general-chat

[thick wind]

I2C interface. I didn’t read it, I just knew because it’s a very common distance sensor

But it’s definitely in the data sheet somewhere

[bold frost]

So because the output is digital i am allowed to put distance on my Y axis of the transferfunction?

And if it were an analogue output I would have voltage for example on my X axis

[whole jacinth]

whether you're "allowed" depends on the requirements of your assignment

[thick wind]

There’s no allowed to or have to here, that’s in the context of whatever your assignment is. Regardless of interface, all of the above are valid transfer functions.

By definition, anyways.

[late fulcrum]

Y axis. If it's a voltage output, you could have voltage. If it's a pulse width output (which is another kind of analogue), you'd have pulse width on your Y axis.

[thick wind]

Ah, good catch.

[bold frost]

I think im starting to understand it

[whole jacinth]

your instructor might want you to only put the actual device output values (whether it's raw counts, voltage, etc) instead of a computed distance value that's the result of some standard formula in the datasheet, for example

[bold frost]

There is no fixed transferfunction for a certain type of sensor

[thick wind]

Not for a non-ideal one, anyways. In the real world, a transfer function simply serves as a basis for reference, as countless variables can affect measurements in all sorts of weird ways.

[bold frost]

Are there more types of output interface than voltage, distance, pulse width..

[whole jacinth]

current, frequency, etc., but those are probably less common. any electrical parameter that can be varied over a range can be used to report a sensor output

[ebon dew]

NASA launching Artemis I tonight at 1 AM EST

Watch on NASA's official live stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21X5lGlDOfg

It's the official youtube channel of NASA because that's what NASA says on their own website, and not because they paid $8 for a verified account 😉

[hasty quarry]

If anyone’s fresh on calculus, I’m wondering something

Why do theorems like Rolle’s theorem and the Mean Value Theorem of differentiation require continuity on the closed interval, but differentiability on the open interval?

I’m having trouble making sense of why those precise conditions must be met

Like why the open interval for differentiability and not the closed?

I have an idea as of why, but I’d like a good answer

[tardy badger]

It has truly been a while since i worked with MVT and Rolle’s Theorem.

[blissful roost]

So long as you're not working with MTV.

[tardy badger]

From what I’m reading to refresh myself on it, Rolle’s theorem really allows us to prove there is a 0 tangent that exists between two equal points. But I’m not a mathematician unfortunately MVT and Rolle’s wasn’t my best area

https://www.kristakingmath.com/blog/rolles-theorem?format=amp

[hasty quarry]

I know what the theorems are, I’m wondering about a precise detail about the conditions in which they work

[tardy badger]

I know, I wasn’t trying to restate the theorem

Just that any other conditions wouldn’t always provide the same outcomes

You absolutely could find conditions where not holding rolle’s theorem would produce the same results. But perhaps it’s more difficult and that’s why it’s bounded that way

[spice moss]

will it launch this time?

[blissful roost]

Doubt.

I assume you mean Artemis.. ?

[spice moss]

artemis I

[static flare]

👀

[blissful roost]

I think that's going at around 6AM for me.

...IF it goes...

[wooden schooner]

To start, can you see why continuity on the open interval is not enough?

if so, then I think the rest of the question is "why is differentiability on the open interval (not the full closed interval) enough"

it would be helpful to have a specific proof in front of you so that you can point to where that specific proof uses the hypotheses, but typically they proceed by first reducing the mean value theorem to the special case where f(a) = f(b) = 0 (i.e., Rolle's theorem). To prove Rolle's theorem, they'll typically say something like, by compactness, f attains a maximum on the interval [a, b]. To finish the proof, you only need differentiability at the point where the maximum is attained. So if you're wondering why differentiability at a and b themselves isn't needed, try looking closer at what it would mean if f attained its maximum at a or b, and see if you can prove those special cases separately from the generic case, or reduce them to the already-proved generic case.

[ebon dew]

They’ve fueled it up and ready to go. Unless there is an abort condition it’ll likely launch tonight.

Looks like they decided to launch at about 1 am EST.

[gusty torrent]

Going in for an IOL lens replacement in about 6 weeks, so maybe I'll be back at the point where I can solder SMT again with some reading glasses.

[jovial rock]

Good luck with that!

[ebon dew]

go for launch, waiting for final t-minus countdown

t-minus 10 minutes

1:47:44am EST will be liftoff

[blissful roost]

Good launch!

[ebon dew]

nice streak across the sky, definitely a bigger rocket than i'm used to seeing. great arc, everything went off very well.

[atomic python]

where do i ask if the adafruit esp32 s2 feather tft support ros serial?

[spice moss]

Artemis good speperation

[finite quarry]

where do i get help for esp

[late fulcrum]

Here, #general-tech , or #help-with-projects is fine.

[ruby pendant]

So found out the whole use I was building my project for is no longer supported by smart things, GRRRR stupid samsung

[fierce prawn]

Homeassistant

[uncut trench]

Either that or if you're invested in the Smartthings ecosystem, Hubitat might be worth taking a look at.

[reef tinsel]

I just saw they're bringing back adabox next year and I'm stoked.I I've been wanting to sign up since I learned about in back in January!

[static flare]

I'm in space!

[arctic peak]

Anyone played with Freecad CFD?

I'm trying to figure out why my arrows are pointing Right to Left instead of Left to Right.

The Left surface is the inlet and the Right surface is setup as an outlet.

[blazing pelican]

This is why I use home assistant and esphome. I won't buy stuff that has to use the cloud to function (I mean, unless I can hack it so it doesn't)

[ancient rivet]

maybe showing some other vector quantity? it's odd how the arrows diminish on the right/outlet side. if it were something like a sign issue, they should at least have some magnitude there. just like at the left/inlet side. flow does appear to be left to right based on the separation at the step.

[crystal jolt]

Hi guys! Which Mastodon server are you guys on (if you are)?

[wispy heron]

The mastodon server I was on shut down a while back. I wouldn’t mind hearing recommendations for other servers for me to join too.

[solar kindle]

A lot of the people I follow are on wandering.shop - kind of a 50/50 split between sff writers and makers by the looks of it.

[hard estuary]

A couple of us are on fosstodon.org

[agile thistle]

that’s why i wrote a whole home automation stack from scratch

[crystal jolt]

Thanks guys. Still learning new things. Maybe one day Mastodon also shows up in https://circuitpython.org/awesome

[frigid tiger]

Anyone know what to look for if I want to buy a good floppy drive

[late fulcrum]

There are a few kinds of floppies (8", hard or soft sectored, 5¼", 3½", single and double sided, etc.). There's also a few density variants (single density, double density, and GCR). Do you want to optimize for ability to read poorly recorded data, durability, speed, quietness, or something else?

[frigid tiger]

Durability

[late fulcrum]

I might ask Tom Persky at floppydisk.com, as pretty much the last supplier of floppy disks and copying services, he'd know which drives can last

[hard estuary]

Good idea! I submitted a PR. 🙂

[frigid tiger]

Thanks

[dapper wraith]

I’m on hachyderm.io. It’s a tech-oriented instance more than a makers one. The team running it is doing an amazing job

[neon anchor]

Hi, I am trying to do the blob detection / color detection thingy?

So in what microcontroller/environment can you detect each ants and output (x,y) coordinates?

I have heard of OpenMV H7. Is it possible to achieve (x,y) coordinates for each ant live with that?

Let me know if you have any recommendation

I am trying to connect it to another microcontroller called "Daisy Seed" through USART1-TR/TX

[thick wind]

It depends on the resolution and refresh rate needed to detect the ants. An esp32 can technically detect the ants as well, but it would have a much lower performance compared to an OpenMV H7.

Though, for best performance, you may have to consider using a background color that facilitates contrast with the ants.

[late fulcrum]

I wonder if a Pixy2 could do it

[tardy badger]

behold, the height of sophisticated web design

lol

[honest jolt]

Lol the new post button

[tardy badger]

fancy eh? lol

[honest jolt]

Also Bootstrap icons are nice for the buttons (you appear to be using Bootstrap?)

[tardy badger]

yeah, still working on tying the UI together

[honest jolt]

Which framework are you using?

[tardy badger]

NodeJS + Express + MongoDB

authentication via JWT for now. I need to build out the site security more. doing the not recommended thing of storing tokens in localStorage, though i'll be moving to httpOnly cookies soon.

I currently set tokens to expire after an hour in which it eventfully tells you that your session expired and logs you out

[ebon dew]

@tardy badger why did you remove talk2 from your github 😦 i was going to look into it. maybe make a pretty post button or something.

[fierce prawn]

Yay

Finished my first circuit board

[thorn flax]

https://www.tinkercad.com/things/2osZ3M4WsVA I made this and im happy with it!

[tardy badger]

DM me your github username and I’ll give you access, I ended up making it private

[neon anchor]

I am thinking of using OpenMV H7, so does that do color detection or blob detection over multiple objects like ants and print out (x,y) coordinates?

[thick wind]

I’m almost certain it can do that, but unsure how well.

[stable vapor]

Is there a node based programming setup like touch designer that can be deployed on a raspberry pi? TD doesn’t run on Linux :(, maybe that new Cycling 74 Max program?

[neon anchor]

but what do you mean by how well? inaccuracy when it comes to detecting?

[thick wind]

How quickly the values refresh?

[neon anchor]

ahh, in that, it doesn't have to be perfectly smooth and fast.

[neon anchor]

I might be able to also limit the amount of ants detected up to 10-20, right?

[dusty citrus]

on kicad how can you displace parts in both sides of the pcb?

nvm f seems to work

[fierce prawn]

What smd mounted chip works with circuit python

@sonic prism

[gusty torrent]

RP2040, ESP32-S2-FN4R2 both good choices with relatively good availability. Lots of choices really.

honestly availability matters more than almost anything else these days.

The latter easier to spin up a PCB for because very few external components needed.

Pretty much an oscillator, LDO and a few passives and that's it.

[fierce prawn]

do Espressif Systems ESP32-S2-MINI-1-N4 works

??

@gusty torrent

[fierce prawn]

@gusty torrent can you check this design?

[thick wind]

From a quick glance, it’s missing an oscillator and a lot of capacitors. See https://datasheets.raspberrypi.com/rp2040/hardware-design-with-rp2040.pdf for more details.
For more help, please ask in #help-with-hw-design instead of tagging people for a response.

[fierce prawn]

can them be advoided

jlcpcb doesn't have too much of them

[thick wind]

Short answer: no. The Pi Pico is basically a minimum design, so anything less than that is certainly not recommended.

Long answer: there are substitutes to an oscillator available elsewhere, but they’re equally uncommon and likely more expensive. Best to follow the hardware design guide as best you can.

[fierce prawn]

Do adafruit currently have free shipping vouchers

[late fulcrum]

Not that I know of, but AdaFruit offers free shipping (to the contiguous United States) for orders over $200. Alternatively, you can buy AdaFruit products from DigiKey, which in turn offers free shipping if you mail in your order with payment.

