general-chat

[static flare]

Technically an insulin pump on it's own isn't like an artificial pancreas, you typically need a continuous glucose monitor for proper regulation

[rapid geode]

continuous glucose... thats the maple syrup on the pancakes.

mmm

[static flare]

Please do not use my interstitial fluid as maple syrup, it might contain lots of sugar but I also need that inside of me

[rapid geode]

ha

reminds me of some horrible 18th century medical drawing where they had a pump on some poor dog to uses its intestinal fluids for somethign

anyhow...

i need artificial adrenal glands. and artificial optic nerves.

maybe some artificial brain cells :x

[raw jasper]

So, there exist insulin pumps that have to be manually operated by their user, rather than be controlled in a closed-loop system w/. a CGM?

[late fulcrum]

I figured that was what you were referring to when you mentioned a "smart insulin pump"

[static flare]

Yeah, definitely. Technically even closed loop ones can be manually controlled if a CGM isn't present

[static flare]

I didn't mention it actually, someone else did, I just replied

[late fulcrum]

Oh, right. I apologize for the misattribution.

[raw jasper]

Some historical reading on visual prostheses
https://www.neuroethicssociety.org/assets/meeting/2021/ins-presentation-2021-p35-zuk.pdf
https://spectrum.ieee.org/bionic-eye-obsolete

[raw jasper]

I did not know. Thanks!

[static flare]

I only have a CGM because the CGM is subsidised by the government, if I wanted a pump I'd need to pay like $200 a month, or private health insurance which is about $200 a month anyway

Plus I'd need to wait a year

[raw jasper]

🤬

[static flare]

It's frustrating, I know

[raw jasper]

(Sorry! Natural reaction)

I hope they'll become more accessible in the future

[static flare]

So do I

[lunar trench]

adafruit keeps clearing my cart..

i'm not logged in but im pretty sure it uses local storage and has a reason why it gets cleared every week or so

[rapid geode]

cookies time out

i ssume

[lunar trench]

ITS USING COOKIES FOR THE CART??

[patent hemlock]

it's a reasonable assumption

[raw jasper]

🍪

(It's probably derived from 🥠 , though)

[violet parcel]

I accidently touched a live pin on my arduino yesterday and got hit with hundreds of trillions of electrons going at 1/3 the speed of light!! 😦

I looked at my finger this morning with a microscope and it has tons of holes and ridges because of this 😦

[fiery glade]

Does circuit python have a matter library?

[hard estuary]

No, there is no Matter support

[fiery glade]

Are there any plans on adding support?

[patent hemlock]

sparkfun has a Matter board

[fiery glade]

oh thats awesome. i'll check that out

[tardy badger]

It’s been discussed, no concrete plans yet.

https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/issues/7068

The support has mostly been discussed around the nRF7002 chip though

[raw jasper]

The nrf chips are the weirdest things. There's a bunch of RF components, and.... an ARM management SoC?

But it's supposed to work as a coprocessor?

[burnt tendon]

One might say it's been nRF'd.

[tardy badger]

There’s a lot of Arm MCU companion set ups out there.

The Zynq and Versal MPU+RF+FPGA combos for instance

[olive dome]

Well.... Many WiFi SoC or BLE SoC has a dedicated M0 core for processing the networking and RF

ESP8266 and ESP32 is the odd one actually

[wanton thistle]

and RISC! Microchip has a few for Sub Ghz stuff and I think (but Im not too sure) they offer 2.4Ghz stuff with a PIC16F or 18F core. I looked into it a few times but I know nothing about RF circuits so I just stuck with modules.

I kind of (but not really) wish I knew more about designing that stuff but SMPS's are much more interesting and useful to me. I'll just think of them as black magic boxes for now lol

[tardy badger]

I found the ESP32 even more fascinating given that they use a Cadence licensed core

The TenSilica IP

[raw jasper]

I'm surprised this is known

[raw jasper]

Also known as the relatively affordable and unobtainium chips respectively :P

[tardy badger]

Lol

[raw jasper]

Versal devboard? $10k!

(*vivado license sold separately)

||I actually have no idea whether they include a device-locked license in the price||

[tardy badger]

🤷‍♂️

The versal chip itself? Also expensive lol

[raw jasper]

And prolly requires a 100-layer board or something 😆

[tardy badger]

I think 6 layer minimum

[prime narwhal]

Does anyone have a dotStar Feather Wing that could provide a small clarification with respect to wiring to a feather Huzzah 32?

On the page for the power pin outs, am I correct that you should be wiring BOTH the 5v and 3.3v to the huzzah32 (respective pins) for power and allow the diodes to select the correct power input?

[formal ore]

Has anyone used the TXS0108E I am trying to do logic level shifting but the output seems to be half of the reference signal

[tardy badger]

What levels are you shifting to/from?

[tardy badger]

Which learn guide are you referencing?

[formal ore]

I am currently shifting from 3.3 to 5 but I’m the end I will be be trying <1.8 to 3.3

[tardy badger]

And your levels going from 5 to 3.3V is 2.5?

Or there abouts?

[formal ore]

My 3.3 to 5 is going 2.5

[tardy badger]

How is it wired?

[formal ore]

Setup:
Arduino = 5v
RPI = 3.3

Arduino 5v -> HV
Arduino GND -> GND

RPI 3.3 -> LV
RPI 3.3 -> OE

RPI 3.3 pin 18 -> L1

H1 comes out as 2.5-2.8

I have also tried connecting the grounds of Arduino and pi but no luck

Additionally I have tried with the adafruit bidirectional converter that uses the bss138 and I have same result

[tardy badger]

Grounds should be connected. I’m not sure off hand if 3.3V should be connected to OE or if it should be 5V. I somewhat wonder if the RPi 3.3V line isn’t at 3.3V

[formal ore]

The pins on rpi come out as ~3.26

I have tried connecting OE to 5v as well

[tardy badger]

What about Arduino 5V?

What’s that measure?

[formal ore]

5.01

I currently have the bss138 hooked up

If you have either I would love to troubleshoot alongside, I have ordered a new set as originally I was assuming it was a hardware issue

[tardy badger]

Do you have a logic analyzer by chance?

That can measure 5V logic

Or actually, an oscilloscope

[formal ore]

I do not, I do have a multi meter and a oscilloscope

The oscilloscope is very finicky I have the ds1054z

But it doesn’t like to stabilize

[tardy badger]

Hmm should be okay enough

Can you set the pin going high and low for 5 seconds, switching on and off every 500msec

Hook up your oscilloscope, and just see what the high voltage level is

[glad ruin]

What do you mean by "doesn't like to stabilize"?

[formal ore]

@glad ruin if I try to trigger on pulses or even pretty basic edge triggers it (the trigger) jumps everywhere

If you happen to know how to solve that (another issue I have been having ) would be pretty cool 🙂

@tardy badger setting up one moment

[glad ruin]

Is it the trigger itself, or just the knob?

[formal ore]

The trigger itself

[glad ruin]

Ok that shouldn't be moving unless you change it. You just have it set for rising edge right?

[prime narwhal]

This one https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-dotstar-featherwing-adafruit/pinouts

[tardy badger]

Yes, you’re correct. It will select vbat if no usb voltage is present, and usb will be used if it’s present.

[formal ore]

I did @glad ruin, after I finish up this shifter situation with @tardy badger we can talk about it a little bit, was thinking about getting a new one

[prime narwhal]

Thanks! I was pretty sure that was the case 😀

[formal ore]

@tardy badger I have it hooked up

Trying to figure out how to tell the reference voltage

[tardy badger]

You should be able to stop the sampling and see the snapshot of the signal

[formal ore]

It looks like 5v with 1v/div

Which is odd

[tardy badger]

I’d guess the multimeter can only average the signal showing you 2.5V

[tardy badger]

Yeah, that looks as it should

If you just set the pin high for like 2 seconds, and then low. Your multimeter should show 5V for 2 seconds

[formal ore]

Let me try that one moment

[glad ruin]

If it even does that. AC volts wouldn't give useful results either.

[formal ore]

Ye just seems to flip between 0.3 and 2.74

One second, I will try using the analog port to measure on the Arduino

[glad ruin]

How fast are the signals you are trying to translate?

[formal ore]

Yep, I am reading 5v

I am going to need very fast

Do you know what fault injection is?

[glad ruin]

Yeah basically you're trying to cause glitches.

[formal ore]

Yes, but my trigger has been too jittery, so I tried to trigger off the high instead of the oscilloscope trigger but the signal was too low

After that I will need to trigger on a small dip with my oscilloscope but I have been having issues getting it to stabilize

[glad ruin]

I think what you want is to adjust the holdoff/delay or possibly run in single mode.

[formal ore]

I tried that as well

Do you have a ds1054z?

[glad ruin]

Not personally, no. But I've used a lot of scopes including that one.

I'm a characterization engineer.

[formal ore]

A human google :0

[glad ruin]

How fast is "very fast"? I work with chips that send video data through coax at 12Gbps.

[tardy badger]

Okay so just a limitation of your multimeter. Sounds like it’s working fine then

[formal ore]

@tardy badger can you explain to me how that occurred on the multimeter for future reference

https://insomniasec.com/blog/airtag-hacking @glad ruin

[tardy badger]

Essentially what happens as speed goes up, the duty cycle changing can change the drive voltage. It’s called pulse width modulation

[formal ore]

@glad ruin For context of speed the spot to glitch is about 2us wide and the dip I want to trigger on is almost sub microsecond, might be a few hundred nanoseconds

I did not know about pwm in this context, so is this something that can be avoided, what multimeter do you use?

[glad ruin]

ooo nice

I've been dealing some with supply glitches at work recently, although that was related to debugging incorrect behavior.

[tardy badger]

Best thing to do in this case it just to drive the signal high and measure. If you need to measure a continuous signal or any kind of signal transaction, an oscilloscope will likely be the only tool you use.

Some logic analyzers will give you the logic level voltage.

[formal ore]

@tardy badger I’ll look more into this, I appreciate the assistance very much

@glad ruin Throughout the week I’ll have to reconstruct the setup as it was changed during the level shifter situation, once it’s up I’ll show you the jitter I’m talking about

[glad ruin]

Nice

[tardy badger]

https://twitter.com/idlehandsdev/status/1661899791612145664?s=20

Sean Hodgins (@idlehandsdev)

A Completely DIY Image Sensor and Camera.

▶ Play video

Twitter · May 26, 2023, 12:59 AM

This is so cool

[late fulcrum]

Oh my, yes!

[violet parcel]

How many GPIOs does this have ?

[solid shale]

how do I format code in a message to be shown as code

[glad ruin]

#welcome shows you how

[median viper]

You know what guys I think I am going to come into this discord more often, I am getting tired of toxic people in some of the other servers but generally have had a positive experience in this discord. I made a decision to leave a lot of game servers and I feel immediate and long lasting relief.

Btw I have heard that due to demand and supply chain issues raspberry pie is no longer a cheap computer and people are showing off cheap Intel machines that are really competitive with RpI

[glad ruin]

You can get decent fanless mini PCs for under $150 that can easily outperform even the highest end pi 4. Unless you get it used it won't be in the $35 price range though.

