help-with-projects

[buoyant jackal]

so does pip list show Adafruit-Blinka?

[buoyant jackal]

fastapi may be running in its own venv or in no venv or as root. I don't know what that command does

[desert bane]

That would explain a lot indeed

[buoyant jackal]

sorry, pip list, not --list

[buoyant jackal]

so somehow fastapi is not running the same Python environment as the shell

[desert bane]

Board is in there as well

[buoyant jackal]

that is not part of blinka. We don't have a board package.

[desert bane]

Well, running just FastAPI ran perfectly before calling this list

[buoyant jackal]

that is this totally unrelated package: https://pypi.org/project/board/

uninstall it

but that would not produce a "no module named board" error. That is a different problem.

[desert bane]

Are you sure? You said a few minutes ago that it's part of Adafruit Blinka

[buoyant jackal]

there is NO package named board installed by Blinka. Blinka installs several top-level imports, like board.

[desert bane]

And you poeple use it in many programs as well

[buoyant jackal]

at some point you may have done pip install board by accident

fastapi and blinka

[inland summit]

So...I built this device for nothing?

[red panther]

Try this UF2 instead https://circuitpython.org/board/sparkfun_thing_plus_rp2350/

[inland summit]

So install this new uf2 then drag & drop the files from the project?

[buoyant jackal]

Yes. That’s the UF2 for that board

[inland summit]

Will I need to alter the projects codes to account for the new uf2

[buoyant jackal]

what UF2 were you using before?

[inland summit]

(https://github.com/DavidPagels/retro-pico-switch?tab=readme-ov-file) this is the original project code.

(https://github.com/davidpagels/retro-pico-switch/releases) this is the uf2. I believe it was designed specifically for this project

[buoyant jackal]

This code is in C++, so the choice of CIrcuitPython UF2 is irrelevant. It's not running under CircuitPython.

to use this code, you'll want to check the pin assignments, and maybe move some around if the original pins are not available on this board.

[inland summit]

Ok so, c++won't work in circuit python in the same way an Xbox game won't work in a ps5?

[buoyant jackal]

CircuitPython runs python code. It interprets it by compiling into an intermediate "bytecode" language, and then interpreting the bytecodes. C++ code is compiled into machine code.

in the case of Xbox vs PS5, the processors are different (and the operating systems). Here, the RP2350 is the same, but the program itself is not the same.

[inland summit]

Ok. That makes sense. Is there a converter that will turn c++ into python?

I can work with python easier

[buoyant jackal]

well, you could ask an LLM to do it, but depending on what it's doing, it may not be so easy. And you really need to convert it into CircuitPython, which has specific interfaces for hardware.

[inland summit]

What is llm

[buoyant jackal]

You can compile and run that code using the Pi Pico development tools, but you'll need to point it at a board definition for the SparkFun board, and maybe make some other minor changes, like pins changes, as I said.

[buoyant jackal]

AI Large Language Model

i'd suggest trying to work with the C++ to start with. But you'll need to read about build Pi Pico (pico-sdk) projects

[inland summit]

This was supposed to be a quick easy build to tide me over while I work on the more complex rumble pack version

[buoyant jackal]

well, you could use the original hardware

does the UF2 in the repo not work at all?

[inland summit]

Repo?

[buoyant jackal]

github repository

[inland summit]

It will work on a pico. Used it with my first build. It doesnt work on this board @ all

[inland summit]

Im using the pimoroni pico for the rumble pak. Will the uf2 work on that

[buoyant jackal]

the repo UF2 is for an RP2040. Your board is an RP2350. Close, but not the same, and you can't make compatible UF2's.

if the Pimoroni is RP2040 yes, assuming the pin assignments work

[inland summit]

Nope. 2350

So im screwed

[buoyant jackal]

well, don't take it personally 🙂

it's a learning experience

you CAN learn how to build this for RP2350, but if you're not familiar, it will be a slog

Using the specified hw will be much less of a headache

if you are looking for that form factor, you could pick an RP2040 Feather-sized board

[inland summit]

Will the code files work anywhere with the proper modifications assuming its a c++ environment? Like if I got the proper UF2 file, modified the files & transfered them to the board?

[buoyant jackal]

the UF2 is the C++ code. Unlike CircuitPython, there is no base interpreter running on the board.

you have to build a new UF2 by compiling the C++ code in the proper environment with the proper C++ compiler

CircuitPython is "just a program", albeit a complicated one. It's a program that runs on a lot of boards, and interprents and runs CircuitPython code.

[inland summit]

So, all the files in the project are compiled in the uf2. So they need modification, the missing libraries for the board, & compilation

[buoyant jackal]

Annabelle

[last agate]

have any of you guys used the adafruit ANO directional/rotary pad? I'm thinking about using one for a project, it looks kind of fun and has exactly the functionality i need

[buoyant jackal]

Here are some projects using it: https://learn.adafruit.com/search?q=ano%2520rotary

it works like a regular rotary encoder

[last agate]

yeah, the encoder/button/arrow functionality on it is perfect for what i need, i was just curious of anyone had any hands-on experience in the channel and could be like "oh it's sick" or "ehh it's ok but kinda weird to use" kind of thing

[warm jay]

I am looking for some bluetooth controlled RGB LEDs.
I can only find either addressable RGB LEDs or only the bluetooth controller. But no 'bundle'.

Any suggestions?

Something like this but instead of IR control I would need one with bluetooth

[buoyant jackal]

WLED https://kno.wled.ge/ has wifi control (not BLE). You use its app.
We have various projects, for example:
https://learn.adafruit.com/circuit-playground-bluefruit-neopixel-animation-and-color-remote-control
https://learn.adafruit.com/pyleap-ble-controlled-neopixels-with-clue

and quite a few more

[last agate]

Also, has anyone here used the Trellis keypads? I already ordered some and am going to use them, i was just curious how they feel ... is the silicone pad kind of clicky or thumpy, or does it feel more like a soft keyboard, or a firm squish? it doesn't really matter either way, just curious while i wait for the temporal uncertainty of domestic shipping to process. I've watched loads of videos but no one really mentions the tactile side ofi t

[sage moth]

So, I'd like to put Android Auto in my car, so I'm looking at the Crankshaft project for raspberry pi, has anyone worked with it? I'm trying to figure out why the brightness sets to 0 when switching from day to night and vice versa with the brightness set, it's not honoring the defaults I have in the configuration

[sage moth]

apparently a raspberry pi and screen don't get enough power from USB itself, I may need to invest in some form of PD board to supply 5 volts with sufficient amps

[buoyant jackal]

what is the USB supply you are using?

[sage moth]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09X16V2W6

I think I need to just tell it that I have a higher draw device, the MicroUSB on the Pi doesn't tell it there's more juice needed and I think this thing's compliant with power delivery standards

was looking at https://www.adafruit.com/product/5807 and thinking of just cutting the 1A jumper

[buoyant jackal]

can you just split the power draw from the the two USB-C ports (or even the USB-A) port: one to the RPI and one to the display?

RPi 5V requirements are high, and kinda non-standard

esp for Pi 4 or Pi 5

[sage moth]

I'd have to remove the 5V lead on the Pi2's header for that

[buoyant jackal]

is there a forum or antyhing for the Crankshaft project? I'm sure you're not the first person with this issue.

https://github.com/opencardev/crankshaft/discussions

e.g. https://github.com/opencardev/crankshaft/discussions/760

[sage moth]

yeah, looking at that

[buoyant jackal]

obviously those folks are way closer to the issue

[sage moth]

I think if I use the higher amp ports on the cigarette lighter port adapter I'd be able to push it, but I'd need something like that HUSSB238 to ask the charger for the needed power, if I do that, then it'd just be a matter of injecting it into the 5V pin, which.. admittedly is how I'm powering it on my bench

probably not the smartest thing

[buoyant jackal]

These chargers are not necessarily completely PD-compliant: you may be able to get the current you need without negotiation. Worth trying.

[sage moth]

yeah, I don't have a USB-C to MicroUSB adapter to try it

[buoyant jackal]

do you have USB-C to USB-A socket?

[sage moth]

I do, so I'll try that later

emergency came up so gotta focus on that

[abstract vault]

Small update progress so far

[plush elk]

On the DC Motor + Stepper FeatherWing Add-on, how do I put power into the power block? Specifically what wire do I use because I don't know what keyword to type in the search bar. If I wanted wall power only, what product do I use?

[buoyant jackal]

I'm not sure what you mean by wall power Did you read the guide, e.g. https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-stepper-dc-motor-featherwing/pinouts

power to be supplied depends on the motors you are using

I saw the deleted messages you posted, about a fairly elementary motor control problem. If you are just trying to turn on one motor, without controlling its speed, this is simple:
https://www.adafruit.com/product/5648

https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-mosfet-driver

[plush elk]

even if you can't control it's speed, can you still control when it turns on and off? What product would accomplish this?

[buoyant jackal]

the product above along with a microcontroller board would allow you to turn it on and off. If you want to control its speed too, then you want a motor controller board

what kind of motor?

[plush elk]

I want a TT motor to spin a small water wheel basically. I don't know a single thing about electronics I'm a nature sciences person. I shouldn't need to control the speed, I just need a motor to turn on for 30 seconds, every couple minutes. Does either the mosfet or the microcontroller have a timer feature? Or do I need a 3rd product?

[buoyant jackal]

you would write a program in the microcontroller to turn the motor on and off. A microcontroller is a tiny computer.

the program would wait for 1.5 minutes, turn on the motor, wait for 30 seconds, turn off the motor, then repeat

Here is an example of activating a solenoid for 1 second, then deactivating it, and repeating: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-mosfet-driver/circuitpython-python#example-code-3133146

It could just as well be a motor

the circuitry on that page uses the 3.3V supply, but you would use the 5V supply or some other supply instead

[plush elk]

Okay, is the circut playground the only microcontroller that is both solderless and also compatible with the mosfet motor driver?

[buoyant jackal]

you could use a breadboard and other microcontrollers with pre-soldered headers. The Circuit Playground (make sure you get the Circuit Playground Express, not the "Classic), is the easiest in terms of connecting alligator clips

is the TT motor slow enough for this water wheel?

