general-chat

[blissful roost]

K120 is Legend status.

[tardy badger]

It “Just Works” ™️

[late fulcrum]

Generally Unicomp, Matias, or Chronokey these days.

[tranquil swallow]

@rapid geode do you buy fasteners from somewhere in Canada, looking for metric sceews

[rapid geode]

kbc or just mcmaster

kbc usually has everything though

[rapid geode]

big ol block of aloominum

[blissful roost]

Noice

PCIe 7.0 is looking interesting.

[tardy badger]

I haven’t even had a machine with Gen 5 yet

Lol

[blissful roost]

Me neither, but it looks like Gen 6 won't even be a thing. 🤣

https://www.notebookcheck.net/First-complete-PCIe-7-0-IP-solution-presented-by-Synopsys-coming-to-market-in-2025-for-HPCs-and-AI-supercomputers.847206.0.html

[tardy badger]

😀

[rapid geode]

my machine i think is gen 4? not sure

3060ti

[blissful roost]

Gen4 in mine, B-550 chipset..

..and a meagre RTX 2060. 😛

[rapid geode]

ah mine is gen 5

for the mobo. not the card

[blissful roost]

https://rog.asus.com/uk/motherboards/rog-strix/rog-strix-b550-f-gaming-model/
^_^

Seems a pretty good match for my 5800x

[tardy badger]

I just have a 5600X, 64GB of RAM, and an AMD RX6700. Nothing too serious

B550 mobo so gen 4 PCIE

[blissful roost]

Not sure how the RX6700 compares, but that's nearly up to my spec on the CPU and RAM. 🙂

Don't ask why I got 64GB in a gaming rig. 😛

[tardy badger]

I rarely if ever get close to using 64GB in my computer lol

RX 6700 is okay I can play most modern games but there is definitely room for my system to be much better

[blissful roost]

I'm stuck with 1080p for now, so not much point replacing my GPU.

[tardy badger]

I can only do 1080p/60Hz so I’m in the same boat

[blissful roost]

My monitor is a freebie from my old job.. LG IPS, made in 2012. 😛

[tardy badger]

My monitors are Lenovo ones that my wife got to keep when she left a job

Just 2x 24” ones

[blissful roost]

I'd be happy with that right now, if there are no dead pixels.. like on mine.

[late fulcrum]

I've got an ancient Acer 19" I got used and have rebuilt the power supply once, and an old Apple Cinema display I also got used. No GPUs worth mentioning, which is fine as I mostly look at text. A USB-DVI adaptor is good enough for most of my needs.

Oh wow. I'm not paying $9k for an old monitor...

[blissful roost]

lol

Harsh..

[lapis anchor]

but come on, there's free 90-day returns on it!

[stoic mesa]

it would go well together with this

[late fulcrum]

Heh, wow. Non length matched twisted pair is simply not suitable for that kind of data rate.

[stoic mesa]

yet there are plenty of HDMI cables advertising 48 Gbps

I know you are not a fan of Amazon, but just read the reviews on this one. they are fun.
https://a.co/d/aSIsYp3

[blissful roost]

Ohh! Diamond cable!! Are they snake oil, like Kimber?

lel 😛

[late fulcrum]

There are sites that collect bizarre amazon reviews (like Duncan yellow cake, three wolf moon shirt, badonkadonk, etc.)

[blissful roost]

lmao

Brilliant

[stoic mesa]

now I really need to know what "three wolf moon shirt" is

[blissful roost]

""Wow the picture quality is simply amazing" said my friend. "You can stay here as long you want as long as we keep using this great cable of yours". I now have a permanent home without an expensive mortgage payment! I'm just thankful i found this cable! I don't know where i would be without it!"

[late fulcrum]

https://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Three-Wolf-Short-Sleeve/product-reviews/B002HJ377A

[stoic mesa]

yes, I read some of the reviews.
Maybe I should get this t-shirt 🙂

[blissful roost]

"After putting on the shirt for the first time, I admit, I felt my trousers getting a little tighter."

🤣

[rapid geode]

woo

[burnt tendon]

I am still mad, years later, that my coworkers did not take my advice and order the edible silver spraypaint that was on Amazon on my assurances that if they ordered it and it arrived before they were going to go as a group to see Mad Max: Fury Road, it would be awesome.

But the reviews there were pretty great.

[blissful roost]

I'm waiting on my new Lego kits. 😄

[rapid geode]

nice

im waiting for cutters to finis the keycaps

[hasty haven]

𝓯𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓴𝔂

[half plank]

Anyone know how to get a video to play seamlessly in Processing. I have it uploaded, but cannot seem to find how to play it.

[dusty citrus]

I wonder why my modem with wpa3/2, it randomly kicks my devices out
While with just wpa2 it works fine huh

[rapid geode]

less aluminium in the block now

[silver shale]

My Dad gave me two Dell 1080p monitors in 2020. The third was from a friend, a Dell UltraSharp made in 2005 but is still IPS LCD. All three use Samsung panels.

[silver shale]

What RAM? I basically have the same thing but non-X and 32GB ECC.

[tardy badger]

Two Corsair 3200MHz 16GB and 2 GSkill 3200MHz 16GB sticks

[silver shale]

ah, ok, so 2DPC

I use 32GB since that is the maximum for single rank 1DPC

[silver shale]

what is it used for?

[tardy badger]

Mostly nothing lol 🤣

[glad ruin]

I have 32GB ECC in my main system. Times 4.

[silver shale]

so, 128GB?

[glad ruin]

Yep

Running at 3200MT/s.

With a 5900X.

[silver shale]

same, I have two of these: https://www.crucial.com/memory/server-ddr4/mta9asf2g72az-3g2r

though Ryzen 5 5600

[glad ruin]

Yeah I have the 32GB variant of that.

[silver shale]

I kinda wish I went for 64GB for AI models but it would be slow on CPU anyway

[plain tusk]

Does Adafruit take suggestions for breakout boards that would be nice to have? If so, would this be the place to suggest them?

[late fulcrum]

Breakout boards are sometimes a good way to learn to make your own boards

[plain tusk]

Totally! I've actually just made my first one and ordered it…but as it's my first I don't have high hopes for its success 🫣

[late fulcrum]

My first try doesn't always work. I keep 'em around though, in more than one case I was able to use a board in some other way later.

In one case, I had attempted a computer controlled light dimmer, but the first version didn't work well. But later I needed a flasher module and realized the old dimmer module could do that with different code on its microcontroller.

[plain tusk]

Yeah that's nice. In this particular case I don't think the board will be very reusable if it doesn't work for its designed purpose, but hopefully a learning experience either way.

[stoic mesa]

my servo controller is almost ready for Tindie launch...

[rapid geode]

one side done. whee

[stoic mesa]

how long did it take?

[rapid geode]

real machining time, about 2-3hours.

[stoic mesa]

and data preparation, CAM work?

[rapid geode]

few hours

the other side will be faster

[dusty citrus]

And now windows is again broken

[late fulcrum]

Again, or still?

[rapid geode]

even less aluminiun now...

[tranquil swallow]

Can you use your spindle to drill out aluminum and then thread it with a tap?

[rapid geode]

it is threaded on the other side

m4 and m3

i have done m2 and m2.5 (and m5, 6, 8, 10) as well.

m2 is silly tiny

[plain tusk]

I was looking to fit a pcb with m2 mounting holes and they were still gonna be too big, so I started looking at m1.6 and m1.2 screws. those things are absurdly tiny

[rapid geode]

https://youtu.be/IF8tj7cN8HU

[rapid geode]

m1.6 is silly. why does it exitst? just to annoy me?

😛

[plain tusk]

https://tenor.com/view/lion-king-the-scar-precisely-gif-12215653

[teal pier]

Is there somewhere i can buy the board in this video? Not the esp32.mhttps://youtu.be/rQdX9u-WM2M?si=IVcmd_74Up7rdypJ im asking cause i want something like this that i can play doom on, i own an ardunio uno and a couple joysticks and displays but i dont know how to connnect the displays, i dont have anything else either.) if this cannot be purchased can someone send me a link to something similar?

[plain tusk]

this thing looked cool but is seemingly not for sale
https://www.crowdsupply.com/byte-mix-lab/microbyte

came across this one but it's a fair bit larger and kinda expensive
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806599752222.html

hmm, bigger still, but cheaper
https://www.robotshop.com/products/esplay-micro-v2-handheld-game-console-based-on-esp32

lol, or go even smaller, but looks like you'll need a magnifying glass, and im not sure that a 72x40 black and white display would cut it for doom
https://www.amazon.com/TinyCircuits-Console-Playable-Programmable-Keychain/dp/B0B5FDYCVJ

[teal pier]

Thanks, can an ardunio uno r3 run it?

[plain tusk]

I'm not sure if people have ported doom to arduino. You'll have to look into it. I believe it has a fair bit less power than the esp used in that video though

[teal pier]

It has been ported.

I just dont know how to connect the display to my uno.

[plain tusk]

maybe look into that then? this port is using an i2c oled display
https://github.com/daveruiz/doom-nano

[teal pier]

Cant find anything on how to connect it

[blissful roost]

Arduboy and it's mini variant are quite interesting too.

[teal pier]

Link?

[blissful roost]

https://www.arduboy.com/

[teal pier]

Thx

[teal pier]

@night crescent can you send the design or whatever you made for this board to be made? Id love to be able to get one!

[teal pier]

Can it run doom?

[blissful roost]

Dunno... But there's a Doom-like on there.

It's a mono display.

[tardy badger]

Looks like I have a busy few weekends ahead of me 😅

[astral portal]

if i had a nickel for every time something new comes out that i want days after i make an order i'd have 2 nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird it happened twice

the order hasn't even arrived yet and oh look a shiny new thing i want

[late fulcrum]

Oh that happens to all of us!

[patent hemlock]

every time

[tardy badger]

I like to day dream about what my business would look like selling X amount of units if a single board

I’d need to sell like 750-900 RPGA Feather each month to work for myself

[tardy badger]

If I keep up the cadence, probably 2-3 years till I’m there

[stoic mesa]

you also need to think about benefits/insurance/401k...

[tardy badger]

That is considering those things 🙂

Even when I can match those things, I’ll probably still work my day job and do the business on the side.

[stoic mesa]

you should teach your kids help you!
in several years, you will just do the designs, and they will assemble the boards.

