general-chat

[tranquil swallow]

woah thats a good idea

[fathom flicker]

Any plans to make any more magtags? (or bigger ones)

Would love to buy a few more. They've been really great for project work

[ebon dew]

The largest e-ink Adafruit currently carries is 2.9" the same size as the MagTag. You'd have to get a larger display elsewhere. Circuit Python does support larger e-inks from other vendors such as the InkyFrame from Pimoroni https://circuitpython.org/board/pimoroni_inky_frame_5_7/ which has a Pico W for WiFi capability.

[fathom flicker]

Nice. I would still love to grab more magtags though. They're such good devices.

So well made and everything.

Bit more affordable too

[ebon dew]

No one here knows Adafruit's future plans other than what they've shared on social media or live streams. I'm unaware of any plans to make a larger version of the MagTag. Doesn't mean they aren't planning on it just nothing has been made public about that intention.

[fathom flicker]

Yeah fair enough. I would be pretty happy with a straight up restock on the existing model.

Even digikey is out. 😐

[ebon dew]

Having your favorite device out of stock can be frustrating. They were out of stock of the TFT Featherwings for more than a year. They are back in stock now but I did end up designing my own. I'm not sure there's a way to inquire about future batches other than contacting them via email or asking directly during Ask an Engineer live stream (every Wednesday at 8pm EST).

[fathom flicker]

I'll live. Just go work on other projects. Thanks for the insight though.

[rapid geode]

Using washing machine as a centrifuge 😛 https://youtu.be/ukd3lg3Z_Pg?t=442

[late fulcrum]

I remember an episode of "Scorpion" (a show notorious for insane misuse of science) that used a salad spinner as a centrifuge.

[rapid geode]

yeah, but that all manual n stuff. this is POWER! 😛

[fair summit]

I like the "Electronic Principles" textbooks by Malvino, which are better at suggesting how to do circuit designs rather than just analysis. There are many editions but an older one would be fine.

[glad ruin]

Art of Electronics is another excellent option.

[late fulcrum]

The Forrest Mims books are useful as well, and some of the educational building sets are a great way to get hands-on knowledge with basic circuits that are well explained.

Since you're talking about digital logic, there are some good resources there as well. Don Lancaster's old "TTL Cookbook" and "CMOS Cookbook" go over the basic gates, flip-flops, etc., what they do, what they're for, and how to use them. While those are older technology, the concepts are the same today.

[tardy badger]

Wholeheartedly agree that analysis without practice isn’t very useful

[merry thunder]

Ok.. I hope the books you all are suggesting shall be available in my college library.

Thank you danh

[late fulcrum]

Yes, you can't beat hands-on experience. Fortunately, that's easy to do these days.

[ebon dew]

haha I've never heard of that being done before. It's kind of brilliant but also dangerous. I wouldn't want to try to clean glass particles out of the washing machine. 😬

[rapid geode]

true

[glad ruin]

https://cdn.fosstodon.org/cache/media_attachments/files/111/980/171/539/604/986/original/d0174d2eca62e966.jpg

[bitter shoal]

Adabox 021 arrived today. Now I don't know if I should open it right away, or wait until JP's reveal video. I think I know what's inside, but I do like the element of surprise.

[rapid geode]

you have more self control than most. id have opened it before i got back in the door

[burnt tendon]

Yeah, I'm sitting over here judging you.

[late fulcrum]

Aha, so you're a cat?

[tardy badger]

working on my 16b CPU and i'm currently simulating it to make sure all my instructions work 🙂

pictured here is showing the jump instruction (c008_8000) works

c is instruction opcode 12, and the jump location is back to instruction 17, which in this case based on hex would show up as 8_8000

pretty fun 🙂

[tardy badger]

it's amazing how simulating will help you find typos

[tardy badger]

and also doing some maths

[rare gulch]

Did anyone get Adabox 21 without being charged? I see no charge on my paypal (IIRC it charges to my paypal, not my debit card, won't see my debit charges for another week or 2).

[clever arch]

Is there a camera 3D model out there that looks like an actual camera for the Adabox 021?

[hard estuary]

I've only seen the one case from the Ruiz Brothers so far. It's still pretty new

[fervent rain]

I have an idea and would appreciate some advice. I want to use a string (prob metal wire(?)) that outputs a midi velocity moving fingers (or device) across it. Any ideas on components for this? I'm creating a synth in Unreal Engine and want to experiment creating my own insturment interface. The idea is inspired by analouge tapeloops where you can press into the tape to modulate the sound.

[patent hemlock]

https://www.adafruit.com/product/178 might be a place to start

[ebon dew]

You can buy the bare camera without the LED add-on board. I'll assume you're asking about cases for the Memento + LED board?

I have a Memento and can design a case for it but I do not have the LED addon board yet. They're not available for purchase separately right now but they are in the store. https://www.adafruit.com/product/5843 Eventually you will be able to purchase the enclosure kit separately.

Would anyone be interested in a 3D printable case for the Memento without the enclosure kit?

[dim shuttle]

Hey gang, I was curious if anyone might have some insight here on the release date of the icn6211 TFT display intermediary board? I'm itching to get my hands on one!

[tardy badger]

HD reflection of the camera bump on my iPhone 14 Pro

[ebon dew]

Looks like an apple themed RFID palm implant. 🫲

[ebon dew]

Good question. Seems it was an Adafruit prototype announced in July 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSe2MgjHYRU Would recommend you contact Adafruit via email to inquire about the status. I haven't heard anything about it recently but it seems like a necessary piece of hardware if you want to use the RGB666 displays with a Raspberry Pi.

No one in this discord has insight to store products, shipping, or stocking questions. You could ask during the Ask an Engineer live stream every Wednesday at 8pm EST in the #live-broadcast-chat Lady Ada only responds to questions at that time and from that channel during her livestream.

[night crescent]

Desk of Ladyada - Picowbell Party is Hoppin' https://youtu.be/2pH6PsmWKHA

Picowbell designs, introducing a camera cowbell and prototyping plates with a lipoly charger. Versatility of CircuitPython libraries and the utility of doubler/tripler plates for adding functionalities like displays or sensors to projects.

[dim shuttle]

Thank you for the response and insight my friend!

[jagged citrus]

Orange pi forums prove dead internet theory is real 😵‍💫

The site has insanely poor moderation, probably doesnt even have any

There are sooooo manyyy booooots

Completely unusable

I wanted to bring awareness to this because with all the ..... it has it may be dangerous to visit

[little finch]

Most forums these days. Even the arduino discord seems like chaos.

[tranquil swallow]

So back in the era of telegraphs, railroad clocks were synced by electrical signals right? How did these electrical signals actuate a clock to the point that it was synchronized

[jagged citrus]

wait for real? let me look it up

[rapid geode]

forums as a whole have just died off. replaced by reddit and discord for the most part - which is not ideal because those places are not persistive like a forum thread.

[tranquil swallow]

Impossible to archive information on discord, and reddit is gradually working to make sure crawling reddit impossible. I anticipate a huge loss of information as these platforms eventually become unviable

[rapid geode]

yes

forums are a really good format, but they dont have the instant gratification people want today.

its always funny when you see someone post on a forum and then 30 mins later post again "noone here?"

[little finch]

Agreed

[patent hemlock]

before forums, it was Usenet and IRC -- things evolve and information is regurgitated in the new forms, although the "data capture" parts of AI are still being probed

[drifting pewter]

Hey, anyone know if the R307 Fingerprint sensor is compactible with the CircuitPython AdaFruit Fingerprint Library?

[honest jolt]

You should see the MakeCode Forum lol
People treat it as instant messaging with 2 word replies

[patent hemlock]

no? really? 😆

[rapid geode]

the forums that still exist are 97% ads now

im waiting for every 4th chat line in discord to be an ad link

[wintry drift]

Hi everyone.

[cursive mural]

Be careful everyone https://youtu.be/d0h4QPqAwss?si=M7F6PAgEGCrXN8GX

[slim shard]

Apparently if you visit a web site you give them your IP address.
Looks like youtube and adafruit tutorials know where to drop a hydrogen bomb close enough to annoy me...

[tardy badger]

IP addresses are usually fairly approximate. Sometimes even showing you hundreds of miles from your actual location. Especially if you have a major ISP

I wouldn’t worry too much

Other than the possibility of someone trying to infiltrate your home network.

[rapid geode]

O_o

[umbral phoenix]

yeah IP geolocation is notoriously inaccurate (usually), but good IP address hygiene is recommended in any case... try to change your address(es) regularly (can often be done by rebooting the router), use a trusted VPN when needed, Tor for when privacy is critical. some Apple software uses a 2-node private relay (like Tor), so all hits come from CloudFlare (or Akamai)

[rapid geode]

google thinks i am located 20-80km awa most of the time

[umbral phoenix]

Netflix used to let me login from a VPN, but it would only show some content...

now it won't even let me log in

[rapid geode]

no reason to hide an ip unless you want to get around a block

[umbral phoenix]

Apple [TV] doesn't care if you use a VPN

[slim shard]

A hydrogen bomb that far away would still be annoying to me...

[rapid geode]

why would somone drop a hydrogen bomb on you

[umbral phoenix]

yes and no ...it's the most basic piece of info for tracking, so not using your actual ISP IP can help

[rapid geode]

i mena, thats 1940s tech

[slim shard]

Because I block youtube ads? Because I haven't made an adafruit order this year?

[rapid geode]

....

[slim shard]

Implausible things are implausible.

[umbral phoenix]

(I also need a VPN sometimes to aggregate my multiple WANs to get enough bandwidth - no cable or fiber here)

[stuck moth]

Let's quit this bombing talk. It's extreme

[tranquil swallow]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bL2suXb4Ddo its amazing that this company went bankrupt yet the technology contributed to the landing on the moon

[slim shard]

I miss armadillo airspace, are they still around (wikipedia is playing a violin in response to my question)? Ever since spacex decided to hide their videos on that single letter social media place I've stopped noticing their launches.

[rapid geode]

there is no moon. it is all a conspiracy

isnt the moon lander on its side or something

only vaguely paying attention

[patent hemlock]

the japanese lander ended up topsy-turvey; the latest was a commercial lander that's wonky because it landed on a rock

[ebon dew]

When game programmers are tired of people telling them what they do isn't rocket science... Carmack is a legend.

Prior to Armadillo Aerospace the company was named Apogee Aerospace for a short time which is a reference to his game company Apogee Software which pre-dated iD Software. That is not mentioned in Wikipedia.

[wintry drift]

I attended a talk about that. Their failure was attributed to hiring engineers who turned out to be bureaucrats. The talk is on YouTube somewhere, it was at QuakeCon 2013 IIRC.

[wintry drift]

Apogee was a publisher for id. No other relation. It's now 3D Realms, and they sold the Apogee name to another company.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_Realms

[ebon dew]

Yes they sold Apogee Software... not Apogee Aerospace. They're two different companies about 30 years apart but both were run by Carmack.

Well he did eventually sell Apogree Aerospace too and it was merged with Armadillo Aerospace.

[wintry drift]

He didn't run Apogee. Apogee published for Ideas from the Deep, which became id.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commander_Keen_in_Invasion_of_the_Vorticons

[late fulcrum]

Electromagnets, basically https://clockhistory.com/setclocks/master_clocks/index.html

[tranquil swallow]

thanks, these images are very illuminating

[ebon dew]

Interesting. Apparently I'm wrong. I didn't even know about SoftDisk or that iD is short for Ideas of the Deep.

Over the years I thought Carmack owned Apogee but Scott Miller did. I'd never even heard of Scott Miller.

[wintry drift]

I highly recommend the book Masters of Doom. It explains that era very well, from primary sources.

[burnt tendon]

I mean, rocket science is basically just high speed plumbing.

I'm kinda disappointed in rocket science because most of the failure cases are "oops, we didn't manage to drain the tank properly" or "oops, in Soviet Russia, the drain tanks you"

(for example, the Peregrine lander)

So, that being said, I feel like Carmack doing Armadillo Aerospace was really one of the most rational things one could do.

[whole jacinth]

not just high speed plumbing, but extreme along many axes. in some designs, cryogenic on one end and well above the melting point of the nozzle materials on the other

[fast ferry]

I remember Miller's name being on a lot of Apogee games' credits screens. 😁

[haughty solstice]

Anyone ever tried to solder to wood?