[plush elk]

I would hope that the weight of the wheel slows it down

[buoyant jackal]

You can also use PWM to slow down the motor

[plush elk]

or is that not how that works

[buoyant jackal]

ideally you would not want too much of a strain on the motor

[plush elk]

hmmm

well maybe digikey sells a slower rpm motor? Would they be compatible?

[buoyant jackal]

but the TT motor is geared down; it has a a noticeable amount of torque

you can adjust the speed of the motor in software

[plush elk]

but isn't the mosfet driver unable to change speed anyway?

[buoyant jackal]

yes, the quickest way to get started is:
https://www.adafruit.com/product/3333
https://www.adafruit.com/product/5648
https://www.adafruit.com/product/4030
https://www.adafruit.com/product/3802

does it need to be battery powered, or would you power it from USB (or a USB power pack)?

[plush elk]

I would prefer a usb with a wall adapter, is that possible?

[buoyant jackal]

yes, that is fine

do you already have a microntroller board of some kind?

[plush elk]

None, I have 0 experience with any of this, so this would be the first

https://www.adafruit.com/product/592 what would be the wall adapter for this cord? I can't find anything by typing in usb A

[buoyant jackal]

yes, get that too

that is just the required cable (buy that too). Do you have a phone charger or other USB charger?

if not, these are possibilities:
https://www.adafruit.com/product/1994
https://www.adafruit.com/product/1995

[red panther]

This is a cool board! I'm going to start recommending it.
I would complain about the lack of gate driver, but it only has 2nC of gate charge so you can comfortably PWM at over 100kHz.

[plush elk]

oh okay thank you I'll get one of those too :D

[buoyant jackal]

so make sure you get a 592 and one of those power supplies if you dn't have some thing like that already

[plush elk]

btw is the circut playground + motor mosfet suitiable to also do the same 30 sec on 1.5 min off with the peristaltic 12V motor?

[plush elk]

yeah I do have a phone one but I prefer to keep my things seperate

[buoyant jackal]

do you want a 12V pump or a motor?

[plush elk]

I have 2 projects, one for the tt motor and one for the pump. I'm just looking to see if the circut playground is good enough for both (I'd be buying 2 circut playgrounds)

[buoyant jackal]

The 12v pump needs 12V. There is a 5v pump: https://www.adafruit.com/product/3910

12v wall power supply, with 2.1mm barrel jack. To connect to the barrel jack, you can use:
https://www.adafruit.com/product/368

The 12v jack will plug into this, and then you can connect wires to the 12v pump

You will supply 12v to the power pin on the MOSFET driver

[plush elk]

I see, I was wondering how a circut playground can handle 12v since I've heard that micrcontrollers are usually only 5v max

[buoyant jackal]

The control signal to control the motor is 3.3V and comes from the CPX (Circuit Playground Express). The 12v is not connected to the CPX directly. It is only connected to the MOSFET driver board

[plush elk]

soldering will be required to connect the terminal block right?

[buoyant jackal]

no, it has screw terminals

that's why I recommend it for you

you just unscrew the screw, stick the bare wire end in, and tighten the screw

[plush elk]

and then the wire goes into the mosfet pin? or

sorry I really don't know any of this 😭

[buoyant jackal]

you can stick a short piece of wire in and grab it with the alligator clip. You could even use a piece of a paper clip

do you know anyone mildly handy who could help you with this?

without just taking over? 🙂

[plush elk]

it's going in here, correct? One for V+ and GND

[plush elk]

no I don't unfortunately

[buoyant jackal]

instead of soldering to those holes, you can use the JST-PH cable with alligator clips. It plugs into the MOSFET driver board. You have it in your cart: https://www.adafruit.com/product/4030

[plush elk]

oh I understand then

https://tenor.com/view/cat-dance-kitty-dancing-gif-7146743647025048867

[plush elk]

@buoyant jackal okay I think this is my final question, will this work? In the JST PH, Black is GND, Red is V+. Both are plugged into the 12V power block by alligator clips which are holding small wire segments, shown in brown. The power block is conneted to the 12V wall adapter. The white singal wire on the JST PH is attached to the A1 port of circut playground. Circut playground is connected by USB-B, which is connected to a Wall adapter. The green and blue wires are just the motor wires.

[buoyant jackal]

ALSO, tie the grounds together from the CPX and the 12v supply. You will want another set of alligator clips for this. Unfortunately we are out of a lot of them, but this is still in stock: https://www.adafruit.com/product/1592
Or you can use something like this:
https://www.adafruit.com/product/866

you will need some wire and a wire stripper: https://www.adafruit.com/search?q=+wire+spool

https://www.adafruit.com/product/147

your diagram is fine except for the missing connection to ground on the CPX

The ground connection is necessary so that the control signal is referenced to the 12v ground

for the 5v motor you would use 5v from the CPX board so you don't need the extra ground connection

[plush elk]

So, the alligator black gnd clip, needs to clip on a wire portion, then that portion is attached to the 3 wire block connector, then from the connector, 2 wires are attached with one leading to gnd on the power jack adapter, and one leading to the A1 CPX port

[buoyant jackal]

If I am interpreting what you wrote correctly, yes. Here is a picture. I added a new black wire pointed to by the blue arrow:

it needs to connect somewhere to the previous black wire connection, whether by some extra terminal, or whatever. Unfortunately these are out of stock: https://www.adafruit.com/product/3448

do you live near a Micro Center or similar? You can find our products there. Also sometimes Digi-Key or Mouser have stock when we don't.

[plush elk]

So the black gnd wire needs to split into two, with one going to the power jack and one going to the CPX. All the while the white singal wire goes into the a1 port and is not altered in any way

[buoyant jackal]

right

and all the black wires need to be connected together, somehow, your choice

so where that 3-way black-wire connection is above, you could use something like that Waygo snap connector.

[plush elk]

Which awg wires are suitble for this task and which are not? I'm assuming 30 awg is too thin and dangerous

[buoyant jackal]

awg 22 is good

the spools above are mostly 22 or 24

[plush elk]

are there any makerspaces / micro centers/ or anything else in LA county? I live there

[buoyant jackal]

Micro Center in Tustin

[plush elk]

okay I think that is it for now, I'll buy then assemble things and have it double checked here before I power it

[buoyant jackal]

good luck!

[plush elk]

https://tenor.com/view/cat-dancing-calico-cat-meme-groove-gif-1725617737278271636

[buoyant jackal]

if you have a makerspace nearby you may be able to get some hands-on help or take a little course, etc.

[snow wolf]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for a 3-phase energy monitoring module that connects to ESP32/Arduino, with specs significantly above the PZEM-004T for industrial-grade use.

My setup:

1. 3-phase 4-wire (3P4W) system with a utility meter (EDMI Mk10MI-3P)
2. Schneider 3P main breaker (see photo attached)
3. Located in Indonesia (230V/50Hz per phase)
4. Want to monitor V, I, active/reactive power, PF, and kWh per phase
5. Prefer non-invasive installation (CT clamp only, no cutting main lines) if possible

Requirements:

• Accuracy ±0.5% or better
• Safety certified (CE, IEC62053-22, or equivalent)
• SPI or UART interface to ESP32

I'm already aware of ATM90E32AS and ATM90E36A as IC options, and boards like CircuitSetup and IPEM (DitroniX) — but I'm wondering if there are other ready-made modules out there that are:

• Plug-and-play like PZEM but industrial grade
• Already carry safety certifications out of the box
• Have good library/community support for ESP32

Has anyone deployed any of these in a real industrial setting? Any recommendations or experience with certified alternatives would be hugely appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[modern violet]

Is anyone aware of a workaround for connecting the new mwx01 mini thermal printers to the Memento?

I've been following the old guide for the cat printer, but all newer versions of the cat printer seem to use a mwx01 firmware, rather than the mx06 firmware. The uf2 file from the guide seems to be incompatible with this newer firmware, so I've been stuck in a 'Can't connect to printer, resetting' loop

[honest drift]

If my Adaftuit ultimate gps breakout refuses to get a fix and never sends ant replies through serial, it may be damaged right?

It worked at some point, I've made sure RX and TX aren't swapped as I've tried both ways.

in_waiting is just always 0, data read is always none
Only way to change that is to connect the GPS Rx and Tx who just shows what I'm sending

[honest drift]

Yeah my GPS is dead :/

Is it possible to do a guesstimate based on altitude calculated from pressure and IMU Yaw Pitch Roll + Linear Acceleration?

[warm jay]

I am looking for a small sliding switch.

Roughly the size of this one here (6.5 mm length)

https://tech.alpsalpine.com/e/products/detail/SSAJ110100/

The "problem" I have with this one is that it might be a bit difficult to attach a plastic cover to it so that it's easier to use

[gritty birch]

I'm brainstorming a solution for a raspberry pi project. The raspberry pi is mounted inside a waterproof enclosure along with an MPPT solar controller and a biggish LiFePo4 battery. I want to have a waterproof solution to connect the solar panel to the controller inside the case. The controller uses an xt30 connection. The problem is I want it to be fairly easy to disconnect the solar panel from the enclosure. I know I can make the connection by passing a wire through a cable gland, but from what I know, that doesn't allow for easy disconnect. I was thinking maybe a bulkhead connector, but I haven't been able to find a waterproof xt30 bulkhead connector. Any other ideas?

[red panther]

There are a lot of “waterproof” connectors, but their actual performance varies widely. What do you need for voltage and current? Does it need to be waterproof when not mated? Should it withstand rain or submersion? Do you prefer solder or crimps?

I am assuming you’re targeting minimum cost and small size.

[gritty birch]

cost doesn't need to be minimal, this is a one-off just for fun/learning. If it's more than the enclosure, that's a non-starter. There's a good bit of space in the enclosure too, so size isn't too important, but there are limits. The solar panel is rated for 110W, 18.4V@6A

Waterproof: more is better, but rain is probably sufficient. The panel might be left outside even when not in use, so yeah, it would be good to have the connectors be waterproof even when not mated. Mild preference for crimps, but solder is fine too.