"Seth Kerr and daughters" industries

[tardy badger]

Lol I have two sons and two daughters 😀

If things get going good enough I’m just going to have my wife start doing stuff, pay her so she doesn’t have to go out and find a job when she finishes her CS Degree

[thick wind]

Wouldn't that be the dream

Design all the fun hardware and leave all the firmware development to the wifey

I'd be lying if I said I never dreamed about that

[tardy badger]

Probably be a mix of firmware and helping get boards assembled and shipped.

https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2024-30078

This is pretty cool 💀

Your computer can be hacked without any interaction if you have a WiFi adapter

[tranquil swallow]

Yea that was wild to see this morning

[patent hemlock]

well, at 8.8 at least it's not 🥁 🥁 🥁 PHP

[late fulcrum]

Not my computer, heh

[trail bridge]

anyone have a discount code? I have an order but its just 7 dollars to big to fit in a gift card i have

[stoic mesa]

for Adafruit?
the only discount codes I have seen for them are all short-term - typically they would issue a 10% discount code on wed afternoon which would be valid until midnight on the same day

[trail bridge]

i can't wait until wed, but thanks

ill just go ahead and order

[dusty citrus]

I never understood the deal of those cve. Most like this one, don't even provide means to replicate, so they're virtually useless. Just great/bad press

Anyway... Some kind of cheap small battery charger board that allows different ranges of inputs and outputs? Examples out of google or AliExpress have a fixed v, or are splitted, and if you want anything different you need like a converter

[tardy badger]

What does that have to do with the message you tagged?

🤔

[dusty citrus]

My bad, I meant to tag the one containing
https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2024-30078

[tardy badger]

CVE are important because while they usually don’t have much impact on normal users, people like journalists, political contenders, activists, and similar tend to be targeted through these exploits. If you’re in groups of individuals that might be targeted, knowing possible ways of being compromised can help keep you safe. At least for a little while anyway

[hot hare]

Can anyone tell me if the GSM 900 is still online? I want to make ET styled things to play with

[dusty citrus]

It's press to sum up. Often they can't be replicated as the means are not shared. CVEs are repos that are scrapped around.

@hot hare 2G networks are gone. Not sure about what you mean in the second sentence though

[tardy badger]

there is a good reason the means of exploiting are not shared. calling it press because it's not shared how to exploit is disingenuous.

if you could guarantee that every vulnerable system isn't exploitable anymore, share. but you can't. it would be reckless to publish the means of exploitation.

yes, some are harmless. probably many are harmless.

but you're casting far to wide a net.

[dusty citrus]

At work they use deprecated unsupported stuff because they convinced as being more safe due to less CVEs
I smell bs, cause they get less attention as they're EOL

[tardy badger]

less CVE doesn't indicate the severity of CVE.

[whole jacinth]

there's a few scoring systems, but they're not always used by the people publishing the CVEs

[tardy badger]

right

[whole jacinth]

and too often, media people give the 0-10 summary score, rather than the full vector, which is far more useful

[tardy badger]

exactly, the press is just terrible at reporting because the attention span and average knowledge of the subject of the people who might read it, might be limited. Their goal is to increase readership, not explain every nook and crany of an exploit

[whole jacinth]

when i was dealing with vulnerability management in a software product, we occasionally had to deal with the results of large-scale automated analyzers that the reporter had done very little analysis about the actual impact. the people who allocate CVE numbers are also annoyed by this behavior, but there's not a lot they can do to improve the situation either

[tardy badger]

yeah, plus in generally knowing about vulnerabilities big or small can help companies and governments protect their systems appropriately and weigh the risk of product versions appropriately.

[whole jacinth]

i think in practice, large enterprises buy subscriptions to services that help inventory vulnerable software assets by known version info, or sometimes do active scans for CVEs that can be non-destructively identified by scanning

[glad ruin]

They'll likely have some sort of sale on Wednesday (Juneteenth).

[tardy badger]

yeah, that coupled with having a knowledgeable SOC team

[fast ferry]

my only half-win box that also has wifi runs win8, which isn't on the list I guess? 🤷‍♂️

[rapid geode]

woo finished

[hot hare]

So I have to buy a whole new gsm kit ))): I just wanted to use it with my laptop to call my mom

[rapid geode]

O_o

[hot hare]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=shCYA2J-De8

lol

Thank you though

[tardy badger]

It’s kind of interesting how quickly you can get a decent looking website up for free (aside from domain cost)

https://oakdev.tech

Slowly revamping my website

[tranquil swallow]

Are you doing direct sales from your website, it's not loading (slow internet)

[tardy badger]

Starting with a basic one page site featuring some of my products (linking to Tindie)

[plain tusk]

Looking good! I think it would help to have a least a title for what each product is on your product page

[rapid geode]

https://youtu.be/yAF4EHfFJxY

new spindle seems accurate....

the onle one had collets and it was impossible to use this tool. it would wobble like mad

[dusty citrus]

Tindie it's sort of expensive, stripe it's pretty cheap
Ps: you can get free domains from register/amen , they even pay you to do so
For the first year at least

[stoic mesa]

Tindie takes 10%, but having your product there helps reach more customers. If you just use your own site, very few people will find it (until you make a name for yourself, like Unexpected Maker)

[gloomy blaze]

Any mechanical keyboard recommendations? I'm willing to pay 60-70€ at most

[tardy badger]

Tindie has the advantage of being an established platform allowing people to purchase from more than one seller at once. Sure they take a cut, but it’s easier to get products in front of the people you want to sell too

[late fulcrum]

Keychron has some nice offerings in that range, both blank and finished. Replaceable keyswitches, which is nice too.

[gloomy blaze]

👍

[fast ferry]

Keychron seconded. I've been very happy with them. the latest one I got has QMK/VIA firmware so it's easy to remap.

[urban radish]

A lot of the product pages on the Adafruit website show some symbol that seems to claim conformity with the 2011/65/EU but I can't seem to find any declarations or datasheets and the pcbs aren't marked either. Am I missing something or are they just not available?

[tardy badger]

Adafruit doesn’t claim conformity to any EU regulation. They claim a grey area for what is called “engineering evaluation boards.”

With the exception of maybe RoHS because they don’t do any leaded solder on their products

[urban radish]

I see, thanks. A grey area indeed since the products are neither specific to customer or application and the guidelines, e.g 2014/35/EU state that the mentioned exemption can only be made under specific circumstances

[urban radish]

I guess its fine because the logo thats showed on the website isnt official in any form

[dusty citrus]

most commercial products don't follow them either...

A way to maintain contact betwen two gears, where one of them may change location/distance in one axis?

[urban radish]

lol

[whole jacinth]

that’s a hard problem in general. how far can they shift? belts or chains might work better (but might need tensioning pulleys)

[dusty citrus]

max 5/6cm ; with a tension pulley/gear, isn't likely that I will constrain the gear that can freely move in some way? or maybe some kind of arm that starts on the second gear, so that the other pulley follow along

I'll try with the tensiometer it looks easier, thanks!

[lusty cape]

hi is there a channel for remapping support? i want to remap the keys that were used on a adafruit trinket board

[glad ruin]

#help-with-projects would likely be most appropriate.

[rapid geode]

involoute gears only mesh correctly at the precise intended spacin

[tardy badger]

If you add a locking/adjustable cross bar it could work

But it wouldn’t be automatic unless you had some mechanism for adjustment built in

[fast ferry]

a 6cm idler gear between the two that can be adjusted in the vertical axis to span the distance? assuming you can reverse the input direction to match.

[night crescent]

Desk of Ladyada - RP2040 Adalogger, C6 Feather, Floppy and some RS-232
https://youtu.be/FDbl3M8huwE

Tested the RP2040 Adalogger Feather and are now working on its tester. We're troubleshooting the Floppsy interface due to incompatible floppy drives. Progress continues on the ESP32-C6 Feather with TFT functionality checks. Additionally, we designed an IR transceiver, updated the HUSB238 Type C PD, and two RS-232 level shifters. We also revisited RS-232 transceivers, crucial in pre-USB communication.

[tardy badger]

Nature produces some interesting patterns

[tardy badger]

If the waitlist for my RPGA Feather keeps growing like it does, I’m gonna need a pick n place to keep up 😀

[late fulcrum]

Choosing the point at which that would make sense seems complicated

[tardy badger]

For me, probably when I’m selling more than 200 of the same board a month

For RPGA Feather, that would generate enough for me to get a small PnP. That said, getting a PnP doesn’t mean I can just lolly gag and expect things to go perfectly. It still requires supervision. But I can go faster than placing with a hand held PnP so that seems to be a good trade off I think.

[stoic mesa]

you do not want to outsource it, just ordering PCBA from JLCPCB?

[tardy badger]

Nah, I like being hands on

I enjoy the process and for me it makes sense to do it myself

Plus in my eyes, 200 units a month is pretty small. 2400 a year. That’s not even a full reel of RP2040

This month I’ll probably sell 50 RPGA Feather and we’ll see what happens from there

[tardy badger]

One thing I didn’t realize is Tindie also tracks when your products are added to carts. It’s telling me 173 added to carts from my shop. I think I need to order more mini panels as well as parts 😀

[rapid geode]

173?

nice

my shop usually has 5-10 things in peoples carts. but only 4-5 sales per month.

[tardy badger]

Yeah, I understand that in carts/on waitlists is no guarantee of people actually spending money. But maybe they will 🤷‍♂️

Starting small with 20 new boards. If those sell I’ll do another 25.

[rapid geode]

sure, but 173 items, even is 20% complete the order, thats pretty alright

[tardy badger]

Yeah, I definitely agree with you there

[tardy badger]

If I dedicated 40hrs a week, every week of the year I could conceivably make ~400 boards a month. That would be my upper limit of my current means of production

[rapid geode]

would that be an income? youd need to pocket $15 per board or more.

[tardy badger]

$225k on income, I’d be able to take home like $40k lol

Great salary I know lol

[rapid geode]

ah. yeah not quite viable, but close

[tardy badger]

I need to replace the equivalent of $154k (if you include all my benefits) so I’d need to sell at least double to feel like I wasn’t eating too much into margins/operating expenses.

[rapid geode]

ok, so i put my new spindle on and i noticed 2 things: 1 is that theres some wrong settings and i kept stalling it in cuts it should handle. 2 though is that 90% of the chatter was gone, no matter how dumb a cut i made. So i had to revisit steel. So alllll this time, the issues with my machine that we blamed on rigidity was spindle bearing stiffness (old spindle was one bearing, light/no preload, new spindle is 2 bearings with preload)

[tardy badger]

That’s if I only sold one board, I’d need to really diversify board sales and also push towards higher margin boards

[tardy badger]

Is the outcome better now?

[rapid geode]

better is a work

i made a video, ill show you the comparison later. but basically lest say the old spindle would not have even done this cut at all not due to power, but due to chattering itself to death

[tardy badger]

Ah, yeah that makes sense.

[rapid geode]

now if i can figure out the stall issue. basically its drawing 900w, but its outputting (on paper) more like 450. some settings are wrong. but even at 400 it beats the 750w old one.

[glad ruin]

https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/17/24180196/adobe-us-ftc-doj-sues-subscriptions-cancel

https://tenor.com/view/spy-family-spy-x-family-anya-heh-smile-gif-25751849

[tardy badger]

I saw this a little bit ago. I’m happy because they have always been hard to cancel with. And when you could figure it out, you had to pay up the rest of the subscription for a product you weren’t using anymore.

[glad ruin]

Yep, I'm going to have to deal with this soon. And I plan to flag the transaction as unauthorized if they try it on me.

