general-tech

[icy moth]

Even I have an Arduino library

[barren plaza]

Arduino is old enough to drive now, circuitpython isn't even in kindergarten

it'll catch up!

[icy moth]

https://github.com/skerr92/at42qt-acorn

I’ve also got a circuitpython library too

[oak cove]

Yep, Im hoping the arduino guys have a new big revision to the arduino ecosystem soon, the ide is quite annoying for example

Was super nice when it came out, but it being written in processing seems to have prevented it from growing modern features

[icy moth]

Yeah, it needs to modernize

[oak cove]

Even VIM can have autocomplete

[icy moth]

I want Arduino to be like JetBrains IDEs

[oak cove]

If they broke from the Visual Studio style but yes it needs to be a fuller IDE

[icy moth]

JetBrains just does such a good job with their IDEs

I only with they supported Arduino compiling in CLion

Or maybe the do and I’m just blind

[oak cove]

And would be cool to on ARM micros say use the fault handlers to return feedback over USB serial from the bootloader (RISC-V would also support this)

Fairly trivial to implement

That way we get something for debug info without the debugger

[icy moth]

https://blog.jetbrains.com/clion/2020/08/arduino-from-hobby-to-prof-p1/

[gritty otter]

I’m learning Zephyr just so I don’t have to use Arduino again :-p
I use CircuitPython for anything I can. It’s vastly more productive than C or C++ (and c++ is my day job language)

[oak cove]

I do like Zephyr

Was using it today in fact

[icy moth]

Turns out using platform.IO helps bridge between CLion and Arduino

[oak cove]

Yeah, but platformio cant have stable releases to keep its pants on

[gritty otter]

Platformio + vscode is where I live when I do zephyr stuff

[oak cove]

And I have not invested enough time to learn how to disable the autoupdates.

[oak cove]

Really? What does platformio get you over just using west in cli?

[icy moth]

Wait, you can add the AVR tool parameters for the AVR toolchain right to the cmake

Bypass platformio

[gritty otter]

I don’t know. It took me 15 minutes to set up a multi-target compilation project. West is probably enough but it was so easy, and the debugger is so good

[harsh venture]

Pushing arduino into conventional IDE territory seems counter to its mission.

[oak cove]

Have you tried west? Short command does the same thing

[oak cove]

Sure, I dont think full IDE is what Id want either, but there are a few improvements I feel they could make to make it a lot better, like auto complete. Going from platformio to arduino is aggravating

[gritty otter]

No. First thing I tried with platformio worked so I just kept rolling with it. I see the west commands and figure I’ll tear off the band aid eventually but 🤷

[icy moth]

Maybe, but it’s almost necessary if you want more features

[harsh venture]

yeah autocomplete would be nice

[icy moth]

Arduino IDE is great for starting out, I’ve never used PlatformIO but I may this weekend

[harsh venture]

like just having a better text editor in the Arduino IDE would be a huge improvement.

[icy moth]

I’m needing to get but butt in gear and finish writing some libraries for a board I’ve not even bought the parts to build

[harsh venture]

But they're a careful balance to play with beginner-focused stuff like Arduino. Too many bells & whistles and you overwhelm people.

[mental imp]

Thanks. Sound is the reason I'd have considered it.

[oak cove]

Have you tried west? It makes this one easy command to start a project, and one to select the board in the first build

Its the official cli tool for zephyr and its really good

Zephyr has a lot under the hood you can tweak on top of it being easy

[gritty otter]

I said no :-p
I’m trying to convert an old Particle project I had deeply integrated with their boards. Lots of c++17. Zephyr is pretty bare by default so there have been some pains to get it to compile.

I’m more curious about it now though with your recommendation. I’ll look next time I work on that project.

[icy moth]

Also realizing that the company I work for only in the last like.. 2 years upgraded to c++14

I’m going to miss my c++19 features

[gritty otter]

Hey my current company made it to c++11 recently.

[icy moth]

Defense contractor?

[gritty otter]

Lolno

[icy moth]

Lol just checking

I feel like defense companies are so far behind

[oak cove]

Many people are still using C11, pretty common

[gritty otter]

17 has some quality of life improvements for some common template code we have. 20 looks good. 2035 will be a good year 😉

[oak cove]

Im starting to go all pro rust, there are even compilers for rust validated for industrial or medical use, and everyone who complains about the cargo tool can shush and make a Makefile if they liked it back in the good ol days

[harsh venture]

I use C11 ;P

just kidding I use C17, I'm not a monster.

[oak cove]

That or you like using PICs

The newest XC compiler is... not great so C11 in my eyes is the only option

[harsh venture]

(there's no changes between C11 and C17)

[oak cove]

Hahahaha Im so tired, I confused C11 with C90 😆

[harsh venture]

lol

[oak cove]

Correction

[woven meadow]

Hey! anyone have any idea about the int pin on a adafruit BNO055? or when any library support might be coming for it?
I'd like to use it to wake up an ESP 32 when it detects motion, but I have no idea how to build that without library support.

[fathom wagon]

Can someone give me a recommendation for a good solar panel for a pi zero?

[verbal aspen]

@woven meadow No idea about library support, but that's the sort of thing you could likely get working with just a few careful register accesses over I2C. The BNO055 datasheet will have all the necessary details for how the interrupt pin works, and setting up a threshold-based motion detection function ought to be well-supported on the chip.

[pine igloo]

Where is the best place to ask questions about micropython?

I'm just gonna put it here in the mean time.

I am hoping to run this on an ESP32 Cam Module,
I am going to be using micropython, I am going to determine which GPIO pins I am going to use via a series of API calls, that I have created. These calls aren't very quick and can last up to 7 seconds- bad servers but works for what I need. But there are multiple API calls that I need to make and don't want to wait for the each call to finish. Instead, I would like to do these concurrently, alongside the operations that will be determined by the API call. How would I do this? I have looked at uasyncio, however, this only seems to work when you know how long each call is going to take. In my case I cannot work this out as it varies ±3 seconds. I was hoping that I could somehow do multiprocessing but could find out how to do this in micropython on teh ESP32 cam, any help would be much, much appreciated. Thanks Again,

Please @ me if you reply!

[hearty karma]

@fathom wagon It depends on a few things: how much sunlight is available at your location, whether you'll be running it directly from the panel, or using a battery, and how many hours a day you wish to operate the Pi.

[fathom wagon]

I have a big battery that is able to power the pi for a full day at full charge, can I charge it during the day enough for it run 24/7?

The battery's rating is 3.6-4.2 v

[hearty karma]

Theoretically yes, but it depends on your battery's capacity, how much sun you get in a day, and your solar panel's capacity. A few cloudy days in a row can be problematic.

[clever nexus]

As @hearty karma points out, a few cloudy days can be a real problem if your system requires continuous operation.
So how serious is it if the battery goes dead is a major question in solar powered systems.

[hearty karma]

One I built would just squirrel away its state data in FRAM and wait for the sun to come back, but whether that sort of approach is workable depends entirely on your use case.

[dreamy drum]

Odd, the Nordic Power Profiler kit was removed from the Adafruit store? I can't find it any more

[icy moth]

I don’t think it ever was on the Adafruit store

[clever nexus]

On a typical year, I ship several hundred units that are solar powered and report that there is a fault on a power line. The SCADA system should typically notify the power company where the fault is located. The unit is backed up for several days and the power company should be able to service the fault well within that time of or least note where to send the service trucks. Consequently, there isn't much downside to the battery going dead.

[hearty karma]

That's a neat, well defined use case.

[woven meadow]

Thanks! My understanding is that while my ESP board is asleep, it won't be able to run a function like that. I am not familiar with how to program the actual BNO055 chip (I wouldn't even know how to send code to it directly.) The data sheet is a bit above my head. Any suggestions on where to start?

[verbal aspen]

To clarify, the motion detection would be running on the BNO055 itself rather than on the ESP32. You would just send a couple of I2C register-write commands to the BNO055 ahead of time to set up the detection rule, which is often just as simple as "any acceleration above this value". Section 3.7.2 of the datasheet goes into the different interrupt modes available on the chip.

[near dust]

The INA260 can measure up to 15 A, but can the terminal block on this breakout board safely pass 15 A? https://www.adafruit.com/product/4226

~And the PCB traces too, I guess.~ Never mind, the PCB traces are gigantic! But the question about the screw terminals remains.

[cold pebble]

?showtimes

[worldly shale]

JP's Product Pick of the Week - 4pm ET Tuesdays
3D Hangouts - 11am ET Wednesdays
Show & Tell - 7:30pm ET Wednesdays
Ask an Engineer - 8pm ET Wednesdays
Desk of Ladyada - Random hacker times
John Park's Workshop - 4pm ET Thursdays
Deep Dive w/Scott - 5pm ET Fridays

[spare summit]

Does anyone have recommendations for a markdown app for technical notes? I've been using Typora, but I'm getting frustrated at how buggy it is

Also have tried Haroopad, Macdown with similar issues. I hear Quiver might be good?

[hearty karma]

I've been satisfied with Macdown, myself, but perhaps my demands are simpler than yours.

[oak cove]

Not what you are asking for, but ive been liking notion.so and you can export the files into markdown

Its like latex as a web app for stupid people and while I have annoyances its great for collab

[spare summit]

Ah, when I said notes I meant more like notes for yourself while working. I keep a big technical journal while I'm working and find Markdown works the best for it.

notion.so seems interesting but not quite what I had in mind

@hearty karma last time I tried using MacDown it did this crazy epilepsy-tier flickering thing every time I scrolled up and down, I guess hopefully they fixed that now?

[hearty karma]

It does have a somewhat sloppy screen update, I think it's worse on some systems than others.

[spare summit]

Probably true. Seems a lot of the cheaper apps struggle with cross-platform consistency.

There are big "writer's apps" like Ulysses that would probably be more stable but they're hecka expensive

[hearty karma]

I used to like OmniOutliner, which was pretty smooth and solid, and worked well for note taking, but I don't even know if it's offered any more.

Ah, it's still offered (not free, alas)

[bleak osprey]

Adafruit is now live! join us on https://youtube.com/adafruit/live

[vestal violet]

Anyone know what this is

I think I have a GPS tracker on my Toyota sienna 2008.

[oak cove]

What is "this"?

Is there supposed to be an image?

[oak cove]

Well let me look up the patent

Appears to be a security system

[cold pebble]

yeah remote connectivity for dealer it looks like

[oak cove]

Yes

It does phone home

Confirmed in the patent

Wow, it can remotely disable the car...

[grizzled tiger]

2nd attempt this time with a different size matrix display purchased! No success AGAIN! where is the demo that’s supposed to run that’s been preloaded on matrix portal not showing up! REALLY SICK of this NOT WORKING! AND CONTINUED WAISTING a TIME AND MONEY! SOMEBODY HELP!

[oak cove]

How are you powering that?