[red panther]

This looks pretty good. Let me see if I can find the mate... https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/amphenol-ltw/ABB-02PMMS-LC7001/7617195

I think it's this? Please confirm https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/amphenol-ltw/BB-02BFFA-LL7001/7617438 Not sure if the plug is waterproof when unmated

[buoyant jackal]

https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/assets/assets/000/110/655/original/6.1-RuggedizedCablesConnectorsInterfaces.pdf suggests SP connectors (that is a link off a product page)

looks very similar to what Marshal linked to

also M connectors

[gritty birch]

I'm suspicious of the fact that the dates are very different on the datasheets, off by like 5 years

[red panther]

Here's my search if you want to look at other options. Be wary of the crimped connectors - those typically aren't waterproof when unmated unless they're mil-spec, which adds a lot to the cost. https://www.digikey.com/en/products/filter/circular-connectors/circular-connector-assemblies/436?s=N4IgjCBcoGw1oDGUBmBDANgZwKYBoQB7KAbRACY5KIDyBWcgThnJFoA4AGAdk-bYq8ALHwHlhAZhqDOQoXTGMJ3ckIETZ7RowEq507o3Yxuuzp2bTj7SgMbkwyu3BjSwnemDc8YQ-gS8HVwF3Rm46UwCwOnZ2NSjGIUcQoXJZHQC6OSdM9gkYCRC8oSUi9jAYf3AlG04xB0TWWmVuIUKAXQIABwAXKBAAZR6AJwBLADsAcxAAXwJYhBBkSHRsfCJSCiZOLJCHCVsA-bp4I8c4vfPTkCFuXlEAmHtGBUelLxCng6bwL-JCt4SDSfJQMMScKQmcEHB4UCHkejQhGROEHfJIugA1H0KoIxjmaR4iHxLb4iSvUkQ65EnKUtogTogXr9IZjKazAhPUzQJaoTC4AjESBkcnaCwCAomLQSowSITXUVGEmK9golV1AiKxjSLU-LVYrXKujaF7qY0m9QwcwnS3Wqo2cofTVWzjBAjcF3aW2un6pPg7M3aOgakCKzGB2Xeq1Rg0umAU-LmOC2rxVRNgBwphFZknhO48FMHQuxziOBVWxxqiu7Z2lugJivRghtDxA3RWkoU4xtAq2tJVjzizkRVQUv0FLHjpIM7p9SCDEYTaZzcCuiA85arAUbYWh-7hBX7iLqfcsE-KXuakptNXPDwzplzhds5cBIw6Dd8taCzZ1dorgBaD8kCgEYAFd1iFMgIH-AgANYT9IHAyDNgUf8V3gHlRgAE36AD3GkZl5wEABHHoAE9%2BncAQKK6HB%2BjQLBkBmGYgA

Also, DigiKey's price sort is messed up this week. I don't know what's going on

[gritty birch]

https://www.amazon.com/SZJELEN-Waterproof-Circular-Aviation-Connector/dp/B07CCJQ14J

does that look viable?

[red panther]

Looks ok. It's a back-side nut, so you may have to put it through the hole before you terminate the other end. Make sure the connector can handle the cord diameter of your solar panel

[red panther]

Actually, the panels on my roof have two wires instead of a bundled cable. I wonder if yours is like that too?

[prime falcon]

hey folks! 👋🏻 i am working on a small project to build a clock with an RGB Matrix panel, but the panel stays completely blank/black every time i run the demo app. i feel like i’ve ruled out most of the basic stuff, but i’m still getting a totally black display.

hardware:

Raspberry Pi Zero 2 WH
Adafruit RGB Matrix Bonnet (3211)
Adafruit 64x32 RGB LED Matrix, 3mm pitch (2279)
5V 4A power supply (Qualtek QAWA-24-5-US01)
Also tested with a second/new bonnet
Also tested with a second/new ribbon cable
Also tested with a second matrix panel: Adafruit 32x32 (2026)

what i verified:

Demo command for 64x32: sudo ./demo --led-rows=32 --led-cols=64 --led-gpio-mapping=adafruit-hat -D 0
Also tried 32x32 command for the other panel
SSH’d into the Pi and confirmed I’m actually on the Pi
The demo starts and stays running with no errors besides the normal isolcpus=3 suggestion

wiring/troubleshooting done:

Bonnet is seated firmly on the Pi header
Ribbon cable tested on both original and replacement cable
Panel power connected to VCC/GND correctly
Measured ~5.12V at bonnet screw terminals
Measured ~5.10–5.13V at panel power connector with a multimeter
Swapped in a brand new bonnet
Swapped in a brand new ribbon cable
Swapped in a second panel (32x32) and got same result

weird symptom:
The panel stays completely black during demos, but if I unplug the Pi USB power while the 5V matrix power is still connected, I briefly see 1–2 rows / random flicker on the panel.

at this point I’m wondering: does this sound like a Pi Zero 2 WH GPIO/header issue? any known compatibility issue with this stack? would appreciate any input!

[brisk dust]

Hello

Anyone ever used a ds1603l (uart ultrasonic level sensor) with a rp2040 ?

[red panther]

It’s the 3.3v one with UART?

Cool method, sending the ultrasonic pulse through the water instead of the air

[brisk dust]

3.3 to 12v

[buoyant jackal]

The Pi Zero +V power should not be tied to the other 5V supply. The grounds should be tied together.

I suggest you open a thread on https://forums.adafruit.com. Include pictures and descriptions of your wiring, what OS version the Pi Zero is running, which guide are you following, etc.

[brisk dust]

It's to measure beer in bright tanks at job. Since the tanks are under pressure I can't put things in it.

[brisk dust]

Thanks for the file

[brisk dust]

For inox pressurized beer bright tanks.

[red panther]

Nice! So what’s going on? Do you see any communication back from the sensor?

I guess I assume everyone has a scope, which isn’t true. But you could find out with an LED

My cheap FTDI boards have the LEDs built in, very handy

The datasheet really doesn’t say much. I found some discussion on the Arduino forums https://forum.arduino.cc/t/how-to-read-serial-data-from-non-contact-ultrasonic-liquid-level-sensor/507781/16

It’s not even clear if the voltage levels are TTL or true RS232

[brisk dust]

Still in the bag, just got it. Going to prog it later today to test it at job monday.

[prime falcon]

thanks, i created a thread yesterday https://forums.adafruit.com/viewtopic.php?p=1087209

[brisk dust]

Was reading it earlier this week

[red panther]

I hope it works! Is the brite tank single-walled at the bottom or does it have the glycol sleeve there too?

[brisk dust]

Single walled they are in a cold room.

[red panther]

You may have to play around with adhesive methods, as I expect double-stick tape will not work on a curved surface. I think there are some puttys used for accelerometers that might work

[brisk dust]

The view glass on top are always foggy

[brisk dust]

Going to try the ultrasound gel method first. So I can test on different vessels. I got 12 tanks to monitor

[red panther]

I’ve never used it. Is it sticky enough to hold the sensor on?

[brisk dust]

My boss thinks the idea is a waste of ressources. But having losses in beer is bad

[brisk dust]

For the test it will be a manually hold in place method. And I'll also try the lateral detection on the side as a level identification too

Like if the sensor was an nf one

I can 3d print a bracket to hold it too.

Should I use the pico or an esp32 s2 wroom?

[red panther]

I always prefer the pico, but it’s up to you

ESP32 has deeper sleep modes, if you’re running on battery, but nRF is even better for that

[brisk dust]

For now it will be on pico with a breadboard. I wonder if I add a display or not.

[brisk dust]

I'll need a way to test the codes via my android device. Do you know a good app for that?

[red panther]

Try this one: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.kai_morich.serial_usb_terminal

Or if you don’t want a cable, there’s this https://www.adafruit.com/product/2479

[brisk dust]

Now I can't seem to have it reading properly

But I have not looked at a lot of codes yet

[brisk dust]

Rx tx pins had to be inversed in the connector...

[brisk dust]

The terminal result. Yup I print data to see if it changes

[brisk dust]

Why do I have xFF instead of 255?

[buoyant jackal]

0xff is 255 in hex

looks like you're printing a bytearray or a bytes. each byte is printed either as a printing character (like "a") or if not recognized as a printing character, as a hex-escaped character

[brisk dust]

Thanks

I am doing a beer filtration while coding... not the best thing to do

[brisk dust]

Ok, now it aways gives me 0mm. I switched rx and tx wires in the connector. Since on the dev hat I have GPIO4 and GPIO5 are under the 5v and gnd just over them

[red panther]

Can you try on something easier like a plastic container full of water? 5 gallon bucket should work

I think nobody is really sure if it works through the stainless tank

[brisk dust]

Will do later this week. Got a huge week. Brewing 3 days.

[brisk dust]

Seem so.

[red panther]

I was really hoping it would though. The other options are not good.

[fringe vessel]

Hello im working on a project that uses the ultra flexible white led strip for a small rectangular stage. Could anyone tell me what parts that I should order alongside the 1m strip so that I can use it. Or is it a plug and play kind of thing?

[red panther]

Depends on the strip. Some are 5v, some are 12v, some are 24v. Generally they have resistors built in and are fairly forgiving. Also different strips draw different amounts of current at a given voltage.

[buoyant jackal]

what is the adafruit part number or link?

There are multiple strips: https://www.adafruit.com/search?q=ultra+flexible+white. The product description says whether they are 5v or 12v or something else

[fringe vessel]

This is the product link. Thanks for the help 😃 https://www.adafruit.com/product/4612#technical-details

[fringe vessel]

^^

[red panther]

12V 1A should be plenty. Check your local thrift store.

[fringe vessel]

what kind of connection is it? do I just need 12v 1a acdc power chord? i was looking at the other connections and they used micro controllers to connect them

[red panther]

Yeah, it’s 12VDC. More than a microcontroller can supply unaided. There’s a red and a black wire soldered onto the end. Red is positive.

Terminal blocks are a nice long-term solution for connecting them. I think the new fad is the Wago lever nuts

Of course you can do classic options like soldering or spade terminals

But if you do want to turn it off and on with a micro, there’s this cool option https://www.adafruit.com/product/5648?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21079227318

[fringe vessel]

thank you 🙏 @red panther

[fading plinth]

I am going through it trying to make a HUB75 display arcade machine. I have a raspberry Pi 5 (3.3V logic) connected to a Matrix Portal (3.3V logic), connected to my Hub75 boards. I am coming across 2 problems. The first is that when I run test code just through the matrix portal (not involving the Raspberry Pi) the data which appears on the screen is incorrect, the wrong color, stagnant etc. The other issue I am coming across is when using ssh to communicate with the Raspberry pi, it is saying that there is nothing connected to the rx/tx port event though the baud rate is the same for the matrix and the pi and they are connected through a common ground. I feel like replacing the matrix portal but I'm convinced it could be a hardware issue where both the Hub75 and Matrix are broken the night before I present at 9am.