[tardy badger]

It’s part of the cancellation process 🙃

So it’s nearly impossible to avoid

[glad ruin]

Yes, and I will flag the transaction as unauthorized.

[tardy badger]

I’ve done it in the past where I’ll get them to lower the subscription cost, and then cancel a month later. There are ways to get around it. It’s just ridiculous

[glad ruin]

Yep, and I'd rather let my credit card company haggle with them.

[tardy badger]

Can’t blame you there

[dusty citrus]

Not so in theme, but I find it curious:
Once for adobe I used use and throw credit cards from revolut for a 7 day trial, somehow they were able to get money from my main bank account that I never putted my info on, and then refused to give my money back

They cancelled the payment from the use and throw card
And then charged me on my main card, without me ever confirming for it
Dunno if it's revolut or adobe fault, but the only time that happen to me it was with adobe

[rapid geode]

https://youtu.be/jUc0s-xfQMo

[astral portal]

So i got the HUSB238 breakout, cut the 5v and 1A lines for 20v 3A, which my charger and cable support, but the voltage is still just 5v

And i checked with a multimeter, they are indeed cut

[astral portal]

9v jumper closed still gives 5v

Both the charger and cable are from anker and this exact setup works on my switch, PD and everything

Different cable same model charger (different physical charger) same result

Any ideas?

[tardy badger]

🤷‍♂️

[astral portal]

I just got it literally an hour and a half ago I don’t wanna have to get another one

It does support 3A tho

Ig it’s worth a shot

20v 1A worked…

Note to self: read all the documentation before assuming object is dead

2A worked

Good enough

[late fulcrum]

Wait, you did successfully cancel and still had to pay?

[tardy badger]

A few times 🙃

But only after I got them to lower the month-month cost

[late fulcrum]

Heh, did that to my cable company. It's fun when they call to see if they can "improve my bill" then look it up and I'm on a plan the sales folks don't even have access to!

[tardy badger]

Haha 🤣

Now one company I won’t ever do business with is yelp. I had a tech consulting business and made the poor choice of agreeing to their yelp business page plan where you get an account executive and whatnot. Well, long story short: my wife and I got messed over by a lady and we nearly lost everything. I canceled with yelp thinking, “I don’t have to worry about this again, I just pay my final $300 and I’m good.” Nope. They overdrew my bank account nearly $1000 🥲

It was the only time I have ever screamed at someone on the phone. Which the girl working the line didn’t deserve unfortunately.

[late fulcrum]

That's epically bad.

[tardy badger]

I also disavowed that bank for letting it get so far overdrawn. I let it sit in collections where it fell off earlier this year

[rapid geode]

yelp is an appropriate name

ive heard about them a bit. never anything good

[rapid geode]

you guys need some banking controls. banks arent allowed to do that here.

[glad ruin]

... but how else are banks supposed to make money? If they can't charge exorbitant fees for things you have no control over, you might not be a good enough return on investment for them.

[rapid geode]

our banks make plenty of excess money, so im not buying that reasoning 😛

[glad ruin]

The one I will never get is why management and investors get snippy when profits (usually of a business) are below the forecast value, but still well above breaking even. Sometimes it seems like they treat it as a loss. So uh... I'm sorry for your "loss" I guess?

[latent yacht]

Banking controls? More like banking controls everything

[glad ruin]

I will take banks seriously once at least one of them implenents proper MFA and doesn't mandate absurdly low password character limits with only alphanumeric and perhaps six "special" characters.

[blissful roost]

You need to sign up with a bank in the UK then...

[glad ruin]

Oh don't tell me they're worse. How is that even possible?!

Well, ok. There is one industry in the US that has less reliable security practices than banks.

||Healthcare||

||Although calling it healthcare might be a bit too generous.||

[rapid geode]

the uk the last few years ahs been jealous of the us so they have gutted the country.

fun

hehe

haha

[blissful roost]

No, we have working MFA.

[spice moss]

watching nautilus live and with some control camera angle too make it more cool to see controls for subs

[somber spindle]

I can tell you the theory is that the forecast profits are baked into the current value of the stock price, so if the forecast is wrong, then #1: the company is either bad at forecasting or things changed for the worse and #2: the value of the company, as measured by stock price, needs to be adjusted downward accordingly. This isn't inherently bad, but for investors in that company, it loses money, and nobody likes losing money.

[tardy badger]

Did you know years ago Justin Timberlake wrote a song about a river in Ukraine? The song is called Cry Me A River (Crimea river) 🤣💀

[blissful roost]

Did you know that Justin Timberlake has been arrested for drunk driving? 😛

[tardy badger]

No surprise

[blissful roost]

I think I made a slight boo-boo... lol

I ordered a cooler and a case for the rPi5... but it looks like the case might come with the same cooler I ordered. 😛

[tardy badger]

Double the Pi, twice the fall

[blissful roost]

Easy fix: Buy another rPi5. 😄

[late fulcrum]

Stick the cooler on your cell phone so you can use it outdoors in the hot weather?

[tardy badger]

That’s an idea 🤔

If I cool my phone off while fast charging, maybe it’ll charge faster 🤣

[late fulcrum]

The battery will live longer

[tardy badger]

After almost two years my battery still have 88% capacity so that seems good

It’ll be 2 years old in November

Apples battery charging optimization seems to do pretty well at maintaining battery life

[late fulcrum]

I'm working on a combination powerbank and cooler with a Peltier module, heatsink, fan and power converter to keep the phone charged

[tardy badger]

Nice 😎

[late fulcrum]

I've seen some commercial efforts, but they seem to range from sketchy to entirely fake

[tardy badger]

That definitely tracks. They’ve been trying to figure that out for commercial battery storage facilities

What they have “Doesn’t just Work” ™️

[blissful roost]

I can already do that. 😛

[late fulcrum]

My phone goes into twitchy slow mode after about ten minutes if I do that

[blissful roost]

Mine is nearly due for replacement, but I have zero issues with it. 🙂

[late fulcrum]

"Due for replacement"? What does that mean?

[blissful roost]

3 year contract, which will be up at the end of November.... Just in time for the Pixel 9 range. 😄

[late fulcrum]

Huh, I'm not used to contracted service, I just pay month to month.

[blissful roost]

I prefer contract, especially as I've had the same number for about 25 years. 😅

[plain tusk]

It works! 🥹

[blissful roost]

So, I can confirm that I did indeed order a cooler by mistake. 😂

[somber spindle]

they're slightly different. The case comes with a heatsink, and a fan that clips onto the case, while the active cooler is a single assembly of HSF that clips onto the actual pi board

[blissful roost]

Yeahno.. I ordered 3rd party, so they are the same coolers. 🙂

[late fulcrum]

HSF? Hyperspatial funk?

[tardy badger]

High Speed Foo?

[slim shard]

Heliocentric Space Flora?

[blissful roost]

Tis rather nice. ☺️

[sweet phoenix]

does anyone know where I could find one of these:
https://www.adafruit.com/product/2753?

[left rivet]

I feel like pi’s have moved into a new energy and thermal envelope that is kinda less attractive

I know it’s cost but chasing performance on 16nm process seems to end up here

Having said that, it’s a cute case!

[patent hemlock]

first time my wife saw one of these she said it was "adorable", so ... 😈

[solar kindle]

Playing with a thing called Spacedesk that allows you to use a tablet or phone as a secondary monitor. In this case, I've attached a 7" tablet to a 14" laptop, giving me, effectively, a 17" display with a resolution of 2620×1200.

[somber spindle]

heat sink fan, was a more common acronym when they shipped as single assemblies

[left rivet]

I had it down as hyperspace fracture

[patent hemlock]

interesting! if i ever have to "go mobile" (currently tethereed with dual external monitors), it's something to consider

[tough isle]

Not sure if there's a better channel for this, but I've been trying to source something with no luck. Does anyone know where I can get vacuum fluorescent displays? i.e., Those 80s style glowing green displays that were popular on VCRs and such.
Looking for an alphanumeric display, around 10 characters. Something that can be driven by Arduino in some way or another. (Though it's a simple project and I'd be open to switching platforms if it was helpful for whatever reason.) If it's got existing libraries, that's awesome, but I can scribble something up myself if needed.

Or even just something with similar aesthetics.

[somber spindle]

https://newhavendisplay.com/2x16-character-vfd-module-5x8-dot-matrix-with-controller/

[tough isle]

SWEEET!!!

Any chance you've used it before? Any tips?

[somber spindle]

Nope, never done it. I was looking into it, and haven't tried yet

There's a library here for arduino: https://github.com/so1der/PT6314

And another random project that uses the same controller with arduino: https://hackaday.io/project/184279-diy-arduino-vfd-display-20x2-vu-volumeunit-meter

[tough isle]

I'm starting to feel dumb for not having found this myself lol Thank you so much for all the legwork

[left rivet]

Oof it’s not cheap

[tough isle]

Naw, but I can live with it. Its a relatively pricey project over all. Restoring an old 60s golf cart and replacing all the whacky old electromechanical controls

Between that and paint, suspension bits, etc, another $50 aint gonna break the bank

[left rivet]

Oh lawd that’s dedication!

[late fulcrum]

48V? There are some nice LiFePO4 batteries available for updating such things

[late fulcrum]

Are you looking for just any thermal printer innards, or that one in particular?

[tardy badger]

I tell ya, the downside of selling on Tindie is that they can slow down sales whenever for anything they deem suspicious but won’t tell you what exactly is suspicious 🙃

I added 20 RPGA Feathers to inventory and now they’ve paused any possible disbursements and slowed the trickle of orders due to “suspicious activity” 🙃

It’s not like it’s a ton of inventory either. It only comes out to like $939 before Tindie takes their cut, PayPal gets their cut, and shipping costs

[left rivet]

How many birds did you smuggle to sell these feathers 🪶

[rapid geode]

well, you do look like a shifty register

[tardy badger]

The shiftiest

[tardy badger]

Just one corvid

https://tenor.com/view/bird-fml-depressed-i-hate-my-life-animal-gif-18453833

[patent hemlock]

talk about being pigeon holed

[tardy badger]

It’s weird that gif shows up when your search corvid in the gif search bar

I’m pretty sure pigeons aren’t corvids

[left rivet]

Even memes have a pecking order

[stoic mesa]

contact them on Twitter.
there are real people there, who hopefully can override automatic controls

[tardy badger]

I tagged them, seems orders are trickling in now. Not sure what was suspicious though

[sweet phoenix]

Any would be fine, but I'd prefer that one (I want to use Adafruit's libraries)

[night crescent]

SHOW and TELL 6/19/2024 https://youtu.be/_rcwBbP3TsU

[night crescent]

WE ARE LIVE! ASK AN ENGINEER! https://youtu.be/IMj8gpCgV3E

[late fulcrum]

A search for Cashino (or Kashino) CSN-A2 reveals a few possibilities (including buying it from the manufacturer). It's on Aliexpress for one: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/2251801293521214.html

[toxic egret]

hello peeps, its been a while! Can you guys point me out to some other toy that has aproximately the same functions as Lego Mindstorms? I intent to clone it for kids learning using arduino :3

[toxic egret]

anyone? I know you guys know of tech toys 😜 I just want to get inspired

[patent hemlock]

lego technic is the closest to the old mindstorm stuff

[toxic egret]

thanks!