[median viper]

Their not $35.00 anymore though.

Raspberry pi that is

And they are constantly sold out so it's too hard to scale with them

[glad ruin]

Exactly. So it's not a matter of x86 mini PCs getting cheaper, it's a matter of the pi getting it's price inflated so much that it's in the same range as a mini PC.

[median viper]

Yea I think the pi zero is okay but

maybe even then

Pi Zero was supposed to be a $2.00 machine now it's $5.00

[glad ruin]

The Pi Pico is ok, but that is not an SBC.

[median viper]

yeah I was considering making a microgreens business

[glad ruin]

It was always $5, or $10 for the Zero W.

Anyways...

[median viper]

and it wasn't worth it, it was a lot of work for no returns using hydrometer protocol monitoring off of some science papers one of my professors was publishing

[median viper]

okay have a good night!

[neon anchor]

I have a question:
When I measure the resistors with the same multimeter, I could measure most of the resistors but there are some that I couldn't measure. (trust me I know how to measure with proper range setting)

Are these resistors broken?

[fierce prawn]

My first iot project

[brave copper]

https://www.adafruit.com/product/3258 - I need to know the space of screw mounts creator of the amiga 1200 Pi mounts says about 15mm when I get it I'll measure it to be sure it's 15 or 16mm

[late fulcrum]

The Pi foundation says that Pi supplies should recover in the next few months. Realistically X86 CPUs can't compete with modern RISC architectures, so there are a lot of better choices available.

[static flare]

Unfortunately it's actually 17.3, there's a diagram on the product page

[brave copper]

doesn't say if it's inches or mm

[static flare]

I would assume mm, because I'm sure the diameter isn't 3.5 inches, and M3.5 is a fairly standard size

[brave copper]

says the ears are 18mm apart - since the new power supply I found on amazon I will use for Pi 3B+ is micro - is the micro b to c just an adapter to convert the micro to usb-c?

[late fulcrum]

No, it's just a micro-B extender

[brave copper]

not this cable the adapter adafruit sells

https://www.adafruit.com/product/4299 this one does it just turn micro b to C and great for things like the pi 4 for it's power?

[static flare]

Pi 4 uses nonstandard USB-C power, and I think that would only draw the max Micro-B can carry

[brave copper]

I don't use the pi 4 I have a 3B+ and a power supply that uses micro b for connection that is all

[static flare]

But yeah, that just converts Micro-B to C

[lost rampart]

Uh why am I getting a warning here ?

if ((psTimerInst->pfu32GetTickMs() - u32CurrTime) < 0)
{
    /* code */
}

result of comparison of unsigned expression < 0 is always false

[static flare]

So an unsigned number is always going to be positive, so if you ask whether it's less than zero, it'll just always be zero. Basically, it's just warning you that it's in effect always giving False.

[patent hemlock]

i've seen a "pi-like" microcomputer from Libre that's still dirt cheap and seems compatible, but i've not actually checked one out myself

[whole jacinth]

you might want to do the comparison directly, instead of subtracting and comparing against zero

[late fulcrum]

Amusingly, that's essentially what the CPU's compare instruction does under the hood

[glad ruin]

That is what the compare instruction does under the hood. The difference (at least in x86) is in the flags it sets.

[tardy badger]

Ah yeah

Samd11 shim dev board

Probably could make a QtPy sized version too

[spice moss]

or tinier

[tardy badger]

Yeah true

[rapid geode]

make a 5cmx5cm ryzen system please.

[lost rampart]

thanks

[tardy badger]

I’ll get right in it, just $800 for the PCBs

😬

[rapid geode]

ha

i want to make a tiny pc case. take a 50x50mm board roughly. but i dont think theres any full featured pcs that size.

pi4 i guess is closest, but its bigger than that

[raw jasper]

an example of convergent evolution!

[raw jasper]

btw, how is that fpga feather you were planning to sell going?

[tardy badger]

It’s slowly coming together. I’m trying to get back towards finishing the launch details for crowd supply

But the final prototype works great at least 🙂

[raw jasper]

fyi your website says "shipment in May". You may want to amend that :)

[tardy badger]

Yeah lol

I’m sort of doing just in time manufacturing for the remaining micro USB prototype boards. They work great, just the previous revision that I want to get through the remaining PCBs

[raw jasper]

I was just checking around your site out of curiosity and noticed it, so I figured I might as well let you know

Have you gotten any orders for it yet?

[tardy badger]

I’ve sold 5 to early backers

[raw jasper]

OOh nice

[tardy badger]

I really need to find a job with a better balance of work and commuting so I’m not so exhausted

Commuting 35+ minutes one way, over an hour the other.. I’m losing nearly 2 hours a day of mental bandwidth

[raw jasper]

I sincerely wish you all the best in this endeavor

(This sounded like something some random high society person from a novel set in the 1800s would say, but, well, communicating this kind of thing via text is kind of hard?)

[tardy badger]

Lol

Well, I have an interview Tuesday so fingers crossed

[raw jasper]

software job?

[tardy badger]

Embedded systems engineering job

Mix of software, solutions architecting, things like that

[tardy badger]

I am.. honestly confused by responses on LinkedIn sometimes.. I share a personal project that I think is cool, and I can’t help but engage with people who seem to throw a shadow of negativity over that. :/

[glad ruin]

I... actively avoid LinkedIn. Probably going to delete the account one of these days.

[tardy badger]

Like yes, I get that the person thinks after dark PCBs from OshPark look burnt in pictures. But anyone who looked at it for more than a few moments would know right away that it is indeed not burnt

But the board isn’t for other people, it’s for me. The after dark clear solder mask makes physical debugging much easier, especially if I need to follow traces and do bodging

Anyway, tada!

[ebon dew]

What made you decide on a samd11?

[tardy badger]

I want a smöl cortex m0 chip for doing pass through programming of fpga and other spi/jtag chips

[ebon dew]

SleepWalking Peripherals sounds a little scary 😆

[tardy badger]

lol

it's findable, yay

[ebon dew]

now get something to blink

[tardy badger]

yeah, I need a bootloader first 🙂

[ebon dew]

that could help

custom make?

[tardy badger]

using a 1kB one I found on github that's smaller than the generic USB bootloader

[ebon dew]

oh this is just for helping to program the IcyBlue?

passthrough is way over my head, only time i've ever done it was using a feather rp2040 to update an airlift.

[fierce prawn]

How to convert a unpowered USB hub to a powered one

Cut the 5v and wire the external 5v and gnd to the board?

[tardy badger]

similar concept

[ebon dew]

@fierce prawn there's no easy answer to that one as USB hubs come in a variety of designs. recommend you post that up in #help-with-projects as some hardware hacking is involved.

[raw jasper]

yay congrats!

[tardy badger]

1kB boot loader didn’t quite work. Something with the usb descriptors not setting up right

Probably will look at it again later

For now, a break 😬

[sand frigate]

I accidentally broke off my USB C port on my macropad. I don't have a surface soldering set up. I tried to do it with a very thin tip on my iron. Can't get it, it keeps popping off. Is there anyway I can do this with a normal soldering iron or am I done for?

[median viper]

Not for power constraints

[fierce prawn]

Contact support

[sand frigate]

I've had it for like a year lol

[ebon dew]

still can try contacting support see if they'll do a repair, it's a shot at least.

[sand frigate]

Thank you! I will give that a shot.

[glad ruin]

Hmm I didn't realize that ladyada is actually in this server.

[tranquil swallow]

Why is there so much variation in usb-c

[tardy badger]

Because no one wants to pay licensing fees and lab fees to be “compliant”

[hasty quarry]

Who has experience with real analysis, I need some help understanding a proof’s logic

I can always ask math SE, but it’d be nice to talk to someone

[glad ruin]

Depends on what you're trying to prove, but I might be able to send you in the right direction.

[hasty quarry]

Why a continuous function must achieve its minimum and maximum values on a bounded and closed interval. Can I DM you with what I’m trying to follow?

[glad ruin]

As long as it's not for a test I'll take a look.

[hasty quarry]

No, no, this is for me

Give me a minute

[hasty quarry]

Can someone explain what the point of capacitors being next to crystal oscillators is and how they're usually hooked up with the crystals?

Oh, sorry if this isn't quite the right channel

[glad ruin]

Short version: it's more or less impedance matching. A crystal oscillator is electromechanical devices that can be modeled as an LCR network (more or less a very narrow bandpass filter, but with better long term stability). This article discusses how they work, and there's a section on the load capacitors.
https://www.analog.com/en/technical-articles/design-a-crystal-oscillator-to-match-your-application.html

Another article:
https://www.ctscorp.com/wp-content/uploads/Appnote-Crystal-Basics.pdf

[brave copper]

I have some gateron switches left over (which are clones of the Cherries swithces)

how I can make an cherry MX adapter of the Mitsumi hybrid switches that was used in the Amiga keys?

[glad ruin]

How much taller than the original keys are you willing to go?

[brave copper]

same height of the key here's how the bottom look like

Image from Deskthority wiki

[glad ruin]

Oh those are just caps not the switches themselves.

[brave copper]

just enough it fits inside the cap if I were to make my own switch for cherry mx

it's called Mitsumi hybrid switches they just have a hole to have the caps on

There are C64 ones to use with Cherry MX Switches which I'm using for my mechboard 64

[glad ruin]

Yeah you'd probably have to try drawing it up in CAD to see if you can get them to fit without collisions.

[brave copper]

that is what I was thinking of one did made a 3d model to repair a broken keycap

[glad ruin]

I assume you don't want to modify the case at all.

[brave copper]

I'm making these for this https://github.com/aeberbach/A1200KB since there's no 9u cherry mx spacebars

[glad ruin]

How much is on the PCB underneath? Curious if you could design a drop-in replacement.

[brave copper]

it's gonna be the same height as the original keyboard's when this is made

[glad ruin]

Are those little clear round things the "springs"?

[brave copper]

they're those o rings from the switch

I could do is use a 3d modeled Cherry MX switch and use that as a base to make the adapter

[glad ruin]

That'd be my recommendation. Once you know how/where it will fit you can design a PCB.

[hasty quarry]

Thank you, that's very helpful

Regarding something else, I'm wondering some things. With CMOS base logic, should I always pull up and pull down any inputs?

I'm assuming that's what this truth table implies, that I should use pulling resistors everywhere

I feel like this isn't usually an issue with TTL, why is CMOS so unstable if you don't pull for it

[brave copper]

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3910131/files I had this in mind to mod into a cherry mx adapter

[glad ruin]

CMOS inputs are very high impedance (basically small capacitors plus a couple reverse biased diodes for ESD protection). When you leave an input floating, the leakage through those diodes can cause the voltage at the input to drift towards half-supply. This will cause both the P- and N-channel FETs to turn on partially, and create a somewhat low resistance path to ground, drawing excessive power. At the same time, half supply is right near the switching threshold for most CMOS circuits, and thermal noise can cause the output to switch sporadically.