If anyone has some advice that would be incredible

[red panther]

I can’t help with the hub75 board, but I have experience with ssh. Are you saying that the serial port works when you log into the Pi directly (with display and keyboard, I suppose) but not over ssh? If so, I expect you are logging in to two different accounts.
Or perhaps you’re saying that the serial doesn’t work and ssh is simply your preferred mode of access. In this case we can narrow it down. Connect rx and tx and see if your messages are returned. (It’s called a serial loopback for this reason). If so, connect back to the matrix portal. Remember Tx on the pi should be wired to Rx on whatever you’re trying to talk to. Verify your baud rate, parity, stop bit, etc

By the way, what program are you using for the serial port? GNU Screen is a classic, but tio is the new kid on the block

Screen is also used as a terminal multiplexer, but I never figured out how to do that AND use a serial port, so I switched to tmux

[brisk dust]

I have to get some ultrasound gel for my testing tho. The interface is not good without fixation.

[fading plinth]

The Matrix Portal was/is connected directly to the raspberry pi 5 through rx/tx connections. I used ssh connection through my computer (since I have no compatable keyboard) and when I sent a check through to see if they were communicating there was no response from the matrix portal even though both were powered, on, had a common ground, and were connected through pin 8 and 10 on the Pi (Tx, RX) and the tx and rx pins on the matrix

[crude wigeon]

Hi, I need some help with a NeoPixel Ring 24 setup. I’m working on an interactive art project using 5 rings (24 LEDs each) and 5 RFID readers connected to an Arduino Mega.

Right now, one of the rings is malfunctioning. All the rings are powered by a 5V 10A power supply. Everything was working fine last night, but I disconnected the rings and power from the Arduino so I could bring the project home from university.

Today, after reconnecting everything, one pixel on one of the rings lights up blue even when the Arduino isn’t powered on.

Does anyone know what might be causing this or how to fix it? I don’t have much experience with electronics since I’m an art student, so please bear with me. Thanks in advance!

[fringe vessel]

Is there a way to be able to control the brightness of the lights for a controlled lab setting

[red panther]

Too bright for you? You could dim with a screwdriver and LM2596. Or you could do PWM with a microcontroller and that mosfet driver

Or a rheostat 😂

[buoyant jackal]

you could try a lower voltage, down to say 9v, but it's not as effective as PWM

If you are in a lab maybe you have a variable DC supply you can experiment with. Don't go above 12v

[buoyant jackal]

does the project work otherwise? The single LED may be coming on by itself due to noise. If you power up the microcontroller first, and then the rings, that may help

make sure the grounds of the rings and microcontroller are tied together (but NOT the 5v lines)

[inland summit]

For this (https://blog.4dcu.be/diy/2023/12/03/pi-pico-usb-c.html) where should I wire in the resistors exactly?

Im planning on using something like this (https://www.adafruit.com/product/5467) so I technically dont need to worry about usbc stuff but I want to be prepared for all cables

[spice orchid]

if i need to read & configure multiple i2c sensors (camera, spectral, etc) would it be safer to do bare metal on a feather with stemma, or would a general purpose (linux) OS on rPi be fine with stemma board connected to GPIO? My main concern is i2c timing

[red panther]

I2C is slow. The fastest option is to use multiple I2C ports.

[red panther]

I guess I misread, you said “safer” not “faster”. What unsafe condition are you anticipating?

[buoyant jackal]

an RPi is fine, in general. There are some quirky I2C sensors that don't obey the I2C protocol that well, but what you are describing sounds fine.

there are plenty of people who use an RPi to read I2C sensors.

[spice orchid]

one sensor is the AS7343, if i recall each channel needs to be read individually (I could be wrong about this). But if true, is it possible i read channels 1-5 during integration cycle #0 and 6-12 during cycle #1 and get corrupted data? Just wanted to make sure i read these reliably. I was thinking 3 scenarios
(1) Android phone <-- USB / I2C bridge --> sensors,
(2) rpi <--> sensors, and
(3) ESP32-S3 <--> sensors
I was wondering which would be the most reliable

[red panther]

If a sensor requires high throughput, best to put it on its own bus regardless of platform. MLX90640 is like that too. If you are worried about the delay between subsequent transfers, you will need to hook up a logic analyzer and see for yourself. The cheap 24Mhz 8 channel analyzers are more than adequate for this purpose and easy to use with the Pulseview fx2lafw driver

[wet shore]

I'm putting together an RGB cabinet lighting project with an arduino nano and 6 daisy chained neopixel jewels. I'm running it on a 5V 2.5A power supply and powering the pixels direct from the psu not through the nano.

I figure the jewels will draw a max of about 2.4A at full brightness - which I can limit in the software. The total wire run for all the jewels will be around 5m with 0.5-0.7m between jewels.

Do I need an power capacitor and/or data line resistor in this setup ?

[red panther]

You’re referring to this guide? The tips seem to be to increase the reliability and longevity of the project. https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-neopixel-uberguide/best-practices

[buoyant jackal]

see above. As Marshal mentions, these are desirable but not always necessary.
In the setup you describe, consider feeding power to the strips at the far end as well as the near end, and maybe at least one place in between as well. This ameliorates voltage drop along the strips.

if these are for long-term use, see https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-neopixel-uberguide/best-practices#neopixels-are-not-intended-for-long-term-permanent-use-such-as-room-lighting-dot-dot-dot-but-here-are-some-tips-to-make-the-most-of-it-3144813 as well

[inland summit]

If I wanted to make a display for coding on that uses alphanumeric displays, how would I go about that?

[wet shore]

That wasn't specifically what I referenced but that's the general gist. I want sure because the neopixel jewels have caps and resistors on the board already and the guide seems to talk mostly about neopixel strips.

[buoyant jackal]

"display" is pretty general here, so more specificity would help

[inland summit]

I want it to display lines of code. No visual displays, no internet, just code

[noble fossil]

do you have some sample photos of what sort of display you’re thinking of? many “alphanumeric” displays are fairly limited (uppercase only, few symbols). or maybe they’re coarse dot matrix with full ASCII, but only 40x4 or something

or are you maybe thinking of something more along the lines of an old school VGA laptop in text mode?

[red panther]

If you’re going for retro style, this site has examples https://stocksclocks.com/index.php/word-clocks-angry-electrons/

I wonder if you could make your own Nixie tubes with tungsten wire and a vacuum pump?

[inland summit]

I was thinking these (https://www.adafruit.com/product/2154) just tiled out for a couple of rows, maybe a 30x10 character display. Unless lower cased letters are needed in the code, im fine with it being capitalized.

[inland summit]

I thought of going nixie but never had great luck with high voltage

[red panther]

Ok. Have you figured out the dimensions and power requirements of a 30x10 14-segment display?

Could draw 12A if half the LEDs are lit ☀️

Maybe a 14” diagonal display?

Ambitious but doable

[noble fossil]

i’ve seen maybe up to 80x4 for a character LCD that could do full ASCII, but i think those were custom for a portable word processor or note taker

[red panther]

Gonna take 300 SPI shift registers

Probably want a modular design so you can order 150 boards and snap them together

And then the display driver… who knows??? Not my cup of tea

[noble fossil]

the LEDs you’d almost certainly want to multiplex somehow

but i don’t know if you’d get an acceptable flicker rate with only driving one character at a time

[wet shore]

So I'm not using strips I'm using individual neopixel jewels. I'm not super concerned about longetivity as they're probably not going to get a ton of use.

Basically these are lighting for a series of Lego display shelves in our theatre room. The room doesn't get much use so it's going to be more of a "hey check this out" party trick than a permanent lighting system

[gritty birch]

What about VFDs? are those too much voltage?

Something like this: https://newhavendisplay.com/4x20-character-vf-glass-display-5x7-dot-matrix/

[inland summit]

Might work if it comes bigger

[buoyant jackal]

Sorry, I misread and though you were using 5m of strips, not just 5m of wire. Then what you are planning sounds fine. You could get away without the cap or the resistor.

[buoyant jackal]

So is this project meant to illustrate aesthetics of a coarse character-only display? A regular pixel-based display can of course display only text.

is it an art piece?

[gritty birch]

Once upon a time there were bigger VFDs, I'm not sure if anyone makes them much bigger than that anymore.

they've fallen out of favor

Noritake also makes some, feel free to poke around further, but here's the biggest I can casually find: https://www.newark.com/noritake-itron/gu126x64f-k612a4/display-vfd-blue-green-41-5mm/dp/01M7904?CMP=KNC-GUSA-GEN-PMAX-Shopping-New

[wet shore]

Dang shipping from US > AUS from adafruit is pricey =\

[red panther]

Yeah, it’s halfway around the world. Did you check the Aussie distributors?

[wet shore]

Its definitely gone up over the years. For some reason I was convinced the item I was after was only available at adafruit but I just found it on core. No idea why I couldn't find it before.

[inland summit]

Functional piece to code on

[buoyant jackal]

all the character LCD displays like https://www.adafruit.com/product/398 that I know of have incomplete character sets. Is this to have a minimal coding environment? Would a GUI-less display setup be as good?

[inland summit]

These ones are a little small but would work. Wanted to do the other ones for a challenge but it might be a little outside my capabilities. & yes, minimal coding environment

[noble fossil]

what languages? most modern programming languages are too verbose for less than 80 columns

[inland summit]

Python languages & maybe c++

[brisk dust]

@red panther I managed to make it work on a stainless cambro. I'll need a way to install it on the bright tank.

[shut locust]

Hi everyone! I'm working on a project where I'd like to use the Adafruit INA228 breakout board, but I noticed the onboard shunt resistor only supports up to 10A, and my project requires measuring higher currents (around 30A).

Is there a way to use an external shunt resistor instead? How should I physically configure the board to bypass the onboard 15mΩ shunt and use my own external one? I couldn't find clear information about this in the official guide.

Thanks in advance!

[buoyant jackal]

Some discussion of that here: https://forums.adafruit.com/viewtopic.php?p=1005152

that is the most interesting thread; there are some others

[red panther]

Copper wire has a temperature coefficient of 0.39%/C which could severely limit the accuracy. Are you sure you don’t want to use a sensor that can actually handle the 30A?