[fierce prawn]

Both companies charge me myr100++ for shipping

[thick wind]

Perhaps try a local distributor? https://www.adafruit.com/distributors#Asia-Malaysia

[late fulcrum]

Looks like DigiKey offers free shipping for orders to Malaysia of RM216 or more.

[thick wind]

Not familiar with international distribution but I’m sure you can get better shipping by ordering domestic.

[fierce prawn]

The problem

[frigid tiger]

ya I have a local distributor for adafruit

[fierce prawn]

They don't have the things I want

So I guess I need to pay the shipping?

[thick wind]

Unless you can either wait for a larger order or source things elsewhere…

The key switch you can definitely find locally, but the Neokey will be harder to source

[dusty citrus]

does exist a way to remove those arrow like things made out from the drc of kicad? deleting them by hand is not feasible because they are everywhere, while ctrl z does not work on them

[tardy badger]

Working on improving the UI of Talk2. It’s really coming together

main feed UI

[cold jolt]

wish me luck

[fierce prawn]

Would you want to try support

It might be too high and become spaghetti mess

[wanton thistle]

Or print in smaller sections and then glue them together. Yea its a bit more work to get the fits correct but it wont fail that way. Then it was also be modular.

[thorn flax]

Am I allowed to post a server invite here? It’s a computer science server for those who are interested in how computers work and people who know how to help them.

[tardy badger]

Bring it up in #help-with-community generally we don’t allow sharing other discord links, I think they are blocked by default. There are exceptions if the moderation staff thinks it would be of benefit to the community

[analog wyvern]

hello everyone

[hasty quarry]

How do films or TV shows film without voices so other languages can edit voices on top, while still having any audio that isn't translatable speech still audible?

How is that even possible

(joke) I'm sure they just do a FFT on the audio and pick the voices off

[blissful roost]

I believe that audio is recorded entirely separate from the video, so it's essentially a totally different source.

[dry oracle]

Am I allowed to send a google form link

I am doing a survey for my school project

[hasty quarry]

I'd assume that doesn't quite count as advertising

[dry oracle]

Cool👍

Im just gonna wait for an admin to respond, just in case 😅

[hasty quarry]

It's okay to directly message them with questions

[dry oracle]

I c, who should I message btw👀

[hasty quarry]

Well I'm not telling you to, I'm just saying I've done it before and they never mind it

Admins or community helpers

[thick wind]

Instead of dm, tag community moderators

Preferably in #help-with-community for visibility

[dry oracle]

Got it, thanks

Ill send the link there👍

[thick wind]

Community helpers are great resources for technical help, but not exactly authorities on rules and regulations.

[hasty quarry]

I meant to say moderators

I don’t recall typing “helpers”, hate when that happens

[severe gale]

quick question about diff amplifiers. why is this weird flat spotting happening? I made this reference circuit out of a book

[solar kindle]

It sort of looks like crossover distortion. Typically see that with push-pull power amps, though. Not sure why it's showing up in this case.

[ebon dew]

Ramp timing of capacitors?

[tardy badger]

The Talk2 website is really starting to come together and I’m really excited. I just have two or three GitHub issues to round out and the beta should be ready to launch

[honest jolt]

trying to build a shift register, is this correct?

[static flare]

usually sound engineers end up adding all the noise in post, as it's typically cleaner that way

[tardy badger]

Geeks for geeks gives this as one option

[honest jolt]

that looks like a piso shift register, not a sipo (trying to build a sipo one first - seems simpler)

[static flare]

no, it's a bidirectional SIPO

[honest jolt]

😵‍💫 need to learn more about these things

[hasty quarry]

That is absolutely wild

[tardy badger]

Actually looks like a SISO shift register

To make it bidirectional SIPO just output each flipflop

[honest jolt]

this works 🎉

[static flare]

oh yeah thank you!

[static flare]

it makes the audio controllable and cleaner, plus they can dub lines if needed, it's why prop houses have silent props, so the only thing recorded is the dialogue for syncing in post

[solar kindle]

Yeah. No need to buffer each D-flop individually. And you'd probably want to insert 2 inverters on each stage if you did. And if you did that, you'd be better off clocking the last D-flop off of the first buffer to avoid race conditions (i.e. better to ripple the clock edge backwards than forwards.

DISCLAIMER: I used to do chip design, but it's been decades since I've done anything like that, so I've forgotten quite a lot.

[honest jolt]

(The simulator's goal is to help with the learning of logic gates, not electronics lol 😄 plus I wrote the simulator, so it's definitely not going to be that accurate, but thanks for the suggestions!)

I tried doing it with the plain D flip-flop, but then the signal just propagates extremely quickly through the entire shift register.

[hollow blaze]

Has anyone had any luck hooking up a couple of DC-DC converters in parallel to up the amperage amount?

[dusty citrus]

Some of the MeanWell DC-to-DC converters do show you a way to hook two of them 'together' but it's a datasheet note you have to read and understand carefully.

[cold jolt]

Its done, it sounds amazing, but I barely know how to play it, the only issue is that its had a slight wobble near the top of the print, but its all good

sure sound better then the ocarina I printed (did a stupid and printed it with 25% infil)

[tardy badger]

welp, looks like my Fusion/Eagle student license is done for lol

[lusty fossil]

And they increased the price recently!

[tardy badger]

yuck, guess it's time to learn KiCAD

[gusty torrent]

Autodesk have kind of lost the point that by making student licenses available, people take the knowledge with them to their jobs when they graduated and sells more full price licenses in the long run.

[fierce prawn]

Altium

Circuitmaker

[thick wind]

Altium is fantastic…. If you can afford it. If you’re not paying for an eagle license, you aren’t paying for Altium either.

Circuit maker is a valid alternative, with its own advantages and disadvantages…

[tardy badger]

I’m not paying for Altium. Too expensive.

[late fulcrum]

I'm not going to use any tools that are DOS-only, so Altium isn't an option for me.

[tardy badger]

Same i jump back and forth between windows and Mac so dos only doesn’t make any sense

[ebon dew]

i actually really like EasyEDA, it's a valid way to design basic boards. can easily share links to designs too.

i love Altiums youtube channel. lots of great lessons for board design. their software is out of my price range though.

[thick wind]

I find EasyEDA good for quick designs to JLC as well, but I find other tools feel a lot smoother to use and a lot more flexible…

[ebon dew]

i don't even use JLC parts. you can lookup the same part # on digikey, make sure the footprint matches the datasheet, and just order the board, assemble it yourself.

can make custom footprints too, custom 3d models.

only thing it doesn't do is export to a gerber format that oshpark can work with 😦

[tardy badger]

I believe you can download the gerbers from the JLCPCB gerber view. I might be wrong, I’ve never tried

[ebon dew]

Yes, for whatever reason oshpark doesn’t work with them. 😕

I’ve emailed them about it twice over the past year. 🤷‍♂️

[tardy badger]

I wonder why, seems odd

To be fair, I uploaded Altium gerbers to OshPark once and it was not looking right

It’s why I like Eagle BRD files because I can upload them straight to OshPark and it works

[dusty citrus]

I haven't still taken a grasp of what to use for cheap as a conductive paint in liquid form for plastics and resins
pva doesn't work, waste of money

[tardy badger]

You could buy conductive paint? Or buy metal powder and mix it with your paint.

$24 for a jar from MG Chemicals

Or use a conductive pen

Or buy graphene powder since it’s used in most conductive paints and mix it with a clear base

[late fulcrum]

I used to do that, but OSHPark has a different idea than I do as to which BRD layers should appear on the silkscreen so now I make my own Gerbers

[tardy badger]

Really? They only put the silkscreen layers that on my boards into the silkscreen render for me

T/B place, T/B name

[late fulcrum]

I like place, name, and value 🙂

[tardy badger]

Just change the value layer to T/B place lol

Same effort required lol

I’m kidding of course, I get what you’re saying

[late fulcrum]

I did that briefly in my own footprints, but it felt wrong and I have to adjust it whenever I use footprints from elsewhere. It didn't take long to make my own CAM file so I can create Gerbers just the way I want them.

[dusty citrus]

clear base? which is?

I've seen mg chemicals, I see that they also have water based and acrylic based paints that do declare to stick on plastic, but I mean I tried at home with similar stuff and doesn't stick too well?

[late fulcrum]

"Stick to plastic" is a pretty broad phrase. There are some low surface energy plastics (polyethylene, polyolefin, etc.) that very few things can adhere to.

[dusty citrus]

when you sand sheetrock painted years ago, you probably do so in part to help the new coat of paint adhere.
Some paint formulas probably were marketed as not requiring any sanding at all. ;)

(Same idea with a rubber bicycle tire tube repair - rough it up with sandpaper where the glue's going to be)

[late fulcrum]

Surface preparation (such as sanding) accomplishes two things that can improve adhesion, it increases the surface area available for bonding, and creates irregularities into which adhesives can flow, creating a mechanical interlock. There are additional mechanisms (such as "diffusion adhesion") that can be employed for bonding to difficult materials.

[dusty citrus]

I see thanks I'll try out

[tardy badger]

I was honestly just thinking you’d probably mix with a clear resin base of sorts.

[lusty fossil]

Weird topic, delete if not OK. I want to buy a small amount of silver. How do I go about figuring out which online retailer(s) are trustworthy? I have no experience here.

[late fulcrum]

I'd suggest looking for certifications/memberships such as Accredited Precious Metals Dealer. You can also contact people like estate lawyers and ask if they have experience with a particular place (many times, estates contain precious metals that need to be evaluated or sold, and the outfits that do this generally also sell precious metals). The last time I bought some silver, I just went up in person, as there's a reputable place not too far from me. It has become somewhat tarnished, but not as bad as it appears in this blurry phone camera pic.

[lusty fossil]

Cool thank you

I'll start with "accredited silver dealer". There are "we buy gold" places near me but those sketch me out

[late fulcrum]

Those are pretty variable, some of them are good honest folks, and some are out to fleece the unwary.

[lusty fossil]

Yeah I'm the unlearned

So better to play it safe

[proven thistle]

Hello, can somebody help me where can I buy this Maker badge? https://circuitpython.org/board/maker_badge/

When I'm in Makerfaire at Prague I got a badge from a Czech guy and I like it, so I think this product also came from hes idea. 😀

[frigid tiger]

I am interested in liquid precious metals like gold, but it does not have much utility for me and it does not provide good ROI, I think perhaps platinum or titanium might be better?

Titanium anode is more useful I think

[late fulcrum]

The github explains that they were distributed at the Maker Faire Brno in October. They plan to be selling them at Makermarket https://www.shoptet.cz/ at some point, but they're not doing so yet. The board files are on the github, so you could download them into Eagle, create Gerbers and send them to a fabrication company to be produced.

[late fulcrum]

Useful for what? A molybdenum anode has a nice gettering effect in high power vacuum tubes.

[blissful roost]

I told my dad, I only want three things in his will... The Triumph Stag.. and his titanium knees. 😂

[frigid tiger]

For electrolysis sorry

[blissful roost]

Hehe

I told him I'd make a knife.

[frigid tiger]

Recycling your dad is good for the environment

[blissful roost]

Hahaha

That's ok... My mum already replaced him with a younger model. 🤣

[frigid tiger]

😭

[solar kindle]

Stealing "Molybdenum Anode" for my Star Wars universe name.