With that tiny battery?

[oak cove]

I bet newer cars that have cell connections have a system that replaces this, but Im willing to bet the slightest bit of tinkering may show that as a insecure device

[vestal violet]

Yes a tiny battery Idk what it even is

It just took forever to jump start because I let the battery die on accident

Do u know what it is

The vehicle is a custom vehicle is a 2008 Toyota Sienna

[tight rapids]

@vestal violet The vehicle probably was sold via used car dealer that did subprime loans at some point and they installed a remote disable device in case they need to repossess the vehicle: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/car-repossession-device-starter-interrupter-auto-dealer-car-credit-city/

[oak cove]

Yeah its a device for remote turn off, monitoring security incidents, and some as sky pictured have actual gps

Very common device, and as sky said, from the dealer

[vestal violet]

It’s got two little black key fob lookin devices with it that stay in the vehicle that Say silencers on it. Car will not start without them in range of the car

It was a vehicle belonging to an older military woman who gave it to the military guy i live with

Can I disable it

[icy moth]

Yas.

[oak cove]

Its probably unrelated to the old owners

But probably yes

Its your car

If it ruined the car when you took it out, that sounds like the ability to sue a dealership

[vestal violet]

It is my roommates car but he lets me use it 99 percent of the time

[oak cove]

Ah, well I would ask the roommate if they want a tracking device which can remotely disable the car and I think them sleeping on it might solve that problem

[shrewd hemlock]

Curious - what might it take to get a laser cutting chat?

[strange night]

Does anyone here have experience with lipo batteries and power systems?

[oak cove]

Almost all of us

[icy moth]

Yup 👆

[lilac swift]

Which STEMMA QT 9 DoF IMU is the best/easiest to use in general?

There are a ton of options

[lilac swift]

I went with JP's product pick

I'm not sure if the BNO055 is better than the BNO085 but I'm trusting JP

[lilac swift]

That order was amazing! I got 3/4 freebees and an Adabox discount!

[vernal garden]

@grizzled tiger I don't know if someone responded to you on here, but with issues like that, I would recommend posting to the Adafruit support forums at https://forums.adafruit.com.

This is a community of members, just like yourself -- and it sounds like you may need deeper troubleshooting and product assistance, which the support team in the forums is able to provide.

[grizzled tiger]

@vernal garden I got it resolved and working, talking on a solution to a molex conversion right now. 😊 thanks on another discord group.

[pine igloo]

Does anyone know if there's a good "getting started" guide for trinket? I'm a programmer, but relatively new to EE stuff. I only ask because I didn't know whether or not the bread pins needed to be soldered on and it took me half an hour of searching to find out, and I'm hoping that this isn't my pace for the whole project.

[hearty karma]

This one might be what you're looking for https://learn.adafruit.com/introducing-trinket

Also https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-trinket-m0-circuitpython-arduino

That first one is the old Trinket, which is probably not the Trinket you have

[pine igloo]

It is, I think. The python one looks different

[proper escarp]

Packing boards for shipping with a little help from my cat

[pine igloo]

thanks

I saw this before, but I skipped past it because it didn't talk about the pins

I'll take a closer look

[shrewd hemlock]

As a fellow developer - you definitely don't want to skip anything when you're starting out 😛

There are a lot of confusing gotchas

[pine igloo]

Incidentally, I know this isn't exactly adafruit specific, but rather related to the IC itself, but I don't understand why the ATTiny85 has both flash and eeprom

[hearty karma]

EEPROM is handy for when you just want to update a byte or two at a time, or when you want data that persists when the entire flash is erased.

[pine igloo]

the flash can only be updated by a full image or something?

[hearty karma]

More specifically, it can only be erased a "page" at a time.

[pine igloo]

ah

Yes, this guide covers what I need in its later pages, lol. Thank you.

[wise venture]

@proper escarp - I think the cat isn't helping, as much as trying to figure out why all those boxes are going AWAY!

[desert cipher]

https://youtu.be/WLP_L7Mgz6M pretty cool

[chrome cloud]

Hey

[desert cipher]

hey

[pine igloo]

Does adafruit offer anything for C++?

[cloud walrus]

@pine igloo Not sure what you mean? Arduino is essentially C++ and most boards are supported by Arduino.

[pine igloo]

That answers my question that I'm starting to think i didnt really have... anyways thanks.

[elder raptor]

Lol, I should solder more often... It's upside down.

It'll work for my project but breadboarding it is a bit awkward.

[inner linden]

...did you flip out about it?

[elder raptor]

Heh, no 🙂

[hearty karma]

I've made that mistake. Happily, AdaFruit labels the pins on both sides.

[cold pebble]

I soldered a display (matrix) upside-down, there's no way that was gonna work

[peak spear]

My first PCB came out perfect, no errors. However it was an alpha-numeric clock and unfortunately when stuffed the displays were upside down! (Had to redo the font file and reverse my scrolling 🙂 )

[shrewd hemlock]

Hah I've been there. I got a PCB once where I didn't account for the size of the battery connectors. I soldered them on, shorted the circuit, and burned through both the batteries immediately.

It was supposed to be a badge for defcon but there wasn't enough time to order another PCB. 😦

[peak spear]

<why I lurk on #help-with-hw-design 🙂 >

[proper escarp]

burned pcb is a rite of passage, so it should be proudly worn as defcon badge

[shrewd hemlock]

It was so pretty... https://www.instagram.com/p/B013v6-HAM0/ 😦 (and simple lol)

[pine igloo]

I am a graphic designer, and for an assignment for my university I would like to edit the animated eye that you can find in the gizmo projects. How can I open and/or edit these to make them in my own style?

[loud brook]

Just quick question and hope I don’t sound dumb, but I see that the grand central was advertised as having many options for PWM, but can’t seem to understand what that means, any help?

[cold pebble]

@loud brook https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-grand-central/pinouts lists the many pins that can be used for PWM output.

[loud brook]

Yeah Ik but I’m wondering what that means

[verbal aspen]

PWM stands for pulse width modulation. It means the pins can output an oscillating digital signal of a defined frequency and on/off proportion. This is often used to control servo motors or create an analog signal.

[cloud walrus]

PWM is Pulse-Width-Modulation https://www.embedded.com/introduction-to-pulse-width-modulation/

What he said 😉

[tawny lantern]

I recently read about a fan someone made for pi4
is it availalbe on digikey or adafruit site?

like the raspberyt pi 4 official fan?

[fathom wagon]

Is there any software out there that you can make several images into a slideshow webserver that can be accessed from other devices?

[shrewd hemlock]

What do you mean by slideshow? Would a Power Point, a gif, or a video work?

[spare summit]

@pine igloo you're looking for the Uncanny Eyes project? The original guide and customization page is here: https://learn.adafruit.com/animated-electronic-eyes

[pine igloo]

I am looking for a way how to design the actual eyes, actually

[spare summit]

@pine igloo if really want to customize them, to the point of adding new animations, changing shapes, ect, I have a full rewrite of the project that does that https://github.com/hierophect/ExpressionEngine

it's built to animate cartoony style eyes from scratch

takes more work though ofc

[tawny lantern]

that thing is cool

ok I found a fan on amazon for $10.00

[pine igloo]

Awesome! Thank you @spare summit

What do you mean by a fan?

@tawny lantern

[spare summit]

@pine igloo it's not super duper well documented so if you do happen to try it feel free to reach out

works the best on the SAMD51 in my experience

[pine igloo]

I was looking at the Playground together with the Gizmo to build a gaming controller for the pc. But whenever I attach the gizmo to the playground. Can I then still use the capacitive touch sensors to make something happen, like keystrokes (click key: F1) for instance?

[broken isle]

cool oleds

[wise venture]

You absolutely can @pine igloo, it was made to do so

[pine igloo]

That is awesome! Thank you. @wise venture

I have one final question: are there enough outputs to attach 2 joysticks on the Playground? I want to use all capactive touch sensors for touch buttons, and the analog ones for joysticks. But I don’t know if there are enough. Somebody knows? 🙂

[icy moth]

Today I am turning a Dell computer that should have been speedy into a Dell computer that is actually speedy

Also need to completely format the oem disk to get rid of a bunch of horrible partitions that have no value or use anymore

[wise venture]

So which Linux distro are you putting onto it?

[icy moth]

I would be if it wasn’t my wife that would be using it

She doesn’t like Linux

[wise venture]

For your question @pine igloo , I really don't know. But there are 7 capacitive touch pads, which I believe some perform double-duty as analog pins

So... PC-DOS 7? 😄

[icy moth]

Lol

Just windows 10 lol

[unkempt comet]

re: the arduino IDE conversation from a couple of days ago

and about autocomplete

they're currently working on their theia-based Arduino Pro IDE, which is closed source at the moment

but if you look inside the electron package you'll find they've implemented a standalone npm package called arduino-language-server

[pine igloo]

So... PC-DOS 7 what does that mean?

[unkempt comet]

and most of the other features have been implemented as a vscode package

[pine igloo]

Sometimes I don’t get where this chat is randomly going 😅

[unkempt comet]

oh that's my fault, i've tried to contribute to a conversation that happened on friday

[wise venture]

@pine igloo That PC-DOS comment was directed to skerr when discussing upgrading/reinstalling the OS

[pine igloo]

👍🏼

[wise venture]

I'm just as fault @unkempt comet, if not moreso. I replied to 2 conversations back to back without disambiguation

[icy moth]

PC DOS 7 likely windows 7

[wise venture]

Not quite. I futzed my remembering, and actually meant FreeDOS, and also mixed in a bit of DR-DOS and its successor, OpenDOS. So uhh, yeah. Please disregard anything I might have said that might sound "factual"! 😛

[icy moth]

lol

[fallow shard]

I have to write a paper about a seemingly impossible challenge I had to overcome and it has to use a large amount of descriptive detail. I was thinking of different topics I could write about, and one ridiculously stupid idea came to mind I decided to run with and go REALLY over the top with. I figured y'all would like it lmao.

Enjoy the opening paragraph: The boy sat at his computer. He’d been sitting there for hours, Arduino Uno in hand, staring at the screen. Pages of documentation slowly scrolled by, and although he could see every word in perfect detail, they blurred together in his mind. He couldn’t care less what most of the document said, for he only cared about the parts that specifically applied to the challenge at hand: connecting 2 sabertooth motor controllers to his Arduino Uno, WHILE still allowing it to function with a pair of Electronic Speed Controllers.

[bleak osprey]

Adafruit is now live! join us on https://youtube.com/adafruit/live

[karmic obsidian]

DESK OF LADYADA - 'Spressif Sunday - We try out our ESP32-S2 Feathers https://youtu.be/oR7uGy8ea68

[elder raptor]

Do want that feather!!!

