the program itself does not seem to be optimized for AMD or Intel builds. I have run it on both.

[pine igloo]

find the 64 bit amd64 version if it exists

[outer brook]

Restarted the router. That's a little better

I'm still considering 64GB RAM, we'll see, gotta do research

[queen hill]

128GB or bust

[outer brook]

I don't think I need it so I won't but I want 64 lol

[queen hill]

Lol. 64GB is probably more than enough for even most workstation users

I just need 128GB because I run lots of concurrent VMs and other applications

[outer brook]

makes sense

Mind saying what that ran you? DDR4 or 5?

[queen hill]

DDR4 -- all my stuff is "old"

Newest system is a 5950X with 4x32GB running at 2933

[outer brook]

ah ok

[queen hill]

I also have a 1st gen Threadripper and old i9-7900X with 8x16GB 2666

[outer brook]

I have a near top of the line home system, if it were built in early 2021.

[queen hill]

Nice

[outer brook]

2022

[queen hill]

My 5950X build is up there... it does what I need without too much complaint most of the time

I run out of RAM a lot >~>

[outer brook]

I'm thinking this should last 5 years

I may need to swap to a quaddro GPU if I ever decide I want to pay for a solidworks license

[queen hill]

Mmmm Quadro... I "cheaped out" and got a 3090

[outer brook]

Quadro and its competitors are not really comparable to gaming oriented chips, IMO. They do different things

[queen hill]

They definitely don't overlap totally. Altho Quadro and gaming cards are closer than RDNA and CDNA cards

By a long shot

Gotta go, bbl

[pine igloo]

they have studio drivers for geforces; they wanted to get rid of quadros that were in the same price of geforce but got a pushback; as I see they are worth only for extra vram

[regal horizon]

I've had fusion 360 open for about the past 3 days now, 0% at idle np.

[outer brook]

Yeah it was some issue with my internet connection that wasn't handled gracefully

[regal horizon]

weird that it exhibited the issue in fusion 360 though

though fusion 360 is heavily cloud based now

[outer brook]

Fusion is....a bad program

Like it does what it says it will do

But it's clunky and crashes a lot for a 500 dollar program

But it's all I can afford so

[regal horizon]

i like it but i don't like how when my wifi goes down it pops up a massive screen no matter what i'm doing or in what program

[outer brook]

Yeah

[regal horizon]

and you can't turn it off to my knowledge. it's the most god awful UI design blasphemy

[outer brook]

I wish it exhibit a different design ethos. And I wish eda wasn't the neglected step child.

[regal horizon]

do you mean easyeda? there are a couple things named eda out there

snapeda

if you mean something to do with autodesk i don't know of it, only thing from autodesk i use is fusion 360.

tried eagle, it made me want to throw my pc out the window

[outer brook]

Fusion has eda in it

In consumed EAGLE

I call it FEAGLE

[regal horizon]

i noticed some of that and figured it was only for modeling.

[outer brook]

No you can do a full board. EAGLE development has been moved fully to fusion.

Afaik

[regal horizon]

oh really, didn't know that.

i doubt fusion would be able to offer me anything that easyeda doesn't do for free. even easyeda can do differential pair routing. i'm more than happy with easyeda.

[outer brook]

I keep meaning to ask at one of the shows about whether adafruit has moved fully to Fusion yet

[regal horizon]

i don't think so, at least Liz's video that just came out today she was talking about using pinguin specifically for Eagle schematics for learn guides.

and she even showed part of the display that showed it piping to eagle. pretty sure if adafruit had moved to fusion they'd require everyone to follow suit so they'd all be on the same page.

i like the idea of having 3d modeling and pcb design in 1 program though, that's pretty nice

however, especially if a program is subscription based then putting all your eggs in 1 basket is a really bad idea.

[outer brook]

Eagle and Fusion eda files are fairly interoperable, for now

[regal horizon]

definitely in autocad's favor to do something like that but also raises the potential of becoming well.. evil.

[outer brook]

Yeah if I could afford it I'd use solidworks and kicad

[regal horizon]

i really like altium's youtube channel. great lessons in there. i'd probably go that route simply because the support looks good and they're creating a community.