[fair summit]

You might want to ask in #help-with-hw-design which has kicad users in it. If you do, delete the post here so you don't double-post.

[dry oracle]

Hello everyone, I am doing a school project which requires me to do a survey.

Hopefully you all can spend some time doing this short 10 question q and a.

Thank you!

A general overview of my survey
In this survey, data will be gathered to get some insight into workspaces whether work at home or in the office, and will act as a guide to my product design project!

Here is the link to my survey

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeL6edPUx67hxawnWWdvSzLhU4ojGpjj4dhKIj2rDVNAOrTFg/viewform

Thanks again! 👍

[toxic mason]

Is there, perhaps, a link for JP's Product Pick for today? Where normally would I find this? Thanks!

[thick wind]

https://www.youtube.com/adafruit/live
Normally found on the top of the adafruit website labeled “LIVE!” but there are also notifications in #live-broadcast-announce if you turn them on.

As for the schedule for this week, I have no idea myself…

[weary fiber]

Discrete Structures, Development Practice, Digital System Design, and "Computer Organization"

...This semester is gonna be brutal

[blissful roost]

I have a busy day tomorrow, with chaos testing...
Hopefully it will go well and I'll have little to do. 😁

[fierce prawn]

Can anyone design a pcb with hot swap socket for keyboard and rp2040 chipset with flash and all the caps and a USB c input

[late fulcrum]

I suppose someone could, yeah. However, I'm guessing the real question is more along the lines of "how do I find someone who can do this for me", and I'll point you to https://jobs.adafruit.com/ as one possibility.

[dusty citrus]

doesn't exist some sort of uv microled display in the hobbistic price budget?
I've found jdb displays or something, they told me that's too expensive basically
some others do say the same thing
so I guess not

unless I can't get like a series of masks for cheap and then iradiate an uv lamp through it
I saw someone using a microscope and a projector but it looks pita

[late fulcrum]

You might be able to use something like a scanning approach with a single UV source (some resin printers used to work this way)

[fierce prawn]

Well I wish someone who use altium circuitmaker can help me design the base rp2040 with USB c

[late fulcrum]

Heh, I can't use Altium because it's DOS-only.

[fierce prawn]

Kicad?

[dusty citrus]

what do you mean?
like an uv laser or something? resin printers with that thing do cost like various thousands

[fierce prawn]

I just need the base
Rest of it imma figure myself

[late fulcrum]

Just a UV LED, although near UV (405nm) lasers are cheap and common.

[fierce prawn]

Do you do pcb design?

[late fulcrum]

I do PCB design as a hobby these days (I did it as a freelance job for a while when I was laid off from a programming job).

[dusty citrus]

oh no I got you, like an array of uv leds, that then they used to move them around?
problem is that they are too big, I need something smaller

[late fulcrum]

I was thinking a single light source, along with a pair of pivoting mirrors and some lenses to scan the beam across the material

[frigid tiger]

Sounds like fun

No time for anything except studying and testing

[fierce prawn]

Could you help me design the base then?

[late fulcrum]

I suppose another approach is the old school "flying spot scanner" one, where a CRT with a UV phosphor (such as a 5ZP16) draws the pattern which is then imaged on the surface with lenses.

[late fulcrum]

I don't know. As I mentioned, I don't use Altium, and I have a full time job now.

[dusty citrus]

circuitmaker is problematic
the version that they release is like 2.something
docs/tutors are like for the 1.something
so they are pretty useless since the gui in some places has really changed

or at least that was my problem before switching back to kicad again

anyway thanks again @late fulcrum

[late fulcrum]

I'm currently using an old version of Eagle, as I had bought an expensive license for it and am uninterested in paying subscription fees on top of that. I'm planning on moving to KiCAD at some point, and I'll have to when I upgrade my computer.

[blissful roost]

.... Sorry. 😁

[hasty quarry]

I love KiCAD

[dusty citrus]

this is totally ot
but do like walmarts or similar low wagies jobs accept expats?
I'll try spamming with resumes anyway, but I mean if there's anything increasing chances I would likely do it

[bitter badge]

As long as you can legally work wherever you are, probably? Fast food (similar wages) generally isn't picky, so I can't imagine Walmart or retail in general would be.

[dusty citrus]

I would likely need a visa for usa, I'm in Europe so...

[bitter badge]

Right, you would need a work visa. I worked fast food when I was younger, and I lived in a college town for a while, where there was a significant number of foreign students. Foreigners with work visas working fast food or even at Walmart wasn't uncommon. (That said, it's possible in college, some of those who appeared foreign to me were actually U.S. citizens. I'm aware of at least two who I know weren't U.S. citizens who worked in low wage jobs though.)

Lower wage jobs in the U.S. are typically not very picky.

[fair summit]

In general it's not easy to get work visa for the US for a random low-level job, though there are exceptions for agricultural workers, seasonal workers, tech workers, and the like, when locals can't be found, and students. https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states

[bitter badge]

Yeah, this is a good point. Most work visas are given to people being sponsored by businesses where they will be doing highly skilled work. Getting a work visa without a sponsor is possible, but it's a lot harder. Everyone I know who has done it was initially here as a student or a spouse of a student.

[blissful roost]

My wife went back to the US after 5 years in the UK, got two jobs in very short time.
She's a US citizen, naturally, but no-one questioned her time I might UK as a point of doubt.

I'll have to get my green card soon... I'm hoping next year will be good for it.

[ebon dew]

@versed iron I missed last nights stream. Thanks for putting the desk of lady ada video in there as a reference to how far its come. Yes it's been a year and all the cool advanced PIO stuff with the pico is just starting to get implemented. Half of the stuff lady ada was talking about I didn't even realize that's how the pico worked.

[versed iron]

Yeah, that PICO launch video is good to re-watch.
What I love is a Desk of Lady Ada where she wear a Raspberry Pi T-Shirt. Usually if she don't talk about Raspberry things, it mean they are under friendly embargo but will do a streaming at 2 AM to talk about the new thing.
That is because Raspberry Pi announce the thing at 9 or 10 AM in UK/EU (GMT/CET).
Of course for me to notice that, I have to watch "The Desk" LIVE at 2 AM my time (CET)... and notice the T-Shirt.

[severe gale]

Is a good decade box worth the money?
I have an opportunity to buy a professional quality one for $100, but I'm going back and forth

I've built a few transistor amplifiers, and I'm taking an op amps class next year. But the pros I know seem to be split

[late fulcrum]

I'd say a cheap decade box is worth the money (they're handy in some situations, but potentiometers and solderless breadboards cover a bunch of things). A fancy one is cool to have, but the increased accuracy and durability aren't terribly useful for hobbyists.

[severe gale]

Okay -- the only reason I'm considering it is that it seems like a very nice one. It's a combo RC box, 1ohm/1p steps with thumbwheel switches, and everything is on banana plugs.

Usually when I see these they're discrete steps, or one of the jumper programmable resistor types, or not a combo

[late fulcrum]

That does sound like a nice unit, and having capacitance too makes it more useful.

[delicate stream]

https://tenor.com/view/komi-komi-san-cant-communicate-anime-peek-stare-gif-24249985

I have returned

I did not mean to disappear for most of the year

Do not be alarmed by my appearance, this is only a test

What’s everybody up to? I’m home sick XD

[static flare]

Hey!!

[delicate stream]

Hiiiioi!

[static flare]

It's been a while!

[delicate stream]

It has! So much has happened

[wooden schooner]

Missed u 🙂

[static flare]

Hope you've been doing okay

[delicate stream]

I’ve been surviving

Haven’t had time for projects….

[static flare]

Yeah I get that

[delicate stream]

Starting to get over being sick the last few days

[static flare]

Oof

[delicate stream]

Yeah… I had my first fever in nearly 20 years

That was a little scary

[static flare]

I can imagine! Hopefully we'll end up seeing you around a bit more, I know I haven't been as active as I used to be myself either

[delicate stream]

I want to get active and do projects again

I got some new toys for inspiration…

[static flare]

nice!

[delicate stream]

I also played with solar junk I got from Amazon, lol

(Never have I ever heard a PSU buzz as loudly as that)

“Modified sine wave” inverter

(Also I got this baby osillyscope and don’t really know what I’m doing, lol)

[static flare]

I think I have that exact one

[delicate stream]

Lol, wouldn't surprise me

My cat just knocked the remains of my dinner on the floor so he could eat it XD

[lean marlin]

Through many fits and soldering nightmares (and one dead Feather RP2040) - I have the Walkmp3rson assembled and working 🙂 Now to print the case and put it all together.

[delicate stream]

Yay success!

[delicate stream]

My PSU’s case is trying to communicate at high frequencies… what does it mean

(No power applied, just sitting in the table)

… actually, seriously, am I seeing radio frequencies?

[thick wind]

49kHz? Unlikely to be actual radio. Possible that your oscilloscope is powered by a cheap switching regulator somewhere, and you’re seeing regulator noise?

[delicate stream]

It is a super cheap little thing, so maybe? But I feel like it’s a signal from somewhere — it shows nothing when not connected to anything

Actually now it’s just showing anywhere from like 5-50kHz without a probe even attached, lol

I wish I had another one to check the power circuit on this XD

Here’s the guts if anyone is curious

[astral portal]

(This is probably a bad idea) what if there was a text channel where people could suggest products like a breakout for a chip or other things and people could react with an emoji like a ❤️ to vote so like every week or two the one with the most hearts would get made/looked into and there would be a slowmode cooldown so people wouldn’t flood the chat (idk this probably won’t exist i just had an idea and wanted to share it)

[late fulcrum]

Sort of like the Lego Ideas (formerly Cuusoo) site, where we tried to get an AdaFruit Lego set made? https://www.adafruit.com/lego

[blissful roost]

I need more Lego kits... Lol

[late fulcrum]

I know that feeling

[delicate stream]

I need time, money, and space for Lego sets

And model kits

[delicate stream]

Happy Turkey day

https://tenor.com/view/turkey-funny-it-was-me-explosion-gif-12897205

[ebon dew]

https://tenor.com/view/happy-turkey-day-charlie-brown-turkey-snoopy-happy-thanksgiving-gif-15680328

[delicate stream]

This dude nearly made SkyNet by accident (contains some swearing) https://youtu.be/wHRubMACen0

[indigo furnace]

Happy Thanksgiving yall

[tardy badger]

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 🦃 🍁

[delicate stream]

I have no stuffing and am sadge

[delicate stream]

Update: cousin dropped off food!

[rapid geode]

wheres mine?