I just finished up my proof of concept for an environmental monitor... I'm using a feather with an add-on STEMMA BME280 sensor and a LC709203F Fuel Gauge / Battery Monitor. It'd be great to have it all in one!

[tawny lantern]

@pine igloo I meant heat sink for raspberry pi 4

[rugged flare]

Which IR should I buy to control air conditioner from arduino?

[broken isle]

950nm

[rugged flare]

Link please

[cold pebble]

how about a I2C-addressable stemma QT device that sits between the processor and the actual stemma QT sensor(s), but it can shut off power to the downstream stemma QT chain for low-power use?

[verbal aspen]

Nice idea. Could maybe combine it with an I2C multiplexer too, to have a few downstream ports.

[pine igloo]

I am looking for a microcontroller with many capacitive touch sensors attached to the micro controller itself. The computer has to read it as a keyboard/mouse/controller. Somebody knows something that matches these requirements? 😊

I have found a MPR121, but it needs to be attached to a 3.3V microcontroller. But I don’t know which one would be suitable for the job

[icy moth]

QtPy has capacitive touch built in

A lot of samd microcontrollers allow for capacitive touch 🙂

[pine igloo]

I am new to this world, could you send me a link of a QtPy?

I want to put the pcb’s in my playstation controller to make my buttons capacitive touch, so it needs to be small

[cloud walrus]

https://www.adafruit.com/product/4600

[pine igloo]

Thank you!

The QT Py looks amazing, it has 6 capacitive touch connectors, but I need about 12 of them. Any tricks to do this without having to connect two separate devices to the pc? Or other possible options with 1 QT Py?

So I need to connect two of those via stemma QT, or are there other smarter/slimmer options?

[cloud walrus]

Perhaps you should describe your project. The QTPys are not intended to be connected to eachother via the Stemmas connector. That is for attaching I2C sensors to the QTPys. If you need more touch pads, you could add an MPR121 to the QTPy - or possibly just use and FT232H https://learn.adafruit.com/circuitpython-on-any-computer-with-ft232h/overiew to connect an mpr121 to your computer. It will be easier for people to help if you describe the project.

[pine igloo]

@cloud walrus I easily develop repetitive strain injuries in my hands, and I want to be able to play games without injuring myself by decreasing the required amount of force to press the buttons on my playstation controller; by replacing buttons for capacitive touch sensors. I need to replace 11 buttons at least, but a little more is always nice such as 13. I will slightly customise the case so it fits. But a small form factor micro controller will be handy.
My plan is to solder wires to the capacitive touch sensors, and put those in the buttons together with a lot of conductive material. So whenever I touch the button (on the outside), the sensor recognises my touch (without me having to press the button).

[cloud walrus]

@pine igloo That sounds like a great project. I am not familiar with the Playstation at all but I'm sure there are folks here who are and will be able to offer some suggestions. Hopefully you wil get some responses soon.

[hearty karma]

The aforementioned MPR121 can support up to 12 inputs, so might be a rational choice. There are other CPUs with built-in capacitive touch libraries as well.

[tired harbor]

I have a weird question that I'm not sure fits in another channel

I'm trying to develop a product that needs USB Host functionality, and I'm wondering if there are any boards with castellated pads that support it?

[hearty karma]

A popular chip for USB host duties is the MAX3421E, but I don't know of any castellated boards for it in particular https://blog.adafruit.com/2018/11/05/adding-usb-by-fabricating-a-max3421e-featherwing/

[pine igloo]

It will just be a separate device in my playstation controller. It will not be connected to the controller’s pcb in any way

[pine igloo]

I have seen that one, but there aren’t microcontrollers out there with this chip build-in, right? What do you think is a smarter option? QT Py with something (see picture for example) attached via the stemma. Or the MPR121 connected to a micro controller? (If so, which micro controller. Still the QT Py?). I can also use two separate QT Py’s, but I don’t know if that is a great solution.

[ripe cloud]

any ETA on when https://www.adafruit.com/product/4407 will come back in stock?

[hearty karma]

You have two basic choices: either use a microcontroller with built-in touch capability (for example, Microchip's QTouch library), or pretty much any microcontroller with an outboard touch controller. The QT Py is one possibility: I'd look for one that can interoperate with the Playstation nicely.

[pine igloo]

Sorry I am quite new in this world. What do you mean by Microchip’s QTouch library and an outboard touch controller? I have looked it up but it isn’t clear to my what it is. Could you maybe link some suggestions of relevant products? Considering the interoperation, that doesn’t matter that much since I will use the controller just for my pc. I will keep the controller’s electronics separate from my own configuration which I will put inside the controller. So there will be two usb outputs from the controller. Maybe knowing that might make it easier for you to give some advise considering micro controllers?

[hearty karma]

I don't know what protocol the PC expects to see on the USB end, but what I would probably do is avoid the complexity of a processor with built-in touch and just use the MPR121 along with a microcontroller. I'm guessing the microcontroller is mostly going to be a pass-through so I'd probably choose something small and cheap with solid USB support like a Trinket M0 or ItsyBitsy M0.

[pine igloo]

The issue is that the MPR121 solution might not fit inside the limited amount of space of my controller...

[hearty karma]

Ah, I was unaware of that constraint

[pine igloo]

Does something like the QT Py exist, but with more capacitive touch sensors?

[hearty karma]

I'm pretty sure there are such things out there, from several vendors, but I don't know the details. That's why I mentioned the QTouch library, that's what is used to control the built-in capacitive inputs on Microchip products. Other vendors have their own libraries, and you may have to end up learning how to use one of them.

[pine igloo]

I have seen the Adafruit playground that is super easy for my to setup, but it is too big and doesn’t have enough touch sensors.

[hearty karma]

Basically, I think you're looking for a microcontroller that a) supports native USB, b) has a small development board available, c) supports multiple capacitive touch inputs, and d) is fairly easy to program.

[pine igloo]

Another option would be 2 QT Py’s instead of one. But then I have to connect 2 USB C’s, right?

[hearty karma]

Yes, I think you'd need a USB mini-hub or somesuch.

[pine igloo]

Exactly. And if the programming is complex, I can always hire somebody to do it for me.

But it is just some keybinds, so that shouldn’t be super complex, right?

[lucid latch]

yo

[pine igloo]

One touch should click one button of my keyboard. That is all. And every touch needs another button to be pressed.

[lucid latch]

so you wanna make a custom controller, right

[pine igloo]

Yes

[lucid latch]

like, using capacitive touch inputs instead of normal buttons right

[pine igloo]

Exactly!

[hearty karma]

If you could use resistive touch instead, you can get 18 inputs from an ATmega32U4 (Makey Makey style).

[lucid latch]

also, you want to just hook it up to the usb of your pc and act as a controller?

[pine igloo]

Yes!

[lucid latch]

I see

there's a few levels of things you need to do tho

i think that first you need to look into the midi controller side of things

[pine igloo]

Resistive touch needs you to manually contact the ground constantly, right? Or is it that you need enough force to make the button work?

[pine igloo]

I am all ears ☺️

[hearty karma]

Yes, you need a ground connection for resistive touch to work. I do not know if that's workable for your use case, just thought I'd mention it in case it was practical and might simplify your build.

[pine igloo]

What exactly is a midi controller?

[lucid latch]

http://vjoystick.sourceforge.net/site/

"MIDI is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface"

[pine igloo]

It might be possible since you always hold the controller, but might cause some errors during gameplay. So capacitive is my main goal

[lucid latch]

first you need to solve the driver side of things

once you have that, imo, the easiest way to make a custom controller is thru MIDI

you should search for: MCU-OF-CHOICE to MIDI

[pine igloo]

I am so sorry but this is like chinese to me 🙈 But I really want to understand this!

[lucid latch]

dont worry

tell me what dont get and ill explain

[pine igloo]

Vjoystick helps you with arduino sample code? Or what does it do exactly?

[lucid latch]

basically its capable of emulating any controller (joystick, wheel, etc)

[pine igloo]

And by driver side of things you mean the arduino ADE coding?

[lucid latch]

vjoy is the driver side of things

cause you first need to have the vjoy driver to emulate the controller

[pine igloo]

Do I?

[lucid latch]

yeah, eitherway how would you make a controller 😂

[pine igloo]

Okay I will check a video about vjoystick to understand it better

A micro controller and code would do the job right? 😅

Okay I will check it right now ☺️

[lucid latch]

yeah, any mcu would do imo

what kind of sensors you would use

[pine igloo]

Ooh wait I get it!

Yes I already have such a program ☺️

[lucid latch]

nice

[pine igloo]

Capacitive touch ☺️

[lucid latch]

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33007783800.html

like that

[pine igloo]

No

That is way too big

I want it like the QT Py

I will show you, one second

https://youtu.be/hu883M4TH0Y

[lucid latch]

wheres the button

[pine igloo]

Like this. So I can shape the wires towards the actual buttons

I will fill the inside of the buttons with conductive material

The only issue is that this just has 6 sensors and I need 12

[lucid latch]

oh

i see now

[pine igloo]

☺️

[lucid latch]

what does it uses to read the capacitive touch

[pine igloo]

The little holes

[hearty karma]

The built-in SAMD21 capacitive touch functionality

[pine igloo]

Yes

[lucid latch]

I see

ATSAMD21G18

im looking for the datasheet

[hearty karma]

I'm thinking an ItsyBitsy M4 might have enough touch inputs, and may be about the same size as a pair of QTPy boards. However, I'm unable to find documentation on how many touch inputs the ItsyBitsy M4 supports (it uses the more powerful SAMD51)

[lucid latch]

whats a touch input tho, like, at its core

[hearty karma]

Some additional circuitry on a GPIO pin.

[lucid latch]

yeah ofc, what circuitry tho

[hearty karma]

I think it's a current limited driver and a variable threshold comparator

Or something along those lines

[lucid latch]

makes sense

so probly is not a normal gpio

more like its connected to the ADC

[pine igloo]

I trust you guys, I don’t understand it yet though. But I will let you discuss for a bit 🙈

[hearty karma]

The pins can be configured as normal GPIO or touch input, they have circuitry for both. With the SAMD21, there are 6 such pins. With the SAMD51, there are more, but I'm not entirely clear on how many more (apparently some packages have up to 32, but probably not all packages)

[lucid latch]

yeah, but i bet is just an adc

you don't need anything special, just some adc channels, you could actually cap the buttons and use less than 12 channels for sure

so you could just use any mcu with some adc channels, and make your own capacitive sensors

@pine igloo

[pine igloo]

Could you explain this in layman’s words?

[lucid latch]

tell me what ya don't get and ill explain

😄

[pine igloo]

Mcu and adc 😅

[lucid latch]

microcontroller = mcu

analog to digital = adc

[pine igloo]

Analog and digital confuses me. I know what they mean, but not in this context

[lucid latch]

the analog signal would be the capacitance value at your fingers

you need to pass that to digital right

like, the mcu needs to read that

most microcontrollers have ADC Channels

pins that can be used to read a analog signal

the signal is just a 0 to Vref expressed in the ammout of bits the ADC Channel is configured

basically you put 1 volt in that pin and you would get 1 volt expressed in a integer value

ya feel me?