[shut locust]

We need to measure voltages around 30V and currents up to 30A in a solar panel system that involves 3 panels, charge controller and batteries. Precision is not critical but I'd like reasonable accuracy. What sensor would you recommend? Thanks btw

[red panther]

I have an analog Allegro sensor that goes up to 100A. Hard to solder with an iron but should be easy with a hot plate. DFRobot made a breakout for the 50A version https://www.dfrobot.com/product-2639.html

[red panther]

Pololu has some options too https://www.pololu.com/category/118/current-sensors
Make sure the one you pick can handle 30A continuous. Some of the little chips can only do full current for a brief period

I normally don’t like to advertise competitors products, but in this instance the Adafruit sensors just don’t go up to 30A

Anyway, if you don’t like any of these options we can see what LEM or Texas Instruments have to offer

[gray basalt]

What are good starter projects would you think? I think having some good starter links pinned to the channel would be tops

[molten iris]

The Learn Guides have a beginner tag: https://learn.adafruit.com/guides/beginner

[buoyant jackal]

Post here for project help that doesn't fall into #help-with-circuitpython, #help-with-arduino, or another #help-with- category. Also see https://forums.adafruit.com, which is Adafruit's official support channel. And see https://learn.adafruit.com for thousands of projects and tutorials.

[twilit glade]

hello everyone, i have a question. i am building a gt3 style racing wheel for sim racing, that wheel has 11 buttons and 3 rotory encoders with a push function. now my question is what kind of board can i use for that project? because a arduino pro micro has to little amount of pins? or am i seeing it wrong?

actually i have 2 more buttons for paddle shifters

[hard ocean]

If you wire everything directly, the arduino pro micro would have too little amount of pins, but you could actually wire your buttons up in a matrix

with a matrix you can definitely wire everything with the pin limit of the pro micro

[twilit glade]

Ah yeah i thought that i needed to do that

[hard ocean]

i mean you could also use another board but a matrix is a good option

[twilit glade]

I have never used a matrix, can i build one myself? Or do i need to order 1?

[hard ocean]

you can wire it yourself

just using your buttons

[twilit glade]

Okay, there are prob tutorials for som like that?

[hard ocean]

For the code on the otherhand, you should be able to use https://github.com/victorsvi/MatrixKeypad library, should make it pretty easy

[hard ocean]

Let me see if i can find any good ones

[twilit glade]

Thank you!

[hard ocean]

This tutorial seems nice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dop0SoD2XL8

im watching it myself right now 😄

[buoyant jackal]

also easily done in CircuitPython, but not with an Arduino Pro Micro: https://learn.adafruit.com/key-pad-matrix-scanning-in-circuitpython

[quasi knot]

is there an off-the-shelf 24v digital temperature control module that can reach 300c? I am making a "3d pen" for fiber filled nylons out of some spare printer parts and that is the critical missing peice. I would like to avoid using a dedicated printer control board if I can.

[upper escarp]

I need some help with simple pots! I have three 10k pots connected to the A3, A4, A5 pins on a Feather M4. This is on a breadboard. The readings are incredibly noisy! I'm using the ResponsiveAnalogRead library, but it's not enough. Am I doing the HW set up wrong? Is it because it is breadboarded?

Bigger caps? Do I need opamps in there?

Also possibly an issue: Those are Adafruit "works great for breadboarding" pots... but they don't sit as nearly as securly as I'd like, and I had to bend the side wings to get them in...

[fleet terrace]

is GND on the breadboard connected to GND on the Feather?

[upper escarp]

Yeah... a little hard to see - the black/white ribbon pair to the top is then wired back to the power/gnd rail via those two green jumper wires

And that's a 100nF cap under those green wires between power and GND

[red panther]

What is the 1k resistor for?

If you’re intending a low-pass filter, it should be between the pot and the cap

But with a 10k pot, the equivalent resistance of the pot will dominate most of the time except when all the way up or down

It might be informative to put a scope probe at your A3/4/5 pins and see what the ADC is seeing

[upper escarp]

It was in a circuit I copied... Then later added the cap from the wiper at some forum posts suggestion...

[red panther]

Ok

Let’s do some calculation

What is the highest frequency you want to see?

Alternatively, how fast do you need the pots to respond?

[upper escarp]

100hz would be great... But could be half that

Controlling synth parameters, so should feel smooth

Even reading 20x a second might be okay... A little less smooth than I'd like

[red panther]

Ok. So let’s pick 100Hz as a corner frequency. The formula is 2*Pi*Freq = 1/(r*c)

Let’s say r=3.5k because that’s the combination of the 10k pot at halfway plus the 1k

That comes to 454nF. So your cap is about right

But put the 1k between the cap and the pot

[upper escarp]

Okay... I had tried it.. still glitchy... But I'll rewire and take a scope picture

[red panther]

Also take a look at Aref

[upper escarp]

(after lunch! 😁 )

[upper escarp]

Should I be using Aref for the + side of the pots?
And should we just drop the 1k resistor? I assumed it was extra protection for the SAMD51

[oblique bone]

Hey again folks. Does anyone here have a portable RP5 device like a cyberdeck? I'm toying around with the idea and am curious about how people are getting 5A at 5V to the device. I'm familiar with LiPo batteries having 3.7V. I'm curious about how combined series and parallel pairs of batteries increasing voltage and lifespan, then regulating down to 5V. I'm not yet sure how that would affect charging though.

Now that I think of it, I think I backed my way into making a home made laptop battery? Maybe I answered my own question lol. Any input based on personal experience is still greatly appreciated

[fleet terrace]

No. AREF is meant to be a reference input to the Microcontroller.

[upper escarp]

So, caps put after the 1k resistors... pink is Aref, yellow is my synth output (after the DAC) - and blue is one of the pots, measured over on the feather tripler pin

You can see from the MEASURE line on the scope, that the P2P is 200mV... which seems like a pretty big swing for something that goes 0V to 3.3V.

Zooming in

That spike is about 200mV... and the frequency of these spikes is.... 2x 1.54MHz which is.... (smoking gun sound) the bit clock of the I2S DAC

And that bigger spike happens at 48.4kHz (the sample rate... closest that Feather M4 I2S can get to 48k... but that's a story for another day).

If I put a scope on the 3.3V rail on the breadboard... I don't see this noise.... so where is it coming from? How do I get rid of it?

[upper escarp]

Hrm... that noise is on the power rail, as well... but at only 26mV p2p. So much less. Do I need extra decoupling caps on my bread board? I added a 10uF and did... nothing.

[gray basalt]

What are your building to lazy to scroll up on mobile

I just built a k8 cluster with 4 Pi 4s

[upper escarp]

Me? I'm building the core of a synth module.

[wet shore]

Has anybody ever done anything interesting with the PyGamer - specifically utilising the feather sockets on the back ? The most interesting thing I think I've seen is a thermal camera build, but I was wondering if there more out there that I've not been able to find.

[red panther]

Radiated emissions? I guess the wires to your I2S DAC are acting as an antenna. There’s a lot of ways to fix this.

• Use an op-amp to buffer the pot output
• Use a lower impedance pot (100 ohms?)
• Add a shield between the I2S lines and the pot
• Use shielded cable for the I2S or the analog signals
• Move the wires further apart
• Add additional filtering or RF chokes to the analog wires

CORRECTION:
I changed my mind and think it’s conducted emissions. The pots and the I2S DAC are on the same breadboard with the same power and (!!!) the same ground. Ideally they should be on a separate breadboard with their own power and clean ground.

If you don’t have another breadboard, you can at least use a separate ground rail

[upper escarp]

In this little set up I only have the regulated power from the Feather M4... But when this gets to the next stage, I can separate the power & ground from the two.

Meantime - I turned on the ADC Averaging feature and that seemed to do the trick for now

[red panther]

We don’t actually have analog ground on the feather, but you could run a separate wire

Two AA batteries could make a very clean supply for the pots

Glad the averaging feature worked though

[inland summit]

Is ᚦere a way to add data in to a pico ᚦat doesnt involve ᚦe test points?

@red panther diodes on the blue line right?

[red panther]

Does it need diodes? I thought we decided the pico already had a diode. As for the haptic motor, it only has one source so should be fine sans diode

[inland summit]

I always add diodes as a safety measure just to make sure, or @ least I try to

If it doesnt need it ᚦough, ᚦat's one less ᚦing for me to do

[inland summit]

If i were to bridge the reds like this would that be safe?

[red panther]

I don’t remember if the battery chargers will backfeed onto the 5V line

[inland summit]

So a diode would be a prudent safety measure

[inland summit]

Would this work

[red panther]

Two diode drops? Did you do the math?

[inland summit]

Nope. Just trying to isolate them frome each other

This better?

[red panther]

Does anyone here have an ultrasonic flow sensor they like? We use the Keyence ones at work but I’d like something less expensive for home use. My goal is to monitor irrigation water usage and do some signal processing. Maybe SPC to tell if a sprinkler head breaks by the increased flow for that zone

[inland summit]

Can brass standoffs make good electrical connections? Im thinking of using a pair to connect the boards on either side of the golden needle & just passing the power & ground through the standoffs

[red panther]

Yeah, brass is a good conductor. Neat idea!

[spring kite]

I have a Feather RP2040 that I've used a good amount over the past year. Randomly, pin D24 no longer runs at 3.3V when I set this GPIO HIGH. Any ideas why? It's pretty reliably going to 0.42V now. Maybe it's tired?

All the other GPIOs are working as expected.

[inland summit]

Figured why waste wire when I can use ᚦe standoffs ᚦat are gonna be connected anyways

[bold hollow]

I think ive seen some boards do this

[red panther]

Yeah, sounds like the output transistor failed

I’ve caused that to happen by shorting the output to ground

[sick brook]

Hmm I've been working on a interactive robot lately. Using ESP 32, proggramed in micropython proggraming language and using several sensors,

Can anyone rate the look of it out of 10

[buoyant jackal]

it could have gotten fried due to overvoltage or static

[night elk]

I am working on a right angle USB C adaptor for a project, as unfortunately I need to make my own. But I am struggling to figure out how to properly hold these breakout boards in place. I might replace the plug with https://www.adafruit.com/product/5978 so I have points to mount, but I can't find any sockets that have mounting holes that are inline like https://www.adafruit.com/product/5180. Does anyone have any suggestions? The top socket area has to be 14.5mm in diameter, so with about 2mm of plasic that means the board has to be roughly 10mm wide max. I do also have to make quite a few of these, so the less work to get one made the better.