[delicate stream]

Probably with YOUR cousin

You should give them a ring

[rapid geode]

just did. they told me thanksgiving was last month and i can get my own food

😛

[delicate stream]

lol, RIP

Hmm... I think I found a broken thing on the internet

shakes fist at broken things

... I really wish I knew Chinese, 'cuz I somehow ended up on an all Chinese site XD

[late fulcrum]

There's always Google Translate

[delicate stream]

Yeah, using my phone XD

But would be lovely if I could just understand

[late fulcrum]

That does make it trickier

[delicate stream]

One day I'll figure out how to implant a universal translator into my brain

[hasty quarry]

I was put in my place today trying to make a generalized Taylor series of a function

Making an “nth derivative” formula of a function is extremely difficult

Like wow

[delicate stream]

https://tenor.com/view/lego-batman-lego-batman-movie-sorry-what-are-you-talking-about-literally-have-no-idea-gif-7250043

[tardy badger]

Happy Black Friday, remember they’re only Black Friday deals if they come from the Black Friday region of France, otherwise they’re just ✨ sparkling deals ✨

[dusty citrus]

ah man I feel old
that's why I don't like festivities

[delicate stream]

I am old but love festive buries

[late fulcrum]

I too am old, but I also love the festivities. Time to put up the neon!

[gritty anvil]

.

[dusty citrus]

can someone help me out to find the doc of this product? also it says 4gx4, does it mean that one 1 unit has 4 pieces of 4gb units or it has one single 4gb unit? https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/micron-technology-inc/MT40A4G4SA-062E-F/15908207?0=%2Fmemory&s=N4IgjCBcpgLAnFUBjKAzAhgGwM4FMAaEAeygG0RYAmABjAGZYQBdIgBwBcoQBlDgJwCWAOwDmIAL5EqANgAciaCFSRMuQiXIgA7LSpgZLdl0i8BI8VJABaKkmVQBAVw2lIFAKwsJPoA I think that I've found the doc, but I'm unsure, since it's huge, and I don't understand anything about it, most likely I will end up doing nothing with it because I'm too dumb to make it work but I'm curious

[green wren]

I am getting frustrated to the point of crying. I can't get this stupid board to activate the relays. I keep getting errors

Error while reading config: YAML syntax:

Duplicate key "switch"
in "/config/esphome/relay-board-1.yaml", line 55, column 1:
switch:
^
NOTE: Previous declaration here:
in "/config/esphome/relay-board-1.yaml", line 31, column 1:
switch: #HA -) ESP -) Pin
^

this is what I'm getting and i don't know why and I'm so close to just smashing it with a hammer and saying heck with all of it.

anyone have any pointers? I'm brand new to coding and I understand exactly nothing about all of it.

[late fulcrum]

Looks like it's 4Gb x 4, so 4 bits wide and a 4G address space.

[late fulcrum]

I'm not sure which board you're using or which toolset. The files seem to have a .yaml extension which is normally used for configuration files, but I'm unused to seeing switch statements in YAML files. We're willing to help, but we need to know more about what you're doing.

[green wren]

Ok so I have an ESP wroom32 board attached to two 4 relay boards. I'm trying to program it to activate the relays for home automation through Home Assistant.

[delicate stream]

Can you show the config it's throwing the warning for?

[green wren]

Yeah

sorry one sec I'll crop it

[delicate stream]

I meant the contents of relay-board-1.yaml

[green wren]

I think I can do that?

[delicate stream]

Dyno shh, let them post

[green wren]

fffffffff

esphome:
name: relay-board-1

esp32:
board: esp32dev
framework:
type: arduino

Enable logging

logger:

Enable Home Assistant API

api:
encryption:
key: "PkhKp/eaTOCcT7vhFsBjOGkFhu85nWS3rM4dccnw0cI="

ota:
password: "a2405c84bcd2f0d239b0375b495237a7"

wifi:
ssid: !secret wifi_ssid
password: !secret wifi_password

Enable fallback hotspot (captive portal) in case wifi connection fails

ap:
ssid: "Relay-Board-1 Fallback Hotspot"
password: "FAXdCxlDkkBH"

ok I don't think it liked the whole 63 lines

[delicate stream]

oop

[green wren]

these are the first 27

or just doesn't like the rest of it.

[delicate stream]

I think there are restrictions on this chat, try posting in #help-with-projects

[green wren]

ok

that worked

[low tundra]

https://www.adafruit.com/product/3857 where can i find a in depth datasheet showing operating temperatures

[late fulcrum]

The learn guide https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-feather-m4-express-atsamd51/downloads has a link to the ATSAMD51 chip data sheet

[green wren]

where is the best place to start to learn coding for someone who has absolute ZERO experience or even looked at code?

[late fulcrum]

What's "best" would tend to depend on your personality, learning style, budget, what language(s) you care to learn, personal preference, etc.

Also what you want to get out of (just fix stuff, write your own software, become a coder, or something else)

[green wren]

code things make servos move, light shows, etc.

[late fulcrum]

For that sort of thing, many people start with Arduino, which makes it fairly easy to get started, and supports a variety of things like LEDs and servos fairly easily. AdaFruit offers some nice guides, this is the first one: https://learn.adafruit.com/lesson-0-getting-started

[green wren]

this might be where I start then. well wish me luck and more patience than I have currently. lmao

what do ESP32's run?

or are they their own thing. my BF plays with Pi's and stuff.

[late fulcrum]

There are a variety of ESP32 chips, with different capabilities. I think most of them can be programmed with Arduino, which is handy, and some of them offer a variety of other options. The Pi Pico can also be programmed with Arduino, or it can run CircuitPython. The various other Raspberry Pi boards are entire small computer systems and can run the Linux operating system, and can be programmed a bunch of different ways (Python and C are popular, but hardly the only possibilities).

[delicate stream]

Personally I find CP highly preferable because you can edit directly on the device, copy your code OFF the device before making changes, and being able to get your code from the device instead of having to bring your code with you is nice, like if you program something at home, but then realize you need to make a change and all you have is a random PC with Notepad and no access to your code on your home machine

You can get really cheap kits with tonnes of buttons and LEDs and stuff to start off for basically any platform tho

Here's one for CP https://www.adafruit.com/product/4028

That gets you started with inputs and outputs, sensors, and stuff like that

Now that doesn't have soldered headers, but if you're not up to learn soldering at the moment, there are similar kits that don't require soldering

[shadow siren]

Bah black Friday made me fill my Adafruit shopping cart, not sure how all those neat toys just fell into it.

[delicate stream]

Well, thankfully there's deals!

[shadow siren]

Yes that code dangled in front of my eyes like a carrot

And all those parts jumping up and down saying pick me, pick me.

[delicate stream]

Hehe

[shadow siren]

At least I got a selection of noods

while they are in stock

[delicate stream]

I want some but have no use for them, and am participating in No Spend November -- basically trying to not spend money on anything unnecessary

[shadow siren]

It's my early Christmas gift for me.

[delicate stream]

Nice

[shadow siren]

I have not spent anything on adafruit in couple months

[delicate stream]

I haven't gotten anything in several months, but I also haven't been working on projects and have a host of things I still need to play with >~>

[shadow siren]

I have these nice addressable RGB led strings that I can use as Christmas lights so I think I will setup these this year.

[delicate stream]

I have too many toys

[umbral phoenix]

having some inventory is essential these days 😉

you never know when something will be unobtainium

[delicate stream]

I have too much inventory XD

I bought a bunch of stuff and then didn't project for nearly a year

[frigid tiger]

gotta stockpile good silicon before the global geopolitical situation deteriorates

[delicate stream]

I don't want to think about that

[shadow siren]

You never have enough toys

[delicate stream]

I mean I have enough to do projects for several months straight…

[winged finch]

The only projects I care for are the things I make for my cats

[delicate stream]

Lol

[ebon dew]

Yeah like SAMD21's being out of stock with a 2 year lead time...

Raspberry Pi Pico's timing is impeccable.

[delicate stream]

RP2040 WOO

I have 20 RP2040 I need to do something with >~>

[ebon dew]

I have quite a few but I already have plans for all of them. Just a matter of a week long soldering session.

my next board revision to kinda of safeguard against chip shortage is to have a dual feather or pico drop in compatibility. should be possible.

[delicate stream]

I haven’t even really come up with a board concept for the ones I got

[ebon dew]

it all starts with an idea that's for sure

[delicate stream]

Yeah XD also I need software to do PCB design, I don’t want to try making the boards by hand for these things

[ebon dew]

i use EasyEDA it's free. a lot of people use KiCad too.

[delicate stream]

I had pulled EasyEDA web up (the app wouldn’t install) and it seemed to just want me to put a circuit diagram and it would do the board side itself? And I still did something wrong

[ebon dew]

i use it on their website. the app is only if you want to use your PC cpu for the auto-router... it's not really necessary as their cloud auto-router is almost always available.

it's an automatic trace router from pin to pin, math heavy.

[delicate stream]

Hmm… what if I just want to drag and drop pads and draw traces myself?

[ebon dew]

you start with the schematic view yes, gotta know how to create a circuit diagram with components.

yes you can do it manually sure np

[delicate stream]

I gotta figure out how to do it manually then XD

[ebon dew]

for hundreds of connections i start with their auto router to make an initial design, then i'll manually adjust it most times.

[delicate stream]

I want to do some art-type PCBs and get a feel for JLCPCB’s systems and quality

[ebon dew]

you can create a board layout without a schematic but you won't get a 3d view with components... and ensure the component footprints match is important.

half of it really is learning about components, sizes, differences etc... it takes a while.

[delicate stream]

Maybe I should learn the fancy way… I’m used to doing everything manually on paper

[ebon dew]

i knew absolutely nothing about pcb design but after a couple weeks playing with easyeda i slowly started learning it and now it's suuuuper simple to get in there and mock up a pcb in minutes. it's actually very efficient once you learn how to do it.

kinda like playing a game for the first time. it takes practice like anything else.

and determination.

[delicate stream]

I started designing PCBs before I could afford microcontrollers XD

[ebon dew]

so you just need to learn how they do component placing in schematic view

[delicate stream]

I really should do that

[ebon dew]

create the schematic then export to pcb, it'll import everything to pcb view and then you start drag and dropping stuff into place.

one way i learned was looking at other peoples designs

they have an entire section dedicated to sharing stuff, it's kind of like github for PCB files. super handy. you can open other peoples designs with 1 click.

[delicate stream]

I tried making a simple one with an LED and resistor and the appropriate power connections… but the PCB export lacked power pads

[dusty citrus]

but to make it work / a doc?
I'm extremely sorry if I'm annoying you

[ebon dew]

it's oshwlab, it's part of easyeda

here's my profile it's completely open source. https://oshwlab.com/djdevon3

[delicate stream]

Open sauce good

[ebon dew]

there are links near the schematic and board files for "open in editor". so you can look around the design and inspect how the schematics are laid out etc..

you can even send it straight to fab from a copy of your own if you want to have some boards made. it's all quite seamless.

[delicate stream]

That’s part of why I pulled up EasyEDA to start, so I could have some fabulous purple boards made easily, hehe

[ebon dew]

and you don't have to go with JLC parts if you don't want to. you can substitute digikey parts.

takes a little more effort to track down every digikey part in your BOM but it's doable. that's how i do it anyway, its worked out well so far.

[delicate stream]

Ohh, you mean for the full build services?