[pine igloo]

Uuuh 😳🤯

[lucid latch]

😂

[pine igloo]

Wait I think I do

So you mean I can use anything with the capacitive touch sensors like the QT Py?

Or the Playground, but that is too big

[pine igloo]

What is vref?

[lucid latch]

reference voltage

[pine igloo]

What is that? 🙈🥺

I am so sorry

[lucid latch]

don't worry 😂

its basically the maximum voltage that the adc input can take

like, it would only read from 0volts to Vref

[pine igloo]

Like 3.3V or 5.0V

[lucid latch]

xactly

imo, you should learn to read the adc and from those values trigger midi commands to the pc

then you can tackle the capacitive buttons or something like that

it can be midi or anything that you can use to handle the vjoy driver

ya feel me

[pine igloo]

Analog to digital is the testing screen with the numbers, right?

[lucid latch]

mhm?

[pine igloo]

In the arduino IDE

The button in the topright corner

[lucid latch]

i don't use arduino, im sorry 😂

[pine igloo]

I need to chose the right hardware first ☺️

No worries

If I can get the proper hardware I can make it work 👌🏼

What would you pick if you were me?

[lucid latch]

if you use arduino, you should look for this things: "arduino to vjoy" or " arduino to midi", "arduino adc", "capacitive sensors to arduino adc"

[pine igloo]

I am so confused haha

[lucid latch]

i would pick what i'm most comfortable with

[pine igloo]

I just need hardware, the coding will do the keybinds

[hearty karma]

As I mentioned previously, I might choose the ItsyBitsy M4 Express for this job https://www.adafruit.com/product/3800

[pine igloo]

How many capacitive touch sensors does it have?

[hearty karma]

As I mentioned previously, I'm unsure how many it supports.

It could be as many as 17

[pine igloo]

17 would be awesome!

[lucid latch]

looks sweet, expensive and overkill tho

[pine igloo]

I don’t mind the price, I pay for the solution ☺️

[lucid latch]

rich boy 😂

[pine igloo]

Haha I don’t have a job 😂

[lucid latch]

me neither 😂

[pine igloo]

It has 7 analog inputs. Are these the capacitive touch ones?

[lucid latch]

send me the documentation ill check it out

[simple linden]

Does Raspberry Pi has any sensors on board?

[vagrant gyro]

not really. i think there's a CPU temperature, but otherwise nothing.

[shrewd hemlock]

@simple linden it's pretty easy to add both sensora via USB and from the pins on the pi.

The pi cobbler is a good addon - https://www.adafruit.com/product/2028?gclid=CjwKCAiAi_D_BRApEiwASslbJ71vzFQ7kijSiUU3T3ouiTVknS8umeaP1Yzbt9IVRAAJBfIjqizFMxoCtUcQAvD_BwE

[pine igloo]

I think I will just go for 2 QT Py’s with an micro USB splitter

[clever nexus]

Be aware the QT Py is very short on RAM. More flash can be soldered on the bottom side.

[pine igloo]

It’s got enough RAM for 6 keybinds, right?

[ornate pumice]

okay quite Noob here. I'm planning on making a gameboy Advance SP using a Raspberry pi 4 4gb. but I need to make it smaller. more compact. would it damage the board if I was to unsolder the ethernet and usbs? but resoldering on a micro usb?

[pine igloo]

Can I connect this to my QT Py via the cable?

[wise venture]

I just checked out the "What is QT Py?" video, and seems like there's a hiccup or something around the 30 second mark
https://youtu.be/0Qssr6B6MrU?t=30 "It's like a chiclet, or a<snip>QT Py..."

I still gave it a 👍 , because I'm not a savage! And also, voiced by Collin, so....

[frosty pulsar]

hi could someone help me out with wiring a volume wheel?

im trying to use the adafruit I2S amp

so i want to go from I2S AMP ---->10K POT ----> mini speaker

how do i wire it?

[quartz oyster]

As far as I am aware, it's not good practice to put a pot between the amp and the speaker, it would be better to wire the pot as an analog input to the microcontroller and then read that input and use it to modulate the magnitude of the signal being send to the amp

If you do wire it in the way you are talking about, there is a decent chance you'll just burn up the pot

If you want to give it a try anyway, this should work

[simple linden]

Thanks, ordered sense hat board

[keen pulsar]

Is the learning system down?

Might just be me

It's back up now

[pale sandal]

Does anyone know if the ITO coated PET plastic sheet can be vacuum formed and retain the conductive properties of the ITO coating?

[hearty karma]

I suspect for gentle curves it would be fine, but small radius curves might lead to voids/cracking/delamination/etc.

But I don't know for sure.

[oak cove]

Small issues at cloudflare today

That is a gateway error so could be on adafruits site, but they are deploying something it seems

[bleak osprey]

Adafruit is now live! join us on https://youtube.com/adafruit/live

Adafruit is now live! join us on https://youtube.com/adafruit/live

Adafruit is now live! join us on https://youtube.com/adafruit/live

Adafruit is now live! join us on https://youtube.com/adafruit/live

[upper coyote]

Bots seem to be hyperactive today. 🙂

[gritty imp]

watchdog seems to be triggering HardFault_Handler and dropping into REPL instead of re-running code. Any fix for this? (FeatherS2 here)

[dreamy drum]

Doh, I ordered a clear acrylic case for my new Clue board but instead of being clear, its opaque making it impossible to read the screen

[hearty karma]

Is there perhaps a peel-off layer that's making it not-clear?

[dreamy drum]

doh, you're right

[glossy osprey]

Which circuit simulator is good for college student

[pine igloo]

does anyone here take commissions to design the guts of small hardware projects

[upper coyote]

@pine igloo Try checking out https://jobs.adafruit.com/ which Adafruit set up to connect people that can help to people who need help. You can post a fuller description of what you want and people can see if they fit, or you can search the people that have posted themselves there. (Uggh. that wasn't a very good description, I've been awake now for over 20 hours, and I think the descriptive part of my brain has decided to take the rest of the night off, but go check it out, it is what you're looking for, it'll have to explain itself).

[pine igloo]

thanks a ton thats awesome!

[icy moth]

I thought I was going to be disappointed by the RadioShack revival but honestly I’m surprised

https://www.radioshack.com/collections/parts

You can buy parts for projects

It’s not terribly extensive but I’m really impressed

[desert cipher]

interesting. bit back to roots

[ebon jacinth]

i just accidentally cracked the rear plate on my pygamer enclosure https://www.adafruit.com/product/4238 does anyone know if there are STL files available?

[wise venture]

Is there a dedicated channel/category to discuss YouTube videos that are part of a series? Like the "STEM chat" series, or the ones with industry leaders, such as the ones with Helen Greiner or Tai Lopez? Or would this be it?

[hearty karma]

The PyGamer enclosure looks laser cut more than 3D printed, so they'd likely be vector files instead of STL. Unfortunately, I don't know where to find them (I didn't see them on the AdaFruit github).

[cloud walrus]

@Hugo -- I think this channel would be a good place for that discussion.

[wise venture]

Awesome, thanks @cloud walrus. I figured as much, but wanted to be certain

[cold pebble]

there are .ai files for PyGamer acrylic cases here https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-pygamer/downloads

[bleak osprey]

Adafruit is now live! join us on https://youtube.com/adafruit/live

[pearl spire]

Hello I am brand new to the electronic world. I have a small project I am working on and I was wondering Who/Where I can ask to help me put together a parts list.

[proper escarp]

@pearl spire ask your questions here - hopefully someone will help, or at least point you to some resources

[pearl spire]

Okay Im looking to a make a ft counter in a very small form factor. I was thinking of using a mouse wheel for a rotary encoder an OLED and some kind of micro controller like the trinket.

I just don't know what parts I should buy.

[proper escarp]

ft counter?

[pearl spire]

to count feet and display it on the screen.

sort of like this but hand held and very small

[proper escarp]

For this, you do need

• a wheel
• encoder
• an MCU to process the data
• a screen to show results

[hearty karma]

Possibly a battery to power it all

[proper escarp]

that too

I am not sure if using a mouse wheel as an encoder will work well

[pearl spire]

I was thinking of pulling a wheel out of a mouse

oh

is it worth a try

[proper escarp]

there are plenty of dedicated encoders, the only question is price

if price were not an issue, I'd recommend this one: https://www.revrobotics.com/rev-11-1271/

[hearty karma]

A mouse wheel encoder should work and not be too difficult to adapt electrically (but supporting it mechanically and getting access to the electrical connections might require some ingenuity)

[proper escarp]

as for MCU and screen, almost any will work as long as it has at least two interrupt pins

[pearl spire]

this is about the size um shooting for

is there a controller that matches this screen?

[proper escarp]

any feather

[hearty karma]

Yes, there are a lot of Feather controllers to choose from, and as a bonus they include battery connectors for easy integration

[proper escarp]

e.g. https://www.adafruit.com/product/3403

[hearty karma]

That one is a solid choice, and can run either CircuitPython or Arduino code.

[pearl spire]

is that the same as this

[hearty karma]

The display will work with either of those, but they have different capabilities. For example, the M0 can run CircuitPython, and the Huzzah has WiFi support.

[proper escarp]

but also: for encoders it is imporatnt to have interrupt-enabled pins, and it seems that esp8266 doesn't have them

[hearty karma]

The Huzzah is an older design, there are more capable ones available

[pearl spire]

okay cool

[proper escarp]

I'd go with m0 or - if you might need to add Bluetooth later - with nRF52840 one

[pearl spire]

gotcha what about a battery

[proper escarp]

https://www.adafruit.com/category/916

[pearl spire]

i see it comes with this in a kit

[hearty karma]

This particular one is designed to be narrow enough to fit between the rows of pins on a Feather. For a compact build, it can be handy, but there are others with more capacity (which will therefore offer a longer run time) https://www.adafruit.com/product/3898

The one you linked to is a good choice as well

[pearl spire]

awesome

so all the coding can me made on sketch?

[hearty karma]

Yes.

[pearl spire]

Okay ill try and purchase all this and see if I can figure this all out it like a whole new language for me. Thanks for the support.

is there a recommended wiring harness to link the REV encoder to the feather.

[proper escarp]

REV encoder includes cables terminating in 4-pin "Dupont" (stanrard female header) cables
I'd suggest to start by assembling your project on a breadboard, then it would be easy to plug male the dupont headers into it and then connect to appropriate pins of the feather

[crisp mist]

Hello, I was wondering if I could use a cellular network of Adafruit FONA 808 Shield Mini if I’m using a brazilian sim card.
here is the chip model I’m talking about : https://www.adafruit.com/product/2636

[hearty karma]

That's an older card that only supports 2G GSM, I don't know which carriers support that any more, or for how long.