[whole jacinth]

i thought Mindstorm was built on top of Technic (which is the more mechanically oriented Lego bricks)

[slim shard]

Kind of my feel...

[solar kindle]

The extra screen doesn't add much but it's n interesting proof of concept. The ultimate would be tow 14" screens on hinges, one on each side. Then you'd have a three-screen workstation that folds up into something a bit thicker than the laptop. Probably better achieved using mobile monitors than tablets, though. And you'd need some fancy hinge-work to get the screens to overlap at the back for stowing and lock into place when in use.

[blissful roost]

Shudders....

I dread to think how fragile that would be.

[blissful roost]

I wouldn't hinge it.. sliding rails would make more sense, but I don't know how you'd manage flexi-ribbons for the connections.

Or would that not be reliable.. ?

[ebon dew]

I've been staining and coating some shelves this week. Water based polyurethane even after 3 coats just leaves a thin film. Got fed up and went out to get some oil based polyurethane, the difference is night and day. It's so glossy it looks wet. Very happy with the oil based stuff.

Tried making the white pine look more like oak. Not too shabby.

I should have let the stain sit longer. First time staining anything in a decade. Still have a 12ft board to do, this was a 4ft shelf piece.

[tough isle]

36V originally. But thinking about switching up to 48V. Definitely going LiFePO4 over lead acid.

[static flare]

i sadly only have a quantity of 11 char 7 segment VFDs

[late fulcrum]

Noritake itron is the classic manufacturer, and offers a bunch of models https://noritake-itron.com/site2024/list.php?vfd&c4 They also have Arduino drivers. I've had an easy time working with them.

The other classic manufacturer, Futaba, has left the business https://d21xsz2za2b5mz.cloudfront.net/8216/2616/6528/notice_20200805.pdf

[static flare]

my 7seg VFDs are all Futaba

unfortunately, there's a reason I got them for cheap

[late fulcrum]

Most of my VFDs are surplus

I got the one on the right (16 segment alphanumeric) from an elevator refit. I befriended the folks doing the job and they gave me the displays they'd removed from the old panels. It's easy to interface that one, it just takes asychronous serial data at 600bps.

[violet parcel]

cant TFT d the same thing ?

[somber spindle]

depends how you define "the same". Show stuff? Sure they both show stuff. But they look different, and the interfaces needed to feed data to them are different, and the power requirements are different, and the technologies that make the displays work are different, and the capabilities of the displays are different.

[violet parcel]

I meant that the TFT can also display a light blue letter on a black background on a 16x2 display

[runic peak]

love those displays so much

[solar kindle]

Yeah, a hinge might be overkill. Chances are, you'd only pack it up and unpack it occasionally. So a little assembly work each time wouldn't be that big a deal. Maybe just some sturdy brackets that you can slot the wings into place would be more practical.

[blissful roost]

🙂

[violet parcel]

I ordered a nimh battery instead of a lipo to learn lipo batteries mistakes 😦

Since the fireball nimh makes are 1/500 the size of lipo fireballs

I mean I know the obvious safety and I have this https://www.uvm.edu/sites/default/files/UVM-Risk-Management-and-Safety/lipo_battery_safety.pdf (from an electrical engineering school) for the basics/reference but there are some gotchas as well and if an accident happens the worst that can happen is a matches sized fire

like reverse polarity accidents, or wrong sided diode etcs can happens the nimh can still power the circuit and I can one chance to see something is wrong before using the lipo

[somber spindle]

I feel like there should just be a #help-with-batteries or #help-with-power

[late fulcrum]

https://static.wixstatic.com/media/97b47b_bd5bb15208ef41ccbe002a84b46d8aa3~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_413,h_551,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/97b47b_bd5bb15208ef41ccbe002a84b46d8aa3~mv2.jpg

[violet parcel]

I have a 1200 page engineering book about how to make them but it doesnt have safety advice and some math formulas are written in alien languages that even AI cant decipher

[late fulcrum]

I always thought I was an alien and smarter than "AI"...

[violet parcel]

I think I was a vet in a previous life like in the us civil war cuz Im both a cat and dog whisperer. I never suspected that I was an alien though

Fun fact about batteries: most of them have water at least in small quantity of chemical solution in them yes that include batteries that react with water cuz it's the point to make power flows out of them

That was surprising to me cuz electronics really dislike water

[late fulcrum]

I get that

[violet parcel]

Ive had attack dogs before runs at me and basically do nothing but whimper at me and I have feral cats following me when I go outside like at least once a month...

Even almost got fine for "walking my dog without a leash" but I never had a dog it was just a random lab that followed me for over a mile without any action on my part

also Im allergic to cats and dogs

[violet parcel]

Electrical kitteh is powering your load (of books)

[late fulcrum]

I think one of the books in that pic is "The Theory of Cat Gravity"

https://shop.skylarkbookshop.com/book/9780965298438

[violet parcel]

If you read all those books in your life now I understand why you know so much like that phosphor book about lasers and optics

seems llike I was wrong, they do speak about lithium batteries safety!!

[late fulcrum]

I have in fact read most of those books. And that's just my headboard. A fair chunk of my house is like this.

[violet parcel]

I should read more books especially with my wounds from my car accident almost gone hopefully and the need to stay in bed to make them heal faster

but at like 150$ each for electrical engineering ones it goes up quickly

[late fulcrum]

That's how I got my start: I spent a fair chunk of my childhood stuck indoors.

Hint 1: libraries. Hint 2: used book stores. Hint 3: library used book sales.

[violet parcel]

I spend a good part of my early teens years at the doctor because Id always sprain my foot , and they had brabdury and asimov books and tons of the 1940/1950s books they wrote novels in

[late fulcrum]

Good selection

[violet parcel]

at some point I made an arrangement to borrow those books sometimes and also the library near i lived back then when I was 10yo back at the public library the books were in french

Now it's mostly a problem of reading reputable books about electrical engineering or science

because there are a lot of quacks/pseudo-science/fraud/ai generated/fake news science books nowadays and addison-wesley to me is too super academic in tone so not that fun to read

[late fulcrum]

Heh, I bought a Russian book once to see if I could figure it out. I was doing okay, then I turned the page and nothing made sense! I stared at it a long time before I figured out it was some French text: in Cyrillic!

[violet parcel]

I have a friend who is fluent in russian and he told me their science books in russia were made by the military and were very complete and to the point and also covered many topics not covered usually by western engineering books for the public

where are ours tend to try to have as much pages as possible and be separated into several books to get as much money as possible

[late fulcrum]

I have some books published by the US military to train raw recruits how to service electronics. They tend to be clear and concise.

[violet parcel]

apparentlty a bit of it was caused by peoples trying to make a quick buck in gorbachev era by selling declassified military engineering books and merge it with civilian topics with light editing

[violet parcel]

do they have some new ones besides the 1978 us navy classic electric book ?

well 1980 but yeah that one I think

[violet parcel]

oh also you probably never heard of it but I really like the style of the electronics for mad scientists book from abra electronics I wish more EE books were like that rather than the dry academic style of addison wesley & al

And here lies my issue with books today: . How do I know this is still true and complete and not fake news even if that book was used on mit opencourseware ??

[sage dagger]

Any and all pictures of book shelves welcomed. Especially if they also contain cats and/or dogs.

The TV B Gone is a great bar partner. Also indispensable at doctor's offices and hospitals.

[violet parcel]

I remember answering a question about it here because someone wanted to do something it cant do

and I was like just open it and solder the two pins and it will do it no need to find all the codes to those TV yourself and build a new device ...

[plain tusk]

hadn't seen these up close before. wild

[tranquil swallow]

@rapid geode I did a stupid and bought these wooting key switches under the assumption they did the hall effect thing in the switch itself. My understanding is I'd need to buy separate sensors and calibrate them. Doable diy?

I ask you because I assume you have some knowledge of keyboards

[tardy badger]

Apparently if people place an order too quickly after you add stock in Tindie, they’ll flag your account for fraud prevention 💀

[thick wind]

Yes, it is absolutely possible. I believe one of such projects I’ve seen before use a 49E hall sensor, which can be bought for fairly cheap and interfaced with any analog input.

The assembly process is significantly trickier than a conventional DIY keyboard, but having software-defined keypress thresholds isn’t something impossible for DIY. I think Riskable’s DIY keyboard even makes DIY switches for his keyboard with a 3d printer and a bunch of magnets.

[violet parcel]

eh anyone saw the movie cosmos on amazon prime? There is something technical they says I cant wrap my head around

at one point they says the message is on a thin frequency and wee them switching from 1420.something mhz to like 1420 + 500 khz and - 500 khz and we dont heart it anymore and they says it's not normal to have no frequency bleed

but afaik AM stations on earth can do thin frequency broadcasting at 500khz +/- 50khz like that so it sounds like technobabble ?

but at like 500khz you cant transmit much information so maybe it's much more primitive to do +/- 50khz on a signal at 500khz than +/- 500khz in the thousand of mhz range when such frequencies can carry much more informations ?

[rapid geode]

do not try to apply logic to sci fi jargon

😛

sci fi jargon is usually based on a poor understanding of out existing tech - which is usually tech from 10-50 years ago so obsolete even today.

[violet parcel]

but I have an SDR and it makes sense

I just dont know how good a radio emitter is if it does a bleed of 500khz for a carrier frequency in the thousands of mhz

because on ATC it seems to be around 1 to 2mhz of bleed

and atc gotta be very good civilians emitters so the bleed is like 10%, so 500khz on thousands of mhz is 50 times better

[violet parcel]

and frequency bleed is a function of how good the op-amps and caps filters are afaik

[rapid geode]

i learned today the reason i cant find a 1000hz variable frequency drive. only 599hz.

nuclear treaties. anything over 600hz is regulated because they are used for centrifuges.

neat

haha

(well not neat, annoying, cause i need one)

[violet parcel]

I mean considering you can import low quantity of nuclear materials for personal use below a certain radiation amount in nuclear treaties Im prettry sure you could get just one if you fill forms for it etc

[rapid geode]

no. the manufacturers just done make them. that was their response.

i can find old ones online whihc i guess are pre restriction

[violet parcel]

But I doubt siemens will deal with you for a sinamics one for example because it's not worth their time so it's money issue

[rapid geode]

nah, siemens i have on speed dial. they are good

but they dont SELL one

and i cant buyt sketchy off brand chinese ones cause they need to be CSA approved

i need to make some calls and see what is available

[violet parcel]

I guess you will need to do like iran and make your own diy one then ? 😄

[rapid geode]

hahaha

[violet parcel]

I legit wonder how much it costs to get a csa cert on a diy item

[rapid geode]

digikey lists one. but its never in stock. makes sense now. its probably in stock in other countries. just not here

[violet parcel]

which one digikey has ? Im curious

[rapid geode]

not a lot. onlky a few hundred if i remember for small basic things

[rapid geode]

delta ms300 hs

[violet parcel]

considering canada is one of the largest producer of uranium I suppose they wont sell them to canadians because of easy access to DIY making U238

[rapid geode]

1500hz

[violet parcel]

??