[bold hollow]

Lazy answer hot glue

Better answer, model in some clips

[night elk]

I ended up actually finding a USB C socket breakout (https://a.co/d/039MkxOy) that will work, doesn't have mounting pins but the board isn't inline so I made a seat for it.

[inland summit]

Is there a way to add data in (usb basically) without the test points to a pico? I burned one off. I also can't just plug an adaptor in as there isnt room

[red panther]

You could check the layout. Should be some 22 ohm resisters, but they are likely very small

Are you sure that replacing the USB port on a pico is a good use of your efforts?

If you simply need USB C, you could buy a feather RP2040

[inland summit]

@red panther im looking to using a magnetic conector. While I can route the power lined directly, the data is the hard part. I just need a way to flash uf2 files without opening the casing everytime. I also can't use a feather as the program is designed for pico & i dont know how to alter that

Im also trying to find a diode array to cut down on space used on a custom board but dont know what im looking fore

[red panther]

Looking at this again. You attach one end to a cable and the other end directly to the pico? Why not cut a microUSB cable where you want and insert the connector there, so you can avoid desoldering the pico USB?

Unless I suppose you want a pigtail shorter than the microUSB plug would sllow

[inland summit]

Thought of that. I dont think i have the space really. Maybe I'll hold onto the mag for the custom board

[minor snow]

I just need a way to flash uf2 files …
If can access the .elf file, usually outputted alongside the .uf2 file, then Appendix A of Getting started with Raspberry Pi Pico-series has instructions that would allow you to use the GND, SWDIO, and SWCLK pins to do the equivalent of that.

[inland summit]

Through debug?

[minor snow]

See https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/microcontrollers/debug-probe.html#standalone-program-upload for more details.

[inland summit]

How do I connect this (https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/raspberry-pi-radio-module?variant=55557567971707) to this (https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/rp2040?variant=39345229299795)? I am tired & can't figure it out

[buoyant jackal]

That combination is what the Pi Pico W has on it, so you could look at the schematic for that board. Or you could buy a Pic Pico W.

[inland summit]

Custom board that strips out the unnecessary pins. I have looked @ the schems & i can't figure it out as it doesnt use this specific board. Might be missing something cause im tired

[buoyant jackal]

it is the same radio module; they just started selling it separately

Pimoroni sells their own RP2350 boards with the RM2, so those schematics would also be a guide. The pin choices are probably the same. You could compare Pi Pico W and Pi Pico 2 W schematics to verify that.

[inland summit]

I know. I think its this part here that's throwing me

[buoyant jackal]

https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/pimoroni-pico-plus-2-w?variant=42182811942995

[inland summit]

I can't figure out what ᚦe rt615 part is

[cunning saffron]

which part of that? I've only connected an RM2 to a Pimoroni PGA, not a bare chip, but the RM2 only needs 3v3, gnd, and 4 signals

WL ON, CS, DAT, and CLK

[buoyant jackal]

The RT6154a is a buck/boost regulator chip

I think it's used on all or a lot of Pi Pico boards

W or not

[inland summit]

What is dmg1012t

I think thats the part i need to know now that im looking @ it

[cunning saffron]

websearch will give you a datasheet for that mosfet

[inland summit]

Ok. I think i understand how to wire this but am too tired to be sure. Ill try again later. Thank you

[inland summit]

@buoyant jackal @cunning saffron thank you. After getting some sleep & looking @ your replies, I figured it out. Slowly building away again

[abstract viper]

Hey there! I have built a DSI-RGB bridge board based on the Adafruit prototype one and trying to get the 4Inch 720x720 display working. Bist mode looks good but can't get right output from the DSI side. I have no clue what I'm doing wrong

[abstract viper]

Okay i got the artifacts gone and the golor is right now but the repeated image and vertical rolling is still there, I have no clue whats that about.

[red panther]

Maybe you have X and Y swapped?

Or the wrong resolution?

[abstract viper]

I’ll check in the morning and see whats up, getting late here

To be fair its mind blowing to me I got an image at all, this is my first pcb design

[bold hollow]

That is super cool

[shadow arch]

What is the ideal energy harvester or MPPT for small solar cells that needs to somewhat work indoors as well? Around 5-6.7V Pmpp

[red panther]

Can you measure the current? It’s ok to short the output through the ammeter

I think you’ll find you don’t have enough power to do anything cool. Those solar powered calculators only need 40μA but they don’t have LEDs (5mA) or WiFi (200mA)

Though you can run a microcontroller. Atmega328 at 1MHz needs only 200μA

[shadow arch]

This comment is meant for me? I will charge a few battery cells, and will also have charge option through usb. So doing anything cool is a bit subjective

What manufacturers are on the leading edge for energy harvesters?

[red panther]

Again, I need to know how much current you have to help you find a specific product. I’m not really up on low-power MPP trackers, but you could charge a battery with something as simple as a diode.

Or you could search Digikey and sort by quiescent current

I expect Texas Instruments, Diodes Inc, ST, On Semi, and maybe Analog Devices will have something

[shadow arch]

The cell gives 102mA at Pmpp, but how much it gives indoors im not sure. But i will check for any pmic that has low quiescent current and low startup voltage 👍

[abstract vault]

Hello everyone i once need help for my robot project. I am working on my robot arm project which currenty. Its still far from finished. There are like templates or ai that could write foward kinematics and inverse kinematics but i want to learn it from the ground up so not just copy but understanding. I am very underqualified for this based on my standing but i think i could learn this. Tho there are many vids i haven’t been able to find the right one yet. Anyone who could help out?

[abstract viper]

I got to this point, it looks better but still not what it should be

This is what should be on the screen for refference

[red panther]

So close!
Still looks like the vertical dimension is wrong.

[abstract viper]

panel-timing {
clock-frequency = <35000000>;

                hactive = <720>;
                hfront-porch = <44>;
                hback-porch = <46>;
                hsync-len = <2>;

                vactive = <720>;
                vfront-porch = <16>;
               vback-porch = <18>;
                vsync-len = <2>;

                hsync-active = <0>;
                vsync-active = <0>;
                de-active = <1>;
                pixelclk-active = <0>;

};
port {
panel_in_rgb: endpoint {
remote-endpoint = <&bridge_out_panel>;
};

Ehh:/

[abstract viper]

I can’t figure this nonsense out🥲

Losing my mind over it, i have no clue what I’m doing wrong

[bold hollow]

Is there any way you could use known good variables to narrow down the problem? Im not sure what you are working on exactly though

[abstract viper]

I have basically remade this thing that Ladyada was working on like 3 years ago I think

Same pinout, same components everything is basically the same

Its an ICN6211 bridge board

The icn6211 converts dsi into rgb ttl

And Im using this panel: https://www.adafruit.com/product/5794?srsltid=AfmBOoouXnNdmmNGNLrNlDc5afNLHCMQsRDwIS1QqzQfE9cecZUm3Vpk

The only thing I changed is the microcontroller but for this panel its not needed because it doenst need any init

I can just configure the icn6211 with the linux driver and use an overlay

[bold hollow]

What are you running the code on? Im assuming you've checked if anyone else has done anything similar?

[abstract viper]

Raspberry Pi 5

I’m building a custom cinema camera and I really really want this screen to work over dsi

I have the hyperpixel version of it which is dpi but I hate it cause it uses all GPIO pins and can’t use an audio hat or anything else to be fair

And yeah I checked

[bold hollow]

Ah right, yeah I would probably have looked over whatever code from ada I could find and compare from there, if you've done that I dont think theres much I could suggest, havent tried anything like this

[abstract viper]

No problems and really apreciate it

[bold hollow]

If i couldn't get the driver they had working id probably have despaired lol

[abstract viper]

I aint gonna give up yet

[bold hollow]

Gl, hopefully someone whose done something like this can weigh in, its that or look for drivers for completely different languages as long as they match the chip and see if you can glean anything there haha

[abstract viper]

It went from this to the point where im now

[bold hollow]

Where did you get the panel timings from?

[bold hollow]

This could be wrong, understand i have no idea how any of this works

But if you used this table the units seem to be different between HSD and VSD

Idk if this would have an effect ?

Thats my last guess haha

[abstract viper]

I just realised that I can configure the ICN6211 trough i2c

and went trough lots of values

ALMOST

That small glitch is what I need to figure out

[echo void]

I finally feel confident enough to ask for help.

I am programming a ESP32 to control a set of outputs through a UI/Web server.

I have used a modified version of Rui Santos & Sara Santos Momentary Switch tutorial (1) with excellent results. But I can't seem to figure out how to make a button that when pressed, sends a single pulse only once! My goal is to connect the outputs to a set of PLC inputs on other devices. Thinking about implementing a counter, but does anyone have any suggestions? 🙂

(1) https://RandomNerdTutorials.com/esp32-esp8266-web-server-outputs-momentary-switch/

[buoyant jackal]

when the webserver gets an /on request, it makes the pin high. When it gets an /off, it makes the pin low. What do you want it to do differently?

[echo void]

Thanks for the respons @buoyant jackal!

Currently, the button stays on as long as it is pressed. I would like it to send just a short pulse that can be read by another device, then turn off automatically. My code now uses onmouse and ontouch and debouncing is a problem for my purposes (and the on-state tends to get stuck sonetimes).

I would like something similair to (please forgive my rudimentary concept here):

*If state togglebutton(on)
and
Timer = 0

Pin output set to = HIGH
Start timmer

Timer run = 0-50 ms*

I'm experimenting with counters and millis() currently. I have enough understanding how to do this with PLC programming, gate logic and actual electronic but I only have basic programming skills in C++ and Javascript.

Thank you for your time!

[buoyant jackal]

Maybe use a click event instead? the click event will send on, then delay, then off.

[echo void]

Go on...

I was almost surrendering and soldering a capacitor to the board and calling it quits 😂

[buoyant jackal]

Or you can change the webserver instead so that it's the one doing the delay instead of on the client side. Server receives a click/ request, and then it does HIGH - wait - LOW

doing the delay on the client side would probably make for a less accurate delay, because there's all that web request infrastructure happening in between

i don't know why the HTML button needs debouncing -- that's a bit weird to me.

in other words the webserver does the details of the pin manipulation -- the client just initiates it.