[ebon dew]

oh i only have the board made, i buy the parts from digikey separately and assemble myself

if i was to have boards assembled i'd probably go with cybercity circuits in the USA

[delicate stream]

The full assembly sounds nice… I’ll use that if I’m going to try selling something probably

Gotta have something to sell before really considering that XD

[ebon dew]

or that yes, of course, whatever is easiest and best for you. whatever tools work for you. 🙂

[delicate stream]

Easy good!

[ebon dew]

part of the process is trying out different software, different tools, and figuring out what works best for you.

[delicate stream]

I just realized… I don’t think I’ve done ANY PCB design in over 5 years

Maybe closer to 10….

[ebon dew]

a lot of people got into during the pandemic, being stuck at home

if you weren't making sourdough bread then probably doing something with electronics 😛

[delicate stream]

Lmao, no sourdough here… I didn’t get the extra free time so many people seemed to get

[ebon dew]

and that trend is still continuing, you're right on time to get back into it.

chips are coming back into stock. rp2040 is a big seller, can't go wrong with an rp2040 or esp32-s2 based board.

start out with something simple first. my first board was 4 tactile buttons to positive and gnd. really simple. getting that into my hand really opened the door.

that was around 2019, man time flies.

[delicate stream]

I was thinking of basically making my own version of the Pico

Just to get a feel… and have a purple Pico

[delicate stream]

… would I be able to sell a Purple Pico?

[winged finch]

The higher the product ID, the newer?

[late fulcrum]

Data sheet is easy, just search on the part number: https://www.micron.com/-/media/client/global/documents/products/data-sheet/dram/ddr4/16gb_ddr4_sdram.pdf Making it work is a little trickier. It's DRAM, which is fairly common, but not as easy to use as SRAM. It's also a BGA package which requires special techniques to assemble.

[late fulcrum]

Probably. Maybe integrate a handy feature or two (interesting shaped board, make it badge compatible, add an LED, FRAM, or other goodies.

[delicate stream]

Hmm… maybe I’ll make a donut

I should stop having board ideas while I’m hungry

[thorn flax]

I designed a cake using math. It’s an original cake! It’s was a fun project!

Small though

[delicate stream]

https://tenor.com/view/doug-maclean-mac-kyper-kypreos-nick-kypreos-gif-22264825

Wait it’s microwave cake??? :0

I would try making it but I don’t have a way to measure ml for cooking and I don’t know my microwave’s power curve well enough to try hitting 500W output, lol

[delicate stream]

I can see PWM :0

[bitter badge]

Time to pull out my old CRT oscilloscope...or maybe buy a slim digital one... I want to see my own waves!

[delicate stream]

I need to learn how to properly use this one XD

[bitter badge]

I know how that goes! Good luck.

[delicate stream]

I thought I killed this QtPy, lol

[late fulcrum]

I found I learned how scopes really work best with an old CRT model with big knobs I could turn and see what they did. Once I had a good understanding of the controls available and what they did, it was easy to learn how to operate a digital scope. I restored this fairly basic 70 year old model, it's satisfying to use.

[delicate stream]

Why is that one on its head? XD

[late fulcrum]

That was the first time it worked, I was running it upside-down to have access to the circuitry which lives in the bottom.

[delicate stream]

Ahh

Part of me wants to build my own copy of an old scope...

[late fulcrum]

That would be a cool project. Some of them are pretty simple (the Waterman PocketScope only has 4 tubes in it, and one of those is the CRT and another one is the rectifier). The old RCA receiving tube manuals had schematics for scopes, but included a footnote recommending people wishing to build one buy a kit due to the number of special parts required (mostly transformers and switches)

[delicate stream]

Buying the right parts might be easier now for some stuff :O can you get new CRT tubes?

[late fulcrum]

Amazingly, you can still get new CRTs (3RP1A tubes are still made), but it's not difficult nor expensive to get NOS ones. IMHO, it's harder to find CRT sockets than the CRTs themselves. But those transformers and switches are specialty items.

[delicate stream]

NOS?

Might be able to make CRT sockets...

[late fulcrum]

New Old Stock. Parts that were made long ago and never used. And yes, I have 3D printed a CRT socket that basically works.

[delicate stream]

ah

I just hadn't seen the shortening to NOS, lol

[late fulcrum]

I like to haunt hamfests and the like for cheap old scopes and restore them.

[delicate stream]

Mmm restoration

Weren't you gonna send me some old scope to play with? lol

[late fulcrum]

One of the things I did to amuse myself during the lockdown was to work through the collection of old scopes I had accumulated. Now I have a nice collection of working but old scopes.

[rapid geode]

i designed some pasta with no math. i couldnt tell you the amount of anything in there. haha.

[delicate stream]

lol

[late fulcrum]

That makes sense. I consider myself more of a cook, I just throw stuff in and adjust to taste, while my sweetie is a baker, which is a much more precise and mathematical field. So a cake using math makes perfect sense to me, as does pasta without math.

[rapid geode]

yeah, cake needs pretty critical math

[delicate stream]

Just gotta eyeball so you don't have too much excess pasta or sauce, lol

[late fulcrum]

For a long time, I figured we were both at home in the kitchen, but couldn't put my finger on the difference. A friend explained that I was a cook and they were a baker and suddenly it made sense to me!

[rapid geode]

i have 2x excess pasta. i made too much haha.

[delicate stream]

oop

[late fulcrum]

There's a meme out there that reads something like "How to figure out the amount of pasta to use. 1) estimate the amount you think you need; 2) WRONG!"

[delicate stream]

I'm pasta magic and don't make extra

Well, I don't make extra compared to sauce

[rapid geode]

its almost like it expands in the pot

oh i have the right sauce amount. i just made 300g of pasta and 6 chicken fillets. i should have cut it in half

it should reheat nice though tomorrow

[delicate stream]

Yee

I'll often cook like 5-6x the amount of pasta I plan to eat to have as leftovers XD

[rapid geode]

ha

[delicate stream]

Suddenly, dizzy

[rapid geode]

on the other hand.. this is the correct amount of cake

(from may. i need to bake another for xmas)

[delicate stream]

mmm cake

I'll take it

[rapid geode]

if you ever wonder why cakes cost seemingly 10x what they should in a good bakery... try making that cake. haha.

[delicate stream]

I shall pay you in free electronics assistance if you make me that cake XD

[rapid geode]

haha

the recipe of the cake itself is from cupcake gemma

only thing i changes was to use lindt chocolate instead of the baking stuff cause it was easier to find

[delicate stream]

mmm chocolate

[rapid geode]

it was so much work though. took like 4 hours. hahaha

strawberries are mascerated in maple syrup and vanilla

nom

[delicate stream]

This is why someone else should do the work for me XD

[rapid geode]

haha

i wish someone else would do the work on my house

[delicate stream]

Gotta build robot assistants

[rapid geode]

i need to neopixel my fireplace now

[delicate stream]

lol

[rapid geode]

the flames are boring

and fake looking

shapes are ok, but theres just 2 led colours and they are static

[delicate stream]

Needs a Tesla coil for some fun arcs

[rapid geode]

ha

no

just a 60/m neopixel strip with a good dancing fire math

[delicate stream]

lol

[rapid geode]

and tying it to a more useful automated controller.

all it has is basically 3 brightnesses you cycle through

[delicate stream]

hmm

I want to make a plasma generator

I am sleepy

[viral delta]

Greetings!

[delicate stream]

Hasllo

[viral delta]

Hello!

[delicate stream]

'sup?

[viral delta]

Not much. Just was working on my cyberdeck design and noticed that Adafruit had a Discord, joined. :)

[delicate stream]

Awesome, welcome :D

[viral delta]

Thank you!

[delicate stream]

Make sure to show off your design!

[viral delta]

Will do!

[late fulcrum]

Those are fun

[delicate stream]

Hehehehe

Sleepy me has fun ideas sometimes

[late fulcrum]

I'll just say I have a ... fondness for high voltage

[delicate stream]

What if you put every transformer you have together? Could you make a quintillion volts?

[late fulcrum]

Those are all good for 20kV or so apiece and let's say there are 5 dozen of them. If there were a way to hook their secondaries in series, that would be 1.2 megavolts. However, for higher voltage stuff, the usual approaches are voltage multipliers (Cockroft-Walton, Marx generator, etc.). I used to work in a plasma physics lab with a voltage multiplier the size of a big rollaway trash dumpster. It was cool.

[delicate stream]

I kinda want to build a big zap zap, but high frequencies hurt my head and I’m afraid of zap zap, lol

[late fulcrum]

It is good to have respect for high voltage. There are low frequency ways to get high voltage (I've built stuff out of oil burner ignition transformers), but safety first, it's best to learn from someone knowledgeable and work up to the more dangerous stuff.

[delicate stream]

Like ElectroBOOM?

https://tenor.com/view/electroboom-mehdi-sadaghdar-electroboom-electric-guitar-gif-24871851

[late fulcrum]

While I enjoy ElectroBOOM, those videos also make me cringe.

[delicate stream]

Same XD it’s like watching a train wreck… can’t look away

Using his 101 series to actually learn basics tho

[dusty citrus]

I don't like his videos but I enjoy seeing people getting shocked

[delicate stream]

I love his videos XD

[dusty citrus]

I get surprised when he gets shocked, and forget what the video was about

[delicate stream]

lol

[late fulcrum]

Sometimes I'll watch those and muse on how I could re-create those effects (more) safely, like the electric guitar in the Electrician Reacts video. The "seat warmer" one with the hot wire on his pants, I had the idea of using flexible LED filament to simulate the hot wire and some sort of volatile solvent for the flames.

[delicate stream]

hehe

[timid wave]

Hey guys, I had a question about non rechargable cells

What is the relation between the cells internal resistance and battery capacity left ?

Is there any relation at all ? If yes then what kind of relation ?

If you have any resources about this topic, please hit me up
I strictly want to know about non rechargable batteries and not about lead acid/ li - ion or other rechargable batteries
I have read conflicting opinions on internet , so just curious if anyone knows anything

[prisma wyvern]

Helloo

Need halp in selecting a single board computer.
(SBC like raspberry pi zero, raspberry pi 3a etc)

Welp raspberry pis are all like diamond in the market. So I gotta buy an alternative. Like orange pi zero, banana pi zero m2 etc also I'm actually limited to very few choices actually

Budget: referable 25$ - 55$max (bcz it's my first time)

Purpose: have plans about adding a camera and re using an old 7 lcd panel I have. This is primary goal.

Wanna give it a walking mechanical leg one day too. This is dream(or future)

[lusty fossil]

Got this for free from work

[delicate stream]

Ohhh, pretty

[lusty fossil]

I think it works but I'll be testing it today or tomorrow

[delicate stream]

Gonna give it a deep clean and make it look like new? Or just dust it off and keep the old and used look?

[lusty fossil]

Uncertai

[delicate stream]

Either is nice

[rapid geode]

His videos are about watching him get shocked... duh. 🙂 Most* of them are planned as demonstrations of the various things that can go wrong. I think the only real one was the jacob's ladder.