[rapid geode]

thats the slow speed

hifh sheed has "HA" at the end instead of AA

[rapid geode]

its all of nato is my understanding

so ive found them in australia

[violet parcel]

does this means I can make 5 centrifuges now ?

all slow ones though

[rapid geode]

those are the slow speed ones

no centrifuge for you!

P

haha

[violet parcel]

but I can wait even if the cooldown for the U238 takes longer

[rapid geode]

i dont even really get this rule, but whatever. i just need to find a way to get one. i dont mind filling out forms. my customers will mostly be in canada and the usa

[violet parcel]

oh wait there is the HA

[rapid geode]

oh. iiiinteresting. thats not the one i need, but that proves they sell it. hmmmm

[violet parcel]

how many watchlist Im on now ? 😦

[rapid geode]

haha

9

[violet parcel]

can I still travel to the US or I should remember this day so I can explain to TSA why I browsed for a centrifuge grade variable frequency drive ?

In all seriousness digikey cancelled items in my order before on sanctions grounds without much explanation

[rapid geode]

ah. yeah its possible if i order if they would scrub it

[violet parcel]

when I googled it I found it was a fpga used in russian missiles even thought I have zero connection to any of that. Also any strong encryption dev/eval boards arent sold anymore even in canada

and they didnt even asks, just not available deal with it even though US law says to fill a form so they were breaking the law too by not transmitting the order and having the govt dept deals with it

I suppose they dont want to deal with it unless the order is $$$ enough

when I got a form it asked in details what I plan to do with but I dont understand 99% of the specs except the particular thing I was looking for . How am I supposed to explain uses I dont even understand...

[glad ruin]

The notion that cryptographic algorithms should (or even can) be restricted or regulated in any meaningful way is just naive and stupid at this point.

[rapid geode]

well thats kinda what i mean. the companies just clip the drives at 599 and say "were done here"

[rapid geode]

most of this type of restriction is shouting at clouds, but oh well

[violet parcel]

at least we dont have lack of stock now but it has been replaced with sanctions on even diy grade stuff like old xilinux fpga and all sort of chips and eval boards

[rapid geode]

the vfd restriction is from 2017 i think. the russia stuff is all new though. bleh

[violet parcel]

but I was able to buy an esp32 before the russia stuff and now some of them are restricted

[glad ruin]

I mean, I definitely understand sanctioning Russia, but it needs to be done in a smart way.

[rapid geode]

yes

[violet parcel]

I dont remember the specific board, trying to find it in my chrome history but that was 6 months ago but basically it was specific esp32 and whole families of dev boards

basically anything with hardware encryption or tpm modules

[glad ruin]

TPMs are insecure to begin with, so that's largely a moot point.

[rapid geode]

i wonder how this is impacting adafruit, if at all. cause they cant really control what their customers do

[violet parcel]

it probably does impact them if they use a component that is sanctionned theyd have to switch it

[glad ruin]

Neither can anyone else, but they can be held responsible.

[violet parcel]

unless they fill the form for everyone

[glad ruin]

That being said, I don't think adafruit deals with many export-restricted components.

[rapid geode]

they can fill the form for themselves. but if they sell to someone who then ships it of... ? dunno

[violet parcel]

there are 2 levels of sanction as well from what I understand, the 2nd one is more costly to deal with. The first is the one where I had to fill the form about my uses for it

[violet parcel]

the frequency synthetizer adafruit use,s some of the other products in that line are sanctionned

[glad ruin]

If they did it knowingly, or didn't apply "due diligence", they can absolutely be held responsible.

[violet parcel]

it's all on google because ukraine mod publish russian equipment lists and the chips they use

[glad ruin]

Yep

[violet parcel]

the 2nd level of sanction is no export unless the customer is pre-authorized by whjatever us govt branch, so more forms and some time

[violet parcel]

the form asks if you plan to sell it or give or export it to someone else and their name/adress/use etc

that is in addition to ITAR but itar is usually not anything close to DIY stuff

[rapid geode]

Anyhow. that was my frustrating thing to learn today (my spindle is 1000hz).

[violet parcel]

like ITAR is going to be like 8K thermal imaging devices, 30 gigahertz RF ADC etc

[violet parcel]

Someone probably had a similar issue before it`s not like a spindle is a experimental niche thing

Im sure there will be a way

[rapid geode]

not finding a way, besides sketchy chinese ones i dont trust

its weird

i call the spindle makers and they respond "dunno"

[violet parcel]

I dont know anything about that but why below 500hz wont do ? isnt 1000 hz like just 2 times faster ?

[rapid geode]

yes, 2 x fatser

thats the point

[violet parcel]

but wont the motor break if you go over its limit ? normally industrial motor are 50-60hz so a max frequency on a vfd of 500-600 hz ?

or your spindle has a 100 hz and something above 400 or so volts tri-phase ?

and if you increase the frequency it takes more voltage, ghenerate more heat, require better switching etc ?

[rapid geode]

my spindle is 1000hz

so it needs a 1000hz vfd

[violet parcel]

??

also a bunch of vevor brands 0 to 3khz fulfilled by amazon

dont know where you are though but it would seems doable if I wanted one, maybe inverter could be a problem but inverted can be inverted back

there is also a kit for spindle dont know if the specs

[whole jacinth]

400Hz is common because of aviation power

[rapid geode]

those are both sketchy, not csa, and not vector/foc control

[rapid geode]

400hz is 24000rpm on a 2 pole motor. the most common cnc spindle speed.

going back to the 80s with biesse/hsd

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUc0s-xfQMo

[dim hatch]

Hi, any ideas where can I ask an HTTP question ? I'm coding a web server in cpp and wonder how packages from diffrent clients are handled in http 1.1

[patent hemlock]

the server shouldn't care what the clients are doing as long as it conforms to the specification

[wild sinew]

In the present 2024 is _thread or another mechanism for threads available in circuitpython?, well I am using a pico w and it would be great to get the maximum resources for an automation project with AI.

[violet parcel]

that AI will run on the pico ? in circuitpython ? running a model ?

[wild sinew]

No, the project in general uses generative AI LLM in the cloud, mobile and desktop apps, the picow is integrated with these apps

[violet parcel]

I see would be best to asks in #help-with-circuitpython before I start an argument 😄 let's just say if you want performance circuitpython isnt the best suited it exists for ease of use not total flexibility/fastest code

[violet parcel]

Powered by circuitpython

[ebon dew]

I'm working on adding a touch screen to the Rachio irrigation controller using their API (with circuit python). Feels good to get back to coding again. 🙂

[violet parcel]

I saw a solar tracker yesterday that have no coding (even thought it's an electrical project technically since it uses 12 to 120V) and it uses a digital timer and an actuator to move instead

and when the light detector circuit see light on one side instead of another the actuator move the tracker towards that. Things that dont seems to use code like that always surprise me a bit

I dont really understand the circuit and why it doesnt need code so if someone has a moment and could explain it because Im curious:

I suppose the op-amp amplifier works as some sort if analog if/then/else here...

[ebon dew]

I think with 2 or more LED's you can fashion a basic comparator. Some LED's can also act as rudimentary visual lenses. Just a wild guess.

[violet parcel]

the explanations says that it choose which side between LDR1 and LDR2 gets the most light and move that way every time the timer gets triggered

[ebon dew]

My guess is the LED's aren't being used as LEDs but as light comparators.

[round minnow]

LDR is light dependent resistor, not an LED. That looks like a differential amplifier mode for the op-amp. It amplifies the difference in signal (light level), and drives its output high or low depending which side is higher.

[solar kindle]

Interesting design. It looks like the linear actuator is powered up and will run in one direction even when the timer is in the "off" state. When the timer is in the "on" state, the circuit is powered up, which then controls the direction of the linear actuator depending on the light levels on the LDRs. The LED only comes on if a) the timer is in the "on" position and b) the circuit activates the relay to reverse the direction of the linear actuator. I'm guessing the design relies on the linear actuator having a built-in end-stop.

[violet parcel]

hum no idea about the stops that is the datasheet for the linear actuator:

Well I suppose it does have an end stop: "How to install the actuator? 1.Prepare to connect the two wires of the actuator to a 12 volt battery
2.Red wire to the positive terminal and Black wire to negative terminal will make the actuator extend. To make it retract, just reverse the terminal connections.
3.To simplify the last step, you can prepare a reverse polarity relay or switch (not included) for the actuator. When you want the actuator to extend and retract, just press the switch.
4.Your actuator will hold its position when the power is off. It will automatically stop when reaches the end."

[solar kindle]

Do the instructions say anything about how to set the timer? Is it an on/off cycle throughout the day or just on during the day and off at night?

[violet parcel]

It says "o manage the rotation of the panel, the possibility of the CN101 timer or another with the same characteristics will be used to control 16 (but 15 are enough for us) events with tripping of the relay at pre-set times.
In practice, with each intervention of the relay the actuator extends the line by a small step, thus rotating the panel throughout the day. In the program described here, the first intervention occurs from 08.30 to 09.10 a.m. NOTE: even when the timer turns off the linear actuator takes a step making the panel make another small rotation, in the timer setting sequence the times listed are relative to the relay in the ON state.
a.m. 08.30/09.10 - 09.45/10.15 - 10.45/11.10 - 11.35/11.55 - 12.10/12.25 - 12.40/12.50 - 13.00/13.20 - 13.30/13.40 - 14.05/14.20 - 14.40/ 3.00pm - 3.20/3.45pm - 4.10pm/4.40pm - 5.10pm/5.40pm - 6.20pm/7.05pm - 9.00pm/9.10pm
NOTE: in the time period 21.00/21.10 the arm of the linear actuator goes to the end of its stroke and then begins to retract to return to the initial position in the morning, it will remain in a state of rest throughout the night until starting the cycle again at 08.30 the following morning, the timer must be set to repeat the program daily seven days a week."

My understanding basically TL;DR: The timer fires 15 times a day to turn towards the sun as per the circuit schematic above + a small rotation either way no matter where the sun is then a resets at 21 (9pm)

[hasty wedge]

coded a small blinky light controller

That sleeps for around 150nA

FMD 8bit MCU

this thing got 2KB ROM + 128B RAM

[hasty wedge]

btw, the MCU costs 4 cents

And it's multi-time programmable

It uses EEPROM as its program "flash"

[paper meadow]

Am I sort of screwed if I’m trying to connect to a prop maker feather on a new Mac book? I’m plugged in and I’m not able to get it to mount.

Never mind figured out how to boot it!

[valid spoke]

Where can one find the specifications for the ADC used in the metro Grand Central board

[violet parcel]

in the chip manual, doubt they added their own ADC to it

[thick wind]

It's internal to the ATSAMD51 MCU used on the Grand Central. It's not an external component added to the board. https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-grand-central/downloads

[left rivet]

I’m feeling a bit old. Has anyone got a suggestion for replacing Fadecandy?