[crisp mist]

oo okay then

thanks

I’m currently searching for a cellular shield so I can use it in my project to send data from long distances. I’m using adafruit feather 32u4 adalogger + adafruit ultimate GPS featherWing. Does anyone have an idea? Idk if I go for cellular shield or try to change the chip for a version which includes both cellular and gps.

[mild thistle]

how do sine wave inverters work?

[hearty karma]

I was guessing you were looking at the 808 because you wanted both GSM and GPS. There are newer shields/breakouts that support more recent cellular protocols, but I don't know which ones might support GPS as well.

There are a few ways sine wave inverters work. Some digitally synthesize sine waves, some are ordinary "modified sine wave" inverters with post-filtering, and some use a ferroresonant transformer to produce a sine wave.

[harsh venture]

Y'all might find this useful: https://twitter.com/theavalkyrie/status/1349458442734469123

Stargirl 🌠 (@theavalkyrie)

I got tired of not understanding what my GCC linker file was doing. I went on a quest to understand every. single. command. Why each symbol was included.

I present to you: the most thoroughly commented linker script in the world (probably)

https://t.co/S9R23ZRG4a

Twitter · Jan 13, 2021, 8:48 PM

[vagrant gyro]

☝️ really cool!

[hearty karma]

Not just commented, but with references and links

[spice tulip]

!product 2636

[radiant grove]

Adafruit FONA 808 Shield - Mini Cellular GSM + GPS for Arduino

Price: $49.95 USD
In Stock: 41
ID: 2636

[spice tulip]

oh it still works

nice

!random

[radiant grove]

:loading2: Randomizing...

Arcade Button and Switch Quick-Connect Wires - 0.25" (10-pack)

Price: $4.95 USD
In Stock: 75
ID: 3838

[ornate pumice]

Can one install different OS's on seperate SD card like Amiga and Commodore, then hot swap them out with one another while still keeping retropi games on external hard drive? I'm not good at wording this

like turn off system, swap out amiga for commodore. then boot system back up?

[karmic obsidian]

WE ARE LIVE! SHOW AND TELL! https://youtu.be/y0PAlNZM4aI

[bleak osprey]

Adafruit is now live! join us on https://youtube.com/adafruit/live

[karmic obsidian]

WE ARE LIVE! ASK AN ENGINEER! https://youtu.be/rpMgL30fgX4

[harsh venture]

Hey folks, just a heads up that me and some of my friends have started an embedded subreddit that encourages original content - come by and show us what you've made, we'd love to see it! https://www.reddit.com/r/embedded_oc/

[verbal wadi]

Here's a project that requires something similar so you should be fine:
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Raspberry-Pi-The-YARH-IO-Micro-2-transforms-the-popular-single-board-computer-into-a-handheld-computer.514958.0.html

[solid geode]

So, I bought the RPi HQ camera, and the 6 mm and 16 mm lenses. I can make the 16 mm lens focus, but I can't for the life of me get the 6 mm (wide angle) lens to focus. Am I missing something?

Ah nvm, I had to remove the little extension ring in the back focus ring.

[golden lynx]

Are there any plans to update existing feathers to USB-C?

[limber fiber]

Anyone here used Pycom boards?

What are your thoguhts on Pycom boards?

[wise venture]

The <@&578374950705168386> campaign for the Inkplate 10 (https://www.crowdsupply.com/e-radionica/inkplate-10/) is now live. 9.7" eInk display, built on ESP-32, and compatible with Arduino and MicroPython. I wonder how difficult it would be to add CircuitPython support.... 🤔

[keen lichen]

@wise venture we don't support the ESP32 yet because it doesn't have USB

[wise venture]

Ohhhh, right. I know that I knew that, but it didn't "click" in my brain. Welp, shoot :/

[keen lichen]

I really do want to do BLE-only workflow though

[wise venture]

You know, I do believe I may have read something to that effect!

[bleak osprey]

Adafruit is now live! join us on https://youtube.com/adafruit/live

[median egret]

looking into building a diy smartglass thing, and I'm wondering, alignment issues aside, what're the downsides of using multiple mirrors to allow a larger screen at an angle, such that the box hanging off the side of your head is smaller

[harsh haven]

@karmic obsidian Maxim have an interesting new "ultra low power M4 with AI" part described here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9T9Xwdy-Lw and their evaluation board is in Feather format 🙂 https://www.maximintegrated.com/en/products/microcontrollers/MAX78000FTHR.html

[worn lark]

What does everyone use to hold the battery to the magtag?

right now I just have a rolled up bit of kapton tape but that's already loosening and I'm looking for a longer-term adhesive that is still removable if I want to

[wise venture]

I haven't stuck my battery to the magtag yet, but this seems like something that 2-sided foam tape would be good for, or possibly those 3M command hooks, so you don't end up pulling on the board or the battery when you want to remove it

[worn lark]

ooh, some of the lighter foam adhesives would prolly do the trick

[main hemlock]

i use velcro (generic name is "hook and loop"), but sometimes it's too thick.

i am constantly taking things on and off, so the velcro is good for that. I don't make many permanent things.

[harsh haven]

I'm using 3M Command Strips (velcro ones) and the fit is fine. If you want more permanent then the Foam tape is a good idea too.

[worn lark]

my brain must be fried - I didn't even think of velcro, thanks!

[harsh haven]

( only using a small strip, but it works )

[wise venture]

Are there 2 MEE6s around? For some reason, I thought that was a Discord bot?

[harsh haven]

Some other servers have MEE6 bots, though I'm not a Bot, last time I checked.

[wise venture]

Gotcha. Sorry for the confusion and poor eyesight to not be able to tell the difference between human and bot

[quaint rivet]

Guys, i wanna ask, are mosfets generally big?

and are there smaller mosfets that can fit in pcbs?

[harsh haven]

@quaint rivet it depends on how much current you want to switch, you can get for example the BSS138 which is in a tiny SOT-23 package but limited to 220mA https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/on-semiconductor/BSS138/244210

[quaint rivet]

what about for conventional hobby use where i just want to use it as a switch?

[harsh haven]

so if your switching current is less than 220mA then I recommend that part above ^^

You can get up to 2.5Amps through this one, in the same sized package. https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/diodes-incorporated/DMN3110S-7/2756038?s=N4IgTCBcDaICIFkByBmAjGgDAZQLQHYQBdAXyA

These are surface mount, but there are also small through-hole parts.

[buoyant galleon]

Maybe does someone know how much current ws2812b led strips use?

[verbal aspen]

The maximum at full brightness is apparently around 60mA per LED (20mA per color).

[harsh haven]

@buoyant galleon the Adafruit NeoPixel Überguide is a great resource for how to implement Neopixels
https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-neopixel-uberguide/the-magic-of-neopixels

[leaden jetty]

Hey all I wanted to share a design link of a model I made recently. It's a 30mm fan cage for the raspberry pi. I haven't really seen any designs that let you just mount a fan on the pi without needing to print the whole case alongside it, so I figured some of you would think it was useful! Feel free to use! https://twitter.com/RockControls/status/1349434431329759232?s=19

Black Rock Controls (@RockControls)

A fan holder for your raspberry pi! This fan holder sits in the four mounting holes on the raspberry pi to hold a 30mm fan above the CPU and RAM module. Feel free to use our design for your own projects! @thingiverse https://t.co/AYWSS48cc9

Twitter · Jan 13, 2021, 7:13 PM

[clear quarry]

has any one ever used Unreal Engine 4 Blueprint Visual Programming? 🙂 would it be at all possible to code with UE4 to code for arduino (ESP32)?

[bleak osprey]

Adafruit is now live! join us on https://youtube.com/adafruit/live

[pale sandal]

ok well I think I'll just have to get some and try, thanks.

[hearty karma]

Let us know what you find out, I'm curious

[thick prawn]

I’ve been commissioned to develop some applications and set up a system for someone

I’m wondering how I should charge for my efforts

What should I consider here

[hearty karma]

You can charge hourly (time and materials) or firm fixed price: some outfits prefer one or the other.

[lilac dust]

Hi I'm new here and I have a newbie question

What's the relation between arduino's code and code used with Adafruit's motorshields?

Are they interchangeable?

[lost lily]

What do you mean by Arduino code? You can utilize Adafruit's motor shields via Arduino code.

[lilac dust]

well for example, on this website: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-motor-shield-v2-for-arduino/using-dc-motors there is some code such as #include <Adafruit_MotorShield.h> and
#include "utility/Adafruit_MS_PWMServoDriver.h"

and also specificall "myMotor->setSpeed(150);"

and what I mean is that I see that this is involved in controlling a dc motor hooked up to the ada motorshield

But the Arduino website offers different code to control dc motors which doesn't involve using those lines

Like, I dont thinnk myMotor->setSpeed(150); is the usual way to set the motor speed

[lost lily]

That's because the Arduino website doesn't know you are using the Adafruit motor shield

They assume you connected an Arduino pin to a transistor which drives the motor (or something like that)

Since the hardware configuration is different, the software will be different.

[lilac dust]

ah I see. I think I understand a little better

Is it true that Ardiuno is coded in C or C++ and adafruit is too?

or, I mean is the example above in C?

[lost lily]

Arduino is C++ code, so yes

The Adafruit libraries are just like C++ libraries but for Arduino

[lilac dust]

If you say I can utilize Adafruit's motor shields via Arduino code, but also say that the software will be different, what would be different? The structure? Like, can I use the same commands and functions with an adafruit motorshield vs a naked arduino, but I have to use those commands and functions differently since I'm not doing the normal "Arduino pin connected to transistor" setup?

[lost lily]

You will still be using the same old Arduino, just that you will use different commands to control the motors.

[lilac dust]

Ah, so like the adafruit motorshield wouldnt know what to do with analogWrite() for example? I could only use that with the shield removed?

[lost lily]

Yes. It would most likely do nothing.

[lilac dust]

Do you know if there is a link to a list of all the commands I can use with this adafruit motorshield, like some kind of code/library documentation? I can only find info about "circuitpython" https://www.adafruit.com/product/1438?iframe=true&width=1280&height=620&gclid=Cj0KCQiA0fr_BRDaARIsAABw4Eu01anChSeys323D0obhLgkPIRlicEGYhRiMrmf3d-jMDZLVclUF1QaAnypEALw_wcB

[shrewd hemlock]

https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-motor-shield-v2-for-arduino

There's usually a Learn section at the bottom of each product with documentation

[lilac dust]

Thank you !

[shrewd hemlock]

Of course! Good luck!

[pine igloo]

How can i charge a 330v 100micro farad capacitor?

[real scarab]

Put voltage over it.