[lusty fossil]

It's not super powerful but the 5V supply will be useful. 10W isn't much

But the tracking is cool

[rapid geode]

free is good

ha

[delicate stream]

Good for smaller stuff, and it’ll look cool in your space

[delicate stream]

I REALLY hope the Jacob’s ladder was planned and not as bad as it looked. I do think most of the time where he flails like a muppet is just for show, but hard to say… he definitely does a lot for comedic effect and demonstration

[rapid geode]

no, the jacobs ladder was a real accident

i forget the details, but he said he was just lucky he was not touching the floor or something.

my shop mate touched a 600v mains line once. it just froze him in place. could not move his hand off it.

"not recomended"

[delicate stream]

I’ve touched 440v mains and also do not recommend it

120VAC is scary enough!

[lusty fossil]

I got shocked by 120 a bunch this week. Do not recommend

Mostly because of my carelessness

But I didn't tell anyone so I don't have to file a report taps forehead

[dusty citrus]

I prefer learning from the experience of others

I can't understand those who want to experience in the first person the feeling of getting shoked to be honest

[delicate stream]

Some experience I want first hand, but pain is not one of those things

[lusty fossil]

It's very dangerous. I'm lucky I wasn't grounded

[delicate stream]

I was grounded for my 440v zap… but it was between my fingers and elbow area so I didn’t get electrocuted

[rapid geode]

I've never been shocked bad. I've cut a 120v line with saw and it cut the blade in half EDM style. "Nope"

respect the electricity. check connections 6 times.

ha

i have to wire lights and plugs in the next few days

[delicate stream]

I’ve been electrocuted and really very do not recommend

[thick wind]

Theoretically, there is a point where transformer losses will exceed the actual current you can push through a coil?

[delicate stream]

When it catches fire from overheating?

[topaz juniper]

Adafruit was featured in an LTT video 🙂

[dusty citrus]

when I was doing a security course which then I dropped off, because it looked like a scam to gain public funding out of my time, there were plenty of grousome videos about chinese people getting burned by medium/high voltage lanes
really nasty things

[dusty citrus]

anyway, I see that stm32 are stil in shortage, but what specifically one is in shortage, or is it all of their line up in shortage?
I've never dealt with one except sone blue pills clones so...

[rapid geode]

they get features a fair bit actually

not usually very directly though

[shrewd otter]

https://www.adafruit.com/product/4739 can someone ELI5 how I would wire the ENABLE pin on this converter to "shut down output completely"?

[crystal ore]

You'd connect it to ground, or some other logic-low signal like a GPIO pin, to disable the output.

[shrewd otter]

could I use this to protect the rest of the circuit in the event that the converter fails?

[crystal ore]

Mmmm, it's probably not great as a protection mechanism, since if the converter is fried, it might not be paying attention to the enable pin either. Normally this is just used as an on-off switch.

[shrewd otter]

got it. thank you! Would you have any suggestions as to how I could protect my circuit in the event that the buck converter fails? I am trying to make sure I dont fry things

[lusty fossil]

What kind of failure mode are you trying to protect from?

[dusty citrus]

If it's on the bench (not portable) a decent bench (power) supply has overcurrent protection you can dial in. For practical purposes this amounts to a melt type fuse that costs nothing to restore to full service.

[delicate stream]

I haven’t had a lot of buck converters fail, but when they have, usually they fail in a way that they fry and the attached devices just lose power

[shrewd otter]

im just afraid it fails open and unleashes the input voltage to the rest of the circuit. but im not sure what failure mode is normal for MOFSETS

[shrewd otter]

this would be ideal 🙂

[delicate stream]

I would hope most are designed to fail “safe” (don’t damage connected devices)

[gusty torrent]

Pretty much all still, but STM32F4 seems to be somewhat available among others.

If you're looking for an F103 replacement, the cloney one from Shanghai Hezhou is sounding pretty good.

[sharp nexus]

Okay, guys, I tried my luck with Arduino but how do you connect 2 circuits both with completely different functions? 🙂

I am trying to get together a Bluetooth headset and an electric current-sending circuit 🙂

[crystal ore]

Your mental model should not be "this is just like Lego bricks... just stick them together and they work!" In reality it's often closer to surgically attaching a limb, with lots of fiddly little veins and arteries to carefully stitch together.

[delicate stream]

Gotta get them nerves in the right spots

[tardy badger]

Going to try and make a noodle LED light

[delicate stream]

Yay noodles!

[sharp nexus]

@crystal ore thank you, I understand! 🙂

[dusty citrus]

to make a secure server like thing with a sim module what could I use?
without a whole os in it

[crystal ore]

There's the LWIP library which is available for microcontrollers.

[tardy badger]

The first blinky is always the most satisfying. First time programming an Attiny25

[tardy badger]

I've not worked with really at all with tiny microcontrollers. just M0+ and above. the Attiny25 is good fun.

[wispy heron]

Finally ran out of memory on my feather m4. Took a while! Kinda impressed with how much I can do with that little thing, and how sloppy I can be with my code. Didn’t really start hitting limits until I was trying to do display and audio and neopixels and data logging all at the same time.

[idle iron]

anyone ever make a "Wadokei" digital clock before? I was looking at the math in this code and I'm like WHY? lol pretty cool way of looking at time
https://github.com/mwgamera/wadokei/blob/master/wadokei.js

[uncut trench]

The "why?" makes a certain sense to me. Dividing daylight and night into pieces based on the actual length of the day/night makes sense in times past when the day was far more "solar" driven: get up at dawn, and then go to bed at sunset.

[versed prawn]

Hello everyone 😊

[knotty canyon]

I hate asking this, but I cannot find an answer... Can the LYWSD02 E-Ink Display clock, temp and humidity sensor. This is a link to the product...
https://blog.adafruit.com/2021/06/17/new-product-bluetooth-eink-display-clock-with-temperature-humidity-sensor-lywsd02/

Question: Can I set this to display the time in 12 hour format?

[stray wind]

As far as I can tell, no. Given its origin, I'm not entirely surprised by that. Much of the rest of the world relies on 24 hour time.

Even the code for ESPHome integration doesn't show a way to change it. One would assume it would be there if it was possible. But I could be wrong.

[knotty canyon]

Thanks a million. I was thinking it was possible, but it sounds like it is not able to display the time in 12 hour format. Good to know I was not crazy in assuming it could. Sadly, I'll have to return them to MicroCenter. 😦 Really need them to display the time in 12 hour format.

[stray wind]

Sorry to hear that. I hope I'm not misleading you, but the complete lack of mentioning 12 hour time seems to imply it's not possible.

[knotty canyon]

Yup. I was thinking the same thing. Oh well, such is like. 🙂

Was on a Black Friday buying binge when I saw them at MicroCenter. Never thought of checking if it would show the time in 12 hour format.

No worries. Thanks for the info. 🙂

[lusty fossil]

I'm envious that you have a microcenter!

[stray wind]

You're welcome!

[delicate stream]

Micro Center best toy store... I lived there 2 years

[severe gale]

Hey, guys, what is this little piece of metal called? I found it between two banana plugs on some equipment I ordered, and I'd like to get more for my power supply

"jumper" and "shunt jumper" don't give any leads.

[crystal ore]

Looks like it's called a "shorting bar": https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/pomona-electronics/4115/736747

[severe gale]

Ah, thank you!!

I could ask why everything from Pomona is so expensive... I'm used to dealing with them for BNC/banana

[late fulcrum]

Pomona is affordable compared to some outfits (like Lemo), but expensive compared to others (Keystone)

[crystal ore]

Yeah, no kidding. I always have the "wait, is that price for one or a ten-pack?" reaction.

[severe gale]

I could at least get behind "our cable insulation is made for industrial environments" with their leads.
But in the case of the shorting bar, I could make that on a mill in less time than would take to order it

it looks like somebody else had the same idea
https://www.ebay.com/itm/223830808364

[manic jacinth]

Hello, I was wondering if anyone could help me with this. I'm struggling with what to do for this part because it gives an error code about no module named 'board'.

[delicate stream]

Not sure if it's my machine or what, but those images aren't loading -- can you post the code and error?

[lean marlin]

It's not your machine @delicate stream

[manic jacinth]

Yeah sorry the images aren't loading

[delicate stream]

Wonder if it's Discord or just those images

[manic jacinth]

I took it from my phone camera, would it be best if I screenshot?

[solar kindle]

It's a very large image

[delicate stream]

Yes, screenshots are better, but if you can copy/paste the code itself that would actually be great, then someone can copy/paste/edit to suggest changes

[manic jacinth]

Ok thank you.

[solar kindle]

Here. See if this works.

[delicate stream]

Yup, that loads, altho I don't see the error

Oh, yeah, posting text also eliminates photo issues, so that's good

[manic jacinth]

Yea I'm working on some wings and I found d the tutorial on YouTube for the animatronic fairy wings. I copied and pasted the code that they gave onto this and it gives an error code for line 5.

[delicate stream]

What's the error?

Actually post the code and error and then we can figure it out, knowing the error without the code doesn't tell much

[manic jacinth]

It says
Modulenotfounderror: no module named 'board'

[delicate stream]

Sounds like an import is missing, but once we see the code, should be able to figure it out

[late fulcrum]

Which board are you running it on? The board library is normally frozen in for MicroPython and CircuitPython ports, but if you're on something like a Pi, you might need the Blinka library.

[brittle bison]

Anyone know what kind of connector is used here? https://www.adafruit.com/product/3686#technical-details And/or if there's a schematic available to determine which is pin1 and which is pin 8?

[manic jacinth]

I'm running it on feather m0 basic and using an 8 channel pwm as well.

https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_Learning_System_Guides/blob/main/Fluttering_Fairy_Wings/code.py

[wispy heron]

Molex picoblade https://www.adafruit.com/product/4928

[brittle bison]

Ah, of course. Thanks 🙂

[wispy heron]

In the manual on page 4 & 5 it has pinout and shows which one is pin 1, looks like the pin furthest to the right when looking at the device

[wispy heron]

https://cdn-shop.adafruit.com/product-files/3686/plantower-pms5003-manual_v2-3.pdf

[brittle bison]

Got it sorted. https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/assets/assets/000/049/708/original/adafruit_products_3686_kit_ORIG_2017_12.jpg?1514416836 this let me see the connector and which traces are which. Good thing I checked, it is flipped 🙂

[wispy heron]

I’ve been thinking about getting one of those for a while, so I’ve looked over the docs for it a few times. I’ve heard good things about the plantower sensors.

[brittle bison]

Yeah it looks pretty good. 5003T has temp/humidity as well. I'm designing an ESP32 PCB now to flash with ESPHOME which also supports the plantower sensors.

[coarse notch]

Could this be a copy/paste problem. That code on GitHub looks ok.

[manic jacinth]

It might be. I'll double check everything. I appreciate the help.

[neon aspen]

hi, is it possible to use the <RGBmatrixPanel.h> library on an atmega328p xplained mini?

okay

[odd heath]

sorry if this comes off as rude, but why not just try it?

[neon aspen]

already did, getting a lot of errors for undefined registers

[odd heath]

ah

[odd heath]

could you send a screenshot of the errors?

that library is supposed to support atmega328p-based boards so idk what might be going wrong

although if you haven't already I would make sure you've installed the adafruit gfx and busio libraries

[neon aspen]

already did

[odd heath]

k

[odd heath]

.