Actually here's a TI appnote that goes into more detail. The exact workings of the input depend on the logic family, but they are all loosely similar.
https://www.ti.com/lit/an/scba004e/scba004e.pdf

[glad ruin]

Oh, one other thing: most of the time you can tie unused CMOS inputs directly to VDD or GND.

[hasty quarry]

Oh, really good answer

Yeah, I was taking notes on the behavior of my 74HC574 and it's so annoying

I was manually cycling the clock with a jumper, pulling it down, but it wasn't enough. My fingers alone would trigger it. So I used a button, and still not enough, the bouncing would trigger it. I debounced the button with a parallel capacitor, and now it behaves

But...wow. So annoying

[prime narwhal]

Hi - does anyone have a suggested workflow for microPython that isn't a web browser so I can scratch that source control itch I feel when I'm editing code.py on the live system?

[tardy badger]

I was today years old when I realized that Bone Saw in the original 2002 Spider-Man was played by Macho Man Randy Savage

Also feeling old in that Spider-Man 2002 is nearly old enough to drink

[rapid geode]

... it can drink in canada

😛

[violet parcel]

Seems like Im rediscovering star trek

I kinda gave up during enterprise 1st season and though it was over for good. Saw the trailer for the 1st episode of strange new worlds which led me to binge watch picard and ds9

[static flare]

And Australia

[violet parcel]

Just gotta get used to seeing martha jones and bill potts in other sci-fi shows and other general movies without them being related to dr who 😦

[static flare]

I haven't seen Pearl Mackie in anything outside Doctor Who, but I've definitely seen Freema Agyeman

[patent hemlock]

i flipped out over seeing who was on "Law and Order; UK" - talk about a Who mashup!

[ebon dew]

my neighbors are having an awesome party tonight. tons of mexicans and amazing food. his ceviche is amazing. i'm gonna try to make him some tamals tomorrow. i love my neighbors, great people.

[fresh niche]

Damm my neighbours mow their lawn at 3 in the morning and i wish their pillows stay perpetually warm

[ebon dew]

he mowed my lawn today in exchange for me allowing his friends to use it as additional parking. it's kind of a block party right now.

yeah, i have some good neighbors.

[late fulcrum]

The folks down the road run a rodeo every so often, big crowd of people, live music. I imagine the food is amazing. I'm wondering if they'd let us join in if we showed up with a plate of food.

[radiant coral]

I'm a bit minimalist but what I do is make a symlink under my home directory to the CircuitPython drive, and just edit my code in vim in a source controlled directory on my laptop. When I want to test I just issue a copy command to push the code over to the board, which automatically triggers the reset. If I weren't lazy I could set up a vim command to do the copy for me. But in general I don't live edit on the board so there's less risk, and I'm a developer by trade so source control is my normal workflow beyond some 3 line script

[limpid sedge]

for the bno085, i want to get compass heading and pitch yaw roll degrees. Should I use URAT-RVC or the I2C?

also does "For an even simpler hardware setup, bridge the P0 solder jumper on the back of the board to keep it configured in UART-RVC mode. You can always remove the solder to use other modes!" mean bridge the 3v3 or the VIN to the PO?

[urban arrow]

Love your handle, clumsy... 😄

[tropic urchin]

Sorry to spam, but to my tech and diversity appreciator acquaintances in here, please do me a favour and go leave positive comments on Emily (of Linus Tech Tips fame)'s YouTube. It's a mixed bag of hate and positivity right now when the latter should rule the day https://youtu.be/b-owBhLGaH4

[fresh niche]

I am sorry but i need context. What handle? Where is it?

[hasty quarry]

username

maybe?

probably all they meant, nice username

[fresh niche]

Oh......thenk u :) @urban arrow

[tardy badger]

It takes so much courage for people to come out knowing all the vitriol they will experience. Thanks for sharing this. I shared it on my Twitter to encourage more people to post positively on their video

[fresh niche]

Why are there so many hate comments? Its not like she a different person now. I am still hoping for a random esoteric linux showcase tho. I like her content

[static flare]

It's depressing how loud those voices sound, but maybe that's because I hear them too much

[patent hemlock]

remember - the vitriol really only comes from a very small subset of the population - e.g. the number of viewers of a certain former TV show 🐴 💩 was approx 3 million or less than 1% of the US population

they just sound loud because most people don't care one way or another and thus say not much

[burnt tendon]

Yah, the downside is the whole stochastic terrorism thing where the small subset of the population triggers the susceptible to violence.

[rapid geode]

Because people misdirect their own insecurities at other people.

[rapid geode]

Not to drag this sideways (delete if needed) but this isn't quite accurate. MOST people are indifferent to things that do not effect them. However, when they are pushed - forced - into making a choice on things that don't effect them (voting on gay marriage for example), the results will be split. Those small "loud" groups are not really trying to have direct impact. What they are trying to do is force that decision onto the masses, and that is why they are far more dangerous than their small numbers and unpopular opinions may suggest. The public has no business "voting" on the rights of other people, but these fringe groups try to make it happen anyway. And even though they always ALWAYS lose because they are objectively wrong, up until that time is sharply marked, they also do a lot of serious harm.

[fresh niche]

1.let me tell you that most people who speak against any group are simply doing so for the sake of doing. When a person is truely jobless they attack people for choices in their personal life.

2.swaying public openion based on hate comments means the public lacks basic comman sense which is kinda concerning if you ask me

3. To be frank if i was voting on any matter i would do so without 5 people talking *hit about random people on the internet

[rapid geode]

On your 1: I think it is important not to mix the "followers" and orchestrators. They will have very different motives. You're garden variety irrational hateful person is nothing without someone to coordinate them.

anyhow

[fresh niche]

Well lets just chose to ignore and not intrude about ppls choises

I have a lot on my plate already and the economy aint that hot

[rapid geode]

The economy is smoking hot... like a collapsing neutron star

🙂

[fresh niche]

Thats......one was to say it

[rapid geode]

next few years will be weird for sure.

we made a hole, now we have to get out of it

[fresh niche]

In my country the problem is lack of foreign countries buying our exports. Other than that economy is great. Just that a pi costs ~350 usd rn

[rapid geode]

what is the state of pie anyway. havent kept up. are they still in shortage and selling for $100+?

[fresh niche]

Well aparently pis will be in stock by q4 according to the jeff geerling interview. The only pis i can find are industrial ones

[umbral phoenix]

small batches showing up at various resellers from time to time https://rpilocator.com, but should be easing over the next couple of months

[rapid geode]

cool

theres been a few industries now that went abruptly from shortage to super overstock.

gotta be careful with this recovery. not dig the hole deeper

[fresh niche]

The thing i learnt from the shortage is how underrated the pico is. Like i saw someone run linux on the thing

[rapid geode]

ha

[patent hemlock]

i agree whole-heartedly - i wasn't trying to minimize the impact said groups had, only trying to illustrate that they are not the majority (i had to run an errand thus probably tried to make my point a little too succinct 😃 )

[rapid geode]

🙂

[patent hemlock]

i just saw an 8Gb pi 4 at pimoroni for a reasonable price - i unfortunately don't need one

[rapid geode]

define reasonable. and what is the "original" price of that model?

i know they arent $20 anymore

hehe

T minus 20 mins to pizza.....

mmmmmmmmm

[patent hemlock]

eh, it was the kit and was $115 USD, which is pretty good for board, case, and power - all gone again

[rapid geode]

ah ok

so the cheapest one (1gb?) is meant to be $35.

oh well

ha

[patent hemlock]

right before everything went nuts, i got a 2gb Pi4 kit with case, power, fan, and video cable for $60, so that's kind of a benchmark?

[rapid geode]

ive never looked for the pi 4, so i just have no idea. 🙂

[tardy badger]

Sometimes I forget how good a sugar cone and chocolate ice cream tastes

[burnt tendon]

And they seem to manufacture an infinitely endless series of them, as if they are all ice cream clones.

[rapid geode]

are you just trying to remind me i ate the last of my ice cream this morning?

[radiant coral]

Waffle bowl - I'm a slow eater so cones end in sadness

[night crescent]

Desk of Ladyada - Long weekend for toy hacking https://youtu.be/thR1Hp4dtH0

[worthy magnet]

I have useless PSP3k screen, maybe be able to drive on pico 🤔

[unique nest]

does anyone have a good case reccomendation for RPI 3b+ that is good for setting pi on the table, but has GPIO exposed so I can put hats and stuff on it?

https://www.adafruit.com/product/2292 - I guess this is probably what I'm looking for, I'm just wondering if it has enough clearance around the GPIO pins

[glad ruin]

Have a 3D printer?

[unique nest]

unfortunately not

[patent hemlock]

add a stacking header to clera the top plate https://www.adafruit.com/product/1979

or just leave off the top (use only the bottom) - another option is to just get some M2.5 stand-offs and make some "legs" with them https://www.adafruit.com/product/3299

[unique nest]

dang this looks like a much better solution

ill have to take a look

thanks for the suggestions

[patent hemlock]

np

[late fulcrum]

One trivial approach that works in some cases: https://www.adafruit.com/product/550

[violet parcel]

speaking of which if you print your own screws from say manufacturers step files

does resolution matter ?? Like does it matter to have 100 spirals along the lenght instead of just like 4 ?

[glad ruin]

You mean pitch?

(distance between adjacent spirals)

[violet parcel]

no I mean the number of spirals

some manufacturer make it low-res and model less than the actual number of spirals and head socket details

some manufactuers like mcsomething-carr do the opposite

since if I 3d print them they are obviously not going to be stainless steel or nylon etc I wonder if the number of spirals on it or even the head socket matters

ie: like if the screws are too high-res it takes much longer to print, longer to process in solidworks etc

[crystal ore]

Often the screws in a model are not intended to be printed, just used as a placeholder for metal parts that are bought separately.

[violet parcel]

Another issue I have. I use part of my counter for soldering and have a large thick cardboard plate wrapped by aluminum foil under my solder iron with a smaller silicon one. still some tiny balls of lead sometimes are blown off on the counter

How should I clean the counter? As normally and take care to throw the little balls of lead in the garbage and immediatly clean off those that falls off ? (mostly concerned about what to do if I dont solder for a while and I my put food on it again to avoid issues)

[glad ruin]

First, you shouldn't be using lead solder on a table that you use for food. But otherwise yeah you can just wipe them up and throw them out.

[hasty wedge]

My MHS9301 melody module powered by a FMD MCU

Almost pin 2 pin compatible with KD9300

But instead of trigger on high (VCC), it triggers on low (GND)

It's also dual tone

[foggy egret]

hi help someone with my code pls

[rocky python]

Hello everyone, I am new, I would like to know if you can help me with a question: I want to know if it is possible to activate a feed through a single url, example "https://io.adafruit.com/api/v2/{my_User}/feeds/{my_Feed}/data?value=0&x-aio-key={my_apiKey}"

[patent hemlock]

please don't multipost - everyone here is a volunteer/user themselves and you may not get an immediate answer

[rocky python]

ok, sorry

[reef tinsel]

Y'all see this? Looks interesting. https://microsoft.github.io/devicescript/

[patent hemlock]

color me very intrigued! i'm particularly curious about the "fiber" concept and how well it actually works on micros

[late fulcrum]

That seems broken to me. Originally ECMAscript was asynchronous and therefore didn't need threads. Then it got wrapped into JS. That got wrapped into TS. Now they're adding threads???