[peak spear]

carefully

[pine igloo]

I dont have anything capable of putting 330v dc out

[pine igloo]

How bad it shocks?, Probably won't make unconscious or something

[peak spear]

that voltage can potentially kill if it discharges through you

[icy moth]

Humans can tolerate large voltages

It’s current that kills

[peak spear]

but not even small currents 🙂

[icy moth]

We regularly pass thousands of volts through static energy, but just 10mA can stop the heart

Kind of crazy eh?

[peak spear]

i always err on the side of caution when talking about high voltages in here...

[icy moth]

Other thing that’s interesting is some parts of the body tolerate as much as 100mA if ground is made within close proximity to the entry

[pine igloo]

I was planning on shocking my friends with it

😅

[peak spear]

do not

[icy moth]

But regardless, in most cases most high voltage applications usually involve large currents

[pine igloo]

Ok can you now tell me how can i charge it?

I just pulled it off from old camera flash

[icy moth]

Static electricity is usually around the 3500+ Volts. But current is like... 5uA

[pine igloo]

I know cameras have built in charging system for that capacitor but i wanna know how can i charge it myself

[peak spear]

in a camera flash there is a dc to dc converter with a high step up ratio

[pine igloo]

Ok so...?

[icy moth]

So buy a dc to dc converter that does like 5V to like.. 200V

Add a 1W resistor (chose the resistor based on how fast you want it to charge)

But honestly using it to make a shocking devices.. not so great

You’re better off using a static energy generator. They are a lot of fun when you “daisy chain” your friends together

My science teacher in middle school had a crank style one. It was a lot of fun to see how many people we could line up and how long we could last lol

[peak spear]

@pine igloo We'd like to emphasize that what you are asking for is dangerous and advice on how to make dangerous things is not given here.

[pine igloo]

those photoflash capacitors are really not a toy. they will release enough energy to weld the end of a screwdriver. they will give you a serious burn and potentially cause cardiac arrest

if you want a fun tingly kind of high voltage device do not use a capacitor to store the high voltage, find a very small tesla coil or an ignition coil

[pearl spire]

Is this the correct orientation to Soldier these together?

And could I test it just like this before soldering? Can this be plugged right into a computer USB to transfer code?

[vocal vapor]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/409358701636485130/800080699293958174/LEDStripDriver2.png
Does it look decent? :3

[shrewd hemlock]

@pearl spire Got links to the two things?

[pearl spire]

https://www.adafruit.com/product/3403

https://www.adafruit.com/product/2900

[shrewd hemlock]

Any reason you're not using the header pins on the FeatherWing OLED?

Also this image should help you with orientation:

Looks like yours might be upsidedown

[ornate crescent]

Can anyone clarify which interpretation of PMSA300i data is correct? The datasheet says "Data 7 indicates the number of particles with diameter beyond 0.3 μ𝑚 in 0.1L of air", while the data struct in the library says "< 0.3um Particle Count" and the example code says "Particles > 0.3um / 0.1L air:".

[verbal aspen]

I don't know for sure, but "<" would be unusual, since the detector probably wouldn't be able to sense arbitrarily small particles.

[ornate crescent]

That's an interesting point because PM2.5 is defined as "diameters less than 2.5 micrometers".

[oak cove]

Which library are you referring to?

Adafruit_PM25AQI?

Sounds to me like there is confusion between the 7th element in the data, and data 7 from what Im reading but I think Im in a different library that what you are referring to

[ornate crescent]

Yep Adafruit_PM25AQI

[oak cove]

Hm, nice catch @ornate crescent, looks like the comment on the struct is incorrect, want to make a pull request?

Not just on that field

[ornate crescent]

Ok I'll do that

[ornate crescent]

Does ladyada ever sleep? She responded within an hour. Turns out that is a doxygen thing. https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_PM25AQI/pull/8

[oak cove]

Ah, good to know

[wise venture]

I've wondered the same thing myself! Seems that she and PT get stuff done at all hours of the day and night, and get more done than seems possible in any 24 hour period!

[upper coyote]

As a fellow Beaver, I can tell you that one of the things MIT teaches, is odd sleep schedules, and working with as little sleep as possible. Ladyada and PT used to be only slightly skewed, but with Covid, I think they are approximately on the hacker's nine to five; that is 9PM to 5AM to increase social distancing at the Factory, distancing in time rather than space.

[shrewd hemlock]

distancing in time rather than space
🤣 Love it

[wise venture]

lol, agreed @shrewd hemlock. I suspect @upper coyote is a Physics major?

[upper coyote]

It's important to always choose the right Axes. 😮

Nope I was a CS major back when it was a "new" thing.

[calm carbon]

heya! im a dedicated nerd, and i work in a hardware store. i had a difficult customer ask me for a cat5 splitter today, just like he would use for coax or phone. i told him its a bit more complex than adding a splitter, but not much. go to the local computer store and get a cheap hub or switch. then he made a huge deal about it.

i know it wont work, but it got me wondering... what would happen if i did it? would it fail altogether? or would it just have a bunch of collisions and be slower?

[desert cipher]

splitter would be like dumb hub

id suggest that person to get cheap switch.

[calm carbon]

always switch > hub. and i know making a splitter would be stupid. just curious what would happen if i made one now lol

im thinking it might function enough to connect, but it would be horribly slow + unreliable

[desert cipher]

depends, really. if one is heavy use and ones barely used then it would only somewhat affect thibgs

[calm carbon]

im thinking it would just cause a bunch of collisions, right? but otherwise function

[desert cipher]

yeah thats normal when you use hubs

that is, if you can even fnd a hub lol

[quaint rivet]

Guys, i wanna ask, to those of you who have graduated or the ones who are taking their masters or doctorates

how can you be sure of yourself that you are ready for a higher degree?

[autumn apex]

Hi, a few days ago I was talking about like a diy high power stepper driver using TIs predriver ic. Now that ic need to be preconfigured over spi with a few parameters(step mode, max current, decay mode etc) and I firstly wanted to use the atmega328 to do that but now thinking about it its petty wasteful to use that mcu for that purpose, heck maybe even a attiny85 could do the job. But since all the main components are form TI(and samples are free 🙂 ) I want to try using their MCU.

I heard of energia(think its called like that) as a Aruidno IDE for TI

Do I need to flash like a bootloader on them like i need to do with arduino

like what are the requerments for standalone use

cant find much by just googling

[icy moth]

@autumn apex great questions

I recommend a MSP430 launch pad

If you like Arduino, TI has their own version for the launchpad boards called Energia

[autumn apex]

isnt energia just the IDE

[icy moth]

Yes

But it’s built specifically for MSP launchpad boards

[autumn apex]

I know about the launchpad but i want to use the mcu in my board

[icy moth]

Oh gotcha

What MCU is on the board?

[autumn apex]

well im in the process of designing it but i was thinking of using the MSP430G2102

[icy moth]

Nice, okay make sure to include JTAG headers for doing TIs version of DAP over CMSIS (might have this acronym wrong)

[autumn apex]

Im just reading the datasheet but it dosent seem to have uart which is a problem so i probably need to chose another one.

yeah my question is about the bootloader, like i know arduino bootloard can be flashed over spi and then i can program it over uart, i cant find anything concrete about ti mcus about that

[icy moth]

This might be a good option: https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/MSP430G2333IPW20R/296-41338-6-ND/5223098

[autumn apex]

I found MSP430G2553

[icy moth]

That is a good one

It allows energy tracing

[autumn apex]

yeah

so if I order this, how do I go about programming it is what confuses me. Uart?

[icy moth]

https://www.ti.com/lit/an/slaa600d/slaa600d.pdf?ts=1610873409748

There are some links at the top for the boot loader guide

You will need a USB to serial adapter

So probably FT232R

Or silicon labs

Or even the CH340G or even the CH340C

[autumn apex]

im probably gonna use the cheaper version 🙂

[autumn apex]

yep those

c has the crystal integrated right?

[icy moth]

Yup

[autumn apex]

nice

FT232R is expensive 🙂

[icy moth]

I personally like the FTDI chips

[autumn apex]

I like them too, never had trouble with those but again CH340C gives me 12 times more reasons to like them more 🙂

🤑

[icy moth]

I’m not money conscious in that regard

A lot of people tell me “just use the CH340, it’s cheaper!” But I really love the ease of use with the FTDI chips

[autumn apex]

well i dont care if part is like .5$ more expensive if it means i get something better but ftdi is 6$ and CH340 is like 0.5$

[icy moth]

FTDI is $4.5 from Digi-Key

$4.25 if you buy 10, $4 for 100x quantity I believe

But good news is this discussion reminded Me that I need to assemble my MSP432 feather lol

[autumn apex]

🙂

[icy moth]

Needless to say the parts have been waiting for a few months 😅

[autumn apex]

my cnc control unit needs some attention too😂

it became garbage dumping ground after not working on it for a week

[icy moth]

Understand that 😀

[autumn apex]

cant remember the name of the youtuber but he explained my room very well : "every part of my workshop that has free space turns into a black hole that sucks all the junk in"

[hearty karma]

For programming MSP430 chips, you can use TI's programming pod, but all the Launchpads come with a programmer as well, and many of their chips use their "Spy-Bi-Wire" protocol, which only takes two wires. Jumper wires on the Launchpad boards give you access to those, so you can use the Launchpad as a programmer.

[icy moth]

Me searching through parts hoard: wow I have a lot of “1000x 0.1uF 0603” packs

I should probably just stop buying 0.1uF 0603 until I get through all of these

[wise venture]

The problem with that @icy moth, that I've had, is that when I need part x, I appear to be all out. Only when the order gets delivered does it appear that they multiply en masse!

[icy moth]

haha same

digikey needs a feature like "Hey, we noticed you ordered a lot of this item last time, and you're ordering it again... are you sure you need 1000x more when you already bought 1000x?"

[bitter gale]

@icy moth i mean i usually just recommend a barbecue piezo igniter

[icy moth]

lol

[bitter gale]

Definitely not enough to kill ya but it will make your muscles move of you hit them directly

[icy moth]

very true

also friendly reminder to new people, if you need 0402 but only have 0603, it will fit.. just a little chonky lol

[icy moth]

Next time I’m gonna get a stencil for this board. Too many solder bridges to eliminate under the FTDI chip

And I need to rebuild the BOM so I have all the parts

will reorder with some fixes and get a stencil. Also need to replace the verticle jst with a 90 degree

[clear quarry]

i have these LED spotlights all over my house and one day i started to smell burned electronics and i couldn't find the source! but today when i was going down the stairs i noticed the smell again and saw that one of the spotlights were weak in the lighting so i unscrewed it and well is this normal? :S

[wise venture]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that no, that's not normal. To my untrained eye, it somewhat looks like something got in there and caused a short, and from there, things didn't get any better

[clear quarry]

this might be a one off! but i use these all around my house 😐

[oak cove]

Ooof the infamous font

[oak cove]

Im not sure why, but whenever I see that font on the side of anything, it starts alarm bells. Its not a sign that it is cheap and dangerous, but I have noticed most products from china you could put in the cheap and dangerous category tend to have that font, or a slight variation of it. But there are also a lot of legit stuff that may have it. Interestingly, while I cannot find much concrete info, I am seeing discussion on your issue online https://homefixated.com/cheap-led-light-bulbs/

You might check out the video they embedded in the website, Julian Ilett
at least knows what hes talking about, and you might take apart your bulb to see if it matched his findings in terms of the circuit inside https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keaE7QTKTYE

[pine igloo]

Has anyone "binned" Pi Zeros? Like test the overclocking abilities of many of them and see which ones reach 1.2GHz. A Pi Zero that can clock that high may help me with one of my projects.