I'm trying to turn my pinewood derby car into a bootleg PCB and I am struggling

[glad ruin]

Uhh... you can't. Solder requires compatible metals to bond to.

[patent hemlock]

https://tenor.com/bWEVj.gif

[ebon dew]

https://tenor.com/view/speed-off-south-park-s13e6-pinewood-derby-blaze-off-gif-22907503

You can cut little slices of tin foil or use conductive ink to make some rudimentary PCB's. JP has a gorgeous project where he used copper foil for capacitive touch. https://learn.adafruit.com/tyrell-desktop-synthesizer or you could experiment with tiny pieces of metal as wood inlays for conductive material https://learn.adafruit.com/metal-inlay-capacitive-touch-buttons

[wintry drift]

Can anyone recommend some project blogs for making a radio-controlled car? I'd like to make something that my kids can play with outside (so no WiFi) with a controller (not a touch-screen device), and mod when they get older.

[late fulcrum]

There are basically three ways you can go. You can use commercial R/C transmitters and receivers (personally, I use LemonRX). You can use 2.4GHz spread spectrum transceivers to implement a link (nRF24L01 seems to be popular, although I've never gotten it to work). Or you can use simpler RFM69 (FSK) and RFM95 (LoRa) transceivers to implement links.

[ebon dew]

RFM is too slow. I would go with a commercial transmitter & receiver pair. Also depends on what you mean by "make an RC car". Do you want to 3D print the body, the wheels, struts, etc...

[wintry drift]

I'm indifferent. I can make everything, but not set on doing that for the initial build. I can buy things as well.

[ebon dew]

You'll end up having to at least purchase a motor and power supply that is the right voltage for the motor. A commercial receiver & transmitter combo is actually the most cost effective vs trying to roll your own. You can purchase receivers that go in the car for as little as $5. The transmitter's cost a bit more just make sure the receiver & transmitter are compatible. There are a lot of different ecosystems/platforms that are proprietary and incompatible with each other.

One of the easiest things is actually just buy an RC car. It's a matter of time before something breaks and you can start modifying it. Once you become more familiar with the platform then you can start a build from scratch. Doing so without prior knowledge is pretty tough, there is a learning curve.

[wintry drift]

I have old toy RC cars of varying levels of "working," and am hesitant to get another. Most are just total crap, e.g. a single button to control it, or a kit that falls apart when driven, etc. I can certainly take parts from them (if they still work).

[late fulcrum]

I have a similar cache of cars I picked up a thrift shops for a few dollars. In a few cases, I got lucky, and was able to look up schematics by FCC ID.

They tend to be highly integrated and difficult to modify, unfortunately

[ebon dew]

Here's the one I have. It works quite well and is a lot of fun. https://www.amazon.com/Remote-Control-Car-Protector-Rechargeable/dp/B07ZTB6GLJ

I designed and printed a custom FPV camera mount for it https://www.printables.com/model/469970-rc-car-fpv-camera-mount

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4TyW_u5ssY Then I added a place for an additional RunCam HD recorder, separate from the FPV camera to record in high resolution.

[late fulcrum]

This is the transmitter I use. It works well with the PJRC PulsePosition library https://www.buddyrc.com/products/dsmp-diy-module-for-legacy-transmitters-dsmx-dsm2-compatible

[wintry drift]

We'll probably eventually add FPV cameras. They really like the Mario Kart Live Circuit cars, but those things are difficult to work on (not really intended to be taken apart), so can't do the maintenance that they need. And the signal on the Switch is bad without boosting.

[ebon dew]

In that video I'm actually sitting inside my house using the FPV camera to drive around the yard. :p

[late fulcrum]

This is the transmitter I'm building out of it, I really like the look of the 72MHz gear from the 1970s, so I'm emulating that look with the 2.4GHz LemonRX transmitter

[wintry drift]

I don't suppose there are any open-source transmitter/receiver options that are adequate?

[ebon dew]

This is my main transmitter. I have yet to modify my rc car with radiolink gear yet though.

[late fulcrum]

There seem to be 4 main choices: CC2500, nRF24L01, A7105, and CYRF6936. I tinkered with them for a bit, and found them difficult to work with.

The commercial spread-spectrum 2.4GHz ones seem to work with either old-style PPM or S.bus style asynchrononous serial data streams. While not truly "open", I can squirt my own signals in and out, which is sufficient for my purposes.

Under the hood, the LemonRX units convert PPM to serial data and back, it's possible to tap off the data stream and manipulate it directly if you like.

[ebon dew]

Some of the ecosystems have SMBus which is basically like I2C or SPI. The over the air protocols each manufacturer uses is usually some proprietary protocol.

[late fulcrum]

The purple wires tack soldered onto the board to board connection tap off the serial data stream

Weirdly, the LemonRX units have a "satellite" that's just the digital interface without the conversion circuitry. However, it's $20 while the full version is $15 so I just buy the full version.

[ebon dew]

Yep you can play with some of the data from the receiver. The actual over the air transmission is harder to modify. You'd need an oscope to break down the protocol. Most transmitters have enough buttons and switches where you really don't need to go to those lengths. Most of the stuff you'd want to modify like madbodger shows is on the receiver end in the vehicle for turning on/off lights, horn, etc...

[late fulcrum]

The over the air protocol is a spread spectrum frequency hopping one that's pretty robust to interference, but would require special equipment to decode, so I just treat that as a black box. The asynchronous serial data stream out of the receiver chip is possible to unpack in software.

[ebon dew]

I don't have an oscope, most people don't, so yeah that's usually a black box situation. You can do anything you need with a transmitter that has enough switches and a receiver with plenty of outputs.

My transmitter has profiles for planes, boats, and cars. Can switch between them with the press of a button. You can actually control multiple vehicles simultaneously if you're really brave.

I think that kind of thing is for people who are good at juggling. I'm sure there are people out there who can control multiple boats simultaneously, that's a bit less risky than multiple aircraft.

[wintry drift]

I've wanted to get an oscilloscope, so it would be a good excuse...

[ebon dew]

Any excuse to get an oscope is a good excuse. Oh it's raining, that's a good excuse to get an oscope.

[tardy badger]

Happy Pokémon Day!

https://tenor.com/view/squirtle-pikachu-pokemon-dancing-happy-gif-15646320

[late fulcrum]

The scope picture was just illustrating that it's a simple logic level asynchronous serial signal. Some brands (like Spektrum) use 125kbps. Others (like LemonRX) use 100kbps. You can set up a UART on a microcontroller to receive the data directly.

The protocol itself is described here https://www.spektrumrc.com/ProdInfo/Files/Remote Receiver Interfacing Rev A.pdf

[wintry drift]

Alright, thanks @late fulcrum and @ebon dew for the advice. I'll probably end up trying some different controllers.

[jagged citrus]

one of the wackyest pcb designs ive seen

[burnt tendon]

Ugh, you folks. I have been successfully talking myself out of screwing around with RC toys and then @ebon dew had to post a link to a reasonably priced car that might be fun.

Because, like it won't stop until I've set up Ardupilot or something to really hork with it.

[late fulcrum]

I like this PCB design https://static.chipdip.ru/lib/904/DOC002904464.jpg

I had an advantage with RC cars, a friend of mine gave me her cast-offs when she broke them, so I quickly accumulated a bunch of useful parts

[jagged citrus]

thats actually pretty neat

[wintry drift]

They can be really useful! I actually wish the Live Home Circuit stuff was robust and easier to tinker with. I'm sure I'll end up doing some improvements to them when they eventually break.

[jagged citrus]

im quite excited to get my Orange pi zero 3

the documentation is sooooooooooooooooooooooo much better than the BPI m2 Zero

and unlike the banana pi there is a section of the manual dedicated to the GPIO and how to use it

something that took me ages to figure out on the m2 Zero

the only part that sucks is no mali gpu support, no opengl support, no vulkan support, and no video codec acceleration support

if i want any of those ill have to figure out how to install the mali drivers or compile panfrost, or else it will not werk

[rapid geode]

i 3d printed most of an rc car. need to finish it up at some point. (printers is being annoying)

[ebon dew]

You're welcome. I never wanted an RC car either. It was a Christmas gift from a family member. They own the same car and wanted some 3D printed customizations.

[dusty citrus]

I always say that, and it's decades that I end up doing nothing

[ebon dew]

That car is actually pretty quick, it'll do burnouts. I've never had an RC car before so I have no basis of comparison. I was pretty impressed with it.

[fast ferry]

the RC car hobby is vast with several decades of mix-n-match components. very DIY friendly off the shelf if you don't need to customize e.g. motor windings or transceiver behavior. I have an old Kyosho kit car with an obsolete 75MHz controller, but you could bolt just about anything into it.

[ebon dew]

yeah they are very customizable. the amount of different voltages that are used in overwhelming though. coming from Adafruit where pretty much everything is 3.3V and then going to RC where a single car has like 3-4 different voltage schemes is a bit intimidating at first.

I have killed a receiver before by not understanding the pinout scheme. The sparks and smoke was intense and instant. Luckily the receivers are only like $6.

[umbral phoenix]

@ebon dew my BMP is reporting 965 hPa, local airport reporting MSL 992 mb, barometer 29.3", should I be concerned? 😉 it's partly cloudy, and unseasonably warm at 72°F

[ebon dew]

what is your relative elevation though. 😉

The higher you live the more pressure you'll encounter... also the lower you live but we don't have any deep underwater colonies just yet.

[umbral phoenix]

less than 1000' above sea level

what's your pressure measurement that hints at hurricane?

[ebon dew]

i'm at seal level though. typically at sea level it's about 990 or below.

and it's just a general guideline, there are other factors like what direction the wind is coming from during which season.

[burnt tendon]

Seal level.

[ebon dew]

right now a low pressure system going south to north in the spring is completely normal. it's what brings warm air from the south to the north.

[umbral phoenix]

TIL "The ground level in Chicago is rising nearly two feet per century"

[ebon dew]

It's all the pot holes being filled in every year

and in the fall a high pressure system going north to south is completely normal. seasonal wind streams are normal. when storm spotting you're looking for abnormal conditions.

right now i'm at 1020mb and 77F with a high pressure system... so the wind outside is cold. even though it's heating up during the day the high pressure system helps keep it a little cooler.

This is an extreme example of a high pressure system. A high pressure system brings air down. A low pressure system works in the opposite way bring air upward. We have high or low pressure systems daily. They're nothing to be concerned about in themselves. It's when other factors combine when they can produce things like hail, blizzards, tornados, or hurricanes.

[umbral phoenix]

I remembered you mentioning a low pressure level (and other things) preceding a hurricane, a level that's pretty normal here, even though the altitude difference isn't that much. The math makes sense, it's just not necessarily intuitive at first blush.

[jagged citrus]

im pointing this out because its a mali G31 that can do 4k@60fps with ease and it would be a waste not to use it

[fast ferry]

built on a swamp, right? I remember reading about 19c. feats of engineering to raise and even move whole buildings in the city.

[umbral phoenix]

yeah, and after a lot of the raising came the fire

[rapid geode]

O-o

The rising land is decompression from be crushed by glacial ice for tens of thousands of years.

toronto soil is expanding as well.

[jagged citrus]

dont you hate it when your pi gets turned into dust

[rapid geode]

why pi go bye?

[patent hemlock]

hey! where'd my infinity gauntlet go?!?!?!?!

[jagged citrus]

idk 😔

[late fulcrum]

It doesn't, the whole video is basically an ad for X86 boards, claiming they're "better".

[rapid geode]

ah

while missing the entire point why pi's exist

im sure

[glad ruin]

To be fair, the pi has some serious design flaws. Mostly power-related.

[late fulcrum]

Yeah, thinking this already-obsolete $230 board addresses the same market the Pi does.

[glad ruin]

(though I'm not saying the x86 boards are any better)

[late fulcrum]

Oh, the Pi ain't perfect either, but I'm quite fond of the $5 Pi Zero anyway https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/assets/assets/000/028/775/original/raspberry_pi_zero_iso_demo_3A_ORIG.jpg?1448520626

[glad ruin]

Yeah, the original pi zero is nice. The bigger pis are... problematic.