[violet parcel]

seems like adafruit qt py and esp32s in general support it

[dusty citrus]

can someone tell me what i need to create an idea I have?

because i dont know what i need or where to start at all

[patent hemlock]

how do you otherwise get asynchronous behavior? 😏

[dusty citrus]

or if its even possible

[violet parcel]

that said Im still wary of microsoft Embrace/Extend/Extinguish/Terminate stuff years later so I think this is suspicious and Id rather they stay out of adafruit stuff

[patent hemlock]

#help-with-projects

[dusty citrus]

thanks bro

[violet parcel]

isnt ecmascript/typescript etc interpreted too ?

So same basic problem as micro .Net (massive lack of performance)?

[glad ruin]

.NET is not interpreted, it's a VM like Java

Python is interpreted

[patent hemlock]

depends on the engine - CircuitPython is really just a very specialized compiled C program, so if the base is "fast enough" it'll work

[glad ruin]

From what I've seen CP is... strange. As a general rule the goal of microcontroller firmware is to configure the various hardware blocks included on the microcontroller and then act as glue logic between them in order to do something useful.

[patent hemlock]

you get used to it - it's a pretty interesting approach vs C/Arduino stuff

[glad ruin]

For prototyping is makes sense.

[violet parcel]

the bytecode is still interpreted, but it's not pure interpreted like basic. But there is still an additional step/overhead

or MSIL if you want to argue

[umbral phoenix]

for a lot of use cases, it's good for production too

[glad ruin]

JIT compiled, yes.

[violet parcel]

I think also that like circuitpython it trade losing features for easier development (which is why I dont use circuitpython, didnt buy a 20$ MCU to only be able to use 10% of it)

[glad ruin]

That's where I wouldn't necessarily agree 100%, but I've also seen production C firmware.

[patent hemlock]

do we really want to get into JIT? 😈

[violet parcel]

But their nature afaik in 2023 interpreted/virtual machine types languages still are an order of magnitude slower than C/C++

[patent hemlock]

bullpucky - your information is out of date

[violet parcel]

When you a measuring / get updates from sensors every 100 nanoseconds that might matter

[glad ruin]

If you're doing that every 100ns you don't want to be handling it in software.

[violet parcel]

I assume that devicemanager will have the same limitation as circuitpython. If nobody specially write support for a sensor Im out of luck

where as in arduino / native C++ on ESP I have access to all the registers

[glad ruin]

It really depends on use case. If you want to have full control over every aspect of the device you would use assembly.

[violet parcel]

(also Im not trying to start an argument/be mean here - just discussing / hoping to be challenging on my assumptions about this device manager thing I hear about for the first time)

[patent hemlock]

well, it's a new thing! it appears to be similar in approach to CP but uses a Typscript foundation

[violet parcel]

that is one thing I like a lot about madbodger. Every time I think I understand something about electronics and think I have a rule figured out they pull out an exception to it 30s later and then I feel like a complete newbie again 🤣 madbodger keeps my dunning-krueger in check so much 🤣

[patent hemlock]

amen

(by way of disclaimer, i'm an old-school Java programmer using Kotlin on Raspberry Pi for robotics 😱 )

[violet parcel]

Every time I do robotics I feel like quitting because it just keep opening a massive new set of problems

also need 3000$ for RoS 2 😦

[patent hemlock]

oh, yeah that part sucks

[violet parcel]

3000$ or free Depending on your definition of cost/accounting

[patent hemlock]

but i'm doing fine without RoS

[glad ruin]

Few microcontrollers have the memory and processing power necessary to implement a full interpreter, but byte code interpreters are possible. If I understand correctly that's how Micro/CircuitPython works. You send bytecode to the device, not Python.

[violet parcel]

But if I dont have a powerful enough laptop to install RoS 2 I feel like I can legit says I need 3000$ to use ros 2

[patent hemlock]

i'm figuring out how to do it on my own (yeah, i'm that crazy)

[glad ruin]

Python is a pretty complex language.

[violet parcel]

like if someone want to buy an arduino and they dont have a computer at all to code it it feels ok to tell them they will need a 300-400$ pc to use it. (or an rpi 4 but good luck finding one). Where as I already have one so that is not part of the cost calculation for me

[patent hemlock]

yes it is - and there's some things about it that drive me nuts (self for [bleep]'s sake)

[violet parcel]

Just wish that solidworks and fritzing worked on linux (or was it that schematic software?) 😢 😦

but it annoy me a lot I cant carry my electronics in any makerspace and code it with just my rpi 4

[glad ruin]

In retrospect I feel like Lua would have been a better choice for an embedded interpreter. It is very lightweight in comparison to Python.

[late fulcrum]

Um, trivially. Which is, of course, how JS does it.

[patent hemlock]

LInux has plenty of similar tools available - Kicad for schematics, for example

[late fulcrum]

Hardly. You can get a used computer for a few dollars.

[violet parcel]

but Im used to solidworks and pay for it. Would like to at least be able to 3d print from linux with it 😦

I understand I wont be able to model a massive 3.5 MW factory with an rpi 4 but would be nice to be able to change measures and 3d print still

@late fulcrum what do you think of my statement above "hat is one thing I like a lot about madbodger. Every time I think I understand something about electronics and think I have a rule figured out they pull out an exception to it 30s later and then I feel like a complete newbie again. madbodger keeps my dunning-krueger in check so much ." Do you see yourself as being a good guardian against dunning-krueger ? 🤣

[late fulcrum]

Heh, I'm more of an opinionated brat.

[violet parcel]

I wonder if something like webassembly would help something like device manager though

[patent hemlock]

this is where i start getting into the "these guys are probably smarter at this than I am, so i'll wait and see" 😀

[violet parcel]

Wouldnt it be great to have a couple of languages that are platform independent and you run them in the web to use a MCU/sensors and instead of doing their own implementation they just implement something like micro webassembly to run it...

[glad ruin]

If I understand correctly WASM is an instruction set architecture designed to implemented in a sandboxed VM running in a browser. As such it is possible to compile code in a variety of languages that target it. Probably too heavy for a microcontroller though.

[violet parcel]

for those unfamiliar web assembly is a basically a dev platform like console/desktop except on the web and part of web standards where the computer connected to the website does most of the work instead of the server like before

[glad ruin]

Also, the issue isn't language dependence. It's hardware dependence.

[violet parcel]

And can use a variety of languages as long as they are compiled to web assembly specific assembly language

[glad ruin]

WebAssembly by design has no notion of direct hardware access or I/O, which is necessary for microcontrollers.

[late fulcrum]

Java is part of that, it has a "write once, run anywhere" model and it's byte-coded for compactness after compiling. However it ain't perfect, as it has poor support for varying integer types, and it has a large footprint that doesn't mesh well with microcontrollers. And after the recent Oracle fracas, it has lost a lot of its popularity.

[radiant coral]

The end product of compiling to WASM is effectively virtual cpu instructions so in theory you could build a runtime that would run on a microcontroller. I feel like it's likely to be memory constrained though

[glad ruin]

Yes, and constrained to 'general purpose' computation.

[late fulcrum]

Lua was briefly popular for microcontrollers, but for reasons I'm not aware of, doesn't seem to be any more. Forth seems like a nice candidate, but never became particularly popular (even though it's running now on huge numbers of computers due to the existence of OpenProm)

[radiant coral]

True. Though as soon as WASM hits the main mainstream I can't help but expect to see a bunch of browser-specific extensions (see also: every web standard ever)

[patent hemlock]

cannot disagree with a single word of this

[violet parcel]

eh I think it's time to end support for mcu with 1970 cpu speed and memory size honestly. I mean why buy a 8kb MCU when there are 8mb ones at lower price with cpu 10 times as fast...

[late fulcrum]

I can think of 113 reasons...

[violet parcel]

I see my arduinos lying around and I can't see any reason to ever buy another when a single-line of spec on newer mcus blows the whole thing out of the water

like arduinos seems like a 19th century technology vs very cheap esp32s

[glad ruin]

Forth is... one level above assembly. Lua likely lost popularity to Python because it is not 'batteries included' and Python supports a massive number of things either natively or in the standard library.

[late fulcrum]

I'm a big fan of the concept of "good enough". I still use Arduinos on a frequent basis, even though I can buy a Teensy 4 for less money and it's ridiculously more powerful.

[radiant coral]

One of these days I should lay out a graph / visualization of the sine wave of "thick client / think client" I've gotten to watch throughout my career

[glad ruin]

Lua has very efficient bytecode and a register-based VM though, which makes it very efficient to implement.

[late fulcrum]

I consider C a gloss on assembly. Forth is ... a strange animal. It is primitive, but it doesn't "feel" like assembly to me.

[patent hemlock]

OH. MY. BLEEP. I don't even want to think about that....

[violet parcel]

I wonder if ocaml works on MCUs considering it's faster than C/C++ for some operations...

[patent hemlock]

Does a Wyse terminal count as dumb or smart?

[late fulcrum]

Heh, that reminds me of that humorous science paper on the mass of Pluto

[violet parcel]

and the logical simplicity / type inference of ocaml as well (lambda calculus from before computer existed)

[radiant coral]

Well it's a sine wave so it could be somewhere in between. I guess I'd follow where the majority of the cpu time was spent?

[late fulcrum]

Heh, a Wyse is considered a dumb terminal, as is an HP2648A, even though both of them have a lot more capability than many computers.

[glad ruin]

Forth is very heavily stack-oriented. It is essentially an assembly language for an underlying virtual machine that is usually implemented in assembly.

[patent hemlock]

oh that was a multi-user 68000 dev system, so most time was spent there compiling in the 1Mb of memory

[violet parcel]

I supposed any ocaml would need a virtual machine so you lose / 10 on speed right at the start vs C/C++

a shame because ocaml is really good for sets calculation which is what is involved with sampling / filtering data to get accurate measurements

[glad ruin]

Again, the difference isn't usually orders of magnitude.

[patent hemlock]

Wyse-80 - as in from the 1980's 😈

[late fulcrum]

I have a Wyse-30 and a Wyse-50 here 🙂

[patent hemlock]

DUDE!