[neon aspen]

sure

[vale quest]

Anyone have custom pcbs made from jcbway or anything like that? What do you do with the extra boards?

[gusty torrent]

I sold a few kits to friends using extras of my macro keypad pcb.

[late fulcrum]

Sometimes I'll design my circuit to use more smaller boards (like my 8-digit display that uses 4-digit boards in pairs, or my 24-channel dimmer that uses sets of 8-channel boards). Sometimes I'll design double-duty boards so they can be assembled different ways, but I'm rarely thinking ahead enough to do so. In a lot of cases, I'll just hang on to the extra boards, I gave some small ones to a friend who made them into earrings, I used a spare dimmer board to build a multi-channel flasher (so it became a double duty board after the fact).

[delicate stream]

Art from scrap/extra boards can be fun. I’ve also been known to bodge boards for random things. SparkFun often sells scrap boards for super cheap, and they’re good for practice soldering, art, or just messing around

[frigid tiger]

I bought two overpriced z80 machines im genuinely dumb

[delicate stream]

Oof… well, at least you have two z80 machines

How much did you spend vs. their value?

[late fulcrum]

I remember when Z80 machines were the default business computer, everyone used 'em.

[delicate stream]

They're still some of the coolest machines

[dusty citrus]

Hey. I have a LPD8806 led strip I belive. But I cant figure out the rasp pi GPIO pins I used with this. Which channel could I ask?

[delicate stream]

#help-with-linux-sbcs is the best place for pi-specific help

[frigid tiger]

$300 for two NABU pcs

Could've gotten something good like an IBM for that much

[delicate stream]

NABU?

I have seen Z80 machines go for $200+ individually, so that doesn't sound too bad

[idle iron]

Do I have to calculate the day and night time with latitude before dividing the day and night by 6?

[frigid tiger]

It's a machine that needs a connection to a server to run, it downloads the os into ram when it boots

[delicate stream]

Ohhh...

[vale quest]

@late fulcrum Thank you! I made my wife a three channel rgb controller and I just had to get a circuit board made because... reasons that defy rational explaination... jlcpcb minimum order is 5 after all.

[severe gale]

asking here in case someone can answer it
I have a windows 7 pc with msys/mingw that i currently develop cpp on. It has to be windows, because I have a gpib pci card that only has windows c drivers.

would it be possible to update to windows 10 and use wsl or wsl2 in this usecase?

[vale quest]

I would go back to win 7 if I could.

[ebon dew]

WSL uses msys sure

i don't know what mingw is

I use WSL2 with Ubuntu in Windows 10 no problem. Works great actually.

Here's a quick demo video I made showing WSL2 in Windows 10. Drag and drop works seamlessly too.

#learn-adafruit-authors message

[blissful roost]

You'll have to ditch Win7 at some point, regardless...
I'm finding a lot of software that I need is dropping Win7 support.

[delicate stream]

Also it's a huge security risk to run 7 with internet access...

[blissful roost]

Ain't bothered me any, but.... Yeah. Lol

[delicate stream]

All it takes is one stray bit of malware and boom

[late fulcrum]

Heh, I've been known to write my own drivers for GPIB cards.

[ebon dew]

honestly i miss how pretty win 7 was. still the best OS ever (my opinion) but it's time to let 7 go because of driver support yeah.

[delicate stream]

It was certainly a huge step up in a lot of ways. 10 is my favorite in terms of aesthetics... Nice and clean

[uncut trench]

As far as I can tell, you'd need to evaluate the time of sunrise and sunset using both latitude and longitude. Once you have those, it's then relatively trivial to calculate the rest of the system. There's code out on the web that can do the sunrise/sunset calculation.
Be warned, it's a bit gnarly because it takes a lot of things into account that you wouldn't initially think of. e.g perceived sunrise is actually slightly earlier than the time when the sun physically comes up over the horizon.
Due to the variable density of the Earth's atmosphere, it refracts the light and so we get to see the sun when it's still a fraction of a degree below the horizon. 😮

[delicate stream]

Working late, and someone turned out all the hall lights…. So all my camera outside my office sees is a laptop I’m battery testing….

[gusty torrent]

The speed of 10's boot was the tipping point for me to convert early.

[late fulcrum]

MacOS X was a nice OS, but it didn't boot particularly fast...

[delicate stream]

I was using 10 since the first Technical Preview. 7 too. Refuse to use 11.

[late fulcrum]

I gave up on windoze about the time of Windows For WorkGroups 3.11 (circa 1993) when it became apparent that MICROS~1 had no interest in actually fixing anything.

[delicate stream]

I use everything these days

[late fulcrum]

I mostly use BSD and occasionally Linux. SunOS, Irix, and Xelos were nice in their day, but are now relegated to niche usage.

[wispy heron]

Win 98SE was my fav windows, but win 3.11 was my first. But I run more Linux than windows these days, my main laptop is dual boot ubuntu & win 11, I have a MacBook also but I’m still getting the hang of it.

Win98se was great because it finally added USB support. Finally was able to just plug a mouse in without having to fight com ports.

[frigid tiger]

I want to get win95 running on my desktop for productivity

[winged finch]

Apple Silicon is kinda good but I have one that’s fully spec’d for work

[delicate stream]

My primary workstations are all Windows, but I also have MacOS laptops and multiple Linux boxes, as well as dozens of Linux VMs

I want Windows 3.11 graphics on Windows 10

[winged finch]

I still remember my first Windows desktop, a compaq computer purchased from compusa (if I remember correctly)

CompUSA sheesh

Also people would wait in lines and have events for software release

[delicate stream]

Heh… now just camping for GPUs

[late fulcrum]

That you can do, just run 3.11 as a VM (I used to do this on a 22MHz SparcStation with Wine, it was pretty slow)

[delicate stream]

I mean I want a skin XD

I have a 3.11 machine set up for when I feel like playing with it

[late fulcrum]

Should be quick enough to whomp up a theme.

[delicate stream]

If you do it I’ll give you a cookie

[late fulcrum]

As I don't use Win10, I can't do it.

[delicate stream]

https://tenor.com/view/aw-gumdrops-gum-drops-darn-unicorn-gif-17939959

[ebon dew]

Ordered a special 3 wire lipo battery from Amazon. Also ordered some lighter fluid. When prime asked if I wanted to combine the items for a delivery in one box I thought about it for a second… then hit yes just to see what would happen. Started tracking each one everyday with great interest. When they were at the same facility about to be combined into the same box instead of shipping them separately they just cancelled the battery shipment outright. 😬

[delicate stream]

Well that’s dumb and sucky of them

[ebon dew]

I didn’t expect them to combine them but was hoping they’d be smart enough just to ship separately automatically. Was a fun experiment.

[delicate stream]

Hope reordering teh battery isn't an issue

[bitter viper]

Sending prayers and well-wishes to Mr and Mrs Lady A. They are understandably private. I frequently watch Ask-An-E with my kids, and my daughter and I are, perhaps unreasonably, waiting with very baited breath for some news!

[lusty fossil]

I'm out of the loop, what public information is there?

[delicate stream]

I don’t know if there is any info

[lusty fossil]

I more meant why the well wishes but I won't pry further

[delicate stream]

Ah. Yeah, I don't want to pry either...

[timid zenith]

Can anyone recommend a reliable USB C PD breakout that delivers 12v? I bought these but when connecting to the wall I'm only getting 5v. <https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0953G14Q2?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1 >

[late fulcrum]

Do you want a cable (like https://www.adafruit.com/product/5450) or a PSU or something else?

[thick wind]

That might be a problem with the wall plug, not the module. Does your wall plug support usb PD 12v output?

The only thing those modules do is ask the power source for 12v. If the source doesn’t speak PD or is incapable of delivering 12V, you’re still going to get 5…

Most basic wall supplies don’t go up to higher voltages, but it will say what it can output somewhere printed on your wall supply.

[timid zenith]

(Quite new to electronics) I thought so too but my brick says it can deliver 12v

Unless I'm reading that wrong of course.

[thick wind]

Hm. What kind of cable are you using?

[timid zenith]

The one that came with the brick.

[olive dome]

It might be QC instead of PD power supply

[thick wind]

Some reviews on Amazon say the quality control can be iffy. Have you tried any of the other modules?

[timid zenith]

actually, it might be the brick

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0919PRLC2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

description says that the PD is for 45W

Which would be 10v

[obtuse jewel]

I got old Simm RAM modules in for recycling at work,would it be possible to integrate/ recycle the IC's into something new?

I could desolder this in my sleep

[delicate stream]

I think you could interface with them via a modern MCU, but I don't know if you can do so in a useful manner

[obtuse jewel]

I was thinking about getting the ben eater 6502 kit, and I've been interested in doing stuff on a similar low level

Very good input for me though!

[delicate stream]

If you're interested in learning how old RAM works and working with old stuff, then yeah, it's useful for that!

[late fulcrum]

The Ben Eater videos I've watched use SRAM, and that SIMM is DRAM. Many of the early microprocessors (like Z80) do include DRAM support, but you do have to wire up the circuitry to accomplish it.

[timid zenith]

Do you happened to know where I can get the brick in the pictures?

[delicate stream]

Sounds like a challenge

[late fulcrum]

Not offhand. A web search for "Travel Charger QC12" brings up a bunch of random USB PD adapters on AliExpress. I would guess any decent quality USB PD supply capable of the desired voltage and wattage would suffice.

[obtuse jewel]

That would be a bit extracurricular for that type of course (The 6502 videos) correct?

[late fulcrum]

That would be my opinion. I did get inspiration from his videos to breadboard an 1802, but I'm using FRAM as both RAM and ROM to keep the chip count down (then again, the 1802's multiplexed address bus means I need an additional chip for an address latch, such is life)

[obtuse jewel]

Yeah, I'm still relatively new to electrical engineering so all that was just French lol

[delicate stream]

I thought it was Italian

[obtuse jewel]

At least it wasn't Greek

[delicate stream]

lol

[late fulcrum]

Greek is useful for referring to things like 470Ω resistors

[delicate stream]

kitty knows Greek

[late fulcrum]

RAM is "random access memory", a generic term for computer memory in general. SRAM is static RAM, you put information into it and it holds it for you, as long as it has power. ROM is "read only memory", memory that maintains its information even when the power is off. FRAM is ferroelectric RAM, an unusual hybrid that you can use like RAM, but it's non volatile, meaning it maintains its contents even without power.

[dusty citrus]

hi guys, where can I ask questions in regards to soldering and hardware mods/projects?

[delicate stream]

#help-with-projects is best for general questions about projects, #help-with-hw-design is good for help designing hardware, especially things like PCB design

[dusty citrus]

no problem thank you
ive posted a question in the former channel

[delicate stream]

You're welcome :D might take a bit to get replies, so just gotta be patient

[tardy badger]

End of the year self evaluations are hard if you’ve had a really rough year

Under accomplishments I put that I tried every day, even though so many days I didn’t want to work because of what my family has gone through this year.