Suppose, for instance, you wanted to toggle the pin twice. Makes more sense to do that in Arduino code than in javascript

[echo void]

Me to, but I thought that adding a delay of some sort or a sequence of 2 pushes might help.

click event was new to me! Will look up.

[buoyant jackal]

if you want to parameterize what kind of pulses you want to send, you can have the client send an argument with the details, like HIGH - delay for n - LOW - delay for n2 - HIGH - delay for n3 - LOW

encode that in a string that the webserver can parse easily

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Element/click_event

[echo void]

Much appreciated (no matter if I can get it to work or no). 🙂

I'll check it out tomorrow!

[echo void]

Update:

@buoyant jackal, I couldn't get the click/ event to work, so I went with what I know and in my <script> configured some variables for a timer. Then I started working on some functions where:

• startTimers() starts and configures the timer
• canButtonActivate() is dependent on the timer
• Modified my original toggleCheckbox() to make it dependent on the canButtonActivate()

As you suggested I am running the timer on the webserver instead of the client.

Tested and works! But I still have a problem with the output is being locked in an ON state. Does anyone have any idea why this happens?

let timerDuration = 5000;
let timerActive = false;
let timerValue = 0;

function startTimer
{
if (!timerActive) {
timerActive = true;
timerValue = timerDuration;
const timerInterval = setInterval(() => {
timerValue -= 100;
if (timerValue <= 0) {
timerValue = 0;
timerActive = false;
clearInterval(timerInterval);
}
}, 100);
}
}

function canButtonActivate() {
return timerValue === 0 && !timerActive;
}

function toggleCheckbox(state) {
if (!canButtonActivate()) {
console.log('Button locked. Timer remaining: ' + timerValue + 'ms');
return;
}
var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhr.open("GET", "/" + state, true);
xhr.send();
if (state.substring(0,9) === "state-on") {
startTimer();
}
}

[shadow arch]

I have made a block diagram for a solar panel power board with battery storage.
The solar panels are mounted on four different sides of a box, and on top. Which is why i have designed in a separate energy harvesting IC for each panel. I expect when one solar panel have full sunlight, the other panels will be dimly lit.
It also have possibility to charge battery and run microcontroller logic from USB-C port.

Anything inherently wrong with this diagram? Anything critical missing?

[bold hollow]

These joins look OK?

[red panther]

Looks great Ungor

[red panther]

The MPPT chips you specified only handle 5V open circuit, but I thought you had 6V solar cells

I think the fuel gauge should separate the batteries from everything else. As it is, the current shunt can see the battery discharge but not charge

[shadow arch]

Ah, good point!

[shadow arch]

I also see that the converters will fight over powering the microcontroller. So i will find another solution there

[upper escarp]

Need some ideas/help for the physical aspect of a project: I'm making a small music synth, and need to figure out the box for it. It's got three pots and three buttons and a display, all need to be on the top, and audio, power, usb, MIDI on the back. I'm thinking something like:
https://learn.adafruit.com/midi-melody-maker/cad-parts
And if so, what's an easy program to design those panels in?
Or, is there a readily available enclosure that would work?

[red panther]

Panels are easy to design even in 2D CAD or hand drawing. The benefit of something like FreeCAD is you can import the models of the parts you want to use. But for user interfaces, it’s hard to beat physical modeling. Get some cardstock or a cereal box and mock it up. See if there’s room for your hands

[upper escarp]

Oh FreeCAD looks nice... I like parametric things. Last enclosure I designed I did in jsCAD, but that was a while a go and a lot of work.

[red panther]

Maybe you don’t need the converter from the USB input at all? Run everything through the battery, it will simplify your topology

[dull lodge]

Hi I’m planning to learn basic zephyr but never used nordics official sdk. Only used micropython for feather sense.
Do you know if feather sense can directly work with zephyr or i need a different nrf52 board?

Feather sense I have:
https://www.adafruit.com/product/4516

I want to finish this module:
https://www.nordicsemi.com/Products/Development-hardware/nRF52-DK/GetStarted

Btw I found this but not sure if there is anything else I have to do

https://docs.zephyrproject.org/latest/boards/adafruit/feather_nrf52840/doc/index.html

[red panther]

I don't understand your question. You have the hardware, you found the documentation. What do you need?

[dull lodge]

If the zephyr is directly usable of feather sense or do I need some firmware/bios change. Thanks for looking into it

[red panther]

Never tried it. Are you running into issues?

I don't have that hardware at my desk and I can't try it on your behalf

But there is no BIOS and the firmware is the operating system + application. So I still don't understand your question.

By the way, there are 138 nrf52840 boards supported by Zephyr. If any of them are actively maintained, then the Bluefruit will probably still work.

Probably only the Adafruit ones will support the UF2 (usb) programming method, but a UF2 can be created from a Hex or Bin file if needed

[brisk rain]

zephyr is the firmware so yes, you'll need to flash it

[sage yarrow]

Hello!
Saw the recent blog post about the TCS3448 from ams-OSRAM.
I'm building a wearable health light monitor and the TCS3448 seems ideal: passive ambient sensing, lower power, same driver as the AS7343.
Any timeline on a breakout board? Happy to beta test if helpful. Was thinking of running the TCS3448/AS7343 breakout running on a Feather nRF52840 and TCS3448 seems better than AS7343 for this use case.

[willow scaffold]

Assuming I place factory fresh components on my own PCB to replicate the functionality of an AudioFX board, what state would the VS1000 and memory chip be in? Can I just pull GPIO6 low and drop a .bin file onto the memory right away or are there other requirements? There's a forum thread on this linked in the tutorial where someone's using something like an FTDI friend (which I don't have) and there's mention of formatting and writing disk images, but I'm not sure if that's all just related to faulty units.

[wooden pecan]

Hey! 👋
We’re a high school team from Al-Ola Secondary School in Jubail 🇸🇦 competing in WRO 2026. We’re starting from scratch with Raspberry Pi 5 and would love to learn how to set up and assemble the components the right way.
Would love to meet up and learn from you! Even a short session would be awesome 🙌
— Al-Ola Team, coached by Mr. Badr

[red panther]

Saudi Arabia? Cool. I don’t know if anyone here has WRO experience though. I did FRC.

[inland summit]

When making light pipes for multiple leds, do you need a separate piece for each light or can it all be connected

[gloomy portal]

@inland summit - I made a little 3DP lightpipe for the Fruit Jam last year. It was a single print with multiple holes. I made sure to use black PLA. There was a bleed trough with the default case that did not have any separation between LEDs.

https://github.com/mikeysklar/fj-tunnel

[abstract vault]

SINCE NO ONE HELPED BEST WAY TO LEARN KINEMATICS FOR REAL IS TO WATCH STATICS THEN DYNAMICS THEN KINEMATICS FULL FREE ONLINE COURSE FROM UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR JEFF HANSON HE TEACHERS BASICS TO ADVANCED THINNGS EVERYTHING YOU GOTTA KNOW

[red panther]

Ok. Hope you figure it out

[fading cove]

what lmao

[red panther]

I think he was asking for help with six-axis kinematics. I sent a resource that was a little too advanced because I assumed he was comfortable with calculus.

[fading cove]

Ahhh

[warm jay]

Question:
Assuming I have an ESP32 board

How can I set it up in a way that I can send code to it over wifi? (Like a firmware update from my PC or phone)
And how can I set it up in a way that it automatically downloads an update from github for example?

[red panther]

There’s the circuitpython web workflow. I think you could write something to periodically check for updates on github and download them.

ESP-IDF may also have its own OTA update mechanism

[cunning saffron]

In CircuitPython, there is dualbank https://docs.circuitpython.org/en/latest/shared-bindings/dualbank/index.html but I think it's no longer included in builds by default. For code (but not firmware) in CircuitPython, there is https://docs.circuitpython.org/en/latest/shared-bindings/supervisor/index.html#supervisor.set_next_code_file and other tools that let you change the code that's running.

[buoyant jackal]

is it circuitpython you want to use, or something else?

[inland summit]

Ok. Need some logical support. If I'm trying to make a self centering clamp for a 3d scanner, then the easiest way to do it would be to have the prongs that secure the piece essentially measure the distance between themselves & center & self adjust till the measurement is even. This works on consistently sized objects such as a ball. But how would I do inconsistency shaped objects like an n64 controller?

I suppose if I can center one direction I can center the others, the issue ultimately finding rotational center right?

[inland summit]

& will timenof flight sensors work as a scanner?

[red panther]

What does “centering” even mean for a N64 controller? Do you need it centered because you’re near the dimension limits of your scanner?

In woodworking, self-centering jigs really only apply to round objects

[inland summit]

I plan of having the sensor sweep back & forth on the x & y axis, the part will rotate 90° on the x axis, repeat sweep, the part will rotate again, ect. Then another set of arm will grab the part & repeat the process but rotate on the y axis. I need the part to not move between arm switches.

[inland summit]

Basically if this is an n64 controller I need to find rotational center (which is @ the yellow dot. To find it i need the machine to ensure that when it rotates along the x axis points a & b are the same distance from the sensor. Same for if it rotates around the y but with c & d

[sage moth]

my partner and their caretaker want to find a watch pair that can communicate a need by my partner to their caretaker via radio like a lora packet, I'm thinking an ESP32 based radio solution but I don't know any that would be viable short of bolting together a couple dev kits in a barely functional way

[red panther]

ESP32 has their own long-range radio solution. What do you need for range, data rate, battery life?

[sage moth]

I don't know desired range, espnow may work, current system is a key finder from Samsung notifying the caretaker's phone

also, no idea what I said wrong, but automod refused to let me say that at first

[bold hollow]

Nevermind thought of reasons

[inland summit]

In this part, when it says .1 spacing it means space between the contacts edges, not their centers right?

https://www.adafruit.com/product/5358

[bold hollow]

if you peep the datasheet it has the dimensional drawings

(its in mm but 2.5mm is about 0.1 inches)

so according to this its 0.1 inch pitch between centers

is that what you meant?