[violet parcel]

always wondering if there are special compilers for arduino vs the default that make things faster

[radiant coral]

I'm sure some of you have more experience than I do, but there's also the fact that my uni had labs full of like 486s that did nothing but connect up via telnet to do anything on the VAX or whatever it was we were running. So the hardware for thick in that case was there but they just ignored it really

[violet parcel]

kinda like they uses to do for games in the 1990s and they all used that commercial C++ game optimized compiler

[patent hemlock]

oh - actually it was a 50

[radiant coral]

Instead of made-up developer / engineer titles we should start measuring experience level by how many cycles you've lived through

[late fulcrum]

Pull quote from the mass of Pluto paper: "If we use our equation to extrapolate forward past 1984, we see that more interesting things are in store. After 1984, the cosine function is negative, and we all know that a negative number raised to an irrational power is complex! That is, Pluto reappears, but with a complex mass. The real part of this complex number is negative. While this idea may seem repellant to some, Pluto will be repellant to everything at this point." – "From the Ridiculous to the Sublime: The Pending Disappearance of Pluto", by A. J. Dessler and C. T. Russell

[radiant coral]

peak to peak could be 1T. So you could be like "Hello, I'm JR, I'm a 3T software developer"

[patent hemlock]

oh, that doesn't count - i took a very long, circuitous route to my current point (my first experience was with card-punch)

[late fulcrum]

My first computer was a 1MHz 6800 maxed out with 768B of RAM. I came by my minimalist approach to computing honestly.

[violet parcel]

conclusion: pluto is an imaginary "planet"

[patent hemlock]

loved them motorola chips with direct-access

[late fulcrum]

Heh, I should try hooking it to the Wyse terminal...

[patent hemlock]

stopit! yourekillingme! 🤣

rs-232 baby!

[late fulcrum]

Last time I used it, I was using a 2.2GHz 64-bit machine with 16GB of RAM to emulate a dumb terminal for it.

[violet parcel]

Im still jealous of commodore 64 and apple 2 having peek/poke to show symbols and play sounds but my qbasic 6/quickbasic 4.5 on my 386 couldn't and havent got over it 😦

[radiant coral]

Yeah I think technically the first machine I actually touched / programmed on was an Apple IIe because my school had one. But we were pretty broke and nobody in my family was into tech so I didn't really have access to any computers until probably 10-12 years later

[violet parcel]

I used a 80286 as my first in the 1990s but didnt know it was 1980 technology. So Im very used to arduino speeds and being limited to 640kb 🤣

[radiant coral]

Honestly reading some of the stuff I've read I feel like I should have been born about 10 years earlier

[violet parcel]

meanwhile my friend had a 1985 amigaOs machine that was years ahead of my 80286... 😦

Like I saw some windows 11 programs got tabs recently but amiga had that in 1985

[radiant coral]

then again, I used to upset my teachers with what I tinkered with in high school so it's possible had I been born 10 years earlier I might have gone to prison or something for messing around where I shouldn't have

[late fulcrum]

Oh yeah, wintel was a giant step backward. And a lot of people fell for it.

[violet parcel]

Back in school Id make a qbasic program to draw random colored random size circles that you could not quit the normal way to force a specific seat to be owned by me 🤣

everyone else assumed the computer was broken

[patent hemlock]

graphics... y'all had graphics 🥹

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amdahl_Corporation

[radiant coral]

Hah! I almost got suspended for the exact same thing. I was in the most technical class my high school offered, which was "Word Processing" and got bored after I finished our assignment

[patent hemlock]

check out "first product"

[radiant coral]

The teacher, who had no concept of programming, pulled me out in the hall and prepared to send me to the office for "hacking the computer"

[violet parcel]

Here they only did that if you used the gwbasic esc key and program listing instruction to "cheat" in lab test by seeing the source on the math hangman thing

Which I knew how to do and how to re-execute the basic program the normal way of course 😄

[radiant coral]

That time was innocent but I did pull a few pranks that I probably deserved to get in trouble for. I learned for instance that if you popped in a diskette, and had QBASIC start the program from the diskette, you could then eject it (the program was in memory already) and go elsewhere. So I made a program the drew like random shapes and made PC speaker sounds or something silly like that and I think maybe put a message like "THE MOZART VIRUS IS DELETING YOUR SYSTEM" or something equally stupid on about 6-7 machines and left the room to go the bathroom. The program was set up to start drawing and playing noises after a random timer of a minute or so I think.

[violet parcel]

Got caught but they actually used me to improve it / build protection (there was an instruction to protect the code listing even after quitting interp mode)

instead of punishing me

Still dont understood why they bought it on a public contract and not doing that themselves or asking the developer to do that... seems super amateur to me

[patent hemlock]

pretty simple - they didn't know any better, especially at that time

[glad ruin]

No. Arduino just uses gcc for the most part.

[violet parcel]

My first brush with a windows computer was in a radio-shack and I accidently hit the screensaver shortcut key

so I left in a sus way thinking I had broken the computer and I was worried FBI was going to come arrest me all week after that 🤣

I learned this was normal after it happened a couple of times and I asked the cashier if it was normal it was showing that and unlocked the computer so I could try it

[patent hemlock]

images of flying toasters come to mind now

[violet parcel]

Ended up buying a 486 dx2 on a underage convenience store clerk wage

it was those 3 close lines squarish things of various colors default screensaver I think

I almost had an heart attack first time I saw vysiwyg programming like delphi / vb4

And my amigaOS friend was like "Im still ahead we had that 15 years ago"

[radiant coral]

I still like to install screensaver packages on some of my Linux desktops to get stuff like that, or the 3D pipes, etc

[violet parcel]

Then I installed linux on it one day and destroyed it (overwrote main partition) 😦 So I kept linux for like 10 years + it had all the software I needed where as each package was like 500$ on windows and high shipping fee because of the big manuals that came with them

[radiant coral]

As janky as it was, a hand-me-down 386 running Windows 3.1 was the first machine that was ever mine so it's a bit nostalgic

[violet parcel]

Was windows 95 for me. Still remember how it would invent problems after being on for long and peoples on freenode would brag about their linux uptime

invent problems = create a blue screen with a random reason after being idle for like 24 hours. Reboot. Everything is fine as if nothing happened

Linux was actually serious when it showed an error

rebooting wouldn't fix it. Reinstalling over wouldnt either sometimes and sometimes even a fresh install wouldnt

[radiant coral]

I hated the way Windows worked before there was a taskbar, so I just quit to DOS most days, especially since I was generally just interested in getting a game working

[violet parcel]

Also I remember trying to make my sound card works with ALSA for 7 years

until one day I figured out from a linux magazine archive I needed to add a parameter to the command to set the base volume really high

like having the analog dial on max wasnt enough

[violet parcel]

Also those free ISPs that added ads to dialup app in windows but I sniffed their AT* codes and login/pass to use it in linux 🙂

[late fulcrum]

Yes, Microchip has an IDE with their own optimized compiler. I think there are a few other choices (Keil?) as well.

[glad ruin]

Arduino uses GCC though.

[violet parcel]

cant you replace it with options ?

the build tools can be replaced in arduino IDE afaik ?

[glad ruin]

It's probably possible. Not necessarily trivial.

[violet parcel]

I know the special games compiler was watcom C++ in the 1990s but I dont know what replaced it in the 2000s (some intel stuff???)

[late fulcrum]

It's open source, but it would probably be a chore

[radiant coral]

Totally understand now, I'm a convert. At the time I didn't know Linux / Unix even existed. I think my intro to that was a Slackware CD a teacher gave me with zero other guidance. That was an interesting semester.

[solar kindle]

I'd be all for Java (or Java Lite) for microcontrollers. And there are byte code to native compilers for other devices, so one for microcontrollers isn't out of the question.

[violet parcel]

For me the issue isnt really what language but which language has the most library

[glad ruin]

The issue is that there is no such thing as "write once, run anywhere" for microcontrollers since the firmware you write for them is by definition meant to take advantage of the hardware capabilities of the chip you are using.

[violet parcel]

Because I cant write a library to use a board for s***

Like Im shocked when I see a 180 pages manual for 6$ sensor

[late fulcrum]

In general, you'll find that "make things faster" and "has the most libraries" are not going to be the same environment

[violet parcel]

It's like a nature publication for me there's no way I can understand all of it and write a library myself

[radiant coral]

In my Uni CS program freshman year they switched us from Borland C++ to Visual Studio and everything was completely MS centric after that except for one class we did on IRIX boxes we had in one lab ☹️

[violet parcel]

Especially the ones that just provide a graph and you are supposed to make-up the formulas from this like a PHD person

So basically my process for buying an electronic part: 1) does it has a minimum of quality (so no aliexpress unless I need a lot of it) 2) does it have a datasheet 3) does it have an arduino library

bonus 4) has adafruit/spark/etc made a breakout for it 5) how easy it is to add to an order to fill up a 100$ minimum digikey/mouser order

Like Im more likely to buy 20$ sensor I dont need right away to fill an order minimum (since shipping without it will be like 40$) than buy a 80$ MCU

[glad ruin]

I invariably end up writing my own libraries because the popular Arduino/Python/whatever library either can't run it in the mode I want or blocks while waiting for serial data to come back.

[violet parcel]

oh I do like the compromise of that

by taking advantage of the fact that arduinoIDE uses an eclipse like project folder and copy libraries locally inside the project

so I often edit them depending on the project or upgrade part of it with diffs from github / etc

[glad ruin]

I often write it from the ground up, as the entire usage model breaks down when you try to do nonblocking I/O.

[violet parcel]

ie: like I have an irremote.h that comes with my board manual but it's old (but still works fine) so I manually upgraded it to work with sony remotes. Where as if I upgrade to the new version it has the bloats of the code of all the other remotes

so I prefer to use the old version for simple things and choose the bloat myself

also the newbie arduino IR hardware isnt perfectly compatible with the remote so I had to add workarounds in the irremote library

[glad ruin]

Any half-decent compiler won't actually put unused code in the binary unless you are compiling it as a dynamic library, which doesn't exist on a microcontroller.

[violet parcel]

like the frequency is correct but everything else (pulse width/length etc) isn't

[glad ruin]

IR remotes are generally just handled with a timer. They don't usually have any dedicated hardware blocks. No real need to since they are slow.

[violet parcel]

also the vcr toggle on the remote uses another frequency and it sends to both freqencies on the remote when vcr is toggled but I cant catch it and ir hardware to see it is more expensive cuz it's not mainstream

what Im saying is basically on my remote with sony hardware I could press two buttons at once or tap a button

but arduino newbie IR receiver doesnt support that so I have to press the button for a couple of second before it sees it

Couldnt find the specs of the remote on the web either so I had to code workarounds

[glad ruin]

Yeah Sony loves their proprietary stuff.

[violet parcel]

It also wasn't meant to be universal. Like youd get less functionality if you used a universal remote

yeah .... 😦

that said considering I was going to throw it away

And considering I can uses the vcr controls in TV mode to r/c control something and run tests cases by inputting a number then enter Im very happy

Unlike LCDs it's pretty much universal and works on 3.3V and 5V too

where as LCDs need level shifter/two power sources/specific IC backpack code/specific LCD chip code etc

I might get one of these universal remote with keyboard/LCD screen one day for this purpose

[rapid geode]

oh sony..... its kinda amazing how many bad decisions (and sometimes very bad products) they make yet still keep marching on.

[blissful roost]

But did they run out of fish?