[late fulcrum]

I have a customer who wants to upgrade their embedded $1000 Dell boxen. They were thinking Pi 4, I suggested one of the embeddedTS arm boards which are designed for industrial environments.

[glad ruin]

Hmm I'll have to look that up.

There are a lot of "ruggedized" pi enclosures on the market, but I've always been unconvinced.

My other big issue with the pi is the organization behind it. In my view, RPi was always intended to be an educational tool first and foremost. ||Then, during COVID, they made the decision to prioritize businesses above everyone else. The few pis that did reach distribution were then immediately bought by scalpers. At that point, they made it clear where their priorities were, and it wasn't students. If they had taken steps to ensure they were supplying primary schools and universities, I might have a different view. But that's not the route they took.||

[tranquil swallow]

Yea, not a fan of Pi foundation's recent pivot, it's a good thing we have so many options now

[glad ruin]

At this point, I've lost all respect for the RPF. I currently have a couple of 3B+s, which is the last model that has a current draw anywhere near reasonable (though still higher than I would like at 5V). When I need another SBC though, I am going to look elsewhere.

[rapid geode]

what pivot?

subscription pi?

mmm pie subscription

[glad ruin]

See spoiler text. Also RPi LTD is now public (or it's going to be).

Regardless, they've abandoned their original purpose.

[rapid geode]

ah

they went for the money

cant blame em too much, but its sad

[glad ruin]

Yes, and if they were a regular corporation, I wouldn't blame them. But they are a nonprofit with a corporate spinoff, and that spinoff is now running the show.

[tranquil swallow]

OpenAI also kind of did the same thing with non-profit status, but not really. The organization consists of the non-profit OpenAI, Inc.[11] registered in Delaware and its for-profit subsidiary OpenAI Global, LLC They gathered all our data while operating as a non-profit only to turn around as a for-profit company and sell models built on that data. Not sure if I put it to word very well, I'm seeing this a lot with tech companies where they abuse publicly available resources and then do everything in their power to control what they put into the market.

[rapid geode]

we did get cheap boards. its a big loss if they start aiming for big profit, but we dont really have a say other than to rant on the internet

its not like there are any $5 boards of any other kind

[late fulcrum]

Lots of 'em in microcontroller land, but not so much with full function CPUs with MMUs and all.

[rapid geode]

yes, i mean comparable specs

adafruit has stumbled on a model that can serve both profit and the needs of students and tinkerers. i hope that lasts a long time

but i cant be angry if it doesnt either really

[late fulcrum]

I'd hardly say "stumbled on", I credit LadyAda with the cleverness and humanitarianism to have done this at least somewhat intentionally.

[rapid geode]

sure. you know what i mean though. its a rare system in business

[late fulcrum]

Yup.

[rapid geode]

my company is non profit

but not by choice

😛

haha

[tardy badger]

Same lol

[umbral phoenix]

no more hail or 65 mph winds, tornado warning has passed (not officially though), settling in for the overnight 50+°F temperature drop

[stoic mesa]

I don't even have a company. Just a tindie store.
At least I can pretend that this way, it is speratae from our family finances.

but I very carefully avoid computing the profits

[rapid geode]

65mph. thats just tuesday here

[rapid geode]

i was at least smart this year and wrote off my losses

now i will take all the keycaps, cad files and tears and box them up and bury them in the yard

😛

"expenses: $27000" "income: $249"

wasnt that bad, but close

ha

its a good thing my regular job didnt go on strike for half the year throwing everyout of work

oh, wait

anyone wanna buy a wooden cat?

hahaha

[stoic mesa]

wooden cat?

[rapid geode]

i think im gonna actually bundle the keycaps though and sell them all in one box. finished and unfinished. stems. cad files etc. let someone try to take it over

[rapid geode]

yes, one year i made some wood cats for gifts.

sold better than keycaps 😛

haha

i made lead crystal ones as well

actually ill probably get the most real money putting mt cherry profile cad models on etsy. $10. thats really the only thing thats done really well (mostly cause it costs zero so the price can really be anything i want)

i did over $300 this year so far for guitar files. whee

up a little from last year

(with no effort to market them)

[tardy badger]

Maybe they just need more time?

[rapid geode]

maybe. i took it all down cause i got other things to do at the moment. but i might stick them back up later. from what i understand the kb market is tanking, much like other luxury items

2 years ago maybe id have done well

i think selling virtual goods is a better tactic at least for now

make $500, keep $500.

another idea might be to finish the rest with no inlays. all blank. and put 4 in a package for $60cdn (vs one for $40).

maybe randomised.

4 random caps

(cause there arent even numbers of them)

i have about 100 finished, and 300 half done. $6000 if they all sold. thats at least something.

but even then, i dont know if they would sell to be worth the effort

[tardy badger]

Might be a slow process to get them all out

[rapid geode]

slow is ok. buit it it sits for months with no sales, then theres not much point

it becomes more trouble to pack and mail them

there.

ha

[tardy badger]

Lol

[rapid geode]

i think i will sell more money in these at $10cdn in the next 2 months than i sold real ones.

ha

we'll see

[rapid geode]

ad made. need to make some renders and 2 model variants

[rapid geode]

muhaha

[fast ferry]

oh, that's a cool idea. an insert for the switch mount. wonder if printing that in a flex material could avoid problems with tolerances... (thinking out loud, not recommending)

[rapid geode]

i cnc it from delrin

but yeah. apparently PC makes a decent stem. so assuming you have no cnc but printers instead, you could print the stem in PC, and the cap in resin

and do an epoxy mold over but that is out of the scope of these files

[fast ferry]

oh, nice

I read once long ago that resin prints never fully stop curing and over a very long time period can become brittle and see shrinkage that changes dimensional accuracy; that and the gooiness has kept my eyes on FDM, but I admire resin prints and capabilities a whole lot.

[rapid geode]

resin in the 80s would b destroyed by prolonged light exposire

and shrink and warp

it does still warp and shrink a small amount, but its considered pretty stable for indoor use i think

fdm makes "real" parts, but you are more limited in geometries

SLS is the most useful, but theres no cheap printers yet

there is a quite good market making models for people with printers (and cnc) ive found. people tend to buy printers without really knowing how to do 3d cad, and often with no interest. so they just crawl websites for cool stuff

[fast ferry]

SLS is very cool

yeah, I've struggled when people ask me if they should get a 3D printer. my answer is usually something like "you should get a printer if you want to pick up the hobby", though yeah with marketplaces and patreons and kickstarters for models and some great-quality out-of-the-box printing with the latest-gen FDM/SLA printers, it seems like the field is widening.

[rapid geode]

Most new printers are pretty plug and play

[fast ferry]

mine is old and anything but turnkey, and I'm pretty comfy modelling in OpenSCAD, which give me biases

[rapid geode]

i use fusion (and max, sw, catia, etc)

[fast ferry]

yeah, really impressed with what I see from e.g. youtube channels that review new printers

[rapid geode]

fusion is hard for a lot of people to learn

who have no prior experience

it scares them

most of my guitar file customers use vcarve and refuse to try anything esle

[fast ferry]

I'd like to pick up a CAD package sometime, but Linux is my primary and I'm not crazy about subscription fees for something I may not use for months at a time

[rapid geode]

fusion is free

but not linux

adesk is so engrained in VS they have a hard time supporting anything else

[fast ferry]

looks like there are some workarounds that might be useful, but yeah

[rapid geode]

there was a mac fusion. but i think it might be dead now

[fast ferry]

I've been meaning to look at Ondsel

[rapid geode]

paid fusion went up in price. bah. oh well.

$900cdn a year now.

(used to be 450_

[fast ferry]

yikes

[rapid geode]

free one works for me

autodesk loves inflation

actually to be fair to them, they revamped the packages and it includes more things now that used to cost extra

[glad ruin]

... but you have to buy those things regardless of whether you use them now.

[fast ferry]

how is Fusion at making parametric models where you express dimensions in terms of other dimensions?

[rapid geode]

ish. its hard to please everyone

[glad ruin]

From what I've heard: slow.

[rapid geode]

you hear wrong

[glad ruin]

It can do it, but its constraint solver is... not the best.

[rapid geode]

fusion gets slow in a few specific cases. but it is not as simplistic as that

i have some pretty massive models that are fast as anything else

exhibit a

if you actually use components and separate model files its behaves pretty well

if you do like me fo my vfx things and shove 1900 bodies in one file.... its less happy

[fast ferry]

I do a ton of parametric stuff in OpenSCAD because it's built for it, even for models that don't really need it, but there are some cases where it's essential, like mating several parts and adjusting their dimensions all at once

[rapid geode]

fusion has parametric modelling, and it has assembly modelling.

in SW they are a bit more streamlined in my mind

but $5000...

soo

hehe

hard to complain about free things

i complain lots about not free things 😛

this is pretty math driven.

i change the nut width or the scale and most things follow.

not perfect cause some things simply cant behave that way

[dusty citrus]

...Rhino is cheaper...
But you have no easy assembly or simulations

[rugged elbow]

how did you make that projection

[rapid geode]

rhino is expensive, and not a parametric cad software. its a freeform modeller

and the ui is horrendous

[dusty citrus]

With grasshopper it sorta becomes parametric. Although I hate the fact that the same function have different naming between grasshopper and rhino. Also there's no doc for grasshopper apis, api rhinos may and may not work within grasshopper

[dusty citrus]

Mah VMware licensing cost thousands
But if you assign space to a machine, you cannot get it back even if it's unused

[late fulcrum]

I think I paid $79 for VMWare Fusion a few years ago, I'm still using it.

[fast ferry]

I know a designer who does all his personal/professional 3D printing models with Rhino, partly because it's what he knows and partly because it's far cheaper than Solidworks. but yeah, I don't think he does any parametric stuff. he definitely does complicated assemblies, but I don't know what his workflow looks like.

[balmy rivet]

Is anyone sticking with EAGLE now that Autodesk is killing it off and shipping people over to Fusion? I’ve recently switched to KiCad because of this.

[rapid geode]

why not use fusion?

or is there less features in the free one?

ihavent looked

[ebon dew]

I think Lady Ada said EAGLE will be supported until 2026. I think 2 years is fair warning especially for someone like Lady Ada that has about a decade of EAGLE designs to port to a new system. Some new designs are being done in Fusion but I think they're experimenting with KiCad as well.

[balmy rivet]

Hate it for a lot of reasons, but cloud-based file management just doesn’t fit my workflow.

[rapid geode]

fair

[balmy rivet]

June 7, 2026 is when it dies.

[rapid geode]

does it die, or just not any updates. like do they make you unable to use it

[ebon dew]

I made a matrix panel with 2048 pixels in Fusion 360 and the cloud based compute time I had to wait about 10 minutes and then it crashed. Multiple times. So I had to combine them all in 1 single body which helped. It would be nice if I could just throw my entire 8-core CPU and 64 gigs of ram at the issue instead...

[balmy rivet]

"sell or support" -- I'm assuming this means you can't download the free version anymore either.

[rapid geode]

vague

ha

[ebon dew]

One of the nice things about Fusion is that it does seamlessly integrate with Fusion 360. There are pro's and con's.

[balmy rivet]

I'm guessing you mean the EAGLE x Fusion 360 integration? Yeah, that was appealing which is why I considered giving it a shot. But Fusion is too RAM heavy and the cloud-based file management thing is really a no-go. I have to keep with a subscription or I lose all my files. It's just not tenable.

[rapid geode]

no more 360. they renamed it this month

[ebon dew]

It would make sense for a professional company to rely on a professional product like that. For the avg maker hobbyist it's far too expensive. The free version at least lets you dip your toes in to get experience with it.

oh really. so it's just called Fusion now?

[rapid geode]

yes

so seems free fusion electronics is limited

they revamped all the packages and canged the pricing around too

i think they are considering it more "grown up" now

[ebon dew]

that is easier. one thing i don't like is i can't set the exe to show up in discord. it creates a new session folder with the exe every launch. there's no way to track the exe for more than a few sessions. i can make Mu or Cura show up as playing in discord but not Fusion. :/

[rapid geode]

O_o

[ebon dew]

hmm might be able to get creative and use a batch script to execute the launcher then just name the cmd window "Fusion".