[delicate stream]

I hate self evaluations

[tardy badger]

The company I work for makes everyone do one, and then request peer feedback, then manager evaluations. All of that factoring into how much of a raise you get.

[delicate stream]

Reasonable, but bleh

[tardy badger]

This next year, if I’m lucky I will get a 3.5% raise

[delicate stream]

I should be getting a review soon-ish? Been over a year since I started now. I was told the average was 10% raise per year

[but I don't know where that average came from]

[rapid geode]

polar bear in a snow storm

😛

[delicate stream]

lol

[violet parcel]

is brick above missing a prong? 🤣

[tardy badger]

I give you, the 7 chips needed to make a 4 Byte PIPO serial register file.

Ideally, you could change the 2-4 decoder into a larger decoder and add more 74hc595N

[ebon dew]

what is PIPO? and why 4 bytes?

[shadow siren]

it's
https://www.electrical4u.com/parallel-in-parallel-out-pipo-shift-register/

[tardy badger]

The PIPO part was answered, 4 bytes because there are 4x 8 bit SIPO shift registers

1byte = 8 bits being the relationship not explicitly defined here

And only 4 bytes because I only have the 2-4 decoder, so I can only read/write 4 possible locations

[ebon dew]

There’s so much to learn it’s mind blowing. My brain is just overwhelmed lately.

[late fulcrum]

I was looking for a 7489 at first!

[tardy badger]

7489 is a great chip

[late fulcrum]

Jameco has 'em in stock, $5 for 64b of SRAM

[tardy badger]

Ohhh

[late fulcrum]

As well as the possibly less useful 7488 256b ROM

[tardy badger]

Lots of great options. Using shift registers is a fun way to get a little more rudimentary

[late fulcrum]

A creative approach, yes

[tardy badger]

Basically what the chips I chose do, 8 bits parallel in to a PISO shift register, decoder to select the shift register, and use the tri-state octal bus

Not the most efficient way to use clock cycles but ya know, gotta have fun sometimes 🙂

[late fulcrum]

Of course, for a goofy sidestep in "rudimentary", I built this 4x8b core memory RAM shield from a kit a while back.

[tardy badger]

Oh I love core memory

I saw someone did something similar and then put an RGB matrix behind it to show which cells had 1s stored

[late fulcrum]

Oh yeah, it's the same shield, with an AdaFruit NeoPixel matrix behind it, a great idea

[tardy badger]

I really need to get back into digital logic. I’ve got my FPGA board that I should finish trying to implement my own cpu on

I’ve also got a book from college that has essentially the steps for making a pipeline processor in Verilog that I want to look back at

[late fulcrum]

I'm wryly amused that the core shield uses a CPLD to implement most of the logic. I don't know how many times as much RAM is in the CPLD as in the core array it's controlling!

I'm trying to get back into FPGA after some folks in another Discord crushed my enthusiasm 😦

[tardy badger]

It’s amusing to think about.

[tardy badger]

Yeah, people gate keeping don’t deserve respect if they make people not want to learn more

I would probably be doing FPGA dev if the fpga director didn’t automatically write me off because I didn’t have an EE

[late fulcrum]

Yeah, I was asking for some help with some frame buffer code, comments like "that's the most horrible code I've ever seen" really are unhelpful. I took my FPGA boards, put them in a box, and put the box on a shelf. That was two years ago.

I don't have an EE either, and get that from time to time as well.

[tardy badger]

You should join the tiny tapeout discord, lots of great people on there

[late fulcrum]

"tiny tapeout"? Is that the program where physical chips are getting fabricated?

[tardy badger]

You can DM me if you want an invite. Plenty of people starting out with digital design doing cool stuff with the help

Yeah, Matt Venn’s tapeout program

He teaches Zero to ASIC

[late fulcrum]

I have three main projects in mind, a Floppotron sort of music-from-computer-hardware one, a breadboard CPU glue logic one (the 3-chip computer), and a recreation of the Atari music visualizer

[tardy badger]

Oh those sound really interesting, especially the Atari music visualizer

I have some old cpu gate schematics for an old video game console chip

[late fulcrum]

Playing with a simulated one on 8bitworkshop.com

[tardy badger]

Ohhh

[delicate stream]

I want this

[late fulcrum]

It looks like there was a later version that implemented the logic with discrete 4000 series CMOS gates instead of a CPLD.

Some info and links here https://corememoryshield.com/

[delicate stream]

Sadly it’s not for sale, but the full design of the PCB and documentation is there!

Ok I need sleep XD nini peeps

[late fulcrum]

The tricky thing to find is the core memory toroids, but Jussi and I buy them from the same eBay seller in Bulgaria (search "5221.3 core" to find the listings)

[void beacon]

Which channel is appropriate to ask a question about software design?

[bold frost]

Could someone explain why the data bus in a CPU is built up with a data-out / data-in division

[red prairie]

does anyone happen to have a hardware usb protocol analyzer for sale? Beagle

[crisp plaza]

aa

[delicate stream]

I’m guessing this Bulgarian seller purchased in extreme bulk in the 60s and has been selling ever since…

[late fulcrum]

Yeah, cores were produced in staggering numbers.

[late fulcrum]

AdaFruit sells them

[late fulcrum]

I'm not sure what you're asking here. Most CPUs operate on data in registers and have an ALU loop for doing the operations.

[dusty citrus]

A friend of mine had a gig (way back when) of repairing core memory. He said it was rather challenging (I think he mentioned the physicality of it; desoldering &c.)

[delicate stream]

I'm sure it is! Gotta make sure your wire is going the right places, and I think it makes a difference how taught you pull it? It seems like very intricate work

[dusty citrus]

Even the Altair 8800 front panel wiring was (said to be) too 'stiff' to do repairs easily. Brittle. Too much soldering in a concentrated area.

[delicate stream]

I hate when wires get brittle

[dusty citrus]

They taught us (to NASA standards, ostensibly) how (or just 'to') avoid wicking up under the insulation. ;) NASA PDF's on soldering (with photos) should still be available.

[delicate stream]

I usually only have a problem with solder getting under insulation with stranded wire, so I use solid core a lot XD

[dusty citrus]

Oh haha yeah I'd agree though I hadn't given that any thought until you mentioned it. Yeah stranded is almost made for wicking (esp. stranded copper). In fact it's a reasonable substitute for solder wick. ;)

[delicate stream]

Mhmm, I have a tonne of scrap stranded wire that I have no use for, so I use it as solder wick!

Much cheaper

[late fulcrum]

Just add flux

[delicate stream]

I should buy flux...

[thick wind]

Flux is great

11/10 would recommend

[delicate stream]

I've never bought it XD

Well, not for electronics. I got a vat of flux for plumbing to go with my 5mm solder, lol

[late fulcrum]

Yeah, that nickel chloride flux isn't a good bet for electronic use.

[delicate stream]

Didn't think so XD

[dusty citrus]

what's called a via that's directly under a pad?

as I do understand fr-4 pcb don't support such thing, while hdi do, am I wrong?

[late fulcrum]

It's not the substrate that controls the viability of via-in-pad, but the capabilities of the manufacturing house (both the board itself, and the assembly phase)

[dusty citrus]

do you know any in the cheapo side?
jlc looks like they don't support it
pcbway only on hdi? which is expensive
I could be wrong though

[late fulcrum]

I haven't researched it. The last time I was doing fancy stuff, I was using one of the more expensive options.

[crystal ore]

Just to clarify, you can overlap a via with a pad if you don't mind having the hole. The "via-in-pad" HDI technique also involves capping it and smoothing it over so there's no hole any more.

[dusty citrus]

I don't mind having a hole, but what do you mean?
the main reason on why do I need such thing is to make the pcb smaller
while otherwise I would have traces all over the place

I mean if I'm overlapping the hole with the pad am I not covering it?
or maybe do you have a pad with an hole?

[crystal ore]

Yes, there's a hole in the pad in that case. Sometimes it's okay, but it can wick away solder during reflow or cause a chip to not sit level.

[shadow siren]

so utterly cool use your 3d printer as pick and place machine
https://youtu.be/IvkYmSc8RS0

[shadow siren]

Need a helping hand when soldering led strips
https://youtu.be/EsFblWo10bA

[delicate stream]

I just have binder clips XD

[shadow siren]

If you have a 3d printer it's fun to just print these items out

[delicate stream]

I need to print something, my printers have all been idle for months.... or longer in some cases >~>

[shadow siren]

Right now busy printing christmas toys

[delicate stream]

Maybe this weekend I'll have a chance to get something going...

[shadow siren]

printing star wars models

they are these cards you break out the parts and assemble them, this is a empire shuttle

[delicate stream]

Ohhh, nice

[shadow siren]

they come from printables.com for example
https://www.printables.com/model/80917-landspeeder-kit-card

[ancient rivet]

cool! that's a neat idea for a 3D printer. never seen that before.

[frigid tiger]

3d printers haven't gone far enough

imagine what they'll be like in 109 years

[shadow siren]

I will be dust in the wind well before that time

[shadow siren]

Finished job

[tidal flare]

First advent of code done! Trying to do it in C this time to learn

[shadow siren]

#include <stdio.h> void main(void) { printf("Hello, World!\n); }

[fierce prawn]

Should I use a hot swap socket for my handwire keyboard?

[shadow siren]

usb?

[fierce prawn]

No
The keyswitch hotswaps

[delicate stream]

I've seen little print-out and break-out kits before, but never that sophisticated

[shadow siren]

ahh never used them, all mine are fixed in place.

[delicate stream]

I forgot about advent of code

[fierce prawn]

I plan like stick them to the plate then wire to pcb

[delicate stream]

Ideally, yes, because you can customize further later and replace switches should they break, but just soldering would cut on cost and complecity

[shadow siren]

did not adafruit have a pcb board template for a keyboard

[delicate stream]

If you have NO intentions of ever making switch changes or reusing the switches in a socketed keyboard, there isn't really any harm in skipping the sockets; but you'll want to have them wired directly to the PCB, not connected via a wire, otherwise you'll have a nightmare of wires

[tardy badger]

Buying a car is such a stressful process

[delicate stream]

Indeed…

[tardy badger]

Luckily after a few days of hunting and haggling, I think I found the car and financing that will work.

[delicate stream]

Yay!

[tardy badger]

The number of dealerships with no cars on the lot, with mostly all in transit is just surprising given that rates are going up

It’s always funny to me though that the best financing deals are always on new cars.

This will be the third new car I’ve financed in about 4 years. Got one in college because my long time driver of 10 years had a bad engine that was worth nothing and too expensive to repair, no real income so I had ti finance through a predatory lender.

Traded that in March of last year for a new outback because we needed a bigger car to move. And now getting a second car because my wife found a job she loves and my job wants me back in the office

[delicate stream]

I unfortunately had to go thru the process twice in one year because of idiots causing accidents…

[tardy badger]

Yikes

[delicate stream]

Yeah… went from a 2014 Civic LX I drove for almost 6 years, to a 2019 Accord LX I had for about 2 months, to a 2005 Ford Focus…

I miss power locks and windows

And Bluetooth a little, but I have AirPods Pro and wear those all the time so it’s almost the same