[rapid geode]

they ran out of lawyers?

ha

😛

playstation is the only think keeping htem alive

(not true obviously)

[violet parcel]

I bought my last sony thing a few years ago. Quality really went down the drain vs before. I hated everytime I had to use the device in question

philips did the same a few years ago (as in they sell the rights to use their brand name and no longer make most of their products)

[rapid geode]

philips disolved many of their divisions as early as the 70s.

the name applies to several completly unrelated companies now

im not sure the original dutch philips even exists anymore

checks

looks like the original philips is only in heath care now. the other names are separate unrelated companies.

[violet parcel]

I guess it's not so royal anymore 🤣

[rapid geode]

ha

[violet parcel]

still according to the UN netherlands is like top 5 in exporting electronics

which is surprising considering Ive never seen a chip from netherlands on digikey. All seems to come from china or japan or taiwan or hong kong

[rapid geode]

up til 2020. thats when they sold the last of it off

chips arent electronics. they are just a tiny part.

[violet parcel]

so it seems like netherlands dont actually produce stuff but integrate it/resell it (kinda like adafruit except 190 billion $ per year)

[rapid geode]

stick a pi pico in a plastic box and package it... THAT is electronics. 🙂

[violet parcel]

yeah the UN trade register doesnt really describe the words they use

[rapid geode]

most of adafruit i think would be classed as components, and not "electronics"

although maybe they get merged.

[violet parcel]

and some categories are offensive. Like they claim myanmar/burma is the 3rd world producer of maple syrup and germany is 4th. Which is offensive to me as a canadian - never heard of them collecting water from maple

[rapid geode]

electronics usually means an end user product

haha

[violet parcel]

So I dont know how much to actually trust UN trade register data / what export actually means on it

[rapid geode]

there is a drop off. canada is like 70% of all maple syrup. the US is another 29%. germany and the rest can split the 1%

haha

[violet parcel]

I suspect if something has a molecule of maple syrup it goes into the export category. So if something has any copper in it it's electronics or something like that

[rapid geode]

apparently myanmar has maple forests. neat

i knew germany had maples

[violet parcel]

but having maples isnt enough

it's a specific one that only grows in 2 countries because of the climate

they have started to make a new specie in lab but it might be centuries before there is a forest of them elsewhere

[rapid geode]

nah. you can get it form dozens of different maple. Acer saccarinium has the highest sugar content, so thats best. but you can do almost any tree. birch too.

[violet parcel]

germany has 200000 of the sorta right kind of maple tree but you need a forest in one place to actually make anything since you need like 400 gallons of maple water to make a liter of maple syrup

But anyway seems the data is canada 474M$ usa 27.1M$ Germany 12.2M$ (main EU major members around 8 to 10M$ each) and Burma 12.1 M$

[rapid geode]

mmm syrup

[violet parcel]

It's marked as E instead of R on the register. R means re-export/trading (like the gold in switzerland) where E is supposed to mean exported local production

[rapid geode]

i want to tap my maples, but im lazy

they are norway maples. should get 1/2 the sugar of a sugar maple. so 80L sap to 1L syrup

[violet parcel]

It offends me because I cant find any sources that says that germany/burma have actual production

[rapid geode]

ha

[violet parcel]

just say they might have a couple of the right species "somewhere"

except the UN trade register - so seems like fake news but UN is a major credible source of information so hard to argue against it

someone made a comment on wikipedia about this a couple of years ago this is what started my quest to figure this out 🤣

[rapid geode]

....

[violet parcel]

I found a few sources that says germany and netherlands and burma make foods including maple syrup in it so it seem to count in that

[rapid geode]

you could devote this energy to something more useful. like watching paint dry

[violet parcel]

but the problem is that Canada sells most of it's production and normally the costs would be x3 the price paid to canada to make profit

so if it was included germany and netherlands (the biggest packaged foods exporters after the US) would be supposed to export hundreds of millions $ of it

[rapid geode]

annnnyhow

[violet parcel]

No this need to be figured out as Canadian Strategic National Interest 🤣

Cant allow other countries to break out monopoly

[rapid geode]

just eat your pancakes and go to school

[violet parcel]

Anyway being able to eat maple syrup is my main reason for doing exercises and staying healthy 🤣

[rapid geode]

ha

an adequate reason

[violet parcel]

Hopefully I can enjoy it until Im too old and get diabetes/cant tolerate sugar anymore

Like with it I can make a very satisfying dessert in 5 mins

with 2 other ingredients so very simple and very cheap (before adding the maple syrup which costs more than oil)

[rapid geode]

get bowl. put in strawberries. put in maple syrup. put in vanilla. stir around. let sit a few hours. put ice cream in different bowl. dump berries and syrup onto ice cream. eat.

[violet parcel]

I tried the most expensive vanilla before and Im not a big fan. Prefer the artificial one I guess (easier to mix) . Like I needed to add sugar in the vanilla yugurt

But sometimes I set the mixture on a fruit

[rapid geode]

eewwww

[violet parcel]

Like it's basically melted chocolate chunks + sweet shredded coconut + maple syrup at the end

[rapid geode]

coconut is not edible

[violet parcel]

Cool down very quickly and set in the freezer so only take a couple of minutes to prepare and very simple. Sometimes I dump it on fruit to have like a cherry blossom

what do you mean coconut isn't edible ? tons of peoples eat it

Oh I think you think I meant the exterior of it

I meant the white meat inside

dried and shredded

[rapid geode]

no, i meant it is disgusting and not fit for human consumption

😛

[violet parcel]

I agree but it add crunchiness and it's a binder to make sphere 😦

what else I could use ?

I know you will probably /ignore me with this but I love coconut milk a lot too 😦

[tardy badger]

Interview done 😮‍💨

It went good

[prime narwhal]

if I find an oddity / defect in the learn.adafruit.com documentation, is there a place to create a PR?

[tardy badger]

Use the “feedback” link

Each learn guide should have one. That’s the best way to share issues with the learn team

[prime narwhal]

AH! there it is ... I was digging around on the bottom of the page looking for a GH link

[rapid geode]

epoxy

[brave copper]

Oy...finding a 27.5mm hdmi panel mount is hard to find one listed on this printables
https://www.printables.com/model/419333-amiga-1200-raspberry-pi-non-destructive-case-brack/files

the port is extended out and I'm more of a it has to be flush to the 3d print panel

[late fulcrum]

Doesn't look too hard to just design it yourself

[brave copper]

I could try 27mm which that adafruit one should fit

though it says it's 26.9mm it should be 27mm

[ebon dew]

Well the exact measurements of an injection molded part usually differ from a 3D printed part because 3D printers aren't as accurate. Usually up to a 0.3mm variance depending on the accuracy of the individual printer.

Some printers are so dialed in like the Ruiz Brothers they have a tolerance of 0.1 but I still struggle getting it closer than 0.2. Expect some slight variance when dealing with 3D printed files.

of course then there's the actual material you're working with and the thermal expansion/contraction properties of a particular filament. There are a ton of variables with 3D printing. Injection molding can spit out accurate parts to the thousandth or ten thousandth accuracy. A good injection mold will always be faaar more precise than a 3D printed part.

[brave copper]

the creator made sure it's 27.5mm so I'm gonna try a 27 mm and adafruit's hdmi

[ebon dew]

screw size plays a role too. if it's an M3 then .5 off is no big deal. if your screw is an M1 then being .5 off means the screw hole won't line up.

[brave copper]

seems to be like m2 to the m3 screws I'll check the size for the USB C to A adapter I have on th epi mount

the USB-C to A panel mount uses M2 size screws

[magic sequoia]

Are there any qfp package mcus that can run circuit python?

[stuck moth]

ya, definitely. how big of qfp?

[magic sequoia]

doesn't matter

I see samd21 might be a candidate

https://learn.adafruit.com/installing-circuitpython-on-samd21-boards/install-arduino-board-definition

[stuck moth]

rp2040 will be better but it is qfn

why qfp only?

samd51 comes in 64 tqfp and 100 tqfp

but may be hard to find

also 128 tqfp

[magic sequoia]

ez hand solder

[stuck moth]

imx rt 1010 - 1024 come in lqfp too

samd21 is only good for simple tasks since it is ram limited

(1010 is also pretty limited)

[magic sequoia]

my project isn't anything crazy ig the most ram would go towards the 256x64 oled

[stuck moth]

you could also do a qtpy soldered down

castellations are easy to solder

[thick wind]

Even an esp32-s2 module is pretty easy to hand solder thanks to its castellations

Plus psram is great for display projects

[rapid cairn]

Is there any news on Adabox?

[hard estuary]

No, not yet, as far as I know. It comes up every few weeks on Ask an Engineer - they've said when it's ready, they'll email subscribers to confirm their subscriptions. You could always ask on the show tonight, too

[night crescent]

@rapid cairn no new news, only we are shipping again this year!

[violet parcel]

I once tried that SMD / surface hand soldering thing but it ended up being the reverse like I soldered my hand (finger) 😦 Also I needed a big 8X lens to even find out where the resistor had gone

Like I accidently did a 1mm move with my finger and that kicked out the resistor out on the chip like a microscale neymar soccer kick

Wish technology would catchup and I could replace my eye with an implant that does IR/UV/8x magnification/telescope and the other one can provide a powerful emission of IR/visible light and laser

Kinda like MulhorandEmperor of Borg 🤣

[night crescent]

WE ARE LIVE! ASK AN ENGINEER! https://youtu.be/bdkRVqqpl0c

[eternal salmon]

You guys know where I could ask about programming my board in rust here?

[thick wind]

Don't know too many rust devs here, not sure if any particualr channel would be appropriate. When in doubt, #help-with-projects ?

[hasty wedge]

STC just released a new microcontroller

STC32F12K54

Selling for 35 cents

72Mhz 32bits 8051 with 12KB RAM, single cycle FPU, DMA, and USB

[crystal ore]

Anyone have an idea what a "32 bit 8051" core is like? I only know the 8051 as an 8-bit architecture.

[glad ruin]

It... can't really exist without breaking compatibility with the instruction set.

[hasty wedge]

It's actually 80251

[glad ruin]

As a side note 8051 is extremely inefficient outside of some pretty narrow use cases (mostly relating to bit manipulation). An AVR chip running at 20MHz can easily outpace a much faster 8051 core.

[hasty wedge]

STC's 8051 can do complex math calculations like sine cosine tangent etc in a single tick

Most instructions are also done in 1 tick

[crystal ore]

The 80251 claims 2-cycle interrupt latency, interesting.

[glad ruin]

This site has some excellent information.
https://jaycarlson.net/microcontrollers/

[glad ruin]

Instruction completion is not the bottleneck. Accessing memory beyond the first 256 bytes is.

[glad ruin]

This is one of the areas 8'51 is pretty good.

[hasty wedge]

Ah that site

[hasty wedge]

yeah this is unfortunate

Requires some smart planning

But for 35 cents

Hey

Even attiny13 costs like a dollar

[glad ruin]

The 8051 also has only three general purpose registers: A, X, and Y. A is the accumulator, which is also the destination for nearly every instruction. For comparison, AVR has 32 general purpose registers (the last six can be accessed either individually or grouped into 16-bit pointers), and instructions can use any of them as a source/destination.