[outer brook]

Yeah I'd do a paid 3D modeling software because there just aren't good open source options. Kicad is very good

[regal horizon]

with easyeda there's no telling how long that will last so having alternatives and knowing what options out there is definitely beneficial.

[plush light]

Autodesk always lives up to their potential.

[queen hill]

Nobody should buy a 3090 for any reason other than VRAM.... if the 3080 had 24GB, the 3090 would be absolutely pointless

clutches own 3090s

[violet torrent]

jelly

[queen hill]

Donut?

Babies?

Toast?

[outer brook]

Belly?

[queen hill]

Jelly Babies!

One of my favorite snacks

[woeful whale]

I think I killed my BLDC driver. I attached it to a bigger bldc (neo 550), and one or two of the mosfets may have smoked after a while. (I think from an inductive spike maybe.) It now makes this weird clicking noise. I have it running with a load (fast clicking) and without a load (slow clicking). I don't know why it's now clicking.

[queen hill]

Oof... that's definitely bad

[woeful whale]

I might have to order new mosfets

[queen hill]

Hopefully you can revive it

[woeful whale]

There is a slight possibility that the main chip is dead. But the I2C and the fault LED still works so maybe not.

I don't really know what caused it. Nothing was super hot.

[queen hill]

Yeah, no idea what the chances are of the chip having been damaged enough to make that happen but still communicate

[woeful whale]

It can still drive the mosfets, but it's really weird.

[queen hill]

Electronics can be so weird

[icy moth]

Tell me about it

[queen hill]

lol

[icy moth]

Thinking about taking my chances with one of these round batteries

https://m.aliexpress.us/item/2255799940061505.html

[queen hill]

https://tenor.com/view/loki-what-could-possibly-wrong-lets-do-it-gif-22076856

[austere stone]

i think i might of messed up my esp32 s2 qt py

i used this little mini board to upload an arudino sketch

but now it does not show up when i do an lsusb

google search says to reset it

but i am not even getting any led's to light up

i was tryin to simply upload some code then its blacked out

[icy moth]

If you double press the reset button, does that change anything

[austere stone]

i did this https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-qt-py-esp32-s2/factory-reset#factory-reset-and-bootloader-repair-3107941-7

now it shows in lsusb

but no led

but its a start

i made a huge mistake, i thought all esp32 had ble and wifi

[icy moth]

Yeah, it’s an understandable mistake

So many similar names

[austere stone]

i get this error for some reason

WARNING: ESP32-S2FNR2 chip was placed into download mode using GPIO0.
esptool.py can not exit the download mode over USB. To run the app, reset the chip manually.
To suppress this note, set --after option to 'no_reset'.
Failed uploading: uploading error: exit status 1

[steady gulch]

that's normal

[icy moth]

Yeah

[austere stone]

shoot i am not sure how to make this work

[steady gulch]

this means it worked

[austere stone]

i am using the wifiscan example from arduino ide

[steady gulch]

you reset the board, it will show up as a different serial port, select it again and you get the output in the serial panel

[austere stone]

but in order for it to appear in lsusb, i need to plug it in holding the boot button, and then hitting reset and then releasing the boot button

not sure if that is the proper method of doing this but that is the only way it will show up

[steady gulch]

that's (ROM) bootloader mode

[austere stone]

oh shoot

how do i get out of that

[steady gulch]

pressing reset should run your code

[austere stone]

well this just sucks

ever after i replugged it in and hit the reset button

its still not showing up in lsusb

it appears the only way its showing up is in boot mode

any other suggestions

[steady gulch]

dunno, put the board in bootloader mode and retry uploading the sketch ?

[austere stone]

doing that now as we speak

[steady gulch]

#help-with-arduino might know more, I'm at a stage where all I can say is "it works for me"

[austere stone]

after i get that exact error message

[steady gulch]

Wrote 150624 bytes (98805 compressed) at 0x002d0000 in 1.8 seconds (effective 667.8 kbit/s)...
Hash of data verified.

Leaving...
WARNING: ESP32-S2FNR2 chip was placed into download mode using GPIO0.
etc.

[austere stone]

WARNING: ESP32-S2FNR2 chip was placed into download mode using GPIO0.
esptool.py can not exit the download mode over USB. To run the app, reset the chip manually.
To suppress this note, set --after option to 'no_reset'.
Failed uploading: uploading error: exit status 1

hit reset now?