[swift hatch]

@left rivet not sure what your use case is, but Pixelblaze https://electromage.com/pixelblaze https://www.adafruit.com/product/5942 and WLED https://kno.wled.ge/ https://learn.adafruit.com/search?q=wled may be worth checking out

[left rivet]

My use case is just fun, thanks so much

[glad ruin]

https://arstechnica.com/?p=2032813

[late fulcrum]

Heh, used X11 yesterday because I wanted to download some large files to a remote server and the sites hosting them were too broken to work with something like Lynx.

[fast ferry]

people rag on the network protocol part, but in certain circumstances it's super useful. my last use case was monitoring a containerized browser to diagnose web app integration test failures.

GTK's render-to-HTML back end, broadway, doesn't get much attention but can do similar tricks for drawing desktop app UIs to a browser across the network.

[glad ruin]

The main issue I've seen with Wayland is that it absolutely screws over accessibility tools in the name of "security".

[blissful roost]

There does seem to be an element of "NMFP" in Wayland...

[tardy badger]

I think I’m going to get an Opulo LumenPNP

[tardy badger]

The garden is starting to hit its stride 😎

[hollow steppe]

Tested my WS2814 LEDs on the roll and they worked fine with no issues, but when i installed them into LED channel i now have a flicker, if you will, brightness issue where a few segments change brightness and then go back to normal. anyone have any clues as to what could be causing this? running WLED on an 8266, 24V lights, common ground, 25 segments/leds

[left rivet]

Out of interest, did the length of the data line change from the test to the install, and did you put a resistor on the data line?

[late fulcrum]

Do you have a level shifter?

[solar kindle]

Turns out a hinge works pretty well. This is an articulated hinge that allows me to angle the screen in a bit or fold it all the way back.

[patent hemlock]

i'm not sure you're getting much better than one of those add-on screens that's specifically built for that, unless it's just because you have a tablet laying around?

[solar kindle]

Yeah, it's just because the tablet was available and happened to be the same height when mounted sideways. Ideally, I'd get two of those add-on screens, mount one on either side, and end up with a 3-screen workstation that I can fold up and take with me.

[late fulcrum]

I'd probably add a keyboard

[night crescent]

Desk of Ladyada - It's an RS-232 world, we just VINDRIKTING in it
https://youtu.be/viokTEHmqZs

This week, various prototypes, including an IR transceiver and an RS232 transceiver, while testing a USB Type C breakout. Additionally, BlitzCityDIY is working on IoTifying the IKEA VINDRIKTING PM2.5 sensor by integrating a custom board with an ESP32-S2 for easy IoT connectivity.

[rapid geode]

nom nom

i got some butter crunch lettuce so far

[tardy badger]

nice 🙂

[tardy badger]

Tiny mantis

Those leaves are rosemary leaves

So it’s smöl

[edgy juniper]

That's pretty cool

[rapid geode]

awww, cute. i saw a weird camo insect last year. no idea what it was though. the kind that look like a leaf

ahh, katydid maybe

[dusty citrus]

Anyone here linked a door sensory/switch to home app from apple before using an arduino (can use raspberry pi for server if needed) Just curious about how to

[blissful roost]

Best door sensor, for dealing with unwanted visitors. 😈

Yes, it's CG.. entirely fake ☺️

[dusty citrus]

🤣 perfect

[blissful roost]

I've been very tempted to make one with my 3D printer, for shiggles.. but I don't think it would go down well with local authorities. 🤪

[tranquil swallow]

Lmao

[solar kindle]

...but totally feasible. 🤔

[dusty citrus]

Tempting (for legal reasons this is a joke)

[blissful roost]

IKR... it really appeals to my sarcasm, but I don't want to get kicked out of my house. 🤣

[dusty citrus]

🤣 sameeee

[blissful roost]

I already annoyed someone by putting up a Pride flag... 🙄

[late fulcrum]

Someone around here keeps tearing down my Pride flags. Last time around, they cut them down with a knife.

[tranquil swallow]

I'm not saying you should booby trap it because you shouldn't booby trap it, but it's nice to imagine.

[late fulcrum]

I've tried to set up cameras there, but the motion sensors trigger on the flags flapping and fill up the memory

[blissful roost]

Someone set mine on fire.. I was going to report it to the police, but I have zero evidence, because of a lack of cameras in my little cul-de-sac.

[late fulcrum]

I did report mine to the sheriff, but again don't have any evidence so there's nothing for them to do

[blissful roost]

Also, there's a key safe on my front porch that someone tried to break into..... Which is.. concerning.

[late fulcrum]

I tried to set up a long distance WiFi link, but it just refuses to work. May need to buy some long spools of Ethernet cable and try PoE cameras.

[blissful roost]

I'm tempted to remove it by force, but I don't know if it's something the landlord or agent did..

It's rather frustrating, because I don't like to feel like my safety is threatened.. especially with my bunnies here.

[late fulcrum]

If it's one of the common Masterlock ones, they're easy to open

[blissful roost]

I think it is... Hold on.

I think LPL broke one of the tumbler versions.

[late fulcrum]

Those aren't the wheel style I'm used to, but they're not too tough. The order of the code doesn't matter, you just need to figure out which ones are part of the code. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud84kFP0LfQ

[blissful roost]

Huff.. no joy. 🙄

I'll talk to whoever comes round for the inspection this weekend.

My neighbour says they haven't seen anyone acting suspiciously.

[tardy badger]

I love when it’s time to write unit tests for your code and you just sit there like “okay, how to do this..” even though you wrote the code and know how it works lol

[fast ferry]

test-driven development does make the code easier to test, when you have the patience for it.

unfortunately my passion projects are usually driven by passion for the project, not passion for tests

[tardy badger]

This is for my day job where unit tests are required 🥲

Which is fine and all but..

[fast ferry]

ah, in that case

[stoic mesa]

I am really annoyed.
A $200 order from China is marked as delivered but I never got it.
Went to check tracking, found a delivery proof by delivery company - a photo of the box placed in my mailbox. It is my mailbox, no question about it.

But I checked the mailbox 3 hours after that photo was taken, and the box was not there

is there really a porch/mailbox thief in the nbhd? First time I see this kind of problem.

I don't think they will agree to refund me, so I am $200 out 😦

[orchid abyss]

this is why you setup security cameras

sorry for your loss :\

[tranquil swallow]

True

[orchid abyss]

it's also useful to catch if the delivery person is doing something sketchy

[tranquil swallow]

There needs to be some robust FOSS security camera software, you should be able to clip out certain elements in a shot so a flag waving doesn't trigger the software and fill up storage

[spring zinc]

I’d like to run Lua on an esp32, but there are a lot of options and none of them seem super well supported. Which option is best?

[somber spindle]

Even if you set up security cameras you might be out $200 + the cost of cameras

and for your FOSS security camera software, you could check out Frigate, which seems pretty popular: https://github.com/blakeblackshear/frigate

[half plank]

Does anyone know of a good motor that could be used for both ok good torque and really good speed and acceleration for a scooter. It will be operated by an arduino. Thanks for any product recommendations!

[rapid geode]

its not big enough for an ebike motor?

whats the wheel size?

[half plank]

I am just starting to design it so I don’t have a wheel size yet. I think an ebike motor would work. I don’t want to have one that if I accidentally wire something wrong will just blow up on me.

[rapid geode]

i have a cool ebike gear hub motor. but its too slow for a scooter. its got tons of torque and was pretty cheap though.

[dusty citrus]

Look up at vesc

[stuck coyote]

Calling all enthusiasts, we juste launched, on the Crowd Supply platform, OMNIMO: a compact IoT dev board with extensive support for a wide range of add-ons. https://www.crowdsupply.com/eafaq/omnimo-nrf52840

[patent hemlock]

re: chinese rocket launch -- i just love this quote (edited) "It's known in the rocket industry as BFRC, a big f*****g red cloud," McDowell told Gizmodo. "And when you see a BFRC, you run for your life."

[half plank]

Could you send a link to that?

[rapid geode]

errr. no haha. i dont even know where i bought it from now. but they are common. google 250w bicycle gear hub motor.

[icy needle]

Is there a way to see where you where mentioned or tagged other than search your name

[icy needle]

Beauty, thanks Dan!

[fair summit]

but i usually don't remember that 🙂

[icy needle]

Hehe

I'm sure there's an Activity option somewhere,but maybe I'm thinking slack

[late fulcrum]

That icon looks like an Ethernet jack to me...

[opal night]

Hey so i needed some advice, I'll be moving to the US for my undergrad education to ohio. I have amassed quite a few electronic components and tools . How difficult and more importantly expensive would it be for me to replace all these things in the us ?
Main things im looking at leaving behind are :
Soldering iron and tips (temp controller but not a station)
multi meter
component kit/collection (mostly just all the most common resistors, caps and diodes.)

Would i be able to replace these with decent components for a low budget ? wanna make sure the news ones are either upgrades or just as good as the ones i got.

[glad ruin]

How low of a budget are you talking about here? I wouldn't consider any of those things particular expensive, but chances are that the exchange rate is going to screw you over.

[opal night]

Idk like 50$ for everything
I'm coming from India so I think I've spent around 3k-4k Rs

[fast ferry]

there's always online retailers, but also if you'll be near Cincinnati (southern Ohio) there's a Micro Center retail store on the outskirts, or in the next town over. you'll need a car to get there, but they're about the only brick-and-mortar hobby electronics retailer left in the US. you can check stock at microcenter.com.

[glad ruin]

$50 is... not very realistic. I wouldn't recommend spending under $80-100 for the soldering iron alone. Probably another $100 for a decent multimeter.

[fast ferry]

yeah, even a Pinecil soldering iron pushes a $50 budget, and like a TS101 seems to be in the $70-80 range

oh, looks like there are also Micro Centers near Columbus and Cleveland, so odds are decent they'll be close to you.

[edgy juniper]

A comparison to the nRF52840 Feather Express would be nice
https://www.adafruit.com/product/4062

Looks pretty cool overall

What is your target market beyond IoT?

[ruby pasture]

HI. I want to create a tiny keyboard for my msg sending device. What are suitable keys to develop this keyboard?

I think push buttons are not suitable for this.

The keys should not be hard to press.

[fierce prawn]

This?

[ruby pasture]

Does anyone have any idea about this??

@everyone

[late fulcrum]

The easiest way is probably to use an existing tiny keyboard like a Blackberry Q10. There are breakout boards for them. If you want to roll your own, you can use an array of ordinary small tactile switches like the VIP2K project did. https://media.printables.com/media/prints/291206/images/2560431_a7f54ab8-1cc6-478b-8879-957982415611/thumbs/inside/1280x960/jpeg/8ac37dfde840e58c4dee75126460280d_display_large_291206.webp

[fair summit]

Your college may have a lab or makerspace with soldering stations, test equipment, and perhaps a supply of parts.