[hasty wedge]

I believe STC got 8

their 8051 is really their own thing

[glad ruin]

... then it's not 8051

[hasty wedge]

It's a miracle keil C51 still works

[glad ruin]

It's a custom architecture that happens to support 8051 emulation.

[hasty wedge]

Yeah, that makes more sense

I mean it works

In hardware these 8051 instructions probably got converted into their own microcode or something

[glad ruin]

I'm sure it does.

[hasty wedge]

Wait a sec

STC32 got 12KB of fast RAM

It's edata

Single cycle read write

[desert mountain]

hey folks - anyone know of any chats where one can get some help with a raspberry pi 4?

running into a weird issue where a clean install's desktop env will freeze after using a browser for a few minutes; ssh'ing into still works fine, but htop shows 1 core always maxed out

[patent hemlock]

what process is using the CPU?

[desert mountain]

it showed chromium - but killing the whole chromium tree (which removed the cpu load), left the desktop env still frozen

tempted to just wipe the sd card and try again

[patent hemlock]

try a different browser, first - also, there are several config.txt settings to boost the video performance above what raspi-config would use

and wiping and starting over is likely to not accomplish anything except duplicate what you've already got 😏

[desert mountain]

thanks - will try to install firefox and see if I can replicate it

[dire bramble]

everlasting RTC

coin cell batteries are for wimps

[hasty wedge]

[late fulcrum]

And that is why of the 8-bit architectures out there, the 1802 holds a special place in my heart. A whopping sixteen 16-bit registers, which was amazing for its time (and presaged the register-rich architecture of AVR, ARM, etc.).

[ebon dew]

more batteries more weight. coin cells are good for short term, light weight wearables. yes you can always run a long wire to a pocket with huge power bank but then it ceases to be compact. every tool has its use and all project goals are different.

[late fulcrum]

For even lighter weight, there are air cells

[median viper]

I did a study on RISC registers and RISC instruction set, I kinda understood it

[late fulcrum]

I kind of consider "RISC" to be a confusing misnomer. I prefer to refer to ISAs like that as "load and store", to differentiate between chips which have instructions that operate directly on memory from chips that have instructions that operate on registers (along with separate instructions to move data between registers and memory)

There are, of course, some other concepts that get included under the "RISC" umbrella, such as fixed-width instructions, instructions that (generally) execute in a single clock, etc.

[glad ruin]

Yeah RISC has sort of become an umbrella term.

[fair summit]

I was in grad school at UC Berkeley at the time the RISC term started being used, and was in the original seminar (1980) that designed the RISC-I chip. I personally was involved in designing and testing the overlapping register windows concept. The tension was between "CISC" (complex) and "RISC" (reduced). There was a trend to design instruction sets that supposedly matched the requirements of higher level languages, and implement the complexity in microcode. The VAX had sophisticated function calling instructions, for instance (which ended up not quite matching the desired semantics, in some cases). The Intel iAPX432 was an even more "CISC"-oriented design. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_RISC.

[glad ruin]

iAPX432 instructions were also bit-aligned.

This article about it is pretty good.
https://thechipletter.substack.com/p/iapx432-gordon-moore-risk-and-intels

[burnt tendon]

The problem is that every article about the difference becomes a RISCy click.

But, yeah, the time period where they said "Welp, let's make everything bit-aligned! It'll be GREAT for graphics and stuff!" and then it turns out that it's easier to not do that even if yeah maybe you could save a bit of memory by making 21 bit color or something.

[glad ruin]

That article isn't about RISCvCISC. Also the chip letter is pretty good.

[late fulcrum]

If it's not bit-aligned, you have to do that tricky partial bit arithmetic

[glad ruin]

It'd no longer be binary at that point.

Doing calculations with 4PSK signals would be similar though.

[late fulcrum]

I'm just mocking calling anything "bit-aligned"

[raw jasper]

Interestingly enough, though, one trend these days (outside the x86 world) seems to be a RISC-esque CPU and various accelerator peripherals that I guess one could say kind of spiritually succeed the idea of designing the instruction set around a specific HLL or task

So I guess that ended up being a nice compromise

[late fulcrum]

That trend has been around a while. I remember one of of the simple-but-fast Cray architectures being re-used as an I/O processor for a Cray supercomputer

Even the X86 world has gone RISC, all the recent implementations are a RISC core emulating the ISA on the fly. Intel even had the colossal temerity to refer to the X86 ISA as "RiscOPs" (which they quietly abandoned in the face of laughter from the internet)

[raw jasper]

I did not know this. I guess time really is a torus

[main hawk]

Heyyy.. Could someone help me change adafruit keyboard layout etc to czech language?

[glad ruin]

Saying that it is a RISC core emulating the x86 instruction set is actually not quite right. Best I could tell (when I worked there), it's more like a pool of resources and programmable datapaths that microcode configures dynamically. That is how they were able to keep up and make performance gains. The downside is that it makes things like instruction timing extremely unpredictable and difficult to validate.

[raw jasper]

I was about to say that, even though I've known this as a fact, I was curious to see whether intel has any public-facing documentation detailing the decode part of their cycle, but I guess the above message kind of answers my question

[glad ruin]

Microcode is a very closely guarded secret.

Not many people at Intel know (or understand) what goes on below the x86 instruction set.

[raw jasper]

I see

[fair summit]

See this library and its README.md: https://github.com/Neradoc/Circuitpython_Keyboard_Layouts

[main hawk]

Well i tried to do it but then my code like didnt execute.

[fair summit]

what was the error?

[main hawk]

well like no error. Just i use it for bad usb and payload.dd didnt execute

i dont know if i did it wrong.

[fair summit]

just make sure you follow the instructions exactly, and make sure the files are in the correct directories

i am unfamiliar with badusb and can't help you with that

[main hawk]

so if i place the files in just lib and unplug it and plug it. Then its gonna change keyboard layout of adafruit hid?

[fair summit]

no, you have to change the code that is using the layout

[main hawk]

Could you please describe to me how to do that?

[fair summit]

no, sorry, I am not familiar with the badusb code. Look at the source and see where it imports the layout, and change that.

[main hawk]

Ok.

[fair summit]

https://github.com/EvgeniGenchev/BadPico/blob/f46d44d86652697930a21fd04390f251342f389c/main.py#L5

[glad ruin]

In my opinion, we have reached the beginning of the end for x86. Even with all of the optimizations it was never a particularly efficient architecture, and the technical debt accumulated over the decades is immense. For example, the EFLAGS register creates a lot of instruction dependencies, complicating out of order execution due to the shared state. There are workarounds that optimize around this in ucode, but they come at the cost of increased power consumption. This is why RISC-V for example doesn't implement a flags register anywhere.

Instruction decoding on x86 is absurdly complicated.

[late fulcrum]

Yup, I agree.

[burnt tendon]

You might say that the x86 architecture... is flagging.

[neon ocean]

There is some detailed reverse-engineering of this for the oldest most obsolete x86 chip on Ken Shirriff’s blog here (and the following posts) http://www.righto.com/2022/11/how-8086-processors-microcode-engine.html

[raw jasper]

I agree

[burnt tendon]

I feel like my entire career has consistently had "Welp, the x86 is about done dead" said throughout.

[fresh niche]

In my opinion the only reasion why x86 is still around is cauz its universal. I can imagine every company making their own version of riscV with some small,proprietary change and thus create a situatuion similar to when everyone was making their own unix based risc server and there was no intercompatability

[raw jasper]

Also "legacy software"

(whatever that means)

[urban arrow]

Howdy all. Since the streams by LadyAda, JP, foamyguy, etc. bring meaning into my pathetic life 🙂 , wanted to say a trick to listen to PT especially: slow down the speed of your youtube playback. Sometimes his speech can't keep up with his mind, and he talks real fast! I love !!

[neon ocean]

Or, speed up the playback. You can't understand much but it's entertaining. 🙂

[glad ruin]

It means that somebody's business or a piece of critical infrastructure depends on Windows 2000.

[patent hemlock]

NT 3.5

[nimble ice]

would "general tech" be a good place for a general EE question about house hold electric/grounding?

[raw jasper]

In the current era? Did you have to work with that? I'm so sorry...

[patent hemlock]

mostly being snarky - last time i had to touch it was late 90's

[raw jasper]

That's a relief! 😅

[patent hemlock]

but i will bet bottom dollar there are some critical SCADA systems running on it!

[raw jasper]

As long as they aren't connected to the internet...

I've seen lab instruments running win98

[late fulcrum]

However, it isn't universal. There are all sorts of variants, so software has to either use the least common denominator, or be specially compiled for the features the target processor happens to have (AVX, etc.). There are also differences between Intel, AMD, Cyrix, etc. implementations. It's already worse than RISC-V.

[glad ruin]

I think the main issue with RISC-V so far is that a bunch of Chinese companies have adopted it because it is free, so currently the market is flooded with dozens of out-of-spec implementations.

[violet parcel]

Pentium had all sort of optimizations over AMD that they patented the s* off so that AMD and Cyrix wouldnt uses em

And you needed that specific pentium if you wanted specific optimizations some were considered premium and wouldnt show in anything worse than multi-CPU motherboards with server-class CPUs at 2k$ each

[harsh oyster]

check date

[olive dome]

even RISC-V ISA extension spec itself is a mess

Almost at the same level of madness like AVX512

At least on x86 you can use the external libraries from like Intel to optimize the instructions for matrix operations for you.

[glad ruin]

Which extension set?

[magic talon]

Anyone in a general “maker” server?…

Or maybe a “craftsman” server…. Idk

I make stuff and do plan an learning all this stuff and eventually my own robot….

[olive dome]

Not particular one but the options and versions for all the extension can be confusing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RISC-V

[glad ruin]

Yeah the naming is definitely confusing, but that's different from the architecture itself being a mess.

I still need to read up on it, but from what I've seen RISC-V has a very cleanly organized ISA.

[olive dome]

The ISA itself is pretty clean, I have one of the lab course implementing the basic ISA on FPGA and pipeline+branch pred stuff.
But just the extension set is quite complex, I wonder how to do binary compatible among the RISC-V SoC/MCUs,

[ebon dew]

Had a low pressure warning on my feather weather go off this morning with a reading of 1008mb

i was like, "that's pretty low, gotta be a tropical system out there somewhere"

and sure enough

I measured the distance, it detected the sub-tropical system 300 miles away.

[late fulcrum]

There's a nice Personal Robotics server I hang out on.

[static flare]

I should do robotics more, I only really did it in high school, and though I wasn't great at it, but I've learned a lot since then

[worthy magnet]

Nice!

[quaint marsh]

I, too, would like to know more about this server!

[umbral phoenix]

there's now a Xaio ESP32-S3 with 8MB flash & 8MB PSRAM & u.FL, I wish Adafruit would update the S3 QT Py to similar

[burnt tendon]

I keep running up against the thing where bizarre LED projects have led me interesting places and, while personal robotics sounds fun, most things to do would either require more space than I have or drive my spouse nuts.