[late fulcrum]

I use Fusion for 3D design, but an old expensive licensed copy of Eagle until recently. However, the OS that still runs Eagle is too old to run Discord, so I decided to retire that ten year old computer, leaving it as the old Eagle machine, bought a new machine and downloaded a copy of KiCAD. Learning KiCAD now.

[still patio]

i've got an issue with an adafruit lcd, which channel is best for that? none of the "help with" channels seem to work

hmmm... perhaps it's not adafruit?

I really can't find out who makes it

well anyway -- jist is "is this a goner?"

Had the same model of LCD before, worked fine -- but then it broke in my bag, so I bought a new one and... err

never got past this

any input is appreciated even if it is "that looks broken to me"

[late fulcrum]

Might be a different controller/configuration. What are you trying to display?

[still patio]

so i managed to get the lcd to display pixels as I liked before. I'm using the same code. Not anything in partiuclar (just all 1s for now, which should make the whole thing black, I think)

either black or white i can't remember

i get absolutely nothing though!

but what's odd is that i can clearly send comands

i set it DISPON

and it's fine!

but nothing actually showing up 😦

[late fulcrum]

That's not nothing, I see stripes and dots

[still patio]

oh sure, yeah. Stripes and dots! but i'm looking for pixels that I decided on!

[late fulcrum]

Did it change since power up?

[still patio]

what do you mean by that? Does it do anything when i power it on?

[late fulcrum]

When you first hook up power, it should display black, white, or a pattern.

[still patio]

sorry, i worded this wrong -- I set command to high and send it the DISPON byte and it actually does turn the display on when i do that

and nothing changes when i start sending it pixels

[late fulcrum]

When you run your code to send it all ones, does it change?

[still patio]

no change at all

what's rather interesting is it seems to be split exactly halfway across the display... wonder if that means anything

but it doesn't look obviously bricked to you?

issue is i can't really do much at this point -- I don't have an oscilloscope . I can obviously debug the pinout from the console (which I'm doing and it looks fine) and I've used this exact code with this exact display model before

to me the only real issues could be

1. I burned something when I soldered the headers on
2. the thing is just DOA (that's my guess)

[late fulcrum]

It doesn't look bricked, it's obviously able to control pixels, so it appears to be a communication issue.

It could be you wired something differently

[still patio]

yeah it's not impossible, i'll do a super thoroughy check... but what makes me think it's not a communication issue is it receives 0b00000001 just fine (which is the command for turning the display on)

[late fulcrum]

That could just be the backlight lead...

[still patio]

no -- you actually have to send it a command -- the backlight has it's own pin which you just set high or low

without backlight = no display
without first setting dispon = no color

i'm 90% sure that it receives this command as i can do something like this

so when i actually send the comand for display on, it powers up -- which leads me to believe the data transmission is fine?

obviously the issue is we're doing a single bit high for this command -- it's basically the easiest thing to do haha

it's maybe not the best indicator that i'm interfacing with it properly

but it's good to know it doesn't look dead! i'll try harder then 😓

[ebon dew]

Found something interesting. If you go to http://127.0.0.1:9766/ while Fusion is open it gives you a little webpage that has references to your Fusion program having RSS like feed activity via React and jquery.js

If you create a batch script and execute the Fusion360.exe launcher from it, then cmd.exe acts as a parent and will stream a ton of data in the cmd prompt about all kinds of stuff Fusion360 is doing... including setting up a small localhost webserver.

put this in a file named fusion.bat ```py
C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Local\Autodesk\webdeploy\production\LONG_SESSION_ID\Fusion360.exe

[rapid geode]

O_o

[ebon dew]

I would show an example but it appears to include private information such as your autodesk user id and other stuff.

[rapid geode]

ah

but is it showing what you click? for a debug log etc?

[ebon dew]

yes it's probably some kind of debug log that's shown when the launcher is a child process of cmd.exe

it's how i found that localhost ip. i was like... what is dis.

[rapid geode]

ah

anyohw]

ha

[ebon dew]

this seems to be an innocous sample i can share ```py
** Cloud Libraries: userAuthenticated.
qt.gui.imageio: libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
qt.gui.imageio: libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
qt.gui.imageio: libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
qt.gui.imageio: libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
Remote debugging server started successfully. Try pointing a Chromium-based browser to http://127.0.0.1:9766
17:50:30 Will ignore disconnects: false
17:50:30 Using ws on port: 65235
17:50:30 Installing exception handlers
17:50:30 Global exception handler installed
17:50:30 Installing signal handlers
17:50:30 Installed SIGHUP
17:50:30 Installed SIGTERM
17:50:30 Installed SIGINT
17:50:30 Installed SIGBREAK
qt.gui.imageio: libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
qt.gui.imageio: libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
MAG.Default: [Idle Status] Report Idle(Idle or Not): false
None

[rapid geode]

thats very similar to other adesk logs

3dsmax is similar formatting

[still patio]

I got it! the issue was a faulty breadboard!

[rapid geode]

always check the best before dates on your bread

[still patio]

thanks for the help, by the way @late fulcrum -- would've given up probably

[ebon dew]

Discord doesn't recognize cmd.exe as a registered game. A batch script launcher doesn't seem like it'll work for that purpose. 😦

If anyone has an idea on how I could do it I'm all ears. Attempted to change fusion.bat to fusion.exe but Windows immediately rejects it.

[late fulcrum]

There should be a way to associate an executable with any "game" you like (hence my "Hello Kitty Island Adventure")

[glad ruin]

Uhh, yeah. Because .bat files are scripts, and .exe files are executables.

As far as I'm aware windows has no equivalent to the shebang.

[night crescent]

WE ARE LIVE! SHOW AND TELL! https://youtu.be/GV9jQTdf3NU

[night crescent]

WE ARE LIVE! ASK AN ENGINEER! https://youtu.be/0USRzB7ehTQ

10% discount code, code is: switch http://www.adafruit.com ends at midnight NYC time

[fast ferry]

I have a memory of discord allowing per-server avatars (because I remember having to set it for each new server), but now that seems to be a paid feature?

[rapid geode]

mo money

i ddint even know there were paid features

[glad ruin]

I believe it was always paid.

[ebon dew]

Yeah then I started to look up how to convert a .bat to an .exe. I was not as enthusiastic when most results said you have to use something like visual studio. :/

I just want Fusion to show up in Discord when I'm using it. It shouldn't be this hard. 😫

[fierce prawn]

Last time I used this
https://github.com/Bearski11/Custom-Discord-Rich-Presence

Maybe helpfull for you too

[ebon dew]

I was looking for a simple solution and that is the opposite of simple. Appreciate you taking time to try to find a workaround though.

[late fulcrum]

Possibly more than you ever wanted to know http://tom7.org/abc/paper.pdf

[late fulcrum]

I just clicked on the "Not seeing it? Add game" link for the Hello Kitty one.

[ebon dew]

The problem is the launcher.exe generate a random session folder name in appdata. In that folder a new fusion.exe and other webdeploy files. It changes locations. I can add it to Discord no problem... but tomorrow it will open it in a different location and the Fusion360 game in Discord will never be a valid path again.

[late fulcrum]

What a mess. Maybe set a web browser or something else you always run as "Fusion 360"

[tardy badger]

My favorite part of working tech is having to update certificates on a hard token and then not being able to log into your remote session because now your hard token can’t be used 🙃

[ebon dew]

Had the electricians come back out. Had a short in the irrigation wiring. Now can finally use my new smart controller via an app. It's so much nicer than programming watering schedules & zones on the Hunter unit mounted outside. The Orbit B-Hyve can set everything up on my phone and get alerts. Can walk around the yard testing the zones from my phone, have already found 4 sprinkler heads I didn't know existed. Irrigation was installed long before I moved in. The previous owner left a map of the sprinkler head locations but I keep finding ones that aren't on the map. Getting an irrigation specialist out here next. 🚿

[tardy badger]

I got a promotion at work 🥳

[ebon dew]

https://tenor.com/view/promotion-party-promotion-party-sarcasm-sarcastic-gif-15720232

[rapid geode]

more responsibilty, longer hours, less pay, wooo! 😛

(thats how promotions work right?)

[tardy badger]

I actually got a nice little pay raise 😊

But more responsibility, yes lol

[jagged citrus]

orange pi has an anime girl mascot

[proven juniper]

I've been waiting since forever to be an adabox subscriber, and I'm so happy that today I got in and one is already shipped to me.

[rapid geode]

umm

[glad ruin]

I mean... there's nothing really inappropriate there. Although the anatomy is a bit screwed up a bit as her pelvis would have to be broken in order for her legs to rest at those angles.

At least it appears to be human-drawn.

[rapid geode]

its just a weird business choice

[tranquil swallow]

they're targetting a different demographic

Some open source projects have done the same in a desperate play to garner interest

[jagged citrus]

Now that you pointed it out i cant unsee the broken pelvis 😭, also her legs are too short, And her body is too long

But yeah, its most likely human made

Ai never does styles like that

Nah it was definitely made by humans

[rapid geode]

ceo's kid maybe

[inland crown]

Nice way to repel the feminists

[tranquil swallow]

When I look at product reviews for electronics components and tools on AliExpress, it's almost always Ukrainian and Russian reviews that are explicitly political and military-related. I wonder how the requisition process works for that, are they given a credit card and told to buy stuff off AliExpress? Or is it an individual effort

[rapid geode]

or just anyone with taste

or adult

[rapid geode]

aliexpress is one of the few places that ship there (even before the current war).

[little finch]

Having an anime character doesn’t really repel me as an adult or make me a person of poor taste. It’s a strange business choice, sure. But so is pandering to any group of social interest. Instead of just offering a product that’s quality with no social ties.

[glad ruin]

Allow me to introduce you to Wikipe-tan.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moe_anthropomorphism?wprov=sfla1

You didn't know that Wikipedia has a mascot?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipe-tan

Also, were you not aware that Microsoft at one point has official anime mascots for Windows, Internet Explorer, and Silverlight?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS-tan

(To be fair, I wasn't aware of this either. But wikipedia links to other articles.)

[slim shard]

I'm amused at the depiction of Cortana in the new Halo series, in relation to how I feel about the Win 10 Cortana search.

[glad ruin]

I haven't seen her in the new series.

And I usually don't search for Cortana for uh... reasons.

[slim shard]

I stomp and sweep it away as much as I can, giant waste of space, not sure what that actual use case is, but I'm very uncharitable towards any new feature MS sends my way. I just want a screen that I can launch programs on.

[glad ruin]

I avoid Windows in general.

[fast ferry]

this is a bananas way for software to work

like welding jello

[glad ruin]

Not to be outdone, ARM has also released an entire manga (comic) about mobile GPUs...
https://interactive.arm.com/story/the-arm-manga-guide-to-the-mali-gpu/page/1

Yes, this is official.

[slim shard]

I'd have preferred a robotic acorn that tends to do dangerous things. (Acorn Risc Machine)

[burnt tendon]

I mean there's also Phippy Goes to the Zoo in the kubernetes community.

[rapid geode]

not my fault. i told them it looks like negasonic teenage warhead but they didnt listen

[balmy merlin]

Good morning. Figure I will ask this question here, and get directed to the correct channel. I have a Metro M4 airlift, the black one labeled "beta". What is the difference between this and the Metro M4 airlift Lite? Thanks in advance.

[patent hemlock]

I wouldn't put A Child's Guide to Kubernetes in anywhere the same category -- that had an actual derivation, not "let's draw a certain anime style that supposedly appeals to a certain subsegment"

[burnt tendon]

Clearly. We should just go back to the good old days, as recorded by the O'Riley texts, where when you installed emacs, you got a live possum dropped onto your lap that you had to take care of now.

[patent hemlock]

okay, ya lost me there

[burnt tendon]

The book covers. The animal book covers.

Back in the good old days, those were the animals you got to take care of if you installed it.

[patent hemlock]

OH! Those!

[burnt tendon]

... at least that's what I'm telling the youth of today.