[steady gulch]

what does it say above that ?

[austere stone]

ah shoot i am not even sure how to interpret that

[steady gulch]

forget the warning, it's absolutely normal, the reason it says "failed uploading" would be above that

[austere stone]

was the sketch too large?

Wrote 633968 bytes (422962 compressed) at 0x00010000 in 7.5 seconds (effective 674.5 kbit/s)...
Hash of data verified.

https://dpaste.org/hCuFs

it did the whole percent upto 100

so based off that i suppose it should of uploaded completely

[steady gulch]

yeah that looks ok, I assume it only reports an error because of the warning 🤷

[austere stone]

ah i think i selected warnings as well

i should turn that off

so after this message hitting reset the take it out of download mode

well that most def did not work

[steady gulch]

so my log looks different, maybe make sure you selected the correct board, and I doon't know about the 10 000 options in the tools menu

[austere stone]

that part auto populated correctly

[steady gulch]

mine has a:

Wrote 150624 bytes (98805 compressed) at 0x002d0000 in 1.8 seconds (effective 667.8 kbit/s)...

that you don't have

[austere stone]

the write times are different

[steady gulch]

and that would be the app part, where the sketch goes

[austere stone]

at first it was showing up as micropython

but after i used arduino it switched to 303a:0002 Espressif ESP32-S2

https://dpaste.org/BN69d

were you using this code

[steady gulch]

yup

most are default, dunno if I changed things

[austere stone]

it still shows up as qt py even after you uploaded the wifiscan sketch

mine only did that when it had micropython installed

[steady gulch]

Bus 020 Device 014: ID 239a:8111 239a QT Py ESP32-S2  Serial: 58:cf:79:ab:20:6a

[austere stone]

are you running it on a mac

[steady gulch]

yeah yours doesn't seem to install the sketch ???? so it would not run anything, and can't have a serial port

[austere stone]

might be a diff in the drivers

[steady gulch]

try switching the partition scheme ?

[austere stone]

are there tutorials for this

at first i got an esptool error

then i changed it to 4.2.1 or something

downgraded

installed it via pip3

[steady gulch]

oh I'm wrong, yours does upload the sketch, I read that wrong

[steady gulch]

see, that's why you need #help-with-arduino 😉

I would try a simple neopixel blink with the builtin neopixel to see if it even runs (and no while (!Serial))

[austere stone]

i need to install the neopixel library right

well this little qt py sucks

shouldn't be too much trouble just to test a sketch

so i performed a reset on this thing, esptool.py --port /dev/ttyACM0 write_flash 0x0 qt-py-esp32-s2-factory-reset-and-bootloader.bin

239a:8111 Adafruit QT Py ESP32-S2

[austere stone]

well it take it back

after the reset

[steady gulch]

meanwhile, me trying to use Arduino 2.0.3:

Compilation error: fork/exec /Users/****/Developement/ArduinoLib/hardware/espressif/esp32/tools/esptool/esptool: no such file or directory

uhuh

[austere stone]

i ran it again, and worked perfectly

well the autoscroll does not work too great on the arduino ide

what is the wifi range on this little qt py without an external antenna 2 feet?

seems to only capture my house

@steady gulch what type of external atenna can i attach to this

[steady gulch]

dunno, if you got this one, they have wifi antennas in the store
https://www.adafruit.com/product/5348

[austere stone]

so basically any uFL should work, right? https://www.aliexpress.us/item/2255799988015014.html

[hearty karma]

Any for the right frequency band, the one you linked is 2.4GHz which should be fine

[austere stone]

@hearty karma ah nice, thank you!