[opal night]

True but I like working on my own time and space first ans for most
I'll be using that in case all else fails but don't want to make it my first option

[opal night]

My god
I'm so screwed then

[fair summit]

you can get a multimeter for $20. $40 would get an OK iron. Parts assortments vary a lot in price

do you not / can't bring the parts and meter? The soldering iron is wrong voltage, I assume.

[opal night]

Is this the hobbiest in you talking ? Where you'd want to recommend the best possible beginner iron ?
Or is this the absolute lowest I can go for a legit decent soldering iron .
My current one isn't even a station just a iron with removable tips that is somewhat temperature controlled

[opal night]

Mostly it's cause of space and weight
I wanna see what I can keep on the cutting block

I think
I'll bring the multimeter and the kit and use 50-60$ for a decent used soldering station. Hopefully I can sniff a deal out or just get a cheap adjustable temp iron

[fair summit]

Amazon has lots, the problem is wading through the junk. But you can look for what you have now on US amazon for a price comparison

the soldering stuff on adafruit.com is curated (we did try it before stocking it), but you don't have to buy it from us

[opal night]

I would love to buy it from you guys
But usually quality means more price
But I'll check these out and compare everything
Thank you so much for all the help :)

[fair summit]

e.g. https://www.adafruit.com/product/180 (I have not tried this myself)

but you can find the same kind of thing on amazon

[quaint marsh]

There’s also no need to buy a new one. I just looked on Craigslist in my area and there is a range of options, from $7 for a handheld to $30 for a weller station

[whole jacinth]

a cheap soldering iron is usually false economy because of the frustration it will add to soldering. if you’re already expert, you can compensate to some degree, but it will still be frustrating

[opal night]

I'm experienced for sure
But not an expert
Anyway I'm only planning on doing THT components
But yes I 100% agree having a good tools is a lot more useful than saving a buck

But as a sutdnet I don't really have the option of saving (even working for it since I can only work on campus for a limited amount of time as an international student)

[opal night]

Yeah
For sure gonna go for used
A Weller station with adjustable temp and a good stand is all I need

[plain tusk]

sounds like it's more than you need, but I've been happy with this for tht and basic smd stuff https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BX5KXBPD/

[ebon dew]

It's less frustrating being a beginner with a cheap soldering iron than an expert forced to use a cheap soldering iron. There's a different level of expectation.

I became quite proficient with a $10 soldering iron. Then I got a Hakko and thought it was waaaay too hot because soldering happened almost instantly. I was used to letting the tip sit on something for like 15-30 seconds, that was normal to me. Once you use a more powerful soldering iron and better tips it's hard to go back.

[edgy juniper]

What's your go to soldering iron? What do you think of the Pinecil?

[glad ruin]

Haven't used Pinecil, but I've heard it's good. Personally I have a Hakko FX-888D. It's a good soldering iron, but the user interface is painful.

[dusty citrus]

I have the pine, I haven't really used any other "expensive irons" though
What I do little dislike is the long tip, which can be dealt with, and the fact that the clone AliExpress version ships with a firmware that doesn't average out temps, so it gives you in the monitor costant changing temps
Sure you can edit the firmware, open and whatever but it's a pita and an extra cost

Another note, is that it has a thermal runout protection, that can't be disabled within the iron itself, sure cool, but in some applications it's only annoying as it will shutdown the heat

[glad ruin]

You mean thermal runaway?

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/932902133248979016/1168293956531003474/do-not-screw-with-the-regulator.gif

[dusty citrus]

My old chinesium iron still works like a champ except that the metal itself has expanded and so tips are worthless, and it's a safety hazard

[glad ruin]

"It works great apart from the fact that it's broken and a fire hazard" is really reassuring.

[dusty citrus]

A friend of mine had the same model of iron, explode

[glad ruin]

My general advice: if you are going to buy something from AliExpress at all, do not buy something that is designed to heat up.

[icy needle]

Well f@#& me, yes that! If only desktop had it too

[edgy juniper]

Very cool, the Hakko looks quite nice. I have a Pinecil atm and I've been happy with it...but I'm no expert and I don't even know what I'm missing. Something about it having an MCU built in really tickles me 😂

[edgy juniper]

How much was the aliexpress one? I dont use aliexpress much tbh

[celest latch]

I am a student interested in security in fiber optics. Is there some information about it? You can help me with pdf or articles

https://tenor.com/view/skb-tutorials-technology-star-gif-12272656

[glad ruin]

I honestly should get a pinecil. The Hakko is decent (aside from the two button user interface being garbage), but the pinecil is more portable and has some nice features.

[late fulcrum]

I like the older Hakko where you just turn a knob to select the temperature. There's a similar Weller that I also like.

[dusty citrus]

The cloned pinecil is currently on sale under 30€ shipped

Or maybe was idk. It depends on location also

[glad ruin]

The cil?

[patent hemlock]

you can find stuff for that low of a price, but it will be pretty junky (as the not-so-proud owner of a $12 soldering iron)

[edgy juniper]

yeah $40 and usb powered (20v), it was a no brainer for me especially when I wasn't sure how much I'd use it

When I'm done with it I put it away so it uses up zero desk space.

[edgy juniper]

oh yeah how can the ui for a soldering iron be that bad?? It seems rather...straightforward?

[thick wind]

I don’t think a pinecil is the go-to for everyone. It’s not an iron one can give to a beginner and expect them to just learn to use it, but those who know a thing or two and have a nice usb PD supply handy can definitely do a lot with it.

A proper soldering station is still the way to go for first timers.

Even if it is a budget one and not a proper Hakko.

[glad ruin]

It has two buttons. "UP" and "ENTER". To change the temperature, this is what you have to do:

1. Press and hold ENTER for a few seconds. Don't press UP, as that will put it in a weird calibration mode that you will likely never need to use.
2. The most significant digit will blink. Press the UP button to cycle through values for that digit. If you need a lower temperature keep pressing UP until the value rolls over.
3. Press ENTER to go to the next digit.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for remaining digits.

By default, it displays the temperature in Fahrenheit. There is a way to change the mode, but it is so unintuitive that you will have to consult the manual.

[thick wind]

I love my pinecil to death, but I also completely agree with the poor UI.

[fast ferry]

oh, that's strange. pretty sure my ts100 smart iron just uses the two buttons for temp up/down, with anything else hidden behind long-presses. Pinecil came later, wonder why it's worse?

[thick wind]

Really would have been perfect with a third button.

Not sure, but maybe one day someone will rewrite a better pinecil UI for open download.

[fast ferry]

I used an identical iron for hobby stuff for over a decade, and I'll vouch for it. works fine. longer heat-up and stiffer cord than smart irons, but does the job.

a real classic iron.

[glad ruin]

This is the Hakko UI.

[fair summit]

i have an ancient Ungar with screw-on tips and screw-in heating elements and it was quite nice. I don't use it anymore but it was fine

[fair summit]

New FX-888DX has a rotary knob interface with push: https://hakkousa.com/products/soldering/fx-888dx.html

[glad ruin]

finally

[fair summit]

_The HAKKO FX-888DX Digital Soldering Station improves the user interface from the FX-888D using a more intuitive method for adjusting temperature and includes a parameter lock to prevent accidental digital calibration of the station when attempting to change temperature. _

"Sorry for the previous UI, folks!"

[fast ferry]

those responsible have been sacked

[edgy juniper]

What's a decent budget one?

[edgy juniper]

oof that's ugly

[thick wind]

Define decent. I grew up using what I equate to a “dollar store” soldering iron, so I have no idea what I used.

[edgy juniper]

https://github.com/builder555/PineSAM

[thick wind]

Okay that’s overkill haha

[edgy juniper]

lol yeah but beautiful overkill 😄

The UI of the Pinecil is pretty good considering you only have two buttons and a tiny lcd

but what long press does vs short press is a bit not intuitive

[thick wind]

I think there is room for improvement regardless.

Pretty sure if you can afford hakko or weller, they’re your best bet.

[edgy juniper]

I had no idea it has bluetooth built in...

[thick wind]

Anything else is you at the mercy of the Amazon reviews…

[edgy juniper]

My bigger constraint is space atm...I don't have a dedicated workbench for electronics (or whatever hobby I'm fixated on atm)

Everything goes on my main office desk which is already crowded

It's used for 3 computers lol

[thick wind]

I mean I feel you

Main reason I got myself a pinecil over a soldering station too

[edgy juniper]

I presume a Weller/Hakko would heat things faster?

Not sure what else I'd expect

[thick wind]

If you know what you’re doing and you’re not a complete newbie to the hobby, pinecil will do just fine

[edgy juniper]

What's the go to Weller?

[whole jacinth]

the better models of Weller soldering station that lots people liked have been discontinued, it seems. the replacements appear to be overpriced touch-screen stuff

i like the WESD51, but you might only be able to find it used at this point

[tardy badger]

I have a Yihua (I call the cowboy soldering station) setup that has a reflow and soldering iron

[fast ferry]

if I had a workbench I'd probably like a soldering station. instead I have the spot on my desk where my keyboard usually sits, heh. coming from an old-school iron, I can run a slim smart iron from a battery for portability, it heats instantly, shows me when it's ready, turns off if I forget about it, doesn't tip over the iron rest, and is easier to hold and maneuver with a slim cable. it changed soldering for me. no shade at other setups, tho, soldering's a big tent.

I even occasionally miss my dad's old Craftsman soldering gun. 😈

[ebon dew]

Guess it's time for someone to make a USB keyboard with a detachable soldering iron.

[edgy juniper]

Absolute fire https://open.spotify.com/episode/3KnA1riouqGX3MHlRuE4Rv?si=oKjWWP3WR-GlaCTCAum7vA

[solar kindle]

I made a 6-key keypad like this: https://www.printables.com/model/569035-6-key-usb-keypad

Here's a more general configuration: https://www.printables.com/model/592742-parametric-keyboard-keypad-generator

[sinful patio]

Hello

[night crescent]

SHOW and TELL 6/26/2024 https://youtu.be/d_2yx_bA9Hw

[night crescent]

ASK AN ENGINEER 6/26/2024 LIVE! https://youtu.be/000GqZPwpyQ

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

[ruby pasture]

Thank you very much. But Is it easy to press??

[main vigil]

The ts101 heats up in 17 seconds

[solar kindle]

Depends a lot on the switch you use. For that project, I used 6mm tactile buttons that, I think, have an operating force of 150g. Makes a nice solid click when pressed. You can get equivalents with an operating force of as low as 100g. But, if you're looking for something with a light touch and near-silent operation, the tactile switches probably wouldn't work.

For something low-force and silent, maybe a custom membrane keypad is the way to go: https://forum.arduino.cc/t/diy-membrane-keypad/13156

[stuck coyote]

Thanks for your interest. We will add a comparison section when the campaign is launched. The targeted market is Smart-X applications.