[wise pawn]

Hello, may I ask a question about the Adafruit BNO055 sensor?

[cold pebble]

of course

[wise pawn]

@cold pebble Thank you kindly. I always like to ask first with such a large server 😄

A friend and I are trying to set the sensor to the NDOF operating mode and we think we've figured out how to do that but we want to confirm that we did it right. We're trying to find a way for the board to tell us what mode it is currently in. We found in the BNO055 library a read8 line but it is private and we're unsure how to get it

Would you have any insights about it?

[cold pebble]

I don't, but someone here might, give it a little time for folks to see

Arduino? if you don't get an answer here, you could try the #help-with-arduino channel

[wise pawn]

Okay, thank you.

[lime sandal]

@clear quarry watching a bigclive video and he mentioned that gu10 led lamps have a high failure rate due to heating https://youtu.be/klaJqofCsu4?t=294

[wise venture]

I was thinking of that same video @lime sandal.

[bleak osprey]

Adafruit is now live! join us on https://youtube.com/adafruit/live

[karmic obsidian]

DESK OF LADYADA - STEMMA Sunday - ISO1540 & SHT40 breakouts, TikTok'in, Quad Mics, and some LC709203 debuggin' https://youtu.be/c_0uDYDNDxA

[pearl spire]

I did a thing now I just have to figure out how to use this encoder. Does anyone have any resources they can point me to so I can learn how to code this thing to read meters 

[lime sandal]

@pearl spire does that encoder send data like a rotary encoder does?

[quaint rivet]

guys, quick question, what's the maximum frequency can the 555 produce?

[verbal aspen]

On the order of 1MHz, looks like, but there are a lot of different chip variations out there with different speed limits.

[ornate crescent]

I'm keen for the SHT40 breakout and to see what comes of the esphome port. I've been dreaming of a pure Python version of esphome.

[pine igloo]

does lamar freed tune into the server?

[scenic warren]

WRT Home Assistant: there are many ways to connect ESP32x boards to Home Assistant ( I personally use Appdaemon to script all automations with python in Home Assssitant, and a simple REST API call over wifi can be used to post data from the ESP32x to Appdaemon /Home Assistant). Of course ESPHome is another way. I would love to see a tutorial on how to connect BLE boards (like the nRF52840 sense) to Home assistant/Pi. I have not succeeded to get them to talk so far.

[open loom]

hello can someone give me a discord nitro
im an egirl

[pearl spire]

So how do I connect this encoder to this controller?

And does anyone know what this dip switch is for?

Says S and A

[verbal aspen]

"There is a switch on the side of the encoder and with two options: ‘A’ and ‘S’. ‘A’ is the ABI encoder output mode which outputs the incremental and absolute encoder signals. ‘S’ is the SSI/SPImode used in the manufacturing stageand potential future features. Currently, only the ‘A’ mode is supported. Make sure that theswitch is in the ‘A’ position when using this encoder."

https://www.revrobotics.com/rev-11-1271/ has a link to the datasheet.

[buoyant galleon]

Hello, I'm thinking about making rgb led tube lights, but am not sure how many WS2812b leds i should use. I want it to be bright, but can't find any good source, because every datasheet writes different amount of lumens... So what do you think, 120 or 240 of them would be better? (Thats in one 1 meter long tube)

[shrewd hemlock]

@buoyant galleon I'm guessing that's the Lumin8 you're sharing?

This is what the inside of it looks like. There are roughly 120 leds in each row. With 3 rows, about 360 leds.

(The circuit on mine is broken somehow and I'm not sure how to fix it. If you want to have mine - you'd just need to pay shipping and I'll send it to you)

[buoyant galleon]

@shrewd hemlock In the photo is astera ax1, but it's similar thing. I would of course take yours, but I don't have nearly any skills in pcb fixing :(

[shrewd hemlock]

There's actually two PCBs. The first - I believe is just the LEDs and the second is everything else.

That ribbon cable there is what separates the two.

Might be able to salvage it 🤷‍♂️ (if Dog doesn't want the circuit, anyone else is welcome to have it)

[near dust]

Is USB-C really the nightmare it seems to be? I have a C-C cable where a QT Py mounts as mass storage but HID doesn't work. If I switch to an A-C cable, both mass storage and HID work.

I take it back! Both cables work with HID only sometimes. That sounds like it might be my problem...

[buoyant galleon]

@shrewd hemlock So im guessing those yellow and red wires are for main power and the ribon cable sends data to the LEDs, but it looks too wide to be only for the LEDs, or maybe those LEDs are some kind of different unusual special leds idk I'm lost

[clever nexus]

Maybe parallel conductors to handle the current.

[shrewd hemlock]

The light failed after maybe 5 uses and the Kickstarter founder has dissapeared from the internet. So factor those facts into your analysis of the board 😛

[buoyant galleon]

@clever nexus I really doubt it, I'm guessing all those LEDs need a lot of current so those small wires are too thin for high current. But also there are addressable RGB LEDs (I'm guessing ws2813 ) and they probably will need only 1 wire for signal, but there's also white warm and white cold LEDs, so they are probably controlled with mosfets so 1 signal wire for each and we have only 3 wires for signal in total. Idk what others wires are for

[hearty karma]

It might be worth re-seating the flexible cable connector, that might fix it.

[buoyant galleon]

I agree with you

[hearty karma]

If not, I'd probably start probing to see what's going on. The worst likely case is the CPU or power supply has stopped working, but since it's connectorized, it would be possible to re-use the housing and LED board, just figure out the pinout and drive it with something else.

It's also possible the LEDs are addressable, and the first one died (I've seen this happen before)

[buoyant galleon]

I don't really think the LEDs are dead, even if one of them was, others would still work, because from what i can see from other photos, the rgb LEDs have 6 pins so they are probably dual signal LEDs, so if one is broken then others will still work

Im guessing the main controlling board is just dead maybe

[shrewd hemlock]

@hearty karma Holy moly - that worked

The connectors, even when closed are super lose and you can pull the cable right now

[buoyant galleon]

@shrewd hemlock congratulations!!! 👏👏👏

[shrewd hemlock]

I feel bad for the many other backers that are having the issue. Definitely not going to give advise there with my real name attached to dissamble a thing with a massive battery and potentially electrocute themselves.

but eyy, mine works 😄

[buoyant galleon]

Maybe try glueing the connectors so they won't become loose again

[shrewd hemlock]

good idea

[icy moth]

I think I’m gonna use the capacitive touch sensor I made to build a screaming doorbell

[shrewd hemlock]

Hey all! The Kickstarter I shared on Adafruit's Show and Tell is live! If you're curious about mechanical keyboards, programming, soldering, and/or electronics check it out! -> https://pp2.dev/byoks

(I swear I'll stop posting now 😄 )

[icy moth]

😆

Pretty cool project

[icy moth]

Also, a little inspiration for those wanting to start selling their designs:

I started a year ago with zero experience designing circuits, zero experience making printed circuit boards.

Now a year later, I’ve made a lot of progress (much thanks to this community). And back in September I took the dive to start developing boards to sell. The first products were actually inspired by the needs of this community.

I’m not selling massive volumes, but this is a lot for me. And I feel like it’s amazing progress for someone with no namesake or no massive following in the maker community.

So if you’re wondering if you should make the jump, why not?

[shrewd hemlock]

➕ On doing it! I'm always happy to help answer any and all questions

(that ➕ is almost invisiible on dark theme lol)

[icy moth]

@shrewd hemlock the biggest hurdle is building enough variety, but also delivering quality. A fine balance 🙂

[shrewd hemlock]

Hah my hurdles have been all the non technical things

Advertising, customer support, story telling, networking

[icy moth]

I’m decent at story telling, haven’t had any customer support issues (could be a bad thing 😜)

Networking is also tough

I’ve mostly done organic advertising

I’ve not spent any money on advertising

[shrewd hemlock]

https://www.instagram.com/p/BNhb4GUD18D/

That time I wrote RMA on a box (still don't know what RMA means) and mailed a new kit to a customer because I sent them the wrong thing

[icy moth]

Maximum OOF

[shrewd hemlock]

I'm attempting to pursue maker products full time so learning advertising has been a must to increase the $$$

[icy moth]

I started early with my picking process. Thankfully my military training prepared me for the logistics of everything

I’ve got experience with paid marketing, I just want to do as much organic growth as I can until I’ve plateaued

[shrewd hemlock]

or you can hire someone to do all that for you 😛

[icy moth]

Lol

[shrewd hemlock]

I lucked out. I was career transitioning and needed a temp job. Ended up at an electrical engineering firm putting things in boxes. Ended up getting mentorship from everyone from the guy that boxed things all the way up to the CEO

got free PCB reviews from senior electrical engineers 😄

[icy moth]

Nice!

[shrewd hemlock]

So yeah - anyone out there reading wanting to launch their own thing. Ask us questions and doooo it!

[clever nexus]

RMA = Return Material Authorization

[hearty karma]

@shrewd hemlock So how does the "Meta" theme work? Does it become an option if unlocked? More to the point, if I back a "basic" keyboard, can I upgrade that if "Meta" becomes available?

[wise venture]

That's so cool @shrewd hemlock and @icy moth. I'm SO stocked for the two of you! Massive kudos, props and respect.

No to mention, major amounts of respect for taking that dive

[icy moth]

🙏

[shrewd hemlock]

❤️

@hearty karma - The basic kit was to make the electronics stuff accessible to everyone and therefore ships with just the navy blue theme. If you select the higher tier you can select any theme that's unlocked.

(I should probably clarify on that. I'm weirdly trying not to look at the Kickstarter today but I'll be updating tomorrow)

[pine igloo]

Whenever I attached the gizmo to the playground deluxe to play an animation, can I still use the capacitive touch sensors to trigger certain actions, such as keypresses?

[icy moth]

I would think so

Assuming the touch channel pin is not being used for anything else

[pine igloo]

it is only used for the little tft

won't the signals interfere?

[icy moth]

Are all the pins being used for the TFT?