[inland summit]

Ah. I see. I tend to work in mm for more divisible precision so I read it as .1mm not .1 inch

ᚦank you

Im currently trying to add a 3d model to a fusion library component & its not working

[inland summit]

So, I need some help. Im thinking about putting charge boards into a power cord. The cord then connects to a pico & charges the battery. The problem im having is how to connect the battery to the pico. Do I connect the charge connector to the battery first?

[woven frigate]

I would imagine this is where a project gets a little hairy. Any advice or fun stories?

[bold hollow]

Dont puncture it

Lol

I suppose it depends what the project is

[woven frigate]

just powering a bluetooth keyboard im at least addin a disconnect switch. i didnt know if there was ought else to do

[bold hollow]

Is this a kit or something?

[woven frigate]

oh no. lol i am building it myself(based on the Dactyl Cygnus guide) it going to supply a pro micro nrf52480. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_ex-oMVOrI&t=59s

[bold hollow]

If it has built in lipo charging then just dont put it in rhe wrong way and you'll be fine, probably

[woven frigate]

I checked/forgot/checked again, the polarity like 4 times. I ended up labelling it as "checked"

[woven frigate]

So when the battery is connected and it's plugged into USB. I get a solid blue light and no red light. Not sure if it's a bad thing or a zmk firmware thing.

The reset button works and puts it in bootloader mode and vice versa. So I'm pretty sure it's working right. I just need to finish configuring ZMK

[white marsh]

What shows a blue light? Whatever you are using for a charger?

[woven frigate]

Yeah my controller. Pro Micro nRF 52840

[white marsh]

Oh I see. Does it have a lipo charger built in or do you have a seperate charger?

[woven frigate]

it has a built in charger

I read a few things about versions of it. i think its working normally lol

[white marsh]

Then hopefully all is well, which of course you won't find out until you get it all put together and THEN discover you forgot something, didn't hook up something, etc.

[inland summit]

In the pico w, what is part L1 in the power chain

[bold hollow]

inductor

[shrewd breach]

I’d assume a 1 uH inductor

[bold hollow]

thats the buck/boost converter so yeah makes sense, im not any good with circuits though

[drowsy drift]

Anyone here experimented with NAU7802 and weight drifting over time. For example over 40 minutes, they weight augmented ~3g

[red panther]

That’s pretty common with scales, thus the tare before weighing. Temperature is usually the culprit

You might be able to calibrate on the fly with a crossbar switch

[inland summit]

Im designing an rp2040 (pico w specifically) based board & am using this (https://www.adafruit.com/product/2124) to power/charge it. The problem is, with the design im doing the leds overlap with the ones from the pico. How would I route the signal those leds flash through the pico circuitry & out to a single led

[inland summit]

Im trying to revise my rumble pack Bluetooth adaptor for the n64/switch & need some reminders/logic help. If I remember my first attempt to wire the rumble motor directly into the pico it caused nothing to work cause of power draw. So when I revisited ᚦe project, I was going to wire the pico & the rumble feature separately. Thats fine & all for a project built with pre-made breakouts & whatnot. But with a self designed board, I should be able to fix that issue altogether. The issue im having is i dont know how. Any ideas?

Im using the pico w, the charge board from above, som3 custom parts, the circuits from the rumble pak im cannibalizing (currently, can change if needed) & this motor (https://www.adafruit.com/product/1201). For batteries i have a pair of 3v lithium ion batteries that are in a aaa battery form.

[bold hollow]

Im not the best to answer this but usually you would need some method to feed more power to the motor, the pico itself can only put out like 30ma? i think on the GPIO, though the 3v3 rail can put out 300ma max, looks like the lil buzzy motor would draw 60 ish at 3v3, so you could connect it to the 3v3 rail and use a transistor

the webpage mentions using a pn2222 transistor

[inland summit]

If im understanding it correctly, a diode, a resistor, & a transistor all walk into a bar & start a buzz. While it is set up in ᚦe tutorial as arduino, it should work wiᚦ rp2040.

The big issue is the n64 edge connector would be useless

[bold hollow]

why is that an issue?

[inland summit]

Cause the code im using sends the signal for the rumble through the controller. I dont know c++ well enough to change it to a pin.

[bold hollow]

I think people will struggle to help you without more of an idea what you are doing and what you are using

[inland summit]

I'll make a list of parts & link ᚦe original project

[inland summit]

Ok. This is the project: https://github.com/DavidPagels/retro-pico-switch
Here are the boards that im using the schematics to create my board:
Magnetic connector for charging & data (https://www.adafruit.com/product/5358)
Pico w for the brains (https://www.adafruit.com/product/5526)
Trinket charge board for charging (https://www.adafruit.com/product/2124)
This for the motor (https://www.adafruit.com/product/1201)
Aaa style lithium ions for power (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/pkcell/ICR10440-350-B/12354031)
& a Chinese knock off rumble pak that I dont have a link for. Maybe swap it for a haptic motor controller if I absolutely need to (https://www.adafruit.com/product/2305)

Custom parts are the rumble edge pins on a shaped board, & a custom socket footprint.

Including rumble pack circuit board pics

The plan is to basically wire them together, strip out the unneeded, & throw it onto a board powered by the 2 rechargeable aaa. The device slots into the n64, the controller plugs into the socket, then the device connects to the switch. Wireless connection without removing the cable from the controller

[vague tulip]

Is there anyone looking for a developer?

[inland summit]

you said you can draw 300ma from the 3v3 rail. does that mean that if i wire the rumble pack circuits to draw power from the 3v3 pin, it should work fine??

Somewhat like this

Minus ᚦe second charge board

[bold hollow]

It depends how much the rumble pack draws, but from a power standpoint, probably fine???

if you knew how much power your rumble pack draws you would get a better idea

[inland summit]

i do not. i might be able to get the originals details but probably not this ones

[inland summit]

ok. so, the og ran on aaa batteries and had a playtime of roughly 15-20 hours. im assuming thats with a constant rumble signal being sent. the battery free mod allowed it to run off the 3v3 line from the console but limited you to only 2 of the modded rumblers at a time. the replacement motor im using draws 60 ma and the pico delivers 300ma so whatever the draw is from the circuit needs to be somewhere between those two numbers right?

aaa batteries are rates at 750-1000mah and are wired in series making them roughly 6v. but if the pack can run on 3v3 then the 6v must only be used when the motor goes off and the circuit itself sits at 3v3 watching for the signal

[bold hollow]

If i was to guess i would say you could probably power it from the 3v3, but it would be a guess, you could use a multimeter to check power draw if the board works tho

[inland summit]

im not sure on the matvch but if it takes 1 hour to drain 750 ma, but the pack runs at 15 hous, would it be 750/15?

i messed up. the batteries supply 3 v not 6

and i changed my search. it says 300-500 ma draw

but it also says the original rumble lasted 50-60 hours

ok. i think i found it..2a -.3 a when motor activates. that means it hits 300ma at most. it also means that the circuit doesnt draw that much normally so replacing the motor not only allows me to fit more in the shell. but that the motor shouldnt hit highter than 60

and the circuit is basically asleep til the controller wakes it up

if the motor is removed thy circuit runs 5-15 ma when it receives the rumble signal

this means my board, with the single haptic motor runs atr roughly 0ma when idle and 5-60 ma when active

sorry about all the messages, i was working through the problem. i can delete most of them if yall want

my final conclusion is: with the pico allowing 3v3 at 300 mah, the rumbler im making would only need 0-3v at 0-60 ma to operate, micro controller, controller, and blue not included

the controller itself draws up to 30 ma itself, bringing me to a requirement of 3v at 90 ma

the pico itself apparently draws 150 ma when bt is avtive.so the whole rig should pull 240 ma at max. if i did me maths and research right.

as a final thought. i could wire it so the power from the batteries goes into the controller which then supplies the pico and rumble pak circuits with power. the only circuitry i need to connect to the battery would be the 3v3 and ground pins from the socket and a charger board to charge the batteries. the data pin from the socket would be the only pin id have to connect to the rumbler and pico circuits and thats a single line to pin 18. does this sound right to anyone else?

[lapis rock]

Anyone know of the standard way to charge many AA 1.2V 2800mAH NiMH batteries at once? I need to charge a couple hundred of them and the smart chargers I'm seeing online are mostly for 8 cells at a time (and a scarce few 24 at a time, but they are quite pricey!). If there's a nice drop-in product that just works that would be great, if not, any ideas on what a good charging regulator board would be is appreciated! I could just make my own massive charging station with many regulator boards.

[inland summit]

i think this belongs in gen chat but i did find this for you https://www.amazon.com/BONAI-Rechargeable-Batteries-Independent-Standard/dp/B09NW28R66/ref=sr_1_8?crid=NC19KREOKBR3&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.ktyGYsdHXWA1uiWPyRykgAg5iVPlEF24R99sUjk2Za0dPW9GW14GBE19IhP0MfigNyaf8fUf2kzf-orIuHzZLguVXxaPS-afZathIntvZGORXz9wWBDCpWP_nDZGhfYg6z2pahP-unWp--m82G4vkOyc7XT1N8r_XjtCXVASaNNp6QtKMN4bhHJmoDqOIk5FRJp6sbEbwP-7cP1fiwGYGW9x6Adk8NQlr_YXbya-mqg.vJ8HfWIUDYBWtxET4tULeBSPwd-I4r61rWEQlJCR6eM&dib_tag=se&keywords=aa%2Bbattery%2Bcharger&qid=1779809333&sprefix=aabattery%2Bcharger%2Caps%2C157&sr=8-8&th=1

[inland summit]

and this https://www.amazon.com/MIEKLALE-Charging-Rechargeable-Batteries-Separate/dp/B0FQTGN76L/ref=sr_1_17_sspa?crid=NC19KREOKBR3&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.HmXJCmpbE0sFMvAGNjiY_IkXHmFbs7dvt-AVPagVaYLGjHj071QN20LucGBJIEps.LsemUSgOJi9IkL-iO9R0atfQNJG8a0CQb_WBiSXG3Xw&dib_tag=se&keywords=aa+battery+charger&qid=1779809508&sprefix=aabattery+charger%2Caps%2C157&xpid=GxPgTq_buX2Z0&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGZfbmV4dA&psc=1

[lapis rock]

gah, looks like my search abilities are quite mediocre. $36 for 20 is a lot better than the $70 24 cell ones I found

thanks!

[inland summit]

np.

[inland summit]

can the blue line be removed without compromising the power chain