[queen hill]

Asked on the forum and adafruit2 said:
both can be used with lead free solder, the bigger one is just going to be better at keeping high temperatures stable since its a beefier machine.
So I guess you could say the "lead free" one is "certified" to work for lead free solder, whereas the other one may vary

[pine igloo]

nah there's plenty of people who like to rat race, like they got this for x reason, then they never use it for it, but they use it to bail about it /s

[umbral iron]

For almost a week I've been using logitech G102

Kinda feels like more weighted B100

The software looks horrible though

[umbral iron]

Even though it has an internal memory, looks like the program can't overwrite the stock light pattern

That makes it troublesome when it comes to use on multiple computers

[lean stone]

huh, looks like i have at least one USB-C device that won't enumerate when directly hooked to a USB-C host port, but will via a USB-A to USB-C cable. i'm guessing the CC pins aren't properly connected with an appropriate resistor to ground

[pine igloo]

I think RPi4 design has an error in the USB implementation. ;)

[lean stone]

i guess i should check whether it behaves with a non-eMarked cable. or i could open it up and see if it even has CC wired to anything

[pine igloo]

sorry I forgot those are a thing now. ;) I don't have my first one, yet - even the new desktop PC had no USB-C ports in it! (has two of those blue jobs)

[lean stone]

USB-C seems to be more popular on laptops for size reasons

[queen hill]

I think it’s partly a space thing — C ports take up less space than A, so they work better for thin laptops. Plus with USB C’s ability to have alternate modes such as DisplayPort, HDMI, Ethernet, Thunderbolt, etc., it’s a lot more versatile than A ports that need converters for those functions (active processing dongles vs. wiring adapter)

[half hollow]

Also on desktop it is harder to do those alt modes: because graphics card display output can not send back to the motherboard easily.

[strange mountain]

Anyone know how to check that what processes are running in raspberry pi pico and esp32?

i am running with micropython

[hearty karma]

I'm guessing it would just be the single Micropython process, with maybe a second one for the second CPU core?

[ripe dome]

aaaand I just ripped the USB port off a NodeMCU board - went to unplug it and the usb connector stayed on the cable. now to find a USB/TTL adapter amongst my all my stuff

so that piece of work is postponed until another time. I need a workbench and parts drawers instead of working off of a coffee table with everything stacked on top of everything else (in an marginally organised way)

[hearty karma]

Ah, that is the dream for a lot of us...

[ripe dome]

The missus has a Cricut, 2 storage units, a desk and a pegboard wall.
I have a Lack coffee table with electronics stacked on it 2ft high and a wooden tray.

[jade dirge]

smt micro-b connectors without big mechanical reinforcing tabs are kind of infamous for that.

that's one of the reasons why mini-b stayed popular on the chinese boards for a while.

[woeful whale]

It seems like Allegro just wanted to make it so that the A89306 is not a drop-in replacement for the A89301. That's sad.

Tha A89301 is a 24 pin QFN while the A89306 is a 28 pin QFN

and all the extra pins are just NC

they're basically the same IC, but the A89306 has a few extra features

[half hollow]

looks similar to ATmega328 and ATmega328pa/pb QFN package

[raw night]

time to deadbug a QFN..? /S

[violet torrent]

gonna be a cyborg! I'm very curious as to what if anything I can do with it all

[queen hill]

Robo-arm?

[inner linden]

There's the thing where I want to make light-up electronics and attach them to my circus friend and she's just like "Eh, I'm OK with it permanently implanted."

Also, she's a surgery tech who excitedly posts insta stories of the rack of power tools. And she's done suspensions with meathooks.

[outer brook]

Anyone have experience with Dymo label makers? I have a new LM280. I followed the setup instructions and the label doesn't advance when I press print. The motor spins, but it doesn't do anything else.

[queen hill]

Silly question… there’s labels in it, right?

[outer brook]

Yeah, it came with a cassette.

[queen hill]

Ok, I just know I’ve forgotten that step XD check the cassette for any covers/tape that need to be removed that you might have missed? Sometimes they’ll have like 5 pieces of tape/plastic that aren’t all obvious or marked

[outer brook]

Ok will do

[queen hill]

Huh, I’m surprised it’ll run with the cover open…

[outer brook]

It's a great machine in every other way except it doesn't work lol

[queen hill]

Lmao. Hard to say if it’s the machine or the cassette

[outer brook]

Fixed it. I had to manually advance it

[queen hill]

Ahh

[icy moth]

Going to design a few more BFFs, any desires?

Next one I’m going to make will have an RGBW sensor

All the ones I’m making will have LiPo charging if it can fit

[queen hill]

Can you turn deshipu's Eevee into a BFF?

With lights