[patent hemlock]

🤣

i think the last one of those i had was a marmoset or something similar

[ebon dew]

At one time they were releasing hybrid prototypes with beta silkscreen. They've since stopped doing that and now use revision letters like A, B, C. A beta revision is in between a prototype and stable board revision. There will likely be quirks and potential issues. The only major difference I can find currently is the beta boards had a mounting hole size mistake of 0.1 instead of 0.125. To use the mounting holes you'll need a slightly smaller screw. Not a big deal.

The Metro M4 Airlift Beta boards are no longer being made. You own a rare limited edition of the board. 😉 They're now called the Metro M4 Airlift Lite.

[balmy merlin]

Excellent. So, when using the arduino IDE, I just use the Metro M4 Airlift Lite , and smaller screws for mounting. Everything else is pretty much the same?

[ebon dew]

Yep. As far as I know there won't be any software differences.

[balmy merlin]

Thank you!

[jagged citrus]

Same for me, except that instead of talking about the war its people posting corpses

[jagged citrus]

Doesent repel me in any way, i mean i like anime, but i am not a big fan of the audience this may attract. Some folks are just weird or straight up creepy

[jagged citrus]

'Moemorphism' has been a thing for a looong time

[jagged citrus]

gonna elaborate on this, im referring to the people that say that the west is too woke now and love and defend sexualized child-like characters in anime

"shes 500 years old bro" shut up

and when you call them out they start talking about the lack of free speech in the modern age

🙄

[grand wing]

Is it possible to use some kind of fiber optic cable and glue to attach to an LED on a chip and run to the outside of the box? Basically want to get power and charging indicators on an outside of a box without running new LEDs if possible

[jagged citrus]

yes

[grand wing]

Any recommendation on heat resistant glue. I have a powerboost 1000 chip that gets hot while charging. Maybe I just need to suck it up 😄

[fair summit]

search for "light pipe"

[grand wing]

Thanks!

[tardy badger]

I love getting fresh PCB in the mail

SAMD51 board, using the 120-TFBGA package

It’s a really nice BGA package to work with

Tons of pins in a small package, power domain is super easy. I’m thinking of using the package with 1MB of flash in a larger game device.

Or even a Pokédex like device

[timid tiger]

Hello Everyone! I am searching for an Adafruit Bluefruit EZ-Link (Cat. No. 1588). Would anyone know of a source for this discontinued item or a suitable replacement?

[stoic mesa]

are you going to assemble that by hand???

[tardy badger]

Yup! Lol

[stoic mesa]

🙏

120 pin BGA ... wow.

I can't even do assembly of LGA14

[fair summit]

work is underway on software: https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_Bluefruit_Classic_ESP32. There's a 0.0.1 build for Feather ESP32 there. Shh, it's top secret

[tardy badger]

TFBGA, especially this one are nice because there is only 2 rows exterior, and a small row interior. I’d consider these great options for getting comfortable with BGA assembly

[burnt tendon]

One could say that skerr is a real baller when it comes to PCBA

[timid tiger]

This is quite exciting! For Arduino OTA programming, the issue I am attempting to resolve for my application--potentially remedied by the Bluefruit EZ-Link's design with the DTR pin--concerns the timing for uploading a sketch and sending a reset signal to run the bootloader with avrdude.

[fair summit]

I think you will like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYIZxOAymH8 it's a year old. No questions will be answered about "when". https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjF7R1fz_OOWnS6phH64KwEJBekaawPBC may have more info, but I haven't groveled through them

[timid tiger]

I will keep watch. It is very nice the old EZ-Link Bluefruit design is being updated with ESP32!

[fathom flicker]

Is their a good channel for double checking a purchasing decision 😆

About to buy a bunch of different parts for a project and just wanna double check that this is the best way to do it

[patent hemlock]

for official input, you can ask on the forums - General Project Help https://forums.adafruit.com/viewforum.php?f=8 and probably get an answer, or you can ask in #help-with-projects if you want unofficial input

[fathom flicker]

unofficial works for me

I'll go bother that channel

[tardy badger]

Did you know Forrest Gump was the first person to date artificial intelligence? He talked about it all the time when he mentioned GenAi

[rapid geode]

....

[tardy badger]

https://tenor.com/view/amirite-hadesdisney-hades-gif-5584633

[wintry drift]

If you were writing a bio for someone who enjoys doing "maker" kinds of things, how would you describe it? "X enjoys making projects"?

[dusty citrus]

Eh somehow when some corpo talks about the ability of deal with electrical schemas
Each one means something different

[solar kindle]

This toothbrush has a color display, wifi, USB, bluetooth and 4MB flash memory. It can run DOOM. What it can't do is brush your teeth for you. It's a manual toothbrush.
https://boingboing.net/2024/02/29/doom-running-on-a-toothbrush.html

[delicate finch]

TinyS2 - ESP32-S2

having issues with flashing this

any1 can help ?

[weary fiber]

what do you have so far? what have you tried? what errors are you seeing?

[rapid geode]

i found a mac mini g4. what can i shove inside of it? (its not really worth anything to try and sell)

[jagged citrus]

Ive been checking the schematic of the adafruit metro s3 for my own board, and i got confused, the sd card uses IO45 for the CS of the sd card, but a site ive been checking says that IO45 should not be used and left disconnected.
So should i just use IO45 or should i use another pin for the sd CS?

Im making an ESP32S3 board with an sd card and the metro s3 has been the main inspiration

[shadow siren]

From Calgary
Here the winter is back, and we have had probably have had 20-30cm in last two days.

[rapid geode]

'aw poor baby" says prince george

😛

i shoveled 2 ft from my driveway one day and by the time i got to the other end there was 3 more feet

at least it was fluffy

winter kinda took a vacation here. but i expect late mark/early april to be cold and snowwy

[jagged citrus]

See? Its marked as "do not use", also youre using IO46 for the neopixel on the metro, also marked as "do not use"

What other pins should i use for the sd card reather instead?

[tardy badger]

Look at the section for strapping pins further down

[jagged citrus]

Pull downs?

[tardy badger]

It tells you the kind of circuit is required for those pins to help select the boot functionality. So technically speaking, you could use them how Adafruit uses them.

[jagged citrus]

Oooh ok ill try it tomorrow with an s3 dev board i have ☝️

[tardy badger]

Done with this revision 💪🏻

KeyBoy ESP32-S3

Still some case work to be done, more games to be made, and some hardware updates related to audio.

V1 —> V2

[slim shard]

The lighting on the left one made me briefly think of Domo-kun

[jagged citrus]

ok i did it, i connected an sd card the to an s3 exactly the same as the metro s3 and it werks, i can list the files in the sd card at least

i can make directories

[fathom flicker]

About to hit purchase on the adafruit cart. Would love feedback if I'm ordering the right stuff if y'all have a moment:#help-with-projects message

[bold jasper]

Does anyone have any suggestions for driving really high quality speakers and audio? Like the range of a standard Amazon echo to Apple home pod levels of quality, not tinny stuff, real full sound. Maybe https://www.adafruit.com/product/1752 could but I haven’t seen it in stock for a while. Would aim to drive with a rpi pico w or esp 32s3

[fast ferry]

a speaker enclosure properly mathed-out to match the characteristics of a good full-range driver should help a lot

enclosure design is a whole discipline, but not unapproachable

[silver drum]

having a lot of fun with my led matrixes

[nocturne juniper]

Hello everyone brand new face to the world of coding and well soldering gotta say my brain hurts now but enjoying the challenge with the simple tone fixtures 😄

[jagged citrus]

i had zero idea this was a meme

[rapid geode]

2010... i thought it was older. used to do coke can for scale as well

[haughty solstice]

I have two male USB breakout boards

if I just solder wires that match, so GND to GND, D+ to D+, etc., will it work the same as a normal male to male cable?

Like this thing

Or do these cords do something special

[glad ruin]

They do nothing special, but technically they shouldn't even exist, as USB-A has no control channel like USB-C. If you plug that cable into the wrong devices, both can be damaged.

[burnt tendon]

It's for people who wanted the cable that has a mains plug on both sides but are too scared.

[fast ferry]

it's for adding USB-A to USB-C adapters on each end when it was hard to get long USB-C cables

[glad ruin]

I'm... assuming that's sarcastic?

Those cables long predate USB-C and are a byproduct of some people thinking it is a clever cost cutting measure.

[fast ferry]

it was sarcasm, but also sometimes you have weird needs and you find yourself cobbling together half a dozen adapters to make e.g. a USB-A to micro-USB by way of a USB-C board that splits power/data so the result is a data-only cable

because an actual cable like that is out of arm's reach or in who-knows-what bin or box and that box may currently be sitting in a storage rental or at the monoprice warehouse and not on your property

[tranquil swallow]

could I interface this with a pi and display a linux desktop environment on it https://www.amazon.ca/Waveshare-HAT-Resolution-Interface-Controller/dp/B071S8HT76 or is it too low resolution

[jagged citrus]

e-paper is too slow for that kinda thing

and yeah, its too low res

an oled or lcd is better suited for that application

waveshare has an SPI 3.5 inch LCD display for the raspberry pi

[patent hemlock]

usb cables are the early 21st century equivalent of wire hangers: they mysteriously multiply

[tardy badger]

The internet retirement home and millennial social spot are experiencing massive outages

(Facebook and Instagram)

[urban arrow]

General Raspberry PI 4 comment from brand new user. After learning about venv and why it's used,
https://learn.adafruit.com/python-virtual-environment-usage-on-raspberry-pi/more-venv-details

• all new stuff to me... I wanted a quick way to activate venv. Searched online a bunch trial and error - I didn't want to clog up discord with my dumb questions 😀
  Finally found easy way with a python script, as likely most of you already know about...
  virtual.py in my home folder

#!/bin/bash
source virtual/bin/activate
cd pythonscripts

To run, source virtual.py
My venv is named virtual
Still my favorite 2 words, "It works!"

[patent hemlock]

here's a shell equivalent that might be a bit more handy: alias ve='source $(find . -name activate)'

welcome to microcomputing!

[tardy badger]

The only reason I’d suspect a cyberattack being the reason behind this, is because it’s Super Tuesday (huge primary Election Day here in the US)

Highly suspicious

[shadow siren]

That USB Cable A to A has a purpose, Where I work we had Android desktop devices that the way you uploaded stuff to them or debugged them was using that cable.

[patent hemlock]

i had an early "linux PDA" that used them, too

[terse summit]

Dose adafruit delivers in UAE ?

[burnt tendon]

I mean, that's a great metaphor honestly because I'd love it if the USB A 3.0 to USB-C cables would be a little more prolific but they aren't, much in the same way my cousin breeds birds but they could not in any way get cockatiels to breed even if they were super-successful with chickens, ducks, geese, finches, and a few others.

[tardy badger]

The best computers are the ones you get for free

Wow, fusion360 went up $180 a year 💀

Or maybe it went up $200

[tranquil swallow]

autodesk really know how to boil the frog with fusion

I've tried moving away from fusion to freecad, but freecad is nearly impossible for me. I keep hearing that freecad is trivial if you follow best practices, the problem is I have no idea what the best practices are. Combine that with the stereotypical old-school FOSS UX jank and my eyes glaze over using freecad. I'm pretty convinced freecad's relevant maintainers aren't prioritizing improving that, so who knows

[sonic dome]

I really wish there was a compelling CAD that did not cost an arm and leg. I want solidworks but it is 5K....

I love KiCad it is pretty capable for board design. Love it.

[burnt tendon]

Well, there's a company that's building their business around FreeCAD?

... but I dono, I've been around the block a bunch of times with open source so I've got Concerns and Issues and it's tiring to see people swallow basically the same line over and over again.

The current push in FreeCAD is trying to get the topological naming issue fixed once and for all and also making the assembly workbenches not suck.

Kinda the problem is that Autodesk knows how to boil the frog? Too many projects just accept that FreeCAD is unusable and therefore Fusion is OK for their open source project as long as they go to the pope for the indulgences which means that FreeCAD was denied the forces of angry engineer type people who just want to get stuff done.

[tranquil swallow]

i get that, if fusion was more egregious with their changes you might get more progress on freecad

[burnt tendon]

And, like I've been around the block, so I refused to learn Fusion because I didn't, in the words of Immortan Joe, want to get too used to water, because it's such a tired play for companies.