[static flare]

valid

[cunning frost]

Yup. I'm not even that big with LEDs but the immediate feedback helps with a lot of stuff I want to do.

[burnt tendon]

Also, like, I guess I could get one of the simpler robotics kits but everything's kinda at the level where I'd want to do a walker with a bunch of servos or something with some degree of autonomy and complexity or it wouldn't be quite enough fun, LOL.

Although now that the FAA has the drone pilot license in the US, I kinda want to get one, just b'cause.

[patent hemlock]

yep - limited space in an apartment in my case -- it does require a bit of creative tinkering, but that's kind of the point (also in my case)

[late fulcrum]

I can't post server links here, is there some other way to point to it?

[crystal ore]

Is it listed on Disboard? The info link there might work.

[late fulcrum]

No, it's not there 😕

[patent hemlock]

apparently it's "invite only"?

[fresh niche]

Most people use either amd46 or x86-64

The only difference between them is that x86-64 leaves 32 bits operand and uses slightly different flags for x32 intercompatability

It also lacks a few MSRs like SYSCFG or something i dont really remeber

But its good enough to not need a final user to recompile softwere per cpu basis as only 2 companies,amd and intel,maintain the instruction set. VIA can only manafacture older sets cauz their license with intel expired a long time back

In my openion its much better than 120 companies making a seperate varient for every single cpu model. In that case every computer in the world would need a custom image like many sbcs do compile from source

[ebon dew]

and by this afternoon it's dropped to 1007 and is now Hurricane Arlene. Sweet.

It wasn't even a tropical storm this morning, it was called "sub-tropical storm two"

[patent hemlock]

love those hot gulf waters

[ebon dew]

yup, the warm waters help. summer is here and so is hurricane season.

[patent hemlock]

my grandparents used to live on the TX coast, near Corpus Christi - in a trailer .25 miles from the water (cleaning up post hurricane i do not miss - it smells)

[ebon dew]

Here's a basic example of how I'm detecting them so far out.

photoshopped

low pressure systems have a higher chance of a random downpour, with gusts, hard rain

once you get into tropical system you get the same kind of rain but with much higher wind speeds

you can infer all of that using a feather and this https://www.adafruit.com/product/2652

my storm detection system fits in the palm of my hand

thanks to adafruit

[rose mesa]

Most of the mechanical design finished and printed, now to somehow track the location of the pin that goes through the maze and link it with something like a pc game or maybe blender? so it's a "controller". Got an old arduino pro micro laying around that I thought I might be able to use with a magnetometer and a magnet behind the "pin" that I bought but not even sure if this is realistic and where I should start. I kind of understand code and electronics but mostly mechanical engineer so kind of lost on where to go from here. Not even sure what the correct channel for this is. Sorry for the long first message. https://youtu.be/gDpdxbLT5TI

[burnt tendon]

You know, I deliberately got a setup with a pressure sensor with Home Assistant but I don't think I've ever actually tried to quantify low pressure systems

I mean, OK, it's totally fine if it's just there to look pretty.

[ebon dew]

what language do you intend to program the controller in, that usually determines which channel to go to for help

if you're unsure where to start then the general #help-with-projects is a catch all good start

[rose mesa]

not sure I know a bit of python but I don't mind learning another language if that would make everything else easier

the whole goal of the project is learning new things 🙂

[ebon dew]

we don't specifically have a section for python unless you intend to use it on a raspberry pi

yeah i'd start in help-with-projects

if helpers in there determine you're better off asking that question elsewhere then they'll redirect you from there. each "help-with" channel has helpers and specialists to some extent.

[rose mesa]

ok thanks will post it there then and see if I can make the question a bit clearer first

oh I see it now, you are "3D printing helper" the one thing I don't need help with 😅

[ebon dew]

well, we're in general chat right now 😉

this is just a general place to hangout and discuss, pretty much anything from bananas to global thermonuclear war

[ebon dew]

there are other factors like sea pressure level, temp, humidity, etc... to account for

since i live at sea level the code is much easier for me

[half sun]

Hey guys, anyone know how to achieve the same keyboard rgb effect using led strips?

RGB led strips I mean using arduino

[ebon dew]

#help-with-arduino

[raw jasper]

It's impressive that this can be done with "consumer" tech

[ebon dew]

well, i've been working on it for about 2 years refining the code in circuit python and use it every day.

[raw jasper]

good job!

[glad ruin]

These are the same architecture. Actually they're both amd64 since AMD was the first to write and implement the spec.

[glad ruin]

Also x32 doesn't actually exist (though Microsoft doesn't seem to know that). It's called x86 after the Intel 8086.

[ebon dew]

the warning just lets me know i should check radars out there

[raw jasper]

....yeah, "x32" licenses are a thing

* windows licenses

[glad ruin]

Yeah, but only because Microsoft can't name things.

[raw jasper]

or they thought it would be easier to explain or would reduce purchasing mistakes

"32bit cpu -> x32"

[ebon dew]

i have an 86bit cpu because x86 😛

[blissful roost]

Needs moar 8bit CPU.

[patent hemlock]

Z80 FTW!

(actually, i liked the 6502 and 6800 better)

[glad ruin]

None of these companies are particularly good at naming their products, let me do a quick review of the history...

1978: Intel releases the original 8086, a 16-bit successor to the 8085 (although it broke software compatibility).

Early '80s: losing market share due to the advent of 8-bit microcomputers from Apple and Commodore, IBM secretly began developing the IBM PC. They chose the Intel 8088 (a variant of the 8086 with an 8-bit bus) in favor of Motorola and TI's offerings due to price and availability. It's worth noting that the Motorola 68k was a more advanced architecture, but it wasn't going to be available as soon as IBM wanted.

1982: Intel releases the 16-bit 80286 (also called the iAPX 286 for marketing reasons). It was the first x86 chip to have a protected mode. It wasn't particularly successful, but it formed the basis for the memory model of all future x86 architectures.

1985: Intel released the 80386 (i386), extending the x86 architecture to 32 bits. They called the extended instruction set IA-32 (Intel Architecture 32).

Late 1980s-Early 2000s: Intel and AMD both added multiple extensions to the x86 architecture, in between lawsuits (mostly instigated by Intel, who broke a technology exchange agreement that had previously allowed AMD to second source their designs). Meanwhile HP and Intel began work on the radically different and incompatible IA-64 architecture (Itanium).

2000: recognizing that Intel would never license them to build IA-64 chips, AMD publicly released the AMD64 architecture specification as a backwards compatible extension to x86/IA-32.

2001: with great fanfare, Intel released their first Itanium CPU, but it underperformed.

2003: AMD releases their first AMD64-based Opteron CPU, targeted at servers and workstations. Unlike Itanium, Opteron could run x86 code without a severe performance penalty.

2004: Intel released their first AMD64-based chip. Of course, they renamed the architecture to Intel 64 (or IA-32e).

Short version:
x86-32 = IA-32
x86-64 = AMD64 = IA-32e = Intel 64

IA-64 is unrelated, and x32 is just Microsoft being stupid.

[patent hemlock]

seriously? i'm showing this to my wife to show that i am not a pack-rat! 😀

[blissful roost]

😁

I need more parts to build a system, but it will happen some day.

[raw jasper]

What kind of computer would you like to make?

[blissful roost]

Modular.. kinda like the RC2014, but a different backplane design.

[raw jasper]

What kind of peripherals?

(obviously RAM, ROM, but how about input / output?)

[blissful roost]

I want to go fully standalone, so keeb, mouse (if needed), monitor, etc.

[raw jasper]

Will you be writing the firmware?

[blissful roost]

Ohh, that's a solid no.
I can't code for diddly. 😅

[raw jasper]

What will you be using?

[blissful roost]

I want to run Concurrent CP/M-86 on the BM86..
The Z80 will change according to config.

[raw jasper]

Sounds cool

So, what kinda chips do you need?

You certainly need some memory, some solution for address decoding, an interrupt controller

(off the top of my head)

[blissful roost]

I've already got a Sega Master System to pull apart, so that's good..
I need parts for an Amstrad CPC next. 😁

I've already got some RAM and ROM ICs.

I should do an inventory, but... I have a lot to do in my apartment before I can do that.

[raw jasper]

You already know this, but I recommend you start with a rough block diagram and figure out the bom from there

Rather than hope to cobble something together out of existing systems

[blissful roost]

Yeah, I have a lot of diagrams already.

I just need time, space and money.

The first two I can easily deal with...

[raw jasper]

how about implementing it as an fpga soft core?

[blissful roost]

I'm a salvage monkey. 😁

[raw jasper]

You can get a decent fpga devboard for $50-100

And it'll definitely fit

[blissful roost]

Yeah, but FPGA is a bit too.. soft. Lol

I enjoy working with hardware, so FPGA would kill a lot of that for me.

Good for Dev, but..

[raw jasper]

Valid :)

[blissful roost]

The whole "because I can" principle. 😁

The modular part especially.. because I want to make the whole thing adaptable.

Swap a few parts to go from a Sega MS to an Amstrad.. swap some parts and it's a CP/M machine..

I'd love to play a few games I had when I was a kid.. and not loading from tape will be a joy.

[raw jasper]

I'd love to read your progress reports once you start

[blissful roost]

If I live that long... I'm only.. 20-so years away from retirement. 😅

[raw jasper]

Well, 20 years should hopefully be enough :)

[blissful roost]

Lol

[raw jasper]

Sorry!

[blissful roost]

I ain't sensitive, clearly...

😁

[raw jasper]

And I'm not the best with words sometimes

[blissful roost]

👍

I did look at some FPGA stuff, but the other guy flaked on me.

I don't know anything about that stuff.. the books I have are beyond my level.

[tardy badger]

I love how bold chat GPT is

I asked it to implement a one wire protocol that I came up with, and then write a prospectus to potential investors as to why they should invest in this new protocol 😂

It’s was pretty details and embellished

[crystal ore]

Yeah, a friend of mine has been using it to brainstorm startup ideas and write pitches. Unfortunately it'll take any silly idea and run with it, so he thinks he's really on to something big. 😅

[tardy badger]

I'm going to implement a crude software partially asynchronous one wire protocol just for the fun of it now. open source of course 🙂

[violet parcel]

ChatGPT = Dunning-Kruger Assistant 🤣

Nothing like something that know less than you but is very confident it knows something to make you think you know something

[rapid geode]

chat gpt, please make me a get rich quick scheme that requires no effort

[tardy badger]

It said no, the TL:DR financial prudence and patience is key lol

[rapid geode]

haha

lies!

is my mom behind chat gpt?

[tardy badger]

send a letter to microsoft? lol

[rapid geode]

ha

[tardy badger]

and a simple yet needs work implementation of my one wire protocol. lol https://github.com/skerr92/TsyncOneWire

gotta finish the transmit/receive functions and also add a lot more logic for parsing input streams

but it's a start.

[crystal ore]

Could also use a protocol spec document.

[tardy badger]

yup