[pine igloo]

They are all connected yes

[icy moth]

Hmm

Potentially not, if all the pins are being used, probably wouldn’t be able to use the touch pins

[pine igloo]

hmm that is a pitty

is the gizmo in combination with the playground deluxe the smallest possible combo to display one of these eyes?

or the hallowing is probably the smallest, right?

hmm but it doesn't have the IPS display though

[icy moth]

There’s probably someone who can answer that better.

[wise venture]

@pine igloo - When you say the Circuit Playground "Deluxe", do you mean the original/Classic (https://www.adafru.it/3000), Express and variants (https://www.adafru.it/3333) or Bluefruit (https://www.adafru.it/4333)?

[pine igloo]

express

[wise venture]

You should still be able to use some of the touchpads with the Gizmo attached

[pine igloo]

but I also needed the QT PY for my project but they are sold out 😦

How long does it take on average for these kind of products?

I wanted to link the https://www.adafruit.com/product/4830 connected to it

is that an I2C cable? (sorry I am new to this hobby)

Oh it is stemma QT

[wise venture]

Timing is a tricky thing. Some products are so popular, like the QT Py, MagTag and such, that whenever there's stock, it gets snagged very quickly.

The best option is to sign up for the in-stock notification on the products

[pine igloo]

I just did 🙂

[wise venture]

Welcome to the rabbit-hole of your new hobby! 🙂

[pine igloo]

thank you 😄

[icy moth]

has two qt py

And also some CP Saplings (almost qt py)

[wise venture]

I got lucky to snag one on my last order. ONE

[pine igloo]

I have an injury on my hands so I want to make a capacitive touch controller with capacitive touches, so I need to connect the MPR121 to it.

[wise venture]

And only reason I got a MagTag, is thanks to Adabox!

[pine igloo]

is there any way how I can connect the MPR121 to the playground express?

[icy moth]

Yeah, MPR121 uses i2c so the SDA and SCL pads

[pine igloo]

Does that also work whenever I have the gizmo attached to it already? 🙂
And what kind of cable do I need to connect them?

[icy moth]

CPX doesn’t have Stemma (yet) but could easily use the alligator clip version of the MPR121 and do an alligator clip connection with the CPX

[wise venture]

There are also Stemma-QT to alligator clips

[icy moth]

That too

[wise venture]

Which make a solid fit

[pine igloo]

Could you explain in layman terms how I can attach the MPR121 to the Playground Express while the Gizmo is attached to it? 🙂

[icy moth]

SPI Stemma connection would be a QT SPI 😉

[wise venture]

This guide and page are a good help
https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-mpr121-12-key-capacitive-touch-sensor-breakout-tutorial/python-circuitpython

And I'm checking for connecting to the CPX (Circuit Playground Express)

[pine igloo]

I want to stay away from soldering anything though

[icy moth]

MPR121 is such a great chip. I wish the at42qt1070 had more inputs

MPR121 has an alligator clip version

[pine igloo]

exactly, and it connects via stemma QT

but I don't know what to connect it to, or how I connect the stemma QT to the playground deluxe

[wise venture]

No soldering necessary @pine igloo, you're good 🙂

[icy moth]

https://www.adafruit.com/product/4830

[pine igloo]

yes this is the one I'll be ordering

[icy moth]

Stemma QT is i2c

I2c has 4 pins, Vin, GND, SDA. SCL

You would use the Stemma qt to alligator clip cable to attach to the CPX

https://www.adafruit.com/product/4398

[pine igloo]

okay, but can I still attach the gizmo at the same time in any way?

[icy moth]

Looks like you can use it with Gizmo

[pine igloo]

but arent the connectors in the way then?

the clips*

[wise venture]

The alligator clips from the cables @icy moth linked can clip on solidly to the head of the screw attaching the Gizmo to the CPX

[icy moth]

Should still work, at least I would think

[wise venture]

(just tried with mine to confirm)

[pine igloo]

omg that is amazing, so I can still make it work!

so I can also solder them to the heads of the screws to make it more compact and solid?

[wise venture]

And actually, if you're worried about the clips, you can also use a plain/stripped cable on the CPX size, and hold it down with the screw from teh Gizmo

[pine igloo]

that is even smarter! a tight fit, and no soldering 🙂

[wise venture]

@icy moth For this I'm outside my comfort zone, since the Gizmo uses the SCL and SDA, having a second device on those pins would still be ok, right?

[pine igloo]

do you know if makecode will also work for the inputs from the mpr121 if I connect them like that? Or do I have to do arduino coding to make the capacitive touch things work?

[icy moth]

Gizmo uses SPI?

Unless the audio amp uses i2c

[wise venture]

Looking at this pinout page: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-tft-gizmo/pinouts

[icy moth]

Dang, you’re right. Maybe a custom CP boot loader is in order to reassign

Assuming the unused pins on the CPX are i2c compatible

I’ve never looked too closely

[pine igloo]

This is like chinese to me 😅

[icy moth]

(I know how to do this, there is also great guides on it too)

[wise venture]

Some of it is to me too @pine igloo, fortunately, there's a great huge friendly and helpful community to help 🙂

[icy moth]

Maybe @solemn field might have some insight

They might not respond right away, but Kattni is great.

[pine igloo]

and let's say if I went without the gizmo, what micro controller would you say is the best I can get for the MPR121 with stemma QT?

[icy moth]

That’s a good question

Qt Py is great, but M0 is definitely limited in what you can do

You would want something with a Cortex M4

[wise venture]

Something like a Feather maybe?

[icy moth]

So probably MagTag would be good

Or Matrix Portal

[wise venture]

Good call, since the Matrix Portal has the display too

[pine igloo]

https://www.adafruit.com/product/4745 this one?

[wise venture]

That's the one. Or the PyPortal could be good too, if you want built-in display
https://www.adafruit.com/product/4444

[pine igloo]

the matrix is a little too big I think since I need to be able to hold it as a controller, like a playstation controller. If I build the housing around it, it might become tricky

[wise venture]

The Matrix Portal is just the board, not the whole display. The display is a separate 64x32 LED

[icy moth]

https://www.adafruit.com/product/4382

[pine igloo]

haha yes I get that 😛

[icy moth]

STM32 feather has a Stemma connector

And it’s fast

Had to hunt for this on the ada shop, but it’s in every Stemma board image lol

[wise venture]

Ok, just making sure! Sometimes, it's hard to tell

[pine igloo]

I need a Stemma QT connector on a micro controller to connect the MPR121, right? Not the regular Stemma connector?

[icy moth]

I say Stemma but I mean Stemma qt

[wise venture]

Would the ESP32 Feather possibly work better, since it has the ram and all?

[icy moth]

Nah

Most of the Ram on the ESP32 is used for Wifi

[wise venture]

Gotcha

[icy moth]

It’s why they recommend using psram with it to help out

[rocky bramble]

so i am streaming because i got a new circuit playground express. i have found out that if a neopixel flashes green it makes the screen behind my webcam on OBS visible ......like i see the window behind the webcam it is wild . does anyone know why this is a thing is it similar to green screen tech?

[pine igloo]

It will be a controller for gaming, so it might be handy to have some ram, right?

[icy moth]

@rocky bramble probably

@pine igloo not likely

[rocky bramble]

It was wild dad viewing me couldn't see it. Just me?

[wise venture]

@pine igloo The ram on-board is for the program it would run only, so whether for gaming or other purposes, it wouldn't have an effect

[pine igloo]

So I should go for the STM32? 🙂

[wise venture]

From what @icy moth was saying, I'd say so. Then you've got StemmaQT already on-board and ready to go!

[icy moth]

Unless you want to wait like... probably 3 weeks for the ESP32-s2 feather

That will have Stemma qt as well

😅

[wise venture]

And since it's a Feather board, there's a whole ecosystem of compatible add-on boards, called "Wings". And not only from Adafruit

[icy moth]

I’m going to get the ESP32-s2 feather

[pine igloo]

What will improve?

[icy moth]

Just Wifi and whatnot

[wise venture]

My concern for @pine igloo at this point, with the ESP32-S2 feather, is the possible wait time if the timing isn't right to click that "Buy" button

[icy moth]

Also the tft ESP32-s2 feather

It usually takes like... 4 hours for things to sell out

[pine igloo]

what is that?

[icy moth]

The metro ESP32-s2 sold out in 4 hours

@pine igloo ESP32-s2 tft feather is a variant of the ESP32-s2 feather that Adafruit is working on

Both are coming soon

And I’m stoked

Mostly because I need it for practice on my own ESP32-s2 boards I’m making

Lol

[pine igloo]

any fun little attachments that I can add to the ESP32, apart from the MPR121? Like 2 joysticks? or is there an easy way to let a few cool leds go on that tell me I have pressed a button? 🙂

[wise venture]

I guess the question for @pine igloo is, how soon are you wanting to work on this?

[pine igloo]

I have vacation in a few days, so I'd love to start working on it by then 🙂

so I will have to order somewhere these days

maybe tonight

it is 03:32 here 😛

[icy moth]

If you want to start working soon, definitely the STM32 feather

[wise venture]

In that case, I think I'd go with @icy moth 's original feather recommendation

It'll work for your project, and if you find later you want features from the new boards, they should be compatible

[icy moth]

Yup! 🙂

[pine igloo]

and joysticks or leds? 🙂

[wise venture]

https://www.adafruit.com/feather

There's a couple ideas there to check out! 🙂

[pine igloo]

I will try to squeeze it in my playstation controller to change all buttons for capacitive touch buttons

[wise venture]

Oooh, nice!

I'm curious to see how that works out @pine igloo. And if you end up hitting snags, the #help-with-projects is a great place with lots of knowledgeable folks who can help

[icy moth]

When you get even a small part of it working, try to get on show and tell

It’s super encouraging and the community (especially Ladyada herself) loves to see everything the community is doing!

[pine igloo]

awesome!

would the coding be hard to make the capacitive touch trigger a button press on my keyboard?

oh and does the computer recognize the STM32 as a keyboard? (I have heard that is a thing in micro controllers?)

[wise venture]

It can recognize it as one, yes

There's a several learn guides about it, such as this page from this guide: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-feather-m4-express-atsamd51/circuitpython-hid-keyboard-and-mouse

And it runs CircuitPython, which is an implementation of Python to make it easy and accessible to get going.

[icy moth]

https://tenor.com/view/job-love-sad-gif-5860304

[wise venture]

And again, if you run into snags, this community is... chef's kiss

[icy moth]

Perfect representation of all the content to help you with your project 🙂

[icy moth]

Whoops hit the filter

[wise venture]

lol, good one! I was worried that was aimed at me in a "Don't overwhelm folks!"

[pine igloo]

It is my girlfriends reaction when she sees my controller 😉

[icy moth]

Lol, nah just how it feels first looking at the Adafruit learning site hehe

[wise venture]

lol, is she more of the Atari fan? 2 axis and 1 button?