[tranquil swallow]

it's clear from the complete lack of alternatives and my preliminary research that cad software is just too complex for any random dude to make, what i want is freecad retooled with the UI and UX I know I want, I kinda get how the workbench workflow works for making a part

[burnt tendon]

Hey, I spent a year and some months writing CAD-related code. It's totally just too complex for any random dude to make.

OTOH, it's sooooooo bad.

[tranquil swallow]

😓

[burnt tendon]

Like, there's so much about the way we approach CAD/CAE software that's just plain silly and the only reason why we're OK with it is because it's always the way things have been done.

And, like, OnShape is neat but I don't think they go nearly far enough.

[tranquil swallow]

could you elaborate on that, im interested in your opinions on what onshape should do, i found using it very pleasant

[sonic dome]

KiCad is so usable in the board design space why isn't there an equivalent in the mechanical cad space. Perhaps a simpler problem or maybe just a bigger market. Even adafruit is move all there designs to it.

[burnt tendon]

So, I guess one thing to consider is that it's a lot easier to offload giant swaths of your logic to run inside of the browser and as best I can tell the last time I poked at OnShape, it's still round-tripping a lot to their backend.

Obv the more you do that, the more someone's going to steal your source code, which is a problem for commercial companies. 🙂

I think KiCad hit some lucky timing, honestly. It was in a reasonably functional state with old-school FOSS UX jank and people were starting to get interested in it specifically because Eagle was getting subsumed into Fusion very badly.

Then again, FreeCAD is kinda reliant on OpenCASCADE and writing a good library to do all of the required operations against clipped NURB surfaces is a little dicey.

Whereas 2D stuff is ... easier

[tardy badger]

I think there is a good reason to believe that KiCAD could branch into the 3D modeling space, or at least ingesting a current FOSCAD to be able to give it the structure and support it really needs

The 3D board viewer on KiCAD has got really good over the last few major releases

Though I do see plenty of people taking what KiCAD spits out and pumping it into blender

[burnt tendon]

Yah, I guess the KiCAD / FreeCAD/ Blender projects are having some level of communication of late?

[valid peak]

hey guys :D I'm thinking of getting a LED matrix panel with a board, I've made a simple weather display in the past. Wondering how hard it would be to communicate with the board via my phone to display some text, or even just take some input from an analog button or set of buttons

[rapid geode]

oooh pretty

[ebon dew]

I'm pretty sure there's a learn guide on that. https://learn.adafruit.com/scroll-an-sms-text-message-on-your-rgb-matrix

[eternal nebula]

so, adafruit sells these multi pin jumper cables which is nice

https://www.adafruit.com/product/4945

but is there a source of something like this with thicker/higher quality wire?
trying to use these in an automotive project and they're relatively fragile for that

[ebon dew]

You can't use them in automotive projects because there is no latch. Any automotive connector has a latch.

Adafruit is geared towards hobby electronics which have thinner gauge wire. Sounds like what you want would likely be found on Digikey.com and probably would be a product by Molex.

PC power supply wiring is an acceptable substitute (provided the connector has a latch) as PC's are 12V systems and more similar in terms of wiring to automotive than hobby electronics.

Also not all automotive wiring is solid core. Wire that is designed to be flexible inside the cabin is often thin stranded. If you're running wire externally or in th engine bay then you'll likely want solid core, it's not as flexible but provides more protection from the elements.

Automotive solid core is typically 14-16 gauge. Hobby electronics is typically more like 22-28 gauge.

[eternal nebula]

the issue with a lot of automotive connector types im seeing is they love to bunch the connections up real tight which makes for awkward trace routing on a board

for instance this is my current kicad sketch, i dont know how i'd be able to route this if those connectors on the side were like 2x10 instead of 1x18

[ebon dew]

So ensure the connectors you're looking for will accept thicker gauge solid core for connector crimping.

[ebon dew]

ah this is pcb related. you'll want your PCB to have a plug with a latch too. You shouldn't rely on soldering pins to holes like with home electronics. The movement of a vehicle over time can fracture the mechanical strength of pins. It's better to have a plug.

Something like this which has a latch mechanism capability. https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/harwin-inc/G125-FV23405L0P/4952792

[eternal nebula]

so the complication becomes finding an automotive wiring standard that:

1. the socket side is easy to integrate into a pcb
2. its easy to find ready made harnesses which are 18 pin and socket to socket or plug to socket type
3. don't cost a fortune since i'll need 18 of them

[ebon dew]

yes

[eternal nebula]

buying harnesses pre made will save an assload of time on my end since i have to do a lot of crimping for this project already

[ebon dew]

digikey's "normally stocking" option would be something I would select during a search then to help ensure you can find them again in the future.

[eternal nebula]

for instance these look nice but it's $8 for the socket and $24 for a single harness which is whew
https://www.aliexpress.com/i/3256804657294315.html?gatewayAdapt=4itemAdapt

[ebon dew]

If you can find it in the length you want yes that would be ideal. With vehicles if you need to run wire to the bumper you might be talking about 10 feet of wire. There's no way to ensure you can find any harness in any specific length you need unless you crimp it yourself. If it's a short hop beneath the dash from a CAN module to a CAN module then things like that are more easily found.

[eternal nebula]

this will be going from BMS parallel harness boards to BMS satellite units, not across the car
https://www.evwest.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=540
i'm making a bit of a copycat of their board since i like the design a lot but $44 for $7 worth of board is insane
however that gives me the ability to swap to better connectors

[ebon dew]

You can rarely go wrong with molex

[eternal nebula]

well
stereo harnesses exist for a reason i guess
https://www.amazon.com/Female-Harness-Adapter-Connector-Stereo/dp/B0B7DF9MTQ

also i emailed EV west asking what tf they use in these situations, they must have something for this

[ebon dew]

Here's a normally stocking llatching connector from Digikey. 17K in stock. https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/molex/5016453220/1787784 I just looked up 32 pin, you can refine your search however you like.

[ebon dew]

Yep something like that looks fine as long as you can find the male side but again in my opinion with a PCB it's better to have a plug on the PCB.

[eternal nebula]

interesting, looks like that igrid standard does have some harnesses out there as well
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805073409695.html

[ebon dew]

sorry i don't click absurdly long links

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805073409695.html this is all that is necessary to share that link

[eternal nebula]

i just assumed all aliexpress links were needlessly long

[ebon dew]

Also at least with Digikey parts there's some recourse if a part catches fire. Most PCB connectors have to go through some type of engineering process with rated amperage, voltage, and heat tolerance. If you go with something that lists no specs from a reseller that's not a good idea especially for something that's in a vehicle. Automotive components must go through testing.

[eternal nebula]

thankfully these are balance leads so they'll never see more than 3a at any time

[glad ruin]

The same applies to amazon links. All you actually need is amazon.com/dp/<something>. The rest is fluff and user tracking tokens.

[glad ruin]

Most PCB connectors have to go through some tyoe of engineering process...
Tell that to NVIDIA.

[ebon dew]

lol it was a matter of time, saw that one coming long ago when they started with 4 wires, then 6, then 8... i was like at some point it's going to be too much. i love how at first they blamed it on users not seating the connector properly even if its not seated by .5mm. hundreds of fires later they started blaming the card manufacturers, then the wiring companies, anyone but themselves.

Nvidia is like "electricity makes heat? 😯 "

[glad ruin]

I'm an electronics engineer doing device characterization for video chips. I haven't counted how many different connectors I work with in a day, but I deal with a wide variety on a regular basis. I once built a test PC for work, and even I had trouble getting it to fully insert.

[ebon dew]

At this point they should start designing cards with large battery posts and screw in terminals.

[glad ruin]

At this point they should abandon 12V and move to either 24 or 48V to keep the current down to a more reasonable level.

[ebon dew]

https://tenor.com/view/jump-start-dead-battery-more-power-not-enough-power-life-hack-gif-14327363

Hooking up nividia cards today be like

[glad ruin]

There's a reason that server boards often run at a higher voltage.

[ebon dew]

I was just going to mention server PSU's.

They're losing a grip on TDP

[glad ruin]

The entire PC insustry is, and they are all pushing each other higher and higher.

And, thanks to decades of marketing (predominantly by Intel), bigger = better.

The fact that you can now buy a 1.2kilowatt PSU for a single socket system to play Fortnite is absurd.

[ebon dew]

Honestly blame games for ridiculous spec requirements. A game shouldn't take 100GB, 64GB of DDR5, etc. It's why I stopped playing video games. It's just too much. I miss the days of the 750GT that was bus powered, no external power required. It was nice and cool. PC's today can double as heaters during the winter. In Florida, the TDP of modern GPU's is absolutely unacceptable to me. I already sweat just standing in my house as it is.

Exactly

[glad ruin]

Oh, I also find it interesting that client platforms are now running into problems that have been solved for decades in the server market.

Honestly though I don't know if the blame falls on games or on the hardware vendors constantly pushing margins to one-up the competition.

And hardware improvements over time have made software developers lazy.

"Can I load this into memory?" has morphed into "how fast can I load this into memory?"

[ebon dew]

It's hardware. Game developers are simply taking advantage of all the resources they can. The same can be said for microcontrollers. The hardware dictates what you can do with it. Don't see microcontroller manufacturers falling over themselves to continually one up each other. They're all on their own paths. That cannot be said for PC hardware companies. They're all basically reference design clones.

The chip manufacturers anyway. When it comes to PC's there are too few choices and perhaps that's what it all boils down to.

[glad ruin]

Reference design clones with braindead thermal design.

It's difficult to find a motherboard that doesn't have a massive block of aluminum covering everything.

[slim shard]

Easy to sell performance, hard to sell "it runs a little cooler and works less well".

[glad ruin]

No, it's all about appearance.

[ebon dew]

I like that Intel is jumping into the GPU space especially after the GPU shortage. Too few companies means it's possible for them to collude... something that has happened continually with monitor manufacturers and other hardware. Can't count how many times PC hardware companies have been caught colluding and price fixing.

[slim shard]

Intel has some catch up to do it seems.

[ebon dew]

Yes but another option is good for the consumer and helps in a little way to prevent more price fixing.

[slim shard]

I'm still miffed that they didn't give my 15 year old webcam good driver support. :)

[ebon dew]

lol i'm the same with my old sound blaster card

[glad ruin]

NVIDIA is too anticompetitive to want to collude with anyone. They put a massive upcharge on everything.

[ebon dew]

If people wouldn't buy their expensive stuff they'd stop making it.

[glad ruin]

Agreed. That's not to say I don't absolutely despise Intel, but more competition is inherently a good thing.

[slim shard]

Intel gave me a fairly useless webcam, IBM gave me half a dozen bad harddrives. Antec gave me PSUs with droopy voltage. (checks for more companies on his poolist)

[ebon dew]

https://tenor.com/view/spongebob-long-list-list-infinite-list-gif-7915371

[slim shard]

A little shorter than the Stanley Parable adventure line.

[glad ruin]

If only it were that easy. The issue is that most of NVIDIA's money does not come from consumers.

[ebon dew]

Stanley Parable was an amazing mind bending game... and didn't require a space heater PC to play it.

[glad ruin]

It's a similar issue with Intel. Anyone paying attention to the industry knows that Intel is selling overpriced and underperforming products, but they've been established so long and have so many corporate sales that we as consumers don't affect that much.

[glad ruin]

By the way, this is what I mean by bad thermal design (asrock are not the only ones who do this)

[ebon dew]

I think they'll catch up eventually. I just hope they keep at it. I like what they've been able to accomplish out of the gate so far.

Urban camo helps hide any burn spots

[glad ruin]

You're referring to Intel's GPUs?

[ebon dew]

I get all my programming and exploration needs met by microcontrollers now. I like how both Scott & Tim's deep dive intro starts with something like "Microcontrollers are tiny computers". Still validates my love for computers, I just went in a smaller direction, as has pretty much anyone here.

[ebon dew]

Yes but I haven't stayed on top of anything PC related in more than a year. I have no idea about the current state of things other than the occasional Gamers Nexus rant on what caught on fire this week.

[glad ruin]

Given the fact that the Raja Koduri left, and that the AXG business unit that developed the DG2 architecture is now defunct (with the GPU line now part of client computing), and knowing how dysfunctional Intel is as a whole... I don't see them catching up any time soon. The only area where they are actually ahead of the competition is in video codecs, and I honestly wish they'd put just the codec hardware on an M.2 card.