[hasty quarry]

Was playing with Solidworks while bored at work. Don’t you guys just love matrix multiplication

(I am aware there’s certainly a much better way to do that)

[burnt tendon]

https://tenor.com/view/matrix-the-matrix-has-you-gif-8222043

[arctic cape]

Built a little LED sphere project using WS2812B LEDs. Wondering if there's a denser LED format I could use to increase the resolution. Controlling with xlights software. Anyone have thoughts?

The current sphere is 20" round, approximately, and 49 rings high. the 10mm high / 10mm spacing LEDs gave a nice display on it. 144 led/m would stretch a bit. I could compensate for that in software, of course.

[silver shale]

How does one calculate the watt hour value of a lithium ion battery pack?

[silver shale]

WS2812B-based LEDs are in various sizes

[arctic cape]

I'll have to do some googling. If I could go way higher on the pixel density, it would be amazing

are those all 10mm high strips, though?

[stoic mesa]

battery packs are rated in Ah. Multiply that by voltage (3.7 nominal for 1 cell, 7.4 for 2...) and you get Wh

[silver shale]

So just multiply by the median voltage which is usually 3.7 as mentioned? I wondered how it is calculated since the range of li ion cells are usually 3-4.2v.

[silver shale]

10mm high?

[stoic mesa]

Ah rating is approximate anyways

[arctic cape]

the strips are 10mm tall, that I've seen. (wide, whatever), and then LED spacing I've seen is 100/m or 144/m

[silver shale]

There seems to be WS2812 LEDs on LCSC that are 1x1mm

[arctic cape]

Cool, I'll google around beyond the source I used, thanks

ah, I see. I need strip. the current sphere had 6030 leds. would be a lot to do individually.

Trying to brainstorm how to do another at higher resolution

[ebon dew]

I've used some that are .75x.75. The problem is they're just as power hungry per LED as a 2mmx2mm. The power requirements per meter will be much higher due to density.

Just because they're smaller doesn't mean they draw less power unfortunately.

[arctic cape]

The power draw there isn't insane. 16 channels, and it's reasonably bright around 1A per channel. 5v strips.

I've bumped it up to 3A per channel, and it's blinding

er, 3A per channel

[ebon dew]

Check out the WS2812C-2020 LED's from Worldsemi. They're on LCSC or at least they were when I designed the PCB. Those are the 2mm LED I think but they also make smaller ones.

https://oshwlab.com/djdevon3/bleeding_rainbow_50 All you need is a small capacitor per LED.

Which you can hide on the back of a 2 sided PCB quite easily with proper 2 sided routing.

[arctic cape]

I don't want to solder for 15000 leds, though 🙂

[ebon dew]

Oh I got them assembled... you plan on hand soldering them?

[arctic cape]

no, avoiding that. looking for flexi strips if possible.

[ebon dew]

Be careful what you ask for. Even going from 2mm to 1mm will double your component count and hand soldering time.

You hand soldered those discs? Wow. Impressive amount of patience.

[arctic cape]

No, it's strips

[ebon dew]

ahh ok

[arctic cape]

bought in 10m rolls.

still almost 400 solder points, was plenty 🙂

[ebon dew]

Yeah the highest density I know of are the 144 per meter. There's always matrix panels which get down to about 2.5mm pitch.

[arctic cape]

yeah, I have some panels, but can't arrange into a sphere

[tardy badger]

There are strips with 1515 LEDs that are 0.75m long

[ebon dew]

oh it's a sphere, that's even more impressive. geez. how long did it take you to solder those?

[arctic cape]

since it's just a strip per layer, took 2 afternoons. wasn't terrible

[tardy badger]

Ah sorry, 0.5m long https://www.adafruit.com/product/4368

[ebon dew]

Yeah those would be the 144 per meter though Adafruit has them in 75 LED sections so that would be 150 per meter, approximately the same pitch.

[tardy badger]

But more tightly packed would allow for higher resolution

[ebon dew]

Those are the ones that I stuffed in my clear mail boombox. They're very bright.

[arctic cape]

I didn't design this one, just built one. But I'd like to go higher res.

(the animation is a gif that was automated into a loop using python... can loop any short gif in a circle with it)

[icy needle]

Maybe some fibre optic like strands / light pipes coming off a cube of ultra bright displays, but fibres thinner at one end than the other (heat and drawn/pulled)? Then obviously Bunched into a sphere and glued/melted/epoxied in place.
With aspect ratio accounted for in display driver...
Or go persistence of vision (POV)

[silver shale]

Smaller LEDs do exist

[tardy badger]

Addressable get to 1010 I believe, but I’m not aware of strips that use 1010

There is a certain size where it just isn’t really feasible to make LED strips with

[silver shale]

At that size, those LEDs are better suited for LED matrices instead of strips.

[left rivet]

I went for WLED on an Arduino Nano ESP32-S3.. super happy

[ruby pasture]

Mmm, Okk thank you.. I'll check this link.

[reef lantern]

Hello guys!
Where do I go if I want help with the adafruit IO? Like, I want to have a button on my dashbord there be able to change mode on my led-strip. I am using WLED and MQTT and stuff.

[solar kindle]

Sometimes, you just need to derive things from first principles, if only to clean the cobwebs out of your brain.

[hard estuary]

You can ask in #help-with-wippersnapper-and-adafruitio

[burnt tendon]

For a few moments there I was thinking there was channel for help from the young whippersnappers and then I remembered adafruit product names.

[tardy badger]

https://tenor.com/view/up-carl-fredrickson-old-stiff-arthritis-gif-26296416

[valid spoke]

why are almost all the motor controller datasheets so vague

im trying to look for schematics on how they are built

so i can see if they have protection for rotational emf

adafruit is the only place ive seen that has actual datasheets with schematics

im trying to help my friend with his robotics project, i usually do electronics fixing and design for personal projects

so im used to having actually useful datasheets

something like this

how do people normally deal with rotational emf when building robots? dont most H bridge based motor controllers have some protections for these

or do people just toss a cap between the power supply/regulator positive and negative

[patent hemlock]

how would a driver "protect" against EMF generated by the motor? or are you talking feedback?

[valid spoke]

rotational emf would be the motor generating voltage when its spun

is that what you call feedback

[patent hemlock]

yah, don't worry about that -- there's some magnetic field stuff being generated, but it doesn't affect the driver circuit

[valid spoke]

he sent me this schematic that has 3 different relays

[tardy badger]

And if you’re really concerned, depending on the driver it probably has some integrated protection

[valid spoke]

two to disconnect motors

and one to disconnect the main power

and im confused as to why

[patent hemlock]

to be honest, so am i

[valid spoke]

i dont know if i should be concerned or not because i dont have much experience with this

it would be component T and D

[valid spoke]

does that protection work when its off though?

[tardy badger]

Usually

[valid spoke]

how do they describe this protection in datasheets

name wise or function wise

[tardy badger]

Usually diodes

[valid spoke]

these diodes right

[tardy badger]

There might be internal diodes, some probably describe the use of diodes in external protection circuits

Looks like an internal set of h-bridges, so yeah that likely would be enough

[valid spoke]

mosfets normally have internal diodes iirc so adding external ones would be even better if they are fasy switching

[patent hemlock]

yeah, i was a little confused wondering if you were asking about the motional EMF generated by the rotation 😏

[valid spoke]

yes!

sorry my vocab can be weird sometimes

[valid spoke]

and would the potential stored here just be dissipated back into the motor once we stop turning it

[plain tusk]

sometimes there's "reverse voltage protection", "overcurrent protection" can also be good for that (as well as actual shorts in the system during normal operation)

[valid spoke]

because im worried it would do this

and go back to the battery

but also

if this was an issue

[plain tusk]

https://hackaday.com/2022/06/13/protect-your-drivers-when-the-motor-stalls/

[valid spoke]

wed see people blowing up batteries more often

[tardy badger]

The battery should have its own protection anyway

[valid spoke]

protected by the regulator

?

[glad ruin]

But would you trust it with inductive kickback from a motor?

[valid spoke]

thank you @plain tusk

[tardy badger]

Depends on the motor and the battery used and also what other circuits exists between the two

[patent hemlock]

nope, just stops -- no energy, no movement -- you can dampen momentum by telling the motors to go back/forward at the same time

[valid spoke]

i mean

robot is fully offf

nothing is on

so its not the active protections

its me grabbing the robot

putting it on the ground

and pushing it

while its off

[plain tusk]

well if you included those relays the power definitely wouldn't be going into the system

assuming those are normally open relays

[valid spoke]

yeah

but is that the best way of doing it

i think there must be something better than just

toss a couple of relays

[plain tusk]

I think relays would be the best for handling potentially extreme voltages and current, but there are a lot of other circuits that would probably suffice

[patent hemlock]

i'm supposing those are actually just power-cut outs to ensure the motors are off when power is off -- seems like overkill to me

[valid spoke]

it does to me too

[glad ruin]

Relays are actually somewhat limited in that regard, as arcing could occur.

[valid spoke]

contacts have a life

you could use SSRs but

at that point

why

[plain tusk]

couldn't that happen with a solid state alternative too?

[valid spoke]

they dont have contacts

[glad ruin]

No, because they don't have spring contacts.

[valid spoke]

but then we are using a 30-40 dollar relay for something that can be accomplished cheaper

[tardy badger]

Diodes, diodes everywhere. You get a diode, you get a diode. Everyone gets a diode!

[valid spoke]

im not sure some people say that and some say its to protect from rotation inducing a voltage somewhere

[glad ruin]

Wait, how big is this robot?

[valid spoke]

its an R2d2 or a BB8 i forget

i know the exact motor

and can calculated the induced voltage if it helps

[glad ruin]

Ok, so not massive.

[tardy badger]

R2D2 is huge

Not dalick sized but pretty big

[valid spoke]

its a 24v 150W motor?

[tardy badger]

BB-8 was like half the size of R2D2

[valid spoke]

he has two of them

it is an electric scooter motor

[glad ruin]

Ok, so on the large size then.

[valid spoke]

real

[valid spoke]

it could generate some voltage if pushed

it is using a chain drive

[glad ruin]

This is the point at which I start recommending dedicated motor driver modules. If it's AC or brushless, Mean Well makes some that would work.

[valid spoke]

he has one but the documentation for it is lackluster

hold on

Sabertooth dual 25A motor driver

[glad ruin]

Yeah that looks like just a user manual. I would have hoped for a block diagram.

[valid spoke]

me too!

https://www.dimensionengineering.com/products/sabertooth2x25

its terrible

and they charge you 125 dollars for this

[glad ruin]

Pretty typical of that industry.

[valid spoke]

also looking at pololu

https://www.pololu.com/product/2515

for some schematics

or block diagrams

this is the only thing they list

https://www.pololu.com/docs/0J72/all

[valid spoke]

why is that the case

its infuriating

TI motor drivers?

excellent documentation

everyone else?

bare minimun

[plain tusk]

Yeah I've been a big fan of TI's DRV8912 in my recent projects, but 100W would really be pushing it

[valid spoke]

yep

i think the best option would be emailing pololu

and see what they say about theirs

do people not run caps with their brushed motors to cut down the noise