Anyways, rant over. Am tired.

[digital dagger]

Is there an appropriate channel to discuss "stupid things I did with electronics"? May have killed my Streamdeck with a case of mistaking one power plug for another.

[ebon dew]

General chat is fine for almost everything that doesn't require a specific topic. As long as it follows the #code-of-conduct there are some topics of conversation that are prohibited here and better suited for other places on the internet. Pretty much anything electronic related is welcome here.

[digital dagger]

Cool. Thanks.

So here's my question: I was doing cable management under my desk. As I began to plug things back in, I plugged the Amazon echo show power plug (Output 15V, 1.47A (center +)) into my USB hub power port (whose plug reads: Output 5V, 3000mA (center +)).

My computer went to sleep, and my monitor lamp shut off... I knew I had done something wrong.........

Thankfully, My computer seems unharmed. My daily driver mouse and keyboard also seem to have avoided harm, along with a little USB dongle for a shortcut remote.

The hub doesn't show up in Mac system info, and my streamdeck doesn't either, when connected directly (Via a USBC to A Adapter). The SD display does light up, and you see a blurry ghost of the Streamdeck logo, then it goes blank. the screen obviously is still lit up, but nothing appears on it, and it doesn't register in System Info.

Did my stupidity kill my streamdeck?

[ebon dew]

How did you plug in an echo show that has a power outlet plug into a USB hub?

[digital dagger]

They were close in size. I was sitting on the ground, with the Hub at about eye level. it wasn't going in, and I thought my angle was off, so i adjusted and pushed harder... Must have just barely been able to make the connection. 😦

[ebon dew]

Can you show a picture of the hub or a link to its product page?

I'm still not understanding this. The power supply for an echo show is a 2 prong wall wart.

[digital dagger]

True. but the power supply has two ends, right? 😉

2 prong at one end, barrel connector at the other.

I plugged the power supply into the hub's power input. not the show itself.

the 2 prong side was plugged into the surge protector.

[ebon dew]

ohhhh i see. you plugged the barrel jack of the echo show into the usb hub?

[digital dagger]

yup

[ebon dew]

15V PSU into a 5V device. 😦

[digital dagger]

basically, for a brief moment, the hub received the output of the Echo Show power supply.

[ebon dew]

it only takes a millisecond. hear a pop, whistle, sparks, burnt smell, anything?

[digital dagger]

yeah.... I figured it's toast. What's weird is that when the screen turns on, for a brief second I can see the Stream Deck logo, and the individual icons I had set in settings.

No.... though I thought maybe later the hub smelled like burnt electronics.

[ebon dew]

if all the devices connected to it were 5V USB and the hub itself didn't have any type of overvoltage protection then yes it could fry everything attached.

[digital dagger]

That's what's odd.. it only fried the most expensive device attached.... though I'm less upset than if it were my Keyboard or mouse.

[ebon dew]

you would have to either open up the USB hub or find a schematic of it, figure out if there's a power regulator that has a 5V buck converter, and pray it does. according to the symptoms you've posted so far it sounds like there wasn't and you sent 15V through the USB hub and through all of your USB devices that were attached to it.

electricity doesn't discriminate based on product price 😉

though you would hope that the more expensive the electronics are the more power protection they would add in. it would take about $1 for the electronic components necessary to have prevented that. honestly i'd be disappointed in the usb hub manufacturer though you have culpability too.

[digital dagger]

hahah true, but murphy sure does. lol

[digital dagger]

It's anker, from several yearas ago.

I'll have to dig in that later... It's daycare pickup time lol,.

[ebon dew]

with the amount of wall warts and barrel jacks to every device under a desk it's unfortunately easy to make this mistake. i have wires everywhere to all sorts of devices and could easily imagine myself doing that too.

with the right components it might be possible to repair some of them. sounds like you're most interested in reviving the streamdeck. it's a popular item there might be schematics for it online if you can figure out where it's been damaged.

[patent hemlock]

i've got a 9v and 5v with the same wall-wart size and barrel connector - guess which one i plugged into my CRICKITHat (5v in)

[ebon dew]

I once plugged a vacuum cleaner into a 220V outlet. It ran for about 5 seconds, then there was a surprising amount of sparks and smoke.

[dense mirage]

Does anybody have any idea what "2 VA" would mean in terms of control power on a relay? that's 2 watts effectively, right?

https://www.mcmaster.com/6366N12/

This is the relay in question - normally you would have a voltage@current spec, no?

[whole jacinth]

VA is volt-amperes, which isn’t identical to watts if you’re using AC with some power factor that isn’t 1.0

huh, though usually i see coil voltage specified as well

ah ok that might be input voltage

[dense mirage]

its just odd.

[whole jacinth]

so the coil can take 120V as AC or DC, it seems like

[arctic folio]

Anyone having issues logging into ultralibrarian atm

[digital dagger]

@ebon dew @patent hemlock yeah… I’ll take it apart at some point to see if anything’s fried. In the mean time, I’m taking recommendations for both usb hubs and cool shortcut / macro pad doohickeys

[eternal nebula]

i talked to the kicad masters, got some routing tips, i think 2 row connectors are back on the table

[glad ruin]

Those traces look quite a bit thicker than they need to be, assuming you aren't using this for power.

[eternal nebula]

some of these traces see up to 60v at 3a (briefly) but more like 0.5a most of the time

[glad ruin]

Ah ok

That still counts as "power"

As KiCad shows, there are likely some clearance violatons.

(assuming you set those values to match the PCB fab)

[eternal nebula]

I'll need to check what jclpcb's restrictions are

Ok uhhhh altium's lil chart implies I can do 30mils (0.7mm) traces, as that's big enough for any sustained power

They also mention something called the "3w rule" for voltages above 15v, which most of these traces will be

[blissful wing]

It depends how much voltage drop and temperature rise you can accept. Saturn PCB designer will let you plug in those numbers.

[eternal nebula]

I'm cool with a lil voltage drop and temp rise isn't that bad since it's an EV so it doesn't get that hot

What I'm worried about is dead shorts between cells

[woeful fox]

Does anyone here know how to jailbreak an iphone?

[tranquil swallow]

depends on your phone model and os version

[tranquil swallow]

Anyone have thoughts on the best LLMs for tech problems. I've been balancing ChatGPT and Copilot, I'd say copilot has been noticeably worse for me. I've yet to try Google's thing

[late fulcrum]

StarCoder is pretty good, but I think it's been deprecated but I don't remember the replacement offhand

[tardy badger]

RIP Akira Toriyama 😭

He apparently passed away on the 1st but it was only just announced

[tranquil swallow]

Bro...

[tardy badger]

The man crafted huge parts of my youth

[burnt tendon]

Level 9000 eternal.

[glad ruin]

My issue with all of tbese systems is that they stole code.

[burnt tendon]

Yah, I'm way too crotchety at this point in my life.

All of the image generators are presumably trained on my art, all of the code generators are trained on my code, all of the text generators are trained on my internet content.

It's all a six, seven, or eight finger discount for them.

[glad ruin]

The big issue with code in particular is the licensing. There are very specific rules of how you can use GPL code and what you can mix it with, for example. LLMs inherently mix everything with everything.

[burnt tendon]

Fair, but also given that it's autocompleting and not thinking it's overall even worse because there's no license grant given at all for my art and text, save "viewing on the internet"

[glad ruin]

Yeah, unless explicitly stated otherwise, all artistic works are considered "all rights reserved" by default. Companies like google are allowed to reproduce those works in search results, but never asked for nor received permission to use those works as training data.

And they definitely can't argue that they are doing it "for the public good" or "fair use for research" or something dumb like that.

[patent hemlock]

"code generation" is pretty much a 50-50 proposition using available "free" tools in my experience -- Copilot was lying it's 🫏 off this afternoon for a simple "yes/no can i do this" question

[glad ruin]

The utility of it though is completely irrelevant because they trained it through unethical (and almost certainly illegal) means.

[burnt tendon]

Yah.

But it's still kinda tied in because it would be much more obviously bad if they constrained themselves to the data set legally and ethically available to them.

It's the AI equivalent of the 50,000 doom levels shovelware CD.

(and if you don't know what the 50,000 doom levels shovelware CD is, GET OFF MY LAWN, LOL)

[glad ruin]

Or like basing a medical research paper on human experimentation records from World War II.

[tranquil swallow]

Yea I've seen a lot of AI bro weirdos who treat their AI "work" like some Intellectual Property Smaug, like they have some inherent ownership over images they generated with a prompt. Not wording it well, but it's like someone who thinks they have something valuable and refuse to share it

[burnt tendon]

Oh yah but there's tons of papers that did that and everybody glossed over that until lately.

that meaning human experimentation records.

[tranquil swallow]

AI products need to be public domain

[burnt tendon]

See, I'd disagree with that?

If I wrote a piece of software to transform one thing into another, I'd still presume to own the output.

[glad ruin]

(I will stop short of directly equating the two things, but the general consensus in the medical community is that if you use data that was collected unethically, your research is invalid)

[burnt tendon]

Smaug ownership over AI prompts just confuses the underlying lack of real intelligence.

[glad ruin]

This would still directly violate the rights of the original authors.

[tranquil swallow]

That's a good point

[burnt tendon]

There's a unique pain that requires being both an artist and a software engineer to feel.

Well, there's also tendonitis in the wrists.

But people being unintentionally or intentionally ignorant about LLMs and the relation to creation is there too.

Like part of the motivation to Smaug ownership is thinking that if you were just an "artist" and had "ideas" that the tap of creation would flow, and so AI means that everybody can just have "ideas" and make the AI do the work.

Wheras the idea is the easy part. Here's an idea: Make a glowing mermaid tail. Here's the hard part: making it look right, fit right, glow, not blow up because you got water in your lithium ion battery pack, et al.

[glad ruin]

https://tenor.com/view/torgue-explosions-borderlands-gaming-game-gif-16537893

[burnt tendon]

https://tenor.com/view/battery-explosion-explode-explodes-unboxing-gif-26046605

[ebon dew]

There's a learn guide on that 😋 https://learn.adafruit.com/light-up-costumes-in-harsh-environments

[wanton bay]

The magic of epoxy, resin, jb weld, tape, zip ties and mineral oil

Gl with the battery tho u gotta vent them gasses

[late fulcrum]

There's also the often-overlooked danger of low-voltage DC where skin is involved https://www.sparkfun.com/news/1513

[pallid sundial]

Im wondering my CCW motors ( drone ) are generating negative lift lmo

Despite flipping the props alot

[burnt tendon]

Yes! I have met the nice lady who wrote that, hence that as an example

[late fulcrum]

Flipping the props over won't change the lift direction (although it will slightly lower efficiency). You need CCW props for CCW motors.

[tardy badger]

Anyone else love amazing solar events like solar eclipses 😎

I wish I could make it to one of the eclipse spots

[burnt tendon]

I made it last time. It was epic.

This time is not happening because 2023 was too meh to be able to plan anything

Highly recommend getting straight under the totality at least once in your life.

It's just not nearly as eerie until the sun goes all of the way out.

I'm still rooting for a daylight visible supernova in my lifespan.

[late fulcrum]

Yeah, worth the trip! Last one, I made a solar viewer out of a cheap telescope, plumbing parts, and cardboard. Didn't look like much, but worked great.

[tardy badger]

Im hoping to experience a gamma ray blast. I’ve never seen the atmosphere stripped from a planet in real time

🤪

[wintry drift]

Happy women's day

[rapid geode]

im right in the middle of the solar eclipse path it seems

[urban arrow]

Me too North central Texas. Just praying for clear weather.

[wintry drift]

I'm near path of totality, and was near it in 2017. I was going on a trip that day anyway, so just left early and drove into the path, and found a spot to park and enjoy it. I'll probably do something like that again this year, except now I have a good telescope. Seemed to work out better than if I had made plans or booked a place.

[rapid geode]

ivce seen one before a long time ago. i also saw the transit of venus. that was cool.

we put paper on the window with a pinhole for that one

could actually see the planet moving in shadow

[wintry drift]

I think that I remember seeing that around 2012. Someone set up a telescope at my workplace with a filter so that we could see it.

[rapid geode]

2012 sounds right

[dusty citrus]

Esh another "we like your profile but we can't hire you cause you got no degree"

I dunno if I should reply if a colab is would be avaible or something alike lmao

[tardy badger]

Hashtag look at my box

If you can imagine, this will be a play table for my kids

[ebon dew]

Pretty nice box, it's even got blue tape, classic design.

[burnt tendon]

I'm glad we got that part all squared away

[ebon dew]

I like the double 2x4's. Looks very strong. What kind of top is going on it?

[tardy badger]

Nice cabinet grade laminated plywood

Something I can stain with a nice stain, I’ll use some nice pine boards to cover the 2x4 construction as well. Add a lip so things don’t roll off the top

Probably another $100 in wood to finish it off

[ebon dew]

I helped my brother build a desk with that kind of plywood for the desk surface. We stained and polyurethaned it glossy. Came out very nice, rock solid.

[burnt tendon]

I find that, left to my own devices, I make things that are way way way too sturdy.

It's fine tho.

[ebon dew]

Yeah he has a router that put a beveled edge around it. You can do that with that nice plywood.

[tardy badger]

I just need it to hold up the weight of jumping kids lol

I’m probably going to bevel the edges on the bottom shelf a little to make it not so sharp

[ebon dew]

I was going to sand and stain a new shelf but got sidetracked by catching my neighbors kids on camera talking about breaking into my car. So now I'm testing a little spy camera to put inside the car. The quality is better than my webcam but the thing gets so hot it's going to melt the case. So I have to figure out a heatsink solution. Always something.

[tardy badger]

Kids, always fun

[burnt tendon]

I need a lawn so I can yell at them to get off of it.

[ebon dew]

These particular kids have broken into every car in a 2 block radius over the past 2 years. They keep doing it because they haven't been caught.

[burnt tendon]

Yah, other than work, I need to motorize a thing that a nice lady asked me to help her out with, then build my Voron-0, then get back to a few organizational projects with honeycomb storage walls ... and I was just talking with my wife about a few bits that are sitting on my desk that would be really great if I'd set them up and integrated them into HomeAssistant but I haven't.

Oh yah, and art before the lack of it makes me depressed.

[ebon dew]

They tried to get into mine but didn't. I did find some palm and forehead print on my window which is what prompted me to get the camera.

Too many projects never enough time.

[burnt tendon]

I guess doing the 🤦 is the appropriate reaction to not being able to break in.

[ebon dew]

The window was dusty so could clearly see an outline of cupped hands and a forehead lol.

[rapid geode]

boxin day

[tardy badger]

Ask me how the cops knew a girl placed stolen traffic cones on my car back in high school 🙃

I lived on a very dusty road

The cops in that same incident suggested that maybe “the girl liked me and that’s why she did it.”

I was the subject of multiple harassment incidents that summer which led me to change to an online high school

[ebon dew]

In light of womens day I'm not going to engage in that one.

I'm working on a new PCB. 64 1mm LED's. Closest I can get them is about 1.7mm.

now I just have to add 31 more rows.

[tardy badger]

It was multiple people unfortunately, not just one. Moral of the story, technology saved me. technology pioneered by amazing women

I love me good LED designs

[ebon dew]

total length is about 110mm. started out trying to create a 1mm pitch matrix. it's going to be about 1.7mm pitch but still a pretty nice compression in size vs 2.5mm

I have no idea if it's going to catch on fire (in 64x32 format) the second i plug it in. we'll find out eventually.

[tardy badger]

Lol

Release the magic smoke

[ebon dew]

will be putting about 5V@40amps through 1mm LED's.

[tardy badger]

😀

200W

[ebon dew]

hopefully won't be on my dime. JLCPCB contacted me and invited me to join their sponsored program. i get to design anything i want, they foot the bill for the components and assembly. no way i'd try something this brazen with my own money.

[tardy badger]

Sounds like you’ll need a hefty heat sink

[ebon dew]

yep will try to figure out a way to add long heatsink bars of some kind. haven't looked into it yet.

The decoupling caps on the other side are tiny 0402. There won't be enough space between the rows to add heatsinks. I could add a ton of vias but then it'll probably act like perfboard and snap.

[tardy badger]

You can expose copper and mount a heat sink directly to it

[rapid geode]

glowy

[ebon dew]

it can't be betwen the rows though. it would have to be at the top and sides of the board?

eh i'll just include a little fan it'll be fine. 🔥

[tardy badger]

Just have marshmallows handy

[burnt tendon]

So, the Voron discord forbids discussions about active heating.

I wonder if your firestarter LED design counts as "active heating"

[ebon dew]

I honestly have no idea.

The bleeding rainbow board I made with 2mm LED's doesn't get hot at all. Though it's only 1 row.

Here's the routing I did. The LED is 1mm but the footprint is 1.7mm. Each yellow square is 1.7mm.

[burnt tendon]

(The admins have clarified, on the "let's get our Vorons hot without active heating" thread titled "Toasty Marshmallows" that obeying the spirit of the rules is more important than obeying the letter of the rules, in like 3-4 different pinned messages saying it different ways, LOL)

[ebon dew]

If I'm going to make a 64x32 matrix they have to all be self enclosed so they can mount right next to each other.

There's a reddit topic called r/maliciouscompliance that has stories of a similar vein. Staying within the rules but finding loopholes because the rule is a bad rule.

Not being allowed to talk about heating within a forum based on a device that is literally centered around its ability to melt plastic makes no sense.

That's like being a member of a refrigerator related forum but not being allowed to use the word "cooling" in any context.

That would be like this discord not allowing people to say the word electricity. 🤷‍♂️

[urban arrow]

What the heck is women's day? Heck, it's always Mrs Always Right's Day around my humble domicile...

[burnt tendon]

One of the clarifications is that the real rule is that the chamber temperature, extruder temperature, and bed temperature all have ranges of appropriate discussion, at which point the Voron designer no longer works.

I guess the problem is that they don't want people stringing up random whacky nichrome wire mods and burning things up.

[rapid geode]

do women really need their own day? men dont get a day... oh, what? EVERY days is mens day? ahh

😛

well, twitter is at least still useful to shame telecoms into doing their jobs

[jagged citrus]

Decided to get an arduino every
Was on discount, couldnt resist

[tranquil swallow]

arduino packaging/presentation is always so slick

[tardy badger]

Hey folks, I’m working to get rid of some old products I made for my business. I’m just clearing space for new products, so if you’re interested I’ve got a Tindie shop up here: https://www.tindie.com/stores/oakdevtech/

(My once in a blue moon maker biz post)

[brittle linden]

That IcyBlue Feather looks like a cool product. If I were looking for an inexpensive ICE40 board I'd go for it.

[tardy badger]

it's a lot of fun to use, one of my favorite things i've made

[brittle linden]

I've climbed the Xilinx Vivado learning mountain, but for someone getting started with FPGAs I think the ICE40 is the way to go.

[tardy badger]

wholeheartedly agree

[civic kettle]

Has anyone gotten the new adabox

[civic kettle]

I have an issue with my adabox and was wondering if anyone else is experiencing issues

[jagged citrus]

They dont ship it to my country

[covert crescent]

Hey everyone! I posted a cool YouTube video yesterday to help makers and bootstrap inventors save money in manufacturing. It's a 3D Printing process called "Fuzzy Skin." Here is the how-to video: https://youtu.be/OBQ2lVl3Qnc

[covert crescent]

Let me know if you have any ideas on how I can improve! Also, next month, I'm teaching Circuit Python to High Schoolers in Tech Ed. I'm planning to use the Adafruit Feather RP2040. If you have any fun 101-level project ideas that would be good for the students, let me know 🙂

[jagged citrus]

technology is so advanced these days

[late fulcrum]

Batato?

[jagged citrus]

its the most realistic banana ive seen

[ebon dew]

Audio projects on the RP2040 are always popular. You'll need an I2S audio amplifer and speaker. The Feather RP2040 by itself can't do much other than blink the on-board LED off/on. It requires peripherals and what peripherals you have dictates what you can do with it.

In my opinion a better starter board for high schoolers would be the RP2040 Propmaker. https://www.adafruit.com/product/5768 It has an I2S amplifier built in. All you'd need is the speaker and sd card module.

https://www.adafruit.com/product/4682

https://www.adafruit.com/product/39680

RP2040 Prop-Maker + SD Card + Speaker = personal MP3 player

[winter stump]

What is the best library to connect to ssd1306 and raspberry pi 4

I have installed this library already and I am getting below error

It is already installed

[late fulcrum]

It looks like you're using both displayio and adafruit_displayio_ssd1306. Have you installed both of them?

[winter stump]

Yes it seems .. It should pickup anyone xD by default ?

Let me remove any one of them

@late fulcrum How can I search, I have both installed?

There is no such DisplayIO - Please help me .. It has been 7 days .. I am not able to display any gif on the ssd1306 and raspberry pi 4

[solar kindle]

Just got a new phone, so it's time to make a new phone bracket for my car. If I did everything right (no guarantee of that 😄 ), I should be able to just print the holder and reuse the dashboard mounting pieces (still the same car). I plugged in the specs for the new phone (actually the case for the phone) and generated a new model. Hopefully, in a couple hours I'll have a new phone bracket.
https://www.printables.com/model/209380-configurable-custom-phone-bracket-with-vent-clip

[burnt tendon]

.... so would you say you came here to vent?

[solar kindle]

OK, so, three hours (mostly printing). But it's all done.

[rapid geode]

now spend 3 hours cleaning that car!

😛

[solar kindle]

It is a bit dusty. 😄

[late fulcrum]

I remember when everything used the AMPS mounting standard. I was most disappointed when the GPS vendor abandoned that.

[burnt tendon]

I can tell you were AMPSed about it

[past vale]

Im new to discord... need help finding examples of sdcard to circuitpython usb drive file transfers. Using an OS "copy" like command as a function call in my cp code. Some direction to libraries and examples would be greatly appreciated.

[patent hemlock]

i just realized that "The Most Valuable Tool I Use" is my label maker 😏

[burnt tendon]

With it anyone can become a sticker for details

[late fulcrum]

Label makers are indeed handy for one-off projects

[ebon dew]

Is that what it really looks like? I've never taken a close look or perhaps when I was young I just didn't understand what I was looking at. Now I can clearly see there are 3 spark plug wires. Had no idea.

[obtuse sentinel]

If I run steam OS on a PlayStation Vida, do you think you could run counterstrike?

[jagged citrus]

No, you cant install SteamOS on a psvita, and if you could CS wouldnt run well

[night crescent]

DESK of LADYADA returns next week! (Limor's family was visiting this weekend!)

[trim sandal]

I have an unusual question. I am looking for suggestion of electronic project for my son. He just turned 6 but outgrew the snapcircuit games. Is there any kit that is super simple and have guided instruction instead of being open ended. I could help him with soldering but ideally something using a breadboard

[tardy badger]

I designed a pop tart cutter for making homemade pop tarts

[tardy badger]

Huzzah

[brittle linden]

Looks tasty. Better not let Kellanova find out🥸

[tardy badger]

Lol let them

[patent hemlock]

i would suggest looking through the various Learn guides as there are several decent projects in there

[patent hemlock]

"docking holes" in pastries are not a new thing - the fact that he's got a home-made pastry that kind of looks like one of the mass produces ones is pure coincidence 😈

[brittle linden]

I fear that their IP attorneys might not see it that way. It's like the time I whipped up a batch of Twinkies and before I knew it FedEx had delivered a strongly worded C&D.

[tranquil swallow]

after using a kindle, i think i could use an eink display laptop purely as a word processor or as dn IDE+compiler+linker

[patent hemlock]

the commercial ones seem to be going for $500 USD

[glad ruin]

It would be pretty unresponsive.

I have a paper-sized ereader that I use to read technical docs, but I wouldn't want to write code on it.

[fickle flume]

Hey got a question for people here who have used PCB Way or JLCPCB. How durable is their resin for parts that will be frequently handled? Such as a Game case shell or a toy / Miniature?

If anyone knows please @ me.

[jagged citrus]

Idk
Very i guess, i dont think resin varies too much, you should check what options they have available and do research on them for finding the optimal one